Caffeine high: Coca-Cola to buy Costa from Whitbread in £4bn transaction August 31, 2018 Coca-Cola is set to buy high street coffee chain Costa for £3.9bn. The fizzy drink giant wants to add coffee to its drink line up, and has moved for Costa following owner Whitbread’s announcement earlier this year that it intends to spin the hot drink business off. Whitbread, which bought the chain for just £19m [...]
Claim-hit Wonga stops taking loan applications as it ‘considers its options’ August 30, 2018 Wonga appeared to be on the verge of folding this morning, as it made the decision to stop taking new loan applications. The payday lender told customers that it “continues to assess its options” in the wake of a huge number of compensation claims that led to shareholders providing an emergency £10m earlier this month. [...]
WH Smith trading update: Airport sales keeps retailer’s shares aloft August 30, 2018 Airport passengers shopping for a holiday read helped boost WH Smith in the 12 months to the end of August, it said today, as it delivered a trading update on its full-year results. The retailer, voted the UK’s worst high street store earlier this summer, teased its latest results ahead of their official release on [...]
Lender Amigo hails surging revenue but profits count the cost of IPO August 30, 2018 Amigo witnessed a 50 per cent leap in sales across the first quarter of its new financial year, but its share price remained flat as the costs of its recent stock market float impacted profits. The figures The lender reached £62.9m revenue for the three months to the end of June, a whopping 47 per [...]
O2 customers can choose the length and upfront costs of their mobile phone contracts August 29, 2018 Mobile phone users are to be offered greater freedom over the terms of their contracts by O2. The mobile operator will allow customers to choose what data plan they want, and how much they pay upfront as well as how much their monthly payments amount to. Read more: Hackers steal T-Mobile customers’ personal data People [...]
British Gas pays out £2.65m after misleading and overcharging customers August 29, 2018 British Gas has been forced to pay out £2.65m after wrongly charging almost 100,000 customers a higher rate and falsely telling millions that they had to pay to exit their fixed deals early. Regulator Ofgem found that the energy provider gave 2.5m customers inaccurate terms and conditions that said that exit fees were payable during [...]
Revealed: The skills that will get you jobs with the highest salaries August 28, 2018 Automation isn’t just putting lower-earning jobs at risk; it’s a threat to higher-earning roles too. While AI is putting the likes of customer service agents’ roles are under threat , the technology could replace up to half of banking jobs too, according to Barclays’ former boss Antony Jenkins. Read more: Technology could replace half of [...]
South Quay incident: Police say package is not a threat August 28, 2018 Docklands office workers were evacuated this afternoon as police responded to reports of a suspicious package. The object was found in Harbour Exchange Square in South Quay at around 1.20pm, and police officers closed roads and evacuated offices in the square as they sent a bomb disposal robot in to assess the package, but they [...]
Feeling thirsty? London is getting 20 new drinking fountains at train stations and shopping hotspots August 28, 2018 The summer heatwave might be nought but a distant memory now, but if the capital sees the sun again this side of Christmas Londoners will be thankful for 20 new water fountains coming to train stations, shopping centres and museums around the city. Four of the Mayor of London's watering holes (we don't mean pubs) are [...]
Lloyds stock lift as it completes £1bn share buyback programme August 28, 2018 Lloyds Banking Group completed its buyback of £1bn of shares today. The London branch of investment bank UBS managed the buyback, which started on 8 March, paying for 1.6bn shares over the four-month process before selling them back to Lloyds. Read more: Paddy Power buys back £200m in shares The bank kicked off the buyback [...]
