Just five years ago, Andreas Wolf was struggling to convince investors of his plans to turn the Bavarian automotive supplier Vitesco Technologies into a specialist in parts and systems for electric vehicles. “Nobody believed in it,” the Vitesco CEO said, underscoring just how late the incumbent automotive industry was to realise that combustion engine cars
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Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea threaten to create a ‘‘chaotic” period for Europe’s manufacturers and retailers as supply chains are disrupted, logistics experts have warned. Nearly all container ships have been rerouted away from the Suez Canal towards the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope since Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants last
A third of UK universities saw a decline in overseas non-EU applicants in 2023, almost twice as many as the previous year, according to a Financial Times analysis of data from the university admissions service. The cooling of international demand for a swath of British higher education institutions came as overall non-EU applications grew 3.6
No light enters the office of Ukraine’s military spymaster, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov. The walls are fortified, the windows reinforced with sandbags, and the curtains drawn. When Budanov, 38, arrived for a Financial Times interview, walking in through a doorway adorned with a religious icon, he immediately ordered an aide to turn off the lights.
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Hedge funds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Assets managed by the Chinese operations of Bridgewater and Two Sigma surged as the US hedge funds outperformed their local peers during the market turbulence of last year. Bridgewater China Investment Management, the local arm
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Iran accused Israel of killing four members of its elite Revolutionary Guards and a number of Syrians forces in an air strike that targeted a building in Damascus. Tasnim, an Iranian news agency affiliated to
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Gilts have endured a bruising new year as investors have a big rethink about the timing of Bank of England interest rate cuts this year. An Ice Bank of America index of UK government debt
US public pension plans that manage hundreds of billions of dollars of assets are increasingly turning to risky leverage strategies as burgeoning private market holdings create cash flow strains. At least eight very large US public pension funds are using borrowed cash or other leverage strategies, now that the board of Calstrs, one of the
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Labour will not try to delay endlessly Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill in the House of Lords, partly because of fears its peers are too few and too old to withstand a Tory revenge
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sam Altman is in discussions with Middle Eastern investors and chip fabricators including TSMC about launching a new chip venture, as the OpenAI chief executive seeks to satisfy his company’s growing need for semiconductors while
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Social affairs myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Melania Trump appears to be sitting out Donald Trump’s bid for presidential re-election this year. In fact, since leaving the White House the former first lady has largely retreated from public view. It feels, writes
China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua stood beaming beside his US counterpart John Kerry as the UN COP28 summit closed. He had brought his eight-year-old grandson from Beijing to Dubai to wish his friend a happy 80th birthday, he said, as the two men marked the end of an unusual chapter in diplomacy. Xie, 74, retired
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. There is always a point in working out a whodunnit where a half-forgotten fact resurfaces to complicate the evolving theory. There is a similar pattern developing in the current investor narrative of the US economy
This time last year Murray Auchincloss appeared to have little ambition to ever be chief executive of Britain’s most storied oil company. The Canadian former tax analyst had carved out a highly successful, quiet career inside BP, but as finance chief he was destined to be the numbers guy keeping his more flamboyant boss in
A month ago, the S&P 500 seemed to be heading towards an all-time high in a broad-based rally that had raised hopes for further gains this year. But on Friday afternoon, when the index finally cleared the bar, it was being carried by just a few large tech stocks as markets more broadly struggle for
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to be handed a multibillion-pound boost by official forecasters next week, paving the way for a package of pre-election tax cuts. Leading economists predict that lower UK borrowing costs could give Hunt significantly more fiscal headroom in his March 6 Budget, paving the way for income tax cuts or further
The first sign that Iran felt the need to flex its muscles more directly after months of tension and hostility across the Middle East came when its naval forces last week dropped from a helicopter to seize an oil tanker off the coast of Oman. Days later, it was the turn of the elite Revolutionary
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Demands for pay rises by European workers are the main threat to early interest rate cuts, analysts have warned, after European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde quashed investors’ hopes of a first-quarter cut this week
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A banker told me this week that when he meets corporate borrowers and investment clients to discuss what lies ahead in 2024, they always ask him the same question: What are the three big risks?
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK tax myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Cross-party MPs and tax experts have attacked HM Revenue & Customs for its unjust treatment of tens of thousands of self-employed UK workers who were caught up in a tax avoidance crackdown since linked to
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Wall Street stocks hit an all-time high on Friday, with strong gains for large technology companies finally pushing the index to a new record after a shaky start to the year. The S&P 500, the