Queen’s Award for International Trade brings sweet smell of success for SA Designer Parfums April 21, 2020 SA Designer Parfums was founded in 2001 by the Mehta family and has grown from its humble origins to be an innovative force in the world of fine fragrance. It specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of fragrances either owned or operated under license. The current brands in the company portfolio comprise a variety of [...]
Norwegian wealth fund buys up old Amazon HQ in London for £321.1m September 27, 2018 Norway’s sovereign investment fund today revealed it has bought a 100 per cent stake in an office building in central London for £321.3m. The seller was VGV Immobilienfonds II, a fund managed by Union Investment Institutional Property. The building at 60 Holborn Viaduct is the former London headquarters of tech giant Amazon, which moved to [...]
Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box review: Transforms your living room into an immersive light show March 5, 2020 The Hue Sync Box synchronises your Hue smart bulbs to your television, changing the colour and intensity of individual lights in the room based on what’s happening on the screen. On paper that might sound like a gimmick, but in practice the effect is unexpectedly mesmerising. The box sits between up to four HDMI-enabled media [...]
Ditch the Chequers Agreement and Hammond can scrap his ‘Amazon tax’ August 22, 2018 Thanks to the Prime Minister’s commitment to raise NHS spending by an additional £20bn, the chancellor is now in a quandary. Philip Hammond signed up to the theory that raising taxes increases revenues, which goes against the volumes of evidence that it actually depresses economic activity, encourages switching of spending to other lower-taxed areas, and [...]
Matt Hancock sets target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by end of April April 2, 2020 The government has struck a deal to work with the private sector and universities to reach a tenfold increase in daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month. Health secretary Matt Hancock unveiled a five-point plan at today’s daily press briefing to increase testing rates to 100,000 tests per day in just a few [...]
Amazon doubles down on profits, but misses estimates on revenue July 26, 2018 Amazon doubled consensus estimates on profits in its second quarter, as results released tonight revealed a staggering 1,157.5 per cent increase year-on-year in earnings per share. The company reported shareholder earnings for the quarter at $5.07 (£3.86), outperforming estimates collated by S&P Global Market Intelligence which predicted $2.54. In the same quarter in 2017, Amazon [...]
Wall Street closes just shy of record on renewed hopes of Covid-19 vaccine November 9, 2020 Wall Street surged ahead today as news of the first successful late stage Covid-19 vaccine trials bolstered hopes of the global economy emerging from a year of pandemic-driven crisis, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones opening on record highs. News that Pfizer’s experimental vaccine was found to be more than 90 per cent effective [...]
Tax system gives tech giants ‘unfair advantage’, says Publicis boss January 22, 2020 Tech giants have an “unfair advantage” and a clampdown on the amount of tax they pay will help to level the playing field, the boss of Publicis has said. Maurice Levy, chairman of the French media giant, today said he did not believe it was fair that digital firms could benefit from infrastructure and consumers [...]
UK tycoons buy Twickenham Studios as they launch £500m film venture March 2, 2020 Two British tycoons have snapped up Twickenham Studios as part of a £500m project to develop studio space to meet surging demand for new films and TV shows. Piers Read, producer of The Inbetweeners and Peep Show, and Jeremy Rainbird, who launched Bafta-winning production company Merman, have bought the west London studio hub for £50m. [...]
Budget 2020: Chancellor introduces digital services tax March 11, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak today confirmed the introduction of a digital services tax as the government looks to ensure tech giants pay their fair share of tax. The new tax, which will come into force from 1 April, will charge two per cent levy on sales for certain digital businesses. The move is set to raise [...]