Labour’s John McDonnell says nationalisation will “cost nothing” after Carillion, while Corbyn adds it is necessary to prevent a “climate catastrophe” February 10, 2018 Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said the Labour party’s plan to bring services such as water, energy and rail under public ownership would be “cost free”. The collapse of Carillion showed that privatisation had failed, he told the audience at a conference in London on “alternative models of ownership”. McDonnell said taking key infrastructure assets [...]
The Treasury has held secret meetings with the US Department of Justice to speed up a hefty RBS fine February 10, 2018 The UK Treasury has held a secret meeting with US officials to chivvy along a several-billion pound fine for Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Sky News has reported. The fine, which has been estimated by some analysts to be worth more than £5m, would draw a line under the bank’s pre-bailout misconduct relating to the [...]
Troubled outsourcer Capita drafts in Carillion adviser Lazard to advise on financing options February 10, 2018 Outsourcing giant Capita, collector of TV licence fees and a major government contractor, has drafted in the adviser which served construction company Carillion in the months before its collapse. Capita, which issued a major profit warning last week wiping almost £1bn off its market value, has hired investment bank Lazard to advise on its financing [...]
A new civil partnership law going through parliament could add billions to companies’ pension liabilities, warns Royal London and Lane Clark & Peacock February 10, 2018 A new law currently going through parliament could add billions of pounds to companies’ pension scheme liabilities, the UK’s largest mutual life insurance and pensions company has warned. A private member’s bill prepared by Conservative MP Tim Loughton wants to allow opposite-sex couples to register for a civil partnership for the very first time. Currently, [...]
Charts of the month: Rising bond yields, dividends and Putin February 9, 2018 | City Talk Each month, dozens of charts cross our investment writing desk at Schroders, the asset manager. Here, the team pick out six that particularly caught their interest. Bond yields on the up US Treasury (UST) yields have risen 30 basis points (bps) since the start of 2018, across different maturity levels. We have to go back [...]
How interest rates might increase over the next two years February 9, 2018 | City Talk UK policymakers’ concerns about inflation have prompted Schroders’ economists to bring forward to November their expectations of a rise in interest rates. Schroders senior European economist and strategist Azad Zangana now predicts the base rate to rise in November 2018 by 25 basis points, up from 0.50% to 0.75%. This is before the two rate [...]
FTSE 100 loses ground to cap a miserable week February 9, 2018 UK shares shed around one per cent today, capping a disappointing week for investors. The FTSE 100 closed down 1.3 per cent, the mid-cap FTSE 250 was 0.8 per cent lower and the All-Share fell 1.2 per cent. After losing ground on Friday opening, London-listed equities almost recovered during mid-morning activity. Apost-lunchh sell-off prompted another [...]
France and Germany’s finance ministers and head bankers call for bitcoin and cryptocurrency crackdown (Bruno le Maire, Peter Altmaier) February 9, 2018 France and Germany’s finance ministers and head bankers have called on G20 leaders to intervene in the murky world of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin. A letter to fellow G20 finance ministers, signed by German interim finance minister Peter Altmaier, France’s Bruno le Maire, Banque de France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau and the [...]
Finding the root of our STEM gender gap February 9, 2018 If science teaches us one thing, it is to have a healthy respect for the facts – and the truth is that not enough women work in the STEM industries. So, faced as we are with this chronic under-representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, how do we begin to close the gender gap and [...]
Bank of England predictions shift: How interest rates might increase over the next two years February 9, 2018 | City Talk UK policymakers’ concerns about inflation have prompted Schroders’ economists to bring forward to November their expectations of a rise in interest rates. Schroders senior European economist and strategist Azad Zangana now predicts the base rate to rise in November 2018 by 25 basis points, up from 0.50% to 0.75%. This is before the two rate [...]