AIM shows signs of life as it celebrates its 25th birthday June 19, 2020 As AIM prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary today, the junior market is proving remarkably resilient and adaptable. Faced with Covid turbulence, AIM has so far performed well in comparison to other markets, helping to cushion investors from the worst effects of the downturn. In the first five months of 2020, the AIM all-share index [...]
The Death of the Cloud June 18, 2020 The Cloud: a concept of genius, with its nature of simplicity and powerful, soft and fluffy values. The notion underlying it is that data is held in a disembodied form that is universal, as omnipresent as the clouds which envelop the world, intermeshing and interlinking so completely that there is only one single cloud which [...]
Zoom to roll out end-to-end encryption after privacy concerns June 18, 2020 Video conferencing platform Zoom has announced it will roll out end-to-end encryption to all customers, following mounting criticism from civil rights groups over security concerns. The announcement marks a sharp U-turn for the networking app, which last week said it would start providing end-to-end encryption services for paying customers only. Eric Yuan, chief executive of [...]
Advisers join forces in bid to oust Tesla chairwoman June 18, 2020 Proxy adviser Glass Lewis has joined ISS in recommending that investors vote against the re-election of Robyn Denholm as chairwoman of Tesla’s board. Glass Lewis said it was concern was related to corporate governance, due to an insurance arrangement with chief executive Elon Musk after Tesla’s decision to not renew its directors and officers’ liability [...]
Pensions watchdog gives go-ahead to superfund deals June 18, 2020 The UK’s pension watchdog has given the green light to the launch of superfunds, leading to billions of pounds of retirement funds to be pooled together. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has set out an interim framework for supervising the pension consolidation vehicles called superfunds. Sky News first reported the development yesterday afternoon, before TPR confirmed. [...]
Three quarters of customers ready to fly, says London City Airport June 18, 2020 Ahead of restarting services on 21 June, London City Airport has said that over three-quarters of its customers have said they are likely to travel when they are told it is safe to do so. An anonymous survey of over 4,700 of the airport’s customers showed that 78 per cent of respondents were either very [...]
US dashes hopes of global deal on digital tax June 17, 2020 US officials have reportedly suspended talks with European countries over plans for a global digital tax framework, and continue to threaten to impose sanctions should they go ahead with individual proposals. US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin last week told four European finance ministers that discussions had reached an “impasse”, in a letter seen by the [...]
Bank of England lookahead: Bailey set to ramp up QE but avoid negative rates June 17, 2020 The Bank of England is widely expected to boost its asset purchase programme by at least £100bn tomorrow, as the central bank ramps up quantitative easing to shore up the UK economy. Governor Andrew Bailey is set to bolster UK stimulus at the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) tomorrow, economists predicted. The expansion of quantitative [...]
Welcome to the blended office June 17, 2020 Since the scribes of ancient kings worked together under a sunshade, we have had offices. Offices survived the Black Death, the Red Death, Spanish Flu, and Ricky Gervais. Offices aren’t about to disappear — but they may now be changing more than ever before. We should be ready for change, but do not be surprised [...]
National Grid secures £580m loan for Viking Link power cable June 16, 2020 The National Grid has today secured a $734m (£580m) loan to help build a new €2bn power link between the UK and Denmark. The Viking Link, which is expected to be completed in 2023, will be able to provide renewable power to 1.4m households. The 1400 megawatt cable is being developed in a joint venture [...]