Thank you for the music: Blackstone bets on lucrative music rights with $1bn Hipgnosis deal October 12, 2021 Blackstone has moved into the lucrative music copyrights market by backing Merck Mercuriadis’s music investment firm Hipgnosis with $1bn firepower to snap up music rights and manage catalogues. As part of the deal, Blackstone will take an ownership stake in Mercuriadis’ Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), an adviser to the eponymous investment arm, Hipgnosis Songs Fund [...]
Gymshark ‘aggressively’ pitched by banks as London IPO is on the cards October 12, 2021 Athleisure business Gymshark has started to put together plans for a stock market listing. The brand has been holding preliminary talks with institutional investors and investment banks about a flotation, Sky News has reported. The company hit a £1bn valuation just over a year ago and boasts customers in more than 130 countries. Gymshark was [...]
Back to the office full-time? I’d rather quit say more than half of all Brits October 12, 2021 The pandemic has changed the working landscape so drastically that flexible and hybrid work have become core benefits offered to many UK workers. In fact, over half of British workers, or 52 per cent, would leave their job if they were forced back into the office full time, with 11 per cent saying they would [...]
How women are empowering Africa October 11, 2021 DiverCity® Podcast · Democratising finance through female education and empowerment Technology is powerful. It is the tool that empowers innovation, and in turn, enterprise that unlocks economic potential. In parts of Africa, young tech-enabled women are on the cusp of seizing opportunities within the space, with blockchain technologies set to play a major role. In [...]
Private equity salaries swell by 52 per cent to £152k as war for talent with banks intensifies October 11, 2021 Private equity firms are prepared to pay junior staff with less than two years experience an average salary of more than £152,000, a jump of 52 per cent compared to two years ago. In 2019, private equity professionals across Europe with only two years in the industry were paid, on average, just under £100,000 in [...]
Letters: No sympathy for Boris or business October 11, 2021 [Re: Business leaders bash Boris, 7th October] I write further to your newspaper’s article regarding the criticism of the Prime Minister’s alleged “economic illiteracy” by various business people, including the Federation of Small Businesses. I suspect that Boris Johnson’s critics will attract little sympathy from the general public This is especially true given that [...]
Boris Johnson off to Spain on holiday as UK stares down energy and cost of living crises October 10, 2021 Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have jetted off for a week-long holiday in sunny Spain as energy and cost of living crises begin to bite for millions of Brits. The Prime Minister will be in Marbella, which is in the Costa del Sol, until Thursday in a luxury villa with his wife and young [...]
Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pageant will be bigger and bolder than Victoria’s in 1897 October 9, 2021 About 6,500 performers will turn the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pageant into the “largest ever put on”, an organiser has revealed. V&A chairman Nicholas Coleridge, who is co-chairing the pageant, said the event on the final day of jubilee celebrations will top those held in 1897 for Queen Victoria. He added that the BBC predicts the [...]
Happy birthday Harry Potter: Young wizard preps for 25th after selling 500m copies October 9, 2021 JK Rowling said today she is unlikely to don a costume to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her hugely successful Harry Potter fantasy series next year. Instead, she will just have cheese on toast and a glass of champagne, because she looks “embarrassed” when given a prop and asked to pose for a picture. Rowling [...]
It’s good to back in the Kafkaesque embrace of crypto conferences October 8, 2021 After 18 months of moaning about the sensory deprivation of Zoom calls, it was weirdly tiring to be in a place of humans, writes Monty Munford.