Lloyd’s of London expects £1.8bn hit from Californian wildfires March 10, 2025 Lloyd’s of London, the historic insurance market, has reported a 6.5 per cent increase in premiums written for 2024. In a trading update published this morning ahead of its full results, which are set to be released on 20 March 2025, Lloyd’s said gross written premiums increased £55.5bn from £52.1bn in the prior year. Lloyd’s [...]
Assura likely to recommend new KKR offer to investors March 10, 2025 Healthcare property group Assura said it has received an indicative, non-binding proposal from KKR and Stonepeak Partners for 49.4p per share. The offer, which is a premium of 31.9 per cent to the closing share price of 37.4 pence on February 13, values Assura’s share capital at about £1.6bn. Assura’s share price shot up by [...]
Housebuilder Persimmon to post higher profit amid slow recovery in demand March 9, 2025 Housebuilder Persimmon is expected to report a rebound in profits next week after two years of steep declines, after the housing market made a slow recovery in 2024. The FTSE 100 company will post its financial results for last year on Tuesday In January, Persimmon said profit would come in towards the top end of [...]
Can the ‘hotelification’ of the office beat working from home? March 8, 2025 London offices are offering monogrammed towels and rooftop gardens to tempt staff back into work, says Alex Morgan Some of the world’s largest companies are pulling the plug on hybrid working, but not without a hitch. In the US, Amazon’s return-to-office (RTO) mandate has been put on pause because of a shortage of desks in [...]
UK mortgage brokers expect interest rates to jump March 7, 2025 According to a new study, over two-thirds of UK mortgage brokers expect interest rates to stop falling and resume their upward trend by the beginning of next year. Butterfield Mortgages surveyed 300 brokers and 69 per cent said they believed the Bank of England base rate would be higher than the current level of 4.5 per cent [...]
The Co-op admits blocking rivals from opening competing stores March 5, 2025 The Co-op has become the latest major UK supermarket to fall foul of a targeted campaign by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to stop the use of ‘unlawful land agreements’ in grocery retailing. The group has admitted to 107 breaches of an order to stop supermarkets imposing restrictions that block rivals from opening competing [...]
The 13 skyscrapers set to redefine the City of London’s skyline March 4, 2025 The City of London Corporation has released new images visualising how the Square Mile’s skyline will look.
Brits spent 31,000 years on Rightmove in 2024 February 28, 2025 Property-obsessed Brits spent 16.4bn minutes searching on Rightmove last year, which the platform has used to underpin a financial performance in a “class of its own”. Rightmove swallowed up 80 per cent of all consumer time spent on UK property portals in 2024, with almost 9,400 property views every minute. The UK’s enduring fascination with [...]
Tritax Big Box: Portfolio value up by a third after bumper acquisition February 28, 2025 Tritax Big Box has reported its highest returns since 2021 after acquiring a commercial real estate REIT last May. The real estate investment trust (REIT) told markets this morning that rental income increased by 24.3 per cent in the year ended December 31, reaching £276m. Its portfolio value increased by 30.2 per cent, from £5.03bn to [...]
Rightmove hikes dividends amid confident outlook February 28, 2025 Rightmove has hiked dividends after issuing a confident outlook for 2025 despite wider uncertainties in the UK housing market. The property portal unveiled a 6.1p per share dividend in its full-year results on Friday, up five per cent and taking the total payout to 9.8p. Underlying operating profit increased four per cent to £273.9m in [...]