Business
RAC revenues and profits lift after member numbers reach 15m
Vehicle breakdown specialist RAC has revealed stronger revenues and profits after it saw member numbers grow to 15 million.
The breakdown, insurance and maintenance firm reported that revenues grew by 8% to £411 million over the first half of 2025, putting it “on track” for another year of growth.
It said this included growth across each of its three main divisions.
The 128-year-old business said it is “confident” about its outlook for the rest of the year and for the longer term.
This came after membership numbers grew to 15 million from 14.1 million a year earlier.
RAC also reported that group earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation, grew by 12% to £152 million over the half-year.
The roadside assistant giant is owned by CVC Capital Partners, the Singaporean sovereign investment fund GIC and Silver Lake Partners.
Sky News reported in July that the firm’s owners were preparing to offload the business in a potential sale or stock market float, which could value the RAC at about £5 billion.
Dave Hobday, chief executive of the RAC, said: “2025 is set to be our 14th year of consecutive growth and I am delighted with our strong first-half performance and the continued progress we have made towards our vision to be the UK’s number one for driving services.
“Through our three complementary offerings: breakdown; insurance; and service, maintenance & repair; UK motorists are increasingly choosing us as their one-stop-shop at every stage of their driving journey.
“During the half-year period, we welcomed 500,000 new breakdown members and 10,000 motor insurance members, while our expanding team of mobile mechanics delivered more than double the number of repair and maintenance jobs.
“At the same time, our ongoing investment in AI, digital, and data accelerated performance across the board.”
The supply chain risk designation of the artificial intelligence firm is a first for a US company.
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UniQure needs to run another study to prove that its gene therapy “actually helps people with Huntington’s disease,” a senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said on a call with reporters Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity before discussing sensitive information, confirmed the agency has asked the company to run a placebo controlled trial of its treatment, which is administered directly into the brain. UniQure has said that type of study isn’t ethical because it would require putting people under general anesthesia for hours, a characterization the official disputed.
“So what is really going on? UniQure is the latest company to make a failed therapy for Huntington’s patients,” the official said. “They likely acknowledge or understand at some deep level that their trial failed years ago, and instead of doing the right thing and running the correct clinical study, UniQure is performing a distorted or manipulated comparison in the mind of FDA.”
The comments mark the latest development in a messy public spat between UniQure and the FDA, and as the agency comes under fire for a number of recent drug approval application rejections, including some where companies have accused it of going back on previous guidance. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick last week seemingly criticized UniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease. Makary didn’t name UniQure but described its treatment.
UniQure then accused the FDA of reversing its stance that the company’s clinical trial data would be sufficient to seek approval. UniQure’s study used an outside database to measure how patients with Huntington’s disease might decline without treatment, known as an external control. UniQure has said it wouldn’t be feasible to run a true randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, considered the gold standard, because it wouldn’t be ethical to make people undergo a sham hours-long brain surgery.
The FDA official said the agency “never agreed to accept this distorted comparison” and the FDA “never makes such assurances.” Instead, the “FDA will always say, ‘Well, we have to see the data when we get it.'”
UniQure didn’t immediately comment.
The company’s stock rose more than 10% on Thursday and has fallen 58% this year as of Thursday afternoon.
Business
US mortgage rates rise to 6% after three-week slide as oil-driven bond yields climb – The Times of India
The average long-term US mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a three-week decline as bond yields rose amid oil-price pressures linked to the war with Iran.The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6% from 5.98% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Thursday. A year ago, the average rate stood at 6.63%, AP reported.The modest uptick breaks a three-week slide in borrowing costs, with mortgage rates having hovered close to the 6% mark for most of this year. Last week’s average had marked the first time the rate dipped below 6% since September 2022, reaching its lowest level in nearly three and a half years.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy, investor expectations about inflation and economic growth, and movements in the bond market.They typically track the direction of the 10-year US Treasury yield, which lenders use as a benchmark for pricing home loans.The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.14% at midday Thursday, up from around 4% a week earlier.Treasury yields have moved higher in recent days as rising oil prices added fresh inflation concerns, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates.
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