Investec Comment: Why UK investors have warmed to tech firms August 16, 2015 London has all the ingredients to remain an attractive location for technology companies to grow and seek investment. The capital has thriving public markets that have warmed to tech stocks. More and more VCs are putting money into London startups. There’s a greater number of incubators and accelerator programmes around. UK investors have also [...]
Stephen Greenhalgh: “Buy to leave” investors are pricing Londoners out of the property market – this is how I’d tackle it July 31, 2015 Often it is the non doms in London who are given a really bad press for inflating the property market. However I believe that it is the "non res" rather than the non dom that London should really worry about. The global non resident super rich see London residential property as a holiday home [...]
Greece crisis: After six months in power Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza government has left the country with a veritable Mount Olympus to climb July 30, 2015 Alexis Tsipras’ six-month old left-wing Syriza government has put the country through a breath-taking roller-coaster of ideological hysteria, politico-economic gambles, and farcical constitutional experiments. Now it faces a rockier path ahead than the one it inherited. Perversely, at the time they lost power, the previous government was beginning to boast financial indicators pointing [...]
Bashing buy-to-let landlords will push up rents and hit the UK economy hard July 23, 2015 Buy-to-let landlords have a huge advantage in the market as they can offset their mortgage interest payments against their income, whereas homebuyers cannot.” That’s how the chancellor explained his decision in the Budget to require that landlords, unlike other businesses, effectively pay tax on their borrowings – their buy-to-let mortgage. But the chancellor has made [...]
The Bank of England could – and should– have raised UK interest rates much sooner July 20, 2015 Heartening as it was to hear the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, dropping hints last week about the raising of Bank Rate, serious doubts remain over the effectiveness of the low interest rate regime in reviving the economy. Moreover, the impression continues to be given that the delay in raising rates carries [...]
Good news for landlords: Rents are rising faster than house prices July 17, 2015 All right, so landlords might have been hit by the Chancellor's new rules on mortgage tax relief – but rents might just help to make up for that, after they rocketed 5.6 per cent in the year to June – the fastest rise since 2009. Read more: Landlord it by Summer Budget proposals? Here's what [...]
Challenger banks face an uphill battle as George Osborne widens levy net July 15, 2015 The heads of the UK’s fast-growing crop of challenger banks were entitled to reach for a stiff lunchtime drink as they absorbed the first Conservative Budget for two decades last week. At a stroke, George Osborne’s decision to impose a super-tax on industry profits above £25m undermined everything he has said about broadening competition [...]
FTSE lifted by a housebuilders and AB Foods – London Report July 9, 2015 BRITAIN’S top equity index moved further away from this week’s six-month lows yesterday, lifted by well-received results from Associated British Foods and Barratt Developments. AB Foods, the owner of Primark, gained 5.1 per cent to 3,082p to be the top riser on the blue-chip FTSE 100 after it posted robust results, maintaining guidance and with [...]
Buyout barons hit with a tax clampdown on carried interest July 8, 2015 UK PRIVATE equity dealmakers will be forced to pay more tax on performance fees after plans were unveiled to enforce higher capital gains charges on their income. So-called carried interest – the share of profits private equity managers take from a fund – is currently taxed at capital gains tax rates of 28 per cent [...]
July Budget 2015: Are you an entrepreneur, an apprentice or a single parent? What does George Osborne’s statement mean for you? July 8, 2015 THE SINGLE PARENT Catherine Gannon, 51Managing partner at law firm Gannons Gannons Commercial Law continues to do well, with profits and earnings up on last year. Catherine is commercially savvy and has restructured the business from an LLP to a limited company, illustrating that she is a smart operator in a segmented legal [...]