BUSINESS WITH PERSONALITY JOIN THE CLUB TODAY YOUR KEY TO ALL THE BEST DOORS IN THE CITY GO TO CITYAMCLUB.COM TO CHECK OUT OUR FULL RANGE OF PARTNERS AND OFFERS THURSDAY 4 JULY 2019 ISSUE 3,406 CITYAM.COM FREE Woodford staff jobs under threat JESS CLARK @jclarkjourno EMBATTLED fund manager Neil Woodford told staff they were facing redundancy yesterday following the suspension of his flagship Equity Income fund. The redundancies are expected to affect a small number of staff at Woodford Investment Management’s Oxford headquarters. The firm employed around 45 members of staff on 31 March last year, when it last published accounts. A spokesperson for Woodford said: “We have reluctantly entered into redundancy consultations with a number of staff to advise them that their roles are at risk.” Woodford, who was once REDOWEN BENNETT MIST DESCENDS gripped by mass protests against China’s Liu said the UK should “reflect on the echoed by his leadership rival Boris regarded as a star trader, has increasing attempts to seek influence consequences of its words and deeds”, Johnson, with the former foreign been battling to rebalance his @owenjbennett over the city state – culminating with and “refrain from further interference” secretary saying: “Yes, I do support them Equity Income fund since CHINA has warned the UK to keep its protesters storming Hong Kong’s in the dispute between his country and and I will happily speak up for them and trading was suspended last “hands off Hong Kong” in a dramatic government building on Monday and the Hong Kong people. back them every inch of the way.” month following a spike in escalation in tensions between Beijing spray-painting anti-Beijing slogans. Speaking to Channel 4 News, Hunt He added: “I would stress to our investor withdrawals. and London. Hunt said the UK stands behind the repeated his claim from earlier in the friends in Beijing that the ‘one country, He said he would use the The Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu people of Hong Kong and called for week that there would be repercussions two systems’ approach has worked, is suspension time to reduce the Xiaoming launched an extraordinary Beijing to respect the terms of the city if China did not respect the terms of the working and should not be cast aside.” fund’s exposure to illiquid and attack on Britain during a feisty press state’s handover to China in 1997 – handover agreement. The demonstrations were sparked by a unquoted stocks down to zero. conference, saying relations between which is meant to ensure a large degree “We are a serious country in the world row over a change to the extradition However, the fund manager the two countries had been damaged of economic and political autonomy. and the point we are making is very laws that would make it easier for defended his strategy of over the Hong Kong row. Yesterday, Liu told a press conference simply that if that agreement between Beijing to take individuals from Hong focusing on “undervalued Foreign secretary and Tory leadership the UK should keep its “hands off Hong the United Kingdom and China was not Kong for trial in mainland China. assets” in a video this week. contender Jeremy Hunt summoned the Kong and show respect”. honoured, then there would be serious The law change has been suspended, The fund’s suspension will ambassador to the Foreign Office – a He added: “They forget that Hong consequences, of course there would but many are still angry at attempts by be reviewed on 29 July. diplomatic convention seen as a rebuke. Kong has now returned to the embrace be,” he said. Beijing to take greater control of the The former British colony has been of the motherland.” Hunt’s support for the protesters was city’s governance. £ WOODFORD’S RIDDLE: P18 City divided over Lagarde’s ECB role as economists question her qualifications HARRY ROBERTSON leaders surprised pundits on direct experience of central Lagarde has “played more However, Lagarde’s support for Tuesday night by picking Lagarde, banking and faced criticism political than policy-related unconventional measures pursued @henrygrobertson currently head of the International in debt-burdened roles in her career”. by Draghi, some of which are CITY economists digested the news Monetary Fund (IMF), to succeed Mediterranean states for Deutsche Bank research credited with saving the Eurozone of Christine Lagarde’s nomination Mario Draghi at the ECB’s helm. the IMF’s actions during the strategist Jim Reid said that after 2012, have reassured markets. as European Central Bank (ECB) Bond yields fell and stock Eurozone crisis. “her relative inexperience” with Franklin Templeton’s David Zahn president yesterday, with some markets rose across Europe Andrea Iannelli, investment the ECB’s complex policies said it “reconfirmed the idea that warning of a “credibility risk” while following the announcement. director at Fidelity, said meant “there is a credibility risk, the ECB will support the market others welcomed her expected Lagarde has led the IMF since especially if and when things get over the short-to-mid-term at least”. dovish stance. 