BUSINESS

April 18, 2021 · thesundaytimes.co.uk/business thesundaytimes.co.uk/money

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Revealed: Gupta’s Billionaires took

£518m dividends
from ailing refinery

circular money trail Jamie Nimmo

Tycoon raised cash
from Greensill by
selling himself steel
John Collingridge
Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel raised cash
from finance firm Greensill Capital by
selling steel that it then planned to buy
back itself, stoking concerns about how
his stricken empire was funded.
Documents seen by The Sunday Times
show that Liberty Steel Newport in south
Wales used a circular trading scheme
whereby it sold steel to a company with
close links to the tycoon, which another
Gupta business was then to buy back.
That £2.5 million sale allowed Liberty
to borrow from Greensill via invoice dis-
counting. Liberty was then free to sell the
same steel again, this time to a different
customer, and raise more cash from
Greensill against that second sale.
The circular transactions raised alarm
among several of Gupta’s staff. The
disclosure sheds light on the risky financ-
ing that helped turn Gupta’s GFG Alliance
into a $20 billion turnover empire
employing 35,000 staff in just five years.
The Indian-born, Cambridge-edu-
cated tycoon is scrambling to raise cash
for that vast collection of steel, energy
and commodities trading businesses
after Greensill collapsed into insolvency
last month amid concerns about its trad-
ing and close relationship with Gupta.
About 5,000 jobs in the UK are at risk.
Tory MP Richard Fuller last month
used parliamentary privilege to ask busi-
ness secretary Kwasi Kwarteng whether
the matter should be investigated by the
Serious Fraud Office.
Fuller said: “An acquisition strategy
based on supply chain financing arrange-
ments, plus a future receivables deriva-
tive scheme, plus an additional month’s
cash-flow, and a liberal mix of state guar-
antees, has the characteristics of a poten-
tial Ponzi scheme.”
Gupta denies any wrongdoing.
The documents show that Liberty
Steel Newport sold £2.5 million of coils
and tubes to VS International (VSI), a
metals trading business with links to
GFG. VSI was established in 2015 by
Vikrant Sharma — who was until recently
described as the president of Gupta’s
Liberty Steel Holdings USA.
Liberty was then able to raise cash
from Greensill, which provided finance
against the invoice from VSI. Typically,
Greensill lent Liberty 80 per cent of an
invoice’s value, suggesting that it handed
Liberty £2 million, to be repaid more
than 100 days later.
Documents show that VSI would then
sell that steel to Gupta’s CS Management
Services, which in turn would sell the
steel back to Liberty Steel Newport. That
same steel was then to be sold for a sec-
ond time, to a third party, with Greensill
again providing cash against that invoice.
That circular trade allowed Liberty to
raise millions of pounds of cash from
Greensill — albeit temporarily — from a
single shipment of steel. It is not clear
whether the steel was even physically
delivered to VSI.
Nor is it clear whether the trade met
the terms of Greensill’s financing
arrangement with Liberty, under which
the Australian banker Lex Greensill’s
eponymous firm provided billions of
pounds to the commodities trader. Inter-
nal documents show that an invoice, or
receivable, was only eligible for financing
by Greensill if it related to “an actual and
bona fide sale of tangible moveable
goods”. Greensill declined to comment.
However, the transaction appeared to
be sanctioned by senior Gupta lieuten-
ants including Derek O’Reilly, finance
Continued on page 3 →
GUPTA'S DEAL FLOW EXPOSED
1 Liberty Steel Newport sells
£2.5 million of steel to VS
International, and Greensill
It is not Capital lends against that
invoice
clear
2 VS International sells the
whether same steel to CS
Management Services,
the steel owned by Sanjeev Gupta
even 3 CS Management sells
the steel back to Liberty
changed Steel Newport
hands 4 Liberty Steel Newport
sells the steel to a new
customer, again raising
money from Greensill
Sanjeev Gupta,
pictured with his
wife, Nicola
CHRIS RATCLIFFE
The Indian billionaires
behind the ailing Stanlow oil
refinery have siphoned off
more than £500 million in
highly indebted business. Sir
Ed Davey, Liberal Democrats
leader and former energy
secretary, said: “The next
time this business knocks on
the door of government
CS Management
dividends in recent years.
The Ruia brothers, whose
looking for help ministers
shouldn’t answer until any
Essar empire controls the
refinery in Ellesmere Port
money taken out of the
business is returned.”
Liberty
that accounts for a sixth of Oil refineries have been
Steel
Newport
3 2 Britain’s fuel supplies, have
extracted $717 million
ravaged by Covid lockdowns,
which have grounded planes
(£518 million) from its UK arm
since 2017. Stanlow is now
and emptied roads, but Essar
Oil UK is also hunting for
fighting for its future after
Covid crunched its finances.
financing after Lloyds’s exit.
Lloyds, whose receivables
1
Essar Oil UK’s main
business is Stanlow, which it
securitisation facility enabled
Essar Oil UK to be paid
VS International
4
bought from Shell for
£801 million in 2011. It also
immediately for sales instead
of waiting for customers to
owns about 70 Essar-branded
petrol stations.
pay, is believed to have been
frustrated by delays to
Steel
Greensill
Ministers and petrol retail
giants are on alert over the
accounts and concerned by
resignations from advisers, as
Money situation at Stanlow, one of well as the departure of two
Capital
only six oil refineries in
Invoices Britain turning crude oil into
Customer X
diesel, petrol and jet fuel. The
government’s contingency
plans for its collapse involve
mobilising troops to help
transport fuel around the
country under a Ministry of
Defence plan known as
Operation Escalin.
Essar Oil UK has insisted it
will emerge from the crisis,
but officials fear there is a
genuine risk of insolvency. Indian billionaire brothers
The revelations over Shashi and Ravi Ruia
dividends extracted from the
embattled refinery, shown in chief executives in a short
Companies House accounts, space of time.
come as Essar Oil UK is Essar Oil UK said on Friday
locked in talks with officials it had already replaced more
at HM Revenue & Customs, than half of the Lloyds facility
seeking to buy more time and was “confident that
to pay £356 million it replacement arrangements
owes in VAT. for all the facility will be
Essar Oil UK took secured in the near term”.
advantage of the Shashi and Ravi Ruia
government’s VAT founded Essar in 1969. It has
deferral scheme, annual sales of $14 billion.
introduced last year to Shashi’s son, Prashant, chairs
ease pressure on Essar Oil UK. Essar Oil UK
companies in the pandemic. declined to comment on the
Its main lender, Lloyds dividends, but a source said it
Banking Group, has walked had invested $1 billion in
away, raising concerns about Stanlow since taking control.
the company’s future. Essar
Oil UK is not seeking a bailout Troops stand by as Stanlow
and has insisted it is not a oil crisis bubbles, pages 2-3

