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Close Brothers has scrapped dividend payouts and warned of 'significant uncertainty' regarding the outcome of a probe into the motor finance industry.
The Financial Conduct Authority last month launched an inquiry into the historical use of 'discretionary commission arrangements' (DCAs) in what some analysts predict could resemble the payment protection insurance scandal.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13086401/amp/Close-Brothers-scraps-dividends-amid-motor-finance-probe-uncertainty.html
CEO, Stuart Last, commented: "Listeners continue to flock to podcasting and we are doing an incredible job of growing the Audioboom Creator Network audience faster than our competitors. We are developing true global audience scale - key to providing our brand partners with powerful, targeted advertising options to capture the full value of podcasting for our creators."
RBC estimates Close Brothers' exposure at between £150-230m but Lloyds might be on the hook for £2bn, it says, a £1bn increase on its initial estimate
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1041064/will-lloyds-bank-make-a-car-loan-provision-after-close-bros-shock-1041064.html
It’s now official, we’re in recession, And the fall in growth at the end of last year was worse than expected There’s a fair chance the economy will turn positive again in the months ahead but that’s no real cause for celebration now, Falling growth means demand is ebbing out of the economy, That puts downward pressure on inflation but there’s little sign the Bank of England will cut rates yet
Higher interest rates generally raise bank profits, but that is not likely to be the case for Barclays. The bank is expected to report a decline in annual profitability when it publishes its numbers for 2023 next Tuesday due to costly restructuring plans.
A £825m restructuring charge will drag pretax profit down to £6.7bn for 2023, compared to £7bn in 2022, according to company-compiled analyst estimates.
https://www.cityam.com/barclays-set-to-unveil-profit-drop-next-week-as-restructuring-costs-offset-higher-interest-income/
Stroll said looking ahead to 2024, Aston’s customers are more bullish on the global economy, and with stocks at all-time highs he’s not seeing much uncertainty, at least in Aston showrooms. “We don't feel any recessionary mood from our customers at all; as a matter of fact, we just see considerable growth.”
Chid
"can't see Lloyds paying out larger div yield than they 'need' to do to attract buyers, so as the share price falls, the yield on div gets larger, so easy then to trim the div paid out to a ' reasonable level' IF the money is 'in their opinion' not our"
Completely agree with you on this one 👍
The UK’s biggest banks are set to post bumper annual profits when they report their 2023 results in the coming weeks. But why are they not being rewarded on the stock market?
Analyst consensuses for the five biggest banks show an estimated record £51.6bn in pretax profit for 2023
However, none of the UK’s Big Four banks have seen their shares rise over the last 12 months.
The FTSE All-Share Banks index has dropped nearly 11 per cent in the last year. The worst performing stocks have been Natwest (down 32 per cent), Lloyds (down 21 per cent) and Barclays (down 23 per cent).
https://www.cityam.com/why-are-uk-banking-stocks-doing-so-badly-despite-bumper-profits/
China has been only too happy to oblige, pouring money into Indonesia to develop new nickel mines, expand existing ones and build nickel smelters.
This has turbo-charged nickel production in Indonesia, which has grown its market share from just 2 per cent in 2015 to 49 per cent of global supply last year.
China’s investment in Indonesia is all part of its master plan to maintain its stranglehold over the battery metal supply chain.
Australia exports 97 per cent of its lithium to China – the world’s biggest manufacturer of electric cars and the batteries that go into them – to be refined.
But the over arching reason for the fall in various battery metal prices is flagging demand for electric vehicles.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13075303/amp/Battery-metal-mines-battering-Oz-slow-electric-vehicles-sales-coincides-surge-supply.html
December’s inflation-beating increase in wages offers both good and bad news for the UK, Charles Stanley (LSE:CAY) (Charles Stanley (LSE:CAY)) analyst Rob Morgan has said.
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1040824/inflation-beating-wage-growth-means-higher-interest-for-longer-analysts-1040824.html