Covid-19: why the tech giants have emerged as winners May 12, 2020 | City Talk While many businesses struggle to survive under the global lockdown, the largest technology companies remain afloat and in some cases are even thriving. Microsoft has reported a surge in usage of its cloud computing service Azure, as millions of people work from home. Amazon is hiring an additional 75,000 workers, on top of the 100,000 [...]
Health and wealth: ‘fit-tech’ steps up the pace May 7, 2020 | City Talk Fitness is far from an obvious winner from government instructions to ‘stay home’. Gyms are firmly closed. People making the most of the ‘one form of exercise’ allowed by the government are the only people in parks. In these inauspicious circumstances, though, there is heightened awareness of personal fitness. In the early days of lockdown, [...]
Are we heading back towards single-use plastic because of coronavirus? May 7, 2020 | City Talk The battle against plastic pollution has rapidly gained momentum in recent years. Our 2018 report – Plastics phase-out: exposure through the value chain – analysed the challenges across sectors beyond the use of carrier bags, microbeads and straws. We concluded that the issue was not just a point of public concern but either an opportunity for forward-thinking [...]
Goldman Sachs in talks to buy Invesco holdings May 6, 2020 Goldman Sachs is reportedly in talks to buy a large portfolio of company stakes being sold by Invesco. A unit of Goldman Sachs Asset Management is closing in on a deal to acquire the positions, according to Sky News reports, which could be closed within weeks. Invesco had applied a 60 per cent reduction to [...]
London Capital & Finance investors could start receiving compensation this month May 5, 2020 Investors in collapsed mini-bond firm London Capital & Finance (LCF) could start receiving compensation this month. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) said today it would start issuing decisions on LCF claims relating to misleading advice given to its customers before the end of May. It said it had already started reviewing individuals claims and [...]
How have sustainable companies performed during the Covid-19 crisis? May 5, 2020 | City Talk Rather than being a luxury or an optional extra, our analysis shows that a focus on sustainability would have helped relative performance during the recent market turbulence. Here at Schroders, our view of sustainable investing is that companies who treat their stakeholders fairly will see better share price performance than those who do not. There [...]
Remote working is causing employees to feel overworked May 5, 2020 Remote working is encouraging a culture of so-called EPresenteeism, according to a new survey, leading employees to feeling overworked and overwhelmed. Four in five HR managers think working from home has encouraged EPresenteeism, meaning employees feel they should be online and available as much as possible. Research commissioned by LinkedIn, in partnership with the Mental [...]
Private equity funds set to target Aim-listed firms May 4, 2020 Private equity funds are expected to target Aim-listed companies once lockdown has eased and dealmaking is resumed. The number of private equity-backed deals for Aim companies trebled in the past 12 months. PE funds bought and took 12 companies private in 2019/20, compared to just four deals in the previous year ended 31 March. Aim [...]
Investment firms deploying new tech are the most trusted among investors May 4, 2020 Investment firms that are deploying new technology are the most trusted by both institutional and retail investors, according to new research. Nearly two-thirds of institutional investors and nearly half of retail investors with an adviser trust their investment firm because of an increased use of technology. There is growing interest in the use of artificial [...]
Hunting shafts of light amid coronavirus’s economic gloom May 1, 2020 | City Talk The coronavirus pandemic will cause world GDP to shrink by about seven per cent during the first half of the year – roughly double the scale of contraction seen during the global financial crisis. That is the headline finding from Oxford Economics’ April/May 2020 ‘World Economic Prospects’ report. The number is shocking but unsurprising given [...]
