Taylor Wimpey orders increase by £500m despite 2020 pandemic hit January 14, 2021 Taylor Wimpey saw orders increase by £500m despite the housing market shut down, its annual performance review revealed this morning. Despite the house builder suffering during 2020, with housing completions falling nearly 40 per cent, the company started 2021 with an order book valued at £2.7bn, as opposed to their £2.2bn orders for 2019/20. “Looking [...]
China’s President Xi writes to former Starbucks chairman in push to improve trade relations January 14, 2021 China’s President Xi Jinping has written to Starbucks’ former chairman to promote trade, state media reported this morning. Xi asked former Starbuck’s tycoon Howard Schultz to promote trade and business relations between Washington and Beijing, urging Schultz to “continue to play an active role in promoting China-US economic and trade cooperation”, the official Xinhua news [...]
MP calls for City watchdog to probe ‘patchy’ British Gas insurance January 13, 2021 A Stockport MP has called for City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to investigate a British Gas backlog dispute as more than 100,000 could be left without home insurance. British Gas parent company Centrica has been accused of provoking a strike which has left its ‘HomeCare’ customers without cover. Writing to the FCA this [...]
City Moves: Who is switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? January 13, 2021 Snakes and Ladders provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. After a rocky year for business, City firms are continuing to adapt to the challenges of three national lockdowns and post-Brexit bureaucracy to keep things moving across the Square Mile. This week, Lloyd’s [...]
British Gas engineers launch second strike over fire-and-rehire dispute January 12, 2021 GMB union members have launched a second five-day strike in opposition to British Gas’ planned fire and rehire pay cuts and conditions. Workers will strike on 20, 22 and 25 January, as well as 1 February, GMB said. GMB national officer Justin Bowden said: “The months and months of fire and rehire pay cut threats [...]
QuadReal pumps nearly $1bn in London property January 12, 2021 Property group QuadReal has spent nearly $1bn to acquire a majority stake in seven London-based assets owned by Realstar UK. The Canadian asset manager partnered with Realstar to invest in four rental properties in New Cross, Stockwell and a 45-story tower in the heart of Elephant & Castle. Realstar CEO Ryan Prince said, “Far [...]
Huawei set for year of transition amid ‘technological Cold War’ January 11, 2021 Huawei will likely transition towards software as a “technological Cold War” controls the hardware supply, shifting the company’s prospects for 2021, analysts have said. Harsh US sanctions on China have hit suppliers of chips, which are crucial to mobile phone production, and forced the tech giant to look to other avenues. Ben Wood, chief of [...]
Ladbrokes owner CEO to leave after just seven months for DAZN January 11, 2021 Ladbrokes owner Entain this morning said its chief executive Shay Segev will leave after just seven months in the position. Segev will exit after a six-month notice period to join sports streaming platform DAZN as Co-CEO, only days after Entain rejected an £8bn approach from MGM. Chairman of Entain Barry Gibson said, “We are sorry [...]
Music Feeds festival to fight food poverty following £1m Co-op donation January 8, 2021 Co-op has organised a digital music festival in a bid to “turn up the volume” on the fight against food poverty, also donating £1m to charities. The two-day festival Music Feeds, co-organised by CEverybody Belongs Here, will see a third of net profits being donated to FareShare, helping provide 2.5m meals to those in need. [...]
CMA to investigate Google over anti-competitive ‘Sandbox’ behaviour January 8, 2021 The competition watchdog has launched an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour following proposed changes to its so-called ‘Privacy Sandbox’. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) probe was launched following a string of complaints, including from the Marketers for an Open Web group, which argue Google is abusing its market power. “Google’s Privacy Sandbox proposals will [...]
