Author: Lily Harper

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Legal and General is planning to cut jobs in its asset management division following a restructuring earlier this year, as the insurance company attempts to cut costs and boost returns.Up to 20 investment roles and dozens of support positions will be made redundant, according to people close to the process, one of whom said some employees in these roles would be moved to other positions in the business.The FTSE 100 company, which employs more than 12,000 people globally, is undergoing a restructuring…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A group of 10,000 investors who lost money in H2O Asset Management’s illiquid investment scandal has filed a legal challenge in London against the Financial Conduct Authority, which approved what they allege to have been an unfair compensation deal worth €250mn.Collectif Porteurs H2O, a group of 10,000 investors that is suing the asset manager in Paris for what it claims are hundreds of millions of euros in losses, this month applied for a judicial review of the compensation settlement, which was agreed…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK financial regulation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The system for handling UK financial services complaints is to be overhauled to avoid more costly “mass redress events” in the latest sign of how politicians are pushing to ease the regulatory burden on the City of London.The plans unveiled by the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Conduct Authority on Friday came hours after a call by chancellor Rachel Reeves on Thursday for the duo to improve how they handle “historic market practice and mass redress events”.Reform of the financial services…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Pensions industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Chancellor Rachel Reeves has proposed a major overhaul of the pensions industry as the government hopes to drive investment into productive British assets through a series of “megafunds”.This would involve rapid consolidation across UK defined contribution workplace pensions — forecast to manage £800bn by 2030 — and local government pension schemes in England and Wales, which are on track to reach £500bn in size by the end of the decade. By forcing schemes to merge into funds with at least £25bn in assets,…

The irony that a French company is set to become the largest flotation in London for more than two years, a time when homegrown corporate successes have shifted to the US, has not been lost on bankers in the City. Canal+ is not just any French company, but one that carries deep “cultural significance” across the channel, according to Maxime Saada, who heads the streaming giant and film producer that is part of Vivendi, the media conglomerate controlled by the billionaire Bolloré family. Coming just weeks after Canal+ put on the Paddington in Peru premiere in London, the UK stock exchange has…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Who does not like a “megafund”? UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has joined a long list of British politicians who have eyed the potential of local authorities’ massive — but fragmented — retirement assets. These have a collective value of £392bn in England and Wales.For years Reeves’ predecessors — starting with George Osborne in 2015 — have sought to tap these assets to fund British infrastructure and businesses, with limited results. The chancellor hopes to correct this by legislating for eight pension megafunds.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Land Securities, one of the UK’s largest landlords, has posted an increase in the value of its near £10bn portfolio after two years of steep declines, in the latest positive signal for commercial real estate.The FTSE 100 landlord reported that its portfolio value increased 0.9 per cent in the six months to the end of September, the first rise since 2022, powered by improved valuations for its retail properties and prime London office buildings.The news followed rival landlord GPE which on Thursday…

One scoop to start: The Federal Trade Commission is preparing to launch an investigation into anti-competitive practices at Microsoft’s cloud computing business, as the US regulator continues to pursue Big Tech in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency.And another scoop: The founder of Grubhub said he twice attempted to buy back the food delivery business from Just Eat Takeaway for more than $1bn, making the revelation days after the Dutch group announced a deal to sell its US subsidiary at a huge loss for just $650mn.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This…

Should I consider taking out inheritance tax insurance? For FT readers with large pensions, Budget changes mean the answer is almost certainly yes. From 2027, defined contribution pensions will be included within a person’s estate when calculating IHT bills. For many, this will push the value of their estate over £2mn — at which point the additional residence nil rate band for passing down the family home is lost.The changes are subject to a consultation, but IHT bills are set to become more onerous for tens of thousands of families. Financial planners are already busy taking calls from worried clients…

A flurry of exotic cryptocurrency exchange traded funds could be unleashed in the US in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, industry figures believe, transforming the sector.Crypto ETF providers finally won their decade-long battle to launch “physically backed” bitcoin ETFs in the US in January, after the Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator, lost a court case brought by digital assets pioneer Grayscale.Spot ether ETFs have also now been permitted, but filings for a rash of ETFs predicated on other digital tokens such as solana, Ripple’s XRP and litecoin, as well as a potential basket product featuring an array…