Rio Tinto appoints a new legal chief after Guinea payments probe sacking March 3, 2017 Rio Tinto has appointed Philip Richards as group chief of legal to replace Debra Valentine, who was removed in November due to a payments probe related to mining rights in Guinea. The company sacked Valentine and former chief executive of energy and minerals Alan Davis for having "failed to maintain the standards expected of them" under Rio [...]
City minister Simon Kirby loses Brexit responsibilities to Treasury peer March 2, 2017 City minister Simon Kirby has seen his responsibilities for Brexit handed to Baroness Neville-Rolfe. Kirby was handed the role of economic secretary to the Treasury after the Brexit vote when May came to power. The Treasury has stressed that Kirby's remit remains the same as his predecessors, with the added Brexit work hived off to commercial secretary Neville-Rolfe. Neville-Rolfe [...]
Tesco completes sale of its Kipa business in Turkey March 1, 2017 Tesco has completed the sale of its stake in Turkish supermarket chain Kipa, which it bought in 2003. The sale was first announced in June last year, part of Tesco's efforts to offload its underperforming assets and focus on its core supermarket business. Tesco has also sold restaurant chain Giraffe and its garden centre business [...]
Ultimate Products’ London IPO has been priced at £105m ahead of it joining the main market next week March 1, 2017 Ultimate Products' offer price has been set at 128p, which will equate to a market capitalisation of approximately £105.2m. The offer comprises 41,084,800 shares, representing 50 per cent of the company’s issued share capital on admission. Shore Capital is acting as sponsor, global co-ordinator and bookrunner to the Company, and Cenkos is acting as joint bookrunner. [...]
Food prices are increasing at the fastest rate for two and a half years March 1, 2017 Food prices are increasing at the fastest rate for two and a half years as the fall in the value of sterling has forced supermarkets to pass on some of their costs to shoppers. Prices for food rose 0.4 per cent year-on-year in February, according to figures from Nielsen and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). [...]
Tesco is removing 1,700 deputy managers from its stores February 27, 2017 Around 1,700 Tesco employees face an uncertain future as the business eliminates a layer of management and replaces the jobs with lower-paid roles. The UK's biggest supermarket is replacing deputy managers in its "Express" convenience stores and creating 3,300 new, lower-paid "shift leader" jobs. Read more: Why Tesco could be better off leaving Booker on the shelf [...]
My best friend the algorithm is a better human than you are February 24, 2017 Thanks to my friends, I discover some outstanding TV drama from time to time. Like Lost, for example, or the first three seasons of Homeland. Two years ago, someone suggested that I watch a show. To be precise, they did not suggest, they insisted – indeed, demanded – sending me message after message which said: [...]
Milk giant behind Lurpak and Anchor increases prices for supermarkets February 22, 2017 The UK's largest dairy company, Arla Foods, has increased the prices of its products for supermarkets. The co-operative, which is behind brands such as Lurpak, Anchor and Cravendale, has been forced to hike prices due to the milk price rises in the last four months of 2016. Read more: Manufacturing giant Premier Foods considers price rises [...]
This isn’t an M&A bubble: It’s the start of an unprecedented boom February 22, 2017 After a blistering final quarter of 2016, the first few weeks of 2017 have seen dealmakers continue to mine a rich seam of M&A, with big ticket transactions including Tesco’s acquisition of Booker and Reckitt Benckiser’s bid for Mead Johnson hitting headlines in the UK, and Luxottica and Essilor’s €50bn (£42.4bn) merger among many others [...]
These are the UK’s best and worst banks – look away now Barclays users February 17, 2017 Feeling disappointed by your service at Barclays? Well, research shows you're not alone. Barclays has been voted the worst British bank yet again, falling to the bottom of MoneySavingExpert's twice yearly poll. But Barclays isn't the only high street lender that had a poor showing. HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) came towards the bottom of the table, as 21 per cent of [...]