Facebook, Apple, Alphabet, earnings preview: The “big tech” backlash has yet to reach Wall Street January 28, 2018 A flurry of earnings from the world’s biggest tech companies are this week expected to show consumer and investor appetite has not yet been dampened by a growing backlash. Apple, Facebook, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are worth almost three trillion dollars between them and make up half of the top 10 most highly [...]
Carillion collapse poses big questions for investors, Jes Staley’s FCA delay goes on and The Range floats chairs January 26, 2018 When in doubt, blame the accountants: a mantra which has gathered momentum after virtually every big corporate collapse since the financial crisis. Carillion is no exception. It seems obvious to ask now why KPMG signed off the construction group’s accounts in March without the merest hint of anxiety. Hindsight being a wonderful thing, the wafer-thin [...]
Sage share price sags after French troubles disappoint investors January 24, 2018 Sage investors were delivered a blow today after sluggish French performance hit quarterly returns. The accounting software giant was the FTSE 100’s biggest laggard, with shares falling almost eight per cent. Organic revenue growth was 6.3 per cent, recurring sales rose seven per cent. “France continues to significantly underperform relative to the rest of the [...]
WEF Davos 2018: Top bankers from Barclays and Citigroup warn of financial stability threats amid the calm January 23, 2018 Global financial regulators have run out of ammunition to fight the next financial crisis, top bankers, investors and economists have warned, with some questioning the sustainability of current market conditions. A decade on from the start of the last global financial crisis interest rates remain at rock-bottom levels, while central banks have barely considered returning [...]
FTSE 100 firm Informa in talks to buy London events rival UBM in £3bn deal January 16, 2018 London-headquartered publisher and events company Informa is in talks to buy rival UBM in a deal which could be worth as much as £3bn. A tie-up between the two firms would create the world’s largest business-to-business events company, with well over 11,000 employees at the two firms. The firms were forced to reveal the “preliminary [...]
Boom time: Clear Bank founder Nick Ogden on his efforts to start a British banking revolution January 15, 2018 Even in the ancient world of City banking, 250 years is a long time. Yet that was how long the UK has had to wait for a new clearing bank until Nick Ogden launched Clear Bank out of the blue last year. A decades-long consolidation of clearing banks – which provide banking services to other [...]
Ex-Barclays boss Bob Diamond not among digital challenger bank Tandem’s new investors January 11, 2018 Former Barclays boss Bob Diamond will not be making a return to British retail banking, having ruled out taking a stake in digital challenger Tandem. Diamond’s Atlas Merchant Capital had been one of several potential investors in talks with the fintech company in recent months, but is not part of a new funding round that [...]
Philip Hammond to EU: Ditch the Brexit punishment and start talking trade January 10, 2018 Philip Hammond will tonight slam the “relative silence” of the EU over our future trading partnership and stress the bloc must ditch any thoughts of “punishing” the UK for Brexit. Speaking at the Die Welt economic summit dinner in Berlin this evening, the chancellor will tell the EU that “it takes two to tango” and [...]
Downing Street calls City chiefs in for latest Brexit meeting January 10, 2018 Securing a Brexit transitional deal will be high up the agenda for the chief executives of some of the City’s biggest firms at a high-level roundtable tomorrow afternoon with Theresa May. Around a dozen senior figures from firms including Goldman Sachs, Barclays and HSBC are expected to meet the Prime Minister, along with chancellor Philip [...]
Who is the new City minister? Salisbury MP John Glen takes reins from Steve Barclay as Theresa May’s reshuffle concludes January 9, 2018 Salisbury MP John Glen has been named the new City minister, as Theresa May’s reshuffle concludes. Glen, who will have responsibility for Brexit, takes the reins from Steve Barclay at a critical point in the withdrawal process. He is the 11th economic secretary to the Treasury in the last decade, with the role being held [...]