Financial news

• Walkie Talkie tower: stark reminder of forces that rule the City

  27-07-2017 18:56 via theguardian.com
  Rafael Viñoly’s controversial tower is news again, this time due to its record-breaking £1.3bn sale price – 167% profit on development costThe controversial Walkie Talkie tower in the City of London has commanded a record-breaking price for a single building in the UK – £1.3bn in a sale to a Hong Kong manufacturer of oyster sauce. Related: London's Walkie Talkie building sold for record-breaking £1.3bnContinue reading...
  
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• London's Walkie Talkie building sold for record-breaking £1.3bn

  27-07-2017 18:22 via theguardian.com
  Sum paid for City skyscraper by Hong Kong food conglomerate Lee Kum Kee is highest ever for a single UK buildingIt damaged cars with scorching reflected sunlight, has been accused of creating a wind tunnel that can topple pedestrians and has split the capital into lovers and haters. Now, London’s landmark Walkie Talkie building has broken records with its £1.3bn sale to a Hong Kong firm best known for making oyster sauce. Related: Walkie Talkie tower: stark reminder of forces that ru
  
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• Airbnb agrees to close reviews loophole after intervention by UK regulator

  27-07-2017 16:15 via theguardian.com
  Accommodation website to allow guests who leave before the end of stay to post comments in bid to expose poor-quality listingsRegulators have forced Airbnb to rectify a major flaw in its customer review system which meant that until now some of the worst listings have escaped bad reviews.Currently, guests who decide to cancel their stay or leave early because the apartment or house is a bit of a dump cannot automatically leave a review. They are usually offered a refund – minus the Airbnb
  
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• UK financial regulators suggest phasing out Libor rate benchmark from 2021 - Business Standard

  27-07-2017 15:31
  Business Standard
  UK financial regulators suggest phasing out Libor rate benchmark from 2021
  Business Standard
  A substitute for the widely-used Libor interest rate benchmark should be in place for banks to use by the end of 2021, the head of Britain's financial markets watchdog said. Libor, a daily rate in a range of currencies, is based on submissions from ...en meer »
  
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• Leaseholds on new-builds to be banned, plus Student Loans Co penalises borrowers

  27-07-2017 15:14 via theguardian.com
  Also, victims of ground rent scandal demand action, state pensions ‘too simplistic’ and properties on the edgeSign up to receive Money Talks each week
  Hello and welcome to this week’s Money Talks – a roundup of the week’s biggest stories and some things you may have missed.Continue reading...
  
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• Snatching money from care workers marks a new low for the Tories | Polly Toynbee

  27-07-2017 13:16 via theguardian.com
  A change to the law means carers are owed £400m in back pay. The government’s solution? Deny them their money
  • Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistAt this time of year, journalists need to keep a sharp eye out for government statements sneaked out after parliament has gone home. But I have rarely seen anything as sneaky as this. Related: Employers can't foot £400m care worker back pay bill. Government must act - fast | Derek LewisContinue reading...
  
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• Pound hits 10-month high against dollar after Fed caution – business live

  27-07-2017 13:10 via theguardian.com
  Dollar slides after US Federal Reserve adopts more cautious tone on inflation outlook 12.10pm BSTThe world’s oil consumption could peak as early as the late 2020s as electric cars become more popular, says Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden. But he added that oil would still be needed for several more decades, arguing that it will remain the main fuel used in planes, ships and heavy trucks. Even if the UK, France and the western world in general will all go to 100% electric vehicles, t
  
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• GSK to cut drug development projects to focus on 'winners'

  27-07-2017 13:08 via theguardian.com
  UK’s biggest pharma firm says it will offload 130 non-core brands and concentrate on medicines that generate substantial returns
  GlaxoSmithKline’s new chief executive, Emma Walmsley, has laid out plans to cut nearly one in seven of the pharma group’s clinical drug development programmes as part of a shakeup of the business. She also plans to offload 130 non-core brands and possibly sell off the unit that works on treatments for rare diseases.Walmsley, the former head of the dru
  
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• AstraZeneca shares dive after failure of key lung cancer drug trial

