Three decades ago, London remade a derelict shipping yard at Canary Wharf into a forest of glass-and-concrete skyscrapers in a bid to mimic U.S. financial hubs. Now the 128-acre banking district east of central London is suffering a problem also plaguing U.S. cities: emptying office buildings, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last month, HSBC Holdings, the U.K.’s largest financial firm, said it was leaving its 1.1-million-square-foot headquarters, known as the HSBC Tower, for a smaller building in central London.
Read more
Britain’s so-called “zombie” companies are being wiped out by the inflation crisis and rising interest rates, according to the head of bankruptcy specialist Begbies Traynor Group Plc, Bloomberg News reported. “Over the next 18 months, we’ll see virtually all of them finally come to an end,” Ric Traynor, its executive chairman, said in an interview. Economists define zombies as companies barely able to service their debts, but which have been kept afloat by years of cheap borrowing costs. Insolvencies across England and Wales have risen toward levels last seen in 2009.
Read more
A key measure of British wages rose at the joint fastest pace on record but official data also showed signs that the inflationary heat in the labour market is cooling, offering the prospect of relief for the Bank of England, Reuters reported. Sterling edged up but yields on two-year British government bonds, which are sensitive to speculation about interest rates, fell sharply, suggesting investors were dialling back their bets on how much higher the BoE would go with its run of rate hikes. "There were some tentative signs that the labour market may be turning....
Read more
Deutsche Bank said on Tuesday that it now expects the Bank of England to raise interest rates by half a percentage point at its August meeting, Reuters reported. Data released earlier in the day showed a key measure of British wages rose at the joint fastest pace on record. "For now, evidence of still more persistent wage pressures will keep the MPC's foot on the accelerator," Deutsche said in a note, referring to the BoE's rate setting body. "A second consecutive 50-bp hike now looks more likely than not.
Read more
Katie Price is to face questioning in court over her £3.2 million debt after she declared bankruptcy in 2019, the Daily Mail reported. The former glamour model, once estimated to be worth £45 million, previously agreed to pay £12,000 a month but has not been sticking to the deal, according to those owed the money. Ms. Price previously opened up about her bankruptcy, claiming it is related to two people in her past, according to The Mirror — insisting that her West Sussex home “Mucky Mansion” is safe.
Read more
Former star UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes, the first person jailed over the Libor rate scandal, can return to the Court of Appeal in a fresh attempt to overturn his conviction after an eight-year battle to clear his name, Reuters reported. In a landmark decision, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), an independent body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice, said on Thursday there was a "real possibility" that Hayes's conviction could be overturned. "We have concluded ...
Cineworld Group is looking at Eduardo Acuna, who runs the Americas operations of Mexico's Cinepolis, as a potential candidate to take the helm at the embattled British cinema chain operator when it emerges from bankruptcy proceedings, Sky News reported. It is not clear whether Acuna was formally in the frame to take the job or how quickly Cineworld's new owners were seeking to make an appointment, the report said.
The former finance boss of Carillion, a British construction services giant that imploded in 2018, has been banned from holding company directorships for 11 years in a tough censure reserved for severe breaches of duties, lawyers said, Reuters reported. Zafar Khan, who stepped down as Carillion's finance director after just nine months in the job shortly before the business collapsed in January 2018, had voluntarily agreed to the disqualification, the Insolvency Service said on Monday.
Water bills for UK consumers have increased at about twice the rate of other goods since the industry was privatized, according to the Office of National Statistics, Bloomberg News reported. Bills have increased 363% since privatization in 1989, a move intended to keep bills down while drawing in investment. Charges jumped 8.9% in April, according to the data, the steepest increase in 18 years. One company, South West Water, has seen the number of customers receiving help with their bills rise by more than a third.
Read more
On a quiet back street sandwiched between Mayfair’s Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares in London’s West End, the door to 11 Mount Row bore signs of forced entry, its black paint pierced by a battering ram. Temporary padlocks had been installed to secure it. Wednesday morning, the building had been targeted as part of a vast police operation spanning seven countries and almost two dozen addresses, Bloomberg News reported. The sweep focused on Adler Group SA, formerly one of Germany’s largest landlords, and the man accused of pulling the strings behind it.
Read more