Financial news

• Kipper Williams on Philip Green facing MPs over BHS collapse

  13-06-2016 21:00
  
  Ministers have drawn up penalties for tycoon if he fails to attend parliamentary select committee’s inquiry Continue reading...
  
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• Grumbling Green needs to understand he's not dealing with a legal process

  13-06-2016 20:50
  
  The work and pensions committee just wants to ask some legitimate questions and they can say what they like – that’s showbizOn one small point, one can sympathise with Sir Philip Green. Frank Field, chair of one of the committees exploring the downfall of BHS, didn’t have to say MPs “would laugh” if the billionaire retailer turns up on Wednesday with a proposal that puts less than £600m into the company’s pension fund. It would have been wiser to wait to
  
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• Former BHS owner attempted to buy Austin Reed before it collapsed

  13-06-2016 20:49
  
  Dominic Chappell held talks about purchasing menswear retailer while managing doomed department store chainThe former BHS owner Dominic Chappell was trying to buy Austin Reed as the department store chain headed for collapse, it has emerged.Evidence submitted to MPs by Alan Jacobs, the founder of investment company Jacobs Capital, shows that Chappell held talks about buying the menswear retailer. The talks fell apart, however, because it “became clear that Mr Chappell and Retail Acquisitio
  
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• Don’t blush if asked to flash at the checkout | Brief letters

  13-06-2016 20:45
  
  Pharmacies overhaul | Holes in pension funds | Philip Green’s knighthood | Verb for contactless payments | End of alleys correspondenceIt is to be hoped that Mark Koziol (Letters, 13 June) is right in his assessment that management changes at Boots may herald a change in business culture. But there are serious concerns about the future of pharmacies in the light of government plans to radically change the service and substantially reduce their number. Boots is not the only large company op
  
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• Sterling seesaws as Brexit fears grip investors

  13-06-2016 20:32
  
  Pound slips against dollar and euro before regaining ground in volatility not seen since financial crash of 2008London’s leading stock market index has dropped for a third day and the pound touched a two-month low as Brexit fears gripped investors in the run-up to the EU referendum. Sterling slipped against the dollar and euro, but recovered to gain 1.3% as it reached levels of volatility not seen since the financial crash of 2008. Against the dollar the pound fell to almost $1.41 before t
  
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• Asda boss departure reveals sweeping change among supermarkets

  13-06-2016 20:21
  
  Big four have all changed chief executives in past two years – a clear sign of tumultuous times in UK grocery industry The departure of Andy Clarke from the top job at Asda means that each of the big four supermarket chains have changed their chief executive in the past two years.Since July 2014, Justin King has retired from Sainsbury’s, Philip Clarke has been pushed out of Tesco and Dalton Philips has been sacked from Morrisons. Continue reading...
  
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• Former Schroders trader jailed for two years for insider trading

  13-06-2016 19:50
  
  Damian Clarke had pleaded guilty to nine counts over nine years yielding more than £155,000 in profitsDamian Clarke, a former equities trader at Schroders Investment Management, has been sentenced to two years in prison for insider trading. Clarke pleaded guilty to nine counts of insider trading spanning nine years, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Monday, with the profits made from the deals amounting to at least £155,162. Continue reading...
  
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• Fresh battering for financial heavyweights amid Brexit fear - Belfast Telegraph

  13-06-2016 18:45
  
  Belfast Telegraph
  Fresh battering for financial heavyweights amid Brexit fear
  Belfast Telegraph
  Heavyweight financial stocks have taken a pounding on the London market amid fresh concerns over Brexit and a wider slowdown in the global economy. The FTSE 100 Index was down 70.79 points to 6044.97, with Lloyds Banking Group feeling the full force ...en meer »
  
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• London''s Financial Leaders Split on U.K. Vote - Nasdaq

  13-06-2016 18:10
  
  London''s Financial Leaders Split on U.K. Vote
  Nasdaq
  LONDON -- Daniel Hodson made his name in the City of London during the 1990s as the chief executive of Europe's biggest futures exchange. Today he wants to get the City out of Europe. "My vision is about building on the traditions of the past," the ...en meer »
  
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• LinkedIn’s rapid 14-year growth led to $26.2bn Microsoft deal

  13-06-2016 18:01
  
  Business networking site launched in 2003, attracting $53m investment and eventually gaining 433 million membersIt took just 14 years for LinkedIn to grow from a brainwave in a tech entrepreneur’s living room to a $26.2bn (£18.5bn) takeover target. Reid Hoffman, 48, hatched the idea for LinkedIn from his apartment in December 2002 – shortly after eBay bought online payment service PayPal, where he was CEO. Continue reading...
  
