Londoners opt to stay home following Paris attacks December 10, 2015 Concerns about potential attacks on London have supposedly kept Londoners from dining out in November, according to industry sales barometer, the Coffer Peach Business Tracker. Pubs and restaurants recorded a 1.5 per cent decline in like-for-like sales in the capital, with chain restaurants feeling the biggest impact. In October sales were up 3.5 per cent [...]
With the Bank of England set to keep interest rates at record low City PM’s shadow MPC votes six-three to hold December 10, 2015 A renewed drop in oil prices to below $40 a barrel has led many of the members of City PM’s shadow monetary policy committee to vote to keep interest rates at their record lows this month. Inflation remained in negative territory in October, well below the Bank of England’s two per cent target. While a [...]
Bubble fears as average London property hits £600,000 with outer boroughs seeing highest rises December 10, 2015 The average price of a London property is now just shy of £600,000, reigniting fears of a bubble and prompting talk of a market correction. The average London house price was £598,173 in October, 5.6 per cent higher than the same month last year, according to figures released today by estate agents Your Move and Reeds [...]
Savoy parent company FRHI Holdings bought by French hospitality group AccorHotels December 9, 2015 Paris-based hotel group AccorHotels is buying FRHI Holdings, owner of the Savoy in London and the Plaza in New York. Accor is paying for the company, which owns the Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel chains, by issuing 46.7m new Accor shares and making a cash payment of $840m (£553m). The group is selling a 10.5 per [...]
Commodity prices stabilise following two day rout December 9, 2015 The price of hard commodities plateaued yesterday, following a two day retreat that spooked investors and caused huge sell offs of oil and mining stocks. The oil price also managed to stabilise, hovering just above the $40 mark for most of the day, despite dipping below the line briefly for the second day. Oil did [...]
HMRC publishes draft legislation designed to extend tax evasion offences to companies who failed to prevent it happening December 9, 2015 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) today published the results of its consultation, alongside draft legislation, for a proposed criminal offence for companies which fail to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. The draft legislation lays down provisions for a criminal offence where somebody who is performing services on behalf of a company commits tax evasion. [...]
EU-wide cap on credit and debit card fees could save businesses money – but customers miss out thanks to slashed rewards programmes December 9, 2015 A new EU-wide cap on credit and debit card fees intended to save consumers cash may have unforseen consequences, experts have warned. The cap on how much credit and debit card companies can charge retailers, which went into effect today, limits fees on credit card payments to 0.30 per cent of the transaction value. Fees [...]
At the close: FTSE 100 index closes down despite miners making gains December 9, 2015 The FTSE 100 index closed down today despite a number of miners shaking off a volatile start to the day to close higher. The index closed 0.14 per cent down at 6,126 points, even though gains were seen at companies including Glencore, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, as well as Ashtead Group. "It would appear that a weaker US [...]
US-based Computer Sciences Corporation set to buy Xchanging in £480m deal, beating out a previous offer from Capita December 9, 2015 Business technology and services provider Xchanging’s board of directors today agreed to be purchased by US-based digital consultancy company Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). CSC’s cash offer of 190p per share, which is worth about £480m, beat out an offer of 160p per share from outsourcing giant Capita, which had also shown an interest in buying [...]
End of austerity? Not according to Cambridge Dictionaries’ people’s word of the year 2015 December 9, 2015 If you thought it was the end of austerity, think again. It's the word people searched for most often and most regularly on Cambridge Dictionaries online and has been crowned "people's" word of the year by their researchers. It was apparently the "clear front runner", appearing on its weekly most searched list at five separate times throughout [...]
