Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has announced that she is leaving the company after 14 years.
Sandberg announced her departure in a Facebook post late on Wednesday: "When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote.
A question on engineering analysts’ minds last month was whether Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) shares had hit bottom after dipping to a twelve-month low
Some are not convinced, though the shares have seen a modest bounce recently.
Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL)’s new chief financial officer Sinead Gorman has said she expects the oil group to pay incremental taxes “in the near term” in connection with the new UK windfall tax.
In a meeting with banking group RBC, Gorman charges under the scheme, which the UK Chancellor announced will introduce a new levy on oil and gas profits, are likely to hinder forthcoming hydrocarbon projects in the North Sea.
salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares rocketed 13% on Wednesday to US$181 as investors applauded its first-quarter results with earnings of US$0.98per share well ahead of analyst expectations.
Revenue grew 24% year-over-year to US$7.41bn at the American cloud-based software company compared to the consensus of US$7.38bn.
S4 Capital PLC (LSE:SFOR)'s rally tailed off this morning as analysts warned of high risks facing its business despite an overwhelming 'buy' consensus among brokers.
The recommendations followed quarterly results yesterday with six brokers outright buyers and three rating it as ‘outperform’.
DeepVerge’s consumer skin test subsidiary brand Skin Trust Club has won the Best New Disrupter Brand award at the Pure Beauty Global Awards 2022.
Now in its fifth year, the Pure Beauty Global Awards attracted over 500 entries from more than 40 countries across the globe and were judged by a panel of highly respected industry experts, DeepVerge said.
JP Morgan has rated Vodafone Group PLC (LSE:VOD) shares as ‘overweight’ even though it highlights headwinds in Germany and says the near-term growth outlook is “underwhelming”.
Vodafone finally moved back into positive growth territory in March, after several years of revenue decline in its European service business.
Harland & Wolff Group Holdings PLC (AIM:HARL) said it has bought the former minesweeper HMS Atherstone from the Ministry of Defence (MOD to accelerate its refit of another former minesweeper.
The purchase is part of Harland & Wolff's attempt to de-risk and regenerate former minehunter HMS Quorn, also known as M55, given that the two vessels share many spare parts and components.
British Airways and easyJet cancelled more than 150 flights on Wednesday as the government and airlines blamed each other for the chaos this week.
BA cancelled at least 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow airport, though it said it informed passengers ahead of time, while some 31 flights were cancelled by low-cost airline easyJet at Gatwick, including those for Bologna, Barcelona, Prague, Krakow, and Edinburgh.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Facebook's parent company, said its stock will begin trading on Nasdaq on June 9 under the new ticker symbol META.
The company's ticker symbol has been FB since its IPO in 2012. The new ticker symbol aligns with the company's October 2021 rebranding to Meta from Facebook.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos was key to blocking three shareholder proposals, including for the online retailer to look at improving working conditions of warehouse staff and reducing its use of plastic packaging.
New filings from Amazon’s annual general meeting have revealed how Bezos was able to block the 15 proposals and have been highlighted by British activist investing platform Tulipshare.
The chief executive of Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, DWS Group, announced his resignation in a memo to employees yesterday after the bank’s headquarters were raided over 'greenwashing' allegations.
Asoka Woehrmann stepped down from the role after police acted on allegations first raised by an internal whistleblower last August when Deutsche's Frankfurt offices were raided.
Credit Suisse has slashed its price target for value retailer B&M European Value Retail SA (LSE:BME)’s on doubts over its ability to sustain the growth it saw during the pandemic.
The investment bank maintained a 'neutral' guidance on the shares, citing “questions over COVID years’ sales and margin retention”. but cut the target to 460p from 600p previously.
BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) is facing a possible competition probe into plans to merge its sports broadcast arm with the Discovery channel.
UK watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will make a decision by 28 July on whether merging BT Sport with Discovery's Eurosport would reduce competition in the UK.
Tern PLC saw its shares drop as much as 15% after it announced a recommended £14.9mln all share offer for Pires Investments (AIM:PIRI) PLC.
The IT investment company will pay 0.51613 new Tern shares for each Pires share. Based on yesterday’s closing price of 15.5 pence per Tern share, the acquisition values each Pires share at 8.0p, a 54% premium to its closing share price of 5.2p, and the enlarged company at about £69.5mln.
Bank of Ireland (LSE:BKIR) said it has completed its €427mln acquisition of Davy Stockbrokers, first announced last July, in a deal set to significantly boost its commercial and strategic goals.
The takeover follows a financial scandal that saw Ireland's largest stockbroker fined €4.13mln, the biggest fine of its kind levied on an Irish broker.
John Wood Group PLC said it agreed to sell its Built Environment consulting business to WSP Global Inc for about US$1.9bn (£1.5bn).
The FTSE 250 oilfield services firm said the net proceeds will be used mainly to reduce debt. It would have been in a net cash position at end December 2021 if the proceeds from this disposal were included rather than having net debt of US$1.4bn as previously reported.
Tullow Oil PLC (LSE:TLW) and Capricorn Energy PLC (LSE:CNE, OTC:CRNZF) have agreed to merge to create “a leading African energy company with a material and diversified asset base and a portfolio of investment opportunities delivering visible production growth”.