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• Payback for good: Take That and the other penitent tax avoiders

  13-06-2016 17:41
  
  Members of the band have coughed up money that had been held in a tax shelter. They’re not the only celebs to have recently reimbursed HMRCIt’s tough being really rich and famous when – out of nowhere – you get publicly shamed for avoiding tax. What do you do? Continue to reap the benefits of the totally legal financial arrangements you entered into in good faith? Or sack your accountant (creative differences, perhaps) and pay it back?Let’s pause for a moment to hon
  
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• Why U.K. stocks are a buy despite Brexit risks - Financial Post

  13-06-2016 17:01
  
  Financial Post
  Why U.K. stocks are a buy despite Brexit risks
  Financial Post
  U.K. equities remain an overweight recommendation at J.P. Morgan, despite the rising risk that British voters will decide to leave the European Union next week. Recent opinion polls show that the gap between the “leave” and “remain” vote intentions ...en meer »
  
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• Fifa ‘welcomes decision’ by KPMG to resign as governing body’s auditor

  13-06-2016 16:45
  
  • Resignation comes months after KPMG said it would review relationship
  • Fifa: ‘It gives the organisation the opportunity to work with a new audit firm’ Related: Blatter, Valcke and Kattner awarded themselves £55m, say Fifa lawyers Fifa has welcomed the decision by its financial auditor KPMG to resign. The break in a decade-long relationship was announced Monday, months after KPMG said it would review its work with football’s scandal-hit world governing body. C
  
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• Goldman Sachs hired prostitutes to win Libyan business, court told

  13-06-2016 14:51
  
  Wall Street Bank disputes allegations by Libyan sovereign wealth fund that it paid for the women, as well as private jets and five-star hotelsGoldman Sachs bankers paid for prostitutes, private jets and five-star hotels and held business meetings on yachts to win business from a Libyan investment fund set up under Gaddafi regime, the high court in London was told yesterday.The allegations came at the start of a legal claim by the Libyan Investment Authority for $1.2bn (£846m) from the inve
  
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• Nick and Christian Candy accused of tax evasion in high court

  13-06-2016 13:53
  
  London property tycoon Nick Candy rejects ‘false’ claims he has lied about source of his wealthThe property tycoons Nick and Christian Candy have been accused of tax evasion in the high court, in a fiercely contested legal battle that threatens to reveal the complex offshore structure that has sheltered profits from their sprawling real estate empire for a decade.The creators of the super-elite One Hyde Park complex near Harrods in Knightsbridge, west London, are being sued for damag
  
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• How much of your income do you spend on rent?

  13-06-2016 13:23
  
  With workers under 30 paying almost half of their monthly wages in rent we’d like to hear from you
  The average cost of a new tenancy on a one-bedroom home hit £746 a month in May, taking up 48% of the take-home pay of a worker aged under 30, data from property firm Countrywide showed.Those in London are typically handing over 57% of their monthly wages with the average rent on a one-bed property costing £1,133 in May, Countrywide said. The firm said tenants were responding to t
  
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• Executive pay is obscene – restructuring the economy is the only way to curb it | Paul Mason

  13-06-2016 13:11
  
  The huge sums paid to bosses at Berkeley and Persimmon are the latest examples of FTSE grandee greed, and obvious cures such as pay caps aren’t enoughThe soaring pay of British bosses has gone beyond a joke. Few people have heard of Tony Pidgley, the founder and chairman of the property giant Berkeley Group. But his latest pay rise puts him in the same pay bracket as Ronaldo and Adele.In 2015, Pidgeley’s pay soared from just under £4m to £23.3m in a single year, thanks to
  
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• Asda replaces CEO with Walmart's China chief

  13-06-2016 13:11
  
  Sean Clarke moves from US parent company’s Chinese business to replace Andy Clarke after failure to turn around fortunes at ailing supermarket Asda has replaced its chief executive in an attempt to reverse a long run of falling sales at the supermarket amid intense competition between food retailers.Walmart, Asda’s US owner, said Andy Clarke will be replaced by Sean Clarke, a former Asda employee who most recently ran Walmart’s Chinese business. Continue reading...
  
