Young’s lenders restrict pub chain’s dividend to £5m for next year March 17, 2021 Young’s has warned shareholders that its lenders have restricted the amount it can pay in dividends to £5m in the next financial year, as the pub chain outlined its reopening plans. The company said it had agreed with Natwest and the holder of its senior secured notes that any shareholder payouts will not go above [...]
Wall Street and FTSE 100 push higher as markets shrug off Astrazeneca saga March 16, 2021 Wall Street rose to record highs this afternoon as tech stocks gained momentum ahead of a two-day policy meeting for the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 was up 0.27 per cent to an all-time high while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.17 per cent, extending a rebound in stocks following last month’s sell-off. The Dow Jones [...]
Legal lender Level gets £20m investment from venture capital firm March 16, 2021 Legal lender Level has received an investment from Guernsey-based 1818 Venture Capital worth £20m. Level specialises in lending within the family and private client law sectors and works with more than 200 law firms. It had funded hundreds of cases and clients. George Williamson, founder and CEO of Level, said: “[The] investment, and in particular [...]
Global growth narrative set to shift as pre-pandemic legacy issues resurface March 16, 2021 You may have missed what happened in the US and China over the past week but two major events took place in the world’s two largest economies that have the potential to directly impact us here in the UK. The first is the passage of President Biden’s $1.9trn stimulus bill in the US. The second [...]
Greggs off to better start after swinging to first ever loss in 2020 March 16, 2021 Greggs said that it had made a stronger-than-expected start to 2021 after seeing sales slip back last year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The impact of the pandemic meant the baked goods peddler swung to a £13m loss, a huge flip from the £108m profit it made the prior year. That beat the [...]
Ferguson sees profit rise as US home improvement demand soars March 16, 2021 Plumbing group Ferguson raised its dividend and announced a share buyback on Tuesday after posting a higher half-year profit. The firm was buoyed by cost control measures and a strong home improvement demand in its biggest market, the US. The London-listed company, which has a secondary US listing, said underlying trading profit rose to $837m [...]
E-commerce firm Bango sees profit soar in online lockdown boom March 16, 2021 Data-driven commerce company Bango saw revenue and profit soar last year as the group celebrated a boom in online payments during the pandemic. Revenue at the company rocketed 70 per cent to £12.2m last year as it inked new deals with Google and Amazon — up from £7.2m the year before. Bango also recovered from a [...]
FCA starts criminal proceedings against NatWest for money laundering March 16, 2021 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today announced that it has lodged criminal proceedings against NatWest for money laundering offences. The regulator said the bank had failed to show risk sensitive due diligence and monitoring of its relationships with customers for the purposes of preventing money laundering. The case arose from the handling of funds [...]
BDO wins biggest international audit client replacing Big Four firm KPMG March 15, 2021 BDO in the UK, German and the US has won its largest ever international audit client, replacing KPMG as auditor of software giant SAP. The challenger firm will take over from KPMG as SAP’s auditor for the 2023 financial year. According to SAP, BDO has a “modern and innovative audit concept”. The decision to take [...]
Andrew Bailey under pressure over link to RBS scandal March 15, 2021 Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is under fire after it emerged that he played a role in designing a scheme that left thousands of small businesses in ruin after the financial crisis. Bailey was one of those who helped the Treasury design its Asset Protection Agency, which pressured lender RBS (now Natwest) to withdraw [...]