City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? January 13, 2022 City A.M.’s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every morning. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Aon Professional services firm Aon has hired an ex-HSBC director as its new enterprise client leader for financial institutions team. Pete Rutherford, who has held positions at Abrdn, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank, brings [...]
London home to £41bn empty properties despite soaring buyer demand January 13, 2022 Some £41bn worth of empty homes are sitting vacant across the London market despite increased buyer demand. An estimated £200bn worth of homes are vacant across Britain, a 2.1 per cent increase on the previous alone. Estate agents Barrows and Forrester analysed government data to reveal that London is home to 80,295 empty properties with [...]
Nightcap eyes portfolio expansion as CEO ‘proves critics wrong’ after pandemic-launch January 12, 2022 Bar operator Nightcap hit £15.5m in net sales during its first full year of trading, as it lines up 25 new site openings this year. Boss Sarah Willingham, whose group owns Tonight Josephine and the London Cocktail Club, told CityA.M. she had “never been prouder” to work in hospitality than during the pandemic. The company [...]
Nickel prices rise to 10-year highs as car giants embrace electric vehicles January 12, 2022 Nickel prices surged to decade-highs on Wednesday, as car giants scramble to secure supplies for electric vehicle batteries as the market booms.
London beats Cornwall to be most desired location for buyers January 12, 2022 London was 2021’s most searched for destination by potential buyers, property site Rightmove has shared. The capital beat Cornwall, which had piqued buyers’ interests earlier in the year. However, a desire to escape to the countryside was clear in the difference in total number of searches between London and Cornwall. The difference was just three [...]
Renters rush back to capital as available properties drop off market January 11, 2022 Prime London boroughs have seen huge reductions in available rental stock as pandemic uncertainty subsidies for renters. In the final quarter of 2021, London rental stock had fallen to its lowest level since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic hit, according to data from central London estate agency, Bective. It comes as renters [...]
Top Chinese economist suggests £230bn plan to boost shrinking population January 11, 2022 A top Chinese economist has advised the central bank to print around £230bn worth of extra cash a year over the next decade, in a bid to incentivise the population to have more children. The capital would be used to subsidise housing costs, as well as build more childcare facilities, chief economist at SooChow Securities [...]
Exclusive: ‘Omicron is a reminder the world is only as good as the weakest link in the vaccination chain,’ says abrdn exec January 11, 2022 Ongoing inflationary shocks, questions around interest rates and the emergence of the new Omicron Covid variant are all making navigating uncertainty more challenging. Nonetheless, when we look beyond the headlines, there remain some reasons for optimism going into 2022, according to Richard Dunbar, head of multi-asset research at global investment giant abrdn. Square Mile-based Dunbar [...]
Car seller Lookers anticipates record yearly profit despite vehichle shortages January 7, 2022 New and used car seller Lookers has said it expects record underlying profit before tax ahead of company compiled market consensus of £82m for 2021. In an update on Friday morning, the firm noted a strong balance sheet, with net cash of approximately £8.0m as at 31 December 2021, compared to £40.7m net debt in [...]
House prices hit record high of £276k as slower growth forecast for 2022 January 7, 2022 House prices increased by more than £24,500 last year, the largest annual cash rise since March 2003. The average UK property price reached a new record high of £276,091 in 2021, rising 9.8 per cent, according to Halifax’s House Price Index. Once more, London was the weakest performing region for annual inflation by long way [...]