Friday newspaper round-up: Deutsche Boerse, billionaires, Amazon
The chief executive of Germany’s stock exchange has resigned to avoid distractions caused by allegations that he has been involved in insider dealing. The Frankfurt-based Deutsche Börse announced Carsten Kengeter would leave at the end of the year just days after a German court refused to back a settlement over the allegations under which he had agreed to a €500,000 (£443,281) penalty and the Börse €10.5m. – Guardian
The world’s super-rich hold the greatest concentration of wealth since the US Gilded Age at the turn of the 20th century, when families like the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts controlled vast fortunes. Billionaires increased their combined global wealth by almost a fifth last year to a record $6tn (£4.5tn) – more than twice the GDP of the UK. There are now 1,542 dollar billionaires across the world, after 145 multi-millionaires saw their wealth tick over into nine-zero fortunes last year, according to the UBS / PwC Billionaires report. – Guardian
Jeff Bezos was closing in on Bill Gates’ status as the world’s richest man this evening as shares in Amazon jumped following better-than-expected profits. The online retail giant, reporting its first set of results since it bought the grocery chain Whole Foods, slightly increased profits to $256m (£195m) in the third quarter of the year, surprising investors who had expected heavy investment to weigh on income. – Telegraph
Saudi Arabia is looking to the heavens with a plan to invest $1bn (£760m) in Sir Richard Branson’s space businesses. The entrepreneur, who attended the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, said that the country plans to sink the money into his US-based Virgin Galactic, Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit ventures. – Telegraph
A transatlantic bridge linking London and New York was the thinking behind Jes Staley’s repositioning of the Barclays investment banking division, but some days the beleaguered boss must wonder if he could leave the City behind for his native Wall Street. As many Barclays chief executives have learnt to their cost in the past 30 years, when it comes to investment banking, UK fund managers do not have much patience for grand plans. – The Times
Carelessness in preparing tax returns is costing the Treasury about £6 billion a year and is the biggest contributor to the UK’s tax gap. Figures from Revenue & Customs show that £34 billion of tax revenue went uncollected between 2015 and 2016. Of this total, £6.1 billion was a result of a “failure to take reasonable care” by self-assessed taxpayers, including negligence in adequately recording their transactions. – The Times