Taxpayers to bear brunt as lenders hike interest rates on emergency loans November 1, 2020 Taxpayers are bearing the brunt of hefty interest rates and arrangement fees charged by lenders providing emergency loans for struggling businesses. The Sunday Times reported that some specialist lenders are charging fees as high as five per cent of the whole loan, and in some cases charging interest rates as high as 15 per cent. [...]
Octopus Ventures ‘extremely optimistic’ about investment landscape October 28, 2020 Investors have spent most of this year looking inwards as they sought to shore up their portfolio companies in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. But even as the UK continues to grapple with uncertainty amid another round of lockdowns, some investors are starting to look for opportunities to expand their portfolio. London-based VC firm [...]
Octopus Ventures leads seed funding round in pet-tech firm Katkin October 28, 2020 London-based pet food company Katkin has secured £4.5m of funding in a seed round led by venture capital firm Octopus Ventures. Katkin was set up by siblings Brett and Nikki O’Farrell to produce healthy cat food after realising the options available didn’t provide cats with the nutrition they needed. The wet food contains 95 per [...]
Ghislaine Maxwell denies knowledge of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, court transcripts show October 22, 2020 Ghislaine Maxwell said she never witnessed “inappropriate underage activities” by Jeffrey Epstein, according to unsealed court documents from a 2016 deposition that the British socialite fought to keep secret. The deposition was made in a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who has said Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s [...]
Explosive Ghislaine Maxwell documents set to be released today October 22, 2020 Documents that Ghislaine Maxwell fought to keep secret relating to her relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be released today after the British socialite lost a court appeal. Maxwell has denied all charges of playing a role in the “sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls” under Epstein’s watch. She [...]
Shakespeare: Lockdown pups give Pets at Home a boost October 21, 2020 Last month, in the face of the coronavirus, Pets at Home reported glowing results making it the best-performing UK retail stock of the quarter. The pet shop and veterinary services provider said it expected full-year underlying profits to be ahead of current market expectations. Pets at Home said that while strong merchandising sales had helped [...]
Best part of working from home? Tracksuits, snacks and extra sleep, say Brits October 19, 2020 Not having to wear work clothes and being able to take breaks whenever they want are among employees’ favourite working from home perks, a new survey showed.
O2 Arena to resume live events in December with Squeeze gig October 5, 2020 The O2 Arena has announced plans to resume live events for the first time in eight months in December with a gig headlined by 70s rock group Squeeze. The Cool for Cats rockers will play to socially distanced fans on Saturday 5 December in the first concert at the east London venue since it was [...]
London Cocktail Week: The can’t miss events this October September 29, 2020 London Cocktail Week, which in this mad year is extended to the whole month of October, will see more than 200 of the capital’s best bars open up their doors to discerning drinkers. But it’s not just the £6 cocktails worth heading out for – a host of other experiences are on offer. City A.M. [...]
HSBC’s looming pensions crisis: will the bank win the battle but lose the war? September 4, 2020 A business of any reasonable size should have members of its team scanning the horizon for potential problems, like Frederick Fleet in the crow’s nest of RMS Titanic. The most dangerous crises, though, are those which fall on a company from an apparently cloudless sky: those which hit unprepared, and leave a business scrabbling for [...]