Business and Economics

Activist investors are relatively new but very influential players in international capital markets. They are shareholders at publicly traded companies who attempt to affect change in an organization either by directly appealing to, or putting heavy pressure on, the company’s board of directors, bypassing the normal advisory process. The scope of activist investors’ actions varies depending on their assertiveness and on what exactly they seek to change at a given company. The firms that activists target tend to underperform relative to...

ONE of the UK’s premium hotel and bar operators based in the North East has successfully refinanced £101m with the help of HSBC, in a deal supported by Mincoffs Solicitors LLP. Cairn Group, a privately owned business, will use £50m of the total pot for acquisition and development to strengthen its portfolio, which already includes 26 hotels and more than 30 bars and restaurants as well as care homes across the UK. The news follows the latest acquisitions of the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Under fire Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley will now compensate workers after admitting his company failed to pay the minimum wage to his workers. Union chiefs have said their was a “culture of fear” at the warehouse and ambulances have been called over a hundred times, sparking health and safety fears for their employees. Now Ashley has said he has come to an arrangement with HM Revenue & Customs to give compensation to warehouse employees...

By Joe Mellor,  John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, has said that the Labour party has been considering a radical approach to ensure everyone in the country receives an income. Universal basic income would see everyone receiving a flat fee rather than the current means-tested benefit system. McDonnell said: ““It is an idea Labour will be closely looking at over the next few years.” This plan “could prepare our country for any revolution in jobs and technology to come.” A report...

Richmond upon Thames and Bexley have both been ranked in the top five "survival" boroughs for start-up businesses, according to new data. The riverside boroughs join the City, Sutton and Hackney on the top five list, with a 71.9 per cent survival rate. The City of London came top with only ten per cent of start-ups failing and a huge 76.4 per cent surviving. But Jeremy Corbyn's borough of Islington didn't fare as well. It topped a list of the...

Almost a third of businesses founded in the UK in the last five years were in response to redundancy or long-term unemployment, according to new research. The financial crisis has shown that Brits are rather resilient folk, with many people bouncing back by staring adversity in the face and starting up on their own. With massive rises in childcare costs since 2010, starting a business is becoming a popular way out of in-work poverty for squeezed parents. And ‘grey entrepreneurs’ are also...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to bin the EU’s highly controversial free trade deal (TTIP) with America. During an anti-Brexit rally he promised to get rid of the trade deal if he is voted in as PM before it is implemented. He hates the deal so much he said he is happy to work with rebel Conservatives and SNP in parliament to halt the deal. TTIP has worried people on both sides of the electoral divide...

People born in the decade following the World War will be the final generation to enjoy financial security unless action is taken, according to Synaptic research. Thanks to financial ignorance, today’s UK consumers face a future where financial security and well-being are under real threat. Relative salaries have increased since the 1940’s yet every generation after has spent more and saved less, reducing their financial security. Those currently aged 35 and under will be most impacted by today’s expensive housing, lack of...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor They say keep it in the family, well in one city they have for nearly six hundred years. Research of tax records in Florence, Italy, has revealed that the wealthiest families in the city currently are the same lineage as from 1427. Generation after generation of the elites if the city, have continued to reap the financial rewards the city creates. The poorest however, remain poor, rarely raising above the economic status they were born...