After the Nvidelity comes the Huangover. Jensen Huang joins long list who confused boardroom and bedroom
Chemist chain Day Lewis Group secures £160m M&A funding and targets 150 pharmacy acquisitions March 7, 2016 Chemist chain Day Lewis Group has secured £160m of investment from banking partners as it targets the acquisition of 150 pharmacies. The family-owned business currently owns 277 sites across the UK and is aiming to build this number up to more than 400 by 2021. Day Lewis Group also said it aims to double its [...]
Cala Group calls on government to tackle housing crisis by building more family homes March 7, 2016 Cala Group, has urged the government tackle the country's housing crisis by addressing the need for larger family homes, as the housebuilder forecast another year of record profits. The Edinburgh-based group, which builds high-end homes in affluent areas in the south of England as well as Scotland, said the government's increased focus on affordable housing and first time buyers was "misguided" [...]
Anatomy of a sector: UK finance and professional services support 2.2m jobs, contributing 11 per cent of tax receipts and generating a £72bn trade surplus March 7, 2016 You already knew it, but here's definitive proof: supporting 2.2m jobs and contributing 11 per cent of tax receipts, finance and professional services is one of the most important sectors in the UK, according to new research. A major report by City lobby group TheCityUK shows not only that the sector is a leading employer, accounting for almost [...]
Facing the muzak: Imagesound’s Derek Mapp talks jazz, Aim and Black Sabbath March 7, 2016 Lift music, or muzak, has got a bad name. But since the 60s, studies have found that in-store background music directly affects customer shopping behaviour and the amount they spend. With the high street relying more and more on a better shopping experience, ambience is everything. In 1998, angel investor Derek Mapp helped to found Muzak [...]
Don’t get your hopes up – weak productivity will weigh on pay packets, according to BDO March 7, 2016 Low productivity growth in the UK is throttling wage growth, a financial services firm has warned. UK economic growth improved in February while hiring also picked up, according to new figures released this morning. The employment index published by accountants BDO hit of a score of 105.1 in February from 104.9, moving further above its long-term average [...]
Lending to small businesses drops as banks increase borrowing under funding for lending scheme March 3, 2016 Bank lending to smaller businesses fell at the end of last year. Only £599bn was lent to smaller businesses in the final three months of 2015 from £755bn in the three months to September, according to data released by the Bank of England this morning. However, banks borrowed £6.3bn from the Bank of England of cheap loans over the [...]
Shawbrook’s share price follows profits higher at the challenger bank, as small business lending and buy to let loans soar March 3, 2016 SHAWBROOK chief executive Steve Pateman has warned the bank is unlikely to see its buy to let loan book grow as quickly in 2016, amid concerns the market is getting out of control. Earlier this year, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said recent developments in the booming buy to let mortgage market posed a [...]
Seven years of quantitative easing and 0.5 per cent interest rates by the Bank of England: Who are the winners and losers? March 3, 2016 This Saturday will mark seven years since the Bank of England enacted its historic quantitative easing programme, and cut the UK’s main interest rate to 0.5 per cent, in a bid to save it from the financial crisis which was then tearing across the globe. Just like any other policy, it has thrown up winners and losers. Investors who [...]
London airport expansion: Former Bank of England deputy governor Rachel Lomax says ministers risk squandering infrastructure investment March 3, 2016 A former deputy governor of the Bank of England will today urge the government to "grasp the nettle" on airport expansion or risk undermining investor confidence in the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). In a speech at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) annual conference today, Rachel Lomax, who is a non-executive director at Heathrow [...]
Bank of England’s Jon Cunliffe says housing market risks are rising March 2, 2016 Risks in the housing market are rising, a Bank of England official warned today. However, deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe added that they were not as high as in 2014 when the Bank took action to cool the market. “The markets now coming back again, so maybe some of those risks are becoming a little [...]