John Malone’s Liberty Media buys first slug of Formula One and agrees to pay $4.4bn in total September 8, 2016 Liberty Media has bought a minority stake in Formula One in an agreement that will ultimately see the US media-giant take ownership of the company that runs the sport. Controlling shareholder CVC Capital Partners announced overnight the sale of an 18.7 per cent stake in the business for $821m. This is the prelude to a deal that will [...]
Adam Smith Institute says selling off half of Network Rail could raise £8bn September 8, 2016 Network Rail should be broken up and sold-off in order to get Britain’s ailing infrastructure back on track and ease the burden on the taxpayer, a high profile think tank said today. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) predicted that £8bn could be raised for the public purse from the sale of what it referred to [...]
Southern Rail in breach of franchise agreement says London Assembly September 7, 2016 The London Assembly today urged the government to strip Govia Thameslink of its Southern Rail franchise and claimed that it is in breach of its contract. A motion was passed to put pressure on government to reconsider its decision to not strip Govia Thameslink of the stricken franchise. "With Southern passengers having faced months of delayed and [...]
Omnis benefits from Woodford’s expertise and attracts large inflows in 2016 September 7, 2016 While some retail funds struggle to stem the tide of outflows, Omnis has bucked the trend thanks to investment icon Neil Woodford. Omnis’ UK equity fund, which is managed by the former Invesco Perpetual grandee, attracted more than £100m in its first six months having launched in March 2016. “The partnership with Woodford Investment Management is [...]
Forterra’s share price is up two per cent after revealing that brick sales were higher in July and August than the previous year September 7, 2016 Shares in Britain’s second largest brick maker nudged up two per cent this morning after it released its first results since listing in April. They revealed “further progress” by the company and post-Brexit brick sales that were higher than the same period in 2015. The figures Forterra's six-month revenue was broadly in line with the prior year at [...]
Corporate governance: the Institute of Directors’ best and the worst September 7, 2016 While British American Tobacco’s (BAT) products may be the subject of various health warnings, it has topped a corporate governance health-check by the Institute of Directors (IoD). Supermarket giant Tesco, meanwhile, brings up the rear in a new governance ranking of the UK's top 100 companies. BAT performed particularly well in terms of dealing with its shareholders and [...]
Scottish widows reveal Britain’s pension habits: saving nudges higher in second year of auto-enrolment September 7, 2016 The number of people relying on a defined benefit pension scheme has fallen to less than one in four according research released today. Scottish Widows said that just 24 per cent of people will rely on a final salary scheme as their main source of retirement income, down from 33 per cent last year. Meanwhile [...]
Easyjet’s share price edges up 1.5 per cent after announcing it flew 7.5m passengers during August September 6, 2016 Easyjet’s planes were fuller in August although experts say it is a trend that may stall in the future. Load factors nudged up from 94.4 per cent to 94.9 per cent in 2016 compared to the previous year. Meanwhile the total number of passengers flying with the Luton-based carrier beat expectations – growing by 6.4 per cent [...]
Dividends at UK plc today passed the £1 trillion mark since the turn of the century September 6, 2016 Dividends at UK firms have soared at more than double the rate of inflation since the start of the millennium. The total value of dividends paid by Britain’s listed companies passed the £1 trillion mark today with small-cap LSL Property Services claiming the honour of raising the thirteenth digit on the aggregate value of pay-outs to shareholders. Fashion [...]
