Deloitte UK cuts partner profits 20 per cent and freezes salaries in response to coronavirus slowdown April 15, 2020 Deloitte UK will cut partner profits 20 per cent profit this year and staff across the business will have their salaries frozen in response to the coronavirus slowdown, the firm’s senior partner said today. The firm is also delaying the distribution of profits to partners to try and conserve cash. Senior partner and chief executive [...]
EY’s UK offices to close for one day to force staff to take holiday June 17, 2020 EY is set to shut most of its offices for a day this summer to encourage staff to use up their annual leave, as employees remain reluctant to take holiday during lockdown. The accountancy firm told its employees about the scheduled day off in a memo this week, first reported by Financial News. It came [...]
Coronavirus: Consumer confidence plunges but avoids 2008 levels March 27, 2020 Consumer sentiment has plummeted due to coronavirus, although it has yet to fall to the levels reported during the 2008 financial crisis, according to the latest research. Sentiment dropped 29 points to minus 26 between December last year and this March, the sharpest quarterly fall in more than 10 years. However it is higher than [...]
Why I’m calling for a £15bn National Renewal Fund to support growing businesses October 27, 2020 Some 90 years ago, a government committee set up to examine the health of the British economy identified a persistent shortfall in funding for small and medium-sized businesses. This shortfall was termed the Macmillan Gap — named not after the politician but after the Scottish lawyer, Hugh Macmillan, who chaired the committee. As the saying [...]
Lloyds prepares to downsize UK office space June 14, 2020 Lloyds Banking Group is exploring options to reduce its property footprint, as more staff transition to home working. The bank’s people and property director Matt Sinnott told staff this week that while no closures were certain, Lloyds will be seeking to consolidate its presence to six strategic hubs across the UK. “In the longer term [...]
London is the UK’s worst region for women in work March 5, 2020 London has fallen to the bottom of the UK’s regional ranking in PwC’s latest Women in Work Index. The capital fell three places because of poor female labour force participation and a high female unemployment rate. The gap between male and female labour participation sits at 13 per cent, behind the UK average of 10 [...]
Audit watchdog closes investigation into Tesco accounting scandal June 8, 2020 The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has announced the closure of its remaining investigation into accountants at Tesco, ending a six-year probe linked to an overstatement of profit by the supermarket chain. The FRC said this morning it was closing an investigation into Tesco’s announcement in 2014 that it had overstated profits by £263m, a figure [...]
Former FRC chairman Simon Dingemans joins Carlyle June 15, 2020 The former chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) who stepped down last month has taken a new role at private equity firm Carlyle. Simon Dingemans, who left the accounting watchdog in May, will join Carlyle as a managing director in charge of UK buyouts, first reported by the Financial Times. He will also reportedly [...]
UGC owner denies trying to takeover Petropavlovsk ahead of crunch vote August 5, 2020 The Russian billionaire who owns a 22 per cent stake in FTSE 250 gold miner Petropavlovsk has denied that he is seeking to take over the firm ahead of a crunch shareholder meeting on Monday. In an interview with the FT, Konstantin Strukov, who owns rival miner UGC, insisted that he wanted to see Petropavlovsk [...]
NMC Health identifies $2.7bn in additional debt bringing total to $5bn March 10, 2020 NMC Health has identified an additional $2.7bn (£2.09bn) in debt bringing the group’s total debt position to around $5bn (£3.87bn). The firm said it had been notified by Moelis and PwC, who it appointed as advisers last week, that the group’s position had more than doubled from the $2.1bn reported at 30 June 2019, to [...]