UK growth lift as FTSE aims to test 7,000 level – London week ahead January 25, 2015 THE FIRST estimate of GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2014 looks set to deliver good news this week, with growth of around 0.6 per cent on the previous quarter and 2.8 per cent year-on-year. Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, said: “Ongoing robust services expansion likely ensured that GDP growth held up pretty [...]
Christmas week to kick off with crunch Rangers FC meeting – London week ahead December 21, 2014 WITHOUT any major company results reporting before Christmas, market attention could turn to the annual meeting of the crisis-hit Rangers International Football Club, part-owned by Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley. The team’s manager, legendary goal-scorer Ally McCoist, officially stood down last night. The Aim-listed company will vote on whether to inject £8m in funding to [...]
Pub industry says end of beer tie system could lead to closures and job losses November 19, 2014 Britain’s pub groups woke up with a hangover yesterday after MPs voted in favour of a shake up of Britain’s nearly 400-year-old beer-tie system, warning that a change to rules could lead to further pub closures across the country. Companies. including Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns – two of the UK’s largest tenanted [...]
Best of the Brokers for 30 April 2014 April 29, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com RIGHTMOVE UBS has upgraded the online real estate company from “neutral” to “buy”, with the target price unchanged from 3020p. The broker thinks Rightmove offers promising long term growth against the backdrop of an improving UK housing market, with better margins than its [...]
Ros Altmann: The savers’ champion talks pension reform, QE, and the pension annuities bombshell March 26, 2015 "I was gobsmacked.” Ros Altmann summarises her reaction to the Budget last year, when the chancellor first outlined his dramatic plans to bring pension freedoms to all. On the afternoon of that Budget day, Altmann, a pensions expert and campaigner, adviser to successive governments, and investment manager and economist, could barely contain her excitement when [...]
Political uncertainty: The greatest threat to Britain’s thriving small businesses January 21, 2015 In the depths of the financial crisis, we were approached by a small house builder in the South East who was looking for finance to refocus his business towards the higher end market. A gamble at the worst possible time, you might say. But five years on, and his business is thriving. It’s a small [...]
Autumn Statement 2014: What does George Osborne’s stamp duty reform actually mean? December 3, 2014 In an Autumn Statement firmly aimed at courting the popular vote, George Osborne today announced a complete overhaul of the stamp duty system – the elephant in the residential market for a decade. Estate agents said the old system wasn't progressive enough, and unfairly taxed home buyers. The cherry on Osborne's stamp duty cake was [...]
Why government must stop treating medium-sized firms like corporates February 11, 2015 Speaking to business leaders earlier this week, David Cameron unveiled a British version of Germany’s Mittelstand scheme. Help to Grow will see £1bn of funding ploughed into medium-sized businesses across the country, bridging the “valley of death” funding gap that hampers our most promising scale-ups. But while there have been several high-profile and encouraging moves [...]
Budget 2015: A quick guide to all the key measures March 18, 2015 Chancellor delivers good news for savers and first-time buyers as he turns up heat on banks in play for votes ahead of election. UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ● The UK was the fastest growing economy in the G7 last year. However, the economy grew by just 0.5 per cent in the final three months of 2014, [...]
Slum finance: We can build a new asset class by housing the desperately poor November 13, 2014 THE LATEST forecasts for global population growth continue to surprise. The number of people on our planet is thought likely to reach 11bn, or even 12bn, by the end of the century. Africa’s population is set to quadruple to 4bn. There are huge reasons for optimism, not least because world hunger has continued to fall [...]