Trainline owner mulls £1bn sale as IPO plans build up head of steam May 15, 2019 The owner of ticketing firm Trainline is reportedly exploring a sale of the company alongside plans for a £1bn stock market listing. Read more: UK's biggest travel booking app Trainline considers £1bn flotation US investment giant KKR, which has owned Trainline since 2015, has approached a number of private equity groups to gauge interest in [...]
Travelex owner Finablr launches London IPO at reduced price in tough market conditions May 15, 2019 United Arab Emirates-based payments company Finablr floated in London today at a reduced price to reflect difficult market conditions. The Travelex-owner said it would raise £306m to give the business a market capitalisation of approximately £1.225bn. Read more: Travelex-owner Finablr to raise $200m in London listing The offer price has been set at 175p, well [...]
Sam Torrance: Tiger Woods can win back-to-back Majors if he repeats chess master act at US PGA Championship May 14, 2019 In the two weeks leading up to the Masters, Seve Ballesteros would prepare for his trip to Augusta by staying at home in Pedrena, Spain, but living according to American time. All players have their preferred way of getting ready for tournaments, which is why I don’t question Tiger Woods’s decision not to play in [...]
Nationwide scoops £50m prize for small business lending May 14, 2019 Nationwide has won the latest round of funding from a high-profile grant designed to boost small business lending in the UK, pocketing the top £50m prize. Read more: Nationwide invests in ex-Barclays CEO's firm to boost business banking Investec and the Co-operative Bank were also named as winners, taking home £15m each. The awards, handed [...]
British Gas-owner Centrica faces calls for shareholder revolt amid chief exec pay furore May 12, 2019 Centrica shareholders will head into the British Gas-owner’s annual meeting (AGM) tomorrow amid a clamour to reject chief exec Iain Conn’s £740,000 pay rise. Read more: Centrica shares hit 20-year low as it warns of energy price cap hit Despite a torrid 2018 in which Centrica lost around six per cent of its customers, Conn’s [...]
Pension superfunds need help to avoid early retirement May 10, 2019 Nobody said it would be easy. For the pension industry’s new generation of consolidation vehicles, getting out of the starting blocks is turning into a protracted affair. The two to have shown their hands so far – the Pension Superfund and Clara-Pensions – have impressive boards, promises of funding and bulging deal pipelines, yet months [...]
‘Poorly designed’ 5G spectrum auctions risk harming consumers, mobile operators warn May 9, 2019 Multi-billion-pound auctions designed to flog 5G spectrum to mobile networks are badly-run and pose a risk to the rollout of the new technology, a new report has warned. Research carried out by the GSMA, the trade body for mobile operators, revealed auctions across the world can artificially inflate prices, meaning operators may have to limit [...]
UK’s biggest companies pull away as profits for rest of pack plunge May 8, 2019 Average profits at the UK’s 40 biggest companies rose by 11 per cent in the first quarter of the year while those outside the group saw a fall of 18 per cent, new analysis has shown, laying bare a stark division in the fortunes of British companies. Read more: 'Zombie firms' dragging down UK economy, [...]
Lloyds Banking Group: Q1 results analysis May 7, 2019 By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After a stunning share price performance, do these 'hit and miss' results justify optimism? Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) investors, in need of a silver lining after an underwhelming earnings season from UK lenders, only have to look back 24 hours earlier to the surprise gift handed to the bank [...]
Deutsche Bank scandal: Courts still chasing billions through tax scams and carbon credits May 7, 2019 Major banks enabled fraudsters to steal billions of pounds of public money through VAT scams, according to documents obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. A decade later, tax authorities are still chasing the money through the courts. Traders in London facilitated the so-called “carousel” fraud by organised crime gangs in 2009, which involved the trading [...]