Author: LoveWorld UK

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd 7201.T on Thursday cut its forecast for an annual operating loss by 28%, albeit to a still-whopping $3.2 billion, helped by restructuring efforts and better-than-expected sales. In a reversal from the aggressive expansion pursued by ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn, Nissan is reducing production and its vehicle line-up by a fifth, and slashing costs by 300 billion yen in three years to improve profits. Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta also told a briefing that Nissan will move to online sales globally – in a sign of the depth of its restructuring drive and the impact of the pandemic.…

The boom in Britain’s housing market carried on into October as a gauge of house price growth struck a new 21-year high, but next year looks set to be much quieter, a survey showed on Thursday. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said its house price index rose unexpectedly to +68 from +62 in September, the highest reading since September 1999. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a reading of +55. The survey, based on responses of surveyors across the United Kingdom, showed little sign of a let-up in a surge in housing market activity since the…

British engineering company Rolls-Royce RR.L said shareholders signed up for 94% of new shares it issued as part of a 2 billion pound ($2.64 billion) rights issue aimed at bolstering its pandemic-hit finances. Airlines pay Rolls based on how many hours its engines fly and as such, the company’s finances have come under increasing pressure after COVID-19 stopped travel earlier this year. The equity raise unlocks new debt options including 2 billion pounds from a bond issued in October and a bank loan worth 1 billion pounds, as part of a total 5 billion pound liquidity package for the company. While the…

Georgia will re-count all paper ballots cast in the Nov. 3 presidential election by hand, the state’s top election official said on Wednesday, a mammoth task that must be completed by Nov. 20. Democrat Joe Biden secured more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to gain the presidency on Saturday by winning Pennsylvania after four tense days of counting, delayed by a surge in mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic. Adding Georgia would only add to Biden’s margin of victory. Republican President Donald Trump has refused to concede defeat and has said – without citing evidence – that…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s director of communications resigned on Wednesday, a move that suggested tension at the heart of government as Britain prepares to complete its Brexit journey out of the European Union. Lee Cain has been a loyal ally of the prime minister, working for him since he was foreign minister until 2018 and staying by his side, sometimes without pay, when Johnson resigned over his predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit plans. Cain is also close to Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings after working with him in the Vote Leave campaign to quit the EU, a partnership that was reborn…

Conservative lawmakers have set up a new group to fight what they call a cycle of lockdowns to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, yet another sign of discontent in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s governing party. While most Conservatives backed the government last week in supporting a second lockdown in England to try to bring down rising cases of COVID-19, more than 30 of the party’s lawmakers broke ranks, seeing the measures as draconian. The new internal group, called the Covid Recovery Group, is the latest to be formed by Conservative lawmakers, part of wider efforts to try…

Britain and the European Union are likely to miss their mid-November deadline to clinch a post-Brexit trade because talks in London to break a deadlock are expected to run through the end of this week, sources on both sides told Reuters on Wednesday. Ambassadors of the 27 EU member states in Brussels will not be updated on the talks at a regular meeting on Wednesday and the issue is now pencilled in for their meeting on Nov. 18, a senior diplomat of the bloc said. However, in a sign that the estranged allies are still pushing for an agreement, EU…

Disagreements over whether to ease COVID-19 curbs this week among the rival Sinn Fein and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that lead Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government drew criticism on Wednesday from frustrated businesses. Northern Ireland became the first part of the United Kingdom to reimpose strict COVID-19 constraints in mid-October, closing schools for two weeks and restaurants for four but only after disagreements between the two parties were settled. The mandatory power-sharing executive was a key part of a 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of violence between Catholic Irish nationalists, whom Sinn Fein traditionally draw support from, and…

The City of London will remain a competitive global financial centre after Britain’s full exit from the European Union because of the country’s commitment to open markets and robust rules, finance minister Rishi Sunak will say on Monday. Sunak is due to address parliament at 1615 GMT about how Britain will support its 200 billion-pound ($263.04 billion) financial services industry. Pro-Brexit lawmakers say leaving the EU gives Britain a chance to scale back on the bloc’s rules and boost the competitiveness of London, the world’s biggest financial centre after New York, as Asian centres like Shanghai gather momentum. “Proposals to…

Eight rounds into a Premier League season is usually a sufficient period for the big guns to start gathering near the top of the table and for the surprise early pace-setters to be on their inevitable slide. Now and again a club from outside the accepted top-six will defy gravity for longer and once in a blue moon miracles happen, as Leicester City proved by winning the title in 2015-16 as 5000-1 outsiders. A glance at the standings after the weekend’s games raises the prospect that this season might be a bit different. Southampton, beaten 9-0 by Leicester a year…