Spaces opens its largest London flexible office centre August 22, 2019 Spaces has opened its largest London co-working centre to date, in the latest sign of a current boom in demand from flexible workspace operators across the capital. Read more: Property developers urge calm as Hong Kong protests continue The office provider is occupying over 80,000 square feet across seven floors in London Victoria. Flexible workspace [...]
Banking on the fees: Deal disappointments top off downward year for payouts November 21, 2019 Bankers have been left with a sour taste in their mouths after two of the year’s blockbuster listings look set to deliver a disappointing round of payouts. Hopes of a fee bonanza from Saudi Aramco’s flotation have fallen flat after it emerged that some of Wall Street’s biggest banks have been sidelined in the process, [...]
Government taps UK tech firm Arm as it unveils £50m cyber fund October 18, 2019 The government has partnered with UK tech giant Arm as it pumps more than £50m into a new programme to improve the country’s cybersecurity. Chipmaker Arm, which was bought by Softbank in 2016, will receive £36m to develop new chip technology that is more resistant to cyber attacks. Read more: EU warns of cyber risks [...]
Bank of England deputy governor flags concerns over ‘low for long’ interest rates October 14, 2019 Economic downturns are at risk of becoming more severe as a result of prolonged low interest rates, the deputy governor of the Bank of England has warned. The current environment of ‘low for long’ interest rates will make “demand management of the economy more difficult in downturns”, according to Jon Cunliffe. The Threadneedle Street official [...]
Real estate tech company Blueground launches in London October 23, 2019 Blueground, a startup providing tech-driven flexible apartment rentals, is launching in London and has raised $50m (£39m) in a funding round. The real estate tech firm offers Airbnb-style apartment rentals aimed at business travellers, offering rental lengths of one month or longer. Read more: Exclusive: Flexible office space firm Central Working falls into administration Blueground, [...]
AB InBev prices revived Budweiser Asia listing at lower end of projections September 24, 2019 Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev has priced the revived listing of its Asian business at the bottom of the marketed range, far less than it had hoped to raise when it first tried to list the unit in July. AB InBev priced the revived initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise [...]
Why Softbank is struggling to attract investment for its second Vision Fund September 22, 2019 Softbank’s Vision Fund was created to disrupt the tech sector – and it succeeded. Launched in 2017, the $100bn (£80.2bn) investment vehicle is the world’s largest tech fund, and made Softbank chief Masayoshi Son the industry’s biggest investor. The unicorn ‘kingmaker’ The gargantuan Vision Fund (VF) quickly became known for making bold bets on promising [...]
Big businesses drawn to the City for office space July 29, 2019 Big businesses upped sticks for the City in 2018 as companies increasingly move further afield to find the best office space, a new study has shown. Read more: Wework grabs €62m from EU in Brexit deal for London office spot Mayfair lost the largest number of businesses renting office space of more than 10,000 square [...]
Society doesn’t need any more unicorns December 5, 2019 In 2016, an American healthtech startup named Theranos completed what would be its final funding round, raising a jaw dropping $700m in investment. Just two years later, the company collapsed after a sensational scandal. The story of Theranos is bizarre. At one point, its paper valuation exceeded $9bn, and when the scandal broke, its founder [...]
PPI costs account for over half of all conduct and litigation charges at UK banks September 16, 2019 Costs from the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) has accounted for more than half of all litigation and conduct charges faced by Britain’s biggest banks in recent years. Moody’s Investors Service has said that PPI was the largest single source of conduct and litigation charges from 2011 to the first half of 2019, as [...]