Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sometimes, while reading an otherwise dry regulatory document, you come across a footnote which (if you have a very specific sense of humour) makes you chuckle and go “oohhhh … you guys!”.  For example, consider an analysis box in the latest ECB Financial Stability Review:This is certainly a decent candidate for the Regulatory Arbitrage Hall of Fame.  It is what it says it is:As long as European banks sort themselves out to look better at the quarter end, they can, structurally, do…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Savvy chess players do not commit to a specific game plan from the get-go. They create options and adjust their strategy as they go along. UniCredit’s chief executive Andrea Orcel shows a similar approach to European bank consolidation. The Italian lender’s €10.1bn offer for domestic rival Banco BPM, closely following its acquisition of a stake in Germany’s Commerzbank, is a lowball approach, unlikely to succeed. But it does give Orcel room for manoeuvre.Prior to this move, the Italian executive was at risk…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.France’s Natixis Investment Managers, which has $1.3tn in assets under management, is in early-stage talks with Italian insurer Generali about a potential tie-up, according to several people familiar with the situation. Such a combination would bring together two of the biggest names in European asset management as the sector turns to dealmaking to scale up and expand distribution.Terms are not agreed and it is not certain that the talks between Natixis and Generali will lead to a deal, the people said. Natixis was…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UPS can only look on with wonder at Goldman Sachs. On Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had fined the shipping company $45mn for improperly carrying an acquired company at a value hundreds of millions of dollars above what management knew it was worth. As such, the audited financial statements that its public shareholders rely on were deemed inaccurate and misleading.The rules are different in private equity. The Financial Times reported over the weekend that Goldman Sachs would write…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Blackstone has agreed to buy a joint venture stake in interstate pipelines from US energy group EQT in a complex financing manoeuvre that shows how some of the biggest corporations are turning to private capital giants to alleviate burdens on their balance sheets.The $1.1tn investment manager’s fast-growing credit and insurance arm will finance the $3.5bn transaction, drawing largely on insurance capital, according to people familiar with the matter.The deal puts Blackstone head-to-head with rivals including Apollo, as they push into corners of…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK financial regulator has fined Barclays £40mn for failing to disclose arrangements with Qatari entities when the bank sought to avoid a bailout during the financial crisis.Announcing the fine on Monday, the Financial Conduct Authority said that the UK bank’s “conduct in its October 2008 capital raising was reckless and lacked integrity”.The FCA has previously alleged that Barclays breached the UK’s listing rules by failing to disclose it was paying higher fees to Qatari investors than to those from other countries…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the European banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.UniCredit has offered to buy Banco BPM, the European lender said on Monday, in a deal that values its Italian rival at €10bn ($10.5bn).According to the bank, if completed the deal would create Europe’s third-largest lender by market capitalisation.A deal would “allow the full enhancement of the potentialities of the two groups in Italy and the consequent further strengthening of a solid pan-European entity”, UniCredit said.UniCredit’s offer represents a premium of 0.5 per cent on Banco BPM’s share price on Friday and…

Welcome to FT Asset Management, our weekly newsletter on the movers and shakers behind a multitrillion-dollar global industry. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered every Monday. Explore all of our newsletters here.Does the format, content and tone work for you? Let me know: harriet.agnew@ft.com One thing to start: Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, has signalled that he would be “open to the possibility of selling a minority stake” in his firm for the first time. Earlier this month we revealed that Citadel’s closest rival,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Flows into actively managed funds have outpaced those for their passive rivals for the first time in 20 months as asset managers attracted their largest product sales for almost three years.Europe-domiciled active funds garnered €33.1bn of inflows in October, surpassing the €29.2bn won by passive funds, according to Morningstar data, excluding money market funds and funds of funds.Active fund flows had lagged passive funds each month since March 2023. The last quarterly period of superior flows for active funds was in the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Property sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Renewed inflation fears are hammering the UK property sector, as anxieties over borrowing costs, the UK Budget and the election of Donald Trump have sent shares spiralling downwards.The six biggest listed housebuilders by market capitalisation are down by an average of about 18 per cent since the Labour government’s first Budget on October 30, while real estate investment trusts have fallen almost 5 per cent.Worried by higher-for-longer interest rates, investors have punished a sector that is key to the government’s growth plans, wiping…