Pearson profit falters as US courseware business drags it down February 21, 2020 Education publisher Pearson posted underlying profit at the top end of a reduced guidance range for 2019 today, and warned its ongoing transition to digital will drag profits even lower in 2020. Pearson’s share price sank 4.4 per cent to 558.2p as traders digested the figures. The figures Operating profit halved to £275m in 2019, [...]
Morgan Sindall profit builds 10 per cent February 20, 2020 The boss of construction group Morgan Sindall has put the company’s profit jump down to long term planning and strong orders. The company, led by John Morgan, posted adjusted profit before tax at £90.4m, an 11 per cent increase from 2018’s figure of £81.6m. Dividends rose 11 per cent to 59p per share and revenue [...]
Andrew Stephenson named minister for HS2 February 20, 2020 Andrew Stephenson has been named as the minister for HS2 and Transpennine Rail, the Department of Transport (DfT) has announced via tweet. Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a dedicated ministerial post would be created to oversee the controversial high speed rail project, which was finally given the go-ahead after months of delays. [...]
Housebuilders boosted by HSBC stock upgrade February 19, 2020 Shares in housebuilding firms jumped today after HSBC upgraded its view on the stocks, saying the decisive general election result “unleashed pent-up demand” in activity. Berkeley’s share price rose 3.2 per cent to an all-time high this morning after HSBC upgraded the stock from “hold” to “buy”. The bank now has “buy” ratings on all [...]
London house prices: Did your borough benefit from the Boris bounce? February 19, 2020 The increased political certainty offered by the Conservative General Election victory in December has been credited with giving London house prices a “Boris bounce”. This morning the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that UK house prices jumped 2.2 per cent on an annual basis in December, with London house prices [...]
London house prices rebound with 2.3 per cent growth after election February 19, 2020 London house prices grew at their fastest rate in 15 months in December following Boris Johnson’s election win, official figures showed today, as UK house prices also rose. Homes in the capital enjoyed a 2.3 per cent rise to £484,000 after a 2019 full of falls, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The [...]
UK inflation rate jumps to 1.8 per cent in January February 19, 2020 UK inflation rose to a six-month high of 1.8 per cent in January, a significant increase from December’s rate of 1.3 per cent, according to official data released today. The rate remains below the Bank of England’s (BoE) target of two per cent. The bump comes as a surprise to analysts, who had forecast the [...]
Free speech risks being sacrificed on the altar of offence culture February 19, 2020 Harry Miller never considered that he might be national news-worthy. A former police officer turned businessman, during late 2018 he posted a series of tweets which questioned the biological sex of transgender individuals. One of his musings stated “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.” What should have [...]
Pound rallies as UK employment hits record high and wages beat 2008 peak February 18, 2020 Wages beat their pre-financial crisis peak for the first time at the end of 2019, as the level of UK employment rose to a record high of 32.9m people. A total of 180,000 people entered the workforce between October and December 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today. That took the number of [...]
HSBC: Profit plunges as bank plans 35,000 job cuts February 18, 2020 HSBC has outlined plans to offload $100bn (£77bn) of assets and dramatically downsize its investment banking arm in a restructure that will cost 35,000 jobs over the next three years. Profit before tax tumbled by a third to $13.6bn in 2019, HSBC said as it revealed its most radical overhaul since the financial crisis in [...]