‘Vibrant colours and sexy scents’: Steph McGovern-owned Gootopia back in profit August 6, 2026 A slime business owned by broadcaster Steph McGovern has turned back to profitability after a period of rapid expansion. London-based Gootopia, which hosts parties for children in which they play with multi-coloured slime, was founded in 2018 and has since grown from a single site to a dozen locations across the UK, including in Brixton, [...]
Want to be as rich as retirees? Buy shares in them August 5, 2026 Firms selling to British retirees have rocketed in value this year – Simon Hunt asks why. The Nasdaq 100 is up around 14 per cent since the start of the year, at the time of writing, while the FTSE 350 is up 9 per cent. But one stock portfolio is doing better than both. I [...]
Nscale doubles London office space as UK staff grows sixfold August 5, 2026 Nscale has doubled its London office space as the AI hyperscaler cements its presence in the capital, City AM can reveal. The tech startup, which develops data centres for AI firms and is reportedly eyeing a $25bn valuation in an upcoming IPO, has leased out an extra floor in the Mayfair building that houses its [...]
‘Grinding it out’: Ibstock swings to loss and cuts dividend amid building slump August 5, 2026 One of the UK’s biggest brickmakers has bemoaned a ‘challenging’ housebuilding market as it slashed its dividend and swung to a loss. Leicestershire-based Ibstock, which is London’s second most shorted stock with a reported short interest of 12.9 per cent, posted a loss of £27m for the first six months of the year, down from [...]
Hammerson boss mad for Manchester as firm snaps up Arndale shopping centre July 30, 2026 Hammerson has snapped up a stake in one of the UK’s biggest shopping centres as the retail real estate firm expands its UK footprint. The FTSE 250 property company has paid £218m to acquire a 50 per cent stake in the Manchester Arndale shopping centre, marking the company’s first major external acquisition in over a [...]
LSEG boss hails ‘growing momentum’ of Pisces as profit soars July 30, 2026 The boss of London Stock Exchange operator LSEG has hailed the “growing momentum” of its new Pisces venue as it reported a jump in profit. Chief executive David Schwimmer said the new private markets venue, which recently saw some of its first major transactions, was “opening up significant new market opportunities.” Earlier this month, autonomous [...]
Michael Dell, Lord Johnson and the ‘gun to the head’ meeting that ended a £15bn AI project July 30, 2026 In December, billionaire Michael Dell opened an alarming email. “My trust in Mr Bellamy has been undermined by the way he has operated”, the email read, “and I cannot be certain the information he shared with you is accurate or complete”. The mysterious missive was sent by Patrick Hughes, the co-founder of a major new [...]
Here’s the right way to criticise the media July 30, 2026 Did you catch Elon Musk’s blockbuster 90-minute interview with the Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes? It starts off with Musk’s predictions about the future of AI, which are interesting and alarming in equal measure. A lot of them sound far-fetched – will we really never need to work again in 10 years’ time? – but [...]
It’s not up to retail investors to revive the London Stock Market July 30, 2026 The British Isa has once again reared its head. We report this week that Standard Life chair Nicholas Lyons has argued that the tax-free wrapper on a stocks and shares Isa should be restricted to investments in UK assets. “Do we really want to be lowering the cost of capital for American companies by giving [...]
Record Interactive Investor inflows drives profit rise at Aberdeen July 29, 2026 A surge in inflows at Interactive Investor helped wealth firm Aberdeen achieve rising profit in the first half of the year. The investment platform signed up tens of thousands of new customers, growing customer numbers by 14 per cent to 525,000 over the period, as the firm won out against rivals in the battle to [...]
