“Vaccine will come, but not without huge challenges” – leading world epidemiologist June 29, 2020 | City Talk Professor Peter Piot, a legend in the field of virology and the fights against HIV and Ebola, is optimistic about a Covid vaccine. But he sees recurrent outbreaks as unavoidable. Professor Peter Piot was not surprised by the outbreak of a global pandemic earlier this year. “We always assumed there would be a big one”, [...]
Why Fintech investing will become more attractive post COVID-19 June 29, 2020 | Sponsored With the global economy predicted to fall, valuations in Fintech companies will be hit hard, too. This will provide investors unique opportunities to invest into those Fintech firms at attractive valuations, which will shape the future of financial services. Fintech investments so far this year: The impact of COVID-19 and the speed of its disruption [...]
Three behavioural biases to watch out for during a crisis June 25, 2020 | City Talk Nick Kirrage walks us through the most common behavioural biases investors suffer from and how to overcome them. At the best of times, investors are at risk of succumbing to certain behavioural biases that can cloud judgment and impair decision-making. In highly stressful and unpredictable times like the Covid-19 crisis, there is a greater propensity [...]
ActivTrades’ revenue set to climb to record high in H1 2020 June 25, 2020 | Sponsored London-based online brokerage ActivTrades is on track to post its best ever half-year results, thanks to an increase in trading volumes and strong growth in the number of clients. With only a few days to go to the end of the second quarter, the company has recorded £30 million in revenue for the first half of 2020, more than trebling [...]
Accounting watchdog investigates London Capital & Finance audits June 24, 2020 The accounting watchdog has launched three investigations into audits of collapsed mini-bond seller London Capital & Finance (LCF). The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will investigate audits of the investment firm carried out by Oliver Clive & Co., PwC, and EY. LCF went into administration in January 2019, leaving 11,600 investors facing losses of up to [...]
Let retail investors help aid a rapid recovery June 19, 2020 Since lockdown began, there has been a trend of companies acting to build up their reserves through equity fundraises — with over £10bn raised since the pandemic began. However, the vast majority of these fundraises have so far not been open to retail investors. While companies urgently need liquidity now more than ever, neglecting to [...]
Which stock markets look ‘cheap’ after the rapid rebound? June 19, 2020 | City Talk We look at how five regional markets stack up on various valuation measures. Early last week, the short answer as to which markets looked cheap was: none. Despite everything that 2020 has thrown at it, at one stage the US stock market was up for the year overall. Other markets had also regained a lot [...]
AIM shows signs of life as it celebrates its 25th birthday June 19, 2020 As AIM prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary today, the junior market is proving remarkably resilient and adaptable. Faced with Covid turbulence, AIM has so far performed well in comparison to other markets, helping to cushion investors from the worst effects of the downturn. In the first five months of 2020, the AIM all-share index [...]
Acacia Research offloads bargain Woodford stocks June 18, 2020 The US buyer that snapped up cut-price assets from Woodford’s failed Equity Income fund has offloaded the stocks just days after the deal. Acacia Research has started to sell some of the assets it agreed to buy earlier this month. In one instance, the US firm generated a profit of £750,000 from a sale of [...]
FCA to make mini-bond marketing ban permanent following LCF scandal June 18, 2020 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has permanently banned the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to ordinary investors. The ban on the mass marketing of illiquid securities comes after a series of scandals involving unregulated bonds, including the collapse of London Capital & Finance (LCF) last year. The FCA introduced a temporary ban in January amid [...]