Tag Archives: Companies

The Lib Dem architect of Royal Mail’s privatisation has said he knew the “Postman Pat” business was in trouble when it was sold to hundreds of thousands of ordinary investors six years ago. Sir Vince Cable, business secretary in the coalition government, said he had been “vindicated” by the collapse …

A bitter dispute with its workers threatens to undermine the need for rapid change to stave off terminal decline As she prepared to leave Royal Mail, chief executive Moya Greene took a final meeting with Terry Pullinger, the union boss who had been a constant thorn in her side. It …

Furious investors are preparing to fight Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to seize swathes of British businesses, arguing his nationalisation spree would be a “blatant breach of human rights” that could trigger a wave of lawsuits.  Shareholders and lawyers believe the proposals could breach international treaties and Brussels rules over state aid, and intend to fight them through …

BT has gone further to demonstrate its value to wider society by building its strategy around the restoration of its “national champion” status. There’s a bitter irony, then, that this is the moment that Labour has chosen to attack it Despite significant misgivings, a little over three years ago, I went …

The Royal Mail has won a High Court battle to block what would have been the first national postal strike in a decade. The Communication Workers Union (CWU), who called the Christmas strike, condemed the injunction as an “utter outrage”. The union said it would appeal against the decision after …

A top hedge fund manager known as one half of the City’s “Posh and Becks” has been appointed as chairman of a fund house her husband Crispin Odey has been betting against.  Nichola Pease – whose family helped found Barclays Bank, where her brother-in-law John Varley was formerly chief executive – will take over at …

Flurrybridge Enterprise Centre is ground zero for Brexit on the island of Ireland.  Situated in South Armagh, just yards north of the border, it is home to businesses that sustain almost 300 livelihoods, many of them by shuttling goods along the east coast artery between Belfast and Dublin.  Travelling over …

The management consultancy McKinsey has abandoned its headquarters in London’s fusty St James’s area, as it looks to ditch its image as a provider of clipboard-wielding suits and rebrand as a digital-savvy agent of change. McKinsey has been based for the last 25 years in offices on Jermyn Street, an …

Labour is set to mount a fresh assault on business with the shadow chancellor expected to set out plans to bring billions of pounds worth of outsourced public services back in house if it wins power.  John McDonnell is understood to have drawn up draft laws that would force government …

On 9 October 1990, just weeks before the downfall of Margaret Thatcher, the then transport secretary Cecil Parkinson addressed the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth. On the future of British Rail, he was unequivocal. “The question now is not about whether we should privatise it, but how and when,” he said. The “when” …