City Matters: Social impact investing: The City must embrace a future of philanthropy January 29, 2014 THE CITY has always been a crucible for debate, innovation and philanthropy. All three are crucial as we strive to rise to the complex challenges posed by the “new normal” – a fast-developing globalised world where resources are increasingly scarce and in demand. I am particularly keen to draw upon the City’s energy, expertise and [...]
Formula One future muddled by prospect of Concorde talks delay January 29, 2014 THE BOSS of the company which controls Formula One has revealed that his investors are unhappy with the length of the commercial contracts with the sport’s 11 teams which expire at the end of 2020. It could signal an extension to the long-running negotiations with teams over the Concorde Agreement, the contract which commits them [...]
How to profit from the fund price war January 28, 2014 Increased competition between platforms is welcome – but the overhaul of charges won’t be a game-changer @AnnabelPalmer1 IN WHAT some are calling a price war, yet another investment platform (Barclays Stockbrokers) has unveiled sweeping changes to its pricing structures. It all began on 15 January, when Hargreaves Lansdown announced that it would overhaul its charges. [...]
Sharp emerging market sell-off creates pockets of value for discerning investors January 28, 2014 The recent chaos in emerging markets has brought back uneasy memories of last summer’s sell-off. The MSCI emerging markets index fell from around 1,003 at the beginning of January to less than 932 on Monday, before stabilising in anticipation of the Federal Reserve meeting taking place today and tomorrow. But should investors be put off [...]
Nearly 80pc of economists believe that Bernanke’s QE1 will be seen positively by the history books January 28, 2014 It's often said that it's hard to find agreement among economists. That's taken to be especially true when you approach the more heavily politicised areas of the discipline – such as macro policy. So that 78 per cent of economists agree with this statement is quite a surprise: Informed postmortems of Ben Bernanke’s Fed chairmanship [...]
Oil giant Shell to see revenues tumble on Thursday January 28, 2014 Oil companies have had a pretty rough start to the year and analysts aren’t holding out too much hope for Royal Dutch Shell’s results on Thursday. The FTSE 100-quoted firm has already warned that fourth-quarter earnings will be “significantly lower”. Earnings are expected to fall to $2.9bn (£1.8bn), from $5.6bn in the equivalent quarter the [...]
Super Mario! How the plucky plumber could revive Nintendo’s fortunes January 28, 2014 The classic video game character Mario could be Nintendo’s saviour, according to pundits weighing in on the company’s options ahead of its expected new management strategy, due to be announced on Thursday. Nintendo’s Wii console – which shipped over 100m units, the most successful gaming console it has ever sold – featured 13 Mario released [...]
Tomorrow’s DLR strike called off January 28, 2014 A 48-hour strike on the Docklands Light Railway due to start tomorrow has been called off, according to reports from RMT London Calling. The GGC has agreed to accept pay offers from Serco Docklands AND Carlisle. As a result all strikes are called off. Transport for London has confirmed the announcement, saying that services will [...]
European commercial real estate market is swimming in debt January 28, 2014 Research out today by CBRE shows how the European commercial real estate market is still up to its eyeballs in debt – a large chunk of which is unlikely to meet its maturity deadlines unless new lenders such as insurers ramp up their activity. According to the property consultancy, there is €926bn (£762bn) of outstanding [...]
EU must invest in new technology or lose out to global rivals, warns energy boss January 28, 2014 Europe needs to invest more in new technology if it wants to compete in an age of cheap energy, according to the chief executive of Italy's largest power company, Fulvio Conti. Speaking to CNBC, he said: If we don't invest in new technologies and improvements it will be difficult to match the competition of emerging [...]