New Look confirms £780m sale to South African magnate Christo Wiese’s Brait May 15, 2015 Britain’s second-largest women’s clothing retailer confirmed today that it has a new owner. Private equity firm Brait, owned by South African billionaire Christol Wiese, has bought a 90 per cent stake in the fashion chain in a £780m deal. The figure is significantly less than the £1.9bn mooted in reports. The deal marks the first [...]
Four charts that sum up the week: Sterling rallies, UK growth forecast cut, London house prices rise and Europe beats Britain May 15, 2015 London house prices ended seven months of decline, the Bank of England said it was feeling less optimistic about the UK economy and the French economy sped ahead of Britain and Germany in the first quarter, this week. Here are four charts that sum up what happened. 1. London house prices are on the up again, [...]
Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey says HSBC right to eye move abroad May 15, 2015 A Bank of England official has said that HSBC, the country's biggest bank, is right to eye a move abroad. "We will obviously be in close contact with them because there are important issues for us," Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Bank of England's prudential regulation authority, said. "It is entirely natural that as [...]
When will there be another recession in the UK? Don’t panic quite yet but one might be due sooner than you think May 15, 2015 It’s been six years since the UK economy was last in recession, but could another one be on the horizon? Severe recessions like the one in 2008 are a fairly rare occurrence – they happen about once every 70 to 80 years – but there have been seven in the 60 years since 1955, so [...]
Budget 2015: Here’s Britain’s wish list for George Osborne – more spending on NHS, education, tax cuts and transport, slash pensions and benefits for older people May 15, 2015 [infographic id="117"] The British public want the government to spend more on the NHS, education and tax cuts, and slash the cash set aside for welfare and older people's benefits such as pensions, bus passes and the winter fuel allowance by £75bn. George Osborne is expected to announce his second Budget of the year shortly [...]
UK construction sector boosts GDP hopes as output bounces back – although it misses expectations May 15, 2015 Britain's construction industry rebounded in March bringing an end to four months of decline, boosting hopes that the disappointing first quarter gross domestic product figure will be revised upwards. Total construction output rose 3.9 per cent month-on-month, following a 0.3 per cent fall in February. However, this was slightly below analyst estimates for an increase [...]
UK household wealth increased by 20 per cent to £9 trillion last year, driven by property prices and financial assets May 15, 2015 Plunging oil prices and the supermarket price war might be bad for the businesses involved – but for consumers, the overall effect has been a massive positive. In fact, new research has suggested UK households' total wealth increased by £1.5 trillion to £9 trillion last year. That's a rise of just under 20 per cent. [...]
BT share price edges down as Ofcom outlines measures to open fibre networks May 15, 2015 Shares in BT opened almost one per cent lower at 461.65p this morning, after it was revealed regulator Ofcom could force it to open some of its fibre-optic lines to rivals. However, these falls were later clawed back, with shares trading at 463.9p, 0.24 per cent down, an hour later. The regulator said the measures [...]
Mario Draghi: Beware risks from surge in money printing May 14, 2015 Printing money can cause turbulence in financial markets, and could cause wealth inequalities to rise, European Central Bank (ECB) boss Mario Draghi warned yesterday. But the ECB President said that failing to act could be even more dangerous, and promised to carry on with ultra-low interest rates and quantitative easing “as long as needed for [...]
Pimco equities chief to leave the firm in June May 14, 2015 Pimco said yesterday its London-based global equities chief investment officer, Virginie Maisonneuve, would be leaving the firm next month after less than 18 months. The US firm also said two of its equity strategies woudl go, representing three per cent of its assets.