City leaders recognised for services to business in New Year honours December 30, 2017 The Square Mile has weathered a turbulent year, and as 2017 comes to a close, business leaders have been recognised for their work to promote UK industry through a period of immense change. Business leader Ken Olisa, former Lord Mayor of London Andrew Parmley, and City grandee Anthony Habgood, have been given knighthoods. Vivian Hunt, [...]
The unprofitable reality of tobacco stocks December 28, 2017 Chestnuts may be roasting on an open fire – at least on the speakers of every shop we have visited since October – but here our focus is smoke. More precisely we will be considering its continuing disappearance as more and more people quit cigarettes – and what this could mean for tobacco companies and [...]
The FTSE in 2017: Five charts that tell the story December 27, 2017 The FTSE 100, 250 and All-Share indices made strong gains in 2017. A record year for dividend payments and ongoing loose monetary policy from the Bank of England helped each index hit a record high in 2017. By the close on 13 December 2017 the FTSE 100 was up 5%. But it was outperformed by [...]
London consumers are set to splash out on Boxing Day sales, according to Barclaycard December 23, 2017 Consumers across the UK are set to top last year’s Boxing Day spending totals, with Londoners splashing out the most, according to Barclaycard. Boxing Day is predicted to be the most popular shopping day of the Christmas period, with a third of shoppers planning to buy discounted goods up from a quarter last year. In [...]
Editor’s Notes: Predictions are for fools, but here are a few to mull over, may the bitcoin ride continue in 2018 and the best statistic of the year December 22, 2017 Winston Churchill once said “I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to prophesy after the event has already taken place.” Wise words, which were roundly ignored at a City lunch this week where we went around the table to offer our predictions for 2018. Contributions ranged from the sensible to the more [...]
Bank of England plans to allow EU banks in the UK lighter regulation option after Brexit December 20, 2017 The Bank of England (BoE) has today announced it will allow European wholesale banks to operate as branches in the UK after Brexit, removing the threat of a much stronger regulatory regime which bankers feared would harm their profits. European wholesale banks and insurers will be able to apply for authorisation to operate as a [...]
This property investment firm now owns a huge chunk of Seven Dials after acquiring six more shops | City A.M. December 20, 2017 West End investment firm Shaftesbury announced this morning that it has acquired six more shops on London’s Neal Street, in Seven Dials, for £24.6m. This means Shaftesbury now owns a whopping 70 per cent of the shops on the northern section of Neal Street, the busy road which connects Covent Garden Underground station to Shaftesbury [...]
Gocompare share price rises after splashing £36.5m of its spondoolicks on voucher code website MyVoucherCodes December 19, 2017 Price comparison website Gocompare today snapped up online voucher code website MyVoucherCodes for £36.5m. Gocompare is hoping the acquisition will be transformational by attracting customers on a daily rather than annual basis. Boss Matthew Crummack said MyVoucherCodes would play a “valuable role [in the firm’s] ambition to become the ‘go-to’ place for savvy savers to [...]
Oxford Street businesses are up in arms over the road’s planned pedestrianisation December 19, 2017 Thought that businesses and residents would be happy about the plan to turn Oxford Street into a car-free zone? Apparently not, as groups in the area have launched a protest against the mooted pedestrianisation. Banning cars and buses from the infamous shopping district will lead to more pollution and gridlocked local roads, according to local [...]
Public Register: Investors have published their FTSE naughty list of companies with the angriest shareholders December 19, 2017 This year has been punctuated by shareholder rebellions in businesses from WPP to Persimmon to the boardroom battle currently raging over the ousting of London Stock Exchange boss Xavier Rolet. But now shareholder anger at FTSE bosses’ pay packets has been dragged into the spotlight again, after the Investment Association launched its “naughty list” of [...]