City A.M.’s Devilishly Difficult 2017 Sports Quiz Part 2: The odd and business stories from the sporting year December 21, 2017 It has been another vintage year of sporting drama, from the triumphs of Anthony Joshua and Lewis Hamilton to the disappointments of England’s failed Ashes defence and Usain Bolt’s anticlimactic farewell. But as the dust settles on 2017, how much have you remembered about those defining moments, or the storylines playing out off the field, [...]
Are UK markets overstretched? December 21, 2017 With the FTSE 100 and All-Share a wee bit below their all-time highs and valuations above average, many fear equities are too high and will soon fall. However, in our view, such worries are misplaced. Valuations aren’t predictive, and markets routinely set all-time highs during bull markets. We expect UK markets to keep making chart-topping [...]
Are UK markets overstretched? December 21, 2017 With the FTSE 100 and All-Share a wee bit below their all-time highs and valuations above average, many fear equities are too high and will soon fall. However, in our view, such worries are misplaced. Valuations aren’t predictive, and markets routinely set all-time highs during bull markets. We expect UK markets to keep making chart-topping [...]
Gocompare share price rises after splashing £36.5m of its spondoolicks on voucher code website MyVoucherCodes December 19, 2017 Price comparison website Gocompare today snapped up online voucher code website MyVoucherCodes for £36.5m. Gocompare is hoping the acquisition will be transformational by attracting customers on a daily rather than annual basis. Boss Matthew Crummack said MyVoucherCodes would play a “valuable role [in the firm’s] ambition to become the ‘go-to’ place for savvy savers to [...]
No, scrapping net neutrality laws won’t kill the internet December 19, 2017 The decision by the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to remove so-called “net neutrality” laws last week produced a flurry of outrage. The American media company Netflix was most vociferous, declaring on Twitter: “we’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity, and civic engagement.” Such [...]
Corbyn doesn’t want to replicate the City’s success – he wants to destroy it December 14, 2017 London is unique as a global centre. These words are spoken so often, both within the City and outside of it, that they have become a cliche. But no other world-leading nation has its political capital, its financial centre, and its cultural heart all in the same city. The sectors feed and support one another, [...]
The UK drove a recovery in European private equity activity this year as UK buyout value doubled, according to CMBOR December 13, 2017 European private equity activity saw a rebound this year, thanks to a bull-run in the UK where the value of buyout deals almost doubled. The total amount spent by private equity firms on new buyouts in Europe hit €90.2bn (£79.4bn), up 50 per cent from last year and on a par with pre-Brexit referendum levels, [...]
ePrivacy: a fatal blow to the diversity of information in Europe? December 8, 2017 “There’s what you see and what you don’t.” This line by French economist Frédéric Bastiat illustrates perfectly the controversy surrounding the EU’s planned “ePrivacy” regulatory package. Expected to come into force in May 2018, the draft is currently being discussed by the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament. “What you see” are [...]
Editor’s Notes: Conspiracy theorists will always join the dots they want to see, bitcoin’s energy boom and the LSE row has left everyone weaker December 8, 2017 Before the fortuitous turn of events that took me into journalism, I did a lot of work with think tanks. These organisations come in all shapes and sizes – some are small, scrappy policy shops while others are quite grand, well-funded institutions. What they all tend to have in common is a staff of smart, [...]
Don’t let the rise of the gig economy stop millennials from saving for their pensions December 8, 2017 Millennials are saving more than Generation X, but has the gig economy thrown a spanner in the works? Apparently younger people are saving more than previous cohorts – a fact that might seem surprising, given the media doom and gloom about this generation. But in spite of earning the least, 18-34 year olds put away [...]