Natwest buys Metro Bank’s £3bn mortgage portfolio December 18, 2020 Natwest is set to buy Metro Bank’s £3bn mortgage portfolio in a deal which will see 13,000 customers transferred over to the lender. The deal comes after the high street bank returned to profit after taking a £.21bn hit from the pandemic in the first half of the year. “Growing our mortgage book is an [...]
Bitcoin Regulation Stalls Rally! Is Now A Good Time To Buy Bitcoin? December 11, 2020 After an incredibly volatile week, Bitcoin heads into the weekend with great uncertainty over the price. There are many bullish events happening in the markets at the moment but one major bearish event is overshadowing them all. New legislation in the USA? As Donald Trump gears up to leave the White House, one of his [...]
New Toyota Hilux driven: the truck Clarkson couldn’t kill December 8, 2020 The new Toyota Hilux is gunning for the lifestyle market, with more power and luxury. Should you buy one instead of an SUV?
ETP and gold flows December 4, 2020 Twenty-one percent of all dollars in circulation were printed in 2020 a number that tends to be mentioned a lot by monetary policy doomsayers and Bitcoin maximalists alike; on the other side of the fence, arguments are that inflation is nowhere to be seen, let alone hyperinflation. With interest rates expected to remain near record [...]
UK construction industry sees biggest rise in orders since 2014 – PMI December 4, 2020 By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s construction industry grew faster than expected last month, boosted by the strongest orders since 2014 amid a boom in house prices, a survey showed on Friday. The IHS Markit/CIPS construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 54.7 in November from 53.1 in October, its strongest since July and [...]
Second national lockdown wipes £430m off Primark’s balance sheet December 4, 2020 England’s second national lockdown wiped an estimated £430m off Primark’s balance sheet, as the pandemic continues to decimate British high street retailers. Speaking ahead of Primark’s annual general meeting later today, chairman Michael McLintock said: “Our estimate for the loss of sales for the announced periods of closure this autumn is now some £430m.” The [...]
Money for less: Portugal and Spain borrow more, pay less December 3, 2020 Spain and Portugal are on track to collectively shave at least €17bn off their debt service costs by end-2022, their crisis-borrowing spree essentially underwritten by the European Central Bank. S&P Global Ratings analysis shows the two countries are set to make the saving as their 10-year bond yields teeter on the cusp of 0 per [...]
Cath Kidston returns to the high street with flagship Piccadilly store December 2, 2020 Cath Kidston has this morning opened a flagship store in Piccadilly, which will be its only physical branch after the retro-inspired retailer fell into administration earlier this year. The retailer closed all of its 60 UK stores in April, resulting in the loss of 900 jobs, after its Hong Kong private equity owner Baring appointed [...]
Tokenisation of shares in a company; what is it really? December 1, 2020 We hear about tokenisation of shares regularly. But what does it actually mean? To answer the question we must confront the fact that English company law did not anticipate developments in technology. Considering tokenisation in practice requires an analysis of how the characteristics of ‘tokenised’ shares relate to the particular requirements of English company law. [...]
Debenhams closure: What next for struggling retail landlords? December 1, 2020 Retail landlords are set to take a multimillion pound hit following the collapse of Debenhams and Arcadia’s fall into administration, and could struggle to fill the space left by closed flagship stores. Many property owners, which have already been impacted during the pandemic due to a spike in retail restructurings and renegotiated rents, will lose [...]