Staveley kicks off appeal over High
Court defeat by ‘deceitful’ Barclays
Jamie Nimmo
Amanda Staveley has
launched an appeal over her
High Court defeat by Barclays
after a judge decided not to
award her damages.
Staveley’s PCP Capital
Partners sued Barclays for
£660 million over the bank’s
emergency funding from
Middle East investors during
the 2008 crisis.
PCP claimed that Barclays
gave it worse terms than
other parties as part of the
£6.5 billion funding the bank
secured. It alleged that Qatar
had been paid £346 million in
hidden fees to secure its
investment. Staveley, 48, led
Abu Dhabi’s £3.25 billion
investment in the bank.
Mr Justice David Waksman
found Barclays to be “guilty
of serious deceit” towards
PCP, but decided not to
award damages because he
said PCP could not prove it
would have obtained the debt
funding needed to do a deal
even if it had been given the
opportunity to do so.
PCP filed an appeal on
Friday afternoon, which is
understood to challenge the
judge’s decision not to award
damages. Last month,
Barclays was told it would
have to pay its own
£33.6 million legal costs.
The five-month trial last
year revealed how bosses at
the bank referred to Staveley
as a “dolly bird”, along with
other sexist comments.
Barclays escaped criminal
charges over the Qatar
fundraising from the Serious
Fraud Office in 2018, and
former bosses were acquitted
of conspiracy to commit
fraud last year. The bank still
faces an investigation by the
Financial Conduct Authority.
Barclays and PCP declined
to comment.
Battle: Amanda Staveley
Nike cracks down on store staff helping
resellers flip designer trainers for profit
Sam Chambers
Nike has warned retailers that
their supply of limited edition
trainers could be restricted if
they fail to stop staff quietly
offering them to resellers.
The sportswear giant is
said to have told retail
partners they face “supply
curtailment” over the way
multiple pairs of shoes end
up in the hands of individual
operators who then “flip” or
sell them on for huge profits.
The American company,
led by John Donahoe, is
among a small group of
coveted brands that tightly
control the supply of limited
edition trainers through
product launches known as
“drops”, which draw huge
crowds to stores and drive
traffic to Nike’s website.
Enthusiasts jostled outside
JD Sports’ store on Oxford
Street in London when it
reopened last week to get
their hands on the latest Air
Jordan 1s and Nike Dunks.
By curbing supply, trainer
brands have fuelled the
growth of a booming resale
market, where the shoes
routinely sell for more than
double their retail price.
The potential profits
encourage resellers to tap up
store staff for extra supply
and to procure web “bots”
that circumvent queues on
websites. That makes it
difficult for ordinary
customers to get their hands
on trainers at retail price.
“Nike is frustrated that
their best customers are not
able to get the products they
want and frustration among
customers is as high as it’s
ever been. The current model
is unsustainable,” said Matt
Powell, senior adviser at data
provider NPD.
Industry sources expect
Nike to mollify customers by
increasing the supply of
limited edition trainers in
drops. Nike did not respond
to requests for comment.
Nike is reviewing its
approach to drops after a
Bloomberg Businessweek
article revealed that Joe
Hebert, son of Ann Hebert,
Nike’s general manager for
North America, was making
monthly profits of at least
$50,000 (£36,127) reselling
coveted trainers from Nike
and other brands. She
resigned shortly after the
story broke in February.
Gen Z fashion, page 6

