E3 2015: The video games you should be playing now, from Mario Tennis to Fallout 4 June 17, 2015 The world’s biggest video games conference, E3, came to a close yesterday. Here’s what you’ll be playing for the next couple of years. THE LAST GUARDIAN PS4 Perhaps the warmest reception during E3 was for a game most fans thought was dead in the water. The Last Guardian has been in development hell [...]
Co-operative Group to spend £125m slashing the price of fruit and veg in its supermarkets – including introducing the 39p cucumber June 17, 2015 The Co-operative has just drawn its battle line in the supermarket price wars, after it announced plans to spend £125m slashing prices. Read more: Aldi Shmaldi – How Bargain Booze is playing German discounter at its own game Its weapon of choice? The humble cucumber, the price of which will be slashed to just 39p, [...]
Co-op Bank says it is on track to meet Bank of England targets May 20, 2015 The Co-operative Bank said in a first-quarter trading statement yesterday that its turnaround plan is on track. The bank is undergoing changes to de-risk its balance sheet and meet revised deleveraging targets as set by regulators after the Bank of England stress tests last year. The bank completed a £1.5bn residential mortgage securitisation earlier this [...]
Destiny: House of Wolves – game review May 20, 2015 ★★★★☆ If you’re even a causal gamer, you’ll know all about Bungie’s massively-multiplayer first-person shooter, Destiny. Moreover, you’ll already have made your mind up about it: either you think it’s a tedious, repetitive grind and you hate it, or you think it’s a tedious, repetitive grind but you find it strangely compelling and you [...]
Co-op returns to winning ways after dark days April 9, 2015 THE Co-operative Group yesterday announced a return to profit – a reversal of fortunes on the previous year’s losses of £255m. The supermarkets-to-funerals operator that almost collapsed in 2013 reported pre-tax profit of £124m for the year to 3 January, against a loss of £255m a year earlier, on revenue of £9.4bn, helped by disposals. [...]
Co-operative Group returns to profit amid turnaround plan April 9, 2015 The Co-operative Group has returned to profit – a reversal of fortunes on the previous year's losses of £255m. The figures Full-year profit before member payments – the equivalent of pre-tax profits for a PLC – came in at £124m in 2014. Revenues slipped slightly, down three per cent at £9.4bn for the year to [...]
Bank of England stress test: British lenders assessed against global economic crunch March 30, 2015 Britain's biggest banks have to prove they could withstand a global economic crunch, under a stress test unveiled by the Bank of England yesterday. The fictional scenario is based on real fears that a slowdown in China and renewed recession in Europe could hit the UK economy and its banks. The six biggest banks [...]
TSB share price opens higher as Lloyds accepts £1.7bn takeover offer from Banco de Sabadell March 20, 2015 Shares in TSB opened 1.6 per cent higher at 332.47p this morning after its majority owner, Lloyds, have accepted a £1.7bn takeover offer from Spanish rival Banco de Sabadell. Shares in the challenger bank leapt 27 per cent last week, after TSB issued an announcement suggesting it was "willing to recommend" Sabadell's 340p-per-share offer – [...]
Co-op Travel changes name to Clarity as new owners cut ties March 16, 2015 Co-operative Travel Management moved to cut the final ties with its former owner yesterday after relaunching as Clarity Travel Management. The corporate travel agent was run as a joint venture between the troubled mutual and Thomas Cook before the pair sold it to the Saudi-based Al Tayyar Group last year. The sale formed part of [...]
General Election 2015: IOD slams Labour’s “obviously counterproductive” profit-sharing policy plans March 15, 2015 Potential Labour party plans to force companies to share profits with staff have been slammed by the Institute of Directors as “counterproductive” and a deterrent to investment. The policy to force firms with over 50 employees to set up profit-sharing schemes in the style of John Lewis is reportedly being considered by Ed Miliband in a bid [...]