Towers Watson and Willis Group Holdings merger gets the green light from shareholders, with shares in both companies finishing on a high on Friday December 13, 2015 Shareholders gave the green light to the merger between Towers Watson and Willis Group Holdings on Friday. The merger between the professional services firm and the insurance broker, which was first approved by the companies’ boards of directors back in June, suffered a setback in November when key Towers Watson shareholders refused to back the deal, forcing [...]
More floods to hit Cumbria in the aftermath of Storm Desmond, warns Met Office December 12, 2015 The floods aren't over yet – the Met Office has warned that Cumbria is likely to be hit by a second wave of them, as more rain takes hold northern England. In total 1.5 inches of rain is expected to accumulate in Cumbria over the course of Saturday, which might not sound like much, but [...]
COP21 Climate Conference: Anti-oil movement picks up steam as fossil fuel divestment goes mainstream and oil prices remain stuck at multi-year lows December 11, 2015 Fabulously wealthy, from an empire built on the riches of oil, and one of the most powerful families in America, the Rockefellers' $860m (£567m) charitable fund shocked the world when it announced plans to strip the fund of fossil fuel investments. When the world needed an alternative energy source to costly whale oil, John D Rockefeller founded [...]
Shh … one in 10 people aged over-40 hide savings from their partner December 11, 2015 One in 10 people over the age of 40 have confessed to secretly hiving off cash and investments without their partner's knowledge, new research from insurer Prudential has shown. The annual survey found 10 per cent have secret savings, investments and/or pensions, each with an average value of £30,300. Perhaps more worryingly, 15 per cent admitted to having hidden debts, averaging [...]
Ashley Madison, Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk: These are the 10 worst cyber attacks in 2015 December 10, 2015 From TalkTalk to Ashley Madison, major data breaches have scarcely been out of the headlines for a moment this year. 2015 has been the year when hacks really went through the roof, with millions of people having had their private data stolen in the UK alone and national governments scrambling to combat the growing threat [...]
City Moves for 10 December 2015 | Who’s switching jobs December 9, 2015 DELOITTE Business advisory firm Deloitte has appointed Andy Lees as a partner in its financial services team. He joins from Capgemini, the French management consulting corporation, where he was UK chief executive of its financial services business. Prior to this, Andy worked for Atos Consulting as a managing partner, after spending many years at KPMG [...]
US-based Computer Sciences Corporation set to buy Xchanging in £480m deal, beating out a previous offer from Capita December 9, 2015 Business technology and services provider Xchanging’s board of directors today agreed to be purchased by US-based digital consultancy company Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). CSC’s cash offer of 190p per share, which is worth about £480m, beat out an offer of 160p per share from outsourcing giant Capita, which had also shown an interest in buying [...]
Virgin Atlantic raises £220m from mortgaging its Heathrow landing slots December 9, 2015 Virgin has raised £220m in debt in an innovative deal that will see the airline use its Heathrow landing slots to secure the senior notes. For the deal Virgin has created a new subsidiary, Virgin Atlantic International Ltd, which will hold the majority of its landing slots at Heathrow, effectively mortgaging them by paying a dividend to outside investors. Virgin is the third [...]
Goldman Sachs leads $45m investment in travel website startup GoEuro December 9, 2015 Goldman Sachs is among several investors to plough millions into a travel website which compares plane, train, bus and car rental across Europe. The $45m (£30m) series B investment round for three-year-old Berlin-founded startup GoEuro was lead by the Goldman's Investment Partners arm, with further cash coming from venture capital firms and entrepreneurs. That includes London headquartered Atomico, Russian billionaire Yuri [...]
UK house prices: Most landlords to hold rents in first half of 2016 as price growth slows December 9, 2015 Rents on new tenancies agreed over the three months to November fell in most areas of the country, according to research from HomeLet that also suggests nine in 10 landlords do not intend to raise existing rents in the first six months of the year. The insurance provider’s latest rental index shows rents on new [...]