After the Nvidelity comes the Huangover. Jensen Huang joins long list who confused boardroom and bedroom
Aldermore becomes the latest challenger bank to shrug off Brexit with 50 per cent boost to profits August 11, 2016 Aldermore has today reported a huge boost to its bottom line, while revealing it feels it can keep on smiling throughout the Brexit uncertainty. The figures The challenger bank reported profit before tax of £59m for the first half of 2016, up 50 per cent from the prior year's £40m. Meanwhile, underlying profit before tax increased to £63m, [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland wins strong demand for first post-Brexit CoCo offer August 11, 2016 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has raised an extra £2bn in emergency capital in the first round of fund raising for a UK lender since the EU referendum. The bank, which performed badly in the recent European Banking Authority (EBA) stress tests, has sold $2.65bn (£2bn) worth of "Contingent Convertible capital notes" – or CoCos – to build [...]
Housing market activity fell after the EU referendum, according to chartered surveyors August 11, 2016 Activity in the housing market is projected to weaken in the coming months, according to chartered surveyors. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said house price growth faltered in July and the outlook for house price growth "remains negative" in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and changes to stamp duty tax on second homes. Read more: Everything [...]
Why the post-Brexit economic doom and gloom may have been greatly overdone August 10, 2016 Something quite remarkable happened in the UK economy in June. UK broad money growth M4ex rose 5.8 per cent (year-on-year) – its fastest rate since the introduction of quantitative easing in 2009. Indeed, the growth rate is approaching the 6 per cent baseline for broad money growth that the Bank of England announced was its target [...]
Quantitative easing bounces back with successful round of BoE bond-buying August 10, 2016 The Bank of England's quantitative easing programme is back on track after its latest offer to buy government debt was massively oversubscribed. The Bank received offers from bond-holders to hand over more than £5.5bn worth of government coupons this afternoon – covering Threadneedle Street's daily £1.17bn budget by a factor of 4.7 to one. Officials will have [...]
Aviva’s property fund may be closed for up to eight months due to uncertainty surrounding the Brexit vote August 10, 2016 Aviva's property fund will be closed for six to eight months, meaning investors wanting to withdraw their cash won't be able to do so until next year. In a note issued to investors, Aviva said: "Property sales may be more difficult to execute in the current environment due to market uncertainty. Read more: Aberdeen Asset Management lifts [...]
Bank of England Agents’ survey finds six in 10 firms to cut investment plans due to EU vote August 10, 2016 Investment and hiring will flat-line over the rest of the year as UK businesses come to terms with the result of the EU referendum, a Bank of England survey has revealed. The Bank's agents' summary of business conditions, comprised from interviews with 270 firms representing 1.2m employees "indicated the result of the EU referendum would have a [...]
Unfazed Bank of England to carry on with billion-pound bond purchases despite setback August 10, 2016 The Bank of England is pushing ahead with its bond-buying programme as planned despite yesterday's stumble. Threadneedle Street was unable to find enough bond sellers on the open markets for its planned purchases yesterday, coming up £52m short of its target in a £1bn-plus operation. This morning the Bank confirmed it will continue with today's asset purchases, [...]
Summer reading: Four leading UK economists offer their book recommendations August 10, 2016 With its political and economic ructions, this summer has been anything but sleepy. If you’re looking for some holiday reading to prepare you for the year ahead, City A.M. has asked four of the UK’s leading economists to offer their recommendations. Tim Harford writes the Undercover Economist column for the FT and is presenter of More [...]
Pension lifeboat deficits reach new highs in July August 9, 2016 Not wanting to be outdone on reporting record deficit numbers the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) today released its funding position that revealed deficits had reached £408bn. Growing by £24bn during July, the PPF deficits were at their highest ever level. But the aggregate proportion of assets to liabilities was not as low as in May 2012. The explanation from the PPF [...]