The recent near-death experience of Patisserie Valerie and collapse of Conviviality, the bargain booze business, might make Chancellor Phil Hammond think again about all those rich tax breaks attached to shares on Aim, London’s junior market. Both were Aim darlings until Conviviality found a £30m unpaid tax bill, forcing it into administration in March, and Patisserie Valerie uncovered a similar-sized hole in its accounts this month, the Financial Times reported in a commentary.
Read more
For a moment last weekend, hearts were suddenly aflutter that – out of nowhere – a deal to secure the United Kingdom’s orderly exit from the European Union was in the offing, The Irish Times reported. UK Brexit secretary Dominic Raab was said to be “dashing” to Brussels for face-to-face talks with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, while EU ambassadors were summoned to a meeting that one report suggested was to get early sight of a deal. But it was just a mirage.
Big companies that regularly pay suppliers late should be stripped of government contracts, the body that represents small businesses has said. The Federation of Small Businesses is seeking to use a UK government consultation on how to solve the late payment crisis to add “teeth” to the regulatory regime. It said late payment caused 50,000 company failures a year, and the annual economic cost was £2.4bn, a figure accepted by government, the Financial Times reported. Estimates of how much businesses are owed range between £14bn and £50bn.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) is reportedly drawing nearer to a controversial company voluntary arrangement (CVA) used to shut stores and renegotiate rents, in a battle that would likely pitch the beleaguered restaurant chain against its landlords, City A.M.
Patisserie Holdings Plc Chairman Luke Johnson proposed lending the troubled U.K. cake-shop owner 20 million pounds ($26.3 million) to stave off collapse amid a deepening accounting scandal, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of Patisserie Valerie expects to enter into a 10 million-pound loan agreement with Johnson, who also holds a 37 percent stake, it said in a statement Friday.
British clothing retailer Karen Millen has bought parts of the Coast fashion brand, which has gone into administration, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Mike Denny, joint administrator and PwC director, said 24 Coast retail stores were not included in the sale to Karen Millen and would thus result in job cuts. PwC said Karen Millen has retained 600 jobs at Coast.
Read more
The owner of Britain’s Patisserie Valerie café chain warned on Thursday that it is in danger of collapse if it cannot urgently raise capital after discovering a potential accounting fraud, Reuters reported. Patisserie Holdings said an investigation had found a “material shortfall” between the reported accounts of the London-listed company and its true financial health. “Without an immediate injection of capital, the directors are of the view that there is no scope for the business to continue trading in its current form,” it said in a statement.
Read more
The Bank of England and the financial services industry on Tuesday pressed the EU to urgently tackle legal uncertainty surrounding vast amounts of derivatives because of Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Calling for “timely action” by EU authorities, the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee said if the UK crashed out of the bloc without a withdrawal agreement it risked rendering void £41tn of derivatives.
Read more
Shares in peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle traded as much as 24 per cent below their initial public offering price on their first day of trading, in a blow to aspirational fintech companies hoping to float, the Financial Times reported. At their low of the day, the company’s shares hit 334.5p, down from the IPO price of 440p. During conditional dealings on Tuesday, ahead of their official London Stock Exchange debut, the shares had been trading at a steep discount to the offer price, closing down 17 per cent at 364p, according to data from Refinitiv.
Read more
The City is bracing itself for an uncertain six months in the run-up to the UK’s departure from the European Union, the Financial Times reported. Operators of the crucial market infrastructure that ensures that money flows around the world — from exchanges, and fixed income markets to clearing and settlement houses — are activating their plans for life outside the EU. Some of London’s biggest markets operators, such as TP ICAP, Thomson Reuters, Cboe Europe and Turquoise are setting up hubs in Europe, centred on Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.
Read more