Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Capital’s international status at risk amid calls for shake-up
April 10 2023, The Times
Initial public offerings on the London Stock Exchange fell to their lowest level in a decade last year, underlining concerns about the capital’s status as an international financial centre.
The amount of money raised in new listings has fallen substantially in the year to March 31, with volatile markets whipped up by the war in Ukraine and jitters over the global economy, while the number of companies delisting, which has jumped to a six-year high, underpins calls for a shake-up of the stock market listing regime.
Only 41 companies completed initial public offerings on the main market of the London Stock Exchange last year, the worst showing since a mere 37 came to market in the same period to March 2013. The £1.2 billion raised in new issues was the smallest amount generated in at least 14 years and is 80 per cent below the £6 billion raised a year earlier. The figures from UHY Hacker Young, the accountancy group, showed that 82 firms delisted over the period.
In recent blows to London, the FTSE 100 building materials supplier CRH said it was shifting its primary listing to New York, while Flutter, the gambling business behind Betfair and Paddy Power, is exploring a similar move. The chip designer Arm, one of the country’s leading tech companies, has also said that it will float in the United States.
The plunge in London’s listings against the backdrop of unfavourable conditions means “for many in the corporate finance community this has been the worst year in their careers,” said Colin Wright, partner and chairman of the UHY Hacker Young Group.
British politicians and financiers have been looking at an overhaul of the listing rules over the past couple of years to boost London’s attraction for international companies and investors.
London’s stock markets, especially the FTSE 100, which is heavily weighted towards traditional stocks such as banks, drugmakers and oil explorers, have often been criticised for lacking tech stocks. Nick Train, one of Britain’s best-known fund managers, branded the UK the backwater of global equity markets, pointing to the dearth of “significant technology champions” and the UK’s “dismal capital performance”.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been accelerating its revamp of the listing rules, saying it would start a consultation on its proposal to replace the premium and standard segments of the London market with a single category. As part of the switch, companies would no longer have to demonstrate a three-year record of financial performance before listing, nor would they have to hold shareholder votes on big deals and related-party transactions.
Cong - fair enough :)
OB - problem is while everyone is screaming about undervalue and market cap, even with good numbers the ‘market’ can keep companies suppressed for an unlimited amount of time, if it so wishes. External factors can then compound the hurt. MM has ‘marked’ this company some time ago and it won’t matter how hard he or his staff fight, if the market has it in for you, they can and have destroyed companies. Not saying it’s a given here (in fact I hope not) but it’s certainly not a level playing field and a headache this company could do without.
Not sure, but don’t go on to the moor.
Cong - 2.5kg £59.79 up to 70% off use EASTER code for a massive £2.99 discount. I haven’t been to school for a while but pretty sure 70% discount should be a bit more than £2.99. Magic words ‘up to’. If i was a first time visitor to that site, I would leave without a purchase on sheer principle. Hate ducking sites advertising bull…. discounts.
THE HUT GROUP has made 180 staff redundant just days after its billionaire boss Matt Moulding took to social media to jabber on about humility in leadership.
The e-commerce retailer came to market in a £5.4billion listing on the back of rampant online growth but has since lost 90 per cent of valuation after setbacks.
THG’s workforce had ballooned to more than 8,000.
It said the job cuts followed the conclusion of a “strategic review” into one of its slow-growth divisions, On Demand, which includes online music retailer Zavvi.
THG is also planning job cuts in its Studios business, despite Mr Moulding recently showing off a deal with Gary Neville to film episodes for the footie pundit’s The Overlap show in THG’s photo and film studios.
A spokesman said: “We are currently consulting with impacted colleagues and will take steps to minimise the number of redundancies.”
Matt Moulding said in a recent Instagram post: “Too many people change as their careers progress.
“Egos grow and self-appreciation spirals out of control. Confidence is a great quality, but arrogance is ugly, especially to team members.”
And in a swipe at the City, Mr Moulding added: “The way we’ve been treated since joining the LSE has done nothing but add to our insatiable fighting experience.”
THG is now valued at just £844.8million.
