Aston Martin braces for shareholder rebellion against chief executive’s pay June 13, 2019 Aston Martin shareholders are gearing up to rebel against executive pay just months after the firm’s £4.3bn initial public offering last year. Read more: Aston Martin shares crash 18 per cent on investment bank warning Several investors plan to reject chief executive Andy Palmer’s pay packet, according to Sky News. It comes after the world’s [...]
Petropavlovsk investor hits out at Takeover Panel as investigation ‘casts shadow’ June 13, 2019 A major investor in London-listed miner Petropavlovsk has hit out at the Takeover Panel over an “endless” investigation. The panel started probing shareholder Cabs after the board of gold miner Petropavlovsk was ousted a year ago. It has yet to report, Cabs said, “casting an unnecessary shadow over the company”. The investor, which is also [...]
Creditors’ lawyer tells court: Hudspiths fund was a ‘ponzi scheme’ June 13, 2019 The directors of a forex firm that owes more than £40m to creditors have been accused of running a “fraudulent ponzi scheme”, a court heard yesterday. Hudspiths offered investors a five per cent a month return, in addition to a further two per cent to be paid per month to introductory brokers. Hudspiths fell behind [...]
Middle East tensions push up oil prices as tankers burn in the Gulf of Oman June 13, 2019 International oil prices surged this morning as reports emerged that two oil tankers had caught fire in the Gulf of Oman. A port in the United Arab Emirates got a distress signal from the Front Altair, Bloomberg reported earlier today. Bloomberg later reported that the Kokuka Courageous tanker has also been hit. The ship’s manager [...]
Can Amazon really be a climate change champion? June 12, 2019 | City Talk Amazon is not a company normally associated with meaningful strides towards a low carbon future. Although e-commerce is typically better for the environment than heavily air-conditioned, high street stores, speedy deliveries carry a high carbon cost. Any Amazon shopper may feel a pang of guilt – as I have – at using the one day delivery [...]
Oil prices pushed down by US stockpile data June 12, 2019 Oil prices dropped nearly three per cent this morning as news emerged that US stockpiles rose last week. International standard Brent crude fell 2.6 per cent to $60.72 at around 11.15am today. Meanwhile, US standard was down 2.8 per cent to $51.79. Oil inventories in the States grew by 4.9m barrels last week. Analysts had [...]
Is gold making a comeback? June 12, 2019 | City Talk A rise in the price of gold has coincided with a renewed interest in the role of bullion as a monetary asset. Eclipsed since the early Seventies by paper assets and, occasionally, even cryptocurrencies, gold is once again heralded as a risk-free asset with three huge plus points. These are that it is universally acceptable, that it [...]
Opening the fund-gate: How to prevent the Woodford saga from happening again June 12, 2019 The UK’s most famous fund manager has been having a terrible time recently – or perhaps infamous is a better way to describe Neil Woodford these days. Trading in Woodford’s £3.7bn Equity Income fund was suspended last week after a stampede of investors rushed to get their money back. Those remaining are now stuck, and [...]
Mining stocks pull up FTSE 100 June 11, 2019 Mining giants helped push up the FTSE 100 this morning as China announced increased local government spending. The miners were also boosted by Chinese iron prices which jumped by nearly six per cent in today’s trade. Evraz, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, Gencore and BHP rose between two and four per cent each. They were all among [...]
Expected Credit Losses in Unexpected Times June 11, 2019 | City Talk A policy crafted to stop repeating past mistakes often misses the future challenges shaped by those very policies.