That the Saudi Aramco IPO is in jeopardy should surprise no-one March 14, 2018 The red carpet has been rolled up to reveal a sizeable bump in the road. Just a week after the visit to Britain by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, we’ve learned that the proposed flotation of Saudi Aramco – the world’s biggest oil company and perhaps largest company by market value – has [...]
London beats New York as top real estate investment destination for Norway’s massive sovereign wealth fund March 13, 2018 London has overtaken New York as the top real estate investment spot for Norway's massive $1 trillion (£715bn) sovereign wealth fund. The fund, which is one of the biggest investors in the UK and co-owns Regent Street, bought almost £200m worth of London property last year in partnership with the Queen's Crown Estate. These included [...]
Tech friend or foe? Sadiq on why going up against Uber isn’t bad for London’s business March 12, 2018 Sadiq Khan pledged to be the most “business-friendly” mayor to lead London when he was elected almost two years ago. But in September last year, he shocked the business community by backing Transport for London’s (TfL) decision to revoke Uber’s licence. Uber is not known for its good corporate governance, but Khan was criticised for [...]
What happened when we got a job picking weed in California’s booming cannabis industry March 5, 2018 The rugged wilderness of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity Counties, northern California’s “Emerald Triangle”, produces over half the cannabis consumed in the US. Every year, from September to December, the region swarms with seasonal agricultural workers known as “trimmers”, or “trimmigrants”, here to work the land to supply America’s legion of stoners. For years the going [...]
Howard Shore, Shore Capital founder, leads $40m investment in new Israeli co-working business Mixer February 26, 2018 Shared workspace business Mixer has just nabbed $40m (£28.6m) of funding in an investment round led by Howard Shore, the founder of investment group Shore Capital. Mixer, based in Israel, is hoping to expand into Europe and the US and has a new site planned in Berlin. Shore will now become chairman of the business, [...]
Beware the cryptocurrency hype February 20, 2018 Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, as philosopher George Santayana famously wrote. What’s happening in markets today is a stark reminder of the dot-com days at the end of the last millennium, when company valuations rocketed at the mere mention of internet-related buzzwords. Fortunes were made and lost in relative [...]
Serious Fraud Office slaps Barclays with new charge over Qatar capital raising scandal February 12, 2018 The UK’s fraud watchdog has today hefted a new charge onto Barclays Bank, in relation to an emergency fundraising it conducted in the summer of 2008. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) today charged Barclays with giving “unlawful financial assistance”, after it raised £4.5bn in June 2008 and £7.3bn that October from investors including Qatar Holding [...]
The UK must not get left behind by China’s rise as a new superpower February 5, 2018 Last week, the Prime Minister visited China, a country set to have the largest economy on Earth by 2030. Its rapid growth is expected to continue for another generation. In 2016, foreign direct investment from China reached $180bn – a striking figure when compared with 2002, when it totalled less than $5bn. The sophistication of [...]
Focus On Vauxhall: Donald Trump might not be keen on it, but international investors dig these skyscrapers south of the river February 2, 2018 Vauxhall got dragged through the mud by no less a figure than the President of the United States recently. The US Embassy’s much touted move to the “off location” was supposedly the reason behind Donald Trump’s cancelled visit to the UK, even though the new building has its own moat. Clearly, tech behemoth Apple didn’t [...]
House prices in UK cities are now less affordable than any time in the last 10 years February 2, 2018 Buying a house in UK cities has reached its least affordable in a decade, new research has shown, after the gap between house prices and average earnings widened further. The average worker in must now spend seven times their earnings to buy a house in a city, figures by Lloyds Bank showed, up from 6.9 [...]