Category Archives: BUSINESS

UK businesses intent on hiring at record high, new research shows

Business output rises to a seven month high as employers intend to hire more
UK firms’ hiring intentions are at record highs as business output hit a seven month high, new research shows.
Accountant and business advisor BDO said on Monday that its monthly Optimism Index, which measures how firms expect their order books to develop over the next six months, saw UK business output rise up to 100.05 in March from 99.78 in February.
It says the rise bucks the average long-term trend of 100, and is the highest reading since August last year.
Read more UK economy will be worst in G7 this year, City bosses warn Business optimism increased in March to 102.26, up year-on-year from 100.92.
The company’s employment index, which indicates firm’s hiring intentions, rose by over 4 points to 112.09 in March compared to the same period last year.
The BDO says this is the highest ever projection it has made for employment, and says the trend will continue as UK businesses invest more in peopl..

Rolls-Royce to boost balance sheet with £610m sale of technology business L'Orange

The engineering group's chief exec said the deal was part of a wider strategy of simplifying the business
Rolls-Royce has agreed to sell technology firm L’Orange to US aerospace group Woodward for €700m (£610m).
The group said the proceeds of the sale will be re-invested into the company “to improve the resilience of the balance sheet”.
Read more Rolls Royce warns Brexit will disrupt global supply chain L’Orange is a Stuttgart-based subsidiary of Rolls-Royce’s power systems business with 1,000 employees based in Germany, the US and China.
The firm, which supplies fuel injection technology for specialist engines, has agreed a long-term supply agreement to remain an “important” partner of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, for an initial period of 15 years.
Warren East, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said the deal was another step in the group’s plan to simplify the business.
Selling L’Orange, Mr East said, will allow Rolls-Royce Power Systems to “focus on other long-term, hi..

Average UK house price rose to a record high in first quarter of 2018

The bank said UK mortgages are the most affordable they have been in a decade
House prices across the UK rose 2.7 per cent in the first three months of 2018, compared with the same period of last year, according to the Halifax house price index.
The average price hit £227,871 in March, the highest on record, however, prices for the quarter were 0.1 per cent lower compared to the previous three months.
Meanwhile, Halifax said mortgages in the UK are “at their most affordable level in a decade”, with activity in the housing market slower than this time last year.
Read more First 'digital mortgage' signed online in London The bank said there are “no signs that the acute shortage of stock of homes available for sale is easing”.
Home sales in February stood at 101,000, the same as in January. Mortgage approvals dropped by 5 per cent between the first and second months of the year, according to Bank of England data.
“Mortgage approvals are down compared to 12 months ag..

Airtasker: How moving house inspired Tim Fung to create a business designed to make peoples' lives easier

Airtasker launched in the UK in March amid a backlash against the gig economy
Tim Fung first had an inkling of the business that would become Airtasker when he was moving house in his native Sydney, Australia, in 2011.
He asked a friend who runs a factory to bring his truck over to help move boxes and they spent the whole weekend packing, moving stuff to the new house and cleaning everything up. When they were done, Fung thanked his friend, who turned around and said that was the fourth time someone had asked for help moving house recently.
Read more Gig economy union for NHS couriers wins right to recognition Growing number of older workers taking gig jobs before retirement Gig economy: May has yet again failed to turn rhetoric into action “It got me thinking, why do we ask our friends and family to do these jobs for free when there are people around who would do it for money?” Fung says. The company, founded in 2012, has since grown it to 2 million users in Australia. It recent..

Deutsche Bank sacks chief executive John Cryan after three years of losses

Mr Cryan joined the bank as CEO in 2015
Deutsche Bank has ousted British chief executive John Cryan after years of losses at the lender.
Mr Cryan has been replaced by Christian Sewing, who has worked at Deutsche for 25 years and most recently led the group’s private & commercial bank.
Reports emerged last month that Deutsche was looking for a successor for Mr Cryan, who joined the bank in 2015.
Read more Deutsche Bank's credit rating cut as CEO faces scepticism Since taking up the role, he has presided over three consecutive years of losses, with last year marked by a series of sharp drops in the company’s share price as it reported falling revenues and plans to restructure. Earlier this year, Deutsche warned jobs in London were at risk as part of plans to axe 500 roles worldwide. The bank's share price is down 30 per cent over the last year, although the stock rose 4.5 per cent at the open on Monday.
Paul Achleitner, chairman of the lender’s supervisory board, sai..

