Patisserie Valerie chair cashed out £40m from failed cafe chain. Original outlet in London’s Soho among those closed at cost of 920 jobs. Luke Johnson, the multimillionaire chairman of collapsed cafe chain Patisserie Holdings (CAKE), has cashed out more than £40m from the business since the cafe group floated on the stock market less than five years ago. Other shareholders are considering legal action after their investments in Patisserie Holdings, the parent company of brands including Patisserie Valerie, Druckers Vienna Patisserie and Philpotts, were wiped out when the business went into administration on Tuesday. More than 900 staff have already lost their jobs as the administrator, KPMG, announced on Wednesday that 71 outlets had closed immediately, including the original Patisserie Valerie outlet, which has been trading on Old Compton Street in central London since the 1940s.
Flying ‘cars’: Boeing lifts off in race to revolutionise travel. Company says prototype – part helicopter, drone and plane – lifted off and landed safely. Boeing says its flying car prototype hovered briefly in the air during an inaugural test flight, part of the company’s bid to revolutionise urban transportation and parcel-delivery services. Boeing is competing withrival Airbus SE and numerous other firms to introduce small, self-flying vehicles capable of vertical takeoff and landing. The investments, fueled by leaps in autonomous technology as much as frustration with road congestion, could change the face of the aerospace industry within the next decade
UK retail sector shed 70,000 jobs in final months of 2018 – BRC. Report comes as John Lewis is set to close Southsea store and outsource maintenance jobs. Some 70,000 retail jobs were lost in the final months of 2018 and nearly a third of retail businesses plan to shed staff in the coming months, according to a new report that underlines the tough trading conditions on the high street. The survey, carried out by the British Retail Consortium, came as John Lewis revealed it is to close its smallest department store, Knight & Lee in Southsea in Hampshire, putting 127 jobs at risk. The retailer’s parent group also said it is to outsource 365 maintenance jobs at its department stores, Waitrose supermarkets, its distribution network and head office. The shake-up means that after next year, the workers affected will lose the annual profit-related bonus paid to all staff directly employed by the employee-owned group.
Metro Bank shares crash after loans blunder revealed. Hundreds of millions wiped off value of company after it says loans were given wrong status. Metro Bank (MTRO) has revealed a major blunder in how it classifies its loan book, an admission that drove its share price down by nearly 40% on Wednesday, wiping £800m off the value of the company. The bank, which has been opening new branches as established rivals cut back, revealed that hundreds of millions of pounds of commercial property loans and loans to commercial buy-to-let operators had been wrongly classified in risk terms, and should have been among its “risk-weighted assets” (RWAs). After the blunder emerged, Metro’s shares plummeted 39% from £22 to close at £13.45 as analysts feared the bank might have to raise fresh capital, just six months after tapping shareholders for £300m to finance its rapid expansion plans. When a bank has higher risk-weighted assets, regulators require higher amounts of capital to be set aside.
Trial of four former Barclays executives begins. Fraud charges relate to multibillion-pound rescue of bank by Qatar in 2008. Four former Barclays (BARC) executives have appeared in court charged with fraud in relation to the multibillion-pound rescue of the bank by Qatar during the 2008 financial crisis. John Varley, the former chief executive of Barclays, is the first boss of a major bank to face a jury trial over alleged crimes during the global financial crisis a decade ago. Ed Brown QC, prosecuting on behalf of the Serious Fraud Office, said the case would examine “how those at the very top of the bank responded to the pressure that it created”. As the trial, which is expected to last four to six months, began at Southwark crown court on Wednesday, the judge Mr Justice Robert Jay told the jury to to put aside their feelings towards bankers and the damage the financial crisis caused to society.
Former Tesco (TSCO) executive Carl Rogberg cleared of fraud. Two other directors were found not guilty in December after judge threw out the case. The last of the three Tesco executives accused of masterminding a fraud that triggered a financial crisis at the company has been acquitted, leaving the Serious Fraud Office without a single conviction for the accounting scandal that wiped £1.5bn off the value of Tesco shares in one day. Carl Rogberg, 52, who was cleared in Southwark crown court on Wednesday morning, claimed the four-year ordeal had contributed to a heart attack that forced the original trial to be abandoned last year. The legal case had taken an enormous toll on his health as well on the lives of his wife and young son, he said. “How do you explain to your eight-year-old son what is going on?” Rogberg told the Guardian. “He’s now 13. His whole childhood has been, I wouldn’t say wiped out, but significantly influenced by what has been going on.”
