High-profile failures have eroded trust in audit sector, says watchdog October 8, 2018 The UK’s audit watchdog has announced a new strategic plan to address “falling trust in business and the effectiveness of audit”, after a series of scandals in the sector. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) released its ‘Developments in Audit’ report today, raising concerns over public trust in the profession, and constricted competition at the top [...]
SSE-Npower merger: Competition and Markets Authority launches probe into the proposed merger February 28, 2018 The competitions watchdog has opened an investigation into the proposed merger of SSE’s retail unit and German-owned Npower. In November, the firms announced a deal where Britain’s second-largest supplier, SSE, would merge and spin off its household energy and supply business to create an independent supplier with Innogy’s Npower. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) [...]
Interview: Rachel Reeves drags audit into the light November 13, 2018 Rachel Reeves doesn’t fit the typical mould of a select committee chair. Where her counterparts leverage their positions of parliamentary power to try to forcibly move their party’s position (see Nicky Morgan), or to launch populist crusades to fix society’s ills (see Damian Collins), Reeves has taken a less attention-seeking approach to the chair, and [...]
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox pledges Sky News’ independence as media giant seeks to keep takeover alive February 12, 2018 Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has said it would keep Sky News independent, as it seeks to smooth the way for its takeover to go ahead. The media giant this afternoon committed to running Sky News for at least five years and would establish a fully independent board for the channel. Fox has been trying [...]
Store wars: Sainsbury’s and Asda mega-merger heats up race to become Britain’s ultimate supermarket superpower April 30, 2018 The race to become Britain’s ultimate supermarket superpower grew suddenly more interesting over the weekend as Sainsbury’s and Walmart-owned Asda revealed they are in merger talks to become Britain’s largest grocer. The two supermarkets, which have both lost market share, are seeking to join forces in a bid to topple Tesco, the current market leader [...]
Disney forced to bid for Sky: How Britain’s takeover umpire has just thickened the plot April 13, 2018 As corporate stories go, this one has more plot twists than Game of Thrones. Sky investors were buoyed at the end of February as Comcast attempted to hijack Rupert Murdoch’s painfully slow takeover of the chunk of Sky he doesn’t already own. Shares hit levels last witnessed during the dotcom bubble – climbing above the [...]
Amazon eyed buying Waitrose but was held off by John Lewis Partnership May 6, 2018 Amazon considered an acquisition of Waitrose last year, but was blocked from entering formal talks, reports suggest. A senior executive at the online shopping giant’s UK arm pushed for a meeting with the John Lewis Partnership but was “shut down” by the board, the Sunday Times reported today. The tech company’s acquisition of Whole Foods [...]
Outrage-induced regulation will not fix the broken audit market October 12, 2018 The audit market is broken. Don’t take my word for it – ask Rachel Reeves, the Labour MP who chairs the BEIS select committee, or Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, or even the Conservative business secretary Greg Clark, who last month ordered an inquiry into competition in the sector. With such cross-party concerns, it should not [...]
Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe apologises for singing “we’re in the money” as concerns grow over Asda merger April 30, 2018 Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe was left embarrassed this evening as he was caught on camera singing “We’re in the Money”, on the day the supermarket announced details of a merger with Walmart-owned Asda. Coupe’s little ditty came as unions and MPs raised concerns that the deal could result in job losses and a squeeze on [...]
Just Eat share price inches up as competition watchdog clears takeover of Hungryhouse November 16, 2017 Just Eat’s takeover of Hungryhouse has been officially cleared to go ahead by the competition regulator. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today that a group of independent panel members found that the merger does not raise competition concerns. In the CMA’s provisional findings, published last month, it stated that Hungryhouse presently provides limited [...]