Author: Lily Harper

Bank investors and advisers are preparing for a new era of consolidation among smaller US lenders that could help them fend off Wall Street’s giants. KBW’s large and regional bank indices both gained more than 10 per cent respectively the day after Donald Trump’s election victory, the biggest rise in four years and one that trounced the 3 per cent increase in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.While shares in some banks such as Goldman Sachs have risen in anticipation of higher advisory fees and looser capital rules, the potential for a more liberal attitude to tie-ups lifted shares in small and mid-sized…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Mubadala Capital, the asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s state investment fund, is acquiring a large stake in a US-based credit manager as it seeks to build a global player in private capital based in the Middle East. The firm is buying a 42 per cent stake in Silver Rock Financial, a Los Angeles-based credit investment specialist backed by the family office of onetime “junk bond king” Michael Milken and led by executives who used to manage the billionaire’s sprawling portfolio of…

When my wife and I were deciding where to make our long-term home, we flipped a coin. Heads, we’d stay in London. We had both moved to the city to study in the early 2000s; it’s where we first met and I started my career. Tails and we’d move to the South West. The coin came up heads. But in the moment of flipping, we both realised we preferred the idea of moving away. Bath is where we ended up. At the time two things occurred to me: first, we were following a well-worn trend; one that, since the second world war,…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Japanese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Warren Lichtenstein, the US financier who rocked Tokyo’s stock market in the mid-2000s with a spree of hostile takeover attempts, is considering a return to investing in Japan after an absence of more than a decade.His potential return would underscore the big changes in recent years in Japan’s corporate landscape, where shareholder activism has become mainstream and companies are under mounting pressure to take unsolicited takeover bids seriously.Lichtenstein, who founded the hedge fund Steel Partners in 1990 and has since…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK financial regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.City minister Tulip Siddiq has signalled the UK financial watchdog needs to do more to address industry fears about its plan to name more of the companies it investigates even after limiting the proposals.The Financial Conduct Authority last week presented watered down proposals to identify more companies that are under investigation before it has made a decision on whether any wrongdoing has occurred.The plans, which the FCA argues will bring it in line with other UK regulators, protect consumers and reassure…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Leading Direct Line shareholders are holding out for a higher takeover offer from Aviva after the insurer rejected a £3.3bn proposal from its larger rival.Several key investors in Direct Line, best known for its motor cover and mascot of a red phone on wheels, have told the Financial Times they supported the board’s decision to dismiss Aviva’s 250p a share proposal as “highly opportunistic” and “substantially” too low.Direct Line shareholders who spoke with the FT said they backed the board’s decision to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Private equity group Cerberus has been ordered to pay Sabadell more than €400mn after a judge in London found in favour of the Spanish bank in a dispute over a soured multibillion-euro property deal.Sabadell had sued Cerberus over claims the US group failed to pay what it owed for its purchase about five years ago of distressed Spanish property portfolios.The case was among the highest value before the High Court and came in the middle of Sabadell seeking to fend off a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Canary Wharf has secured bondholder approval for a £610mn refinancing plan, as the east London landlord nears the end of a high-stakes series of financing deals.Canary Wharf Group, which owns and manages large parts of London’s docklands financial centre, wants to take £610mn in new bank loans secured against its vast underground shopping centres in order to refinance two bonds due in 2025 and 2026.The landlord, owned by Brookfield and the Qatar Investment Authority, needs approval from those bondholders to raise the…

In 2006, while managing an impact venture capital fund at JPMorgan Chase, Nancy Pfund decided to invest in a clean energy start-up that was developing electric vehicles. Colleagues were sceptical. Would electric cars, they asked, really transform the auto industry? No, was the consensus. But today, almost one in five cars sold globally is electric. And the name of the start-up? Tesla.For Pfund, who in 2008 founded impact-focused venture capital firm DBL Partners (taking the venture fund with her), Tesla’s trajectory offers striking evidence that investments intended to bring about positive social or environmental impact can perform well financially. “Impact…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Financial services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Charlie Nunn said the UK faces an “investability problem” after a court ruled it was unlawful for car dealers to receive commissions from motor finance providers.The motor finance industry has been reeling since the Court of Appeal ruled in October that commissions were illegal unless the payments had been properly disclosed to the customer and consent had been given.Industry executives and lawyers said the ruling upends the regulation that has governed the sector for years. Lloyds Banking…