Bosses, learn the zen power of doing nothing Chief executives feel compelled to be constantly “doing”. There’s an underlying urgent mantra of “move quickly” and “make things happen”, high pressure played out against a backdrop of constant and accelerated change. But isn’t that just business as usual? PwC recently reported that chief executives now spend, on average, just 4.8 years in their role, [...]
Lloyds Banking Group: Q1 results analysis City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After a stunning share price performance, do these 'hit and miss' results justify optimism? Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) investors, in need of a silver lining after an underwhelming earnings season from UK lenders, only have to look back 24 hours earlier to the surprise gift handed to the bank [...]
Unilever: Why there’s lots to like about this FTSE 100 star City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. These first quarter numbers have been well received, and this market favourite still has lots to go for. Unilever (LSE:ULVR) shares surged to within a few pence of a record high last week as first-quarter trading figures heightened focus on whether this defensive and reliable dividend payer can offer [...]
You can’t blame Brexit for the British car industry’s woes April 15, 2019 Quizzed by Nick Hewer on Honda’s decision to close its Swindon plant earlier this month on BBC radio, I suggested that blaming Brexit for the demise of the Japanese auto makers factory with the loss of 3,500 jobs was not the whole story. Certainly, Brexit plays havoc with the vehicle industry’s sophisticated just-in-time supply chain. [...]
Watch out high street banks – Apple has a credit card and is out to steal your supper March 29, 2019 Every day, new competitors are coming out of the woodwork and vying for a piece of the high street banks’ pie. This has forced the big banks – some kicking and screaming – to evolve, and at a pace that they’ve never before experienced. Change is not a new concept for consumers when it comes [...]
Burford Capital: AIM’s biggest firm still growing fast March 21, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. This AIM star is already big enough to make the FTSE 100, but City analysts argue it is worth even more. The extraordinary story of Burford Capital (LSE:BUR) continued in earnest today as the AIM market's biggest stock delivered another record year of significant profits growth. With shares up [...]
A market cap is the quickest way to inject some competition into audit March 7, 2019 As you read this, the Kingman review, the Competition and Markets Authority review, the Brydon review, and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee are all scrutinising the audit profession following a series of high-profile scandals. Failures such as Carillion, BHS, and Patisserie Valerie present very different problems, but each case rightly led to [...]
Tarsus exhibits promising signs as shares jump February 27, 2019 Exhibition and conferences operator Tarsus saw its share price jump more than 10 per cent this afternoon, as investors welcomed an expected rise in bookings over the year ahead. The London-listed group led the market risers today, as it struck a confident tone over the group’s bookings business for larger events such as the Dubai [...]
Why investors should beware increasingly unforgiving debt markets February 20, 2019 | City Talk Last year may have been a tricky one for US markets and investors but it was less so for the country’s businesses – at least, that is, to judge by the headline numbers on US companies filing for bankruptcy. According to figures from BankruptcyData.com, 58 companies totalling $52bn (£40bn) of assets declared themselves bankrupt in [...]
EU-wide digital services tax could make system worse, warns pan-European think-tanks February 19, 2019 An EU-wide digital services levy would distort the bloc’s tax system and introduce extra bureaucracy, a pan-European group of think-tanks has warned. A report by the European Policy Information Center [CORR] – made up of organisations from nine European countries including the UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs – raised concerns that in the drive to [...]