Wizz Air’s largest investor sells £400m stake in carrier March 16, 2021 Wizz Air’s largest shareholder has sold half of its stake in the Hungarian airline for £400m, it was announced this morning. Private equity firm Indigo Partners had owned 17.5 per cent of the FTSE 250 flier, but will now have a stake of about 8.5 per cent. The sale was carried out via an accelerated [...]
Markets: FTSE eeks out gains as UK’s GDP drops March 12, 2021 Markets: FTSE eeks out gains as UK's GDP falls
Natwest winds down online lending platform Esme March 12, 2021 Natwest’s foray into the fintech world has come to an abrupt end with the closure of its standalone SME lending platform Esme Loans. Esme launched in 2017 offering loans between £5,000 and £150,000 for small business customers. The terms were usually between between one and five years and backed by personal guarantees. Now the platform [...]
Diversity blow: UK banks lost 10,000 women in 2020 March 12, 2021 The number of women at the UK’s five biggest lenders shrank by three per cent during 2020, according to new Bloomberg data. Men saw a decline of around 2.1 per cent as banks pushed ahead with long-planned cuts and navigated the Covid-19 crisis. At NatWest, roles filled by women fell by nine per cent compared [...]
Barclays must pay £33m legal bill for Amanda Staveley court case March 11, 2021 Barclays will have to pay £33m in legal bills despite winning its case against Amanda Staveley over how bank bosses negotiated investment deals during the financial crash. In the High Court today Judge David Waksman said he made “no order as to costs”, so both sides will pay their own bills. According to court documents, [...]
Stamping ‘Made in UK’ on products could boost exports by £3.5bn March 11, 2021 Pride of Britain: Stamping 'Made in UK' on cheese, lamb, booze and cars could boost exports by £3.5bn
Monzo co-founder Gary Dolman joins Tickr as chairman March 11, 2021 Sustainable investing app Tickr has enjoyed meteoric growth during the pandemic, closed a £2.5m funding round and will now welcome one of Monzo’s founders to its board. Founded in 2018 by Tom McGillyCuddy and Matt Latham after stints at Barclays and Wellington Management, the pair wanted to demystify sustainable investing. The Tickr app only offers [...]
FTSE 100 and Wall Street push higher on economic recovery hopes March 9, 2021 Wall Street pushed higher and the FTSE 100 reversed early loses to post modest gains today as investors were buoyed by optimism about global economic recovery and more US stimulus. All three major US indices pushed higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq rebounding after a steep decline in yesterday’s trading. As the end of trading neared, [...]
For the continued growth of esports, local and accessible venues are key March 9, 2021 In the summer of 2020, a monumental deal for the wider esports space was announced, and whilst it made some noise in financial, esports and gaming circles, it went by largely without much fanfare. The acquisition of Belong by GAME by esports infrastructure company Vindex, and the associated news that the US-based firm plans to [...]
Vodafone aims to raise €2.8bn in masts stock market float March 9, 2021 Vodafone today said it is aiming to raise €2.8bn (£2.4bn) from an initial public offering of its mobile masts business later this month. The mobile network is set to float Vantage Towers in Frankfurt on or around 18 March as it looks to cash in on its lucrative infrastructure assets. It priced the listing at [...]