City watchdog seeks to reassure big investors on Saudi Aramco float ahead of crown prince’s UK visit March 6, 2018 The City watchdog is seeking to mollify institutional investors who have expressed serious concerns over plans to make it easier for the oil major Saudi Aramco to list in the UK ahead of a visit to the capital by Middle East nation’s powerful crown prince. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last month met bosses from [...]
What happened when we got a job picking weed in California’s booming cannabis industry March 5, 2018 The rugged wilderness of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties, northern California’s “Emerald Triangle”, produces over half the cannabis consumed in the US. Every year, from September to December, the region swarms with seasonal agricultural workers known as “trimmers”, or “trimmigrants”, here to work the land to supply America’s legion of stoners. For years the going [...]
Manchester City 1, Chelsea 0: Antonio Conte hits out at television pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp over game-plan slur March 4, 2018 Chelsea manager Antonio Conte hit back at television pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp, branding them “stupid”, after they were critical of his side’s game-plan during Sunday’s Premier League defeat to runaway leaders Manchester City. Conte adopted ultra-defensive tactics which resulted in Chelsea having just 29 per cent possession and failing to register a shot [...]
Former KPMG UK chair heads up LSE probe into boardroom showdown which led to Xavier Rolet departure March 3, 2018 An independent review of last year’s boardroom crisis at the London Stock Exchange Group is underway, led by a City heavyweight. The LSE has turned to Simon Collins, a former UK chairman of KPMG, to head up the probe, according to Sky News. LSE chair Donad Brydon has written to its 20 largest shareholders to [...]
Last Week in the City: Trump threatens trade war March 2, 2018 This week US President Donald Trump threatened a trade war, a number of famous high street names, including Toys R Us and Maplin, got into serious trading trouble and upbeat assessments of the US economy from central bankers helped the US dollar to rally, reversing its recent trend. The FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent [...]
Guy Hands’ Terra Firma is set to battle with buyout behemoths for Network Rail railway arches properties March 1, 2018 Guy Hands, one of the UK’s most well-known buyout firm bosses, is set to make a £1bn swoop for Network Rail’s commercial property portfolio. Hands’s private equity firm, Terra Firma, will be battling against giants such as Blackstone, the billionaire Pears family’s Telereal Trillium and funds associated with Goldman Sachs, Sky News has reported, as [...]
Sky partners with Netflix to get Stranger Things, The Crown, Queer Eye and more onto Sky Q March 1, 2018 Sky has signed a deal with Netflix to include the streaming service in one of its subscriptions. The Netflix app will be integrated into Sky Q, giving customers access to The Crown, Stranger Things, and the new reboot of Queer Eye. By placing Sky and Netflix content side-by-side, along with programmes from the likes of [...]
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish: VAR is “incredibly dangerous” for Premier League February 28, 2018 Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has described the potential adoption of video assistant referee (VAR) technology as an “incredibly dangerous road” for football to go down. The Palace part-owner warned that football’s hold on TV audiences could be broken by adding breaks to a game at a time when attention spans are dwindling. “I’m very [...]
Snow in London: Government issues health warning as temperatures plummet February 26, 2018 The government has repeated health warnings after the Met Office issued yellow and amber alerts for snow and said parts of the UK, including London and the south east, would experiencing “exceptional” wintry weather this week. Frank Saunders, the Met Office’s chief operational meteorologist, said: “An exceptionally cold spell of weather is expected this coming [...]
BT share price rises as regulators raise wholesale price caps February 23, 2018 BT investors were buoyed this morning by a regulatory announcement on the price it can charge its rivals to use its network. With shares rising almost four per cent, BT was one of the FTSE 100’s biggest gainers. Ofcom said it would not regulate the prices charged by infrastructure arm Openreach on its fastest broadband [...]