Its shares rose by 1.32p yesterday on the back of a new tech tie-up with the online retailer behind Fragrance Direct
The business software company founded by Bitcoin devotee Michael Saylor disclosed in a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased 1,045 Bitcoin for about $29.3 million in cash—an average price of around $28,016.
MicroStrategy’s recent purchase puts the company’s total Bitcoin holdings at about 140,000, worth about $4 billion and bought at an average price of $29,803, according to a Wednesday tweet by Saylor.
Crypto Twitter, especially Bitcoin fans, immediately jumped to congratulate Saylor and MicroStrategy, both of which have been longtime HODLers of the cryptocurrency.
In December, the company sold off Bitcoin for the first time—704 at an average price of $16,776, collecting $11.8 million—according to an SEC filing.
The period in which MicroStrategy made the multimillion-dollar purchase (March 24 to April 4) overlapped with a massive sale by the U.S. government, which offloaded $215 million in Bitcoin seized from an alleged hacker in a case centered around the Silk Road online black market.
Defendant James Zhong was accused of, and later pleaded guilty to, wire fraud for illegally obtaining 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road marketplace. The government seized the digital assets, and even after last week’s selloff still has just over 41,000 remaining—worth more than $1 billion as of Wednesday.
Bitcoin has been on a tear since the start of the year, skyrocketing 73% in the first three months of 2023, its best quarter in two years, according to CoinDesk.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency outperformed three major indexes—the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq—in the first quarter, as some analysts said it regained its edge as a store of value similar to gold’s.
Bitcoin was trading just below $28,000 on Wednesday, down half a percent over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
Open and High on lse shows 66.66. It’s a sign, a sign i tells ya!
PS - 249, that trigger finger a tad happy!
Sw77 - just info, most know these firms aren’t worth the p.i$$ in a pot, when it comes to doing their job properly, as confirmed by ‘Geta’. Consider, is an all clear from EY really going to change things that much. I would be surprised, still happy to be surprised. Agree with Moomins ‘on the other hand’, here’s hoping.
Aye but what if it is the yellow card that makes the footballer miss the World Cup final. Will sure as hell matter then. :)
Hex - they are snookered really, they will slowly get swallowed up by Galaxy for a pittance, holders will carry the can as per usual.
Oh - it’s already too late.
April 3, 2023?London
Big-4 accounting firm EY has been banned from auditing companies of public interest in Germany for two years over its failures as the auditor of Wirecard in the years before the digital payments company's staggering collapse.
Germany's auditor supervisory authority APAS said Monday that it had imposed sanctions on the auditor of Wirecard over "breaches of professional duty" between 2016 and 2018, without naming EY. EY had audited Wirecard for more than a decade before refusing to sign off on its final results for 2019, precipitating the company's downfall.
The supervisory body also fined the Wirecard auditor €500,000 ($544,000) and issued smaller fines — between €23,000 ($25,000) and €300,000 ($326,000) — to five individual auditors at the firm. The auditing ban applies to new rather than existing auditing mandates.
EY did not respond to a CNN request for comment.
Germany's Wirecard filed for insolvency in 2020 following the discovery of a $2 billion accounting fraud that regulators, the company's supervisory board and its longtime auditor failed to spot. Investors rely on auditors for assurance that a company's accounts provide a true reflection of its earnings.
Journalists, whistleblowers and skeptical investors had all questioned Wirecard's accounting for years, but Germany's banking regulator pushed back forcefully against investigative reporters and critical hedge funds.
In the end, Wirecard admitted that roughly a quarter of its assets — €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in cash — probably never existed. CEO Markus Braun resigned and was arrested on suspicion of artificially inflating the company's balance sheet and sales through fake transactions.
Braun went on trial for fraud in a German court in December, Reuters has reported. Braun has denied wrongdoing.
— Inke Kappeler and Anna Cooban contributed reporting.
© 2023 Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved.
HH - and so you should :). Sure do, so what you’re saying is it’s won’t be a headwind until oil is back at $120. Now that’s dumb.
Osg - depends on hedging strategies of those transport companies, but if oil stays higher for longer then, it will have an effect on their costs, which they will pass on.
HH - let’s wait and see, shall we. Before we fly off the handle.
Osg - your tailwind has just turned into a headwind. That’s the problem with wind has an awful habit of changing direction.
