Former Cobham boss Bob Murphy’s £1m payoff reflects “unsatisfactory performance” March 20, 2017 The former head of Cobham will be given a golden goodbye of nearly £1m after quitting the firm last year in the wake of a raft of profit warnings. Bob Murphy, who officially left the defence contracting giant in January, is expected to be paid £775,000 in 2017 as part of a contractual payoff, alongside [...]
Whitbread’s share price soars after announcing strong sales growth at Costa Coffee June 21, 2016 Whitbread, the FTSE 100 hospitality company behind Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, can sleep easy after posting positive quarterly results this morning. In early trading, the company was the biggest riser in the FTSE 100, as its share price jumped 3.59 per cent to 4, 182p. The figures Like-for-like sales at the leisure group were up 1.8 per cent compared to [...]
A sign of things to come? Countrywide shares leap despite pre-Brexit housing market slowdown July 28, 2016 The UK's largest estate agent said it had been hit by a slowdown in housing transactions in the run-up to the EU referendum. Is this a sign of things to come? The figures Countrywide said adjusted pre-tax profits fell 25 per cent to £21.8m in the six months to the end of June, although total income rose nine per cent to [...]
City Moves for 11 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 11, 2016 BLM Risk and insurance law business BLM has announced the appointment of abuse claims expert Sharon Moohan. Sharon joins BLM’s abuse claims team having overseen €953m (£743m) of redress payments in her role as sole solicitor for the Irish Residential Institutions Redress Board. The board was set up in 2002 to make fair and reasonable [...]
RBS confirms plans to sell Queen’s bank Coutts to Swiss Union Bancaire Privée March 27, 2015 After much fevered speculation, RBS has finally confirmed plans to sell private banking arm Coutts International – famously the Queen's bank – to the Swiss Union Bancaire Privée. RBS said under the terms of the deal, the sale comprises client relationships outside the UK – "relationships managed from Switzerland, Monaco, UAE, Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong". [...]
First Natwest start-up accelerator opening in Birmingham today February 8, 2015 Natwest will open the first of eight business accelerator hubs in Birmingham this morning, housing 80 businesses as part of a programme to support entrepreneurs around the UK. The hub will host a rolling six month programme for start-ups, in partnership with Entrepreneurial Spark, which will include growth awards of up to £50,000 for the [...]
Imperial Tobacco profits rise despite drooping cigarette sales November 3, 2015 Cigarette sales are down for the FTSE-listed tobacco firm, despite an increase in growth for brands like Davidoff and Gauloises. The figures Imperial Tobacco reported full year profits of £3.05bn, up 2.4 per cent from £2.98bn last year. Net sales of tobacco are down 2.6 per cent to £6.25bn, but volume of the company’s “growth [...]
RBS probes mis-selling claims January 15, 2015 SMALL businesses who took government-backed export loans from RBS have complained that the product was poorly explained and left them facing unexpected costs, the bank said yesterday. Under the export finance guarantee (EFG) scheme, RBS made loans to small firms which would otherwise have been ineligible for credit. If the firm defaulted, 75 per cent of [...]
Whitbread chief Andy Harrison to leave earlier than planned as Alison Brittain prepares for top job June 16, 2015 Whitbread said yesterday that its new chief executive Alison Brittain would replace Andy Harrison two months earlier than planned as the company posted a 4.3 per cent rise in first quarter underlying sales. Harrison, who has helped Whitbread’s stock market value soar from £2.5bn to almost £10bn during his five years in the top job, [...]
EU referendum: Asda, HSBC, Vodafone and nearly 200 sign letter saying Brexit would threaten jobs – but Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s are not on the list February 23, 2016 The bosses of HSBC, BT, Vodafone and Asda are among those to have put their name to an open letter backing the remain camp and Prime Minister David Cameron's reforms in Europe. More than a third of the UK's biggest companies were represented in the letter, which was published in The Times this morning, saying they represented [...]