Financial news

• The lesson from non-bids for IWG is WeWork is overvalued | Nils Pratley

  06-08-2018 20:21 via theguardian.com
  US company is loss-making yet a UK firm that makes profits cannot land a buyer Maybe IWG, the serviced office company that used to be called Regus, should give its tenants free beer or throw a few cheese-tasting parties. The gimmicky stuff has worked wonders for WeWork. The fashionable US company is supposedly worth $20bn in privately owned form, even though it is loss-making. By contrast, IWG, a quoted UK firm that has been around for 30 years and is substantially larger, makes profits. Yet it
  
  Read more

• Automation could destroy millions of jobs. We have to deal with it now | Yvette Cooper

  06-08-2018 20:09 via theguardian.com
  Huge change is coming: politicians, unions and business must work together to ensure everyone benefits from itThe robots are coming, artificial intelligence is expanding, yet no one is doing enough to make sure workers benefit rather than losing out. According to a new survey, a quarter of the workforce think their job won’t be needed in future. Many of us expect the technological revolution to be as disruptive as the industrial revolution. This could bring amazing opportunities and emanci
  
  Read more

• Former directors face questioning over Carillion's collapse

  06-08-2018 19:46 via theguardian.com
  Insolvency Service to begin interviewing senior figures branded ‘delusional’ by MPsThe Insolvency Service is to start interviewing former directors of the collapsed government contractor Carillion as it steps up an investigation into one of the biggest corporate failures in recent British history.Nearly seven months after Carillion entered liquidation, the government agency said it had finished transferring 278 contracts to new suppliers as part of a painstaking process designed to e
  
  Read more

• PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi to step down after 12 years in top job

  06-08-2018 18:49 via theguardian.com
  Nooyi, 64, who was born in India and studied at Yale, will remain chairman and hand over CEO duties to Ramon LaguartaIndra Nooyi, one of the world’s most high-profile female chief executives, is stepping down from the top job at PepsiCo after 12 years. Related: German factory orders slump; Brexit fears push pound to 11-month low – business liveContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• EU acts to protect firms from Donald Trump's sanctions against Iran

  06-08-2018 18:39 via theguardian.com
  Companies told to ignore White House demands to drop all business with IranThe EU has launched an attempt to protect European businesses from Donald Trump’s sanctions against Iran as the US administration voiced its intent to apply maximum pressure on Tehran by vigorously applying its punitive measures.
  The sanctions came into force at midnight (US east coast time). At the same time, a blocking statute – last used to protect EU firms from US sanctions against Cuba – was brought
  
  Read more

• Nationwide will not pass on full 0.25% interest rate rise to most savers

  06-08-2018 18:18 via theguardian.com
  Many of the building society’s savers will see only a 0.1% increase Nationwide is not passing on last week’s Bank of England’s 0.25% rate rise in full to savers in the first sign that big financial institutions will use the base rate to increase profit margins.The building society, one of the biggest mortgage and savings institutions in the UK, said that while its tracker mortgage customers will see a 0.25% rise in their payments, many of its savers will see only a 0.1% increas
  
  Read more

• Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC plummets below $7,000 - has the bubble burst?

  06-08-2018 17:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN prices crashed down past $7,000 today as investor confidence fell through the floor. Here are the latest news and live updates.
  
  Read more

• Are Donald Trump's policies hurting long-term US growth? | Kenneth Rogoff

  06-08-2018 17:18 via theguardian.com
  The country’s presidents have more influence over long-term trends than short-term fluctuations President Donald Trump regularly thumps his chest and claims credit for each new uptick of the fast-growing US economy. But when it comes to economic performance, the country’s presidents have considerably more influence over long-term trends than over short-term fluctuations.Trump’s tax cuts and spending hikes have indeed provided extra short-term stimulus. So, too, apparently, have
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Pound to ‘fall HARD!’ Financier claims Sterling will DROP if Brits go with hard Brexit

  06-08-2018 15:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE POUND Sterling will fall if Brits choose a hard Brexit over a softer alternative because it “is all about politics for the pound,” a financial expert warned.
  
  Read more

• Classic car cover steered to happy ending

  06-08-2018 15:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  A CONVIVIAL summer spent visiting classic car shows was the plan for one vintage vehicle fan until confusion over his motor insurance pulled him up short. Clive Rudd’s concern centred on the public liability condition of the specialist cover for his classic 1967 Austin Cambridge.
  
  Read more

• HSBC shares FALL despite profits of £8.2BILLION

  06-08-2018 13:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  EUROPEAN shares floundered on Monday in cautious trading as Europe's biggest bank HSBC disappointed investors, while doubts over a planned $87 billion tie-up with Praxair sank shares in German industrial gases group Linde.
  
