Financial news

• Argentina forced to seek IMF aid over fears for economy

  18-05-2018 21:54 via theguardian.com
  Country pursues deal after President Mauricio Macri fails to stem run on the peso Argentina’s struggle this week to prevent a collapse in its currency and soaring interest rates from destabilising its ailing economy appeared to have ended in failure on Friday, leaving it to seek financial aid from the International Monetary Fund.The IMF, the lender of last resort to nation states, said the South American country had formally requested an “exceptional access standby arrangement”
  
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• AstraZeneca rocked by shareholder revolt over executive pay

  18-05-2018 19:51 via theguardian.com
  More than 37% of shareholders vote against or abstain on vote including £9.4m pay package for pharmaceutical firm’s bossAstraZeneca has been rocked by one of the biggest shareholder revolts over executive pay this year, after more than a third of investors failed to back the pharmaceutical company’s remuneration report. More than 37% of shareholders voted against or abstained at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in London on Friday in the second rebuke by investors
  
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• Stationery chain Smiggle: 'In some stores kids come in with a £50 note'

  18-05-2018 19:35 via theguardian.com
  Australian retailer with sights on kids’ pocket money has pursued aggressive expansion in the UK“I was in Smiggle and my mum said ‘I wish there were some chairs’ but other than that Smiggle is amazing,” is the professional assessment of the eight-year-old budding retail analyst Bridie O’Brien. Her father, Patrick, a retail expert at the GlobalData consultancy, had called on his daughter’s expertise as the London schoolgirl is exactly the target customer
  
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• Regulator unconvinced by industry problem-gambling measure

  18-05-2018 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Gambling Commission ‘yet to see proper evidence of the effectiveness’ of GamStopOnline gambling firms could be banned from sending promotional material to customers amid concern from the industry regulator about “unacceptable” flaws in a system designed to help problem gamblers bar themselves from betting.In a letter obtained by the Guardian, the Gambling Commission warned the industry trade body, the Remote Gambling Association, of failings in betting websites’ new
  
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• NHS privately planning to develop Royal Free nurses' home into luxury flats

  18-05-2018 18:22 via theguardian.com
  ‘One Hyde Park-style’ apartments to replace housing for London staff, selling for up to £10m each The NHS is privately marketing a 100-year-old hospital building that provides affordable housing for 52 nurses and other key workers to property developers to create a One Hyde Park-style complex of luxury flats overlooking Hampstead Heath.The Royal Free hospital is promoting Queen Mary’s House – a gift from the Lever Brothers co-founder Lord Leverhulme 97 years ago &nd
  
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• The bad bet at the heart of the East Coast rail franchise implosion

  18-05-2018 18:06 via theguardian.com
  Virgin Trains bosses did not conceive that passenger numbers could fall after two decades of consistent growthAnalysis: railways less profitable than private firms once hopedAt the root of the collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise, confirmed this week, was the expectation that rail passenger numbers could go only one way: up.Two decades of consistent growth had fostered the assumption that demand would keep rising, the only question being how high. Continue reading...
  
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• Lloyds faces shareholder revolt as CEO's pay is 95 times that of average worker

  18-05-2018 18:04 via theguardian.com
  António Horta Osório took home a pay package of £6.4m in 2017, up 11% from 2016Lloyds Banking Group is facing the prospect of a shareholder rebellion after giving its chief executive, António Horta Osório, a pay packet that is nearly 100 times larger than the average worker’s at the bank. The advisory group Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS) has recommended a vote against the bank’s remuneration report at the annual general meeting on 24 May,
  
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• Ikea halts new Preston store as UK profits fall

  18-05-2018 18:01 via theguardian.com
  Retailer says Lancashire outlet no longer viable as profits slide from £140m to £87mIkea has reported a sharp fall in UK profits and pulled out of opening what would have been its second-largest store in the country.The Swedish retailer blamed higher wages and the cost of investments in its stores and website for a near-40% slump in profits in the year to 31 August 2017. Pre-tax profits slid from £140m to £87m, according to accounts filed at Companies House. Continue read
  
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• Hotel Chocolat fires new salvo at Waitrose in chocolate war

  18-05-2018 17:52 via theguardian.com
  Upmarket chocolatier offers ‘amnesty’ for customers who bought supermarket’s £2 ‘copy’Hotel Chocolat has opened a new front in its chocolate war with Waitrose, issuing a legal threat and offering customers an “amnesty” on the supermarket’s alleged copycat bars.The upmarket chocolatier is inviting anyone who has bought one of Waitrose’s sugar-heavy £2 bars to exchange it for a £3.95 Hotel Chocolat slab, which lists cocoa as t
  
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• Follow California’s blueprint to abolish exploitation in the UK’s gig economy | Letter

  18-05-2018 17:38 via theguardian.com
  Labour MP Frank Field says workers should be protected by default, and only regarded as self-employed when companies provide proof that they areThe recent fate of Deliveroo riders redoubles the need for legislative reform to extend a layer of protection to workers who are being exploited at the bottom of the labour market (Gig economy union seeks to crowdfund fight against delivery firm, 17 May).The existing law enables companies to exploit their workers by claiming they are self-emplo
  
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• Ocado shares rise 44% after major US tie-up

  18-05-2018 17:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  44 per cent by 2451⁄4p to 7971⁄4p yesterday as it struck a deal for Kroger, one of America’s biggest retailers, to use its technology. Around £1.5billion was added to Ocado’s market value, putting it on course for a place in the FTSE 100 with a £5billion-plus price tag as investors hailed a potentially game-changing partnership.
  
