M&G in the dog house as a massive £10.7bn of investor cash is left in serially underperforming funds August 2, 2016 Leading investment group M&G is in the dog house as a new report reveals it's holding a massive £10.7bn of investors’ cash in serially underperforming funds. UK savers have left a massive £18bn of cash in funds which are failing to deliver – and M&G is responsible for 60 per cent of it. The findings come [...]
Standard and Poor’s: UK will “barely escape fully-fledged recession” July 4, 2016 The UK will narrowly avoid a recession, but only if it stays in the single market for another two years and the Bank of England exhausts its policy toolbox to prop up the economy, a leading ratings agency has said. Standard and Poor's (S&P), said the UK's vote to leave the EU will knock more [...]
I’ve already voted, but I’ve changed my mind – and it’s all to do with house prices… June 23, 2016 I’ve long been a eurosceptic – suspicious of the EU regime and its unelected, barely accountable opacity-swathed ethos. I’m a democrat and a free markets kind of guy who objects to a lurching federal super-state, any hint of a single currency or a loss of our sovereignty. Unelected autocrats in expensed Mercedes doing as they [...]
Stranger Things have happened: TV company Liberty Global in new Netflix tie-up September 14, 2016 Cable TV company Liberty Global has announced a new tie-up with online movie giant Netflix. Under the multi-year agreement, Netflix programmes such as Stranger Things, House of Cards and Orange is the New Black will be available to Liberty customers across more than 30 countries. Read more: Liberty Global remains committed to Virgin broadband investment [...]
These are the UK’s 20 best towns and cities to work in (London doesn’t get a look-in) July 13, 2016 When Samuel Johnson made that quip about those being tired of London being tired of life, he clearly wasn't taking into account house prices – or work/life balance. Because it turns out that Cambridge is the UK's best city to work in, according to employees there. That's followed by Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Leeds and Peterborough. London, on [...]
Jacksonville Jaguars: London’s unofficial NFL franchise, their plans to put down roots in the capital, and the threat Tottenham Hotspur pose to their British affair September 28, 2016 More than three years have passed since Mohamed Al Fayed, in a fitting coda to his eccentric reign, donned an oversized fake moustache and faced the cameras with Shahid Khan to mark the bewhiskered American sports mogul’s takeover of Fulham Football Club. It marked the second play of Pakistan-born, Florida-based Khan’s incursion into the capital’s [...]
From auto-bid tools to cross-border transactions, here’s what you should expect from the alt fi sector September 7, 2016 The European alternative finance sector grew by 92 per cent to €5.4bn (£4.5bn) in 2015, according to Judge Business School’s latest report on the subject, Sustaining Momentum. Excluding the UK, that’s 10 per cent slower than in 2014, but shows, say the report’s authors, expansion across almost all alternative finance models. This slowing growth rate is [...]
US Presidential Election 2016: Nate Silver thinks Donald Trump has just 20-25 per cent chance of beating Hillary Clinton July 1, 2016 Polling wonder-kid Nate Silver reckons Donald Trump has just a 20-25 per cent chance of winning the US presidential election. Silver, who in 2012 correctly predicted the outcome in every state, said Clinton's chances of taking the White House are correspondingly 75-80 per cent. On the website FiveThirtyEight, two forecasts were revealed: the first just based on [...]
Brexit threat: Property financiers must keep calm and carry on lending July 8, 2016 Before and since the result of the UK’s referendum on European Union membership, uncertainty has pervaded – not least in property markets. Weak construction PMI data, a spate of flagship property funds halting redemptions and downgrades from City analysts has further shaken confidence. Forecasts for companies in the sector have been reduced on the basis [...]
Bovis Homes share price dips despite boost from UK house prices August 17, 2015 Shares in Bovis dipped 1.43 per cent to 1,183p this morning, despite its half-year results showing a sizeable boost from the strength of the UK's housing market. The figures Revenues at the housebuilder rose nine per cent to £350.7m in the six months to the end of June, the company said this morning, while profit before tax [...]