News

The £1.7 billion takeover of Virgin Money by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group (CYBG), announced earlier this year, has gone ahead and been completed.

Earlier this year, in June, the two banks came together and agreed to a takeover deal, claiming it would create the “first true national competitor to the large incumbent banks.”

Chancellor, Philip Hammond said, a frictionless Brexit allowing for trade with the European Union without barriers will give the Treasury a double bonus in the budget and will allow him to boost public spending and contemplate cutting taxes.

In an interview with the BBC Hammond commented that there has been “measurable change of pace” in negotiation talks, which has added to the sense of confidence that a deal would be imminent. However, remarking that there would be hurdles along the process.

The price of shares at Royal Mail dropped by almost a fifth after the UK postal service company warned that profits would be more than 20% lower this year because of cost-savings targets that were missed and lower productivity.

This shocking announcement resulted in £80 million being wiped off the stock market value of Royal Mail. Shares fell 85.7p to 391.4p.

There have been widespread fears of automation resulting in the displacement of millions of jobs. However, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), robots should not be feared as this change could potentially create more jobs than it destroys.

The WEF report, following a survey they carried out, predicted that robots will result in an approximate 75 million jobs being displaced globally, but will also result in the creation of 133 million new ones.

The chief executive of British Airways, Álex Cruz, has apologised for what he says was a sophisticated breach of the firm’s security systems. He has also promised compensation for those who were affected.

British Airways remarked that personal and financial details of customers who were making a booking or changing a booking had been compromised after their website was attacked.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company Hargreaves Lansdown fell approximately 7% this morning, following a warning by company’s chief executive, Chris Hill, about an industry wide slowdown in inflows.

He said:

“The past quarter has seen an uncertain market environment and weak investor sentiment resulting in an industry wide slowdown in net retail flows.”

September has been a harsh month for the car industry in the UK, with reports showing the sales 20% lower than in September 2017.

Official figures show car sales having slumped by over a fifth last month. A report from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that 338,834 new vehicles were registered in September, which was a fall of 87,000 from the previous month.

Tesco has unveiled its new discount chain called Jack’s. It has been launched in attempts to combat the rising threat posed by their German rivals Aldi and Lidl, promising to be the “cheapest in town”.

The stores are named Jack’s after the founder of Tesco, Jack Cohen. Dave Lewis, Tesco’s chef executive remarked that the new chain would sell low-priced, predominantly British products, appealing to the “economically challenged that need a bargain and the affluent shopper that wants a bargain”.

Earlier this week, Debenhams rushed out a statement to reassure its investors over the financial position of the company, they did however say that annual profits would be below what was forecasted for June.

They have now said their profit will be £33 million, as opposed to the previously predicted £35-40 million, adding that this was in line with current market expectations.