Business

The executive who presided over a bitter “cruises and cufflinks” row at one of Britain’s biggest wealth managers is preparing to step down. Sky News has learnt that St James’s Place, the FTSE-100 group which oversees more than £150bn of client assets, has kicked off a search to replace Andrew Croft. City sources said on

The government finds its hands somewhat tied at present on measures it can take to boost economic growth. The parlous state of public finances – the government borrowed £25bn alone in April – means that neither meaningful tax cuts nor increases in public spending that lift productivity are feasible just now. So it is no

Britain’s largest building society has made some mortgages more expensive as the Bank of England’s interest rate is now expected to rise higher than previously thought. Nationwide has said interest rates on new fixed-rate mortgages will rise 0.45 percentage points. It follows moves by lenders such as Halifax, Santander and Atom Bank who also upped

Jeremy Hunt has told Sky News he is comfortable with Britain being plunged into recession if that’s what it takes to bring down inflation. The chancellor said that he would fully support the Bank of England raising interest rates higher, potentially towards 5.5%, as it battled higher-than-expected prices. Asked by Sky News whether he was

The owners of Asda and petrol stations giant EG Group were on Thursday applying the finishing touches to a £10bn merger of their operations in Britain. Sky News has learnt that the billionaire Issa brothers – Mohsin and Zuber, who launched EG Group – and TDR Capital are aiming to announce the tie-up on Friday.

The energy price cap on household bills has fallen to an annual average of £2,074 between July and September, removing some of the financial pain inflicted by the unprecedented surge in gas and electricity costs. Industry regulator Ofgem made the announcement against a backdrop of good news for the cost of living crisis – with

Microsoft will on Wednesday lodge a formal appeal against British regulators’ decision to block its $75bn takeover of Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty maker. Sky News understands that the technology behemoth will file its complaint with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) within hours, sparking the next phase of its fight to secure one of

The rate of inflation is finally back in single digits for the first time since last summer, easing to 8.7% last month but food inflation remains near 20% and core price inflation is at a 30 year high. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the decline in the consumer prices index measure (CPI) was

Britain is no longer expected to suffer a recession this year, nor will it have the weakest economic growth in the group of seven leading industrialised economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today. Unveiling a dramatic upgrade to its outlook for Britain, the Fund, which previously predicted Britain would face the worst 2023 of

Falling milk prices have helped drive grocery inflation lower for a second consecutive month, according to industry data. Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and prices, measured the annual rate of grocery inflation at 17.2% over the four weeks to 14 May. That was down from 17.3% in the previous four-week period but still at

A growing number of skilled workers from Africa and Asia are moving to Britain to plug crippling staff shortages, according to new figures that reveal the changing picture of migration. Businesses are making use of the new post-Brexit migration system to bring in IT professionals, nurses and accountants. Since January 2021, the new system has

Meta is expected to face a record fine later over its transfer of Facebook’s European user data to US servers, according to reports. Reuters news agency cited two anonymous sources familiar with the matter as saying that the penalty from EU regulators will be higher than the previous record – a €746m (£647m) fine for

The government is to begin the hunt for a new boss of its flagship trade and cultural promotion campaign after the incumbent decided to step down after two years in charge. Sky News understands that Andy Pike OBE resigned as director of GREAT earlier this month, and will leave the post in September. Mr Pike

Adidas has announced it will start selling some of the shoes from its defunct Yeezy partnership with Kanye West at the end of this month. The company said it will donate the proceeds to organisations fighting antisemitism and racism when it first outlined the plans last week. The German sportswear maker was left with Yeezy

Executives including a former director of world motorsport’s governing body and the Nectar loyalty scheme founder Sir Keith Mills are in talks to raise $100m (£80m) to finance the rebirth of A1GP, the motor racing series contested by national teams from around the globe. Sky News has learnt that heavyweight names from the sporting and

The energy price cap is set to remain more than £1,000 higher than the average bill before the COVID pandemic, according to a closely-watched forecast. Ahead of the industry regulator’s determination on the price cap level due next week, energy research specialist Cornwall Insight said it saw the cap for a typical household at the