Kier property arm ‘targeted by US private equity firm’ November 10, 2019 American private equity firm Lone Star is said to be one of the bidders in the race to buy parts of Kier Group, as the embattled contractor looks to raise money. Kier is looking to sell off “non-core” parts of its business, with its housebuilding division, Kier Living, up for grabs. Read more: Kier suspends dividend [...]
Coronavirus: Landlords will show pragmatism to save businesses April 15, 2020 Once the Covid-19 pandemic has abated and the UK retail property market returns to some semblance of normality, the way in which landlords reacted to the crisis will be forensically assessed by retailers. The hard lessons learnt by both sides will reshape the landlord-tenant relationship and people will have long memories with regard to how [...]
Coronavirus: How business responded to Boris Johnson’s lockdown plan May 10, 2020 Business groups have welcomed Boris Johnson’s call for millions of people to return to work but called for clearer guidance on how to maintain safety standards and support furloughed employees. In a speech this evening Johnson said that anyone who cannot work from home — such as those in construction and manufacturing — should be [...]
Labour to spend £60bn on household energy programme November 3, 2019 The Labour party this morning announced a £60bn programme of housing improvements designed to cut carbon emissions 10 per cent by 2030. The initiative, which is the largest upgrade of UK households since the post-war reconstruction, will create 450,000 jobs by installing energy saving measures in almost all of the UK’s 27m homes. Read more: [...]
Lawyers challenge Andrea Leadsom’s decision to approve power plant January 30, 2020 An environmental law charity has launched a High Court challenge against business secretary Andrea Leadsom’s decision to approve a new gas power plant in North Yorkshire. Clientearth is challenging Leadsom’s decision on the grounds that construction of the plant, which would be the largest in Europe, goes against the Planning Inspectorate’s (PI) recommendation that it [...]
That’s it, folks, AI version 1’s a wrap June 23, 2020 Well, we’ve done it. Pop the corks, and let’s enjoy a socially distanced Zoom party to celebrate. The current generation of AI, and in particular machine learning, has ended its beta phase and is now officially done. We can look forward to incremental update releases over the coming decade, but it’s packaged, available, everywhere, reliable, [...]
2020: “Hold my Beer” May 5, 2020 Humayun Sheikh is the Founder & CEO at Fetch.ai which is at the forefront of accelerating research and deployment of emerging technologies, including blockchain and AI. Its solutions are designed for people, organizations, and IoT. The project has created an Open Economic Framework (OEF) that serves as a decentralized search and a value exchange platform [...]
Norwegian Air slumps after third share sale November 6, 2019 Shares in Norwegian Air fell more than nine per cent this morning after the struggling airline last night launched its third share sale in two years and a bond issue. The company raised 2.5bn kr (£211.5m) to meet its cash needs through 2020 after selling 27.25m new shares at 40 kr per share. Read more: [...]
Labour plots further £5bn investment in electric car industry September 24, 2019 Labour has pledged to spend £2bn on the construction of three electric car battery factories in parts of the country which have lost thousands of car industry jobs in the last year. The plan would see a Labour government plough the money into so-called gigafactories in south Wales, Stoke and Swindon, with each site employing [...]
Wincanton raises dividend as it mulls Eddie Stobart bid November 13, 2019 Wincanton posted a rise in underlying profit in its latest half-year results and raised its dividend, as it continued to hold off on a bid for struggling rival Eddie Stobart. Read more: Eddie Stobart confirms £55m rescue bid – but will shareholders be left in the cold? The figures Profit before tax fell 5.3 per [...]