The Hut Group confirms £4.5bn stock market listing September 10, 2020 The Hut Group has confirmed it is set to price its initial public offering at £5 per share, valuing the e-commerce retailer at £4.5bn The £920m float will make it the largest listing of a British company since 2013. The Hut Group will list at least 20 per cent of its stock. It is also [...]
Exclusive: Bank of England spends £120,000 making HQ Covid-secure September 10, 2020 The Bank of England has been hugely busy during the coronavirus pandemic, pulling the levers of monetary policy in a desperate effort to support the economy. But it has also been working hard closer to home. It has spent at least £117,000 on making its historic Threadneedle Street headquarters as safe as possible during Covid [...]
London Tech Week: Let’s call time on the capital’s tech ‘not spots’ September 10, 2020 Walking through east London this summer, the beating heart of the UK’s tech ecosystem had become a ghost city, with empty streets, co-working spaces and cafes. Like most industries, the Covid-19 pandemic has driven the sector behind closed doors. Yet, bubbling below the surface is a defiant community of tech entrepreneurs that will prove absolutely [...]
Lawsuit at Tiffany’s: Jeweller sues LVMH over delayed $16bn merger September 9, 2020 Tiffany & Co has launched legal action against Louis Vuitton owner LVMH after the luxury goods giant said it would walk away from a $16bn deal to buy the jewellery firm. Tiffany has filed a lawsuit seeking to force LVMH to complete the merger after the French conglomerate announced this morning that it could not [...]
Amazon pays just £293m in UK corporation tax despite revenue bounce September 9, 2020 Amazon paid out less than £300m in tax to HMRC last year, despite raking in an extra £3bn in revenue. The e-commerce giant said it paid £293m in direct tax — meaning contributions paid directly to the Treasury through levies such as corporation tax and business rates — in 2019, rising by more than a [...]
Virgin Atlantic joins calls for airport testing regime September 9, 2020 Virgin Atlantic’s chief executive has added his voice to calls for airport testing to replace the government’s blanket quarantine regime, saying it is the “only way” to get the economy going again. Speaking to the BBC this morning, Shai Weiss said: “The economy, which is already in deep recession will not take off unless we [...]
Coronavirus insolvency measures must be extended, says IoD September 9, 2020 The Institute of Directors is calling for an urgent extension to emergency insolvency measures to prevent a swathe of job losses and company collapses. In June, the government introduced emergency legislation to suspend the threat of liability for “wrongful trading” until 30 September 2020. Before the measures were introduced, the board of directors had a [...]
City of London slams government plans to override EU deal September 8, 2020 The City of London Corporation has sharply criticised the government’s plans to override some parts of the EU withdrawal agreement, warning it could “seriously damage” the UK’s relationship with its biggest trading partner. Speaking at a webinar, the Corporation’s head of policy Catherine McGuinness also said the government appeared to have forgotten about the financial [...]
Four challenges facing new BA owner IAG’s boss Luis Gallego September 8, 2020 Taking over a multinational corporation is a daunting prospect even at the best of times, but when the corporation is in a sector that is currently undergoing its worst ever crisis, the challenge takes on several extra layers of difficulty. That’s the situation facing Luis Gallego, the 51-year-old Spaniard who today takes over the reins [...]
US tech stocks plunge as FTSE 100 drops on no-deal Brexit fears September 8, 2020 Wall Street opened lower while the FTSE 100 fell back into the red this afternoon as a US tech sell-off and Brexit fears rattled markets. Downward pressure on the pound, as well as a strong set of corporate results, had initially boosted London’s premier index, but by the mid-morning the 0.5 per cent increase had [...]