Wood Group boosts first-half profit as it looks to cut debt pile June 26, 2019 Energy services firm Wood Group has reported profit growth in the first half of the year, thanks to an improvement in its margins. The FTSE 250 firm said revenue for the six months to the end of June was in line with the previous year. Read more: Wood Group wins $1bn nuclear contract at Sellafield [...]
Lloyds freezes 8,000 offshore bank accounts June 24, 2019 Lloyds Banking Group has frozen about 8,000 bank accounts registered offshore after asking the customers for three years to prove their identities. The banking giant, which has its international business in Jersey, was forced to take action in order to meet regulatory requirements. Read more: Deutsche Bank faces US money laundering investigation The move to [...]
Global stock markets on track for best first half in 20 years June 23, 2019 Global stock markets are on track for their best first-half performance in over 20 years, with US shares hitting record highs last week. Read more: Global stock markets jump as Trump announces Xi Jinping meeting The stock market expansion comes thanks to central banks around the world signalling they will cut interest rates or launch [...]
Ex-Barclays boss John Varley cleared of Qatar fraud charges June 21, 2019 Former Barclays chief executive John Varley has been cleared of fraud charges related to Qatari cash injections that helped the bank avoid a state bailout in 2008. Judges at the Court of Appeal ruled that the Serious Fraud Office’s case against Varley was insufficient to proceed. Read more: Ex-Barclays boss says £322m Qatar payment ‘not [...]
Trainline IPO: Ticket app shares surge in £1.7bn debut June 21, 2019 Trainline’s shares soared on their first day of trading today after the tech giant made its £1.7bn stock market debut. Read more: Trainline chases £1.5bn IPO The train travel booking app priced its shares at 350p each in its initial public offering (IPO) today, to value the firm at £1.68bn. And Trainline’s share price jumped [...]
Cold weather dampens May retail sales June 20, 2019 Retail sales suffered a setback last month as volumes dropped 0.5 per cent month-on-month driven by unseasonably cold weather. Sales were up 2.3 per cent compared to May last year, representing the smallest annual rise since October 2018. Read more: Mullberry swings to a loss on tough UK retail market In April the year-on-year increase [...]
Lloyds Bank boss defends pay and pension perks as MPs accuse him of greed June 19, 2019 Lloyds Bank boss Antonio Horta-Osorio has defended his pay packet and pension perks in a grilling by MPs. Horta-Osorio, who as Britain’s best-paid boss took home £6.3m last year, insisted his pay packet was in line with the market rate for major bank chief executives. Remuneration committee chairman Stuart Sinclair told MPs the bank’s boss [...]
CVC abandons IPO or sale of Domestic and General after tepid investor response June 18, 2019 A sluggish response from investors has forced one of Britain’s biggest home appliance insurers to abandon plans for a public float as soon as this month which it hoped would value it at more than £1bn. Domestic and General has decided in the last few days to shelve the plans, Sky News reported. Read more: [...]
EU must drop its City hostility in UK trade talks, warns Brexit secretary June 18, 2019 The European Union must drop its hardline approach to relations between the City and the continent after Brexit, a cabinet minister has warned. The EU insists London’s finance sector must be closely-tied to the bloc’s own regulations in order to grant market access post-Brexit, despite calls for a more wide-ranging and preferential deal in light [...]
Fraudsters target children as young as 11 to launder money June 18, 2019 Identity fraud reached record highs last year and criminals targeted children as young as 11 to launder money. Criminals targeted younger people and pensioners, the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas revealed in its annual report. The figures showed more than 189,000 fraud cases were reported last year with plastic card fraud proving the most common. [...]