2011 and was formerly French Lagarde has been head more complicated European Union member state finance minister. Yet she has no of the IMF since 2011 economically”. £ A DEEPER DIVE: P12 FTSE 100 ▲ 7,609.32 +50.13 FTSE 250 ▲ 19,790.83 +131.50 DOW ▲ 26,966.00 +179.32 NASDAQ ▲ 8,170.23 +61.14 £/$ ▼ 1.258 -0.002 £/€ ▼ 1.115 -0.001 €/$ 1.128 unc. 02 NEWS THURSDAY 4 JULY 2019 CITYAM.COM OLD MONEY Fleet Street’s C. Hoare & Co opens its doors for a rare sneak peek inside the UK’s oldest surviving family-run bank THE CITY VIEW Sainsbury’s Coupe yet to find a new song to sing T HAS been several months since the Mike Coupe dream of a merger with Asda was dealt a lethal blow by Britain’s Icompetition watchdog, but how much has the embattled chief executive changed his tune? Not enough, it would seem, to quell anxiety among investors. Shares in the supermarket giant edged down a further 0.53 per cent last night as the City digested the news of a third consecutive quarterly drop in sales. Intense competition, tough comparatives, weak consumer confidence and political uncertainty; by now, the City understands the problems facing Sainsbury’s. The trouble is that there still seems to be no clarity as to what the solutions are. If the botched tie-up with Asda was Plan A, then what could be the board’s Plan B? C. HOARE & Co, the UK’s oldest surviving family bank, offered a rare glimpse behind its Fleet Street doors. Among the treasures inside is the original Golden Bottle, which marked the location of the bank before street numbers were invented. Richard Hoare Coupe and his directors have vowed to cut costs, slash debt and started the City firm in 1672 and it has dealt with the affairs of diarist Samuel Pepys, poet Lord Byron and novelist Jane Austen. refurbish 400 stores, but their pledges feel somewhat If the botched tie- underwhelming in contrast up with Asda was to their retail rivals. Plan A, then what Take Tesco boss Dave Lewis, for example, who used the could be Plan B? firm’s capital markets day UK economy might have last month to reveal potential plans for “Tesco finest” stores, plant-based ready meals and more investment in its Clubcard loyalty scheme. Lewis pulled the rabbit out of the hat, and if Coupe is to have any chance of winning back shareholder confidence, he must shrunk in second quarter show the same energy and readiness to protect the firm’s HARRY ROBERTSON waning market share. The data added to growing signs that US revealed a sharp drop in American the UK economy is slowing due to service sector growth. The Institute for The distinct lack of any real recovery plan is made all-the-more @henrygrobertson ongoing political uncertainty and Supply Management (ISM) said its non- controversial by coming at a time when Coupe cashes in on a THE UK economy shrank between global headwinds. manufacturing activity index fell to hefty £3.8m pay cheque. April and June according to a closely- Howard Archer, chief economic 55.1 in June, the lowest reading since watched survey published yesterday, adviser to the EY Item Club, said: “The July 2017, from 56.9 in May. Investors are unlikely to be happy that the firm’s boss has while separate data from across the June set of purchasing managers’ sur- The ISM cited uncertainty around US bagged himself a seven per cent pay rise in the same year that pond painted a similarly bleak picture. veys fuel our belief that the economy President Donald Trump’s trade war Sainsbury’s shares have plunged to a near 20-year low. The part of IHS Markit’s purchasing likely contracted 0.2 per cent quarter- with China and other countries as one On the phone yesterday, Coupe remained resilient, telling managers’ index (PMI) relating to on-quarter in the second quarter.” reason behind the growth dip. services – Britain’s dominant sector – Yesterday’s PMI score marks the The dispute over tariffs has also journalists that his pay is set by a remuneration committee, and fell to 50.2 in June from 51 in May. continuation of a period of weakness broadened America’s trade gap, it was his performance is matched against targets that determine what “The near-stagnation of the services for Britain’s service sector, which revealed yesterday. he earns. But it makes one wonder; if Coupe is getting a pay rise sector in June is one of the worst accounts for over 70 per cent of the UK The US trade deficit jumped to a five- performances seen over the past economy.