Wood Group’s chief exec says regulators must consider the fact North Sea oil has moved on March 19, 2017 The chief executive of Wood Group said its £5bn merger with Amec Foster Wheeler will not be bad for the North Sea oil sector. Last Monday Wood Group announced it had agreed a deal with Amec in the hope of generating cost savings of more than £100m. Read more: UK oil services companies in £5bn merger deal The [...]
Investor relief at Dutch election: what next for stock markets? March 16, 2017 European stock markets have expressed relief at the Dutch election result. Traders had been anxious and share prices put under pressure in the run up to polling day yesterday. But centre-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte saw off a challenge from the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by anti-immigration nationalist Geert Wilders. The election had [...]
Investor relief at Dutch election: what next for stock markets? March 16, 2017 European stock markets have expressed relief at the Dutch election result. Traders had been anxious and share prices put under pressure in the run up to polling day yesterday. But centre-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte saw off a challenge from the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by anti-immigration nationalist Geert Wilders. The election had been [...]
21st Century Fox £12bn takeover of Sky has been referred to regulators Ofcom and the CMA by culture secretary Karen Bradley March 16, 2017 The bid by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox to take over Sky has been referred to regulators by the culture secretary. Karen Bradley confirmed her decision this morning after already announcing she was “minded” to do so. Broadcast regulator Ofcom will examine “public interest considerations” and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) “jurisdiction issues”. Read more: Sky takeover [...]
Blockchain is changing finance forever: It will do the same to flawed energy markets March 16, 2017 An innovation imbalance has developed in the energy sector. Consumers can switch on their boiler with a smartphone, yet switching energy suppliers is a complex three week process. New innovations and interfaces have been layered on top of clunky pre-internet systems that make seemingly simple procedures difficult and slow. Blockchain, best known as the technology [...]
Vodafone chooses Britain to launch new jobs as part of multi-billion pound home investment March 13, 2017 Mobile operator Vodafone will today announce the creation of 2,100 jobs in one of the largest single UK employment expansions in recent years. The new roles are part of Vodafone’s ongoing £2bn investment in Britain. Customer service positions will be created in the north of England, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales Read more: Vodafone: Two reasons to [...]
Competition, not price caps, is the solution to lowering Britain’s energy bills March 10, 2017 Recent weeks have seen the cost of energy bills climbing up the news and political agenda, as suppliers large and small have imposed eye-watering hikes to their standard variable tariffs. To date, four of the Big Six (EDF, E.On, Scottish Power and Npower) and several smaller suppliers have announced rises of up to 15 per [...]
BT and Ofcom’s Openreach deal: Here’s how City analysts, competitors and consumer groups reacted March 10, 2017 BT and telecoms regulator Ofcom this morning announced that they'd settled their differences over the future of Openreach, the company that owns the majority of Britain's telecoms infrastructure. It's been a long road for both parties, and it did appear that Ofcom was going to be forced into going to European authorities to force through [...]
All firms should fear the coming consumer protection crackdown March 10, 2017 There are normally a few government reviews that businesses seem to be obsessed with. Recently, this was the government’s industrial strategy; now, it is the Taylor Review into employment practices in the modern economy. But one set to increasingly occupy the minds of businesses this year is the review being conducted on consumer protection – [...]
A former Tory minister is to lead calls for a new cap on energy price increases next week March 9, 2017 A former Conservative minister is to lead cross-party calls for a new intervention into the UK's energy market, demanding fresh restrictions on pricing. Ex-cabinet office minister John Penrose will next week tell the government to create a new “relative price cap” to limit suppliers ability to hike bills. In a backbench debate in the House of Commons on [...]