  27-07-2017 13:08 via theguardian.com
  Pharmaceuticals group suffers huge setback on ‘Mystic’ project as it reports that sales fell again in second quarterMore than £10bn has been wiped off the market value of AstraZeneca after the failure of a key lung cancer drug trial sent its shares plunging by more than 16%. The failure heaped further pressure on Pascal Soriot, the chief executive of Britain’s second-biggest pharmaceuticals company, as the study formed a key part of his promise to rebuild its drugs pipeli
  
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• Lloyds takes fresh £1bn hit from PPI compensation claims

  27-07-2017 12:45 via theguardian.com
  Banking group’s profits rise by just 4% to £2.5bn in first six months as it faces more charges over PPI and mortgagesLloyds Banking Group has taken a fresh £1.6bn hit in the first six months of the year to cope with a new wave of claims from consumers missold payment protection insurance and to rectify treatment of mistreated mortgage customers.The figure includes an additional £1bn charge for PPI – a scandal that has now cost the bank £18.1bn since it first s
  
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• Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich won't make America great again | Joseph Stiglitz

  27-07-2017 12:42 via theguardian.com
  The president thinks lower taxes and deregulation will solve the US’s problems. They won’t work, because they never haveAlthough America’s rightwing plutocrats may disagree about how to rank the country’s major problems – for example, inequality, slow growth, low productivity, opioid addiction, poor schools, and deteriorating infrastructure – the solution is always the same: lower taxes and deregulation, to “incentivise” investors and “free u
  
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• Sky in tech battle with Netflix and Amazon as its profits fall

  27-07-2017 12:28 via theguardian.com
  Broadcaster to hire 300 new R&D staff as more customers defect to rivals and it is hit by rise in Premier League costsSky is to hire 300 new technology staff to keep pace with rivals such as Netflix and Amazon as the broadcaster suffered a drop in full-year profits and an increase in the rate of customers defecting to rivals.The broadcaster, which is waiting to see whether a bid from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox will be referred to competition authorities, reported a 14% fall in o
  
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• Foxtons blames economic uncertainty as profits plunge by 64%

  27-07-2017 12:02 via theguardian.com
  London-focused estate agent faces sales slowdown, with revenue from lettings falling as ban on one-off fees looms Profits at London-focused estate agent Foxtons have plunged by 64%, hurt by slowing demand and increased economic uncertainty. Foxtons said pre-tax profits in the first half of this year dropped to £3.8m from £10.5m in the same period of 2016. Group revenue fell 15% to £58.5m in the period. Continue reading...
  
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• How about a little accountability for economists when they mess up? | Dean Baker

  27-07-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  There must be a huge change in our attitude to economics. Needlessly complex work merely supporting the status quo must be haltedDean Baker is co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy ResearchSuppose our fire department was staffed with out-of-shape incompetents who didn’t know how to handle a firehose. That would be really bad news, but it wouldn’t be obvious most of the time because we don’t often see major fires. The fire department’s inadequacy would become a
  
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• Southern rail tops list of most overcrowded trains

  27-07-2017 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Some services carried twice as many people as trains were designed for, Department for Transport figures showSouthern rail services carrying more than twice as many passengers as they were designed for were the most overcrowded in the country last year, government statistics reveal. Five of the top 10 most jam-packed trains from spring 2016 and two from autumn were operated by Southern, with Department for Transport monitors recording 242 passengers squeezed on to two cars on the 5.40am service
  
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• Love Island is awful – but ITV's prospects are better | Nils Pratley

  27-07-2017 11:34 via theguardian.com
  First-half ad revenues fell 8% as expected, but things are expected to improve – and the Netflix revolution has been overstated
  Bad, but it could be worse. No, that’s not a review of the depressing and soulless Love Island. It’s the state of play in the advertising market from ITV’s perspective. First-half ad revenues fell 8%, as expected, but the negative read-outs are becoming less negative. Minus 4% is predicted for the July-to-September quarter.It was enough to improv
  
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• 10 years on from the credit crunch: share your memories

  27-07-2017 11:02 via theguardian.com
  We want to hear from those who were affected by the 2007 financial crisis and how their situations have changed since then
  The 9 August this year marks ten years since the world experienced the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The FTSE lost 121 points that day, and in the US the Dow Jones average fell by 387. Central bankers became so alarmed by banks’ reluctance to lend to each other that they took emergency action; the European Central Bank and the U
  
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• 'Disgusting and astonishing': how do the UK's top 1% view tax avoidance?

