Regulators failed to anticipate the dangers that borrowing by pension schemes posed to the stability of the UK’s financial system, according to a parliamentary report into the turmoil that hit the gilt markets following Liz Truss’s disastrous “mini” Budget in September last year. Pension schemes suffered multibillion-pound losses after they were forced to sell assets
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Pension schemes that invested in liability-driven investment funds run by BlackRock and other managers are being advised to sell their holdings following last year’s gilt market turmoil. In a move expected to lead to outflows at some of the biggest asset managers, investment advisers XPS Pensions and Barnett Waddingham have cut their ratings on some
The writer is a former investment banker and author of Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon Goldman Sachs has lost its swagger. The market value of the venerable 154-year-old investment bank, at $121bn, is now $42bn less than its longtime arch-rival Morgan Stanley. It used to be that Goldman was the
The writer is chief executive of Ark, a charity that runs a chain of state sector academies Many of us in the education world had mixed feelings during the teachers’ strike on “Walkout Wednesday”. No one wants children to be missing out on school. But equally, it is hard not to sympathise with staff who
Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft will collectively incur more than $10bn in charges related to mass redundancies, real estate and other cost-saving measures, as the Big Tech companies reveal the hefty price they incur to rein in spending. The US companies that have been implementing the largest job cuts in the tech sector disclosed the
Vodafone’s interim chief executive said the group “can do better” after it announced revenues were falling in some of its biggest markets. Margherita Della Valle, who took on the role at the start of the year, said the telecoms group had made changes to improve performance. “The recent decline in revenue in Europe shows we
The writer is a lecturer at Stanford University, former deputy secretary-general of Nato and previously the US chief negotiator on New Start The US has just declared Russia to be in non-compliance with the New Start treaty, the last remaining legally binding measure between the two countries to control nuclear arms. The issues are straightforward:
Lord Karan Bilimoria, chancellor of Birmingham University, has warned that it would be “utter madness” for ministers to try to bring down migration by cutting the number of foreign students at UK universities. Bilimoria, founder of Cobra beer and former CBI president, said he was “very concerned” by government discussions on cutting overseas student numbers:
As Cristiano Ronaldo jogged out to the pitch for his Saudi Arabian debut last week, gilded confetti popped and swirled down on the stands. The crowd in the Riyadh stadium roared. Seconds later, when Lionel Messi emerged to face his longtime rival, they erupted. Before the players’ entrance, Turki al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s entertainment emperor, had
In April 2020 a cargo flight took off from Zhukovsky airport outside Moscow heading towards Khartoum. According to the documentation, the aircraft was carrying 28,000 kilos of Russian gingerbread cookies being flown to the Sudanese capital by an obscure company registered in St Petersburg called RN Trading. At the time, the flight passed largely unnoticed.
The hedge fund management firm of billionaire trader Chris Rokos plunged to a loss in its most recent financial results after its fund was hit by a sharp sell-off in government bonds, even though its traders have since been able to profit handsomely from a surge in inflation. Rokos Capital Management, one of the world’s
Rupert Murdoch might be the most powerful man in news but for most of his career the 91-year-old fell short in one important respect: he did not have control of the family business. For roughly four decades, Murdoch’s reign depended on the goodwill of his siblings, three Australian women far from the public glare. Until
The British government has ordered the sale of Upp, a regional broadband provider owned by LetterOne, an investment company backed by oligarchs, citing concerns around national security. LetterOne acquired Upp in 2021 as part of a £1bn plan to build a regional British broadband network to compete with BT. It would have covered 1mn premises
Britain’s largest telecoms group has unveiled a sweeping restructuring of its business, combining its global and enterprise divisions into a slimmer unit called BT Business as it attempts to drive down costs and revive some of its most poorly performing segments. The move to create BT Business will create £100mn in cost savings by 2025,
The UK and Italy’s groundbreaking partnership with Japan to build a new combat jet could open up export markets in Asia that have historically proved difficult to penetrate, according to the chief executives of two of the industrial groups involved. Alessandro Profumo, chief executive of Italy’s defence champion Leonardo, said the tri-national alliance was significant
US scientists have achieved energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, the country’s energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has confirmed, heralding the breakthrough as evidence that the technology could eventually provide an abundant, zero carbon alternative to fossil fuels. “This is a landmark achievement,” Granholm said at a press conference in Washington on
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The chief executive of BHP has signalled that the world’s biggest mining company will resist the temptation to go on an acquisition spree despite a growing war chest. Mike Henry told the Financial Times that
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has committed more than $2bn to new long-term football sponsorship deals this year in a sign of the kingdom’s growing ambitions in the world’s most popular sport. The Public Investment Fund said in its most recent financial statement that it had entered into sponsorship agreements “with multiple football clubs amounting
Calpers, the biggest public pension plan in the US, admitted a decision to put its private equity programme on hold for 10 years had cost it up to $18bn of returns as it announced an overhaul of its governance. In a frank assessment of past failings at the $440bn retirement system, chief investment officer Nicole
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Too many things get called Orwellian these days. Poor George Orwell — a man who advised writers to “never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in
Wang Chuanfu is not afraid of throwing investors curveballs. In fact, the Chinese billionaire appears to relish it. Twenty years ago, Wang unveiled plans for his BYD group to buy a failing state car manufacturer that had attempted to develop a sideline in making missiles. His logic: rip out the petrol-guzzling internal combustion engines from