WPP appoints firm to find Martin Sorrell’s successor April 17, 2018 WPP has hired executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to find a permanent replacement for Martin Sorrell. Sorrell dramatically resigned as chief executive of the company that he had led for 32 years on Saturday night following WPP announcing that it was investigating him over allegations of “personal misconduct.” After his departure, WPP confirmed that [...]
Aston Martin lines up seven top banks to manage £4bn float April 17, 2018 Aston Martin has appointed seven banks to act as bookrunners on its £4bn stock market flotation, according to reports today. Rumours of the luxury car brand floating in London surfaced in February, though any final decision would come down to the company’s Italian private equity owner Investindustrial. Today, Sky News reported that shareholders had lined [...]
Former Kingfisher CEO Gerry Murphy to replace Sir John Peace as next Burberry chairman April 13, 2018 Former Kingfisher boss Gerry Murphy will be the next chairman of Burberry. Shares in the FTSE 100 fashion label were up 1.3 per cent just after lunchtime after Burberry confirmed a Sky News report revealing the appointment. Murphy will replace Sir John Peace, who took Burberry onto the stock market as chairman in 2002. He [...]
Disney forced to bid for Sky: How Britain’s takeover umpire has just thickened the plot April 13, 2018 As corporate stories go, this one has more plot twists than Game of Thrones. Sky investors were buoyed at the end of February as Comcast attempted to hijack Rupert Murdoch’s painfully slow takeover of the chunk of Sky he doesn’t already own. Shares hit levels last witnessed during the dotcom bubble – climbing above the [...]
Trinity Mirror’s Express takeover slowed down as competition regulators lift up the bonnet April 11, 2018 Britain’s competition regulator today launched an investigation into the sale of Richard Desmond’s Express newspaper stable to the owner of the Daily Mirror. Media giants Trinity Mirror and Northern & Shell agreed a £127m deal in February, ending Desmond’s 18-year association with some of Britain’s most popular newspaper and magazine titles. Just £48m will be [...]
London City Airport chief Robert Sinclair “increasingly confident” Brexit deal will be done April 10, 2018 London City Airport chief executive Robert Sinclair is “increasingly confident” a deal with the EU will be done by 2019, as the airport launched a joint campaign with the Department for International Trade (DIT) to encourage British businesses to sell overseas. Sinclair told City A.M. that while his predecessor, Declan Collier, was “right to raise [...]
Facebook’s Icarus needs to come down to earth before it’s too late April 9, 2018 Mark Zuckerberg is facing his Icarus moment. The tale of the boy who flew too close to the sun would make uncomfortable reading for the Facebook founder. “Move fast and break things” was the mantra that made Zuckerberg such a totem of sky-high success. But lax privacy controls and the leaking of the information of [...]
Liuwa Plains in northwest Zambia is one of the most remote safari parks in the world, here’s what we found there April 6, 2018 Linda Evangelista infamously said that she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. And after 11 hours travelling along Zambian roads, I’d have quoted a similar price to get back in a 4×4. But the prospect of a cheetah sighting was dangled in front of me, and that was enough to sweeten the [...]
Legal & General boss Sir John Kingman in line to spearhead audit watchdog probe April 4, 2018 The chairman of Legal & General is on the shortlist to lead an investigation into Britain’s top accounting regulator, according to reports. Sir John Kingman, previously a prominent figure in Whitehall as Treasury second permanent secretary, is among those being considered to spearhead a review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). The candidate could be [...]
A truly global Britain would not meddle with the market – Theresa May’s government must be careful how it deals with De La Rue, GKN, Melrose and Sky April 4, 2018 With the Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck in the polls and a Brexit-shaped mountain building up in her in-tray, the last thing Theresa May needs is a trio of tricky situations emanating from the business world. Yet that is precisely the situation in which the Prime Minister finds herself. Away from the far weightier concerns of [...]