Walmart, With Billions to Spend, Seeks Flipkart E-Commerce Site in India
The company is said to be in talks to acquire Flipkart, India’s leading online retailer, to counter Amazon’s push into the country.
Biafra Activist - Biafra Or Dead. No Going Back
Barclays sinks to loss thanks to $2bn US settlement and more PPI costs
Bank reports quarterly pre-tax loss of £236m, down from profits of £1.68bn in the same period last year
Barclays swung to a loss in the first quarter as further payment protection insurance (PPI) charges and a £1.4bn settlement with the US Department of Justice knocked profits.
The UK bank reported a pre-tax loss of £236m for the three months to 31 March, having reported profits of £1.68bn in the same period last year.
Stripped of litigation and conduct charges, pre-tax profits rose 1 per cent to £1.7bn, while attributable profit came in at £1.2bn.
Read more Barclays boss Staley stronger than he looks in face of activist attack The bank was hit by a $2bn (£1.4bn) settlement reached with the US Department of Justice earlier this month, related to the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the lead-up to the financial crisis.
Chief executive Jes Staley said: “While the penalty was substantial, this settlement represents a major milestone for Barclays, putting behind us a significa..
Poundworld to close up to 100 stores putting 1,500 jobs at risk
Company expected to announce terms of turnaround plan next month
Discount chain Poundworld is pursuing a restructuring plan that could see it shut around a third of its stores, putting more than 1,500 jobs in doubt.
Poundworld is considering a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), an insolvency procedure which would allow it to slash its rents and close stores.
Under the plans, Poundworld could close 100 of its 355 stores.
Read more Poundworld fined £1.2m for 'out-of-control' rodent infestation Rising costs and a squeeze on consumer spending has forced several household names to pursue CVAs this year, including New Look, Byron, Prezzo and Carpetright.
Poundworld, which is owned by private equity firm TPG Capital, is expected to announce the terms of the CVA next month.
Landlords will then vote on whether to approve the proposal. All of the major CVAs proposed this year have been rubber-stamped by landlords.
TPG Capital also owns restaurant chain Prezzo, whi..
Facebook profits soar 63% to $5bn despite Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal
Facebook profits soared 63 per cent to $5bn (£3.6bn) in the first three months of the year despite the company being engulfed in a data privacy scandal that has angered millions of users.
Allegations that up to 87 million Facebook users’ data was collected without their knowledge and then used by Cambridge Analytica to try to sway the US Presidential election and the Brexit vote, did little to slow the tech company’s rapid growth.
Total revenues jumped 49 per cent compared to the same three months last year, Facebook reported on Wednesday.
Read more Professor apologises for helping Cambridge Analytica harvest data Facebook has been scrambling to mollify angry politicians and reassure users that it will safeguard their personal information.
Amid the turmoil, observers were keenly watching the company’s user figures to assess the potential damage and see if the scandal would suppress Facebook’s growth.
Despite high-profile social media campaigns calling users to boycott Faceboo..
Caster Semenya will have to reduce hormone levels to compete at Olympics
Caster Semenya's middle distance dominance in women's track and field could come to an end as new eligibility regulations mean the South African will have to reduce her natural hormone levels if she is to be allowed to compete at Olympics and world championships.
Barclays boss Staley stronger than he looks in face of activist attack
The bank's past problems are unwinding as it attempts to get clarity on Edward Bramson's demands
On the eve of Barclays results, the elephant in the room decided to trumpet.
Activist investor Ed Bramson, who is advocating a shake up, upped his stake in the bank that he has built up through his investment vehicle, Sherborne.
It was only by a bit, from 5.16 per cent to 5.41 per cent, but people like him don’t have to do much to get the markets and media saying “ooh look at that” and Mr Bramson was thus being talked about as much as the bank’s first quarter results when they were released.
Read more Barclays: Can whistleblowers be confident after FCA warns CEO Staley? Barclays boss Jes Staley to be fined over whistleblower scandal Barclays agrees to pay $2bn to settle US fraud case They showed a loss, partly because of still more payment protection insurance compensation provisions, partly because of the $2bn (£1.2bn)cost of settling a mortgage mis-selling case in the U..
UK houses now cost almost eight times average earnings, says ONS
The average house price to earnings ratio has hit 7.77, up from 7.6 in 2016 and the highest in the official time series going back to 2002
Workers in England and Wales need to fork out almost eight times their annual income in order to buy an average house, according to the latest official estimates, underlining how unaffordable house purchasing has become for many.
Read more The UK economy suffers if millennials become permanent renters The Office for National Statistics reported on Thursday that average house in 2017 rose 4.5 per cent to £225,000.
However, median gross annual full-time earnings in 2017 were £28,952, up only 2.1 per cent over the 12 months.
Those figures meant that the average house price to earnings ratio has hit 7.77, up from 7.6 in 2016 and the highest in the official time series.
Banks and building societies will typically only lend people mortgages up to 4.5 times their gross salary, although home buying couples can combine their incomes for this measure…
TSB waives overdraft fees and increases interest rate but customers still locked out
Chief executive Paul Pester refuses to commit to giving up £1.6m bonus over IT fiasco
TSB is waiving all overdraft fees in April and has increased the interest rate on its current account to 5 per cent, but half of its customers still can’t access online banking as an IT fiasco stretches into its seventh day.
Chief executive Paul Pester repeatedly refused to commit to waiving his bonus over serious failures that also allowed some people to view other customers’ financial details.
When probed on the BBC’s Today Programme, the under-fire bank boss said that pay was the “last thing on [his] mind”.
Read more TSB customers still locked out, bank claims systems 'up and running' When quizzed again on whether he would commit to forgoing the bonus, which could be as much as £1.6m, Mr Pester said, “That is a question for the board; for the remuneration committee.”
He admitted that the situation was “not good enough” and said that he was “putting things right”.
“Many customers..
The Era of Very Low Inflation and Interest Rates May Be Near an End
Moves in global bond markets over the last few months suggest changing expectations about prices.
Norwegian Air's growth plans could be hit by engine problems on Boeing 787 jets
The low-cost airline made a loss of 4.16m between January and March