Friday 23 September 2016

Business Today


Following the resignation of Dave Forsey, the founder of Sports Direct is taking over as the sports retailer's chief executive officer. Forsey's departure from the troubled firm follows months of mounting criticism of their working practices and corporate governance by shareholders, unions and politicians. Sports Direct’s share price, which has taken a battering over the past 12 months during which time the company fell out of the FTSE 100, was up nearly 5% on Friday morning following the announcement of Forsey’s departure, to about 300p.



On Thursday, Yahoo revealed that it has suffered from what could be the biggest data breach in history. The breach could have wider implications, jeopardising Yahoo's recent deal with Verizon, its future parent company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars.


Treasury minister Lord O'Neil has resigned from the government. The former Goldman Sachs boss was commercial secretary for 18 months and was a key figure in pushing the Conservative's Northern Powerhouse agenda. He is also a key advocate of the UK forging strong links with China. In his resignation letter, he said that the case for global trade ties and English devolution is stronger than ever.


Kristen Forbes, an external member of the Bank of England's nine-person Monetary Policy Committee, has indicated that she is not inclined to vote to cut interest rates still further later this year. She cited the better than anticipated performance of the UK economy following the Brexit vote. She argued in a speech on Thursday that the economy had been “less stormy than many expected” followed the shock result of the referendum.


Britain's HSBC is seeking to release billions of dollars of capital tied up in the United States without upsetting the country's politicians and regulators, senior sources at the bank said. HSBC, which has been in the sights of U.S. regulators over breaching anti-money laundering rules, has more than $20 billion of capital in the U.S. earning a slim 1% return, of which up to half could be returned to the holding company via asset sales, analysts and investors say.


Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, is backing the fledgling market in green investments to help cut carbon emissions and boost global economic growth. Carney used a speech in Berlin on Thursday to highlight green finance as an opportunity to boost financial stability while tackling climate change. He said that more of the $100 tn held by big global investment firms could be channelled into green bonds to help finance initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions.


Global investors pulled $7.4 billion (£5.69 billion) from equity funds in the week to Wednesday, the largest outflow in around three months, as uncertainty over U.S. and Japanese monetary policy unnerved stocks, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) said on Friday. A spike higher in longer-dated bond yields had caused yield curves in the United States, Japan and Germany to steepen over the past two weeks, prompting the redemptions from European, U.S. and emerging markets stocks funds. Although there was little expectation that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise rates at its Sept. 20-21 meeting, investors erred on the side of caution and parked $15.6 billion in money market funds in the run up to the Fed decision.


Profits at the Co-op Group more than halved to £17m in the first six months of the year. It has also cut the value of its 20% stake in the Co-op Bank by £45m. The bank said in April it would remain unprofitable for about two years because of tough trading. Co-op group chief executive Richard Pennycook said the fall in profit "was expected and planned" due to its restructuring programme. The group announced a £1bn three-year Rebuild programme in 2014.

In Other News

Click here to see our membership packages or here to subscribe to our mailing list. Leave a comment below to let us know your opinion on this week's business news or if there are any major stories we missed.



Our next event will be at TateHindle on 12th October. We hope to see you there!

No comments:

Post a Comment