World Cup Fever Why Brands Are Backing the Women's
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BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY GOING OUT THE BEST WORLD CUP FEVER WHY ART, THEATRE AND BRANDS ARE BACKING FILMS TO CATCH THE WOMEN’S GAME P31 THIS WEEKEND P26-7 FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2019 ISSUE 3,387 CITYAM.COM FREE IN THE CHAIR Head of Ofcom to WOODFORD take over role as John Lewis boss REFUSES TO WAIVEJAMES BOOTH FEES been locked out of accessing their Carney said: “Over half of invest- cash. Yet it has been reported that Mr ment funds have a structural mis- @Jamesdbooth1 Woodford is taking in nearly £100,000 match between the frequency with THE STORM engulfing former star in management fees a day. which they offer redemptions and the trader Neil Woodford intensified “The suspension of trading has pro- time it would take them to liquidate yesterday as one of Westminster’s top vided Mr Woodford with some breath- their assets. Under stress they may financial watchdogs weighed in on ing room to fix his fund; he should need to fire-sell assets, magnifying the suspension of his flagship fund. afford his investors the same space market adjustments and triggering Nicky Morgan, chair of the influ- and waive the fund’s fees while the further redemptions – a vicious feed- ential Treasury Select Com- fund is suspended. back loop that can ultimately disrupt mittee, insisted Woodford “The FCA [Financial market functioning.” should waive manage- Conduct Authority] has Meanwhile yesterday, one of Wood- ment fees for his fund, rightly said that it is ford’s last remaining large clients while investors remain Omnis Investments replaced him as blocked from pulling Neil Woodford has come manager of its £330m Omnis Income their cash. under fire after & Growth Fund. The move followed SEBASTIAN MCCARTHY revealed his plans to depart late last Retail stockbroker suspending his fund wealth manager St James’s Place year. The John Lewis Partnership also Hargreaves Lansdown removing Woodford as manager of @SebMcCarthy includes Waitrose. suspended its platform closely watching the £3.5bn of its funds on Wednesday. OFCOM boss Sharon White is set to The former World Bank economist fees for the Woodford fund. The Treasury Com- Woodford Investment Management replace Sir Charlie Mayfield as the and civil servant was tipped earlier Equity Income Fund on mittee will no doubt raise yesterday sold down its stakes in com- next chair of John Lewis Partnership, this year to be in the running to be the Wednesday, but last night said this troubling episode, and panies including Purplebricks, Card the embattled department store next Bank of England governor. Woodford had refused to do so. what lessons can be learned, when we Factory, Newriver Reit, Provident chain revealed yesterday. Mayfield said: “I readily recognise “We urged them to do the same and take evidence from the FCA and Bank Financial and Kier Group as it battled White, the chief executive of the that Sharon is not the conventional they have taken the decision not to of England,” she added. to restore liquidity. UK’s communications regulator, is set retail choice. But these are not follow suit,” Emma Wall, head of In Tokyo yesterday, Bank of England Shares in stockbroker Hargreaves to take the £990,000-a-year post in conventional retail times, nor is the investment analysis, told City A.M. boss Mark Carney warned that funds Lansdown, which has heavily pro- early 2020, concluding the retail partnership a conventional Former City lawyer Morgan said: such as Woodford’s could pose a “sys- moted Woodford in the past, fell 4.1 group’s hunt to replace Mayfield, who company.” “Investors in the Woodford Fund have temic risk to the global economy”. per cent to 1,895p yesterday. FTSE 100▲ 7,259.85 +39.63 FTSE 250▼ 19,065.52 -6.65 DOW▲ 25,720.66 +181.09 NASDAQ▲ 7,615.55 +40.08 £/$▲ 1.268 +0.001 £/€ ▼ 1.125 -0.005 €/$ ▲ 1.127 +0.005 02 NEWS FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2019 CITYAM.COM LIKE A G6 Trump remains unclear on whether he will attend August G7 meeting after hailing war dead with President Macron THE CITY VIEW An all-out trade war is becoming more likely ONALD Trump jets back home today after a predictably tumultuous week during which the US President Dbetrayed his ignorance of the NHS, the Irish border and, more amusingly, the existence of Michael Gove. Thankfully the circus witnessed earlier in the week subsided in time for D-Day commemorations, allowing people on both sides of the Channel to pay their respects to the many men and women, including those from the US, who helped defeat Nazism 75 years ago. As Trump departs, British officials may wonder whether they will be put