Business news in pictures

• 1/18
  
  Fancy chancing your arm?

  A robot arm, developed by Nachi Robotic Systems was on show at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo on Wednesday December 3. The Bank of England recently published research that 15 million UK jobs could be at risk of automation in the coming decades.

  REUTERS/Thomas Peter

• 2/18
  
  Elizabeth-Holmes

  Elizabeth Holmes is the only woman that has made it on the Forbes magazine “America’s richest entrepreneurs under 40” list. Elizabeth Holmes who founded the blood-testing company Theranos came sixth with $4.5 billion (£2.9 billion). Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg topped the ranking with $47.1 billion.

  Kimberly White/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize

• 3/18
  
  Peppa-pig

  Peppa set out to hog the market – The film and TV distribution company Entertainment One said it was on course to double merchandise sales for the pre-school favourite Peppa Pig to $2bn (£1.3bn) by 2020. Sales of Peppa toys will begin in China next year, following the launch of the TV show there. E1’s underlying annual profits climbed by 42 per cent to £52m, on sales up 2 per cent at £337m.

  Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

• 4/18
  
  Paris-tour-eiffel

  The Eiffel Tower illuminated with the French national colors in tribute to the victims of the November 13, 2015 Paris terror attacks. Tourism and travel stocks fell on Monday in the wake of Friday’s jihadist attacks in Paris – as a leading European policymaker warned that the killings could compound the region’s economic woes.

  AFP PHOTO / BERTRAND GUAY

• 5/18
  
  blue-diamond

  A model holds a 12.03-carat blue diamond during a press preview by auction house Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 4, 2015. A 12.03-carat blue diamond could fetch a record $55 million (47 million Euros) when it goes under the hammer by Sotheby’s on November 11 in Geneva. Categorised as a fancy vivid blue diamond, the Blue Moon, discovered in South Africa in January last year, is the largest cushion-shaped stone in that category to ever appear at auction

  FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

• 6/18
  
  Burberry profit warning

  Burberry shares were down 12 per cent after it missed forecasts for sales in the first half of 2015 as Chinese customers cut back on luxury goods.

• 7/18
  
  Is Go Pro caught on camera?

  Polaroid’s owner CA is suing Go Pro over its Hero4 Session camera, claiming the ice-cube shaped device is a rip-off of the Polariod Cube camera and infringes its patent. Shares in Go Pro, which denied the announcement, fell to an all-time low.

  Alamy

• 8/18
  
  UK to conduct its own inquiry into vehicle testing as BMW hit by fallout

  In the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions scandal BMW shares have fallen by more than 5 per cent after claims one of its models exceeded European emissions limits by more than 11 times.

  DPA/Getty Images

• 9/18
  
  Starbucks to help staff with rent deposits

  The coffee chain will provide an interest-free loan to pay a rental deposit that should be repaid within 12 months

• 10/18
  
  

  Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix has said that companies greatly underestimate the importance of reference checks when hiring

  YouTube/Screen shot/KPCB

• 11/18
  
  Cold winter for Volkswagen

  VW CEO Martin Winterkorn ousted over diesel emissions that could cause thousands of premature deaths

• 12/18
  
  Groupon cuts down its workforce

  Groupon has cut 10% of its workforce and closed its operations in 7 countries. When it went public in 2011 it was valued at $12.8bn

  2011 Getty Images

• 13/18
  
  Eastern Promise

  Britain’s Chancellor George Osborne has urged closer business ties with China when he visited Shanghai, the country’s commercial hub, on Tuesday. He declared that the UK and China will “stick together”, despite stock market turmoil and faltering economic growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

  Getty

• 14/18
  
  United going down

  Manchester United’s absence from the Champions League hurt more than the fans’ pride last year – it also dented the bottom line. Revenues at the New Uork listed club dipped 8.8 per cent to £395.2m in the year to June, triggering a £1.2 million loss after broadcasting and sponsorship deals dried up. The club said it was now looking to raise $400m from a share issue.

  2015 Manchester United FC

• 15/18
  
  Star Wars boosts economy

  Production of the next Star Wars movie has brought an economic impact of some £150 million to Britain, according to company accounts. The seventh movie in the series, The Force Awakens, will be released in December.

• 16/18
  
  Natalie Massenet Leaves Net-a-Porter

  The Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet decided to quit the online fashion retailer during “a summer of reflection” that included a spectacular 50th birthday party on the Almalfi coast.

  Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission.

