Category: Articles

AstraZeneca, the UK drugs company, has rejected a "final" takeover offer from US drugs firm Pfizer.

Fujitsu today announced it has appointed Michael Keegan as Head of its £1.8 billion business in the UK and Ireland.

There are clear business benefits to supporting employee health and wellbeing, says a new CBI and Medicash report.

Greece could save its businesses hundreds of millions of euros a year and improve their competitiveness by reducing administrative burdens, according to a new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report.

Sterling has taken a hit after Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney reiterated the message of no interest rate rises for some time, despite a rapid decline in unemployment and fast-rising house prices, says Mark McFarland, chief economist at private bank Coutts.

Statistics show that one in five adverts from consumer credit firms, for products including payday loans, fell short of the FCA's financial promotion expectations.

Global manufacturing executives rank the UK as one of the top destinations for future sales growth, level with China and ahead of established manufacturing economies such as Germany.

There has been a step change in the tax disclosures made by the UK's largest listed companies, a new PwC report published today shows.

Law firm Charles Russell LLP has appointed Ashley Freeman to head up the Islamic Finance practice in the firm’s Financial Services team.

Statistics in the 2014 UK Offshore Workforce Demographics Report published by Oil & Gas UK reveal the total number of people travelling offshore has increased by 8.6% compared to 2012

Global professional services company Towers Watson has announced the launch of a simplified global benefit solution designed for the multinational marketplace.

In addition to souring relations between Russia, Europe and the United States, further escalation of Russia's engagement in Ukraine could cost Russia more than 3 percent in GDP in real terms.

The world's 75 largest luxury goods companies generated luxury goods sales of £102 billion through the end of last fiscal year, according to a new report.

Chartered Institute of Taxation believes that HMRC's plans to extend capital gains tax to non-residents in certain circumstances may have a significant impact on UK residents with more than one property.

More than four out of five (81%) companies surveyed expect already heightened tax risks to accelerate in the next two years, according to a new global report by EY.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has upgraded its forecast for GDP growth as the recovery continues to take hold. But it warns politicians of all shades to put incentivising business investment ahead of short-term electioneering.

Pricewaterhousecoopers has warned that plans outlined in the Budget for new HMRC powers to settle unpaid demands by taking money from people's bank accounts could have grave consequences for businesses and individuals if errors in the process occur, and undermine the principle of independent taxation.

Whitebox Advisors, the US management firm led by industry veteran Andrew Redleaf, has announced the opening of the Whitebox Tactical Income Fund.

After growing only very marginally in 2012, growth accelerated rapidly, and is now running at around 3% year-on-year. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) forecasts GDP growth of 2.9% this year, an upward revision of 0.4 percentage points on its forecast published just three months ago.

Despite a fourth consecutive monthly fall in new property coming onto the market in April, 26% more chartered surveyors reported increased agreed sales, according to the latest RICS Residential Market Survey.

VocaLink, the UK-based international payment systems provider, has modernised the payments landscape in Singapore with an innovative real-time payments platform, FAST.

Investment managers should only use client dealing commission to pay for substantive research or costs related to executing trades, said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as it published a policy statement on forthcoming changes to dealing commission rules.

Latest figures show that in the past year alone almost 145,000 people have used the service to locate those long forgotten pensions. This is more than double the number who used the service in 2010, with numbers rising year on year.

Sustainable economic growth in Africa will require a step change in approach from both investors and governments, according to new research released today by FTI Consulting, Inc.

Weir Oil & Gas and the Rolls-Royce Power Systems company MTU announced they have signed an agreement to develop power systems specifically engineered for hydraulic fracturing.

Mercer's Pensions Risk Survey data shows that the accounting deficit of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes for the UK's largest 350 companies increased significantly during April.

Spend on retail, hospitality and leisure is set to rocket as overseas visitors flock to the UK over the next few years, according to a new report from Barclays.

The global Smart Cities market—a solution to the rapid growth in migration to the world’s urban areas—is expected to grow from $654.57 billion in 2014 to $1,266.58 billion by 2019, at an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate of 14.1% from 2014 to 2019, according to a new study.

Optimism amongst the UK’s smaller manufacturers has surged to its highest level since records began in 1988, according to the CBI’s latest SME Trends Survey.

The G20's plan to tackle corporate tax dodging, devised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), needs a radical shake up so that developing countries can capture their fair share of foreign business activity, says Oxfam.

Recent changes to the UK tax system aimed at improving its attractiveness to businesses are paying dividends, according to KPMG in the UK.

An agreement signed between Sellafield Ltd and TEPCO FDEC will build a working relationship between the two firms facing the world's biggest nuclear clean-up jobs.

According to EY's 10th bi-annual Oil and Gas Capital confidence barometer, just over half (54%) of the oil and gas respondents view the global economy as improving, down sharply from 71% in October 2013.

Investment commitments by partner companies of Grow Africa – a programme established by the World Economic Forum, NEPAD and the African Union to accelerate the transformation of African agriculture – doubled to $7.2 billion in 2013.

More insurers should focus on the bulk annuity market if they expect to write fewer individual annuities under the new pensions regime announced in the recent budget, says American global professional services firm Towers Watson.

Boeing and Ryanair have finalized an order for five additional Next-Generation 737s, valued at $452 million at list prices.