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PARTNERSHIP BRINGS SURGE OF ENERGY TO BUSINESS COMPARISON WEBSITE

Small and medium sized businesses across the UK are being offered a lifeline when it comes to saving money on energy thanks to a new partnership between Businesscomparison.com and Love Energy Savings. The two North-West based companies are pleased to announce that they’ll be working together to help business owners and decision makers access the best energy deals online. The collaboration represents a unique opportunity for users with Love Energy Savings offering Businesscomprison.com customers a £1,000 cashback if they can’t beat their exiting renewal quote*.

Phil Foster and Philip Brennan
Small and medium sized businesses across the UK are being offered a lifeline when it comes to saving money on energy thanks to a new partnership between Businesscomparison.com and Love Energy Savings. The two North-West based companies are pleased to announce that they’ll be working together to help business owners and decision makers access the best energy deals online. The collaboration represents a unique opportunity for users with Love Energy Savings offering Businesscomprison.com customers a £1,000 cashback if they can’t beat their exiting renewal quote*.
70 per cent of businesses experience difficulties comparing energy tariffs and 43 per cent have never switched supplier according to figures by the Federation of Small Businesses. Government projections published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change predict further energy price increases up until 2020. For a company with a 5 per cent profit margin over 3 years, a £500-a-year saving on energy can make the same profit as £30,000 of extra sales.
Businesscomparison.com launched in April 2015 and, since then the Chester-based company has helped more than 20,000 customers access finance from as little as £1K to £16million. The site was set up by former MoneySuperMarket.com and Bank of America employee Philip Brennan to open up a competitive financial product marketplace for small and medium sized businesses. The company has forged relationships with both new lenders and high street banks boasting the most comprehensive list of business financial help products in the UK. The branch out into energy comparison for business is an exciting step forward.
Head of Businesscomparison.com, Philip Brennan said,
“All too often small business owners are paying too much for their gas and electricity and are passed onto pricey standard rate tariffs. At Businesscomparison.com we’re flying the flag for comparison across a range of financial products for small and medium sized enterprises so we’re thrilled to be working with energy comparison specialists Love Energy Savings. This partnership means we can direct our customers to the very best energy deals for them. Not only that, but Love Energy Savings have committed to providing our users with a £1,000 cashback if they can’t beat their renewal quote* – they won’t get this exclusive deal anywhere else.”
Love Energy Savings have already passed on over £66 million worth of savings to over 48,000 UK homes and businesses. The Bolton-based company recently received NVM Private Equity Investment of £4.5 million and revealed exciting plans to treble their staff headcount over 12 months allowing them to pass on even more savings to more customers.
Love Energy Savings Managing Director, Phil Foster says the recent partnership with Businesscomparison.com represents a phase in their growth,
“Businesscomparison.com are the perfect partner for our business. We each share the same mission to create a big difference and make savings simpler for UK businesses and I truly believe that together we can offer a totally new approach to helping SME’s make smarter choices around their energy bills.”
Customers can access energy savings today by logging to www.businesscomparison.com.
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Bitcoin, ether hit fresh highs

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Bitcoin hit a fresh high in Asian trading on Saturday, extending a two-month rally that saw its market capitalisation cross $1 trillion a day earlier.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency rose to an record $56,620, taking its weekly gain to 18%. It has surged more than 92% this year.
Bitcoin’s gains have been fuelled by evidence it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies, such as Tesla Inc, Mastercard Inc and BNY Mellon.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and daily volume, hit a record $2,040.62, for a weekly gain of about 12%.
Ether is the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the ethereum blockchain. In the crypto world, the terms ether and ethereum have become interchangeable.
Ether futures contracts launched on derivatives exchange CME earlier this month.
(Reporting by Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by William Mallard)
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World Bank pushing for standard vaccine contracts, more disclosure from makers

By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank is working to standardize COVID-19 vaccine contracts that countries are signing with drug makers, and is pushing manufacturers to be more open about where doses are headed, as it races to get more vaccines to poor countries, the bank’s president said on Friday.
World Bank President David Malpass told Reuters he expected the bank’s board to have approved $1.6 billion in vaccine funding for 12 countries, including the Philippines, Bangladesh, Tunisia and Ethiopia, by the end of March, with 30 more to follow shortly thereafter.
The bank is working with local governments to identify and fill gaps in distribution capacity, after they purchase vaccines under a $12 billion World Bank program, and also to standardize the contracts they are signing with manufacturers, he said.
The bank’s International Finance Corp, its private financing arm, has $4 billion to invest in expanding existing production plants or building new ones, including in developed countries, but needs more data on where current production is headed, he said.
“We are eager to be investing in new capacity, but it’s hard to do because you don’t know how much of the existing capacity is already committed to the various off-takers,” Malpass said in an interview with Reuters. New or expanded plants could be used to produce other types of vaccinations in the future, he said.
The bank’s funds could be used to expand plants in advanced economies, if the production was earmarked for developing nations, he said.
Malpass welcomed Friday’s pledge by the Group of Seven rich countries to intensify cooperation on the pandemic, saying it could help jump-start deliveries of vaccines to poorer countries, which are lagging far behind rich countries in getting shots in arms.
Data compiled by Our World In Data, a scientific online publication, showed Israel was leading the world in COVID-19 vaccinations, with nearly 82 of 100 people vaccinated, while India and Bangladesh reported less than one person per 100, Many African countries have not started at all.
Malpass said he was heartened by news about new vaccines coming down the road, and about Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE seeking permission to store their vaccine at higher temperatures, which would ease another obstacle to deliveries in lower-income countries.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Leslie Adler)
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Google to evaluate executive performance on diversity, inclusion

By Paresh Dave
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google will evaluate the performance of its vice presidents and above on team diversity and inclusion starting this year, the company said on Friday in one of several responses to concerns about its treatment of a Black scientist.
Timnit Gebru, co-leader of Google’s ethical artificial intelligence research team, said in December that Google abruptly fired her after she criticized its diversity efforts and threatened to resign.
Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai ordered a review of the situation. While Google declined to share specific findings, the company announced on Friday it will engage human resources specialists during sensitive employee departures.
Pichai in June said that by 2025, Google aims to have 30% more of its leaders come from underrepresented groups, with a focus on Black, Latinx and Native American leaders in the United States and female technical leaders globally. About 96% of Google’s U.S. leaders at the time were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men.
As a result of the investigation, the company also expanded a commitment announced in June to devote more resources to retaining and promoting existing employees, including by expanding a team addressing disputes among workers and their managers.
The diversity component of executive performance reviews was not previously announced, and the company did not immediately share details about what would be measured and how pay would be affected.
Alphabet for years had rejected proposals from shareholders and employees to set diversity goals and tie executive pay to them.
Irene Knapp, a former Google employee who advocated for one such proposal at a 2018 shareholder meeting, said on Friday, “I am pleased that they met our demand from 2018, which was a bare minimum that should have been easy to do immediately.”
Evaluating managers on diversity goals is becoming more commonplace. McDonald’s Corp on Thursday tied executive bonuses to diversity.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)