City grandees demand cash calls accommodate private investors April 20, 2020 Senior City figures are calling for listed companies seeking equity capital to accommodate private investors, amid a fundraising rush. In an open letter to chief executives of UK plc, City stakeholders said they fear rules giving existing stockholders first refusal on new shares will mean private investors will lose out. The letter, first reported in [...]
Coronavirus: Here comes the startup chancellor April 20, 2020 Startups are the economy’s ‘department for the future.’ Their job is to future-proof all the other sectors – from retail and banking through ecommerce to public services. They are vital to the UK’s post-Brexit, post-Covid-19 future. They are also among its most vulnerable. Look up ‘start-up’ in the Cambridge Dictionary and the first example of [...]
Coronavirus: When are supermarket opening times for NHS and pensioners? April 17, 2020 As the UK heads into lockdown because of the coronavirus outbreak, supermarkets have enforced tighter restrictions and changed opening hours. Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday ordered all “non-essential” shops to close, leaving supermarkets one of the few stores to remain open. In recent weeks supermarkets have struggled to keep shelves replenished as consumers embarked on [...]
Coronavirus: The Gym Group and Hollywood Bowl latest to tap investors for cash April 17, 2020 UK businesses are racing to raise equity and shore up their finances during the coronavirus crisis, with The Gym Group and Hollywood Bowl among the latest firms to tap investors for cash. According to research by Peel Hunt, there have been 32 equity raises of at least £5m in the UK since the middle of [...]
CMA provisionally clears Amazon’s £442m Deliveroo investment over coronavirus April 17, 2020 A UK watchdog today provisionally cleared Amazon’s massive £442m investment into Deliveroo due to the risk the food delivery firm faces from coronavirus. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) called the situation “wholly unprecedented” but said the cash was “realistically only available from Amazon”. Deliveroo has seen a significant decline in revenues from the UK [...]
Coronavirus: SMEs will need more than a slow-moving loan scheme to recover April 17, 2020 Britain was once disparagingly described as a nation of shopkeepers and now, over two centuries later, small, and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the British economy. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, SMEs account for the vast majority of the UK business population; three fifths of employment and around half of the UK’s [...]
FTSE 100 falls as fears over coronavirus crash grow April 15, 2020 The FTSE 100 has tumbled as investors brace themselves for an extension of coronavirus lockdown measures and as warnings about the economy grow louder. Britain’s FTSE 100 index was down 2.8 per cent at 5,630 points by the early afternoon, having fallen yesterday while other indices rose. The FTSE 250, made up of smaller domestically-focused [...]
Coronavirus: Landlords will show pragmatism to save businesses April 15, 2020 Once the Covid-19 pandemic has abated and the UK retail property market returns to some semblance of normality, the way in which landlords reacted to the crisis will be forensically assessed by retailers. The hard lessons learnt by both sides will reshape the landlord-tenant relationship and people will have long memories with regard to how [...]
The City View from City A.M. with Dame Helena Morrissey April 14, 2020 Join Christian May, City A.M.’s Editor in Chief, for The City View – the daily podcast from City A.M. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS On each edition of The City View podcast, Christian will discuss the most important business and finance stories of the day before introducing a [...]
Can UK fintech companies succeed where legacy banks have failed so far with CBILS? April 14, 2020 Welcome to this weeks’ edition of City AM’s Crypto Insider, and I hope that you all managed to make the most of the Easter Weekend despite the obvious pain of social distancing. I sincerely hope that all of you and your loved ones are safe and well. The crypto market remains resilient, but nonetheless down [...]