Sunday’s shopping surge beats Black Friday to largest shopping day of the year December 8, 2020 In what will be seen as a big boost for retailers, this past weekend has beaten Black Friday to the current crown of busiest shopping day of the year so far. This follows data released by Barlcayard Payments, which processes nearly £1 in every £3 spent in the UK, revealing that this weekend was the [...]
Market Finance to make £5,000 grants available to UK SMEs December 8, 2020 Market Finance has announced an SME fund that will make grants available to businesses struggling amid the pandemic. The fintech lender has launched the Business Booster Fund which will make grants of £5,000 available to the UK’s small firms in a bid to help them “kickstart” 2021. The initiative is broad brush – any business [...]
South African miner AngloGold Ashanti appoints Maria Ramos as chair December 8, 2020 Mining giant AngloGold Ashanti has appointed Maria Ramos as chair of the board following the resignation of Sipho Pityana. Ramos has been a director of the company since May 2019 and served as chair of the Remuneration and HR Committee, and as a member of the Social, Ethics and Sustainability Committee. Pityana has served as [...]
Could Goldman Sachs teach the UK how to level up organically? December 8, 2020 Almost exactly one year ago, a freshly elected Conservative government made “levelling up” one of its core priorities. Facing a new parliament with a healthy majority and a dynamic Prime Minister (remember that?), the government promised to bring individual prosperity to regions of the UK which had been “left behind”: not just the big cities [...]
Exclusive: Capital gains tax on French properties to soar for UK residents post-Brexit December 2, 2020 UK residents with a second home in France will have to pay substantially more capital gains tax on property sales starting from next year when Britain leaves the Brexit transition period. French tax authorities confirmed today that UK residents will no longer benefit from the EU exemption from a social levies tax and will need [...]
Barclays issues scam warning to SMEs ahead of Brexit December 2, 2020 A surge in business scams this year has triggered Barclays to issue a scam warning ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period. The high street bank has today issued a warning to UK SMEs to remain vigilant as the transition period ends, as thousands of businesses fall victim to sophisticated scam tactics. New [...]
FTSE 100 and Wall Street chase record highs as vaccine hopes boost markets December 1, 2020 The FTSE 100 logged its best session in three weeks today while Wall Street hit record highs as markets continue to ride a wave of vaccine optimism. The blue-chip bourse closed up 1.9 per cent, while the FTSE 250 midcap index rose by 2.6 per cent. It comes after the FTSE recording its biggest gain [...]
Tory MPs urge PM to sanction UK banks in Hong Kong for China cooperation December 1, 2020 Boris Johnson should threaten to sanction UK financial services firms operating in Hong Kong to push back against Beijing’s draconian security laws, according to a new report from top Tory backbenchers. A report from Westminster’s China Research Group, which is led by Conservative MPs Tom Tugendhat and Neil O’Brien, says the UK should sanction banks [...]
Farmers to see EU-style subsidies cut in half by 2024 – reports November 27, 2020 English farmers are set to see their EU-style subsidies cut in half over the next four years under the government’s post-Brexit transition plans. When the UK was a member of the EU, farmers were paid so-called “basic payments” under the EU’s common agricultural policy. After leaving the bloc in January, ministers continued to make payments [...]
End of an era: Unilever trading in Amsterdam for the last time today November 27, 2020 Unilever’s Dutch shares will trade in Amsterdam for the last time today, before a unification of the group’s dual-headed structure that aims to put the consumer goods maker on a better footing to cope with an uncertain future. The merger over the weekend of Unilever’s Dutch and British corporate arms into one legal entity based [...]