The One to Watch: Rising star Sajid Javid joins the cabinet April 9, 2014 SAJID Javid has been named as the new culture secretary. He is the first-ever Asian man to join the UK cabinet, and replaces Maria Miller, who resigned yesterday over public anger at her expenses. The son of a bus driver, and a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, Javid is a rising Tory star. First [...]
Billionaire Mike Ashley offloads a £218m stake in Sports Direct April 7, 2014 SPORTS Direct founder Mike Ashley is to sell £218m of his majority stake in the retailer in the latest twist in a series of events that saw him snap up a stake in House of Fraser just days ago. Ashley is selling up to 25m shares in Sports Direct through an accelerated bookbuilding run by [...]
He’s back: Star stockpicker Neil Woodford returns to City in spectacular style April 3, 2014 THE MOST celebrated stock market guru in Britain made a bold step back into the fray yesterday after clinching a deal to manage more than £3.5bn of cash from one of the country’s biggest wealth managers. Money manager Neil Woodford, whose investment prowess would have turned £1,000 of cash in 1990 into £23,265 today, has [...]
FCA boss Wheatley says he won’t quit over insurance blunder April 1, 2014 Martin Wheatley is not intending to step down as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority after last week’s embarrassing episode when it bungled an announcement on a new insurance probe. The regulator is investigating the fees and charges faced by savers with policies dating back forty years. The announcement saw shares in insurers plummet [...]
Hollande hires Blairite PM in French reshuffle March 31, 2014 FRENCH President Francois Hollande reshuffled his government last night in the wake of disastrous local elections which saw the rise of the far right National Front. In a major U-turn the Socialist leader veered away from the left wing of his party, appointing a Blairite moderniser as his new Prime Minister. Manuel Valls had been [...]
Heathrow and Boris clash over airport’s future March 31, 2014 HEATHROW has been drawn into a political dogfight over its role as a magnet for business, with the Mayor of London claiming a new town and technology hub on the site of the airport could lift the city’s economy. Meanwhile, Heathrow has argued that firms based nearby would downsize rather than adapt to a new [...]
Markets jump on Yellen’s jobs speech March 31, 2014 Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has been speaking in Chicago on the health of the US economy and what the Fed's doing to promote a stronger jobs market. For many Americans, she said, “the recovery still feels like a recession” and “it also looks that way in some economic statistics”. The US economy [...]
Three things Boris wants to build at Heathrow instead of a new runway March 31, 2014 The Mayor of London has been a vocal supporter of a new airport to the east of London, so much so that one of the options was at one stage nicknamed Boris Island. Today, Boris Johnson has set out three possible uses for Heathrow if it were to close and make way for an East [...]
Draghi’s sleeping at the wheel as Eurozone inflation hits 0.5pc March 31, 2014 Inflation in the Eurozone has fallen by more than expected in March, to 0.5 per cent year-on-year – that’s the lowest it’s been since November 2009. Although the number probably captured, in part, temporary factors relating to the timing of Easter this year, it's still weaker than was hoped for. Analysts had expected a reading [...]
Hollande hit by National Front gains in France March 31, 2014 FRENCH President Francois Hollande suffered a humiliating blow in yesterday’s local elections, as his ruling Socialist party lost out to both its mainstream right-wing rival and to the National Front (FN). Results last night showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration FN had added 10 town halls to its victory last week in Henin-Beaumont, while over 100 [...]