Financial news

• State pension increase: Here is all you need to know as payments go up in April

  11-04-2024 22:36 via express.co.uk
  Pensioners will get another record income boost in April 2024.
  
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• The danger in saying yes to Pascal Soriot’s pay rise at AstraZeneca | Nils Prately

  11-04-2024 20:12
  
  Despite rebellion, approval of £18.7m package opens door to likelihood of US-style executive pay elsewhereIs Pascal Soriot, the chief executive of AstraZeneca, “massively underpaid”, as the chief investment officer of Florida-based GQG Partners, one of the company’s big shareholders, argued this week? Well, of course he’s not. Soriot has been paid £120m over the past decade, which is a helluva sum even for someone who has been brilliantly successful in leading
  
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• 'Shortchanged!' State pension scandal as just one in three get full 8.5% triple lock hike

  11-04-2024 20:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Millions of pensioners are being short changed through "dishonest" state pension payouts, campaigners say.
  
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• Green Man Gaming champions players, studios and developers worldwide

  11-04-2024 19:54 via express.co.uk
  UK digital video games company Green Man Gaming has vast library for seasoned players and first timers as it backs developers and studios with its global strategy.
  
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• Post office operator wrongly jailed while pregnant rejects executive’s apology

  11-04-2024 19:20
  
  Managing director David Smith emailed team in 2010 to say Seema Misra’s conviction was ‘brilliant news’A post office operator who was wrongly prosecuted while pregnant has rejected a Post Office executive’s apology for having sent an email celebrating her conviction as “brilliant news”.The inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal heard that David Smith, who was managing director of the Post Office for seven months during 2010, sent the email to his team after learn
  
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• AstraZeneca CEO’s £18.7m pay approved despite shareholder rebellion

  11-04-2024 19:14
  
  Third of voters reject Pascal Soriot’s deal but some say it is deserved as he had been ‘massively underpaid’AstraZeneca has suffered a shareholder rebellion against an £18.7m pay packet for the pharmaceutical company’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, with more than a third of votes cast opposing the deal.At its annual meeting in London 35.5% rejected the company’s remuneration policy, rising to 38.5% including withheld votes. In addition 34.7% voted against am
  
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• Central banks must resist pressure for early rate cuts, says IMF head

  11-04-2024 19:12
  
  Kristalina Georgieva also cautions of danger of ‘tepid twenties’ – a decade of sluggish economic growthBusiness live – latest updatesUK politics – latest updatesThe world’s leading central banks must resist calls from politicians for early interest rate cuts amid concerns over stubbornly high inflation on both sides of the Atlantic, the head of the International Monetary Fund has urged.Kristalina Georgieva said high inflation across advanced economies was &ldq
  
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• Reviving Sure Start would be a vote-winner for Labour | Letters

  11-04-2024 18:46
  
  John Bercow says the early years programme was a crucial life enhancer for millions of children and could be a key election battleground. Plus letters from Prof Gary Craig, Deborah Hayter, Keith Reed and Ian WrigglesworthAs a sinner who long ago repenteth, may I echo the call by Gordon Brown and the three former Labour education secretaries for an election pledge by Labour to revive the Sure Start programme (Senior Labour figures call for ‘life-transforming’ Sure Start policy, 9 Apri
  
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• UK startup lifts lid on plan to turn human waste into jet fuel

  11-04-2024 18:29
  
  Low-cost airline Wizz Air puts in 525,000-tonne order for product of Firefly’s proposed refinery in EssexAircraft could one day take off on fuel made from human waste under plans revealed by Wizz Air and the British sustainable aviation company Firefly to build a commercial refinery in Essex.Firefly, based in Bristol, said it had developed a process to convert treated sewage into sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. Continue reading...
  
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• AstraZeneca issues its decision on £19million pay packet for chief executive

  11-04-2024 18:15 via express.co.uk
  
  AstraZeneca investors have backed/rejected plans to hike chief executive Pascal Soriot's pay package to £19million, after it tried to sway them ahead of the vote with a £247million dividend boost.
  
