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BT staff to profit from £265m share scheme bonanza

Almost 23,000 employees to benefit from 3 to 5-year saving scheme allowing staff to buy shares at old prices

More than 23,000 BT staff are to profit from a £265m employee share scheme at the company, with some employees set to make more than £50,000 each.

The staff saved between £5 and £250 a month over a period of up to five years. They will now be able to buy shares on Monday at prices from when the schemes started.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Anglo Irish Bank officials jailed for offences related to financial crash

The three ex-employees are the first bankers to be imprisoned for actions that helped turn the Celtic Tiger boom to bust

Three officials from the bank that almost bankrupted Ireland have become the first bankers to be jailed for offences related to the Republic’s financial crash.

The failure of Anglo Irish Bank, which became synonymous with the casino-style lending practices that drove Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” boom and subsequent bust, cost the state €30bn (£21bn), part of what forced the government to seek a bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Ingenious film investors lose human rights challenge over upfront tax

More than 150 members of Ingenious Media scheme labelled as tax avoidance by HMRC fail in bid to overturn new rules imposed by George Osborne

More than 150 wealthy investors in controversial film investment schemes, which HMRC says amount to tax avoidance, have lost a human rights challenge to new powers tax inspectors have been deploying to demand upfront payments.

George Osborne last year granted HMRC powers to demand disputed tax, even if agreement over sums owing had not been reached. At the time he said removing from aggressive tax planners the financial benefits of drawn-out disputes would “fundamentally reduce the incentive to engage in tax avoidance”.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Is SoulCycle too snobby for America? Cycling experts weigh in

As the high-end cycling chain’s IPO approaches, other owners enter the market for $34-a-pop classes outside of New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles

Cycling is coming to Wall Street.

SoulCycle, the high-end indoor cycling chain, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday in hopes of raising as much as $100m. The New York-based company, which has 38 studios across the US, didn’t specify how many shares it plans to offer or at what price.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Rolls-Royce may face break-up after activist hedge fund reveals stake

US-based ValueAct Capital is renowned for pushing radical changes at established firms and now has biggest stake of 5.5%

The prospect of a break-up of Rolls-Royce, one of Britain’s biggest manufacturers, is back on the agenda after a US activist hedge fund revealed it has built a 5.5% stake in the company.

ValueAct Capital, which is based in San Francisco, is renowned for pushing companies for radical change but prefers to operate behind the scenes rather than make its case through public announcements. In the past it has targeted Microsoft and mobile phone maker Motorola, often looking for the company to sell itself or hive off assets.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Alexis Tsipras defends Yanis Varoufakis over secret Grexit plan

PM objects to mounting criticism of controversial ex-finance minister as Greece meets quartet of creditors for bailout talks

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has launched a staunch defence of his former right-hand man Yanis Varoufakis following revelations that the ex-finance minister drew up secret plans to ditch the euro if bailout talks failed.

Varoufakis, who was a controversial figure during his tenure in Athens, courting publicity and provoking his eurozone counterparts, has admitted he formulated a scheme for leaving the euro, which involved hacking into the Greek tax system.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Hedge fund manager new to Bank of England MPC severs links with old firm

Gertjan Vlieghe announces he will be bought out of Brevan Howard and maintains there was no conflict of interest despite others’ concerns

A hedge fund manager appointed to the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) has succumbed to pressure about potential conflicts of interest by severing financial links with his former employer.

The appointment of Gertjan Vlieghe, a former partner and senior economist at hedge fund Brevan Howard, to the rate-setting committee was announced on Tuesday but prompted concern about his remaining ties to the investment firm. He was to have retained a financial interest in Brevan Howard, which is a partnership. This would have allowed him to receive long-term incentive payments based on the hedge fund’s size, according to a report by Reuters.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Portland's bridge-hangers and 'kayaktivists' claim win in Shell protest

In two of the most daring days in the modern environmental movement, Greenpeace activists set social media ablaze and, despite the Fennica’s moving on toward the Arctic, hailed the action as a ‘historic achievement’

They were two of the most daring days of the modern environmentalist movement: Greenpeace protesters, suspended from a bridge above – and others kayaking against a Royal Dutch Shell icebreaker below.

Thirteen activists hung from the St John’s bridge, while another 13 monitored their ropes from above. Then, on Thursday night in Portland, just when the Greenpeacers thought the Shell ship had turned away and they could fend off $2,500-an-hour fines, the authorities came in.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Supermarkets could stop hiring over-25s to avoid national living wage, say analysts

Credit rating agency Moody’s warns big four may close stores or try to avoid employing people eligible for rise to £9 an hour by 2020

Supermarkets could close stores and try to avoid employing over-25s to cover the cost of implementing a new “national living wage”, the influential credit rating agency Moody’s has warned.

Its research will raise concerns about the countermeasures big businesses could take to pay the national living wage, which was announced by George Osborne in the summer budget.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS

Fuel cell industry charges forward thanks to big corporate customers

Businesses that want low-carbon, reliable distributed power are turning to fuel cells which, if costs come down, could compete with solar and wind energy for these deep-pocketed customers

Unlike solar panels or wind turbines, fuel cells are usually hidden from sight. But a growing number of big companies are relying on these mini power plants for a steady supply of electricity with a lower carbon footprint.

Fuel cells, which date back to the 1800s, generate electricity by putting natural gas through a chemical reaction. They release about half the emissions of a conventional power plant, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS