Minouche Shafik, Andy Street and Jamie Murray Wells: These are the business grandees honoured in the Queen’s birthday honours list June 12, 2015 It’s the Queen’s birthday tomorrow – and what better way to kick off the celebrations than announce which of the nation’s great and good will don a hat and trip off to Buckingham Palace to receive an award. Among the 1,163 people named, there are 86 years between the oldest and youngest recipients [...]
Independent shops are bringing some much-needed cool to London’s housing schemes June 11, 2015 There was a time when retailers were an afterthought to housing developers. But increasingly sophisticated homeowners, used to an urban village life among coffee shops and boutiques, are demanding more. “Ideally, you want to bring the commercial side in as soon as you can,” says John Anderson, chairman of developer Berkeley Homes, East Thames. [...]
Rangers fans call for boycott as Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct wins EGM injunction June 11, 2015 A Rangers fans' group has called for a merchandise boycott after Mike Ashley won an injunction preventing the club's board from revealing confidential information about its retail deal with Sports Direct. Rangers shareholders will meet at Ibrox tomorrow after Ashley called an extraordinary general meeting to demand the repayment of a £5m loan. At the [...]
HSBC lays down the gauntlet to George Osborne on bank levy as it mulls exit from UK June 9, 2015 HSBC moved a step closer to leaving the UK yesterday, piling pressure on chancellor George Osborne to take action to persuade the bank to stay. Chief executive Stuart Gulliver set out details of HSBC’s review of the location of its headquarters, looking at 11 different criteria, including taxes, the government’s attitude to finance, and [...]
KKR halves Pets at Home stake and eyes Tesco June 9, 2015 PRIVATE equity giant KKR has nearly halved its stake in Pets at Home just as it emerged yesterday that the firm has been invited to bid for Tesco’s South Korean business. US-based KKR bought Pets at Home from private equity rival Bridgepoint in 2010 for £995m. The pet care and products retailer floated on the [...]
Check out Virgin Money’s Sex Pistols credit cards June 9, 2015 "Cause I wanna be anarchy … it's the only way to be," sang punk band the Sex Pistols over thirty years ago. Now, though, it looks like their artwork will be gracing something vital to the smooth functioning of a modern society… Richard Branson-backed Virgin Money, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in November, has unveiled [...]
City Moves for 9 June 2015 | Who’s switching jobs June 8, 2015 Deloitte Jonathan Gray has been appointed partner in the business advisory firm’s London-based financial services consultancy practice. A fintech expert, he has over 20 years’ experience working across retail banking, wealth management, credit cards and insurance. Tilney Bestinvest The investment and financial planning group has appointed Stuart Layzell as chief financial officer. He began his [...]
Why a compulsory living wage is not the best way to help society’s poorest June 8, 2015 The Living Wage Foundation – which lobbies employers to pay £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 elsewhere – has never called for statutory implementation of its cause. It considers itself to be a pragmatic civil society movement, encouraging firms to pay their low-paid workers enough to live comfortably. But the campaign has been hijacked [...]
Best of the Brokers for 08 June 2015 June 7, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com HALFORDS Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its “hold” recommendation for the UK retailer. The full year results, covering the 52 weeks to 27 March, reported underlying profit before tax of £81.1m, up 11.4 per cent driven, as expected, by Halfords Retail operations. JOHNSON MATTHEY Numis [...]
Retail sales on way up as trade deficit narrows – London Report June 7, 2015 DATA out this week might just provide some reasons to be cheerful, with retail sales numbers expected to show healthy growth during May. The British Retail Consortium sales monitor is expected to show strong year-on-year retail sales growth in May in data out tomorrow. According to Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight, this would “fuel [...]