Financial news

• M&S to air low-key Christmas ad in attempt to drive sales

  08-11-2018 21:27
  Cinematic ad ditched in favour of Holly Willoughby, Keith Lemon and focus on low pricesMarks & Spencer has eschewed a John Lewis-style blockbuster Christmas ad in favour of a TV and social media campaign starring Celebrity Juice duo Holly Willoughby and Keith Lemon with a sharper focus on its products and prices.Last year the struggling retailer’s ads featured Paddington, but while the ad attracted nearly 7m views on YouTube alone, its Christmas sales were a washout. Continue reading..
  
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• Merger of SSE and npower is hanging in the balance

  08-11-2018 21:07
  Companies admit tie-up is threatened by government’s price cap and market conditionsThe merger of two of the UK’s biggest energy firms is hanging in the balance after npower and SSE said they would have to reconsider the terms of the deal because of the government’s price cap and tough market conditions.Late on Thursday the companies admitted the merger was unlikely to complete at the start of 2019 as planned, due to the new considerations. Continue reading...
  
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• Burberry hails response to new designer Riccardo Tisci

  08-11-2018 19:50
  Fashion house offers upbeat message to investors despite falling first-half revenuesBritish fashion house Burberry has hailed an “exceptional” response to the designs introduced by new creative boss Riccardo Tisci, in spite of falling revenues in the first half of its financial year.Revenues fell by 3% to £1.22bn for the 26 weeks ending on 29 September compared with the same period last year, the company said. Continue reading...
  
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• Business leaders call for second Brexit referendum

  08-11-2018 19:42
  Business for a People’s Vote says most firms support choice between May’s deal and staying in EUBusiness leaders are calling for a final say on Brexit, with a majority of firms backing a second referendum that would give voters a choice between Theresa May’s deal and staying in the EU.A campaign group called Business for a People’s Vote, launched on Thursday, said that 57% of firms are in favour of a second referendum, according to a new YouGov poll, with support building
  
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• In search of a fairer system of taxation | Letters

  08-11-2018 18:49
  Readers respond to Polly Toynbee’s suggestion that the inability to raise tax has become Britain’s political diseasePolly Toynbee’s suggestion that higher taxes for all are inevitable (The refusal to raise tax has become our national disease, 6 November) ignores numerous different approaches, changes in priorities and potential savings that could mean we can all enjoy higher levels of investment in public services without raising taxes or increasing borrowing.In September, AAT
  
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• KPMG to drop non-audit services for its FTSE 350 clients

  08-11-2018 18:43
  First of big four makes move amid pressure over high-profile accounting failuresThe accountancy firm KPMG will stop providing non-audit services to big listed companies whose finances they are inspecting after coming under intense pressure over perceived conflicts of interest.Bill Michael, KPMG’s UK chair, said the firm would stop providing non-audit services for FTSE 350 companies “to remove even the perception of a possible conflict”, in a memo to partners sent on Thursday. T
  
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• Oil trading firms with ties to UK named in Brazil's Car Wash corruption scandal

  08-11-2018 18:00
  Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura feature in report by campaign group Global WitnessThree global oil trading companies with strong ties to the UK face being dragged into Brazil’s “Car Wash” investigation, after a report raised questions about their connections to businessmen named in the vast corruption scandal.Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura, which boast combined annual revenues of more than half a trillion dollars, feature in a report by the campaign group Global Witness that uncov
  
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• UBS will 'vigorously' defend DoJ lawsuit over financial crash

  08-11-2018 17:39
  Swiss bank has already paid $230m to New York and says it was a victim of financial crisisThe Swiss bank UBS has pledged to vigorously defend itself in a pending lawsuit by the US justice department, which has already clawed billions of dollars from lenders over the mis-selling of complex financial products that contributed to the 2008 financial crash.The Department of Justice (DoJ) told UBS it planned to file a case as early as Thursday, which is set to focus on the sale of residential mortgage
  
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• Bitcoin price news: 10-year forecast shows bitcoin 'WON'T DIE' - Latest BTC prediction

  08-11-2018 17:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN is set to rocket in value due to the power of Distributed Ledger Technology , a bitcoin expert believes.
  
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• UK to fall to bottom of European growth league next year – business live

  08-11-2018 15:46
  New EC growth forecasts warn that rising global uncertainty, international trade tensions and higher oil prices will weigh on EuropeLatest: UK to be joint-slowest economy with Italy in 2019UK then expected to underperform all EU in 2020UK unemployment expected to riseCommission forecasts show growth slowdownEarlier:German exports fell 0.8% in September
  Economist: Trade war and car emissions tests to blame2.46pm GMT Economists at HSBC have bad news for Germany: they believe its economy probably s
  
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• UK economic growth tipped to be slowest in Europe next year

  08-11-2018 15:38
  European commission says UK will join Italy at foot of growth league even with a soft BrexitThe UK will sink to the bottom of the European economic growth league next year to join Italy as the slowest-growing economy in the EU, before falling further the year after to anchor the table alone, according to European commission forecasts.The EU’s gloomy predictions are based on a soft Brexit – meaning Britain is expected to lag behind all its EU peers even if Theresa May can reach a deal
  
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• Toshiba's failure shows private sector cannot deliver nuclear future for UK | Phillip Inman

  08-11-2018 15:30
  As Cumbria reactor plan stalls, it is clear that huge resources are needed for such projectsIf the government was keen to boost Britain’s nuclear industry, it was always clear that the private market could never deliver.The decision by Toshiba to close down its UK operations is a case in point. After a deal to build a new plant at Hinkley Point with the French firm EDF, Toshiba was favoured by ministers to design and construct a smaller reactor on the Cumbrian coast. Continue reading...
  
