Investec profits soaring despite crashing South African rand November 20, 2015 Investec, the dual-listed British-South African bank and asset manager, managed to beat forecasts and report 16.5 per cent operating profits,despite the falling South African rand. The bank said its profits, which were at £315m for the six months to the end of September, would have been 22 per cent, were it not for the rand falling 8.2 per cent against the [...]
UK government borrowing for October worst in six years ahead of Autumn Statement November 20, 2015 UK government borrowing figures for October were the worst in six years, providing a potential hindrance to the government's plans to whittle down the deficit. The Office for National Statistics today said public sector net borrowing, excluding banks, rose to £8.2bn in October from £7.1bn a year earlier. This significantly overshot economists' expectations for it to fall [...]
Fill up like it’s 2009: Petrol could dip under £1 a litre, says RAC November 20, 2015 Prices at the pump could soon be back at 2009 levels, with the RAC predicting petrol is on course to drop under £1 a litre. Speaking on the BBC's Today show this morning, RAC chief engineer David Bizley suggested that a "lag" in the system would mean that recent drops in the wholesale fuel price [...]
South east and London: These regions feel most confident about house price growth according to Knight Frank and Markit Economics November 20, 2015 Homeowners in the south east and London think they're sitting on the property equivalent of a gold mine. The Knight Frank and Markit Economics house price sentiment index (HPSI) showed that those in the south east expect the biggest rise in their value of their homes over the next year, followed by Londoners. In fact, expectations for house price [...]
Euro falls as European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi hints at rate cut and changes to QE…again November 20, 2015 Dovish coos from European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi has sent the euro low against the dollar…again. Speaking at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt today, he said: "We consider the asset purchase programme to be a powerful and flexible instrument, as it can be adjusted in terms of size, composition or duration to achieve a [...]
Black Friday 2015 UK: Why here at very.co.uk we can’t wait for Cyber Week’s big shopping day November 20, 2015 Black Friday was our biggest trading day last year, and we can't wait for it again this year. We're planning bigger and better deals over a longer period to make this Black Friday our best ever. Over Cyber Week last year we got nearly 50,000 new customers and we were delighted almost half of them [...]
ABN Amro share price rises after it sets IPO price at €17.75 per share November 20, 2015 Bailed-out bank ABN Amro priced its shares at €17.75 (£12.42) per share, the mid-point of its proposed range, giving it a market capitalisation of €16.7bn. The dutch government sold 188m shares, amounting to a 23 per cent stake, at €17.75 (£12.42) per share, helping it re-coup €3.3bn. "The stock market lising is an important milestone," Gerrit Zalm, chief executive of ABN [...]
Nationwide continues run of good form as it reports pre-tax profits up a third November 20, 2015 Nationwide building society continues to benefit from a strong housing market and customers switching current accounts, posting pre-tax profits up by a third. The figures Pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September rose by 34 per cent to £802m, up from £598 in the same period a year ago. There were more than [...]
Boards must be the voice of reason for young entrepreneurs like Tinder’s Sean Rad November 20, 2015 An interview given this week by Sean Rad, the founder and chief executive of dating site Tinder, was eyebrow-raising for several reasons. First was the description of a woman “begging” him for sex and an admission that he conducted rather ominous-sounding “background research” on a female journalist who was critical of Tinder. But more importantly, Rad [...]
John Lewis tills ring with £100m of weekly sales in countdown to Christmas as Black Friday 2015 draws near November 20, 2015 John Lewis has posted a jump in sales to deliver its first £100m week of the festive season, the department store group revealed today. Sales in the week ending 14 November increased by 1.5 per cent on last year and by 15.8 per cent on the previous week, boosted by its Man on the Moon [...]