Activist investor Jeff Ubben is joining an independent, external group of experts that advises Bayer’s management on sustainability, as the German industrial group tries to embrace its high-profile shareholder. But the gesture may fail to satisfy Ubben, who wants the group to use sustainability to drive returns, as the position is informal and far less
News
For more than a decade following the financial crisis, UK banks endured a painful wait for interest rates to rise, counting down the days until they could finally start to make money from their customers’ deposits. Surging inflation granted their wish. Since late 2021, and as the Bank of England pushed up the base rate
The next few months put Japan in line for a series of anniversaries it would probably prefer to forget. But these are dates which the leadership in China may be wise to mark: the detonation of timebombs with counters set ticking by a property bubble. For these are, some would argue, distinctly echoey times. New
Takeover bids for Manchester United by Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani and British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe are not high enough for the billionaire Glazer family to sell the club, according to a person close to the situation. The two bidders who have gone public with their indicative offers would have to increase their
Warren Buffett has offered a full-throated defence of share buybacks in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, saying stock purchases by Berkshire and the dozens of publicly traded companies it owns are a boon to investors. The comments on Saturday from the 92-year-old investor were made in the shortest annual letter he has published
Last year was the worst for bond markets in more than a century and marked the end of a four-decade long “golden age” for the asset class which is unlikely to be repeated, according to a trio of academics. Global bonds lost 31 per cent in 2022, the worst annual performance for fixed income in
Welcome back. US president Joe Biden, speaking in Warsaw on the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said that Vladimir Putin “could end the war with a word”. But the Russian leader will take no such step, unless he can claim victory on terms utterly unacceptable to Ukraine and its
Joe Biden has said he did not think China would send weapons to Russia to help its military campaign in Ukraine, in comments that appeared to undercut claims from his top officials that Beijing was considering the idea. In an interview with ABC television on Friday that was aired on the evening of the anniversary
A giant advertising-clad sphere in London’s former Olympic Park backed by US tycoon James Dolan is at risk of being blocked after ministers forced a holding order on a development that critics claim will be an eyesore for much of the UK capital. This week, Michael Gove, levelling-up secretary, temporarily halted the taking of any
“I am a bad passenger,” says the six-time Grand Slam champion and undischarged bankrupt, as he tips the hotel valet and heads for the driver’s side of his Porsche. In his playing days, he drove to and from matches. “Can you imagine Djokovic or Federer doing that?” I get it, I say, he wants to
HM Revenue & Customs has launched a crackdown on the booming short-term lettings market by initially targeting about 1,000 property owners that it suspects have not paid enough tax. Based on information received from online bookings platforms such as Airbnb, the UK tax agency is sending its first so-called “nudge” letters this month to those
Trafigura failed to require analysis certificates, ignored incorrect customs codes and missed other “red flags” that alarmed its bankers on nickel shipments it later discovered to be fraudulent, according to court documents obtained by the Financial Times on Friday. The alleged nickel fraud, which has caused Trafigura to take a $577mn writedown, is poised to
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago reverberated through global markets. With no end in sight to Europe’s most intense conflict since the second world war, the effects are still being felt. Financial Times reporters look at what has occurred in key markets and what might happen next. Putin’s energy war backfires Running almost in
When the US drugs company Abbott Laboratories acquired a small division of the German chemicals group BASF for $6.9bn 23 years ago, its shares fell on fears that it had overpaid. But the deal was an amazing bargain. Humira, the promising medicine that came with it, is now the industry’s biggest blockbuster, with cumulative revenues
“Time to buy Europe” is one of the hardiest perennial trade ideas that somehow never properly takes off. It is a nailed-on certainty that every few months, strategy notes or articles will appear outlining why investors think now is the time to invest in Europe, and not long after that, European stocks will tank. I
In retrospect, we shouldn’t have wasted that lettuce on Liz Truss. The hapless vegetable, monitored by webcam to see if it would outlast the doomed prime minister, could have fed one of the shoppers now staring at bare shelves, as supermarkets ration salads. Metropolitan society rarely gives much thought to agriculture. But the shortage of
Rishi Sunak is preparing to face down his Conservative critics and push ahead with reforms to post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland, with allies saying the vast majority of Tory MPs just want to settle the issue. The UK prime minister spoke to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, on Friday, in a new
Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani was just 28 when he joined the board of Credit Suisse in 2010, tasked with representing Qatari interests after investors from the Gulf emirate poured billions into the Swiss bank. He arrived at the Zurich-based lender with a low profile, and after seven years with a seat at the top
Shell, ExxonMobil and the Dutch government earned €429bn from exploiting the Groningen gasfield, but left thousands of residents with cracked homes and health issues, a parliamentary investigation has found. The geological destabilisation caused by drilling at Groningen, Europe’s largest natural gas reserve, resulted in 1,594 earthquakes and damaged more than 85,000 buildings, a Dutch parliamentary
Ten years have passed since a fresh-faced British prime minister David Cameron promised a referendum on Brexit, a gamble that sowed the seeds of his political destruction. Now, four prime ministers later, Rishi Sunak is taking the biggest wager of his political career: trying to clear up the mess. Sunak is already in a precarious
Ukraine’s western allies have unveiled a swath of new sanctions targeting Russia’s military, industrial capacity and financial sector as they vow to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin. As Ukraine marked the first anniversary of the invasion on Friday, the UK and US announced new measures against hundreds of groups and individuals including Russian banks and