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• Darktrace expecting 25.5 per cent growth thanks to growing cybersecurity demands

  11-04-2024 17:37 via express.co.uk
  Cyber security specialist Darktrace has upgraded its forecasts for the third time this year, thanks to growing demand for protection from AI-powered hackers and cybercrime-as-a-service groups
  
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• UK has real concerns about AI risks, says competition regulator

  11-04-2024 16:57
  
  Concentration of power among just six big tech companies ‘could lead to winner takes all dynamics’Just six major technology companies are at the heart of the AI sector through an “interconnected web” of more than 90 investments and partnerships links, the UK’s competition regulator has warned, sparking increased concern about the anti-competitive nature of the technology.Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said AI foundation
  
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• UK government to relax rules to get 18-year-olds driving buses

  11-04-2024 15:46
  
  Shortage in Great Britain prompts moves to lower minimum age requirements for bus and coach driversIt’s not just police officers: bus drivers will be officially getting younger under government plans to relax laws on 18-year-olds behind the wheel.A shortage of drivers across the transport industry has prompted moves to lower minimum age requirements for bus and coach drivers in Great Britain, as well as speeding up training for bus, coach and lorry drivers. Continue reading...
  
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• Poundstretcher 'being sold to US group which owns Majestic Wines'

  11-04-2024 15:42 via express.co.uk
  
  Discount chain Poundstretcher is reportedly being sold to US private equity group Fortress, the owner of Majestic Wine, for an undisclosed sum.
  
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• Neil Woodford’s understanding of risk ‘defective’, FCA says

  11-04-2024 15:38
  
  Watchdog issues warning notice to former star stockpicker over collapse of his fund in 2019The former star stockpicker Neil Woodford has been hit with a warning notice by the Financial Conduct Authority over the spectacular collapse of his fund five years ago, with the watchdog accusing him of having “defective understanding” of liquidity risks faced by the fund.In the warning issued on Thursday, the FCA said it intended to take action against Woodford and Woodford Investment Managem
  
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• ‘I was struggling with £40,000 debt - these steps have changed my life’

  11-04-2024 15:33 via express.co.uk
  
  Kelly said a weight "has been lifted" off her shoulders, and urges anyone in a similar position to seek similar help.
  
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• Climate target organisation faces staff revolt over carbon-offsetting plan

  11-04-2024 15:11
  
  Employees at SBTi have called for their CEO to resign over controversial plans which they fear will enable greenwashingStaff at one of the world’s leading climate-certification organisations have called for the CEO and board members to resign after they announced plans to allow companies to meet their climate targets with carbon offsets.They fear that companies will use the offsets for greenwashing, while avoiding making the necessary cuts in greenhouse gas emissions – without which
  
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• Mortgage and credit card default rates are rising - and it's expected to get worse

  11-04-2024 14:28 via express.co.uk
  
  The Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey found that default rates on mortgages, credit cards and other household loans have recently increased.
  
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• Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in $27bn fraud case

  11-04-2024 14:10
  
  Truong My Lan found guilty of embezzling from Saigon Commercial Bank in case that was part of wider crackdownA prominent property tycoon has been sentenced to death for her role in Vietnam’s biggest-ever fraud case.Truong My Lan, the chair of the developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules on Thursday, in a case that has shocked the country. A total of $12.5bn (£10bn) was embezzled, the equivalent of almost 3% of Vietnamese gros
  
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• Powering ambitions: building the net-zero energy workforce

  11-04-2024 13:58
  
  The drive to meet our climate targets is radically reshaping the workforce of tomorrow. What shape will it take, and what opportunities will it provide for the next generation?Achieving net zero by 2050 is one of the great challenges of our time, but one that will bring many benefits. Not only will it bring cleaner, more affordable and more secure energy to homes and businesses across the country, but a low carbon future also presents huge economic prospects for the UK, as well as jobs for futur
  
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• Clean energy myths: is it really too expensive and not reliable?

