Ovo completes purchase of SSE’s retail business January 15, 2020 Ovo today completed the acquisition of SSE’s retail arm on a landmark day for the UK energy sector. The £500m deal will see Ovo take on roughly 3.5m households from the energy giant, meaning it will become the second largest supplier in the country with around 5m customers. Read more: Watchdog gives green light for [...]
FTSE 100 subdued ahead of US-China trade deal meeting January 15, 2020 The FTSE 100 has opened almost flat ahead of US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese vice premier Liu He, where the pair are set to sign an initial trade deal. Britain’s blue chip index was sitting 0.08 per cent up in morning trading ahead of the signing on Wednesday. Both US and Asian markets [...]
Firm at centre of mini-bond scandal ‘overstated’ value of holdings January 14, 2020 A firm at the centre of the London Capital & Finance (LCF) scandal was found to have “overvalued” a major asset on its balance sheet by a court today, meaning it was unlikely it could have paid back the money it owed LCF. London Oil & Gas was the biggest recipient of cash from LCF, [...]
Banks seek additional fees from Aramco after record float January 14, 2020 Banking giants who were involved with Saudi Aramco’s record-breaking initial public offering (IPO) last month are lobbying for an “incentive fee” as they try to boost low earnings from the deal. Sources close to the matter told Reuters that the banks were in discussions with the state-owned oil firm over a clause in the contract [...]
Energy bills set to rise for 142,000 households January 14, 2020 Over 140,000 households could see their energy bills climb by as much as £190 at the end of January, with 47 fixed price deals set to come to an end. The average cost for households which do not switch will be £114, according to data from uSwitch.com. In total, such price hikes will cost a [...]
Endeavour calls off merger talks with gold miner Centamin January 14, 2020 Endeavour has called off attempts to merge with London-listed miner Centamin, after it said it would not extend the deadline for the Canadian corporation to make an offer. Shares in the UK firm fell eight per cent after the announcement was made. The two firms have been in talks since early December, when Endeavour went [...]
Barrelling towards conflict: How the oil market reacted to Iran-US tensions January 14, 2020 For good or ill, oil remains the lifeblood of the global economy. It is essential to industrial production, to how we transport goods (as well as ourselves) around the world, and how we heat our homes and generally go about our everyday lives. Rising oil prices can therefore act as a handbrake on global growth, [...]
AIM-listed Lekoil shares suspended after firm signs fake loan deal with fraudsters January 13, 2020 AIM-listed oil explorer Lekoil this morning had its shares suspended after individuals purporting to be investors attempted to defraud the firm with a fake loan deal. The West Africa focused firm was approached by people it believed were representatives of the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA), which agreed a $184m loan with the company on 2 [...]
Iron producer Ferrexpo’s shares surge despite fall in production January 13, 2020 Iron ore producer Ferrexpo said that pellet production slowed in 2019, but that the business continued to generate strong margins. In a trading update the FTSE 250 firm said that it had produced 10.5m tonnes of pellets in 2019, down from 10.6m in 2018. Read more: Ferrexpo chief executivee Kostyantin Zhevago temporarily steps down However, [...]
Travelex restores some electronic services following cyber attack January 13, 2020 Foreign exchange company Travelex is beginning to restore some electronic systems almost two weeks after hackers held the company’s systems to ransom, leading to a global blackout of its online services. Staff at the foreign exchange giant had been forced to use pen and paper to serve thousands of customers after a cyber attack forced [...]
