Plus500 share price rises as Playtech buys trading platform for £460m June 1, 2015 Playtech has snapped up trading platform Plus500 for £460m, adding the spreadbetting platform to its online betting and gaming software business. Unperturbed by Plus500's recent headaches, which have seen UK customers' accounts frozen and its market value fall, Playtech chief Mor Weizer said the acquisition will help his company expand its wider offering. Plus500's share [...]
Lloyds shares to be sold to retail investors within 12 months, says Treasury June 1, 2015 The government has sold off more of its shares in Lloyds and is planning to sell to retail investors within the next year in "Tell Sid" style sell-off. Another one per cent has been sold off by the Treasury, reducing its stake in the bank to 19 per cent. "The trading plan has been a [...]
Fifa crisis: UK banks HSBC, Barclays, and Standard Chartered get drawn into corruption scandal June 1, 2015 Three of Britain’s leading banks are conducting investigations into whether they cleared payments related to the ongoing Fifa corruption scandal. HSBC, Barclays, and Standard Chartered are all understood to have launched internal probes, after the FBI arrested current former Fifa executives and associates. Barclays and HSBC yesterday declined to comment. Standard Chartered said [...]
WPP braced for new revolt over Martin Sorrell’s £43m May 31, 2015 Controversy over WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell’s remuneration has erupted once more, after two leading proxy advisory groups raised concerns over the £43m pay package he received last year. The size of Sorrell’s payout has remained a sticking point for many investors, despite the advertising giant introducing a new policy in 2013 and abandoning [...]
Dunelm founder Bill Adderley sells majority of his stake in Marks & Spencer May 31, 2015 Bill Adderley, the billionaire founder of homeware retailer Dunelm, has sold most of his shares in Marks & Spencer three years after building up a stake to become the firm’s largest private shareholder. Adderley has sold two thirds of his three per cent stake in M&S, telling the Sunday Times that there were “a couple [...]
Morrisons may face revolt over Dalton Philips’s £3m pay package May 31, 2015 Morrisons is expected to clash with shareholders this week over the supermarket’s ousted chief executive Dalton Philips £3m pay package. Philips was forced to step down in February, after failing to halt the decline in sales at the grocer during his five years in charge. He walked away with a £1.1m payoff, as well as [...]
Investec Comment: How a retail bond can give a firm the edge May 31, 2015 THE PROFESSIONAL rugby union club Wasps launched its debut retail bond at the London Stock Exchange last week, raising £35m. I was very proud to have been involved in the transaction, and it’s fair to say that the success of the issue is the latest sign of growing investor appetite for retail bonds in the [...]
Fifa crisis: Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered to launch internal review following FBI investigation May 31, 2015 Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered are all believed to have launched internal investigations into their role in the Fifa corruption scandal that has engulfed world football this week. The British banks were all named in the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) lawsuit against 14 people – including nine Fifa officials – for racketeering, wire fraud and [...]
Sepp Blatter’s reign as Fifa president is four times longer than FTSE bosses May 30, 2015 Sepp Blatter's reign as Fifa president will be four times as long as the average tenure of bosses at FTSE 100 companies. Securing a fifth term as the leader of the world's football federation will take his time in charge to 21 years. That's exactly four times the average time spent at the top by [...]
Bobby and Christi Shepherd’s mother Sharon Wood blasts Harriet Green’s £3m donation as “abhorrent” May 29, 2015 The mother of the children who died at a Thomas Cook-approved hotel in Corfu has slammed Harriet Green's decision to donate £3m to charity as “abhorrent”. Sharon Wood, whose children Christi and Bobby Shepherd were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in 2006, said she only learned about the donation shortly before the public announcement [...]