City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? August 18, 2021 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. London First completes leadership shuffle Business lobby organisation London First has strengthened its leadership team this week as it channels its focus on the capital’s return to growth, emerging from the pandemic. Former director of corporate [...]
PwC profit up 25 per cent to £1.2bn as private sector demand drove growth August 12, 2021 PwC has today reported that its total group profit for the financial year rose by 25 per cent to £1.2bn, as the firm saw renewed private sector demand drive growth for audit, deals and transformation services. The big four accountant also saw its gross revenue increase slightly by two per cent to £4.4bn for the [...]
FRC begins hunt for new chair after its governance dubbed a ‘grave risk’ August 6, 2021 The government has launched its recruitment drive for a new chair and non-executive directors for the Financial Reporting Council, after its governance was criticised. Although the watchdog has started the search for a permanent chair and six new non-executive directors, it will still be without a chair when Skeoch steps down in October. Just two [...]
China tech crackdown: From Jack Ma’s disappearance to online tutoring debacle August 5, 2021 Chinese technology giants once seemed untouchable, with billions of profits through aggressive expansion. But that status is now more uncertain after a year of Beijing’s sweeping regulatory crackdowns that have spread like wildfire across sectors. The saga started last October when Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who founded e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, criticised China for lacking a [...]
Tory donors warn Boris Johnson that tax rises will kill off economic recovery August 1, 2021 Prominent Tory donors have urged Boris Johnson not to implement tax rises this autumn as they fear it could hamper the post-Covid economic recovery. Johnson and Rishi Sunak are expected to soon announce a 1 per cent increase in National Insurance in a bid to fix gaps in the health and social care sectors. Sunak [...]
KPMG may rebuild restructuring arm one year after selling it for over £350m July 29, 2021 KPMG is reportedly creating a new division to advise on corporate restructurings, less than a year after it sold its UK insolvency advisory business for over £350m. The big four auditor made the move as a result of new competition laws which made achieving profits from its non-auditing services harder, according to the report in [...]
Gooooood morning Forty! Party time as Bitcoin breaches $40,000 July 28, 2021 The Bitcoin price is back up at around the $40k level this morning after dipping as low as $36k yesterday, as the markets continue to look volatile this week.
Watchdog slams KPMG for ‘unacceptable’ bank audits for third year running July 26, 2021 KPMG has been called out for failing to meet standards in its bank audits for the third year in a row, by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in a review published on Friday, that found that a third of large company audits by the biggest UK firms failed to meet standards. The industry watchdog called [...]
FRC chair says slow board appointments pose “grave risk” to the watchdog reform July 26, 2021 The interim head of the Financial Reporting Council has said there is a “grave risk” that the slow pace of appointing board members could result in delays to the watchdog’s reformation plans. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), which oversees the governance of the UK’s biggest listed companies, has been without a permanent chair since May [...]
Musk back in for Bitcoin? July 22, 2021 Having dipped briefly below $30,000 on Monday as the wider markets crashed, the Bitcoin price has rebounded back towards $32,000 today.