Matomy raises £40m after IPO plan resurrected July 8, 2014 Israel tech firm Matomy yesterday became only the second firm to list on London’s new high-growth segment after resurrecting a listing plan from earlier this year. The advertising technology company, which shelved plans in March, priced shares at 227p and immediately saw a pop in informal trading, pushing shares up to 237p. [...]
How the government is helping SMEs access the finance they need August 12, 2014 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of our economy. They employ close to 14.4m people (almost 60 per cent of total UK private sector employment), with almost 4.6m people now self-employed. But many SMEs suffered after the financial crisis, due in part to the lack of availability and flexibility of bank lending. This [...]
WPP swoops for South African digital agency The Hardy Boys June 11, 2014 ADVERTISING giant WPP yesterday announced it had taken a majority stake in South Africa-based creative ad and brand building agency The Hardy Boys for an undisclosed sum. The deal, made through WPP’s global marketing communications agency JWT, will see The Hardy Boys bring its client list, including Diageo and Unilever, over to JWT. “This investment [...]
Strange things are happening to the UK’s construction sector May 6, 2014 Construction is still hollowed out from the financial crisis, and has suffered two major recessions – so why are builders finding hiring so difficult? Despite solid growth in the last 12 months, the sector is still more than 10 per cent shy of its previous output peak. The recession was deeper than for [...]
Spotless sale cleans up for BC Partners June 5, 2014 GERMAN consumer goods group Henkel yesterday said it has agreed to buy French home care company Spotless Group for €940m (£763m) in cash. Private equity firm BC Partners has nearly doubled its money on Spotless, having bought the company for €600m in 2010. BC Partners said the deal would offer the firm potential to expand [...]
City workers fuel Midtown housing boom May 12, 2014 HOUSE prices in the area dubbed Midtown have outpaced the greater London market in the first three months of the year due to a surge in demand from buyers working in the capital’s financial sector, new research out yesterday shows. According to property consultants CBRE, the price of a property in Midtown – between the [...]
Why regulators should be cautious about new banker bonus proposals July 30, 2014 IT CANNOT be ignored that trust in banking is still lingering at all-time lows and, according to a recent YouGov survey, 78 per cent of the public think there is an unhealthy bonus culture at the banks. Certainly, as the likes of Financial Reporting Council chairman Sir Win Bischoff have argued, more needs to be [...]
Quintain and Keystone form joint venture for 475 Wembley homes April 14, 2014 QUINTAIN Estates has become the latest developer to move into the private rental sector after forming a joint venture yesterday to build 475 homes for rent in Wembley. The company is partnering with Swiss private equity group and family office Keystone to deliver the next 306,000 square feet phase of homes at Wembley Park, which [...]
Thames Water seeks investors to put money down the supersewer June 10, 2014 THAMES Water has begun its search for private sector financiers to help fund London’s new £4bn supersewer. The company, which is awaiting planning approval for the 25 kilometre Thames Tideway Tunnel, is inviting potential investors to bid for a stake in the scheme. The backers will take an equity share of a new utility company set [...]
France is the home of liberalism – it’s high time the country rediscovered this August 12, 2014 Who wrote that the state is “that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else”? Milton Friedman? Ayn Rand? Surely an Anglo-Saxon libertarian? Not at all. It’s Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and politician who fiercely fought the protectionist camp over the liberalisation of the grain trade in the [...]