Tidy: BBC wins Christmas broadcast battle with Gavin and Stacey special December 26, 2019 The BBC has emerged triumphant in the fight to win Christmas Day eyeballs after a special episode of Gavin and Stacey pulled in 11.6m viewers. The bumper viewing figures mean the hour-long sitcom special was the most-watched show on Christmas Day and boasts the best festive ratings in more than a decade. Read more: Boris [...]
Why investors may need to dig a little deeper in 2020 December 23, 2019 Summing up the outlook for 2020, Schroders’ CIO thinks that superficially, overall market valuations look uninteresting. But dig a little deeper and there may be reasons for active investors to be enthusiastic about 2020. As we move into a new decade, we don’t think it’s time to party like it’s 1999, but it’s not a [...]
Softbank’s Wework financing talks stall December 23, 2019 Softbank’s attempts to secure $3bn from three Japanese banks have stalled, creating a hurdle for the firm’s $9.5bn rescue plan for Wework. Softbank is now likely to start the new year without the funding for the office sharing company in place, after two of the lenders hit internal lending limits to the firm. Read more: [...]
Tesco withdraws Christmas cards from sale over forced labour claims December 22, 2019 Tesco has suspended a Chinese Christmas card supplier following reports a customer found a message written inside a card saying it had been packed by foreign prisoners who were victims of forced labour. “We abhor the use of prison labour and would never allow it in our supply chain,” a Tesco spokesperson said on Sunday. Read more: Tesco [...]
Shell takes $2bn hit amid slowing demand for oil December 20, 2019 Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said it expects impairment charges of up to $2.3bn (£1.8bn) in the fourth quarter and has trimmed its output estimates due to a weaker economic outlook. In a trading update issues ahead of its full year results in January, Shell said it expected “materially lower” margins in its refining, [...]
Here’s to another 10 years of City success December 20, 2019 It has been a decade of great upheaval for the City. January 2010 saw the UK economy just starting to come out of recession, with unemployment at its highest in 15 years, and a raft of regulations and inquiries into the financial services sector imminent, not to mention an election that would mark the start [...]
DEBATE: Will we see as much seismic political change in 2020 as we did this year? December 20, 2019 Will we see as much seismic political change in 2020 as we did this year? Nicholas Mazzei, a corporate social responsibility adviser, says YES. Despite the vast amount of news we’ve consumed on Brexit and British politics since the EU referendum, very little has actually happened policy-wise. Do not expect more of this in 2020. [...]
Airbnb wins European court battle to dodge property rules ahead of public listing December 19, 2019 Airbnb received another boost today ahead of its public listing next year as Europe’s top court ruled that it is an online platform not an estate agent. The decision by the European court of justice will allow the company to dodge regulations faced by property brokers as it continues to expand. The company, which announced [...]
Retail sales dip in November despite discounting December 19, 2019 Retail sales dipped last month as UK shoppers showed signs of “discount fatigue” in the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The amount spent in the three months to November dropped 0.3 per cent compared to the previous three months. Read more: Are there any signs retailers could be in for a merry [...]
Activism: an escape hatch for active fund managers? December 19, 2019 Active fund managers are like deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. The exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry is expanding its product range to all investment strategies and grabbing market share from the mutual fund sector. In an important milestone, in August 2019, passive US equity funds surpassed their active counterparts in assets under management [...]