Is chess a sport? It soon may be chasing the Olympic Holy Grail August 10, 2023 Columnist Ed Warner discusses chess, funding fringe sports and what makes a solid sporting body chief executive. Where do you draw the line between games and sports? Mine is at the door of the pub, so ruling dominos, bar billiards, space invaders and darts out of the sporting firmament. I realise of course that this [...]
Sony warns sales will be hit by Hollywood strikes August 9, 2023 Japanese tech giant Sony lowered its full-year sales forecast today warning that the ongoing Hollywood strikes will wreak havoc with movie production schedules. In a trading update, Sony revised its annual movie sales forecast down 50bn yen to 1.47trn yen (£8bn). Sony blamed the potential lower revenues on the impact of actors and writers staking [...]
Secure Trust Bank: New loans surge as lender eyes expansion August 9, 2023 Secure Trust Bank recorded a significant increase in lending in the first half of the year as it sets its sights on continued expansion over the next few years. The specialist bank reported lending growth of 8.2 per cent in the first half of the year, bringing its lending balances to £3.2bn. Three of the [...]
WeWork: Flexible office space giant raises ‘substantial doubt’ over its future August 9, 2023 We Work has suffered a sharp fall in its share price after raising "substantial doubt" over its future.
TP Icap share price surges after announcing £30m share buyback August 9, 2023 FTSE 250 finance firm TP Icap’s share price surged after it announced a share buyback programme and upped its dividend. The interdealer broker announced a £30m share buyback programme and increased its dividend by seven per cent to 4.8p. The payouts came as pretax profit climbed to £91m from £72m last year thanks to a [...]
Bellway ‘taking steps to reduce headcount’ as rate hikes continue mortgage slowdown August 9, 2023 British housebuilder Bellway’s underlying operating margin will contract from 18.5 per cent to 16 per cent as mortgage rates continue to slow down demand in the sector. The home construction company completed the build of 10,945 homes in the year ended 31 July falling from 11,198 in the same period last year. As the central [...]
Trevor Steven: City favourites for Premier League, Liverpool for top four and Luton relegated August 9, 2023 City A.M. football columnist Trevor Steven previews the 2023-24 Premier League season and discusses who will lift the trophy, who will earn Champions League football and who will face relegation. Saudi Arabia’s spending spree to attract a host of big name players to its domestic league has grabbed the headlines this summer, and it’s certainly [...]
Inflation to remain above Bank of England’s target until 2025, think tank warns August 9, 2023 Inflation may remain above the Bank of England’s two per cent target for the next few years as price increases have increasingly spilled over into the wider economy, a think tank warned today. According to forecasts from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), inflation is forecast to fall to 5.2 per cent [...]
European bank shares fall after shock 40 per cent Italian windfall tax on excess profits August 8, 2023 Shares in European banks fell after the Italian government announced a surprise windfall tax on banks who have seen bumper profits thanks to higher interest rates. Late last night Giorgia Meloni’s populist government agreed to impose a one-off 40 per cent tax on extra-profits, defining extra-profits as when net interest income has grown beyond three [...]
Data attacks set to enter new era under ‘FraudGPT’, warn cybersecurity execs August 8, 2023 A new breed of malicious AI models are “heralding an era of AI-enabled data attacks” on businesses, Darktrace VP of strategic cyber AI Nicole Carignan has warned. Speaking to City A.M., Carnigan said data attacks will become “faster and harder to defend against in the next few years” as new AI systems make attacks more [...]