Author: Lily Harper

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Santander has agreed to buy British high street lender TSB for £2.65bn, in a move that underlines the Spanish lender’s commitment to its UK retail business just months after it entertained bids for the unit. The bank beat British rival Barclays which also put in a formal bid for the Sabadell-owned unit, according to people familiar with the matter. It comes as Sabadell, which bought TSB in 2015 for £1.7bn, is seeking to fend off an €11bn hostile approach from its domestic rival…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Hedge funds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel has been outshone by smaller rivals so far this year, as the firm was stung by the market volatility unleashed by Donald Trump’s trade war. Citadel’s flagship Wellington fund gained 2.5 per cent in the first half of 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter. Balyasny and ExodusPoint were up 7.3 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively, according to people who have seen the figures. Citadel, which manages around $66bn, is one of the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Global Economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Invest long, borrow short and leverage up as much as possible. That is the way to make money in finance. It is how banks have always made their living. But we also know very well that this story can end in panic-stricken runs for the exit and financial crises. That is what happened in the great financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-09. Since then, as the Bank for International Settlements explains in its latest Annual Economic Report, the financial system has changed a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.If water always finds a way, as the saying goes, then the same is true for financial ingenuity. A UK fund launched this week aims to generate returns for its pension fund backers from restoring natural resources and getting the companies who benefit to pay. There’s something to this idea, if it can navigate the problems that tend to vex green finance, such as fuzzy definitions and fears of dirty data. So-called nature positive finance — the preserving and restoring of nature…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Macquarie has agreed to inject up to £1.2bn of fresh equity into Southern Water as part of a deal that will result in the debt owed to its holding company lenders being cut by more than half. As part of the deal Macquarie, Southern’s owner, has committed to invest £655mn of equity initially into the utility — which provides water and sewerage services to 4.7mn customers in the south-east of England. The Australian investor intends to provide a minimum of £245mn in…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Foreign exchange myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Taiwan’s dollar jumped more than 2 per cent in volatile trading on Tuesday, as the country’s massive life insurance and export sectors rushed to contain the fallout from a weak US dollar.The New Taiwan dollar closed the day 2.5 per cent stronger against the US dollar, at NT$29.16, marking its biggest single-day gain since a rapid appreciation at the start of May that exposed Taiwanese life insurers to huge losses on their holdings of US assets.Taiwan’s life insurers hold $1.7tn in overseas…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK house prices myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.UK house prices unexpectedly plunged in June, according to Nationwide, undershooting forecasts and recording their largest monthly fall since January 2023.The average cost of a property dropped by 0.8 per cent between May and June to £271,619, following a revised 0.4 per cent increase in the previous month, according to the lender’s data published on Tuesday. The annual growth rate fell to 2.1 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent in the previous month.Both figures were below expectations as economists polled…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a partner at law firm Maurice Turnor GardnerThe inexorable rise in prominence of the family office during my professional life has tested the world of the private client lawyer. The evolution of the family office from a few individuals working in the principal’s business to a fully fledged standalone enterprise reflects the increasing complexity of the lives of successful families. But where does the lawyer sit these days? And how do they avoid falling victim to family office machinations?Unlimited…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Liquidators who are trying to recoup billions of dollars siphoned initially from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund are seeking more than $2.7bn from Standard Chartered, in a lawsuit filed against the UK-headquartered bank over its alleged role in the scandal.The suit, filed in Singapore on Monday, represents the latest attempt to recover money taken from 1MDB as part of a decade-long hunt that has involved several of the world’s largest banks.The case against StanChart relates to the billions of dollars that were laundered…

One scoop to start: Nearly four in 10 UK takeovers were reported in the media before their announcement in the 14 months to May this year, triggering concerns at the financial regulator that the London stock market is becoming leakier.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Tuesday to Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters. Get in touch with us anytime: Due.Diligence@ft.comIn today’s newsletter:Why hedge funds love…