Not-so-golden quarter: Retail footfall slumps in another disappointing year January 3, 2025 A dull December marked the end of yet another “disappointing” year for UK retail footfall as fresh data has revealed 2024 was the second year in a row to see a decline. According to recent Sensormatic data by the British Retail Consortium, UK footfall fell by 2.5 per cent year-on-year during the three months to December, [...]
Watchfinder continues in the red as sales tick below £100m January 2, 2025 Watchfinder continued to make a heavy loss during its latest financial year as its sales dipped below the £100m mark. The London-headquartered business, which sells second-hand watches, has reported a pre-tax loss of £12.6m for the 12 months to 31 March 2024. The figure comes after the firm also lost £12m in the prior year. [...]
Thames Water to avoid state bailout, the FTSE 100 at 7900 and an ITV bid: my predictions for UK plc in 2025 January 2, 2025 Predictions may generally be a mug’s game, but looking back at my forecasts for the business world in 2024, I seem to have fared better than usual. Klarna, the buy now pay later giant, opted for a New York listing; Dame Alison Rose made a comeback in a senior private equity role; Unilever announced that [...]
IAG, Rolls-Royce and Natwest: The FTSE 100’s winners of 2024 December 31, 2024 The FTSE 100 returned 5.8 per cent in 2024, but under the surface, a clear gap has emerged between the blue-chip index’s winners and losers. Quite a few stocks have fallen out of London’s main index, with companies like Burberry and Ocado being replaced by giants like Games Workshop and Alliance Witan. While around half [...]
City grandees named in the New Year Honours list 2025 December 31, 2024 Former HSBC boss Noel Quinn, Babcock chair Ruth Cairnie and the Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines are among the big names from business and industry to be included in the New Year Honours list for 2025. The trio of heavyweights were given knighthoods and a damehood for their services to industry, transport and financial [...]
Best of 2024: Our favourite features of the year all about London December 30, 2024 When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life - and this year's bumper crop of features goes to show it. Here's our top 8 favourites.
Super prime London flats in 2025: Spas, bars and grocery picking December 30, 2024 Super-prime apartments are set to get even more swanky next year, as a host of new London developments come complete with hotel-esque amenities like spas, bars, music rooms and co-working spaces. With London’s priciest district coming in at nearly 96 times the average price of a home in the north of England (Knightsbridge, at £21.4m), [...]
Grab the popcorn: Retail’s five most dramatic stories this year December 27, 2024 From Boohoo’s boardroom dramas to The Body Shop’s salvation in the nick of time, 2024 has been a big year in retail. City AM counts down its top five retail dramas this year (spoiler alert: Mike Ashley is at the centre of two of them). Asda tumbles down the supermarket charts Asda has faced a [...]
Mark Kleinman: Hold the Telegraph front page – then hold it some more December 27, 2024 Mark Kleinman is Sky News’ City Editor and is the man who gets the Square Mile talking in his weekly City AM column. This week he tackles the Telegraph bid, Mike Ashley’s failed Boohoo approach and an oil deal in the North Sea I suspect you’d have got long odds on January 1 on the auction of The Daily [...]
Hit or miss? The best and worst football club Christmas adverts December 22, 2024 Creative type Steve Howell casts his critical eye over Christmas adverts produced by Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham and Celtic. Think of a Christmas advert and your mind may conjure memories of “A dog is for life…” or any number of classic John Lewis commercials that have become synonymous with this time of year. Whatever brand [...]