By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment firm Permira has promoted David Hirschmann and Ariadna Stefanescu to the roles of co-heads of the Permira Credit unit while Jon Serbousek was hired as a senior adviser to Permira’s global healthcare team and Jon Marschmeyer joined the firm’s New York healthcare division as a partner. Hirschmann and Stefanescu will retain… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: UK
Rewilding can be profitable business – UK financier
By Andrei Skvarsky. Rewilding, the practice of returning land to its natural state, can bring serious financial profits, a British financier and environmentalist argued at a conference earlier this month. A recent project to rewild marshes and forest land in Somerset was one example cited at the Sustainable Finance Week conference in Guernsey by Ben… Continue Reading
Gresham House fund raises £450m for environmental, social projects in UK
A fund run by alternative asset manager Gresham House has raised a little less than £450m ($574m) for financing environmental and social projects in Britain. The Guernsey-domiciled British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (BSIF) II obtained the money from eight local government pension schemes and four family offices, the London-based asset manager said in a statement. Portfolio… Continue Reading
CEO of deVere: Sustained growth should be No. 1 task of ECB, Bank of England
By Andrei Skvarsky. It should be the main concern of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE) to prevent “already slowing” economic growth from stopping as this would trigger a bunch of woes, according to the CEO of financial consultancy deVere, Nigel Green. In criticising eminent economist Nouriel Roubini for insisting… Continue Reading
UK experts give advice on how to steer clear of crypto scammers
By Andrei Skvarsky. An online guide to British online casinos has published several tips on how to avoid falling victim to increasingly frequent cryptocurrency scams, mentioning a variety of fraud types some of which may be less familiar than others. One trick used in touting fraudulent proposals is citing alleged recommendations by some celebrity, according… Continue Reading
Aussie investment firm Laguna Bay outsources fund admin to Bermuda-based Apex
By Andrei Skvarsky. Australian investment firm Laguna Bay has hired Apex Group, a Bermuda-headquartered financial services provider, to manage a fund for investing in food and agricultural projects in Australia and New Zealand. Laguna Bay Fund 2, the vehicle Apex will manage, is planned to raise and invest up to 1bn Australian dollars (US$672m), according… Continue Reading
Deal enables Apex to use Inveniam blockchain for asset valuation
By Andrei Skvarsky. U.S. fintech company Inveniam has clinched a deal with UK-based financial services firm Apex Group to enable the latter to use blockchain technology patented by the American company and its data operating system for asset valuation. “Using data that is verified on blockchain, through our innovative partnership with Inveniam, will … deliver… Continue Reading
RenCap announces two hires for Africa team, one hire for London unit
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment bank Renaissance Capital has announced three hires – two for technology-related research positions in its Africa operation and one for a London-based role of overseeing the firm’s relations with key institutional and retail clients. Yusuf Ibrahim has been hired as an analyst for venture investment in private-sector technology companies in Africa, including… Continue Reading
$150m raised in energy transition-focused IPO co-run by Sova Capital, EarlyBirdCapital
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based brokerage Sova Capital and U.S. boutique investment bank EarlyBirdCapital have acted as joint book runners for a successful initial public offering (IPO) aimed at funding an energy transition project for emerging and frontier markets. Oxus Acquisition Corp., a Kazakh special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raised $150m through its IPO on the… Continue Reading
ActivTrades brokerage reports record profit, turnover for 2020
Online brokerage ActivTrades has reported a profit and turnover for 2020 that it says are the highest annual volumes since the company was set up 20 years ago. The London-based brokerage, which provides services in more than 140 countries in 14 languages, offering more than 1,000 contract-for-differences (CFD) or spread-betting instruments, registered a pretax profit of… Continue Reading
Financial literacy in UK not very high – Uswitch survey
By Andrei Skvarsky. A survey by British price comparison service Uswitch suggests that the average Briton is not too savvy about financial terminology with about one-fifth of the British failing to fully understand the term “pension” and about a quarter not being completely sure what “interest rate” means. Investment jargon is a set of financial… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Pound’s good showing reflects expectations of ‘big economic rebound’ in UK
London-based broker ActivTrades attributes sterling’s current steady winning of ground from the U.S. dollar and euro to generally successful anti-COVID vaccinations in Britain, which have enabled the government to set a roadmap to lifting COVID-related restrictions by June. The scrapping of restrictions is expected to bring about a “big economic rebound”, an outlook that “is… Continue Reading
ActivTrades: Pound doing better than dollar, euro, due to good start of UK Covid vaccination
London-based foreign exchange broker ActivTrades has reported the British pound to have done better than the dollar or the euro in early January 27 trading, attributing this to perceived investor optimism brought about by Britain’s successful start of Covid-19 vaccination. Markets see the successful roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain, where coronavirus has killed… Continue Reading
TSC, Anatase co-design indices of water risk to corporate earnings
By Andrei Skvarsky. Financial consultancies Thomas Schumann Capital (TSC) and Anatase Ltd have developed, with support from financial markets data company Refinitiv, a family of indices to show whether the quantity and quality of water used by a company in its business pose any risk to its earnings and how serious such risk is. The… Continue Reading
