Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Liechtenstein has launched an emergency task force to tackle a crisis of “zombie” trusts, which has left hundreds of entities linked to wealthy Russians in legal paralysis.The tiny Alpine principality, a hub for thousands of trusts and foundations, has been hit by a wave of resignations by fiduciary and board directors in the past six months as its regulatory system adjusted to US sanctions packages against Russia.The result could leave as many as 800 orphaned entities — legally recognised but functionally frozen…

Seven years after BlackRock’s last big foray into private credit, last week Larry Fink finally turned the world’s largest asset manager into a player. With the completion of the $12bn takeover of HPS Investment Partners on Tuesday, the $11.6tn investment group has closed a trio of takeovers that shift it from a position of dominance in public markets to one where it straddles both public and private assets. BlackRock folded in infrastructure investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners last October and private market data provider Preqin in March. The deals are crucial to BlackRock’s success in the private investment space, widely…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Britain’s financial regulators are failing to push through vital reforms needed to unlock some £22bn in trade finance for small businesses, the UK branch of the International Chamber of Commerce has warned.In a letter to the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, the ICC said there was an “urgent need” for reforms to regulations governing the raising of trade finance that is key to underwriting global transactions. The letter, seen by the Financial Times, warned that the “antiquated”…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.John Warlters, chief executive of the charity Rural Aid, helped to unload 150 tonnes of hay in the remote Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia in June.It is the first time his charity has delivered fodder to the island — known as one of Australia’s leading food producing regions, specialising in honey, oysters, eggs and meat — but its farmers have struggled with a damaging drought that has hit the southern half of Australia for the past two years.“It’s exceptionally…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.PwC’s new UK boss has lined up managing partner Laura Hinton as the frontrunner to replace the head of its crucial Middle East business next year, as the Big Four firm seeks to move on from a clash with a major Saudi client.Marco Amitrano, PwC’s UK senior partner, is considering Hinton — one of his former rivals for the top job — as the lead candidate to succeed Hani Ashkar, according to people familiar with the matter. Ashkar informed colleagues in May…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Red flags were raised over Wood Group’s financial statements as far back as 2017, according to corporate and regulatory records that indicate persistent questions over its accounting practices.The London-listed company — which the UK’s financial markets regulator is now investigating as £242mn takeover talks languish — had to restate an income statement after being questioned over its 2022 annual report by the country’s accounting watchdog. It was the second time the Financial Reporting Council had found problems with Wood’s accounts.The energy engineering…

Investors wondering what to do with their pensions, investments and savings face an uncertain environment on various fronts as the unpredictability of Donald Trump, the US president, shakes up the markets. Equities have been volatile and the dollar has had its worst start to the year since the 1970s due to uncertainty around Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical events. Fixed income is not playing its usual “stabilising” role in a portfolio to counter inflation concerns, with some wealth managers saying they no longer believe in the traditional 60-40 model of equities versus bonds. Gold is still seen as a haven but…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This week, Nationwide building society reported that the average UK house price was £271,619 in June, as it dropped by an unexpected 0.8 per cent compared with May — the biggest monthly fall in two years. But how useful is this, given that, in the words of my late friend Charles Fairhurst, “all residential is local”? What he meant was that the price or rent of a home — and whether it is bought, let, or even built — is determined as…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is co-head of private equity at KKRThe private equity naysayers are out in force in 2025. Underlying the latest predictions of the industry’s demise is a notable mis-step many firms made by over-deploying capital during 2021 and the first half of 2022, a period characterised by high valuations.Many of those investments will probably be underperformers. Consequently, private equity funds overexposed to these vintages may struggle to raise more capital. But is it the beginning of the industry’s downfall as some claim?While…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.There are few industries with a more “old world” feel than European insurers. The average age among the continent’s 10 largest listed players is almost 170. Yet quietly, these old-timers have been racking up the sort of market gains that would make many tech start-ups jealous.The Stoxx 600 insurance sub-index, which tracks 30 large European insurance groups, climbed 15 per cent in the first half of 2025 for its best half-year since 2019. And the performance is no flash in the pan:…