Hello and welcome to your Morning Briefing on Friday, April 29, 2022. To get this delivered to your inbox every morning Click here.
China outlook
At the start of the pandemic two years ago, China’s tough approach to tackling Covid was hailed.
The lighter approaches of the United States and the United Kingdom have been heavily criticized.
But with successful vaccination programs in both countries, the perspective has changed again.
Investors should remain cautious on the Chinese market due to the high uncertainty of the strict zero Covid policy.
So said the investment analysts Money Marketing as the global economy grapples with the fallout of the ongoing pandemic.
CFL Bonds
London Capital & Finance (LCF) bondholders are always approached by scammers.
Fraudsters claim to be able to obtain compensation for the full amount of LCF’s investments.
Conquer distribution
Allfunds has entered into an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of instiHub Analytics Limited (instiHub).
Based in London, instiHub provides bespoke data solutions for retail-focused business insights.
Allfunds said its existing product line and proprietary solutions are the perfect complement to Allfunds’ offering.
quote of the day
This will benefit many hard-working people across the country by helping pension schemes equalize the effects of guaranteed minimum pensions between men and women.
– Pensions Minister Guy Opperman comments on yesterday’s granting Royal Assent to the Pensions (Conversion of Guaranteed Minimum Pensions) Act 2022
Stat Attack
Almost two-thirds of UK adults admit they focus on the active early stages when thinking about retirement, according to new information from Standard Life, part of the Phoenix Group.
The research was conducted with nearly 5,000 UK consumers, aged 18-91.
62%
UK adults admit they focus on early active stages when thinking about retirement
52%
Admit they simply avoid thinking about being older in retirement when they might be less mobile or in poorer health
73%
Say they have little or no planning for the amount of money needed to live on in retirement, while nearly three in ten
28%
Admit they never look at their long-term finances to see how things are progressing
34%
They also said they would rather live for today than plan for tomorrow.
19 years
Planners expect retirement finances to last 19 years compared to just 11 years for non-planners
Source: Standard Life
In other news
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will return over £1million to over 200 victims. It comes after one of the biggest boiler room frauds ever prosecuted by a UK authority.
The SFO’s seven-year investigation, dubbed Operation Steamroller, led to the prosecution of Australian national and fraud mastermind Jeffrey Revell-Reade in 2014.
He was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison and a total forfeiture order of around £7.5million.
Since 2016, the SFO has been pursuing the enforcement of Revell-Reade’s forfeiture order, attempting to recover its illicit earnings to compensate its victims.
More than £3million has already been returned to the approximately 200 victims. With the help of international partners in Spain, the SFO has now secured new compensation funds through the settlement of a luxury penthouse apartment on the Costa del Sol.
Between 2003 and 2007, British investors were defrauded of around £70 million under a boiler room scheme orchestrated by Revell-Reade.
As part of the scheme, sales entities – operating out of Madrid – sold under pressure shares of companies listed in the United States.
Investors bought the shares, which were restricted from sale for 12 months, and when they came to sell, they found that their shares had no value. This is because they either belonged to fictitious companies or companies that did not work at all.
Moreover
Yen slips to 20-year low as BoJ defies global shift to higher rates (FinancialTimes)
Elon Musk sells almost $4 billion worth of Tesla shares (BBC News)
Apple Reports Positive Results Despite Shortages and Economic Fallout (The Guardian)
Have you seen?
Nucleus will continue to pursue acquisition opportunities and use its firepower with private funders to participate in the “consolidation trend”.
The boss of the platform group, which consists of consulting platforms James Hay and Nucleus, spoke with editor-in-chief Katey Pigden.
Nucleus chief executive Richard Rowney argued that players on the subscale platform are likely to struggle and will need to find a “safe home”.
He said: “In the medium to long term, we want to have the firepower available to be able to participate in the consolidation trend.”
He suggested that the company’s new private equity backer, HPS Investment Partners (HPS), will help it achieve this ambition because it has “very, very deep pockets”.
Nucleus will also continue to be backed by Epiris, which recently reduced its stake in the company.
