London airport expansion: Heathrow Airport appoints four contractors for third runway despite no green light from government March 15, 2016 Heathrow Airport has hired four contractors to work on plans to build a third runway at the west London airport, despite a lack of approval from the government. Heathrow said today that Arup, CH2M, MACE and Turner & Townsend had been chosen to work on the expansion project. "I'm delighted that our client partners are now [...]
London’s biggest banks will struggle to reach sustained profitability due to bad debts and regulatory fines, IMF and KPMG warn April 14, 2016 A toxic mix of bad debts and regulatory fines will see some of London’s biggest banks struggle to reach sustained profitability, according to two major new reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and KPMG. The hard-hitting reports have prompted city analysts to predict looming job cuts in the Square Mile and Canary Wharf, while [...]
London airport expansion: Londoners prefer Gatwick to Heathrow by 12-point margin according to latest YouGov poll March 7, 2016 Londoners are significantly more likely to support the expansion of Gatwick Airport than another runway at Heathrow Airport, according to a new poll out today. YouGov polled more than 1,000 adults last month, finding that 46 per cent preferred expanding Gatwick Airport. Thirty-four per cent wanted Heathrow to be expanded, instead. YouGov also found that Gatwick [...]
Sports Direct AGM: Mike Ashley can ignore the outraged of Twitter – but in the new world order, he ignores investors at his peril September 10, 2015 Shareholder unrest over corporate governance or transparency is nothing new, but in this age of social media and e-petitions, public outcry over certain business practices is often louder than it once was. Last week, public opinion, along with a dollop of union pressure, forced restaurant chain Pizza Express to change its policy over tipping. [...]
Moody’s downgrades Shell due to BG acquisition April 9, 2016 Moody's has slashed Royal Dutch Shell's credit rating, citing the impact of its £36bn acquisition of smaller rival BG on its leverage. The two companies merged on February 15, creating the world's second-biggest publicly-traded oil and gas company measured by market cap. But the credit ratings agency warned today that it has left Shell with increased leverage, leading [...]
RBS is axing 600 jobs and shuttering 32 NatWest branches, according to the Unite union April 14, 2016 Royal Bank of Scotland has told staff it will be making 600 job cuts and closing 32 branches in its NatWest subsidiary, according to the Unite union. The closures are broken down to 18 branch closures in the bank's northern region, and up to 217 job losses. A total of 220 branches will change their opening hours. In the Midlands [...]
Royal baby 2.0: London landmarks turned pink in celebration last night May 3, 2015 Last night, some of London's most famous landmarks turned pink in celebration of the birth of a girl to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Londoners were able to watch as sights such as the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square's fountains and Blackburn Tower lit up with a shade of pink. The BT [...]
London house prices: Chelsea garage sells at auction for £360,000 – the price of a three-bedroom flat in Camberwell February 17, 2016 It's cosy and well-located – but doesn't come with a lot of natural light. Still, such is the madness for property in London that a 146 sq ft garage in Chelsea has just sold at auction for £360,000 – just shy of the price of a three-bedroom flat in Camberwell. The garage, just off Brompton Road, [...]
Hiring Mahela Jayawardene is smart England thinking – Chris Tremlett’s Cricket Comment September 17, 2015 England's appointment of Sri Lanka great Mahela Jayawardene on a consultancy basis for part of their autumn series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates is really smart thinking. I was part of the England squad that lost 3-0 in the UAE in 2012 and we really struggled on the turning pitches. Spin will [...]
City Moves for 12 April 2016 | Who’s switching jobs April 12, 2016 Bfinance Bfinance, the independently owned investment consultancy, has appointed Peter Hobbsas managing director of private markets in the London office. He joins from MSCI where he was managing director for real estate research and key global accounts, responsible for benchmarking and portfolio analysis, risk services and method development. Prior to this, Peter held various senior [...]