Carillion, Premier League, housing, Barclays, inflation: your commercial news round-up
updated on 15 February 2018
The aftershocks of Carillion’s collapse are still being felt a month on, not least by its former employees. Magic circle firm Clifford Chance has taken on Carillion’s in-house legal team, saving the jobs of around 60 specialist paralegals. For a useful summary of where things are at for all those connected to the company’s implosion, read the Guardian’s assessment. For other large-scale business news, read on:
- The right to screen Premier League matches has raised significantly less money in its auction of the 2019-22 period than it did for the 2016-19 period, with BT and Sky bidding a combined amount of £4.4 billion to screen the majority of the 200 games, as compared to £5.1 billion in the previous period.
- The UK housing market remained fairly depressing in January, with the number of sales, new buyers and properties coming onto the market all falling. Those trying to selling their million-pound-plus properties had the worst time though, with estate agents reporting that most failed to reach their asking prices.
- The Serious Fraud Office has charged Barclays Bank with “unlawful financial assistance” related to the raising of funds from Qatar in 2008 (the BBC provides a useful diagram to explain the circular lending that is alleged to have occurred).
- The rate of inflation remained at 3%, with good news on the wages front – expectations are that salary increases will match inflation, with an average increase of 3.1% in 2018.
Be sure to check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Follow @LawCareersNetUK on Twitter and like us on Facebook for instant business news updates.
