There are retailers we really want to succeed. Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Boots are in this category, as legacy firms with a strong heritage which fell on hard times. Under the guidance of chairman Archie Norman and, latterly, chief executive Stuart Machin, M&S is turning itself around. Fashion …
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By ALEX BRUMMER Updated: 16:54 EST, 28 February 2025 When Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has sorted out his CV and claims to being a solicitor perhaps he might find time to refocus on Royal Mail. Reynolds, the Communication Workers Union and the flaccid board of Royal Mail-owner International Distribution Services …
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By ALEX BRUMMER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Updated: 17:01 EST, 17 February 2025 Thames Water will be back in the spotlight today when a court is due to rule on whether an emergency £3billion loan from creditors should be allowed to proceed. An alternative is that the utility company is …
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By ALEX BRUMMER Updated: 21:50, 14 February 2025 This week the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave its go-ahead, after nine months of delay, to BlackRock’s £2.6billion purchase of City-based alternative investment platform Preqin. Aside from making its founder, the Suffolk farmer Mike O’Hare, very rich, the deal illustrates the …
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Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds carelessly waving deal through Reynolds, board and CWU cajoled into thinking takeover is a good thing Keir Starmer should intervene before more damage is done to UK plc By ALEX BRUMMER Updated: 16:50 EST, 7 February 2025 One cannot but despair of Labour’s dealings with commerce. …
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By ALEX BRUMMER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Updated: 17:01 EST, 30 January 2025 The Ofcom review of Royal Mail focuses on how best to ensure a reliable delivery service for consumers amid the fast-declining volumes of post. The regulator has come down on the side of a less frequent second-class, …
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By ALEX BRUMMER Updated: 16:53 EST, 24 January 2025 The prospect of Jonathan Reynolds extracting a great trade deal for Britain from the White House fills one with gloom. The only decisive words to come from the underwhelming Business Secretary so far are to suggest that the Czech Sphinx Daniel …
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By ALEX BRUMMER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Updated: 17:56 EST, 21 January 2025 General meetings may be imperfect, but are the key to shareholder democracy. Private equity management, hedge funds and other unlisted vehicles hide behind layers of complex ownership and answer only to themselves. Listed companies offer investors, retail …
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This week the Prime Minister was out banging the drum for an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution in Britain. It is paradoxical that Herald Investment Trust, which prides itself on tech discovery and AI, faces an existential threat in the next few days. It is the first of the seven quoted …
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By ALEX BRUMMER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Updated: 17:05 EST, 2 January 2025 Europe has done a terrific job in unhinging itself from Russian gas supplies since the start of the Ukraine war. The Kremlin’s share of the gas market has plummeted from 35 per cent to 8 per cent as users …
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