My favourite Nasdaq-listed, Chinese-owned, Cayman-incorporated Scottish castle August 22, 2025 A question: what’s the fastest-growing hotel group in Britain? You might opt for Premier Inn, the Whitbred-owned budget chain that’s set to open more than 1,000 new rooms this year. A wildcard choice might be Yotel, the group set up by Yo! Sushi man Simon Woodroffe that’s ballooned from a single site in 2007 to two dozen [...]
Standard Chartered shares rally after US rejects whistleblower claims August 22, 2025 Shares in Standard Chartered rallied on Friday after it emerged the US government has rejected whistleblower claims that it breached sanctions rules. Allegations over the banking giant’s practices had courted the attention of US president Donald Trump, who last week took to Truth Social to post a link to an article about the claims published [...]
WH Smith shares tumble after retailer admits accounting blunder August 21, 2025 Shares in WH Smith tumbled on Thursday after the newsagent and travel retailer admitted to an accounting blunder that has wiped tens of millions of pounds from its profits. The FTSE 250 firm said a “financial review” identified an overstatement of around £30m of expected headline trading profit in its North America division that was [...]
Tax-free pension lump sum could be slashed to fill Labour’s black hole August 21, 2025 Tax-free lump sum withdrawals from pension pots could be slashed as Rachel Reeves scrambles for fresh ways to plug a £50bn hole in the public finances. The Chancellor is reportedly eyeing a cut to the amount of money pensioners can withdraw from their savings pot without paying tax to as little as £40,000. That would [...]
Costain shares tumble after HS2 delays spark revenue slump August 20, 2025 Shares in Costain tumbled 13 per cent in the opening minutes of trade in London after the construction firm was hit by further delays to HS2. The Bishopsgate-based business said its overall revenue fell 17.8 per cent to £525m for the first six months of the year, of which revenue for its rail infrastructure services [...]
How David Beckham got into drone warfare August 20, 2025 A question: which stocks are among the best performing in 2025? You might pick Palantir, the US software business run by billionaire Alex Karp that’s trading on eye-popping multiples. It’s gone up a pretty respectable 145 per cent since January. Or maybe you’d opt for something more wacky like Smarter Web Company, the small website design [...]
Soho House: How billionaire Tyler Morse and his former boss are buying up London August 19, 2025 Soho House marked the end of its four-year spell on the Nasdaq this week after it reached an agreement to be taken private by US hotel giant MCR in a $2.7bn (£2bn) deal. The swish members’ club, which was founded in Soho’s Greek Street by restauranteur Nick Jones in 1995, has grown into a sprawling [...]
BHP profit hits five-year low amid weaker iron ore prices August 19, 2025 Profit at BHP has slumped to a five-year low as lower iron ore prices and economic turbulence have hit the mining giant. The firm posted underlying attributable profit of $10.2bn (£7.6bn) in the year to June, a decline of 26 per cent compared to last year and the lowest since the start of the pandemic [...]
End of Windows 10 support will trigger wave of upgrades, Westcoast says August 18, 2025 A withdrawal of support for Windows 10 is likely to trigger a rush to upgrade systems before the deadline, the UK’s biggest IT supplier has said as it posted a jump in sales. The Windows 10 operating system, which was introduced by Microsoft in July 2015, will no longer be supported from October 14 2025 [...]
David Beckham-backed Guild Esports put up for sale on insolvency marketplace August 14, 2025 An esports company backed by David Beckham has been put up for sale on an insolvency marketplace, City AM can reveal. Guild Esports, which owns a multi-story gaming venue in Shoreditch, is seeking offers from prospective buyers with a bid deadline of Friday. Founded in 2018, the company employed esports teams which competed in popular [...]