  27-07-2017 10:15 via theguardian.com
  As a new study names the UK as one of the main conduits for corporate tax avoidance, we ask members of Britain’s highest pay bracket for their insightsCorporate lawyer, earns more than £300,000 annually:The position of the UK as a major player in the global financial secrecy world, presumably through crown dependencies such as the British Virgin Islands and the Caymans, is disgusting. I have no problem with low-tax countries so long as they are transparent, and people who are using t
  
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• The ick factor: Dutch project making bike lanes and bottles from used loo roll

  27-07-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  A pilot scheme in the Netherlands is sifting sewage for cellulose, which it says can be recycled into valuable products
  When you flush the toilet, you’re probably not thinking about bike lanes or home insulation. But that’s where your used loo roll could one day end up if a Dutch project to extract cellulose from sewage rolls out.At the Geestmerambacht wastewater treatment plant near Alkmaar in the Netherlands, a two-year pilot project is using an industrial sieve to sift 400kg of ce
  
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• I’m trapped in my leasehold property by ever-doubling ground rent

  27-07-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I was unaware of this clause in my contract when I bought the flatI am a homeowner trapped in a leasehold property which seems unsaleable. When I bought the 11-year-old flat five years ago I was unaware of a clause in the contract which allows the ground rent to double every 10 years. It was £250 when I moved in and has since risen to £500. In another nine years it will be £1,000 and then no one will want to buy it. AC, CoventryGround rents have become lucrative business for de
  
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• Charles Tyrwhitt founder, Nick Wheeler: 'I'm allergic to bureaucracy'

  27-07-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The shirt brand that launched as mail order only in 1986 now has stores around the world and has earned Wheeler a £16m payout
  Yes, I wanted to have my own business from a young age. When I was at primary school, my father used to sell flowers at Wolverhampton market and I’d go with him. It was sort of magic, we were getting something for nothing. You sowed a seed in the ground, cut it and sold it. And I had lots of my own funny little ventures at school. Continue reading...
  
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• FCA to extend regulatory regime to 47,000 firms

  27-07-2017 07:39 via theguardian.com
  UK financial watchdog rules set up to oversee bank bosses will also cover firms offering credit, costing them £550m A regulatory regime intended to crack down on the behaviour of bank bosses is to be extended to 47,000 firms including dentists, gyms and tool hire companies that offer credit to customers.The Financial Conduct Authority estimated that the new regime would cost firms £550m, with up to £190m of ongoing costs for the firms involved. Continue reading...
  
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• Facebook posts $3.89bn quarterly profit, up 71% from last year

  27-07-2017 01:45 via theguardian.com
  Shares hit record high after figure is much higher than expected, with total revenue climbing 44.8% thanks to increased mobile video ad salesFacebook has delivered a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by a sharp increase in sales of mobile video ads, sending its shares to an all-time high.Total revenue rose 44.8% to $9.32bn from the same period in 2016, of which Facebook posted a profit of $3.89bn – up a whopping 71% from the year before. Continue reading...
  
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• 10 Years After Financial Crisis, UK Real Estate Tougher to Crack - Mansion Global

  27-07-2017 01:10
  Mansion Global
  10 Years After Financial Crisis, UK Real Estate Tougher to Crack
  Mansion Global
  The ramifications of the 2007-08 financial crisis were felt throughout housing markets worldwide, many of which have not fully recovered. Now 10 years later, a new report looks at exactly how the effects have lingered on the U.K. market. About £312 ...en meer »
  
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• Housing market still reeling a decade after financial crisis, Savills says

  27-07-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Report by estate agent finds ‘dramatic slump’ in spending and transactions, and ‘huge gap’ between London and rest of UKTen years on the housing market is still feeling the after-effects of the credit crunch, with existing homeowners struggling to trade up, a doubling of typical first-time buyer deposits, and a “huge gap” between London and the rest of Britain, according to a new report.
  Property company Savills has found that the global financial crisis &ndas
  
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