Sunak told: don’t rest on fintech laurels
Anna Menin
Fintech industry leaders have
urged Rishi Sunak to embrace
plans to put the sector at the
heart of Britain’s recovery
proposed by former
Worldpay boss Ron Kalifa.
Monzo chief executive TS
Anil, Starling boss Anne
Boden and Revolut founder
Nik Storonsky said that the
UK “cannot afford to rest on
its laurels” regarding fintech.
In a letter to the Treasury, 30
signatories expressed
support for proposals by
Kalifa in his government-
backed review of the UK’s
industry, which was
published in February.
The UK has a 10 per cent
share of the global fintech
market, generating £11 billion
of sales a year.
Kalifa said that Brexit, the
pandemic and competition
from abroad challenged the
UK’s fintech dominance, and
recommended measures
such as forming a task force
to support innovation and the
creation of a £1 billion growth
fund. The government is yet
to respond to the review.
The letter comes as new
figures show that fintech
start-ups raised more in the
first three months of this year
than the entire previous year.
Investment into UK ventures
topped $6 billion
(£4.3 billion) during the first
quarter, according to
industry body Tech Nation,
exceeding the $4.5 billion
raised last year and matching
the record for all of 2019.
“It’s a really quite critical
moment for the sector,” said
Catherine McGuinness,
policy chairwoman of the
City of London Corporation.
“For the UK, it’s a moment
where we need to be working
on our strengths — and this is
one of our great strengths.”
Whitehall sources said the
government was likely to
respond this week.
Revolut founder targets $15bn valuation
Revolut’s founder Nik
Storonsky is planning a
fundraising that would value
the money transfer app at up
to $15 billion (£10.8 billion),
writes Anna Menin.
The company has lined up
specialist fintech investment
bank FT Partners to advise on
an equity investment later
this year, Sky News reported.
Investors in Revolut expect
the funding round to give
Revolut a valuation of
between $10 billion and
$15 billion, making Storonsky
a multibillionaire in dollar
terms and one of Europe’s
youngest fintech billionaires.
The 36-year-old attracted
headlines in 2018 for saying
that work-life balance would
not help start-up founders
trying to compete with bigger
players. The new equity raise
would also cement Revolut’s
position as one of the UK’s
most valuable technology
companies. Sky reported that
it could involve the sale of
$250 million of new shares.
Revolut, founded in 2015, was
valued at $5.5 billion in early
2020 after a $500 million
funding round led by US fund
Technology Crossover
Ventures, an early investor in
Airbnb, Netflix and Spotify.
TSG Consumer Partners
invested $80 million in June
last year.
Revolut operates in 35
countries. The app is in the
process of applying for a
banking licence in the UK —
its home country and biggest
market — and last month
completed the first step in
applying for a licence in the
US. It has 15 million
customers globally, many of
whom use it for cheap foreign
exchange transactions.
The app, chaired by
former Aberdeen boss Martin
Gilbert, is expected to
announce its 2020 annual
results next month.
Revolut and FT Partners
did not comment.
2

BUSINESS

BRUMMIE
GOLDMAN SACHS HSBC
6 Its bosses issued dire warnings about Brexit, but 6 HSBC was one of the first to bet on Birmingham’s
Goldman Sachs is taking more office space in the regeneration when it moved its ring-fenced UK

