Labour must re-embrace the City of London for the benefit of all society July 21, 2015 AS HSBC mulls over whether to leave the UK, it’s time for Londoners to re-embrace the City of London. Indeed, if I was mayor, I would be campaigning for major banks to stay headquartered here, unlike the current mayor. The jobs they offer directly and indirectly matter, but the damage to London’s reputation if they [...]
Glencore share price rises with $2.5bn placing, climbing back from record low September 16, 2015 Shares in Glencore opened up by as much as four per cent on Wednesday morning, pleasing investors with a new share placing. The debt-stricken company is seeking to reverse its fortunes with the emergency share placing, which raised the $2.5bn (£1.63bn) it had promised investors. The commodities trader and mining company saw its shares plummet [...]
Choice, transparency and M&A: FCA outlines terms for investment banking probe May 22, 2015 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it will focus on wide-ranging subjects when it launches a study into the investment and corporate banking market. In a statement today, the FCA said its investigation, which will build on a wholesale sector competition review published in February, will look at "choice, transparency, bundling and cross-subsidisation in debt [...]
Airport expansion is now too urgent for the government to delay further June 22, 2015 According to recent media reports, the decision to build a new runway could face further delay. It seems the government may not respond to the Airports Commission’s imminent report until the end of this year, or possibly early next year. This is slow: the Airports Commission it helped establish has already spent the best part [...]
The City has no room for complacency about its global competitiveness June 4, 2015 Nearly 30 years of working in the City has taught me that successful times are the most dangerous times. Warren Buffett, in one of his recent newsletters, described the warning signs that see good times turn to bad as the ABC of business: arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency. Today, there is no room for complacency. The [...]
Rising demand drives up total construction sector turnover May 4, 2015 UK construction firms saw a sharp rise in turnover last year, according to figures released today by BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. Total turnover of the construction sector jumped six per cent year-on-year to £218bn in 2014. It is now 20.7 per cent above the low reached in the 2009-10 recession of £180bn. The surge in [...]
From the Shard to Crossrail: 5 female engineers who are shaping the future of London June 23, 2015 Women make up only six per cent of UK engineers – but that hasn’t stopped these London engineers from joining a male-dominated workforce, building everything from the Shard to Crossrail. Tuesday marked the second-ever National Women in Engineering Day, to highlight the lack of female engineers. This is bad news for business, according to a [...]
From the Shard to Crossrail: Five female engineers shaping the future of London June 23, 2015 Women make up only six per cent of UK engineers – but that hasn’t stopped these London engineers from joining a male-dominated workforce, building everything from the Shard to Crossrail. Today marked the second-ever National Women in Engineering Day, to highlight the lack of female engineers. This is bad news for business, according to a [...]
Cultivating London’s next generation of tech entrepreneurs June 15, 2015 Digital technology is changing the world, but the pace of that change is still breathtaking. In three years, Airbnb amassed as many hotel rooms as the Hilton dynasty did in a century. Ten years ago, Twitter didn’t exist – now it has more than 300m users. And Spotify adds around 20,000 tracks to its 30m-strong [...]
August Tube strike 2015: Unions are standing against progress in their fight against the Night Tube August 5, 2015 As Londoners struggle to get to work today, trade unions are also struggling – to justify their strike. If you listen to the spin from the RMT, the 24-hour Tube (the justification the union is giving for downing tools) is a “rushed and botched vanity project”. Yet the plans were actually announced two years ago. [...]