Liverpool takeover: Owners FSG deny £700m offer from Chinese firm SinoFortone June 16, 2016 Liverpool's owners have poured cold water on reports they have been approached by a Chinese firm to buy the club for £700m. A letter circulating on social media appeared to show Chinese investment group SinoFortone offering Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) £700m for the Premier League club. But according to the Liverpool Echo, FSG officials say they have had [...]
Sepp Blatter: European competition draws were rigged using “hot and cold balls” June 14, 2016 Disgraced former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has alleged draws for Uefa competitions were rigged using "hot and cold balls". Blatter insisted no draw for a Fifa event was fixed during his 18 year presidency — although he admitted he had the power to do so — but claims he witnessed the practise at European level. Read more: Sepp Blatter and other former officials "enriched themselves" [...]
Now KPMG stands down as Fifa’s auditors June 13, 2016 KPMG has stood down as auditors of Fifa after more than a decade of service, the football association revealed in a statement today. Fifa said that it "welcomes" the change, which will give it a chance to work with a new audit firm. A new auditor has not yet been appointed. However, Fifa acknowledged that, particularly [...]
Fintech helps to push foreign direct investment in UK financial services sector to highest level since 2006 June 13, 2016 Foreign investors can't get enough of the UK's financial services market, with a report out today discovering that fintech has helped push foreign direct investment (FDI) to its highest level since 2006. The research by professional services firm EY discovered that, in 2015, there were 94 FDI projects in the UK's financial services sector, which in turn generated 8,138 [...]
Bash this: The UK’s highest-rated chief executive is a banker June 8, 2016 Is this the end of banker bashing? It turns out the UK's most beloved chief executive works in the finance sector – but his isn't one of the traditional lenders… A new ranking by job review site Glassdoor, which is compiled by looking at how employees rate their own bosses, put Craig Donaldson, the chief executive of [...]
Women must have a crucial role in saving the high street – a retailer’s survival may depend on it June 7, 2016 Retailers will breathe a sigh of relief today as the joint British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG sales monitor for May shows a modest recovery on the high street. But the respite may be brief as customers remain cautious with their spending. The sector is facing many challenges. Too many retailers are disconnected from their [...]
Online shopping drove retail sales in May as high street stores sufferred June 7, 2016 Online shopping drove retail sales in May, as the high street faced the prospect of permanently declining footfall and the collapse of both BHS and Austin Reed. Growth in non-food products was up by 13.7 per cent in May year-on-year, a figure higher than both the three-month and 12-month averages of 9.9 per cent and 12.2 [...]
Retail sales back to growth in May as warmer weather encourages spending June 7, 2016 Retail sales picked up in May as consumers took to the internet to start their summer splurge. Sales grew by 1.4 per cent in the UK retail industry, following two months of flat-lining, in a welcome, if modest, boost to the struggling industry, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Once again, however, sales growth was driven [...]
Financial Reporting Council launches KPMG probe over additional services provided while it audited Ted Baker June 6, 2016 The accountancy watchdog has today announced an investigation into KPMG Audit over its handling of its additional services provided to Ted Baker. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has said it will be examining how the big four firm complied with ethical standards relating to providing non-audit services while it was auditing the retailer. The periods concerned [...]
A family affair: How Ben and Ollie Black built their childcare empire June 6, 2016 Two minutes with the Black brothers and Laurel and Hardy come up. “You know, ‘another fine mess you’ve got me into’,” says Oliver Black, describing how he initially conceived of working with his brother. “I spent Christmas trying to convince Ollie that I knew about buying a company,” says Ben Black. The pair bought failing childcare [...]