BOUNCE
UK — and not in the City. The Wall Street bank headquarters there in 2018. At the time, HSBC UK
announced plans last week to open a site in chief executive Ian Stuart described Birmingham
Birmingham, right, creating hundreds of jobs. The as a “dynamic and entrepreneurial city”. The bank’s
outpost, due to open later this year, will initially be 10-floor building at Centenary Square is a flexible
a technology hub, but Goldman plans to transfer working space for up to 2,500 staff.
more divisions there eventually. Nicola Black, company secretary, was among
Richard Gnodde, chief executive for Europe, those who relocated from London when the office
said the move would “diversify our UK footprint opened. Black, 55, said she welcomed the chance
and give us access to a broad and deep talent pool to “escape the commute grind” after 20 years of
From a Wall Street giant to fledgling tech in the local area”. It represents a big bet on the travelling to the capital from the suburbs. She now
firms, Britain’s second city is luring talent future of the office at a time when many
companies are looking to cut floor space.
lives in Birmingham’s trendy Jewellery Quarter,
within walking distance of the office.
from the capital. Anna Menin reports Goldman chief David Solomon has been one of the Since HSBC’s move, the city has attracted
most vocal proponents of a return to the office, investment from financial firms including Deutsche
dismissing remote working as an “aberration”. Bank and accountancy giant PwC.

Troops stand by as Stanlow oil

A cash crunch and a management exodus are
stirring fears for the plant that pumps out a
sixth of Britain’s fuel supplies. By Jamie Nimmo

S 12m
moke billowed over the River
Mersey from the Stanlow oil
refinery as always last week.
Tankers drove in and out of
the plant in Ellesmere Port,
transporting fuel across the
northwest, including to Man-
chester airport. Every day,
Britain’s second biggest oil
refinery churns out about
Litres of diesel produced
every day at Stanlow
it did not have big debts and was generat-
ing $300 million in underlying profits
before Covid. “We remain confident that
we can manage through this period and
come out stronger,” it said.
An industry source described Covid as
a “perfect storm” for refineries. “These
kinds of negative refinery profit margins
have never been seen before,” the source
said. “We’ve had the worst of all worlds:

12 million litres of diesel, 8 million litres
of petrol and 5.5 million litres of jet fuel,
roughly a sixth of the country’s needs.
Behind the scenes, though, it was any-
thing but business as usual. The billion-
aire Indian owners of the refinery near
Liverpool are scrambling to secure its
future following a string of resignations
by executives and advisers, as well as the
decision of its main lender to cut ties.
1,700
demand reductions, relative strength on
crude oil prices and strength on petro-
chemicals. It means that some feedstocks
become expensive at the same time that
your demand and prices are down.”
In 1975, there were 19 oil refineries in
the UK. Now there are only six, with a fur-
ther 60 oil storage terminals.
Last July, the latest set of financial
Jobs directly at risk accounts for Essar Oil UK, whose princi-

Stanlow’s owner, Essar Oil UK, the
British arm of the Ruia brothers’ $14 bil-
lion Essar empire, is in talks with lenders
over financing and is trying to convince
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to give
the company more breathing space over
VAT payments totalling £356 million.
Government officials are being kept up
to date amid fears that the company
could collapse and trigger a fuel crisis
that would cause havoc at petrol stations
just as traffic on Britain’s roads gets mov-
ing again. Sources close to Essar Oil UK
say they are confident of finding a solu-
tion to avert disaster, but others believe
there is a genuine risk of insolvency.
Contingency plans are being drawn up.
Whitehall sources said last week that they
were hoping for the best, but preparing
for the worst. That means being ready to
mobilise troops should Stanlow’s funding
run dry and its staff walk out.
Oil giant Shell sold Stanlow to Essar in
2011 for £801 million and remains a big
customer. It is understood to have put in
place its own contingency plans, includ-
ing sourcing fuel from elsewhere.
£356m
pal business is Stanlow, but which also
owns about 70 petrol stations, warned
that there was “material uncertainty”
about its ability to continue as a going
concern. The accounts also revealed that
the company had agreed a deferment of
VAT payments as part of a government
scheme to ease pressure on businesses
during the pandemic. The accounts said
VAT sum Essar wants to defer the final payment was due last month,
but it is unknown whether it had taken
advantage of HRMC’s offer to businesses
of an extra year to pay up in instalments.
Essar is now locked in talks with HMRC
and the government to buy more time. It
is not seeking a bailout by taxpayers.
The departure of Lloyds Banking
Group as its main lender is thought to
We’ve had the have exacerbated the strife. It is believed
to have given a final warning to Essar in
worst of all worlds January that the company needed to file
its accounts for the year ending Septem-
for oil refining ber 2020 or it would not be granted
another waiver. Sources said that the
company breached its covenants and it

FAMILY AFFAIR
Stanlow directly employs more than Hundreds of people or shy. They have a lifestyle Along the way they have
900 people, with an additional 800 con- gathered at the Ruia family that would be ruffled a few feathers.

