Labour parliamentary candidate Rajesh Agrawal is under fire from City AM this morning, having revealed that customers of RationalFX, his collapsed foreign exchange (FX) firm are set to recover as little as 10% of the £15m they lost when it folded into administration last year. The firm was co-founded in 2005 by Agrawal, who is also the former deputy mayor of London for business as well as the current Labour candidate for Leicester East. One customer spoken to by City A.M. labelled the management of the firm a “disgrace on every level,” arguing that there was an “extremely large shortfall in the so-called ‘safeguarded funds’ that should have ensured customer money was untouchable and safe in case of any insolvency”. They added that many customers they had spoken to were “private individuals or small business owners who have said that they will never recover from these losses.” Agrawal stepped down as the company’s chief executive in 2016 and resigned as a director in 2022 but, according to Companies House filings, he still held over half of its shares when it collapsed last year. City AM has revealed previously that Agrawal’s firm had worked with a number of clients that raised questions over its compliance processes, including a key player in the infamous ‘bin bags of cash’ scandal involving Natwest, which occurred while Agrawal was CEO. “Some £264m was deposited in cash into Natwest accounts in the scheme, sometimes transported into branches in bin bags. Documents from a case against Natwest in 2021 reveal that millions were whisked out of the Natwest accounts onto Rational FX‘s platform between 2014-2015,” the newspaper says.  Meanwhile, “Agrawal has been talking up his past as a fintech entrepreneur on the campaign trail in Leicester East,” City AM adds, noting that one his campaign website, Agrawal says: “As a fintech entrepreneur, I built a team that challenged the status quo by lowering the cost of moving money for migrant workers and businesses alike”. He has not responded to requests for comment, chief City reporter Charlie Conchie writes. The Financial Conduct Authority, which is working with the company’s administrators to understand the circumstances that led to its insolvency said it could not comment on individual companies.

Monthly rents in London have continued to rise, and prices outside of the capital have reached a record high, according to Rightmove. In May, the average monthly rent being asked outside London hit £1,316, 7% higher than a year earlier, while in the city, the average advertised rent was £2,652 per month, 4% higher than a year earlier, the real estate platform said.

Keywords Studios, the AIM-listed videogame developer has accepted an offer of more than £2bn for its takeover by Swedish private equity firm EQT, in another blow to the London Stock Exchange. The Dublin-based firm is one of the largest companies on the junior will be paid 2,450p in cash per share, equating to approximately £2.1bn.

AIM-listed vape-maker Supreme has almost doubled revenue it what it calls an “outstanding” financial performance in the year to March. Revenue grew by 42% from £155.6m to £221m, while

profit before tax and adjusted profit before tax more than doubled from £14.4m to £30.1m and from £15.2 to £30.7m, respectively, over what the firm referred to as a “highly cash generative period”.

BATM Advanced Communications has entered a partnership with an unnamed technology and defence group in a move the company says will allow it to sell its advanced cybersecurity solution to global commercial markets. The London-listed tech firm said its new partner generated revenue of over $10bn (£7.8bn) in 2023 and serves customers in more than 100 countries, with operations spanning Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.

Addison Lee is said by Sky News to be coming up for sale, with Cheyne Capital, which bought the taxi company four years ago, reported to have hired investment bank Jefferies to canvass interest in a takeover.  The process is thought to be at a relatively early stage and might not lead to a transaction, according to one insider who spoke to the broadcaster, however a spokesperson for Addison Lee declined to comment.

Steak house chain Hawksmoor is also up for sale, with owners said to be looking for a deal in the region of £100m. Since 2013, the chain has been majority-owned by private equity firm Graphite Capital, which, according to the Financial Times, has instructed the US investment bank Stephens to run a sales process.

Capita has renewed its contract with the Cabinet Office to administer the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme (RMSPS) for an additional six years from 2026. The London-listed outsourcer said the contract included an option to extend for a further two years, following a competitive selection process, and that the deal was valued at £48m over the potential eight-year period. Capita has been administering the RMSPS, which has over 350,000 members, since 2017.

Gü, the Hertfordshire-based pudding maker has taken a hit from new rules brought in by UK supermarkets about where high fat and sugar products could be placed in stores. Gü said the change impacted the number of products it sold in the 12 months ended September 29^th 2023 but turnover nudged up regardless, hitting just over £66.5m during the year, up from £66.1m in the 12 months prior. However pre-tax profit was halved to £5m, down from £10.4m the year before, because of “external headwinds” including the cost of living crisis, the company said.

Plans to build the City of London’s tallest skyscraper have come unstuck temporarily because the City of London Planning Applications Sub-Committee has voted to demand “minor adjustments in relation to the ground floor public realm,” saying the current design infringes too much on the adjacent St Helens Square communal space. The Eric Parry-designed 1 Undershaft Building, which is to stand 74-storeys high, and at 309.6m soar above the so-called ‘Walkie-Talkie’ and ‘Cheese Grater’ buildings, was recommended by planning officers for approval, in what has been an eight-year planning process so far. A spokesperson for developers Aroland Holdings told City AM: “We have listened carefully to the comments made regarding the public space at ground floor which were raised at the Planning Applications Sub-Committee today. We will be working closely with the City of London Corporation and our neighbours in the insurance industry to consider these through minor revisions to the scheme. We look forward to returning to the Sub-Committee as soon as possible”.

HSBC is said by Bloomberg to be slowing down hiring and encouraging staff to rein in expenses to cut costs. Europe’s largest bank has not replaced some staff who have quit or resigned in recent months, according to the news agency, and some of HSBC’s divisions have apparently been told to freeze hiring entirely, although this pause is not said to affect client-facing jobs. “Servicing our clients is our priority and ensuring we have the right people in the right places,” an HSBC spokesperson told City A.M. “We are working smarter and more efficiently as we leverage technology and continue to manage costs.”

Eurozone inflation slowed slightly last month, falling from 2.6% in May to 2.5%, according to official figures from Eurostat. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged at 2.9%, and services inflation remained high 4.1%, having been predicted to fall to 2.8%.  Last month the ECB cut interest rates in expectation of inflation hitting its 2% target by next year.

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