Ingot Brokers speeds up client verification to ‘3 minutes’ via deal with Sumsub
By Andrei Skvarsky. Australian multi-asset financial brokerage Ingot Brokers has drastically speeded up its client identity verification procedure and made it more accurate via an automated solution acquired from London-headquartered identity verifier Sumsub. The solution, obtained by Ingot from Sumsub under a partnership agreement, cuts customer onboarding time “from 3 days to 3 minutes”, the… Continue Reading
Minority owners to reject Kaz Minerals buyout price offer from Nova
By Andrei Skvarsky. Moscow-based investment adviser CFC Management has confirmed that its clients who together own a stake of about 3.6 per cent in copper producer Kaz Minerals intend to vote against the acquisition price offered for the London-listed copper miner by investment consortium Nova Resources. In following CFC advice, the owners of the 3.6… Continue Reading
Moorgate Capital acts as exclusive financial adviser in UK firm’s buyout of food wholesaler
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based Moorgate Capital has acted as the exclusive financial adviser to British firm Lioncroft Holdings in acquiring 200m-euro ($225m) food and beverage wholesaler Lioncroft Wholesale (trading as East End Wholesale Stores) in a deal completed on June 30. Lioncroft Holdings bought Lioncroft Wholesale from East End Foods, one of Britain’s largest Asian spice,… Continue Reading
Permira Debt Managers prices new CLO at $225.5m
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based debt investors Permira Debt Managers (PDM) has set the price for the Providus IV collateralised loan obligation, the fourth CLO in its Providus series, at 207.6m euros ($225.5m). Just as the previous Providus CLOs, Providus IV has environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards among its eligibility criteria, which puts restrictions on… Continue Reading
EVENTS: Reuters Events webinar on April 28 to look at ESG firms’ role in dealing with Covid-19 impacts on emerging markets
Reuters Events is due to run a free interactive webinar on April 28 to look into how companies following environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment criteria can help emerging markets to survive the havoc wrought by Covid-19 and to cope with climate change effects in this situation. The one-hour webinar, ‘ESG in Emerging Markets: How… Continue Reading
Da Vinci Capital passes control of Global Fintech Solutions to Prytek
By Andrei Skvarsky. Guernsey-based private equity company Da Vinci Capital has sold a majority stake in software developer Global Fintech Solutions (GFS) to the Prytek investment firm in what has been described as “one of the fastest exits” in Da Vinci’s history. According to a joint statement from Da Vinci and Prytek, the sale makes… Continue Reading
EVENTS: MoneyNext Summit, London forum in July on finance world digitisation
MoneyNext Summit, a conference to be held in London on July 1-2, 2020, will focus on the digitisation of the financial world, delving into the future of payments, banking, blockchain, insurance and regulation. The wide range of issues to be raised at the forum include digital solutions to risk management, ethical considerations in the use… Continue Reading
Guernsey Finance looking for CEO as Dominic Wheatley planning to quit
Guernsey Finance, a company acting as a promotional agency for Guernsey’s finance industry, is looking for candidates for the position of chief executive as incumbent Dominic Wheatley is quitting at the end of June 2020. The application deadline is 5pm on January 24. Applicants should submit a CV and covering letter to Guernsey Finance chairman… Continue Reading
Marlin announces new investments
By Andrei Skvarsky. Investment company Marlin Equity Partners has announced that it has bought out Whitlock, a systems integrator and technology management firm, and that it has made a growth equity investment in regulatory compliance software provider SmartSearch. Marlin, a global company with more than $6.7bn of capital under management, has completed more than 150… Continue Reading
Guernsey’s ITI Funds says deal enables it to avoid crypto market risks
By Andrei Skvarsky. Guernsey-based investment company ITI Funds has said it has entered into a partnership that arms it with a technology to significantly reduce risks inherent in cryptocurrency transactions. Continue Reading
RenCap rehires Alexander Vengranovich to oversee telecoms research
By Andrei Skvarsky. Alexander Vengranovich, who was a real estate analyst at Renaissance Capital in 2007-2008, has returned to the Moscow-based investment bank, this time as global head of telecoms research. Continue Reading
London’s Sun Global co-manages bond issue for India’s no. 2 housing finance provider
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based wealth and investment manager Sun Global Investments has co-arranged a $350m issue of three-year US dollar-denominated bonds with a yield of 6.4 per cent per year for Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBHF), India’s second-largest housing finance company. Continue Reading
London’s Sun Global arranges bond issue for India’s HDFC housing finance firm
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-based investment manager Sun Global Investments has organised a 10bn rupee ($145m) issue of bonds for a leading Indian housing finance provider, Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC). Continue Reading
Sova brokerage chooses Iress as provider of order management, post-trade processing software
By Andrei Skvarsky. London-headquartered investment broker Sova Capital Limited has chosen Australian technology designer Iress to provide software for order management and post-trade processing in its prime services division. Continue Reading
Lombard Odier forecasts 2 per cent growth for euro zone in 2019
By Andrei Skvarsky. Swiss private bank Lombard Odier has released a generally optimistic 2019 forecast for the euro zone, predicting 2 per cent economic growth for it and arguing that its economy is in a position to offset potential political and trade headwinds. Continue Reading