• 17/18
  
  I’ll keep working, says Mayer

  The chief executive of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, said that she was expecting twin girls in December. She said she would “approach the pregnancy and delivery the same way as I did with my son three years ago, taking limited time away and working throughout”. In 2012, she took two weeks off when her first child was born.

  2014 Getty Images

• 18/18
  
  World’s richest lose $182b

  Warren Buffett, the world’s third richest person, lost $3.6bn in last week’s market slump

  Getty

Those that do survive, however, will know that there is a good chance of them going through exactly the same thing all over again during the next bout of damaging weather.

For one thing, there is little or no help available for businesses keen to invest in flood defences to protect themselves in the future – even assuming that it is possible to build defences that will be sufficiently robust.

Nor can small businesses depend on the insurance industry to protect them. The FSB reckons one in 10 small businesses is at risk of flooding, but warns that 50,000 of them are finding it difficult to obtain insurance. Insurers either refuse altogether to offer cover, or quote premiums that are unaffordable.

This impasse is why the Government has brokered a deal with the insurance sector: but while the Flood Re scheme due to come into force next year will ensure that almost all householders have insurance protection against future floods, ministers chose to exclude small businesses from these arrangements. It was unable to reach agreement with insurers on how their interests might be accommodated in the Flood Re deal, so it simply left small businesses out.

The result is that small businesses that aren’t currently able to obtain insurance still won’t be able to do so in the future. Moreover, their numbers are likely to swell: the Met Office has said for the first time following last week’s flooding that this was an event linked to climate change. As such adverse weather events become more common in our changing climate, greater numbers of small firms will find themselves unable to secure decent insurance against flooding.

Just 10 days ago, we saw MPs from every party, including the small business minister herself, take part in photo opportunities up and down the country as part of the fantastic Small Business Saturday initiative that promotes independent businesses. When it comes to putting their money where their mouths are – or at least forcing insurers to do so – policymakers have been found wanting.

Lonely world of the small business owner

What’s the toughest challenge in setting up and running a small business? Loneliness, research suggests. A survey of hundreds of owners by Axa PPP, the health insurance company, found that almost two-thirds worried about having to make key decisions on their own.

More than two in five said they wanted more support running their business, with many currently relying on friends and family for advice. Axa PPP suggested that mentoring networks might have more of a role to play, while 29 per cent of owners said they wanted the Government to do more.

“Owners are positive about the future and working hard to achieve their goals but we worry that they lack the right kind of support to make the success of their business sustainable,” said Glen Parkinson, a director of Axa PPP. “They have to lead their business, drive growth and ensure essential activities are well managed – the pressure is leading owners to put in long hours, which is impacting their home lives; this is unsustainable.” 

A good year for the junior stock market

The strong performance of shares in smaller companies continues to attract investors to the Alternative Investment Market (Aim). Companies listed on the London stock market’s junior exchange have raised £3.4bn from investors this year, more than in any year since 2011.

Allenby Capital, the specialist Aim broker, said that while the number of new flotations on Aim had slowed in recent months, secondary fundraisings continue to be strong. “October saw a continuation of the trends seen on Aim throughout 2015,” Allenby said. “We saw weakness in the IPO market but continued resilience of the secondary market – investor preference remains to invest in companies with a listed track record where they have had an opportunity to assess management.”

Overall, the number of companies on Aim fell by seven in October, as four new joiners were offset by 11 departures. As at the end of October, there were 1,056 Aim constituents, down 48 from 1,104 at the end of 2014.

Small Business Person of the Week: Helen Parker, chief executive, Bidonthis.co.uk

“We launched just over a year ago. I’d spent 13 years in online roles, and wanted to launch a business of my own. We had a database of trade and wholesale buyers and we began to talk to auction houses. Many of these – there are 600 or so around the country – have little or no online presence. With one of our clients, we had to help them to connect to the internet for the first time.

“We realised that if we could build a technology platform these auction houses could use, that would be very attractive. These businesses know they need to move online, not least because many are seeing falling footfall, but the technical challenges are tough, given the need for real-time bidding, payment settlement and so on.

“We offer a platform through which they can run auctions online and in the room at the same time – so auctioneers can take physical bids from people who are there and online bids from people connected online, just as they’ve taken telephone bids in the past.

“We charge £200 a month for the platform, plus a 1.5 per cent commission on every item sold. That means it is in our interests to attract as many bidders as possible to the auction process, which would have been difficult without the databases we had when starting. In fact, too few people know about auctions, even though they can be an incredibly cheap place to buy.

“We’ve gone from nothing to selling 6,000 items a week through the platform. It’s a technology solution in a traditional market that hopefully works really well for buyers, sellers and the auction houses themselves.”

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