Business

The former head of one of Britain’s leading business groups has been banned from serving as a director for “abusing” state COVID-19 business loans. Award-nominated businesswoman Anna Daroy has 35 years experience advising company boards in the public and private sector and served as the interim director general of the Institute of Directors‎ (IoD), a…

Football and the royals are two subjects which have always attracted very outspoken fans. Now, aged 90, Lord Norman Foster is attempting to please both. One of the one of the world’s most important living architects, he is known for being the vision behind some of the world’s most iconic designs – including London’s “Gherkin”…

TalkTalk Group has picked advisers to spearhead a break-up that will lead to the sale of one of Britain’s biggest broadband providers. Sky News has learnt that PJT Partners, the investment bank, is being lined up to handle a strategic review aimed at assessing the optimal timing for a disposal of TalkTalk’s remaining businesses. PJT’s…

One of Britain’s biggest estate agency groups is drawing up plans for an £800m sale amid speculation that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is plotting a fresh tax raid on homeowners in her autumn Budget. Sky News has learnt that LRG, which is owned by the American buyout firm Platinum Equity, is being groomed for an…

Shawbrook Group has kicked off initial talks with prospective investors in an initial public offering (IPO) of the business-focused lender, even as the City speculates about potential banking tax hikes in the November Budget. Sky News has learnt that Shawbrook and its advisers have been holding a series of pilot-fishing meetings this month as its…

NatWest Group is looking to offload Cushon, the workplace pensions provider it acquired only two years ago, as its chief executive refocuses one of Britain’s biggest high street banks on its core strategic priorities. Sky News has learnt that NatWest is working with advisers on a sale of Cushon, for which it paid £144m in…

Government borrowing last month was the highest in five years, official figures show, exacerbating the challenge facing Chancellor Rachel Reeves Not since 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with the furlough scheme ongoing, was the August borrowing figure so high, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Money blog:…

A former boss of Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is among the candidates being considered to chair IP Group, the early-stage science investor. Sky News has learnt that Iain Conn, who spent a decade in senior roles at BP, is one of a small number of contenders to replace Sir Douglas Flint. City sources…

For the most part, when people think about the Bank of England and what it does to control the economy, they think about interest rates. And that’s quite understandable. After all, influencing inflation by raising or lowering the prevailing borrowing costs across the UK has been the Bank’s main tool for the vast majority of…

Meta has announced smart glasses with a screen in the right lens, meaning you can read WhatsApp messages, look at a map or translate a conversation – all from the comfort of your face. The company describes them as the world’s most advanced AI glasses, and it’s the first time it has put a display…