Litigation funder Augusta completes £150m financing round to pedal expansion plans July 10, 2018 Litigation funder Augusta has successfully completed a £150m financing round from institutional and private investors as its business moves into the next phase of expansion. Augusta, whose main markets are in the UK and Australia, says the boosted finances will enable it to fund disputes of a bigger size and scope and reach other jurisdictions [...]
TP ICap shares sink more than 30 per cent as it parts ways with chief executive and warns on higher costs July 10, 2018 Shares in the world's largest interdealer broker TP Icap sunk more than 30 per cent this morning, after the company said it had parted ways with its chief executive, and warned earnings would come in below expectations. Ahead of the group's interim results for the six months to 30 June to be announced next month, [...]
Ocado delivers mixed results July 10, 2018 | City Talk Ocado revealed a mixed set of first-half results. Revenue rose by 12.1 per cent to £799 million, while EBITDA slipped by 13.9 per cent to £38.9 million. When you factor in depreciation, amortisation, impairments and net finance costs the company swung to a loss of £9 million. The CFO expects the full-year pre-tax loss to [...]
What’s the difference between emerging and frontier markets? July 5, 2018 | City Talk Here’s the thing about labels: They always tell you more about the people who apply them than what they are applied to. Take “emerging market.” It is one of the few terms that applies to both India and China. These are not similar places. Business travellers from one have been known to check bags full [...]
Tit for tat trade response risks 1930s mistake July 4, 2018 | City Talk “Trade wars are good and easy to win”, so says US President Trump who last weekend railed against the EU for being as “bad as China” when it comes to trade practices that he perceives as being disadvantageous to US jobs and business. Over the past few weeks the rhetoric over global trade has been [...]
Anglo American share price spikes on $7bn Vedanta deal reports July 4, 2018 Shares in FTSE 100-listed miner Anglo American have spiked today after reports linking it to a $7bn (£5.3bn) deal with Vedanta Resources. Indian website Livemint reported today that Vedanta was considering a plan to take control of Anglo's South African business by merging it with Vedanta via a share swap. Vedanta’s chair Anil Agarwal owns [...]
Will Bitcoin Make or Break the internet? July 3, 2018 News in the last week included a report called, ironically, 'Beyond the Hype' from the global central bank (BIS, the Bank of International Settlements) which contains more than its own share of hype, including a headline stating ‘Bitcoin Could Break the Internet'. Together with the same obvious errors that the Bank of England's Mark Carney [...]
The True Value of Cryptocurrency: Why the Current Price Doesn’t Matter July 3, 2018 As the City of London’s first cryptocurrency market advisory and investment firm we, have seen the price of bitcoin rise from the lows of $150 back in 2013 to the highs of nearly $20,000 in late 2017, before a steep slide back to test support around the $6,700 – as of yesterday afternoon. For those [...]
Bank of England warns on cryptocurrency risks June 28, 2018 The head of the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) Sam Woods wrote to chief executive officers (CEOs) of financial institutions today to warn of the risks of cryptocurrencies. The regulator, which is part of the Bank of England, warned that cryptocurrencies showed high price volatility and also raised concerns about vulnerability to fraud and manipulation as [...]
Are US oil prices set for a test of $76? June 27, 2018 | City Talk For someone who has claimed to be unhappy about rising oil prices the Trump administration sure has a funny way of showing it, or taking steps to achieve it. Having implemented a raft of tax cuts at the beginning of the year to put more money in consumers’ pockets the White House administration’s action since [...]