Beyond Pret sandwich sales, how do we measure the recovery of London? May 23, 2021 After more than a year of lockdown restrictions, words like “recovery” are thick in the air. Indeed, the Bank of England is forecasting annual growth of 7.25 per cent, the fastest rate since 1941; positive news, but it is not the most digestible statistic for much of Britain’s population. The most important benchmarks are ones [...]
City corruption: Company of Tory donor Ayman Asfari paid tens of millions in bribes across Middle East October 3, 2021 A company whose biggest shareholder is a major Tory donor did not stop its employees from paying out more than £32m in bribes in order to secure a range of contracts across the Middle East. Petrofac, one of the world’s largest service providers to oil and gas producers, won business worth £2.7bn in Iraq, Saudi [...]
Santander boss Ana Botin defends Andrea Orcel CEO offer as top bankers face off in court May 19, 2021 Santander boss Ana Botin defended the bank’s actions in a court hearing in Spain today over the withdrawal of an offer more than two years ago to make Italian banker Andrea Orcel its chief executive. The very public row, which has offered a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a top bank, ended up in [...]
Greensill files for administration putting thousands of steel jobs at risk March 8, 2021 Greensill Capital has this afternoon filed for administration, potentially putting at risk thousands of jobs in the UK steel industry. Lawyers for the boutique bank, which is one of the main sources of funding for steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s business empire, appeared before a UK court today, the FT reported. According to court documents, Greensill [...]
London Mayoral election: The leader of the capital needs the constitutional power to get the job done April 26, 2021 The Mayoral election is just over one week away. You will be easily forgiven if it’s not at the forefront of your mind – over the last year London has been hammered by the pandemic. The capital has lost more jobs than any other region, with a disproportionate effect on younger people, those in lower [...]
The ship’s taking on water, but Bitcoin could be the lifeboat we all need February 4, 2022 Jason Deane rounds up the crypto week, but has stark warnings over what lies ahead for UK wages.
Ghislaine Maxwell denies knowledge of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, court transcripts show October 22, 2020 Ghislaine Maxwell said she never witnessed “inappropriate underage activities” by Jeffrey Epstein, according to unsealed court documents from a 2016 deposition that the British socialite fought to keep secret. The deposition was made in a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, who has said Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s [...]
‘We want to be the regional magic circle firm,’ says Knights CEO January 19, 2021 Regional law firm Knights saw revenues jumped by some £14m in the second half of 2020, up to £46.2m from £31.9m in H1, and the positive year has only fuelled the firm’s ambitions. The promising results were in part delivered in part by the successful remote acquisitions of Shulmans, ASB and Fraser Brown, and the [...]
Russians flee en masse to escape Putin’s mobilisation with few flights out of Moscow costing £10,000 September 27, 2022 Tens of thousands of Russians are fleeing their country to escape the mass military mobilisation that is currently underway. As a result, international flights out of Moscow now cost more than £10,000 per seat for a single ticket. The Kremlin ordered last week that up to 300,000 reservists across Russia should report for duty in [...]
Tiered lockdowns spread gloom over UK services sector November 27, 2020 Firms in the UK services sector became much more gloomy in the third quarter of the year as the Covid “second wave crashed”, after optimism picked up in the summer when cases were falling, the latest CBI survey has shown. The consumer services sector was particularly downbeat, with the pandemic hitting business harder than in [...]