through another such visit again, should the property magnate win next year’s presidential election. Meanwhile, economists are also left pondering Trump’s political future as they attempt to map the likely level of global growth US PRESIDENT Donald Trump declined to confirm whether he plans to attend the meeting of the G7 group of nations in August, as he met French leader Emmanuel Macron yesterday. “You’d have to ask [Trump] the question,” a French official said when in years ahead. asked if Trump would show up at the Biarritz summit. “It’s important for us that he is in Biarritz and we are hopeful he’ll be there.” The International Monetary Fund caught headlines this week by warning that nearly half-a-trillion dollars will be lost from world output in 2020, thanks to protectionism triggered by Trump’s trade wars. “Larger than the size of South Africa’s economy,” IMF boss Christine Lagarde explained, emphasising the size of the hit. Beneath the headlines exists a plethora of similar warnings and Worst May on record as downbeat forecasts. Also this week, analysts at ING said that world trade is heading for its worst year since the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009, predicting a measly 0.3 per cent growth. While the level of trade would normally bounce back in 2020, “that improvement could vanish if the trade war drags on”. retailers suffer sales fall And it is likely to drag on. Societe Generale now believes there is a mere 45 per cent chance of a benign solution to the US-China ELLIOT KIME of retail at BDO. said that troubles in the sector had AND SEBASTIAN MCCARTHY standoff. Even more worryingly, the French bank says there is a She added: “With a government led to “anxiety about how high streets @SebMcCarthy mired in Brexit chaos and now fur- will develop in the future”. one in four chance of a devastating all-out trade war between ther distracted by a leadership con- Underlining the “period of change” the world’s two biggest economies. BRITAIN’s troubled high street retail- test, our British high street is not facing the sector, the report added As Trump nears election mode, his (albeit limited) focus will fall ers were dealt a fresh blow last month getting the attention it desperately that “the closure of branches of retail- as the sector suffered its worst May on needs.” ers across many high streets has led to increasingly on pledges made in 2016 to restrict immigration record. The results came on the same day as worries about the decline of retail on and extract supposedly better deals from foreign countries In-store sales declined 3.3 per cent a new study revealed just under a the high street”. through belligerent negotiating tactics. An impulsive escalation year-on-year in May from a negative third of high street addresses are The report is based on almost 7,000 of tariffs is the President’s go-to tactic, as recently demonstrated base of minus 2.2 per cent in the same being used for retail, as jobs in the sec- unique high streets, covering a period month last year, according to account- tor declined in every region but Lon- of time that has seen major brands by rates imposed on Mexican goods just six months after the two ancy firm BDO. It said the drop sig- don between 2012 and 2017. such as House of Fraser, Debenhams countries agreed a trade pact alongside Canada. nalled the worst May performance Across the UK, more than half of and Maplin call in the administrators. The 2020 election is a chance to remove Trump from office – but since it began its tracker in 2006. high street addresses are now residen- The research comes just a week after Lifestyle and fashion sales both tum- tial as the number of commercial the British Retail Consortium also it is also Trump’s chance to double-down on what has rapidly bled as last month marked the fourth properties dropped to two percentage said the industry suffered a record become his most notorious policy. month of negative results since the points to 31 per cent. sales drop in May. start of 2019. The number of high street retail jobs Following a four-year high of sales in “Our high streets are creaking at the was also slashed in every region out- May 2018, spurred on by bumper hot seams. It’s time the government took side London, where headcount grew weather, the World Cup and a royal action and showed some much- by six per cent. wedding, this year’s start to the needed support for retailers and to The Office for National Statistics, crucial summer selling season has not the millions of people the sector which conducted the research in part- been so successful, as political uncer- Follow us on Twitter @cityam employs,” said Sophie Michael, head nership with the Ordnance Survey, tainty weighed on spending.