  Read more

• HSBC to pay $765m over toxic bond sales in run-up to financial crisis

  06-08-2018 13:20 via theguardian.com
  RBS and Barclays settled for $4.9bn and $2bn respectively with the US justice departmentEurope’s biggest bank, HSBC, has reached a $765m (£591m) settlement with the US Department of Justice to end an investigation into the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.The provisional settlement over the way HSBC packaged up toxic bonds between 2005 and 2007 is smaller than some of the settlements the DoJ has reached with other banks, such as the $4.9bn
  
  Read more

• How to Spend It: the shopping list for the 1% – podcast

  06-08-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  In an age of astonishing wealth, nothing reveals the lives of the ultra-rich like the FT’s unashamedly ostentatious luxury magazine• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• If we value rural Britain, we can’t build houses all over it | Simon Jenkins

  06-08-2018 12:47
  The countryside should not be up for speculative land grab – we need clear rules about which areas are open for developmentGovernment housing policy has lost all contact with planning Britain’s countryside. This week the Campaign to Protect Rural England is up in arms over house-building in green belts, and over the lack of what it calls affordable housing. These are a distraction. It is planning as such that has collapsed.The CPRE is concerned that 8,000 houses were built last year
  
  Read more

• Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP drops as Liam Fox warns of no-deal Brexit

  06-08-2018 11:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound has had a poor start to the week, declining against the US dollar and making losses against most other currency peers. This deterioration in the pound US dollar exchange rate has put Sterling down to a level of $1.297 on fears over a bad Brexit deal.
  
  Read more

• Pound euro exchange rate: GBP steady as Germany suffers sharp fall in factory orders

  06-08-2018 10:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound euro exchange rate is currently trading at €1.123, largely unmoved from today’s opening levels.
  
  Read more

• Amazon’s tax is not transparent – but politicians let them get away with it | Richard Murphy

  06-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Multinationals like Amazon can hide a multitude of sins behind our 20th century accounting procedures. Three reforms could change all thatThere has been much anguish expressed about the latest Amazon accounts for its UK operating company. This is unsurprising. Those accounts suggest that Amazon has increased its UK activity from £1.45bn of sales in 2016 to £1.99bn of sales in 2017, with its profits increasing threefold from £24m to £72m. Yet its overall apparent tax charg
  
  Read more

• Wizz Air was least punctual airline flying from UK last year

  06-08-2018 08:00
  Airline cites severe winter weather for 23-minute average delays shown by CAA data Wizz Air has the worst punctuality record of the busiest airlines operating from UK airports, an investigation has found.The Hungarian carrier’s UK departures were an average of 23 minutes late in 2017, according to Press Association analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Less than clear on milk payments

  06-08-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Milk & More handed my ‘debt’ to collectors even though I didn’t owe them anythingI have used the milk delivery service Milk & More for nine years but when they switched to a new system they set me up as an online and offline customer. Despite paying my bills by direct debit, as always, I began to receive invoices from my milkman. On the new system it was not possible to contact him to inform him I was paying online. I phoned Milk & More several times to say there wa
  
  Read more

• Universal credit flaws leaving families in debt, campaign group says

  06-08-2018 01:01
  Low-income households being wrongly benefit-capped, Child Poverty Action Group says Low-income working families are losing hundreds of pounds each year – and being wrongly denied free healthcare entitlements – because of flaws in the way universal credit is designed, campaigners say. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• New green belt housing applications push total to a record 460,000

  06-08-2018 01:01
  Developers made proposals for 35,000 homes in protected parts of England in 2017Applications to build an additional 35,000 homes on green belt land were submitted last year, taking the total number proposed for construction on protected land to a record 460,000. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• More than 6m workers fear being replaced by machines – report

  06-08-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Government and trade unions urged to do more for those at risk from new technologies More than six million workers are worried their jobs could be replaced by machines over the next decade, according to a report urging trade unions and the government to provide more support for those at risk.The findings come as Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, launches a commission on workers and technology for the Fabian Society and the Community trade union. Contin
  
  Read more

• Camra: more than half of UK adults struggle to afford to drink in pubs

  06-08-2018 01:01
  Average price of pint is £5.20 in London and about £3.50 across Britain, says campaign groupMore than half of adults in the UK are struggling to afford to drink in pubs, according to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). The average price of a pint of beer in London is now £5.20 and regularly tops £6. Across the country, the average is about £3.50, leading to many drinkers staying at home with cans of beer bought in supermarkets instead, said Camra, which warned that m
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!