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• The history of car dashboards – video

  08-11-2018 15:23
  Now you’ll find everything from night vision to infotainment systems controlled by hand gestures, but car dashboards originally solved a much more basic problem: stopping drivers from getting covered in mudContinue reading...
  
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• Sainsbury's blames staff cuts and UK heatwave for stock shortages

  08-11-2018 14:52
  Supermarket admits the axing of thousands of management roles left it unready for unusually busy summerSainsbury’s has admitted staff cuts led to gaps on its shelves over the summer as it ran out of stock, but the supermarket’s boss has promised stores are now back to normal.“We were undoubtedly challenged on availability [over the summer],” Mike Coupe, the chief executive of the UK’s second largest supermarket said. Continue reading...
  
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• Amazon's AbeBooks backs down after booksellers stage global protest

  08-11-2018 14:51
  After almost 600 booksellers withdrew 3.5m books from the secondhand marketplace in support of countries dropped by the website, it apologises for a ‘bad decision’An “extraordinary and unprecedented” global protest from antiquarian booksellers has forced the Amazon-owned secondhand marketplace AbeBooks to backtrack on its decision to pull out of several countries. Related: Booksellers unite in protest as Amazon's AbeBooks withdraws from several countriesContinue reading..
  
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• One in 10 rental homes advertised as excluding benefits claimants

  08-11-2018 14:21
  Shelter says landlords insisting ‘no DSS’ causes misery and is likely to be unlawfulAt least one in 10 rental properties in England could be being unlawfully advertised by explicitly discriminating against people on housing benefit, housing charities have said.Analysis of around 86,000 letting agents’ adverts on the property website Zoopla by the homeless charity Shelter and the National Housing Federation (a trade association for social housing providers) in England found 8,71
  
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• Michelle Obama event ticket touted for £70k on Viagogo

  08-11-2018 13:18
  Tickets for former first lady’s London talk on sale for hundreds of times face value on secondary ticketing siteDozens of tickets to see Michelle Obama speak at London’s Royal Festival Hall have been snapped up by touts and are already on sale for more than £70,000 on the controversial ticket resale website Viagogo.Minutes after the phone lines opened for seats at a talk by the former first lady, Viagogo – based in Switzerland – was already offering seats for more t
  
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• Pound v US dollar exchange rate: Currency traders shrug off Congress gridlock

  08-11-2018 12:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  The pound is trading today against the dollar at a rate of €1.312, which is unmoved on the day and slightly down on yesterday’s rate. Markets generally shrugged off any fallout from the US midterm elections, which saw the House of Representatives pass to the Democrats, while the Republicans consolidated their grip on the Senate.
  
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• Pound euro exchange rate: GBP/EUR trading at 6-month high as German exports tumble

  08-11-2018 11:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  The GBP/EUR exchange rate is trading around €1.148 this morning, holding close to its opening rates but still trading at its best levels since April. The pound remains buoyed against the euro, with the pairing looking to build on Wednesday’s gains following the publication of the Germany’s latest trade balance.
  
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• Tesla names new chair to replace Elon Musk

  08-11-2018 10:09
  Robyn Denholm, one of two female directors on the board, assumes her new role immediatelyTesla has appointed Robyn Denholm as chair of its board, replacing the electric carmaker’s billionaire founder Elon Musk.Denholm, one of two female directors on the nine-member board, assumes her new position immediately, Tesla said. It will become full-time once she leaves her role as chief financial officer and head of strategy at Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, after her six-mont
  
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• Marks & Spencer boss: business overhaul will leave 'no stone unturned'

  08-11-2018 08:53
  Clothing and food sales fall but CEO Steve Rowe claims work is well under way to reverse chain’s fortunes
  Marks & Spencer boss Steve Rowe said it was leaving “no stone unturned” as a new management line-up overhauls “every aspect” of its struggling clothing and food stores in a bid to appeal to younger shoppers.After more than a decade of failed attempts to revive the high street giant, Rowe gave a stark assessment of the chain’s problems as it recorded a
  
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• Samsung should try imagining a world where big firms respect workers

  08-11-2018 08:00
  Two years after migrants working for global electronics firms in Malaysia complained of labour abuses, change seems slowThink of your favourite gadgets and appliances, and it’s likely some of them started life in a rundown, mosquito-infested dormitory complex an hour’s drive from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.In each block there is a makeshift kitchen, a small, grubby toilet and three rooms crowded with bunk beds. There is no air conditioning to break the oppressively humid
  
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• Why won't a shower firm honour its lifetime guarantee?

  08-11-2018 07:00
  I bought a Daryl shower but Kohler, the owner, says it won’t replace its broken door runnersI brought a Daryl shower manufactured by Kohler with a lifetime guarantee in 2007. When the runners on the doors broke recently, I called Kohler about replacements, only to be told my guarantee is no longer valid as Kohler has taken over Daryl. I don’t understand as the lifetime guarantee should be honoured whether or not the company has been taken over. GS, CarshaltonYour tale is worryingly f
  
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• UK property market at its weakest for six years, says Rics

  08-11-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Surveyors body expects prices to fall in the south and south-east over next three monthsThe UK property market is at its weakest for six years, with prices flat or falling across half the country according to Britain’s official surveyors body, with reports that sales are “in limbo” until a Brexit deal emerges.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said its monthly survey of members found “the weakest reading since September 2012” in October, with prices
  
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