Pre-season tours: Inside the economics of football’s summer money-spinners Sport Business Football’s summer tours have turned into travelling commercial platforms bringing together big fees, sponsors, merchandise, media and global fan growth, explains Simon Dent. For most football supporters, pre-season used to mean low-key friendlies against a local non-league team, some heavy-legged players and a chance to see the new signing for 30 minutes. For clubs, it [...]
The London Stock Exchange is shrinking – but Julia Hoggett is still an optimist Markets The London Stock Exchange’s two flagship indexes are trading near all-time highs. But beneath the surface, it has been another testing year for the capital’s bourse. Boss Dame Julia Hoggett tells Ali Lyon what she is doing to disprove the doomsters. In the cavernous foyer of London’s historic stock exchange, a giant cube is flashing [...]
Housebuilder Bellway calls for ‘immediate’ cut to stamp duty Property Housebuilder Bellway has called on the government to slash stamp duty immediately and roll out a first-time buyer scheme to revive Britain’s flagging housing industry. The FTSE 250 firm said on Tuesday that housing demand has been hammered by last year’s pre-Budget speculation and the recent rising mortgage rates triggered by the Iran war. Jason [...]
This is Bentley’s first electric car, the Torcal August 11, 2026 Bentley’s first electric car is almost here. The new Torcal luxury SUV makes its full debut in September, and while details remain limited, here’s everything we know so far. Bentley is finally ready to join the electric car party, and its first EV now has a name. Meet the Torcal, a new luxury SUV due [...]
Is the Audi Q9 the poshest Audi yet? August 11, 2026 Audi’s new range-topping Q9 is the biggest, plushest thing the four rings have built yet, a seven-seat, tech-crammed luxury SUV squaring up to the Range Rover. Here’s what we know before it lands on UK roads. Audi has never been shy about going big, but the new Q9 takes things to another level. Audi says [...]
Lepas L8: China’s New SUV Means Business August 10, 2026 Is the UK’s SUV market ready for another Chinese challenger? Motoring journalist Tim Barnes-Clay takes a closer look at the new Lepas. Lepas, another new marque from automotive giant Chery – the company behind Omoda and Jaecoo – is positioning the L8 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) as a premium SUV that combines handsome styling, generous technology [...]
Cloudflare Gives AI Agents an Identity and a Wallet August 4, 2026 New tools mean businesses will be able to see who's behind an AI agent, and those agents will be able to pay for things safely on their owner's behalf
Housebuilder shares rally on Iran war peace hopes and help-to-buy revival August 3, 2026 Shares in leading London’s listed housebuilders jumped on Monday as investors bet a potential Iran war peace deal and a mooted new help-to-buy scheme would provide a boon to Britain’s flagging property market. FTSE-100-listed Persimmon jumped more than four per cent to 1,152 while mid-cap Vistry gained six per cent to 310p on Monday. Analysts [...]
3 ways AI is rewriting the rules of private equity August 3, 2026 For private equity firms looking to exit investments, the rules of M&A have changed. Successful exits now depend on three things: proving AI resilience,running smarter sale processes and taking a more pragmatic approach to valuation. Earlier this year, the sharp sell-off in software stocks, dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse”, exposed how quickly AI can reshape company valuations. [...]
AI firms targeting London’s rare book shops in ‘dystopian’ hunt for training data July 29, 2026 London’s rare book shops appear to have been targeted by AI companies searching for books to train their models, after court documents revealed Anthropic bought, scanned and destroyed millions of physical books as part of a controversial project to feed an insatiable demand for training data. One London-based seller of rare books told City AM [...]