FTSE 100 giant ICG bulks up as demand for alternatives grows July 16, 2025 Global alternative asset manager Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) experienced a strong first quarter of its 2025 financial year, as investor appetite for private equity-style returns continued to grow. The London-listed firm raised $3.4bn (£2.5bn) in the three months to June 30. This was led by ICG’s Europe IX fund, which targets mid-caps across the region, [...]
Reeves seeks to spark retail investor revolution July 15, 2025 High street banks Barclays and Lloyds will lead an advertising campaign to encourage more Brits into retail investing as part of a wider effort to get savers to boost the UK economy. In rallying calls to financial services, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has unveiled a campaign to encourage savers to invest in stocks and bonds, drawing [...]
Is it high time to buy in super-prime London? July 15, 2025 London’s super-prime market has been suffering from a glut of supply in the wake of damaging decision-making from successive governments. Ali Lyon asks, is the tide beginning to turn? To take a walk down Mayfair’s historic Upper Grosvenor Street is to be confronted by a quiet, but dramatic, changing-of-the-guard afoot in one of London’s most [...]
Meta’s Llama: the strategic play behind the promise to democratise AI July 15, 2025 Meta has long promised to democratise AI, with Mark Zuckerberg frequently doubling down on his vision to make it “open and accessible” so that “everyone in the world benefits”. Yet instead, it’s been executing one of the most strategic power plays in Silicon Valley – wrapping its race for AI supremacy in the language of [...]
Andrew Bailey cautions banks against issuing their own stablecoins July 14, 2025 The governor of the Bank of England has cautioned against banks issuing their own stablecoins in marked contrast to a more bullish attitude to the technology in the US. Andrew Bailey said the moves by banks to launch their own stablecoins, a kind of cryptocurrency backed by assets such as the dollar, did not offer [...]
Experience the Roman Empire in Bulgaria for history to rival Italy – just without the crowds July 13, 2025 What have the Romans ever done for us?” quipped my partner, Ed, as we stood on the main street of Nicopolis ad Istrum, formerly a Roman town in Bulgaria that is now a glorious assemblage of ruins. “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water [...]
The best part of Sri Lanka just got a stunning new hotel July 12, 2025 When the Australian cricket team finished a day’s play against Sri Lanka in Galle in February, they came for a well-earned break at the Radisson Collection hotel, fives miles down the seafront.They liked it so much that when they won the series a few days later, they returned to celebrate into the early hours of [...]
The best sandwich in the City, from Porterford to Dilieto July 12, 2025 There is no better testament to how seriously the Square Mile takes its lunch than the queues snaking out of sandwich shop doors. Workers happily wait, shuffle and press to get their fix of bread and spread, meal deals be damned. Here is a list of City AM’s favourite sandwiches in the City, from wraps [...]
UK economy contracts 0.1 per cent in blow to Rachel Reeves July 11, 2025 Rachel Reeves’ waning growth agenda has been dealt another blow after the UK economy contracted 0.1 per cent in May. The Chancellor has endured a bruising few weeks after government U-turns and spending splurges have cut into the fiscal headroom she outlined in the Autumn. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics have confirmed [...]
Which UK banks are next in line for a takeover? July 11, 2025 As the next wave of banking consolidation kicks off, specialist lenders are in the fray to be swallowed up. The industry has seen a flood of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, of which the latest was a landmark tie-up between Santander and TSB Bank. Santander snapped up 12-year old British high street lender TSB [...]