Lloyds, GSK and Vodafone: The 10 shares pension drawdown investors are buying up August 5, 2015 Four months after pension savers were given freedoms allowing them to withdraw their savings and invest it into other areas, they have yet to spend their pension pots on those Ferraris everyone was worried about when the freedoms were first announced. Or that's according to financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown, anyway, which has listed the top [...]
FTSE treads water as a mixed bag of results peg market – London Report August 5, 2015 Top UK shares ended yesterday on a flat note, with the market pegged back by a mixed bag of corporate earnings and a $30bn (£19bn) bid from drugmaker Shire to buy rival Baxalta. The FTSE 100 lost 2.05 points, 0.03 per cent, on the day, closing at 6,686.57 points. The index’s skew towards mining and [...]
Tesco and Sainsbury’s vs Asda and Morrisons: Britain’s biggest retailers row over Sunday trading laws August 5, 2015 British businesses are readying for a fight over government plans to shake up Sunday trading rules. The government will today open a formal consultation on proposals to give local areas the power to allow large shops to open for longer on Sundays. Current laws allow smaller shops to stay open all day, but limit larger [...]
There’s nothing fishy about the government selling its stake in RBS August 4, 2015 Red herrings, known for their pungent odour, are said to have been used by escaping prisoners as a way of throwing the pursuing bloodhounds off their scent. Who knows if it ever worked. But if your nose tells you that there’s something fishy about the government’s decision to start selling off its shares in the [...]
Standard Life share price falls on hit from Osborne’s pension shake-up August 4, 2015 The insurance giant's admission that it will be hit by the government's pension shake-up sent shares down three per cent to 440.7p in mid-morning trade today. The figures In results posted this morning, Standard Life said operating profit before tax rose six per cent to £290m in the six months ended 30 June, from £274m during the same period a year earlier. The [...]
RBS share sale: Detractors have forgotten what a terrible state the bank was in August 4, 2015 Just a few years afterwards, it seems people have forgotten how momentous the financial crisis was – and in what a terrible state RBS was. And while criticism of the chancellor for pushing ahead with the first sale of the government’s shares in RBS is politically appealing for some and taxpayers will not ‘get back [...]
HSBC appoints Antonio Simoes as chief executive of Europe business August 4, 2015 HSBC has appointed Antonio Simoes as chief executive HSBC Bank plc, its UK business, and chief executive of its Europe business. He replaces Alan Keir, who has worked for the bank for the 34 years and intends to retire once the change comes into effect on 1 September. Before joining HSBC in 2007, [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland share price dips as government raises £2bn through share sale August 4, 2015 Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were down 1.4 per cent at 332.7p in the first minutes of trading, after the government initiated its first major sale of shares since it took a stake in the bank in 2008. UK Financial Investments, the government's investment arm, said it had raised more than £2bn through [...]
George Osborne starts £2bn Royal Bank of Scotland sell-off August 4, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has kick started the government's first sale of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today, a sale likely to raise £2bn for the government. UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the agency which holds the government's 79 per cent stake in RBS, announced its intention to sell about 600m shares, representing 5.2 per [...]
Just Eat earnings up 62 per cent as the digital food business keeps piling on the pounds August 4, 2015 Just Eat is gobbling up market share, with earnings up almost two-thirds in the first half of 2015 as the business says it expects at least two years of “over-performance”, The figures The digital food marketplace grew revenues 54 per cent to £107.8m in the six months to 30 June, while underlying EBITDA rose [...]