Financial news

• London's love affair with Aramco smacks of post-Brexit desperation

  09-11-2017 21:20 via theguardian.com
  The timing of the Treasury’s loan guarantee for the Saudi state oil giant’s potential listing deepens a sense of grubby games being playedSaudi Aramco is worth somewhere between $1tn and $2tn, depending on whose estimate you prefer. In short, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company is not short of a few dollars. Why on Earth, then, would UK government think it necessary to offer Aramco a $2bn loan guarantee?The official answer is that this is just business as usual. The UK Expor
  
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• Sainsbury's boss blames 'soggy August' for sales slowdown

  09-11-2017 20:36 via theguardian.com
  Chief executive says ‘there is nothing in the numbers that give cause for concern about Christmas’ as pre-tax profits fall 9%Shoppers are not “pulling on the handbrake”, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s insisted as he blamed a soggy August for a recent slowdown in sales growth.The supermarket revealed a 9% fall in pre-tax profits to £251m in the six months to 23 September as rising costs offset a 1.6% rise in sales at established stores.Continue reading...
  
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• Major LSE shareholder moves to block Xavier Rolet's departure

  09-11-2017 19:57 via theguardian.com
  Children’s Investment Fund calls for emergency meeting in bid to remove the LSE chairman, Donald Brydon, insteadOne of the London Stock Exchange’s major shareholders has called an emergency meeting in a bid to block the surprise departure of its chief executive, Xavier Rolet, and oust its chairman instead.The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI), which owns 5% of the LSE, requisitioned an emergency meeting calling for the removal of the LSE chairman, Donald Brydon, and an end to th
  
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• Burberry to reinvent itself as a super luxury British brand

  09-11-2017 18:56 via theguardian.com
  New boss announces plan to raise the premium and put the fashion label on par with the likes of Dior and Gucci after better than expected resultsBurberry’s new chief executive, Marco Gobbetti, has revealed plans to take the British luxury brand more upmarket as part of a shake-up that comes with a hefty price tag of its own. The company’s shares fell 10% – wiping nearly £850m off its value – as investors took fright at Gobbetti’s ambition to turn Burberry into
  
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• EC slashes UK growth forecasts but hikes eurozone; markets fall - as it happened

  09-11-2017 18:12 via theguardian.com
  European Commission says Brexit uncertainty will hurt UK investment, but the rest of Europe is doing ‘significantly better than expected’Latest: EC cuts UK growth forecast to 1.5% in 2017Growth expected to slow to 1.3% then 1.1% in 2019Eurozone growth forecast hiked to 2.2%Moscovici: Best euro growth in a decadeEarlier:UK housing market has deteriorated again
  German exports drive trade surplus up 5.11pm GMTEuropean stock markets have closed, with losses across the board.Here’s
  
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• UK denies $2bn Saudi Aramco loan deal is linked to any London listing

  09-11-2017 17:35 via theguardian.com
  Treasury says loan guarantee is separate to any potential LSE listing and simply aims to help boost British firms export to oil-rich kingdomThe UK is finalising arrangements for a $2bn (£1.52bn) loan guarantee to Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, but the government has denied the support is in any way linked to the the state-owned firm’s potential listing on the London Stock Exchange.The UK’s credit export agency, the UKEF, which helps British companies win contracts w
  
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• How to manage a portfolio career for a better work-life balance

  09-11-2017 17:12
  If you fancy the freedom and variety of multi-strand working, you’ll need to be prepared – do some research, organise your finances and don’t forget to networkTired of the nine-to-five? Itching to spread your wings and use all your skills? You may be perfect for the new phase of millennial work – a portfolio career. That means leaving the clock-in salaried job behind for a range of different roles – often using different skills, and perhaps including charity or pro
  
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• UK's biggest solar farm planned for Kent coast

  09-11-2017 16:55 via theguardian.com
  Subsidy-free plant would cover 900 acres of farmland near Great Expectations marshes at Faversham, dwarfing output of UK’s current largest solar siteAn enormous solar power station is planned for the north Kent coast that would be the UK’s biggest and dwarf existing solar farms, providing a significant boost to an industry that has stalled since ministers halted subsidies 18 months ago.Cleve Hill, a mile from the historic town of Faversham, would have five times the capacity of the U
  
