Online sales boom: Barclay family resuscitate plans for Very Group £4bn public listing May 22, 2022 The family behind the Telegraph newspapers is thought to be reviving plans for a blockbuster IPO of online retail giant Very Group. The Barclay family are keen to get sidelined plans for a £4bn float back on track, according to a report in The Times. Very Group owns e-commerce brands including fashion retailer Very and [...]
Which?: Food prices climb a fifth in just two years May 21, 2022 Prices for some of the UK’s most loved grocery items have soared over the last two years, a new study has revealed. Supermarkets have hiked the price of 265 lines by more than a fifth, with Tesco raising the price of household favourtie Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut 21.4 per cent and Sainsbury’s lifting Warburtons’ four-seeded thin [...]
Pound on course for best week since Christmas 2020 May 21, 2022 The pound was on course for its best week against the dollar since December 2020 driven by investors betting on the Bank of England having to keep raising interest rates to get on top of a historic inflation crunch. Markets are baking in a fifth successive rate hike at the Bank’s next meeting in June [...]
Wall Street tips into bear market territory on recession fears May 21, 2022 Intensifying concerns about the health of the global economy has tipped Wall Street into bear market territory. The US’s top index, the S&P 500, at one point yesterday lost two per cent, ratcheting up its losses since its peak in January to more than 20 per cent, breaching the threshold for a bear market. The [...]
‘Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings ALWAYS wrong’, says HSBC official on climate change impact May 20, 2022 A top HSBC banker has claimed global authorities are overplaying the impact of climate change, saying “unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong”. The banking giant’s head of responsible investing, Stuart Kirk, made his controversial claim during a presentation on a slide during a London conference yesterday. HSBC said his views did not [...]
Johnson: Can’t ‘magic away’ cost of living problems but UK will draw on ‘fiscal firepower’ May 20, 2022 Boris Johnson has said the government will have to draw upon its “fiscal firepower” to get through the cost of living crisis, but there is no way he can “magic away” the problem. Speaking at a conference in Wales today, the prime minister said Britain will “get through” its current problems, marked by a 40-year [...]
Shares fly for THG as bidding war pushes online retailer’s value to £1.8bn May 20, 2022 Shares in the online retailer THG surge as much 25 per cent this afternoon as investors back the bidding war taking hold of the ecommerce firm. The online health and beauty retailer said that it had batted away a £2.07bn bid from two investment companies, Belerion Capital and King Street Capital Management last night. It [...]
BT heads for top-line growth thanks to impending price rises May 20, 2022 Berenberg has estimated that BT will return to top-line growth thanks to inflation-induced price rises.
Bank of England hints further interest rates are coming soon to bring down highest inflation in four decades May 20, 2022 As the British economy is hit by high levels of inflation, the Bank of England’s chief economist said today interest rates might need to rise further in the near future. Huw Pill said the 9 per cent inflation rate – the highest in 40 years – is a “very uncomfortable situation” for decision-makers at the [...]
Not much to celebrate for Bitcoin in the fog of war, but have you seen China’s hash rate? May 20, 2022 The price of Bitcoin isn't much to cheer about, but Jason Deane has one intuitive eye on China's rising hash rate.