Ranked: The high street banks with the most IT outages March 4, 2019 UK banks are suffering IT outages or security failures at a rate of more than one a day, new figures from the financial watchdog have revealed. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) now requires banks to publish information on IT failures. Read more: Barclays down: Banking app outage hits customers Analysis conducted by Which found there [...]
PwC back with a vengeance at top of audit client rankings March 3, 2019 Accountancy giant PwC has become the leading auditor of listed UK clients for the first time since 2013, retaking its FTSE 100 client crown in the process. PwC, Britain’s biggest professional services firm by revenues, leapfrogged fourth-placed KPMG to take pole position. The smaller firm lost 12 clients between November last year and February, while [...]
Drop rail franchise system for head-to-head competition to slash fares, says Adam Smith Institute March 3, 2019 Rail fares for British passengers could be slashed if the franchise system was dropped in favour of head-to-head competition, a leading thinktank has argued. The free market thinktank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) said an “open access” system, which would allow different train companies to compete on the same route, would drive down fares and operating [...]
Rampant rodents: Rats on the rise last summer boost finances at pest control giant Rentokil February 28, 2019 Pest control giant Rentokil’s shares rose on Thursday morning as it said its services had been in high demand through last year’s long, hot summer. The blue chip firm also announced it would replace its chairman of more than a decade, John McAdam, with senior director at Aston Martin, Richard Solomons. Read more: CMA orders [...]
Metro Bank boss remains defiant as shares continue to plunge following £350m cash call February 27, 2019 Metro Bank chief executive Craig Donaldson has remained defiant despite shares plunging a further 26 per cent following its emergency £350m cash call. Donaldson implored shareholders to focus on the challenger bank’s growth and look beyond the mounting problems it faced, which now includes regulatory probes into an accounting error. Read more: Metro Bank shares continue [...]
Sainsbury’s shares crash as Asda merger torpedoed February 27, 2019 A strongly worded report from the regulator appears to have torpedoed this supermarket mega merger. What a difference a day makes. Until this morning, Sainsbury's (LSE:SBRY) was the best-performing supermarket stock over the past 12 months by some margin. Now, after the regulator's report on its proposed merger with Asda, it's the worst! After months [...]
Why the Fourth Industrial Revolution may create beach hotspots for investors February 27, 2019 The Industrial Revolution resulted in a rail network that has influenced real estate values ever since. Now the Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving the latest wave of value creation – for certain beach locations. Our focus on this blog is on identifying the shifting fortunes of global cities. Part of this involves careful analysis of [...]
Credit check service Experian abandons £275m Clearscore merger after watchdog investigation February 27, 2019 Experian has backed down over its £275m merger with credit rating checker rival Clearscore after a watchdog warned it could harm competition in the sector. The firm said it did not believe the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would approve the acquisition of the rival and has decided to abandon the proposal. Read more: Experian reports [...]
Leaked information on M&A deals leads to higher valuations February 26, 2019 Leaking information on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals before any public announcement of the transaction added an extra US$21m to the average value of deals announced in 2016 that leaked, according to new research from Intralinks and Cass Business School. In addition to evidence of higher valuations for M&A deals that leak, the 2017 Intralinks [...]
Competition watchdog to investigate Non-Standard Finance’s £1.3bn Provident takeover bid February 26, 2019 The UK’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Non-Standard Finance’s (NSF) £1.3bn takeover bid for rival subprime lender Provident. A war of words between the lenders has escalated in recent days after NSF made a surprise offer for its larger rival on Friday. Read more: Provident defends annual results delay as takeover row escalates [...]