RBS shareholders approve executive pay at annual meeting, joining Aviva and BAE Systems in waving through exec pay packages May 4, 2016 Embattled Royal Bank of Scotland has been fighting to defend its management practises and executive pay this afternoon at its annual shareholder meeting (AGM) in Edinburgh. The banks shareholders eventually voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bank's executive pay, with over 99 per cent approving the report. RBS boss Ross McEwan faced a barrage of [...]
Lack of long-term investment in early stage companies is damaging the economy May 4, 2016 Lack of long-term investment in early stage and innovative companies is damaging the economy, leading fund managers have said. “Our society has increasingly lost its way. Fund management should be doing rightful investment for the world and I think it’s a really serious problem [that they’re not],” says James Anderson, manager of the highly regarded Scottish [...]
How Budget capital gains tax changes boosted attractiveness of startups to investors May 4, 2016 Changes to capital gains tax and entrepreneurs’ relief announced in the Budget have made startups and growing businesses more attractive investment prospects, a new survey of business leaders has found. Eight in 10 of the 1,224 Institute of Directors members quizzed in April over the changes said they would draw investment to entrepreneurial companies. Under the [...]
Four of the best recovery stocks: From alternative lenders to biotech, fund bosses highlight the unloved companies due for a stock market turnaround May 3, 2016 Investing in a company that’s had a bad spell on the stock market can mean an opportunity to buy cheap shares. If a turnaround is successful, or the company proves its true potential to the market, those shares will one day be worth much more. I asked the experts which stocks they’re backing. Illumina From James [...]
Aberdeen Asset Management’s profits have gone south, as investor battles with emerging markets May 3, 2016 Profits for Aberdeen Asset Management have almost halved, it revealed in its half-year results today. Shares in the company were trading down 7.7 per cent at 275.7p shortly before 9:30am London time. The figures The investment manager reported profits before tax of £98.8m for its six-months ended March 2016, down 46.7 per cent from £185.4m the year [...]
Why are car-makers getting the cold shoulder from investors? Well, why not? May 3, 2016 What is the most unloved sector in the global equity market? First off, you might think of oil, which is beset by huge oversupply imbalances despite the recent bounce inspired in great part by bullish financial speculators. Possibly you might plump for banks, which are seeing their net interest margins scythed by increasingly desperate central bankers [...]
A Spring is in the air this May – Shareholder revolt set to build with Aviva and Reckitt Benckiser meetings May 3, 2016 Company bosses are braced for further uprisings this week. Consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser, insurance giant Aviva, and FTSE 250 hedge fund Man Group all host shareholders for their annual general meetings. Last week the shareholder spring picked up pace as investors voted against boardroom pay rewards for engineering firm Weir Group and Shire, the FTSE [...]
London’s Crossrail and HS2 projects helps drive UK’s attractiveness for infrastructure investors May 3, 2016 London schemes such as Crossrail and High Speed 2 have helped drive the UK to greater attractiveness for infrastructure investment. The Global Infrastructure Investment Index, published today by Arcadis, puts the UK in ninth place globally, up from 10th in 2015 and 13th in 2012. This makes it one of the fastest-growing of the 41 countries [...]
How institutional investment and crowdfunding are dominating the growth capital market and making individual investors a distinct minority April 30, 2016 In the first quarter of this year we saw strong activity in growth capital raising with institutional investment, including crowdfunding, dominating over direct investment. This is largely due to the increasing sophistication and specialisation of institutions in providing growth capital, coupled with the increasing activity of crowdfunding platform operators over the last few years. Read [...]
How the UK led private equity buy-and-build activity to four-year high in 2015 April 28, 2016 European buy-and-build activity, where private equity firms acquire a company and merge it with a counterpart before selling the group on, reached its highest level since 2011 last year, according to a new report. Silverfleet Capital’s annual European Buy and Build Monitor tracks this add-on activity across the world. Over the course of the year, it tracked [...]