Guy Gittins
Group CEO & Executive Director

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the Foxtons’ 2025 Full Year Results Presentation. I’m joined, as always, by Chris Huff, our Group CFO, and we will answer any questions at the end of the call.

This morning, I will take you through some of the highlights of 2025, provide an update on the London property market. Chris will then talk you through the financials, and I will finish with an update on our operational progress in the year, followed by some detail on the outlook for 2026.

We delivered 5% revenue and EBITDA growth in the year, driven by incremental acquisitions revenue and operational progress in areas such as Lettings, cross-selling and financial services. These higher revenues offset the challenging operating environment, including a volatile sales market and cost headwinds to deliver flat operating profit.

These results highlight the resilience of our business as a result of our strategy to position Foxtons firmly as a Lettings-led business. Our portfolio now exceeds 32,000 tenancies, which is up over 50% over the last 5 years, and these tenancies generate highly valuable reoccurring revenues. In 2025, these revenues generated over 2/3 of group revenue.

We delivered 8% Lettings market share growth through improved landlord attraction, retention to build on our position as London’s largest agent. And impressively, for a London-focused business, we are also the U.K.’s largest Lettings brand.

We continue to execute our strategy

Apple introduced the world to MacBook Neo. It may not be the most powerful computer or the one with the most features, but Apple made sure to make it more affordable for anyone who wants the upgrade.

Here’s Why You Should Upgrade to the MacBook Neo

Apple recently unveiled the latest Mac in their lineup, and it is in the form of a new laptop computer called the MacBook Neo.

According to Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, John Terminus, the MacBook Neo “delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price.”

It offers a blend of premium Mac features and notable performance for an affordable price. Here is why this is one of the top computers to consider for your next upgrade or switch from a Windows PC.

Budget-Friendly

One of the defining qualities of the MacBook Neo is its budget-friendliness. The new Mac was designated by Apple to be its midrange laptop, offering an affordable choice in the lineup.

The MacBook Neo starts at $599 in the United States and is cheaper for those who will get it via the Education program at only $499. However, this base variant comes with only 256GB of storage and without the Touch ID.

In comparison, the previous cheapest Mac in the lineup is the MacBook Air, and over the years, it started at an average price of $999.

Apple Silicon: A18 Pro

Apple may have stayed away from its flagship M-series for the Neo, but they still gave it the Silicon chip in the form of the A18 Pro.

The chipset is the same one that powers the iPhone 16 Pro series, and Apple claimed that it is still 50% faster than the latest Intel Core Ultra 5. The company also noted that it is up to three times faster for on-device AI workloads and two times faster for photo editing and similar tasks.

The MacBook Neo comes with an integrated 5-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine to support on-device AI.

MacBook’s Features

The Neo is a full-fledged MacBook, but it is more comparable to the M1 version of the MacBook Air as it does not have the MagSafe charging port.

It only comes with two USB-C ports for charging, data connection, and connecting an external display, as well as a headphone jack. It also brings Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 to deliver the latest wireless connection features to the computer.

Lightweight Laptop

The 13-inch laptop only weighs in at 2.7 pounds or approximately 1.3 kilograms, making it a lightweight laptop for daily use. The M5 MacBook Air also weighs the same as the Neo.

Fun Colors on MacBook

The MacBook Neo features four colors to choose from, and these include the classic Silver, Blush (Pink), Citrus (Yellow, but almost Yellow Green), and Indigo (Navy Blue).

Originally published on Tech Times

Elon Musk took the stand Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco, defending himself against claims that he manipulated Twitter’s stock to lower its price before buying the company for $44 billion in 2022.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in October 2022, was brought on behalf of Twitter shareholders who sold stock between May 13 and October 4, 2022, weeks before Musk finalized the purchase.

Plaintiffs allege that Musk made false and misleading public statements to intentionally drive down Twitter’s share price, violating federal securities laws.

Musk, Tesla’s CEO, had agreed to take Twitter private in April 2022. On May 13, he tweeted that the deal was “temporarily on hold” while he reviewed the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform CBS News reported.

Twitter’s stock dropped nearly 10% that day. A few days later, Musk tweeted the deal “cannot go forward,” claiming up to 20% of accounts were fake, according to the lawsuit.

Plaintiff lawyer Aaron P. Arnzen questioned Musk about his tweets and his prior purchase of Twitter stock. Musk said he didn’t consider his stock purchases material enough to disclose to the SEC and noted, “I’ve bought stock in many companies” without tweeting about it.

