Office: Shoe retailer doubles profit to over £100m March 18, 2025 Profit at the group behind shoe retailer Office more than doubled to over £100m as it continued to open new stores and created hundreds of jobs. The business, which also includes the Offspring brand, has posted a pre-tax profit of £102.4m for the 12 months to 30 June, 2024. The future comes after the group [...]
SThree fees crater amid ‘challenging market conditions’ March 18, 2025 City recruiter SThree saw fees drop 15 per cent over the last quarter as the group grappled with “challenging market conditions” within the job-seeking sector. The London-listed firm, a specialist in finding roles for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields, saw declines across every arm and region of its business, it revealed in a quarterly [...]
Old Mutual earnings spike as firm gears up to find a new boss March 18, 2025 Pan-African financial services group Old Mutual recorded headline earnings growth of 20 per cent last year as the firm gears up to find a new CEO. The London-listed group reported 14 per cent growth in adjusted headline earnings, while profit after tax climbed nine per cent in its full-year results. However, the financial services group’s stock price [...]
Is Facebook about to fall foul of new fraud laws? March 18, 2025 This week the anti-fraud provisions of the Online Safety Act start to become enforceable. This could mean huge fines for social media firms that break the law by carrying fraudulent content. Yet our investigation shows that Facebook is still carrying numerous adverts for investments that might be seen to break the new law, says Andrew [...]
UK economy facing recession risk as Spring Statement looms March 17, 2025 Britain’s fragile jobs market indicates that a recession is looming for the UK economy, a leading think tank has warned. Chancellor Rachel Reeves defended the government’s economic record in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday, claiming most major economies around the world are facing lower growth than expected. But the Resolution Foundation said the UK [...]
Over half of business leaders expect a recession this year March 17, 2025 Business leaders’ confidence is at a “crossroads” just weeks ahead of the Government’s tax hikes kicking in, according to fresh research. BCG’s Centre for Growth surveyed 1,500 bosses in its “State of UK Business” report and found 57 per think a recession is likely this year. This follows Friday’s release from the Office for National [...]
Central London’s office market outperforms New York and Hong Kong March 17, 2025 London’s office market has outperformed global peers after a fall in availability of new stock pushed prices to record highs last year. The City of London and the West End achieved prime rental growth of 11.6 per cent and 9 per cent last year, respectively, helped by a city-wide vacancy rate of 6.6 per cent. [...]
MHA to target retail investors in £350m London Stock Exchange IPO March 16, 2025 Accountancy firm MHA is set to launch an IPO on London's junior stock market AIM, with a plan to bring in £6m from retail investors.
Wetherspoons set for profit spike as it braces for Budget tax hit March 16, 2025 JD Wetherspoon is expected to reveal soaring sales this week, as experts tip the pub group to seize more market share from smaller competitors amid tax rises coming in April. The London-listed firm, which has around 800 pubs across the UK, is set to report its half-year results on 21 March. In a January trading [...]
GDP shrinks in January as UK economy prepares for upcoming tax hikes March 14, 2025 The UK economy underperformed expectations in January. According to the latest set of gross domestic product (GDP) figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in January as output was dragged down by a sharp drop in output in the production sector. Over the three months to [...]