Costain shares crash as firm hits up investors for £100m March 11, 2020 Shares in engineering firm Costain plummeted 34 per cent today as it revealed plans to launch a £100m fund raise to bolster its balance sheet. Costain’s stock slumped to 104.8p after the announcement, which came off the back of a £6.6m loss before tax in 2019 – compared to a £40.2m profit in 2018. The [...]
Budget 2020: UK regions to get their own trade envoys March 11, 2020 New trade envoys representing the UK’s individual regions will be posted to embassies around the world. Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a swathe of measures to “level up” less well-off regions outside of London in his inaugural Budget speech yesterday. Included among them was a pledge to create “dedicated trade envoys representing the North, the Midlands, [...]
FTSE 100 sees red despite rate cut and £30bn coronavirus Budget pledge March 11, 2020 The FTSE 100 closed down 1.4 per cent today as the dual impact of interest rate cuts and new coronavirus stimulus measures failed to impress investors. London’s blue-chip index had jumped as much as 2.1 per cent earlier in the day after the Bank of England announced it would slash UK interest rates to protect [...]
Budget 2020: Government announces review of UK funds regime March 11, 2020 The government will open a review into the VAT treatment of fund management fees as part of a wider look at the UK funds regime. Annual management charges levied by fund houses are currently VAT-fee, but the fees clients pay are subject to the tax. The consultation forms part of a broader review of the [...]
2020 Budget live: City reacts to Rishi Sunak’s spending plans March 11, 2020 Welcome to City A.M.’s 2020 Budget Day live blog. Please refresh your browser for live updates. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to address fears over the economic impact of coronavirus, and announce waves of new infrastructure spending and changes on taxation in his 2020 Budget. It comes after Bank of England governor Mark Carney earlier [...]
Budget 2020: What does the Red Box mean for UK tech firms? March 11, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled a raft of new fiscal measures as he vowed to deliver on the government’s promise of “levelling up” the UK. Sunak, who took over at No 11 just a month ago, put the coronavirus front and centre of his new policies as the number of cases continues to rise. But [...]
US stocks fall further into the red as investors lament lack of stimulus plan March 11, 2020 US stocks tumbled as investors grew concerned over the absence of immediate measures to counter the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones is down 791.84 points to 24,226.32, weighed down by a seven per cent drop in Boeing shares. The company plans a full drawdown of an existing $13.8bn loan as early as [...]
2020 Budget key points: Coronavirus, spending spree and even some jokes March 11, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined a massive spending spree and a £30bn package to shelter the UK economy through the coronavirus crisis in his 2020 Budget today, as the budget watchdog said he would borrow £100bn over five years to do so. The Treasury boss, who had just four weeks to prepare for today’s Budget, even [...]
Budget 2020: Government to move 22,000 civil servants from London March 11, 2020 The government will move 22,000 civil servant jobs away from London in a major Whitehall shakeup. Chancellor Rishi Sunak made the announcement in his Budget speech today, confirming that 750 staff from the Treasury and departments of business, international trade and local government would move to an “economic campus” in the North. The announcement was [...]
Budget 2020: Government will raise living wage and lift floor for National Insurance March 11, 2020 The chancellor Rishi Sunak said today that the government will raise the national living wage to £10.50 by 2024 and will raise the minimum threshold for National Insurance. In his budget speech Sunak announced a goal of raising the national living wage to two thirds of median earnings by 2024 – which would be equivalent [...]