Wolseley chief Ian Meakins retiring after seven years, replaced by John Martin January 18, 2016 Ian Meakins, chief executive of struggling UK plumbing and heating group Wolseley, has announced plans to retire after seven years in the role. Meakins, who will leave Wolseley in August, will be replaced by current chief financial officer John Martin. The role of chief financial officer will be taken on by Simon Nicholls, currently at aerospace [...]
Home Retail Group share price soars on announcing it will return £200m to shareholders with Wesfarmers to buy Homebase for £340m January 18, 2016 Home Retail Group has announced it will be returning £200m to shareholders, following the sale of its Homebase chain to one of Australia’s biggest listed companies. The British retail group has confirmed reports it will sell the DIY chain to Australian Wesfarmers for £340m. Wesfarmers, which already owns DIY supplier Bunnings, said it will spend another £242m [...]
Clydesdale Bank reveals cut-price IPO price range and confirms when it will list on the London Stock Exchange January 18, 2016 Clydesdale Bank’s London float is drawing near: the bank has revealed the price range of its upcoming IPO will be 175p-235p per share. The British lender, currently owned by National Australia Bank (NAB), confirmed rumoured plans for a demerger and initial public offering last month, announcing its intention to float on both the London and Australian stock [...]
UK weather: Snow expected from Scotland to London this weekend as Met Office issues severe weather warnings for icy cold -10C temperatures January 16, 2016 Get ready for snow. The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for large parts of the country this weekend, as a 100-mile corridor of snow is expected to hit and the mercury drop as low as -10C. The snow, which has already reached parts of the country, is set to move from western [...]
Iran releases American Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian in prisoner swap with the US as nuclear deal is implemented January 16, 2016 Iran has released Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, held for over a year, along with three other prisoners, on the day the country’s landmark nuclear deal is set to be implemented. 39-year-old Rezaian was among the four dual-national prisoners announced to have been released by Tehran’s prosecutor, in what is expected to be the first [...]
Jeremy Corbyn threatens to block firms’ dividend payments unless they pay the living wage January 16, 2016 Jeremy Corbyn is proposing an idea unlikely to win him any friends in the City. The Labour leader is suggesting blocking dividend payments for companies that don’t pay their employees the living wage. In a speech to the Fabian Society today, Corbyn will suggest that pay inequality is “holding back growth”: Of the G7 nations [...]
Netflix cracks down on proxy servers to come to grips with out-of-market streaming after global launch January 16, 2016 Netflix isn’t happy about out-of-market streaming, and a crackdown is coming within weeks. Proxy servers are common among streaming enthusiasts who want to be able to watch content not available in your home country. By using proxies, you can trick the streaming service that video is being shown in a different country than it really [...]
Li Keqiang: China’s economy grew by seven per cent in 2015 with GDP totalling more than $10trn January 16, 2016 China’s economy grew by seven per cent in 2015, said the country’s Premier Li Keqiang today, broadly in line with analysts’ warnings that the world’s second-largest economy is hitting its slowest growth rate in 25 years. Keqiang announced that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) totalled more than $10trn in 2015 when speaking at the opening [...]
Look out, hackers are coming for your Apple Watch: Cyber attacks against smart watches and other wearables rising sharply January 16, 2016 Cybercriminals are increasingly turning their eye to smart watches and other wearables, according to IT security group Kaspersky Lab. And it’s not just Apple Watches that are getting hit. Wearables are a rapidly growing segment with one in five mobile payments expected to be made from a smart watch, fitness tracker or other type of [...]
Fed documents reveal internal unease over quantitative easing January 16, 2016 When the Federal Reserve launched the expansion of its quantitative easing programme in 2010, it was despite several policymakers’ misgivings over what impact this would have on the dollar. Documents freshly released from the Fed’s 2010 meeting reveal internal fears that the programme would be bashed internationally as an attempt to send the dollar lower, [...]
