E-commerce demand helps boost rent for logistics warehouse giant Segro October 17, 2018 Warehouse property giant Segro’s rental income soared 43 per cent in the nine months to the end of September, amid burgeoning demand for new space from fast-growing e-commerce firms. The Slough-based FTSE 100 company, which is one of the UK’s largest listed property firms, said headline rent for the period hit £52m, rising from £36.4m [...]
Chomping at the bit: The race is on to be the next Tory leader October 17, 2018 There will be no deal this week. It was intended, then hoped for, but a Brexit deal is now as far away as it has ever been. The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that there will be a late capitulation, the mother-of-all-compromises by Downing Street, presented as a victory for all [...]
Customers stay sweet on Cadbury’s despite low-tax owner October 17, 2018 Last week, several news outlets carried the news that Mondelez International – owners of chocolatier Cadbury – paid no corporation tax in 2017, though the company made profits of £185m. Mondelez’s subsidiaries were reported to have paid a combined total of £5.9m to HMRC. The news drew opprobrium from figures such as shadow chancellor, John [...]
Celebrities like Kanye West and Taylor Swift need to learn that we really don’t care what they think October 16, 2018 Taylor Swift, look what you made me do. Swifty has been a hallowed island of political neutrality in a sea of bad blood. But she’s now come out as a mid-term Democrat, and the love story is over. Maybe one day historians will look back and admire how Bob Geldof’s support for a People’s Vote [...]
FTSE housebuilder Bellway cements position with rising profits but caution lingers October 16, 2018 Housebuilder Bellway sent mixed messages to the City this morning, as a rise in profit coincided with a cautious warning over Brexit. Pre-tax profits climbed 14 per cent to £641m over the last 12 months, as robust annual sales pushed the firm above the 10,000 homes mark for the first time. Revenues also jumped 15.6 [...]
Theresa May’s new merger powers would be a hostile takeover by the state October 16, 2018 Back in July 2016, Theresa May launched her campaign for leadership of the Conservative party by promising radical action on foreign takeovers of British businesses. In the wake of Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury and Pfizer’s failed bid for AstraZeneca, May promised to defend workers and local communities from transient shareholders who, she said, were more [...]
Ignore the chancellor, we don’t need Chequers to end austerity October 16, 2018 I generally presume cynicism in politicians’ arguments. But Philip Hammond implying a Chequers-style relationship with the EU is needed to “end austerity” was shocking in its brazenness. Ahead of the October Budget, the chancellor has echoed Theresa May in suggesting that looser government spending is just around the corner. Their calculation seems to be that [...]
In the new age of cyber warfare, finance firms are on the front line October 15, 2018 Throughout history, the job of the nation state has been to protect citizens from a range of threats, be that disease, famine, or foreign invasion. In an analogue world, these threats were physical in nature and, as a result, mostly localised. The threat landscape is radically different in a connected, digital world. Critical infrastructures, from smart [...]
Think like a small business to solve the productivity puzzle October 15, 2018 Economists, some might argue, have a knack for making the vital sound dull, for making the immediate seem remote and abstract. There’s perhaps no better example of this than the much-discussed “productivity puzzle”. This “puzzle” often sounds a bit like one of those educational computer games you might try to occupy a particularly precocious five-year-old [...]
Ebay hit with £7m extra UK tax bill after a review by HMRC October 11, 2018 E-commerce auction site Ebay’s UK office paid out an additional £7m in owed corporate taxes last year, after the closure of a review by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). In accounts published yesterday, Ebay UK paid a total of £13.5m in tax in 2017, £6m of which was for last year alone, on profits of [...]