London-based food delivery startup City Pantry which serves lunches to Amazon and Google raises £4m from Octopus April 9, 2018 A startup which delivers food from local caterers directly to offices in the City has raised £4m to expand across the UK. City Pantry, which already serves clients such as Amazon, Google, Spotify and Unilever, currently serves over 20,000 meals every week to the employees of more than 500 companies. Octopus Investments led the latest [...]
Dixons Carphone UK boss Katie Bickerstaffe steps down to lead SSE and Innogy’s new British energy supply business April 6, 2018 Katie Bickerstaffe has stepped down as the chief executive of Dixons Carphone UK and Ireland today to take up a new role as the boss of the energy supplier to be created by the proposed merger of SSE’s retail unit and German-owned Npower. Bickerstaffe, who has been an executive director at Dixons Carphone since it [...]
Goldman Sachs has sunk down the advisory rankings for UK M&A this year as Morgan Stanley pinches the top spot April 3, 2018 Goldman Sachs has seen a dramatic reduction in the value of UK mergers and acquisitions (M&A) it has advised on so far this year, falling from the top spot in the first quarter of last year to 12th in 2018. In the first three months of 2018, Goldman has been engaged on 15 announced deals [...]
Bramson betting on Barclays break-up: When did activist investors become so polite? March 23, 2018 This week’s disclosure by Ed Bramson’s Sherborne Investments of a 5.2 per cent voting stake in Barclays was accompanied by the now-usual platitudes about constructive relations with the board, spotting a company undervalued by the stock market, and so on. That’s superficially plausible: Sherborne has already made a healthy return on the stock it began [...]
Crest Nicholson defends CEO Stephen Stone’s new role as some shareholders rebel March 22, 2018 Housebuilder Crest Nicholson defended its CEO’s new role as a chunk of shareholders voted against the proposal at its AGM. The vote passed a motion to re-elect Stephen Stone in a new role as executive chairman for one year, followed by two years as a non-executive director. But almost 10 per cent of shareholder withheld [...]
Rihanna roils markets as China bags a key element March 21, 2018 Garry White, chief investment commentator, looks at the market moving events that have shaped the UK equity markets this week (March 12 to March 16, 2018). This week, Barbadian singing sensation Rihanna managed to wipe $1bn off the valuation of tech group Snap, the Chinese secured a major cobalt deal to help it produce electric [...]
London’s financial system needs to be better prepared ahead of Brexit March 21, 2018 The UK’s biggest challenge for our negotiations as we leave the European Union is to ensure that our economy is intact and properly prepared for the future. The City of London has an important role to play in helping to create a sustainable economy and the Brexit decision certainly presents some serious challenges. A solution [...]
Healthy habits of Isa millionaires March 21, 2018 For many of us, becoming a millionaire might seem like a farfetched dream. But it might not be as difficult as you first thought, provided you adopt the right behaviours. While the government has regularly ramped up the annual tax-free threshold over the years, in 2017 the allowance saw a massive jump up to [...]
Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos close to choosing location for successor to Land Rover Defender March 18, 2018 Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos is reportedly close to choosing the host location of his new “spiritual successor” to the Land Rover Defender. The Times reported that the billionaire chemicals tycoon is deciding on where to build his new £700m project, with the UK, Germany, France and Belgium in the running. Speculation has been mounting as to [...]
Rihanna roils markets as China bags a key element March 16, 2018 Garry White, chief investment commentator, looks at the market moving events that have shaped the UK equity markets this week (March 12 to March 16, 2018). This week, Barbadian singing sensation Rihanna managed to wipe $1bn off the valuation of tech group Snap, the Chinese secured a major cobalt deal to help it produce electric [...]