Pensions sales drive strong third quarter results for Royal London November 6, 2014 Royal London Group – the UK’s largest mutual life and investment company – posted strong third-quarter results yesterday, with pensions sales up 39 per cent year-on-year. Group pension sales were a key driver for company’s positive results, up 101 per cent to £1.72bn from the third quarter of last year. Individual pensions and drawdown sales [...]
Prezzo gobbled up for £304m by American private equity firm TPG November 6, 2014 Prezzo yesterday agreed to a £303.7m cash bid by American private equity firm TPG, valuing the high street Italian restaurant chain at almost 10 times its operating profit. TPG, which saw off competition from buyout firm Advent to seal the deal, launched the offer via Papa Bidco, a newly incorporated company indirectly owned by the [...]
Peer-to-peer platforms need to mature – or risk innovation-stifling regulation November 6, 2014 IT’S NOT surprising that peer-to-peer lending is becoming so popular. After years of low interest rates and scandals, there is a feeling that financial services should get back to basics. And after all the upheaval in banking, there is a desire to look at new ways of lending – preferably ones that pay a decent [...]
ETF essentials: Why low cost funds are often the best performers November 4, 2014 THE ACTIVE versus passive investing debate has been rumbling on for years within the investment industry and the media. Often the views are polarised – fully active or fully passive – but they also regularly miss out a key part of the debate: getting your asset allocation right. Myriad studies have highlighted that this is [...]
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel talks quarter-life crises and how to tackle the state November 2, 2014 It's not every day that you get to speak to Silicon Valley royalty. And Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, first outside investor in Facebook, fund manager, and leader of multiple firms, is a dynasty heavyweight. Having just published his new book, Zero to One, he’s keen to talk about some of his latest ideas. [...]
A second look at portfolio risk: Are you really playing it safe? October 28, 2014 I’VE NEVER been a fan of the “best buy” lists published by the major fund platforms. But I always find it interesting to see what is attracting the hard-earned savings of private investors. The best-selling funds lists for September reveal the usual suspects: UK equity income, emerging markets and a couple of specific sector funds [...]
Outside the box: SpaceWays founder David Fuchs talks unwanted cars, Mexico and sexiness October 26, 2014 Budding entrepreneurs will frequently tell you that it’s heartfelt passion driving them to set up a business. But the substance of many highly-successful companies isn’t all that exciting – think chipmakers, paper shredders, kebab boxes. “It’s not that I always dreamt of owning a storage business. Nobody does that. It’s not sexy to go [...]
Why London’s entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to the East October 26, 2014 LAST week was certainly a good one for the London technology scene. The first half saw TechCrunch Disrupt, Silicon Valley’s largest technology event, come to London for the first time. And this is just the latest event in a strong year for the London entrepreneur community; think of the Zoopla initial public offering, the launch [...]
GHO Capital Partners’ finance boss to open Private Equity Combat Sports class for Krav Maga fans October 23, 2014 The first rule of fight club, is you do not talk about fight club. But what about the first rule of private equity fight club? We’re not talking about punch-ups over the last croissant outside The Savoy Grill, the PE industry is to get its own combat class – organised by an industry insider. Duncan [...]
