Patisserie Valerie appoints administrators for Grant Thornton probe July 26, 2019 Patisserie Valerie’s creditors have appointed new administrators to probe the cafe chain’s auditor Grant Thornton. FRP Advisory will take over from KPMG after the financial services firm said it could not investigate Grant Thornton due to a conflict of interest. Grant Thornton audits KPMG’s accounts. Read more: Patisserie Valerie overstated financial position by £94m The [...]
UK retail industry battles ‘toughest ever’ trading conditions July 22, 2019 The health of the UK retail industry is on the brink of falling to record lows as shops battle some of the “toughest trading conditions they’ve ever experienced”. The Retail Health Index, which takes into account consumer demand, gross margins and costs, fell from 77 to 76 in the second quarter, financial services firm KPMG [...]
Fewer firms are going bust despite high profile collapses July 22, 2019 Fewer companies went bust in England and Wales in the second quarter than in the first three months of 2019, according to professional services firm KPMG, despite a handful of high profile business collapses. Read more: Jamie’s Italian to slim down with restaurant closures The number of firms going into administration fell by 14 per [...]
Businesses must step up and raise their sustainability game July 18, 2019 When it comes to making sure that our day-to-day consumption is as environmentally friendly as possible, where does responsibility lie? According to new KPMG research, believe it or not, just 15 per cent of consumers point to policymakers, and only 10 per cent think that they themselves are responsible. The majority – 53 per cent [...]
GSK eyes former Astrazeneca CFO for empty chair July 14, 2019 Drugmaker Glaxosmithkline is set to announce the former finance boss of Astrazeneca as its new chair to oversee the breakup of the business. GSK is preparing to appoint Jonathan Symonds as its new non-executive chair, Sky News reported earlier. Read more: GSK to split as it forms £9.8bn consumer health venture with Pfizer The announcement [...]
UK ploughs ahead with digital services tax despite US backlash July 11, 2019 The UK has vowed to plough ahead with a digital services tax on large tech companies, just hours after the US launched a probe into France for a similar levy. The government today published draft legislation for its next finance bill, which includes a new tax aimed tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. [...]
France passes digital services tax despite US investigation July 11, 2019 France has given final approval to a new digital services tax on tech giants, despite protests from the US that the move unfairly targets American companies. The three per cent levy will apply to digital revenue earned in France by multinational tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon. Read more: France will tax Amazon [...]
UK economic growth beats expectations but contraction worries remain July 10, 2019 The UK economy expanded by 0.3 per cent in the three months to the end of May, official statistics have shown, beating analysts’ expectations of just 0.1 per cent growth. Read more: UK service sector ‘close to stagnation’ as economy slows The better-than-predicted growth, shown in data released today by the Office for National Statistics [...]
City Moves for 10 July – Who’s switching jobs? July 10, 2019 Today’s City Moves includes Waverton, Royal London Asset Management and Octopus Ventures. Waverton Waverton Investment Management has announced the appointment of Michael Allen as chief operating officer (COO). Michael joins from Lazard Asset Management, where he was COO for London, Dublin and Dubai. Michael has more than 30 years’ industry experience including roles as COO [...]
Sterling trades at two-year lows as recession worries mount July 9, 2019 The pound was trading at two-year lows against the dollar today as investors become increasingly gloomy about the UK economy’s second-quarter performance. Read more: Brexit uncertainty plagues business investment Sterling had fallen 0.5 per cent by 4.30pm UK time to buy $1.246, a price not traded at since mid-2017. Against the euro it had dropped [...]