At the close: FTSE 100 slips on the falling oil price as poor China data weighs heavy May 9, 2016 The FTSE 100 has managed to erase all its earlier gains to close down, adding to the worst weekly performance since February and marking the third straight week of losses. The blue-chip index finished 0.2 per cent lower at 6,114.81 after falling 1.9 per cent last week. The index is down around two per cent so far this year and 15 per [...]
The blockchain payments app: How Circle plans to change the way we spend – and think about money May 9, 2016 You don't pay to send someone an email – to send information from one place to another. And merchants typically pick up the cost of actually making the transaction when you buy something online. And the founders of Circle – the free, blockchain-enabled payments app – don’t think you should pay to send money, either. [...]
The first 100 days: What the new mayor of London needs to do to hit the ground running May 6, 2016 By the time today’s edition of City A.M. hits the streets, Londoners will have voted for their new mayor. With no overnight count, we are in a tantalising no-man’s land between the polling stations closing and the results being announced. By any measure the mayor’s in-tray is going to be full. From housing to transport, new [...]
Oil price jumps after Canadian production is threatened by wildfires sweeping the country May 5, 2016 The price of oil has been pushed up today after wildfires ravaging Canada’s oil-sands district forced companies to put production on hold. Meanwhile, fighting in Libya weighed on output around the Middle East and North Africa. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate climbed three per cent to $45.12 a barrel, adding to gains made yesterday. Read more: Crude oil surge [...]
Investment in London offices hits £3.5bn in the first quarter despite Brexit jitters May 4, 2016 Investors appear to have put Brexit fears aside in the first quarter after splurging £3.5bn on London's office market, new research reveals. Real estate firm CBRE's quarterly figures show that total investment volumes were down 14 per cent on the previous quarter after a particularly strong end to 2015. However, this was on par with the first quarter [...]
Lack of long-term investment in early stage companies is damaging the economy May 4, 2016 Lack of long-term investment in early stage and innovative companies is damaging the economy, leading fund managers have said. “Our society has increasingly lost its way. Fund management should be doing rightful investment for the world and I think it’s a really serious problem [that they’re not],” says James Anderson, manager of the highly regarded Scottish [...]
SoundCloud founder: Music streaming isn’t “winners take all” market as it launches Go subscription and ad supported free services to take on Apple Music and Spotify May 3, 2016 SoundCloud has said it believes there is plenty of room in the competitive world of music streaming for different platforms as the company launches its paid for subscription service, SoundCloud Go, in the UK and Ireland just weeks after its US debut. Co-founder and technology chief Eric Wahlforss shook off suggestions that it faced stiff [...]
Bond bad-boy Mads Mikkelsen boozes with brokers at XTB, but are execs worried the loose-tongued actor will give away trade secrets? May 2, 2016 It's well known that London's finance workers have a thing for James Bond. And so it was for fintech trader XTB, which celebrated signing Le Chiffre actor Mads Mikkelsen as its brand ambassador with a star-studded party in the West End last week. Is the fintech firm worried that their new signing will give away trade secrets? Before [...]
“We were the first ever agents to sell a building through Twitter” – Meet the social media moguls dragging commercial property sales into the 21st century April 29, 2016 While residential estate agents have been dragged into the internet age, their commercial counterparts have – mostly – continued to resist such a move. There’s no Rightmove for office blocks, or warehouses. And it was this inherent conservatism that seemed to offer a great opportunity when three young surveyors decided to set up shop in [...]
Virgin Media pledges fibre broadband expansion to one million premises by 2019 April 27, 2016 Virgin Media has announced that it will be rolling out fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband for one million homes and businesses over the next few years. The plans are part of Virgin Media’s £3bn expansion to grow its overall network by four million premises by 2019. Rivals BT and Sky are currently trialling FTTP or deploying it in smaller [...]