Capricorn shareholders will receive 3.8068 new Tullow shares in the deal, which will see them together own some 47% of the new company whilst Tullow’s owners will hold the other 53%.
Novacyt PLC's rapid antigen test for Covid-19 has received a CE mark for the European Union, though it is still waiting for approval in the UK.
David Allmond, the diagnostics group’s chief executive, said it was one of the first approvals in the EU for a saliva-based lateral flow self-test for Covid.
Sky UK Ltd, former chief consumer officer Lyssa McGowan has officially taken the helm as Pets at Home Group PLC's chief executive.
McGowan, who was appointed to the board as CEO designate on 25 April, has taken over from Peter Pritchard, who announced he would step down last November.
Alien Metals Ltd (AIM:UFO, OTC:ASLRF) said it was making good progress at its flagship Hancock iron ore project, where production is expected to start in 2023, lifting its shares by as much as 11.5%.
Results from a metallurgical test work programme, now completed, further highlight the high-grade and low impurity nature of the Hancock deposit, said AIM-traded Alien. The vast majority of production will be fines, meaning minimal processing will be required, resulting in lower operating costs.
Victoria's Secret & Co's shares rose after the company announced better-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2022, despite enduring a challenging economic environment during the period.
"We are pleased with our first-quarter results and our team’s strong execution. Against the backdrop of significant global headwinds and a challenging inflationary environment, we delivered sales results at the high end of our guidance range and better than expected adjusted earnings per diluted share," chief executive officer Martin Waters said in a statement.
BHP Group Limited (LSE:BHP) said the all-stock merger of its oil and gas portfolio with Woodside Energy Group was completed on Wednesday.
BHP received 914.8mln Woodside shares for the sale of BHP Petroleum, while the former paid the in specie dividend and distributed the latter’s shares to eligible BHP shareholders.
Dr Martens PLC (LSE:DOCS) shares took a giant step higher after the bootmaker reported a strong set of results and upgraded guidance for the new year.
Revenue for the year to 31 March 2022 came to £908.3mln, up 22% on the prior year, while underlying earnings (EBITDA) jumped 28% to £263mln.
Hurricane Energy PLC (LSE:HUR) confirmed it has dropped the licence for the Greater Warwick Area which neighbours its producing Lancaster oil field.
Warwick is being relinquished because management determined that appraisal and development costs to reach an economic development on the Warwick discovery within the remaining licence term is not feasible for the company.
Shares in Haleon PLC, the consumer healthcare business being spun out by GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), are expected to begin trading as an independent company on the London Stock Exchange on 18 July.
The FTSE 100-listed pharma group said it has filed a prospectus for the submission of Haleon’s ordinary shares to the stock market with the Financial Conduct Authority, which are currently awaiting approval.
Bitcoin and Ethereum were relatively stagnant after four consecutive green days as all eyes turned to the release later this week of US non-farm payrolls (NFP) data and its impact on the dollar index.
Bitcoin has flirted with the US$32,000 level in the last 24 hours, giving crypto investors some much-needed hope of a revival following a torrid 2022 so far.
Benchmark Holdings PLC (AIM:BMK) told investors it has converted its existing NOK 190mln (£16mln) loan with Nordea Bank related to its genetics salmon egg facility in Salten, Norway into a so-called green loan.
The aquaculture biotechnology company said that in order to achieve the conversion to a new green loan, which remains as ring-fenced debt without recourse to the remainder of the group and has a marginally lower interest rate, it needed to meet key environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, including water management and the use of sustainable raw materials from deforestation-free sources.
Feedback PLC (AIM:FDBK) said it expects revenue for the year ended 31 May 2022 to be “materially ahead” of market expectations after its strong trading momentum continued into the second half.
The specialist clinical communication company attributed its performance to progress with its flagship product Bleepa as well as additional technology licence fees arising from its partnership with Imaging Engineering LLC.
Brickability Group PLC (AIM:BRCK) said it is acquiring Modular Clay Products Ltd (MCP), a supplier of UK and imported clay facing bricks to meet bespoke client specifications, for £4.75mln.
The AIM-listed construction materials supplier said it will use existing resources to fund the acquisition, which it expects to be immediately earnings accretive post completion.
Power Metal Resources PLC (AIM:POW) said its subsidiary First Development Resources Ltd (FDR), in which it holds 82.78%, has raised £1.125mln in pre-initial public offering (IPO) financing, valuing the unit at about £4.125mln.
FDR, which is focussed on exploration opportunities in Australia, plans to list in London in the third quarter of this year.
Frasers Group PLC (LSE:FRAS) has bought the key assets of failed online women's fashion retailer Missguided from its administrator for £20mln.
Assets being acquired by the Sports Direct owner are Missguided Limited, Mennace Limited and Missguided (IP) Limited, all of which are currently in administration.
Open Orphan PLC (AIM:ORPH, OTC:OPORF) said its hVIVO subsidiary has inked a £14.7mln influenza deal with an existing client.
The unnamed global top-five pharma company has engaged the contract research group to carry out a characterisation study before testing its vaccine on healthy volunteers.