He added that once he publicly mentioned the deal, Twitter’s stock jumped 27% in a single day.

Elon Musk Threatened to Abandon Twitter Deal

Regarding the May 13 tweet, Musk told the court that the statement about the deal being temporarily on hold was similar to “saying you’re going to be late for a meeting. (It doesn’t) mean you are not going to be at the meeting.”

Musk repeatedly said he was “simply speaking my mind” when asked if he considered how the tweets might affect the stock.

The lawsuit also focuses on Musk’s actions in July 2022, when he threatened to abandon the deal over the number of spam accounts, despite waiving due diligence.

Musk admitted he assumed Twitter’s SEC filings were accurate, saying, “It subsequently turned out they misrepresented the number of bots. They lied.”

Twitter eventually sued Musk to enforce the deal, and Musk countersued.

According to CBNC, he later completed the acquisition at $44 billion in October 2022, subsequently rebranding Twitter as X and merging it with his other ventures, including xAI and SpaceX.

Originally published on vcpost.com

Mortgage rates have risen since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran. The conflict has sent Treasury yields higher, which play a key role in setting mortgage rates. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6.07%, Bankrate said on Tuesday.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage in the U.S. had dipped below 6%, for the first time in years, in the days before the conflict started. Freddie Mac will offer a more detailed picture of mortgage rates when it releases data on Thursday. President Trump has been pushing for lower mortgage rates.

Eli Lilly on Thursday launched a new program designed to help more employers cover obesity drugs in the U.S., targeting a major barrier to access for patients. 

Lilly and its chief rival, Novo Nordisk, have moved to slash the cash prices of their popular obesity injections for those who want to pay entirely out-of-pocket. But employer coverage of obesity drugs remains uneven due to high costs, leaving roughly half of people with commercial insurance unable to start or stay on treatment, Lilly said in a release. List prices for Lilly’s weight loss and diabetes treatments, Zepbound and Mounjaro, top $1,000 per month.

Nearly one-fifth of firms with over 200 workers, including 43% with 5,000 or more workers, said they cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss as of October, according to a survey by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

“I think we’ll learn in the coming months ahead, if this is a solution that maybe enables some employers who have been sitting on the sidelines to opt into obesity coverage for their employees,” Kevin Hern, senior vice president of Lilly Employer, said in an interview. He added that some employers could opt to add coverage in the upcoming months, while others could wait until 2027.

Eli Lilly’s new “Employer Connect” platform gives employers more flexibility in how they cover obesity treatments, aiming to broaden employee access to the drugs at low out-of-pocket costs, while also limiting expenses for companies. Hern said the program addresses some of the “core tensions” for employers when considering coverage of obesity drugs, including transparency around drug prices, flexibility in benefits design and the ability to choose among independent administrators.

Through the program, employers can pay a net discounted price of $449 per month for a new multi-dose form of Zepbound across all doses, Hern said. He added that the arrangement does not involve rebates, and that the net price gives employers clearer visibility to determine whether they can offer the drug.

Instead of relying on traditional benefit designs, employers can use Lilly’s platform to connect with more than a dozen different third-party program administrators that help manage obesity treatment benefits and costs. 

“Every employer is different. They all want to design things according to their unique needs and workforce,” Hern said.

Employers can choose among the 15 administrators to design benefits that fit their budget and workers’ needs. Some of the administrators may focus on administering the obesity benefits to employees, dealing with core functions such as enrollment, eligibility, claims and more. Other administrators may specialize in comprehensive obesity management, offering telehealth, nutrition and lifestyle support for patients. 

Lilly plans to expand the number of program administrators on the platform, which already include GoodRx, Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, Sesame, Teladoc Health, 9amHealth, Andel, Calibrate Health, Crux Health, eMed, FlyteHealth, Form Health, Goodpath, Ilant Health, Onsera Health, ReviveHealth, SALTA Direct Primary Care, Transcarent and Waltz Health.

“Our goal was to kind of create a platform where these firms could compete … with the value of their services for the employers,” Hern said. All of the administrators are offering the same medicine at the same price, so employers will determine “who can provide me the best service in terms of administering this program as I define that.”

Those with government insurance could also see easier access to obesity drugs: Under landmark deals that Lilly and Novo struck with President Donald Trump, Medicare will cover those medicines for the very first time later this year.