  11-04-2024 13:57
  
  From cost to London-centrism, there are a lot of myths surrounding clean energy. Read on to find out why they’re wrongIn the years ahead, more and more of our energy will come from renewable sources as we aim to transition to a cleaner, greener era. And it’s a matter of when, not if: the International Energy Agency says that the world is now on an “unstoppable” shift towards clean energy.In the UK, to transport this clean energy from where it will be generated to the home
  
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• Profits in Rees-Mogg’s investment firm halved in year before closure announced

  11-04-2024 13:07
  
  Somerset Capital Management’s profits in year to end of March dropped from £9.1m to £4.2m, accounts showProfits at Somerset Capital Management, the investment firm co-founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg, more than halved in the year before managers announced the once-$10bn fund would be wound down.Accounts filed at Companies House on Thursday show Somerset Capital Management’s profits in the year to 31 March 2023 dropped to £4.2m from £9.1m the previous year, and &poun
  
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• Poundstretcher sold to Majestic Wine owner Fortress

  11-04-2024 13:04
  
  US investment firm snaps up UK discount retail chain ‘with huge potential’ for undisclosed sumPoundstretcher has been bought by the US investment firm Fortress, the owner of the Majestic Wine off-licence and Punch pubs group, for an undisclosed sum.The deal for the UK discount retail chain, which includes its 322 shops, of which about 60 trade under the name Bargain Buys, is the latest twist in the history of one of Britain’s first discounters, which has undergone a number of r
  
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• It crawled from below 50 years ago: how the global Dungeons & Dragons empire began in a basement

  11-04-2024 13:00
  
  The fantasy tabletop role-playing game was conceived of by friends at the heart of Wisconsin’s gaming community, and has evolved to become a global phenomenonThere are 15 of us crammed into a cellar beneath a nondescript house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. To the uninformed observer, there’s nothing to see down here: just two low rooms, bare breeze-block walls, a ceiling lined with pipes. Yet we’re all looking about the place in hushed awe, like tourists staring up at the ceiling
  
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• Four big tax myths flying around on TikTok: ‘Anyone who follows this is in for a world of hurt’

  11-04-2024 13:00
  
  As Tax Day approaches, accountants debunk some money-saving claims that are a little too good to be trueYou can find anything on TikTok from book reviews to sex education classes. So it’s unsurprising that some people hit up the app for tax advice. Just try not to be one of those people yourself.The Washington Post reported this week that “bad tax advice is multiplying on TikTok”, with accountants-slash-influencers (or sketchy “financial experts” who boast absolutel
  
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• Companies are using inflation to price-gouge Americans – and making it worse | Robert Reich

  11-04-2024 12:01
  
  Thanks to near-monopolies in many industries, corporations are seeing record profits as consumers struggle with high pricesWe learned this week that the Consumer Price Index climbed 3.5% in March from a year earlier, up from 3.2% in February, and faster than most economists anticipated.This poses a conundrum for central bankers who have made it clear they want to see further evidence that inflation is cooling before they cut interest rates.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a profe
  
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• UK house prices should return to growth in next year, Rics survey shows

  11-04-2024 08:00
  
  Poll indicates prices stabilised in March as new property listings and buyer interest increasedHouse prices across the UK are expected to return to growth within the next 12 months after an increase in new property listings and buyer interest, according to an industry poll.The latest monthly snapshot from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) showed property prices stabilised in March after months of decline amid the impact of higher interest rates and the cost of living crisis. Co
  
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• Greece launches ‘free’ holidays for tourists who fled 2023 Rhodes wildfires

  11-04-2024 07:00
  
  Up to 25,000 holidaymakers, mainly from Britain, in line for vouchers to covera week’s hotel stayIt has required new legislation and navigation of copious red tape but nine months after wildfires devastated Rhodes, Greece has launched the first “free” holidays for thousands of tourists forced to flee the island.In a decision tourism officials call a world first, up to 25,000 affected holidaymakers will, as of this week, be eligible for compensation. Continue reading...
  
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• Is Shell trying to kill the London stock market?

  11-04-2024 06:00
  
  The biggest company on the market is threatening to leave. That is a different order of seriousness than seeing Flutter and CRH fleeLast July, Wael Sawan, the chief executive of Shell, told the BBC about the terrific time he had on a visit to the New York stock exchange. The welcome was “exemplary”, he enthused, and the locals even flew the Shell flag next to their own. “They [the NYSE officials] said we continue to value a company that provides us the energy we desperately nee
  
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• UK heat pump adopters open up homes to encourage others to ditch gas boilers

  11-04-2024 01:01
  
  VisitAHeatPump service allows householders to look and ask questions aboutlow-carbon systemUK householders considering swapping their gas boiler for an electric heat pump could see how they work by visiting an early adopter in their area.A new service aims to help would-be heat pump owners to book a visit with households that already have one installed, through a website launched by the innovation charity Nesta. Continue reading...
  
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