Unite Students to buy 800-bed development from Travis Perkins November 20, 2020 Student accommodation developer Unite Students has bought a new 800-bed site in Paddington from Travis Perkins, the company announced today. Total development costs for the project are expected to be £150m, which will be funded through proceeds from its last equity raise. Unite is planning to open the development – its second partnership with Travis [...]
UK competition watchdog launches probe into O2-Virgin Media merger November 19, 2020 The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into the planned £31bn mega-merger between O2 and Virgin Media after the deal was referred from the EU. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last month requested to take over the case, arguing the potential impact on competition would primarily affect the UK market. The watchdog has [...]
Treasury launches listings review to lure companies to float in the UK November 19, 2020 The Treasury has today launched a review into the rules governing public listings in a bid to lure firms to float in the UK. Former British commissioner to the EU Lord Hill will lead the review which is aimed at helping to shape the UK’s financial services industry after Brexit. Lord Hill will present his [...]
European Commission falling short on competition oversight November 19, 2020 The European Commission is falling short on its competition oversight obligations, and due to limited resources its capacity to monitor markets and detect antitrust cases are limited. The European Commission has not fully addressed complex new enforcement challenges in digital markets, the ever-increasing amount of data to be analysed or the limitations of existing enforcement [...]
Compare the Market handed £17.9m fine by competition regulator November 19, 2020 Price comparison website Compare the Market has been stung with a £17.9m fine from the regulator after breaching competition law. An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded that the website had prevented home insurers from listing lower prices on rival comparison sites between December 2015 and December 2017. Compare the Market had [...]
ESG and fixed-income indices surge in 2020 November 17, 2020 “Market indices have seen constant evolution in more than a century of history, but never more so than in the last year.” On 3 July 1884, the world’s first stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Index, was published by Charles Dow. And every year since then, market indices have evolved and grown in scale and [...]
Private Equity vs venture capital: Opposite investment mindsets November 16, 2020 Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms have the same goal: maximising returns. Yet PE buyout and VC early-stage funds go about it in very different ways. Many prospective investors fail to appreciate that the two most popular alternative asset classes adopt often directly opposing methods to drive performance. VC’s deliberate diversification In asset [...]
Bookshop.org: How a ‘scrappy’ online bookseller is trying to take on Amazon November 15, 2020 While the tech revolution has worked its way into all parts of daily life, few industries have experienced as extreme an overhaul as publishing. US bookstore sales have dropped from highs of more than $17bn (£12.9bn) to less than $10bn, while Amazon’s market share has grown to over 50 per cent. But now there’s a [...]
JD Sports’ merger with Footasylum edges nearer after appeal November 13, 2020 The competition watchdog’s decision to block a merger between JD Sports and Footasylum has been overturned following an appeal. The Competition Appeals Tribunal said today that the Competition and Markets Authority had acted “irrationally” when it ruled in May that the tie-up would lead to a “substantially” lessening of competition nationally. The tribunal ruled that [...]
Government’s digital strategy cannot be a missed opportunity November 12, 2020 Why is there no British tech titan on the scale of Google, Apple or Amazon? This is a question that has exercised the minds of those in and outside of government for some time. Many have concluded that more needs to do done if the UK is ever going to create a $1 trillion home [...]