Housing market: Number of buy-to-let landlords reaches record high despite tax hike

Government has introduced 3% Stamp Duty levy, new stress tests for home loans, and ended mortgage interest tax relief
The number of buy-to-let investors in the UK rose to a record high of 2.5 million in the latest tax year, new research shows.
The increase of 5 per cent on the previous year comes despite the introduction of a host of extra taxes and regulations on the sector.
In recent years, the government has brought in a 3 per cent Stamp Duty levy, new stress tests for home loans, and ended mortgage interest tax relief.
Read more Dropping UK house prices won’t dent our confidence in buy-to-let The number of landlords has increased 27 per cent in the past five years, up from 1.97 million in 2011-12, research by London-focused estate agent Ludlow Thompson found.
Landlords now own an average of 1.8 buy-to-let properties each – a figure that has risen for the fifth consecutive year.
The data suggests that landlords continue to see residential property, especially in London, as..

Brexit: UK economy will be worse than all other G7 advanced countries this year, City bosses warn

Senior executives at more than 100 banks, as well as asset managers, insurers and private equity firms express concerns about Britain’s prospects
UK economic growth will lag behind all other G7 advanced nations this year, the world’s biggest financial firms have warned.
Almost three-quarters of 100 senior executives surveyed said they worry that UK economic growth will be weaker this year than in any other advanced economy – a dramatic worsening of sentiment compared to a year ago when just 23 per cent held that view.
A majority of bosses at banks, as well as asset managers, insurers and private equity firms expressed concerns about the economy’s prospects for the coming year.
Read more India ‘not in a rush’ to sign trade deal with Britain after Brexit Half of the executives surveyed said they expect UK growth to stay at 2017 levels, while 29 per cent expect it to worsen and a fifth believe growth will improve.
Brexit was the most commonly cited risk dragging on the UK’s eco..

Amid Fears of Trade War, Trump Predicts China Will Relent

Amid Fears of Trade War, Trump Predicts China Will Relent Photo President Trump tweeted on Sunday morning that he and President Xi Jinping of China will “always be friends.” Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times Amid fears of an escalating trade war between the United States and China, President Trump tweeted Sunday morning that he and President Xi Jinping of China will “always be friends, no matter what happens with our dispute on trade.”
“China will take down its Trade Barriers because it is the right thing to do,” he added. “Taxes will become Reciprocal & a deal will be made on Intellectual Property. Great future for both countries!”
A White House spokeswoman on Sunday said the reciprocal “taxes” mentioned in the tweet referred to “tariff levels and also to reciprocal trade more generally.”
It was unclear whether the president was suggesting that progress had been made in solving the trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies. Fears of an escalation intensified last wee..

Shell predicted dangers of climate change in 1980s and knew fossil fuel industry was responsible

Authors of confidential documents envisage changes to sea level and weather 'larger than any that have occurred over the last 12,000 years'
Oil giant Shell was aware of the consequences of climate change, and the role fossil fuels were playing in it, as far back as 1988, documents unearthed by a Dutch news organisation have revealed.
They include a calculation that the oil company’s products alone were responsible for 4 per cent of total global carbon emissions in 1984.
They also predict that changes to sea levels and weather would be “larger than any that have occurred over the last 12,000 years”.
Read more ‘Missing’ nitrogen discovery could revolutionise climate science Washington's cherry blossoms bloom later this year Fiji’s existence threatened by ‘frightening new era’ of climate change Warm water rapidly melting Antarctica from below due to climate change As a result, the documents foresee impacts on living standards, food supplies and other major social, po..

Brexit: Nearly 20 banks have committed to Frankfurt since vote to leave EU, German officials say

Nearly 20 banks have committed to launching new European Union hubs in Frankfurt since the Brexit vote, according to German officials.
The economy minister for the state of Hesse, where Frankfurt is situated, said the city was confident it would attract more, with another 60 firms yet to decide on additional EU headquarters.
“We've got 18 entities… that have committed,” Tarek Al-Wazir said during his most recent trip to London.​
Read more UK passengers have stronger rights to flight compensation post Brexit India 'not in a rush' to sign trade deal with Britain after Brexit US lays out Brexit trade deal 'wish list' of regulations to scrap “There will be other entities who are in the decision process now, so we're in contact with some of them – of course, we're not able to say who they are, but at the end if you compare everything that happened since the Brexit referendum and if you compare the real decisions made, I think we are number one on t..