City firms look to home testing for return to work September 10, 2020 A home-testing kit launching today could be the solution for City firms looking to get employees back to the office. British saliva-based Covid-19 testing system Halo is the first commercial provider of the tests, which are designed for large organisations. It is understood that leading law and accountancy firms as well as some of the [...]
Pubs warn new restrictions will damage their recovery from ‘devastating’ year September 9, 2020 The pub industry has warned that the new restrictions outlined by the Prime Minister today will halt their recovery without additional government support. The British Beer and Pub Association said the changes to social gatherings will have an “immediate cooling effect on public confidence to go out and visit our pubs.” From Monday gatherings of [...]
Italy’s Serie A clubs vote to review private equity bids September 9, 2020 Clubs in Italy’s Serie A football league have voted for an in-depth review of bids by private equity firms for a stake in a new vehicle that will handle broadcast rights. The clubs voted unanimously to carry out further reviews on two bids led by CVC and Bain Capital, which value a 10 per cent [...]
Lawyers consider ‘virtual’ firms in response to coronavirus September 9, 2020 A growing number of lawyers are pivoting to “virtual” firms as they consider life outside of the traditional office environment due to the pandemic. There has been a seven per cent rise in the number of lawyers at virtual firms in the UK since the outbreak of coronavirus according to business advisory firm Hazlewoods. There [...]
TheCityUK: Brexit provides an opportunity to evolve trade and migration policy September 9, 2020 As the UK readies for Brexit there is a unique opportunity to transform trade and migration policy, the leading City lobbying firm has said. In a joint report with EY, TheCityUK has set out proposals to evolve the UK’s decades-old trade and migration policy which could “deliver real benefits to the economy”. TheCityUK makes it [...]
Coronavirus insolvency measures must be extended, says IoD September 9, 2020 The Institute of Directors is calling for an urgent extension to emergency insolvency measures to prevent a swathe of job losses and company collapses. In June, the government introduced emergency legislation to suspend the threat of liability for “wrongful trading” until 30 September 2020. Before the measures were introduced, the board of directors had a [...]
Royal Albert Hall warns of ‘bleak future’ as it asks public for donations September 8, 2020 The Royal Albert Hall is asking for £20m in donations from the public in a bid to survive the impact of the pandemic. Since closing its doors in March, the venue has lost £18m in income and refunded over £6.5m in ticket sales. The chief executive has since warned it could go bust by March [...]
Investors turn their back on UK equity funds due to Brexit jitters September 8, 2020 Resurgent Brexit fears combined with the economic impact of the pandemic has seen investors flee from UK equity funds in record numbers. UK equities suffered their worst three months for outflows between June and August, as investors flock to global equity funds in Europe and the US. Investors have been preoccupied with the coronavirus outbreak [...]
Watchdog blocks Lloyds’ unfair treatment of Covid-hit firms September 8, 2020 The competition watchdog has stopped Lloyds Bank from forcing small business customers to open business current accounts when taking out bounce back loans. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has accused Lloyds of “bundling” loans and business current accounts for small companies. Bundling is where a bank requires small business customers to open a current [...]
Three former G4S executives charged with multiple counts of fraud September 8, 2020 Three former executives of a division of outsourcing firm G4S have been charged with multiple offences in relation to a multi-year scheme to defraud the Ministry of Justice. Richard Morris, former managing director of G4S Care and Justice Services and two ex-directors of its electric monitoring – Mark Preston and James Jardine – appeared at [...]