FCA to clamp down quicker on firms using permissions to dupe consumers May 19, 2022 The City watchdog is clamping down on firms using regulatory approvals to dupe consumers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is set to use new powers to allow it to revoke businesses’ permits to carry out regulated activity quicker, it announced today. The regulator is now able to cancel or change a firm’s permission if it [...]
British Land earnings soar as competition heats up for work campuses May 18, 2022 British Land, one of the UK’s largest property developers, has secured a £251m underlying profit for the last 12 months, as its earnings per share nearly doubles. The FTSE 100 builder’s profit jumped 25 per cent in the period, the equivalent of £50m. Meanwhile, earnings per share have soared from 18.8p to 27.4p over the [...]
Back in the black: London landlord Landsec posts record office leasing in capital May 17, 2022 Property giant Landsec has delivered record office leasing in London as the company returned to profit after five years. Pre-tax profit rose to £875m in the year to the end of March, a turnaround from a £1.39bn loss the previous year. Landsec, which is the landlord for big names in the capital including Deutsche Bank, [...]
UK’s biggest phone companies colluded to bankrupt Phones 4U, High Court hears May 17, 2022 The UK’s major telecoms companies took part in a conspiracy to put Phones 4U’s out of business, lawyers acting on behalf of the bankrupt retailer told a High Court. Executives at five major phone companies – EE, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone, and Telefonica – unlawfully “colluded” to drive Phones4U into administration in a bid to [...]
Hammersmith: Picton snaps up office and retail space for £13.7m as it bets on Olympia redevelopment May 16, 2022 Real estate investment trust Picton has completed a freehold takeover of a mixed-use space in Hammersmith for £13.7m. Charlotte Terrace, on Hammersmith Road, includes four adjoining buildings, with a total of 28,500 sq ft of office space and 4,400q ft of retail space. The office space was redeveloped in 1990 behind a Grade II listed [...]
Grand opening: Sadiq Khan cuts the ribbon of Northern line’s Bank branch May 16, 2022 London mayor Sadiq Khan has reopened the Northern line’s Bank following a 17-week closure. The line was closed between Moorgate and Kennington on 15 January to allow for upgrades including a new system of tunnels and a more spacious southbound platform at Bank station. “Today marks the first in a series of transport milestones for [...]
Get ready for optimistic yellows – Gen Z has killed millennial pink May 15, 2022 Picture the scene: a pink wall, an emerald green armchair and the flailing arms of a palm tree. This is so many contemporary offices in London right now: ‘millennial pink’ and emerald green have, over the past decade, become iconised as the go-to colours of the millennial worker era. Until now. There is change in [...]
Week ahead: City eyes potentially ‘staggering’ inflation figures May 15, 2022 The City will turn its gaze to what is likely to be another tranche of “staggering” inflation data in a week bulging with economic and corporate updates. London’s premier FTSE 100 index whipsawed last week, dropping sharply on Monday before finishing the week up 0.41 per cent at 7,418.15 points. The mid-cap domestically-focused FTSE 250 [...]
Tech Weekly: Crypto plummets, and analysing tech stock rout in 2022 May 13, 2022 This week City A.M.’s Charlie Conchie talks to Lorne Daniel, Technology Research Analyst at financial services company finnCap. They unpick a very rough quarter for tech companies and tech stocks, and go through what’s to come. Charlie also takes us through the main headlines this week — multiple cryptocurrencies have plummeted in value, pressure is [...]
Everything for a fiver: Discounted sportswear flies off market stall in Gymshark pop up stunt May 13, 2022 Gymshark’s boss surprised Londoners at a market this afternoon by selling the Gen Z sportswear company’s products at a hefty discount. Long queues were pictured at the Lower Marshes market near Waterloo on Friday afternoon, after leisurewear fans caught wind of the publicity stunt. All products were sold for £5 at the market with Gymshark’s [...]