By: Simon Hunt

City Editor Simon Hunt is City editor at City AM, covering the economy and financial markets. He was previously business correspondent for the Evening Standard and a reporter for Bloomberg News.

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Business sentiment sours as firms brace for tax hikes

September 30, 2025

Business sentiment slumped in September as firms were braced for a fresh round of tax hikes in the autumn Budget. Private sector confidence slipped from 54 per cent to 42 per cent, according to the Lloyds Business Barometer survey, data which is typically seen as more cheery than rival surveys. Economic optimism edged down for [...]
Asos shares sink after sales fall behind expectations

September 30, 2025

Shares in e-commerce fashion firm Asos have tumbled after the company reported sales short of expectations and vowed to extend its cost-cutting programme in a bid to secure “even stronger profitability foundations”. The London-based business said it “had planned to shift gears” from rebuilding its commercial model towards “re-engaging with customers.” “Instead, more opportunity to [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Asos and Close Brothers lead City stocks’ fall as economic growth slows

September 30, 2025

Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. When Rachel Reeves prepared her inaugural budget last year, she had little in the way of good news to impart to the people of Britain. The chancellor said she’d been left a bad inheritance, and had to raise tens of billions of pounds in extra taxes to plug spending [...]
Access Bank chief executive snaps up £15m Hampstead mansion

September 30, 2025

The boss of Nigeria’s biggest bank has snapped up a £15m mansion in one of London’s most prestigious postcodes, City AM can reveal. Roosevelt Ogbonna, who has been the chief executive of Lagos-based Access Bank since May 2022, has acquired a luxury pad on The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead. The transaction for the property was [...]
Wolseley City launch sends Wolseley Group subsidiary sales past £10m

September 30, 2025

Strong sales at Wolseley City have pushed a subsidiary of the eponymous restaurant group’s sales past £10m for the first time, its latest accounts show. The King William Street-based bar and restaurant, which opened in November 2023, helped turnover at the Wolseley Hospitality Group jump 85 per cent to £10.8m in 2024, alongside the launch [...]
Will we mourn the loss of WH Smith from the high street?

September 29, 2025

So long then, WH Smith, a firm which has graced our high streets for more than a century – even though it never intended to. Founded as a small newspaper kiosk in Mayfair in 1792, the business grew massively in the mid-19th century, spurred by the rapid expansion of the railways, which allowed consumers up [...]
Astrazeneca to ‘upgrade’ US listing in latest blow to London Stock Exchange

September 29, 2025

Astrazeneca has laid out plans aimed at “upgrading” its US listing in the latest blow to the London Stock Exchange. The Cambridge-based pharma giant said it would replace its existing Nasdaq listing of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), a type of listing for trading overseas shares, with a direct listing of ordinary shares on the New [...]
London tops European cities growth index again as Liverpool moves up the ranks

September 29, 2025

London has held on to its spot at the top of a closely watched index of European cities as other UK destinations move up the ranks. The capital has once again ranked number one on the 25th edition of the European Cities Growth Index (ECGI), an annual review of demand for property put together by [...]
Checkout.com valuation slides to $12bn as it unveils employee share buyback

September 26, 2025

Checkout.com said its valuation has hit $12bn (£9bn) as the London fintech reported a surge in growth and unveiled an employee share buyback. The valuation is a boost on the reported $9.4bn it had been valued at in 2023 but remains well down on the $40bn figure it attracted in a funding round in 2022. [...]
Require ‘default’ UK weighting in pensions or risk stock market doom loop, report says

September 25, 2025

Pension funds should be required to have a “default” UK weighting to prevent the London stock market getting caught in a “doom loop”, a new report has argued. A UK weighted default fund with an allocation of between 20-25 per cent, if made a requirement for defined contribution (DC) pensions with an opt-out for individuals, [...]

Billionaire Bill Ackman donates £300m to brain research centre after daughter suffers haemorrhage

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By: Simon Hunt

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