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• 12 cities to get superfast gigabit broadband via Vodafone by 2021

  09-11-2017 16:41 via theguardian.com
  Company signs a £500m deal to lay out fibre-optic networks connecting 1m homes as it aims at 5G servicesVodafone has struck a £500m deal to bring next-generation gigabit speed broadband to a dozen UK cities, enabling hospitals to send CT scan images in seconds and consumers to download 4k quality movies in minutes rather than hours.The company has struck a deal with CityFibre, the publicly listed company, to take fibre optic lines to 1m homes by 2021, with an option to extend to 5m h
  
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• EU cuts UK growth forecast as eurozone motors ahead

  09-11-2017 14:01 via theguardian.com
  Brussels’ health check of member states sharply cuts UK forecast to 1.5% as eurozone enjoys best year since financial crisis of 2007The European commission enters key Brexit talks with the government with the eurozone economy in its best shape for a decade and activity in the UK weaker than expected six months ago.In its half-yearly health check, the commission sharply cut its forecast for UK growth this year and said it was likely to continue struggling in 2018 and 2019 even on the assump
  
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• EU chief gloats UK faces financial decline over Brexit… before admitting he was ... - Express.co.uk

  09-11-2017 13:03
  Express.co.uk
  EU chief gloats UK faces financial decline over Brexit… before admitting he was ...
  Express.co.uk
  A BRUSSELS' finance chief claimed the UK faces economic slowdown due to Brexit – before admitting it was based merely on “technical hypothesis”. By Vincent Wood. PUBLISHED: 10:53, Thu, Nov 9, 2017 | UPDATED: 12:03, Thu, Nov 9, 2017 ...
  
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• Where health meets eco-consciousness: the gym made from used aerosol cans

  09-11-2017 11:23 via theguardian.com
  Recycling projects with social benefits, such as Right Guard’s gym in London’s Olympic Park, are helping engage communities in waste-reducing initiativesFor many countries, recycling performance remains poor. Last year, household recycling rates in England fell for the first time – but since 2012, there has been little progress, with rates hovering around the 44% mark. Most of Europe and the US aren’t faring much better. In 2014, the average recycling rate across the Euro
  
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• UK house prices stall as moving costs and interest rate rise bite

  09-11-2017 08:29 via theguardian.com
  Scotland, north-east England and Wales only areas where sales picked up, according to surveyorsBritain’s housing market has stalled, with fewer people looking to buy a new home and prices barely rising across the country, according to a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). Rics expects the market to remain subdued in the coming months as newly agreed sales stay flat or fall in most regions of the UK.Continue reading...
  
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• Number of senior women in Britain's boardrooms unchanged in 10 years

  09-11-2017 08:23 via theguardian.com
  Proportion of women in influential non-executive roles is just 8%, compared with 6% a decade ago, according to Cranfield School of Management
  The number of women holding the most senior jobs in the boardrooms of Britain’s biggest 100 companies has barely changed in the past 10 years, despite a series of government-backed initiatives to boost gender diversity.The analysis by Cranfield School of Management shows that the proportion of women holding the most influential non-executive position
  
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• Brexit will hit north of England the hardest, says thinktank

  09-11-2017 08:01 via theguardian.com
  Research by IPPR North shows northern regions are more dependent on trade with EU than the south
  Brexit will have nearly twice the impact on the economy of the north of England as it will on London, according to a new report. Northern regions are relatively more dependent on trade with the EU than the south, research from the IPPR North thinktank found. About 10.2% of the north’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of output of goods and services, is dependent on the EU,
  
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• Triangular south London house - in pictures

  09-11-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Dubbed ‘the Brie house’ because of its shape, this unusual two-bedroom property offers buyers a slice of open-plan living Continue reading...
  
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• Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett are wealthier than poorest half of US

  09-11-2017 00:01 via theguardian.com
  Institute for Policy Studies warns of a ‘moral crisis’ and says Trump tax change proposals will exacerbate disparities
  The three richest people in the US – Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett – own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, or 160 million people. Analysis of the wealth of America’s richest people found that Gates, Bezos and Buffett were sitting on a combined $248.5bn (£190bn) fortune. The Institute for Policy Studies said th
  
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