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• G4S shares plunge after Orlando killer is named as employee

  13-06-2016 12:06
  
  Security services firm says it carried detailed screenings on hiring Omar Mateen in 2007 and again in 2013 with no adverse findingsShares in G4S have fallen heavily after the UK security services company said Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was an employee.G4S, the world’s biggest security firm, said it had employed Mateen since September 2007 and that he was off duty when he carried out the deadliest mass shooting in US history on Sunday morning.C
  
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• 'I was taken aback by the attitudes towards working mums'

  13-06-2016 09:29
  
  Stay-at-home dad Daniel Godsall was so struck with the difficulties mothers returning to work face that he set up a coaching business to support them In 2014 I made a decision that was to affect the course of my life: to quit my role as a senior executive in financial services and spend some time as a stay-at-home dad to my then six-month-old son, Jesse. For the first six months of his life I hadn’t seen much of my son and felt strongly that I didn’t want to be an absent father, or
  
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• The 'greatest dead company in Silicon Valley' has lessons for all of us

  13-06-2016 08:28
  
  On a recent trade mission to the United States, 13 female entrepreneurs had the opportunity to learn from some of the most successful tech companies. The number one lesson: never fear failureI’ve just landed back from Silicon Valley, having been on a trade mission with 12 other incredible British female entrepreneurs. We met people like Eventbrite’s co-founder Julia Hartz, Julie Hanna (founder of Kiva and adviser to Obama), and (warning, even bigger name drop alert) Sheryl Sandberg.
  
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• The company, which specialises in recreations of classic furniture designs, is indeed elusive

  13-06-2016 08:00
  
  The company, which specialises in recreations of classic furniture designs, is indeed elusiveI’d like to bring a furniture retailer called Voga.com to your attention. They have a great website with beautiful-looking furniture. I ordered samples from them which turned up promptly and were lovely so, in March, I ordered a chair for which there was an eight to 12-week wait. In May, I was told it would not be delivered until September.Continue reading...
  
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• I am a successful contract worker – should I seek a permanent position?

  13-06-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  My consultancy work isn’t as buoyant as it has been, but I had a bad experience in my last permanent role Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?I have been doing contract work in “change management” for a
  
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• Not as bad as the financial crisis, but for the UK economy Brexit might just be - Irish Examiner

  13-06-2016 03:15
  
  Irish Examiner
  Not as bad as the financial crisis, but for the UK economy Brexit might just be
  Irish Examiner
  With just 10 days to go, so much is riding on the outcome of the UK's in-out referendum on Europe that it is wise to follow the money. Billions have been wagered on betting markets and billions more on global stockmarkets. Hundreds of billions are ...en meer »
  
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• Fintech helps to push foreign direct investment in UK financial services sector to ... - City A.M.

  13-06-2016 01:11
  
  City A.M.
  Fintech helps to push foreign direct investment in UK financial services sector to ...
  City A.M.
  Foreign investors can't get enough of the UK's financial services market, with a report out today discovering that fintech has helped push foreign direct investment (FDI) to its highest level since 2006. The research by professional services firm EY ...en meer »
  
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• UK festivals suffer in a costly and crowded field, study shows

  13-06-2016 01:01
  
  Research claims more than 1 in 10 festivals will fold amid ever-increasing security and infrastructure costs and tough competition for ticket salesAs festivalgoers get home from enjoying The Who, Adam Ant and Queen on the Isle of Wight over the weekend, a warning has gone out that other events are surviving on such precarious finances that as many as one in 10 could close down by next year.The rising price of security and the huge demands on infrastructure could mean as many as 100 of this year&
  
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• Cost of renting one-bed property soars in UK

  13-06-2016 01:01
  
  Workers under 30 pay almost half of monthly wages in rent, while those in London pay even more, says CountrywideHow much of your income do you spend on rent?
  The cost of renting a one-bedroom property in the UK has risen to swallow almost half of the average young worker’s take-home pay, according to figures, while those living in London are typically handing over 57% of their monthly wages.The average cost of a new tenancy on a one-bedroom home hit £746 a month in May, taking up 48%
  
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