BA owner IAG mulls €2.75bn raise by ‘end of summer’ July 24, 2020 British Airways owner IAG is mulling for a share issue worth up to £2.75bn (£2.4bn) at the end of the summer. The plans to raise equity come as the airline group takes steps to shore up its finances in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which has battered the global aviation sector. In a regulatory notice [...]
Barclays’ bailout talks peppered with sexist language, court hears July 23, 2020 Barclays bankers seeking credit crisis-era emergency funding used sexist and disparaging language when discussing the businesswoman whose firm led a £3.25bn investment in the bank in 2008, according to court documents. Stephen Jones, a former Barclays banker who resigned as CEO of British bank lobby group UK Finance in June over historic remarks about Amanda [...]
Kibo Energy subsidiary seeks London IPO by end of the year July 23, 2020 Sloane Developments, the UK-based subsidiary of Irish firm Kibo Energy, is seeking a London IPO by the end of the financial year. The company, which will change its name to Mast Energy Developments (MED), is aiming for admission to the London Stock Exchange’s standard list. MED’s IPO is just the second floatation to be announced [...]
Contact tracing is a legal minefield for businesses July 17, 2020 In the age of Big Data, where the always-on digital assistant and ever more intrusive geo-tracking technology reign, it is perhaps inevitable that our efforts to control Covid-19 seem to depend on developing technology to monitor individuals’ movements. Every wave of innovation that has birthed these technologies has brought with it fresh regulatory concern. The [...]
Barclays gave Roger Jenkins £50m payoff after Qatar deal July 13, 2020 Barclays paid its Middle East head Roger Jenkins £50m when he left in 2009, a court has heard. Jenkins, who is on his third day of questioning at a civil trial in London, was discussing his compensation after he helped to secure a lifeline investment from Qatari investors. The bumper payoff was in addition to [...]
The FTSE 100 is lagging behind soaring global markets – but why? July 13, 2020 Stock markets around the world have soared in recent months even as economies crashed, aided by central banks pumping trillions of dollars into the system. But although all stock markets are rising, some are rising faster than others. Britain’s FTSE 100 is lagging behind almost all other major stock indices. It has risen just over [...]
HSBC shares tumble as US mulls Hong Kong crackdown July 8, 2020 HSBC shares have tumbled four per cent after advisers to the US government said they could undermine the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US dollar and crack down on banks in the city. The UK and Hong Kong-focused bank has been caught up in a geopolitical struggle over the semi-autonomous city which has seen [...]
WFH: Is it the death knell for offices? July 7, 2020 Some real estate investors believe the successful working from home experiment during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices. We think this is premature. One of the more mundane aspects of the coronavirus has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. In the US it [...]
UK banks ‘draw up code of conduct’ for coronavirus business loan defaults July 6, 2020 UK banks are reportedly drawing up a code of conduct for pursuing businesses that default on government-backed coronavirus interruption loans, amid concerns that a high proportion of the loans will never be repaid. Industry body UK Finance and the state-owned British Business Bank (BBB) have begun talks with commercial lenders in the hope of setting [...]
UK car sales sink 35 per cent in June despite post-lockdown restart July 6, 2020 UK new car sales plunged a third in June despite the easing of lockdown measures, new data showed today, after worse falls in April and May. New car registrations sank 34.9 per cent in June year on year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). But that marked what the body called [...]