Keydata founder Stewart Ford to sue City regulator for £370m August 3, 2014 Stewart Ford, the founder of Keydata Investment Services which collapsed in 2009 after the City regulator said it was insolvent and had broken tax rules, is threatening to sue the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for £371m. Ford wrote to the FCA last week, warning that he intended to begin legal action over the losses he [...]
City Moves for 04 August 2014 | Who’s switching jobs August 3, 2014 Sovereign Land The retail and leisure developer and asset manager has announced the appointment of Thomas Mallindine as a senior asset manager. He previously worked at M&G Real Estate for five years, most recently as investment manager, retail and institutional funds. Kingston Smith & Partners The corporate recovery and insolvency arm of Kingston Smith, the accountancy [...]
Personal insolvencies up but firms’ woes fall July 29, 2014 VOLUNTARY insolvencies surged in the last three months, official figures showed yesterday. The increase pushed up overall insolvencies by five per cent on the year to 27,029. But the fastest increase in four years in fact shows the economy was recovering, analysts said. “Now property prices are rising, creditors are more likely to think about [...]
Small interest rate hike would kill 20,000 zombie businesses July 17, 2014 Hiking interest rates to just 1.5 per cent would drive tens of thousands of companies to the wall, insolvency practitioner Begbies Traynor warned yesterday. It estimates there are 218,000 distressed firms in the UK, a large proportion of which are zombies – businesses that are staying afloat only because interest rates have been kept so [...]
Ex-Gowex chief Jenaro Garcia Martin turns to Kipling for staff apology July 8, 2014 JFK once said “when power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations”. Could these words have been swirling around Let’s Gowex founder Jenaro Garcia Martin’s mind when he turned to Kipling to apologise to staff on Tuesday? An email sent to staff of the insolvent Spanish Wi-Fi firm, to garner forgiveness for [...]
Hasta la vista for Let’s Gowex tech firm brought down by Gotham City July 7, 2014 A Spanish firm accused by analysts of dramatically manipulating its revenues has now filed for insolvency, as its chief executive admitted that its accounts were not accurate. Let’s Gowex, a business with ambitions to set up “smart cities” with universal wireless internet, conceded yesterday that the last four years of its financial accounts “do not [...]
HMRC denies new pay up front powers will cause bankruptcies July 2, 2014 HMRC yesterday dismissed claims that its proposed new powers to force firms and individuals to pay up front any disputed tax associated with a “tax avoidance” scheme will spark a rash of insolvencies. Accountancy firms have claimed that as many as 10,000 businesses could be affected by the accelerated payment notices, which are part of [...]
Tony O’Reilly hit by €22m ruling June 24, 2014 Ireland’s former richest man Tony O’Reilly is insolvent, AIB has claimed in court. The lender secured a €22m (£17.6m) ruling against the businessman, who plans to sell his Castlemartin estate to pay the bill. But his total debts amount to €195m. O’Reilly has requested a six month delay on the ruling in an effort to [...]
Retail insolvencies hit five-year high as corner shops squeezed June 16, 2014 RETAIL insolvencies have unexpectedly risen to their highest point in five years, as 1,287 businesses went under in England, Scotland and Wales in the last financial year. The figure, for the 12 months to the end of March, was up 12 per cent on the previous year’s 1,149 casualties, according to a report today from [...]
The business builder June 2, 2014 Harriet Green talks vans, contractors and disastrous renovations with aspect.co.uk co-founder Will Davies WITH the supply crunch starting to bite in the London office space sector, according to CBRE, and with average London house prices now at £485,000, the old adage that 1 per cent of a property’s value should be spent on upkeep annually [...]