Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Stablecoins are pretty cool in theory. They promise near-to-instant transfers of any value across any border, at transaction costs that could be far below what’s currently charged. Smart contracts might take the counterparty risk out of escrow and look useful for stuff like subscriptions, insurance and sports betting. And since everything happens in realtime on a public blockchain, there’s full transparency.In practice, in the more than 10 years since their invention, stablecoins have carved out a few real-world niches but have not…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Guaranty Trust Holding Company, the parent of Nigeria’s biggest bank by market value, will list in London after selling $100mn in shares to investors, as lenders rush to complete the country’s largest bank recapitalisation in decades.Segun Agbaje, GTCO’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that a sale launched on Monday would meet a central bank target for all banks to raise capital by March next year, as the Nigerian economy recovers from a series of currency devaluations.Lagos-listed GTCO, which has a market…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sir Christopher Hohn’s activist hedge fund TCI has risen 21 per cent so far this year, according to two people who have seen the numbers, as bets on jet engine manufacturer GE Aerospace, Visa and Microsoft came good. The gains for The Children’s Investment Fund, which manages just over $70bn in assets, are more than triple the returns of the US S&P 500 index, and reinforce Hohn’s status as one of the world’s most successful equity hedge fund managers. TCI has held…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.At my girls’ grammar school in the 90s, our maths teacher introduced us to trigonometry by saying that female brains often found it hard. At least half the class promptly switched off and probably never took an interest in maths again. I am reminded of this episode when studies from the wealth management industry find that women lack confidence about finance. As a result, we are told, women are less likely to invest. The gender investment gap is real. Boring Money, a consumer investment…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.China’s central bank has asked European financial institutions for advice on dealing with the effects of low interest rates, as the world’s second-largest economy risks slipping into a prolonged period of low inflation.The People’s Bank of China has sent “ad hoc” requests to at least two European banks this year for insights on the impact of low to zero interest rates on the banking systems in their home countries, according to people familiar with the requests.The move suggests the Chinese central bank…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a former banker and author of ‘Traders, Guns & Money’, ‘Extreme Money’ and ‘Banquet of Consequences’In the lead up to the global financial crisis, the systemic risks building in markets were overlooked by many. Those risks proved calamitous. Today, there are multiple financial vulnerabilities and faultlines. First, investors have increasingly borrowed low-cost funds, often in foreign currencies, to invest in higher yielding investments in ubiquitous carry trades, that are now vulnerable to moves in asset prices and currency values.Second,…

One scoop to start: Private equity groups Advent International and Platinum Equity are vying to buy $2bn worth of assets, including the Kevlar bulletproof brand, from DuPont, as the chemicals giant undergoes a wider break-up.And another thing: An Apollo-backed insurance group is nearing a £6bn takeover of the UK-based Pension Insurance Corporation, a deal that would further push the US alternative assets giant into the UK insurance market.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…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Japanese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Japan is currently emitting an epochal noise: the pained rip of a tenacious plaster finally parting company with a nearly-healed wound. Global markets, along with Japan’s own financial industry, have perhaps not yet fully grasped the implications of Japan’s Great Financial Unsticking, but they may soon have no choice. Japanese interest rates turned positive last year after a protracted stint of virtual non-existence; inflation expectations now look entrenched, so money, as well as looking more portable than before, has to work…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The European insurance affiliate of Apollo Global Management is nearing a £6bn takeover of UK retirement savings group Pension Insurance Corporation, a deal that would further push the US alternative assets giant into the UK insurance market.Athora, a European-based subsidiary of Apollo, is close to acquiring full ownership of PIC from a consortium of investors, including CVC Capital and Reinet Investments, a vehicle backed by South African billionaire Johann Rupert, according to three people briefed on the matter. A deal could be…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Goldman Sachs stood to lose just $300mn in an economic shock under the Federal Reserve’s stress test scenario this year, vastly less than the $18bn forecast a year earlier — and a big reason for the bank’s outsized shareholder payouts. The sharp drop is a reflection of Goldman’s effort in recent years to reduce risk-taking, which requires the bank to set aside more capital to guard against volatility. But it also reflects technical changes to the Fed’s test that made it easier…