1. The price drops - buy more if funds available
- more shares can be purchased via buyback’s
2. Price stays the same - capital erosion, not good
- missed opportunities elsewhere (Giag)
3. Price increases - happy days
- except for the shorters
fortes fortuna adiuvat.
The UK government condemned tactics by power traders that the energy regulator says pushes up prices for consumers.
An investigation by Bloomberg News on Thursday exposed tactics by power traders who say they’re stopping plants from generating before keeping them running at a higher price. The maneuver, which has racked up £525 million ($647 million) in recent years and is paid for by consumers, is often used on days when there’s limited supply available to the grid operator.
“The regulator Ofgem is aware of this concerning behavior from a handful of participants involved and is urgently looking into it further,” Jamie Davies, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, told reporters on Thursday. “It’s critical that at all times consumers pay a fair price for their energy. So this practice is clearly completely unacceptable.”
Read more: Traders ‘Manipulating’ Power Market Means Higher Bills in the UK
Companies involved in the practice include Vitol Group’s power unit, Uniper SE and SSE Plc. The practice currently doesn’t break any market rules, and there’s no suggestion the companies have broken the law. However, regulator Ofgem is trying to change the rules to stop traders charging excessive prices during times they said they wouldn’t previously be available.
Most firms featured in Bloomberg News report provided brief statements in response to questions, saying they comply with regulations.
Lawmakers on the parliamentary committee that oversees energy policy also criticized the practice that coincides with a historic energy crisis for the country, which has already driven consumer bills to record highs.
“That energy trading companies take advantage of this situation in pursuit of profit is morally wrong and should be unlawful,” Alexander Stafford, a Conservative member of the committee, said in an emailed statement.
“The profiteering of companies taking advantage of consumers during the cost of living crisis is a national scandal which for one reason or another still doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” said Ian Lavery, a Labour member of the same committee, by email. “This is an eye-opening story of just how widespread these practices are in the country today and just how easily they can get away with it.”
Consumer-advocacy groups have also called for more attention on those hit by soaring energy bills.
“Every time people suffering in cold damp homes use energy, they are the victims of a complex and deeply flawed market which puts profits ahead of giving people access to the energy they need,” said Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
The UK government condemned tactics by power traders that the energy regulator says pushes up prices for consumers.
An investigation by Bloomberg News on Thursday exposed tactics by power traders who say they’re stopping plants from generating before keeping them running at a higher price. The maneuver, which has racked up £525 million ($647 million) in recent years and is paid for by consumers, is often used on days when there’s limited supply available to the grid operator.
“The regulator Ofgem is aware of this concerning behavior from a handful of participants involved and is urgently looking into it further,” Jamie Davies, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, told reporters on Thursday. “It’s critical that at all times consumers pay a fair price for their energy. So this practice is clearly completely unacceptable.”
Read more: Traders ‘Manipulating’ Power Market Means Higher Bills in the UK
Companies involved in the practice include Vitol Group’s power unit, Uniper SE and SSE Plc. The practice currently doesn’t break any market rules, and there’s no suggestion the companies have broken the law. However, regulator Ofgem is trying to change the rules to stop traders charging excessive prices during times they said they wouldn’t previously be available.
Most firms featured in Bloomberg News report provided brief statements in response to questions, saying they comply with regulations.
Lawmakers on the parliamentary committee that oversees energy policy also criticized the practice that coincides with a historic energy crisis for the country, which has already driven consumer bills to record highs.
“That energy trading companies take advantage of this situation in pursuit of profit is morally wrong and should be unlawful,” Alexander Stafford, a Conservative member of the committee, said in an emailed statement.
“The profiteering of companies taking advantage of consumers during the cost of living crisis is a national scandal which for one reason or another still doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” said Ian Lavery, a Labour member of the same committee, by email. “This is an eye-opening story of just how widespread these practices are in the country today and just how easily they can get away with it.”
Consumer-advocacy groups have also called for more attention on those hit by soaring energy bills.
“Every time people suffering in cold damp homes use energy, they are the victims of a complex and deeply flawed market which puts profits ahead of giving people access to the energy they need,” said Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.