Peel Hunt boss renews calls for tax cuts to rescue ailing public markets June 11, 2025 The boss of City broker Peel Hunt has called for a raft of fresh tax cuts for London’s stock market to help stem the flood of delistings and end the dearth of flotations. CEO Steven Fine called for stamp duty on share trades to be abolished in a bid to help “shift this doomloop of [...]
FCA lays out Pisces rules with trading to begin later this year June 10, 2025 The UK’s financial regulator has published its rulebook for the new Pisces market framework, laying the ground for trading to commence later this year. The new type of platform, which facilitates the trading of shares in private companies, promises to address a long-standing liquidity gap for growth companies and early investors, offering a potential bridge [...]
Oxford Instruments shares sink as it sells quantum business to US firm June 10, 2025 Oxford Instruments has become the latest British business to hand its quantum technology to the US after reaching a deal with California-based Quantum Design. The FTSE 250 business has offloaded its quantum arm, called NanoScience, to the US firm in a £60m deal, a move it said would help improve focus on profitability amid a [...]
Bellway: Completions surge at FTSE 250 housebuilder June 10, 2025 Bellway has said it expects to see a surge in home completions amid an increase in consumer confidence and reservation rates. The FTSE 250 housebuilder and property developer said it was well-positioned to deliver cumulative volume growth of 20 per cent over the two years to end July 2026. In a trading update, the Newcastle-based [...]
Lord Ashcroft bought shares in Mitie on day it made offer for firm he founded June 10, 2025 Lord Ashcroft bought shares in Mitie on the same day it unveiled £370m takeover talks for a business he co-founded, City AM can reveal. The peer and Tory grandee spent £1m acquiring 714,600 shares in the facilities management company on Thursday 5 June, company filings show, the day the firm confirmed it was in talks [...]
Bargain basement Britain: Tech takeovers continue with three billion-pound swoops in a day June 9, 2025 The frenzy of UK tech takeovers showed no signs of slowing down on Monday after three separate billion-pound M&A moves were made within hours of each other as US tech giants continued their hunt for British bargains. First to announce a move on Monday was London-listed semiconductor firm Alphawave, which confirmed it had reached an [...]
Alphawave reaches deal on Qualcomm takeover June 9, 2025 Alphawave is poised to become the latest tech firm to quit the London Stock Exchange after reaching a $2.4bn (£2.8bn) deal to be acquired by Qualcomm. The British semiconductor business said its board would now recommend to shareholders the terms of the acquisition after weeks of talks, which began in April. The cash offer of [...]
Rachel Reeves may have to ‘revisit’ manifesto tax pledges to meet fiscal rules, economists warn June 6, 2025 Rachel Reeves may have to tear up Labour’s manifesto tax commitments to meet her tight fiscal rules, economists have warned, as the Chancellor battles to balance the books amid calls for higher spending on defence and welfare. A suite of new day-to-day spending commitments made by the Treasury in recent weeks, including reversing cuts to [...]
‘A tax burden without precedent in the 21st Century’: Pub chain McMullen’s blasts government tax hikes June 6, 2025 One of Britain’s biggest pub chains has taken aim at the government’s “damaging” tax hikes, warning they will lead to lower demand and investment and have forced the hospitality sector to “bear the brunt” of rises in government spending. Hertford-based McMullen’s, which operates around 120 pubs in London and the home counties, including the Old [...]
Will the Bank of England’s quantitative tightening torpedo Reeves’ fiscal rules? June 5, 2025 Rachel Reeves is in a pickle. At under £10bn, the Chancellor’s self-imposed fiscal headroom – the Treasury’s wiggle room within its fiscal rules – is already wafer-thin by historic standards. And it is under intense strain, given a recent slew of billion-pound government spending pledges such as reversing winter fuel payments cuts and scrapping the [...]