Asda owner Walmart to close 269 stores as it ditches Walmart Express, its smallest-format chain, five years after they launched January 15, 2016 Asda owner Walmart has announced plans to close 269 stores – and scrapped its experiment with small-format stores altogether five years after they first launched. It seems US consumers' buying habits are vastly different to their British counterparts'… The supermarket giant – the world's largest company by number of employees, with 2.1m workers – said it was making the changes to "ensure [...]
Citigroup shares continue to slide despite better than expected earnings and revenue January 15, 2016 Citigroup shares slipped in pre-market trading – even after the American investment bank reported better than expected earnings in its fourth quarter reports. The figures Revenue of $18.5bn (£12.9bn), a four per cent increase on a year earlier, beat analysts' expectations of a figure closer to $17bn while earnings per share of $1.06 also beat [...]
Energy bills: Big six firms slammed for overcharging customers January 15, 2016 The energy regulator, Ofgem, has slammed the UK's "big six" energy companies for failing to pass on cheaper wholesale costs to customers. Dermot Nolan, the the head of Ofgem, said wholesale energy costs have fallen by about a third in the last 12 to 18 months. Despite this, the big six energy companies – British Gas, Npower, [...]
Prudential Regulation Authority bans former Co-operative Bank bosses from the City for life and fines them more than £250,000 January 15, 2016 The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has banned two former Co-operative Bank bosses from holding senior City positions and slapped them with fines of more than £250,000 over failings when they were running the bank. In a statement today, the PRA said it had banned former chief executive Barry Tootell and Keith Alderson, the former managing [...]
Reactions to BT-EE merger: Telco rivals TalkTalk and Vodafone lash out after Competition and Markets Authority waves through £12.5bn merger deal January 15, 2016 Telco rivals have lashed out furiously, after the UK’s competition watchdog waved through BT and EE’s £12.5bn merger, which was given the final green light early this morning. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the takeover was unlikely to cause “significant harm to competition or the interests of consumers” as the UK mobile market is so [...]
UK house prices: Bovis Homes share price rises as it posts record profit January 15, 2016 Housebuilder Bovis Homes has ended the week on a high, with the announcement it made a record profit in 2015. Not surprisingly, the news sent shares up. The figures In a statement posted this morning, Bovis said it delivered 3,934 homes in 2015, eight per cent higher than in 2014. Average selling price increased seven per cent to £231,000. Private reservations increased by 10 per [...]
Big Four fight back: Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco report rising sales after years of stagnation January 15, 2016 Tesco became the third supermarket to reveal better-than expected Christmas results yesterday, in the clearest sign yet that the industry is staging a successful fightback against German discounters Aldi and Lidl. The so-called big four – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – have been battling to respond to changing shopping habits and reverse the tide [...]
Goldman Sachs to pay settlements in excess of $5bn over pre-crisis dealing of mortgage-backed securities January 14, 2016 Goldman Sachs has today warned its earnings in the final three months of 2015 will take a $1.5bn (£1bn) hit after-tax due to a settlement with regulators. The firm has agreed to pay to resolve actual and potential claims by the US Department of Justice, the New York and Illinois Attorneys General, the National Credit [...]
International Airlines Group and LATAM Airlines Group sign deal to make flying to South America easier January 14, 2016 International Airlines Group (IAG) has signed a joint agreement between its subsidiaries British Airways and Iberia and LATAM Airlines Group to make flights between Europe and South America easier. If they receive regulatory approval, the airlines plan to expand their codeshare agreements, which allow airlines to operate flights on another airline's routes. It allows firms to offer better [...]
Goldman Sachs agrees to pay $15m over improper securities lending practices January 14, 2016 Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has agreed a $15m (£10m) settlement with US regulators over charges that its securities lending practices broke regulations. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said broker-dealers such as Goldman Sachs are regularly asked by customers to locate stock for short selling – a process where an asset is borrowed, sold, and [...]