Sovereign Metals Ltd (ASX:SVM, AIM:SVML) has started its pre-feasibility study (PFS) drilling program across the Kasiya Rutile Project.
The 12,000-metre drilling program is designed to upgrade higher-grade mineral resource areas to underpin conversion to reserves as part of the planned PFS. This is the first significant work program for the PFS the company has started.
Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) has expanded the Brama-Alba gold-copper porphyry system at its Bramaderos project in Southern Ecuador.
The precious and base metal explorer has received more strong results for the camp, which extends the gold-copper discovery to 1.1 kilometres long and 400 metres wide.
Castillo Copper Ltd (LSE:CCZ, ASX:CCZ) has modelled a maiden cobalt mineral resource for the East Zone of the Broken Hill Alliance (BHA) Project of 64 million tonnes at 318 parts per million cobalt for 21,556 tonnes of contained metals, as well as adding 44,260 tonnes of contained copper to the project’s global mineral resource estimate (MRE).
Castillo modelled the MRE from historical drilling data gathered between 1970 and 2014, including reverse circulation (RC) rotary air blast and diamond core drilling campaigns.
Power Metal Resources said an inaugural diamond drilling programme on the Haneti Project in Tanzania had confirmed the presence of nickel, but not in economically significant intersections.
Paul Johnson, Power Metal’s chief executive, added: “With the information from the programme we can now undertake more advanced targeting for next stage exploration.
After fuel prices rose again over the weekend, the cost of filling up a family car has surpassed £100 for the first time ever.
The average 55-litre tank filled with diesel costs £100.42 and petrol is £95, said the AA.
AMC Entertainment has reported the new Top Gun film Maverick smashed all expectations over the weekend.
Tom Cruise’s update of the original Top Gun beat a 15-year record for best Memorial Day takings, said the cinema chain owner.
The bank holidays to celebrate the Queen’s jubilee may push the UK towards a recession but should prove a bonanza for Britain’s supermarkets.
Bloomberg, the news agency, is the source of the possibly treasonous assertion that celebrating “our madge’s” platinum jubilee could shave half a point off gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter if previous bank holidays are any sort of guide.
Deutsche Bank’s offices in Germany were raided by police today over allegations that it sold disingenuous financial products boasting false environmental, social and governance claims.
German regulators claim that asset manager DWS has sold $1tn of investment products under the guise that they were more sustainable than the reality.
The much-awaited, nearly three-month sale of Chelsea Football Club has finally reached its culmination, with the Todd Boehly-led consortium completing the most valuable takeover in sporting history.
Five of the so-called ‘big six’ in England are now majority-owned by Americans, with US-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital expected to have a 60% stake in the West-London side.
Wealth advisers who rely on the common belief that female clients are “less tolerant and confident” are reckless, a new report has warned.
A study by behavioural analysis specialist Oxford Risk concluded: “Subtle beliefs grounded in part on ‘average’ assumptions, such as that female clients are going to be less confident and more risk-averse, can be harmless most of the time.
TUI AG (LSE:TUI), formerly known as Thompson, has cancelled 43 flights a week in June from Manchester Airport in a move expected to affect up to 37,000 passengers.
It is the latest airline to cut scheduled flights this week, sparking chaos at airports during the half-term getaway.
P&O Ferries has lost a major contract with the UK government after it sacked hundreds of UK-based sea-faring staff earlier this year.
The Home Office said it has ended its contract with the firm to provide contingency travel services for "juxtaposed ports".
Abu Dhabi’s state-backed Borouge saw extremely high demand for shares ahead of Friday’s float, according to reports.
The petrochemical firm specialising in plastics sought a US$2bn IPO raise but, according to a Bloomberg report, received demand equivalent to US$82bn – making the primary share sale some 42 times oversubscribed.
Futraheat, a London start-up, has joined forces with manufacturing integration specialists Projective to secure £149,000 Phase 1 funding from the BEIS Industrial Fuel Switching Competition.
Greensteam, Futraheat's heat pump technology, enables industrial users to recycle heat and reduce fuel use radically, delivering energy reductions of up to 90%, according to the UK-based company.
Tough conditions in the retail sector claimed another victim last night as fast fashion group Missguided called in administrators after failing to conclude a rescue deal.
Teneo, the group’s administrator, said there was still a ‘high level of interest’ in business and it would continue to trade while a buyer was sought.
Alpha Growth’s revenue rose to £2.62mln in the sixteen months to end December 2021 helped by the acquisition of Providence Life and Assurance, a Bermudan life assurance company.
This acquisition, together with continued subscriptions to the BlackOak Alpha Growth Fund, led to a significant increase in revenue, said Alpha, though costs associated with the acquisition meant a loss for the sixteen-month period of £1.67mln (£567,000 for 2020).
Mortgage lending in the UK continued to shrink last month, according to new Bank of England figures, as banks and other lenders nudge up rates following four rises in the base rate since December.
Data from the BoE this morning revealing that the “effective” interest rate – the actual interest rate paid – on newly drawn mortgages increased to 1.82% in April from 1.73% the month before and 1.58% at the end of January.