Reckitt sells majority stake in Air Wick and Cillit Bang arm July 18, 2025 Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to sell its Essential Home business to private equity investor Advent International for $4.8bn (£3.6bn). Essential Home includes the brands Air Wick, Calgon, Woolite and Cillit Bang. The FTSE 100 giant, which will retain a 30 per cent equity stake in the business, has been reshaping its business to focus on “11 high-growth, high-margin [...]
Buy now pay later firms to face tougher rules from next July July 18, 2025 Buy now pay later providers Klarna and Afterpay are set to face tougher rules by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) next year after much to-ing and fro-ing between fast-growing firms and regulators. The FCA has revealed new rules will kick in on 15 July next year. Buy now pay later entrepreneurs and other consumer groups [...]
Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: The best summer restaurants in London July 17, 2025 It has been a busy fortnight for the Bluebird brand I oversee as CEO of the Evolv Collection. In our Liverpool Street South Place Hotel, we launched the Bluebird Club, while at Silverstone we entertained drivers, celebrities and musicians with our trackside Bluebird Backstage lounge. And over in Chelsea, we have been the unofficial Wimbledon [...]
Manchester United and City top football arrests league table July 17, 2025 Manchester United had more supporters arrested last season than any other team in England and Wales, ahead of neighbours Manchester City and West Ham United. Home Office figures released today show there were 121 arrests of Manchester United fans, 34 of which were for public or violent disorder, during the 2024-25 campaign. That was by [...]
Will the Afghan leak win votes for Nigel Farage? Don’t be so sure July 17, 2025 Nigel Farage and Reform UK have made hay out of the government’s embarrassing leak and subsequent cover-up of information concerning Afghan asylum applications. But it may not be the vote-winner he thinks, says William Atkinson “The supreme function of statesmanship,” according to Enoch Powell, “is to provide against preventable evils’” Considering that, what should we [...]
Dubai first-time buyer scheme hopes to lure Brits, and keep them July 17, 2025 A new first-time buyer scheme in Dubai will keep expats in the country for longer and is likely to help lure even more ambitious Brits priced out of the property UK market to the gulf state, property experts in the Emirate have said. The city state’s Land Department unveiled its first formal programme to help [...]
Does Rachel Reeves believe in capitalism? July 17, 2025 The Chancellor can’t do the biggest things she needs for growth because she can’t escape her own ideology, says Helen Thomas Spin only gets you so far in the business world. Action has to back up rhetoric or the game will be found out. This is the main difference between business and politics: the former [...]
Paragon Banking MD: ‘There’s a £500bn savings mountain sat in high street banks’ July 17, 2025 Each week, we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Michael Helsby,managing director of strategic direction at Paragon Banking Group takes us through his career, and his reflections on the City, in Square Mile and Me What was your first job? I left school at 16 to become an apprentice Electrical [...]
From overcaution to opportunity: how to make risk work for Britain July 16, 2025 Britain is shifting from a culture of excessive risk aversion toward one that embraces calculated risk to drive investment, innovation, and economic growth, says Charles Hall Brits appear to be obsessed by risk. Warnings abound throughout our lives such as endlessly repeating ‘mind the gap’, providing heatwave advice that warmer countries don’t seem to find [...]
Virtual vultures? How scammers are swooping on digital will July 16, 2025 Fraudsters are taking advantage of weaknesses in the online probate system and stealing millions of pounds from families and the estates of the deceased, says Lynsey Harrison A major story broke over the weekend concerning two sisters Lisa and Nicole. In late 2023, they were informed through a ‘heir finder’ company they had inherited a [...]