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• UK railways prove less profitable than private operators once hoped

  18-05-2018 16:27 via theguardian.com
  Collapse of East Coast franchise prompts questions about position of other firmsThe bad bet at the heart of East Coast rail franchise collapseThe East Coast has once again proved that the railway from Scotland to London is not lined with gold for private operators. This week’s collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast (Vtec) franchise marks the third time in a little more than a decade that a train company operating on that line has failed to meet its contractual obligations. The decision t
  
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• Cartier owner destroys more than £400m of watches in two years

  18-05-2018 15:31 via theguardian.com
  Richemont bought back stock from jewellers to stop it being sold at knockdown pricesThe Swiss watchmaker Richemont has destroyed nearly €500m (£437m) of its designer timepieces over the past two years to avoid them being sold at knockdown prices. The Geneva-based luxury goods group behind Cartier and Montblanc said it bought back €203m of unsold watches last year. That was on top of the €278m of Cartier watches, which start at £1,000 but can cost more than £20,00
  
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• Bitcoin price: Massive boost for ETHEREUM and bitcoin as China backs blockchain

  18-05-2018 15:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  ETHEREUM beat Bitcoin to top spot in the first ever list from the Chinese government ranking the top public blockchain in the cryptocurrency space. Although Bitcoin ranked 13th in the Chinese government’s new index, experts say the move signals a change of heart from China’s deeply anti-crypto executive.
  
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• World TRADE WAR BACK ON as China accuses America of lying over deal

  18-05-2018 14:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  CHINA has denied bowing to pressure from the Trump administration by offering a package to slash the US trade deficit by up to $200 billion. US officials had boasted on Wednesday that trade concessions were close, but a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman hit back today that, “this rumour is not true.”
  
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• When In Rome’s fine wines in boxes hit the right spot with party hosts and light drinkers

  18-05-2018 13:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  New wine business When in Rome, which broke the mould by packaging fine Italian reds and whites in boxes, is to expand internationally after sales success with Waitrose where customers have developed a taste for its on-tap, no-waste format.
  
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• Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP left static against USD on Brexit ‘backstop’

  18-05-2018 12:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound has held close to opening levels against the US dollar today, making £1 worth around $1.350. This is below the weeks high of $1.360 but above Tuesday’s low of $1.345.
  
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• Pound euro exchange rate: GBP slides against EUR over Brexit speculation

  18-05-2018 12:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  The pound euro exchange rate has continued to retreat this morning. The pound is currently worth around €1.143, down from opening levels.
  
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• Bitcoin LATEST: UK government adviser says dubious 'list' sparked late 2017 crypto BOOM

  18-05-2018 12:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  A CRYPTO cynic who told MPs they are dealing with a “fad” that has “very little obvious benefit to society” has revealed to Express.co.uk that a single "list" in 2014 sowed the seeds for the bitcoin and blockchain boom.
  
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• Bitcoin price plummets: Cryptocurrency falls below $8,000 in dramatic drop

  18-05-2018 09:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE BITCOIN price has dramatically plummeted to below $8,000 - a major drop in value after a horror month for the cryptocurrency.
  
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• The real battleground in gambling isn't betting shops – it's online | Adam Bradford

  18-05-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Putting limits on fixed-odd betting terminals is a big step forward, but this new legislation misses a trickFixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) have been dubbed the crack cocaine of betting, having destroyed thousands of lives over the past few years and become the topic of heated public debate. On Thursday, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport finally ruled that the stakes on the highly addictive machines should be cut from a staggering £100 every 20 seconds to £2.
  
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• Pensioner racks up £80 mobile bill calling council helpline

  18-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Charges mounted as he was kept on hold to emergency out-of-hours serviceI’m a disabled pensioner and recently incurred an £80 mobile phone bill by calling my local authority emergency out-of-hours adult care department. I made several calls that day, being in extremis, and it has a queuing system which you have to wait on while the seasons change. If I’d known it was going to cost that much, I might have just waited until somebody noticed they hadn’t seen me around for a
  
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• Homes with a royal connection – in pictures

  18-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  You don’t have to be a prince to live in these homes, but some cost a king’s ransom Continue reading...
  
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• The crypto-future is female: bitcoin innovators push for inclusion

  18-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  At the world’s largest blockchain conference, female leaders in the industry sought to shake off bitcoin’s boyish image
  “Satoshi is female” was one of the more pervasive slogans at Consensus 2018, the world’s largest blockchain conference that saw thousands of crypto-believers descend on midtown New York for a packed, three-day meet-and-greet last week.Satoshi refers to Satoshi Nakamoto, the still mysterious creator of Bitcoin who has never been identified but who,
  
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• We need to get smarter to avoid energy crisis

  18-05-2018 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  BRITAIN’S ability to maintain a sustainable and reliable energy system could be put at risk unless more people get smart over using new technology to control their use of gas and electricity.
  
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• Number of low-paid UK workers falls to lowest level in decades

  18-05-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Thinktank reveals that share of employees classed as low paid has fallen to 18%, the lowest since 1982A smaller proportion of UK workers are low paid than at any time since the early 1980s, due to above-inflation increases in the government’s national living wage.A report by the Resolution Foundation thinktank said the share of employees who were officially classified as low paid – earning less than around £8.50 an hour – had fallen to 18%, the lowest since 1982. Continue
  
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• City News: FTSE SOARS to record closing level boosted by hike in oil prices

  18-05-2018 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE FTSE 100 index of the UK’s top firms soared to its highest ever closing level last night, boosted by strong oil prices and the staggering rise of online supermarket Ocado which doubled in value after signing a major deal with a US grocer.
  
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