Coronavirus: the investment impact in seven charts February 28, 2020 | City Talk The spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, beyond China has created fresh uncertainty for the global growth outlook and sparked volatility in financial markets. Outbreaks in South Korea, Iran and Italy have raised concerns that the spread outside of China may be accelerating. We offer key facts on the spread of the virus, interspersed with views from [...]
Wealth managers reduce exposure to UK property February 27, 2020 Following the high-profile suspensions of the M&G and Prudential UK property funds last year, UK wealth managers have significantly reduced their exposure to property. Six adviser groups have removed direct property funds from their portfolios for investors across all risk profiles, according to FE fundinfo’s Adviser Fund Index. Ten funds in the sector were removed [...]
FCA tells asset managers to gear up for the end of Libor February 27, 2020 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has written to asset managers to tell them to get ready for the end of Libor. Libor is being phased out after banks were fined billions for trying to manipulate it. The benchmark, used for pricing trillions of dollars of swaps, futures and loans, is set to end at the [...]
Provident Financial increases dividend as it posts a rise in profit February 27, 2020 Provident Financial has proposed a 60 per cent increase in its final dividend has it posted a rise in profit. The figures Group profit before tax rose 1.6 per cent to £162.2m Basic earnings per share increased 22 per cent to 33.3p, while adjusted EPS fell 2.9 per cent from 48.7p to 47.3p. Provident’s division [...]
St James’s Place posts five per cent profit fall as inflows slow February 27, 2020 Wealth manager St James’s Place posts a fall in full-year operating profit after the pace of inflows of client cash slowed. The figures St James’s Place reported operating profit of £952m, a fall from the £1bn posted in 2018. This was, in part, due to a fall in new business from £852.7m in 2018 to [...]
Which VCTS and EIS I would buy today February 26, 2020 | Sponsored Tax pressure in Britain is at a 50-year high. Higher earners are feeling the squeeze as many traditional avenues of investing tax-efficiently have been blocked – from pension restrictions to the cuts to buy-to-let tax relief. What tax-efficient options are left? Two increasingly popular options for experienced investors are Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and the [...]
EIS investing: A leap into the unknown February 26, 2020 For the uninitiated, investing can often feel like an alphabet soup of different acronyms. But knowing what they all mean can open up a whole new world of options for how to put your money to work. As investors prepare for a number of government changes to how they can invest in startups, City A.M. [...]
London venture capital leads Europe as it doubles funding February 26, 2020 London led venture capital deals across Europe last year as it doubled its funding and the amount raised in the UK hit a record high. In 2019, London-based companies more than doubled the amount of venture capital raised from £2.5bn in 2018 to £5.6bn, according to research by Refinitiv. The number of deals increased from [...]
M&G will continue freeze of its flagship property fund February 25, 2020 M&G is continuing the suspension of its £2.5bn property fund despite making good progress in selling some of the fund’s assets. M&G suspended trading in its flagship property fund in December after investors rushed to withdraw their money. The asset manager blamed the unusually high outflows on Brexit-related political uncertainty, which had made it difficult [...]
Prudential faces break up calls from Dan Loeb’s Third Point February 25, 2020 Hedge fund manager Dan Loeb has called for the breakup of insurance company Prudential after taking a near $2bn (£1.5bn) stake. Loeb’s New-York based investment firm Third Point has built a five per cent stake in the insurance firm and is now pushing for it to separate its Asian and US operations. It comes just [...]