BROTHERS
tractors on site. Any impact would be felt home in February last year unrecognisable to the They clashed with Lakshmi
by a further 5,000 people whose jobs are for celebrations that lasted people of Ellesmere Port. Mittal, who took control of

BEHIND AN
linked to the refinery. Conservative coun- for days. Rewant Ruia’s Ravi, 71, owns a 280ft Essar’s troubled steel
cillor Graham Heatley said it would be “a Mumbai wedding was superyacht, Sunrays, business in 2019.

INDUSTRIAL
massive loss” should Stanlow disappear. attended by Indian which he put up for Their foray into
“There’s always someone who knows billionaires, high-ranking sale last year with a steel in Minnesota

EMPIRE
someone [who’s worked there],” he said. politicians, Bollywood film $150 million price proved a disaster
Established as a small bitumen plant in producers and even the tag. Inside there and the
1924, Stanlow became a refinery in 1952. city’s police chief. West is room for 22 subsidiary filed
It is not Ellesmere Port’s only big Indian cricket legend Brian guests. The Ruia for bankruptcy in
employer: a few miles along the Mersey is Lara posed for photographs brothers started 2016. American
the Vauxhall plant where the owner, with guests. out in 1969 by hedge fund giant
Stellantis, is pushing for government Rewant and his father, building a breakwater Davidson Kempner
support to keep the site running. Ravi, who with his brother in Chennai’s port. They led a group of lenders in
Locals will have vivid memories of the Shashi, 77, controls the Essar branched into shipping and suing Essar for $409 million
last crisis at Stanlow in 2000, when the industrial empire, danced on oil and gas in the 1980s, then over unpaid debts. Waiting
site was blocked by farmers protesting Ravi Ruia, seated left, and the bar. The billionaire Ruia steel and mobile phones. in the wings to scoop up the
against fuel duty rises under Tony Blair. brother Shashi, with brothers, the ultimate Their sons Prashant, 51, and Minnesota business was
Essar Oil UK has blamed coronavirus Shashi’s sons Anshuman, owners of the Stanlow Rewant, 38, above with wife Sanjeev Gupta. His GFG
lockdowns for hitting petrol sales and left, and Prashant, who refinery, could never be Karishma, followed them Alliance led a consortium
depressing margins, but said it was now chairs Essar Oil UK accused of being reclusive into the family business. that took control in 2017.
seeing increased demand. It stressed that

Activist’s
Hal Barron could not be
accused of selling Glaxo
Smith Kline short.
The pharmaceutical giant’s
disappointments are Walmsley, 51, was Despite her bold plans , Dame Emma point now for GSK as it looks A GSK source speculated
becoming a major concern applauded for announcing investors are restless. The Walmsley’s plans to split up the businesses,” that Elliott could be buying a
for GSK’s medium and long- plans to split her business in shares have slumped 19 per to split up the said Adam Barker, an analyst stake on the cheap before
term outlook,” said Geoffrey two after taking the top job. cent since she took charge, in business won at Shore Capital. “The reason looking to sell or break up the

tough
chief scientific officer gave
industry leaders and analysts
the hard sell in January when
he talked up the FTSE 100
Porges, a respected analyst at The demerger, due to be stark contrast to those of praise but the there was such a positive pharma business further
the bank SVB Leerink. completed next year, will rivals such as Astra Zeneca, share price has reaction in the share price to once it is separated.
“Although the ‘new GSK’ create a standalone whose value has soared underperformed the [Elliott] news is that tough There are also concerns
does not have a long history, biopharma company that 50 per cent in the same time. conversations will be had among investors about

tonic for
company’s drugs earmarked
for launch by 2026.
“We believe we have more
than ten vaccines and
so far the company’s capital churns out vaccines and Analysis by Barclays earlier now. I don’t think it’s patents expiring in the
allocation process and results other medicines, and a this month underlined the unreasonable for there to be coming years, and questions
aren’t inspiring confidence.” consumer healthcare problem. Over the past year, further scrutiny as there’s still about leadership. Walmsley
Now, four years into the company that produces well- GSK has been the worst- quite a bit of work to do.” will run the pharma business,

Glaxo
medicines in the late-stage
portfolio that could change
medical practice,” Barron
boasted at the annual
JP Morgan Health Care
Conference. Those potential
A US hedge fund may “blockbusters”, he added,
force the pharma giant could have “multibillion-
dollar potential”.
to speed up a demerger, But less than a fortnight
later, those hopes suffered a
says Jamie Nimmo blow. One of GSK’s
blockbuster cancer hopefuls
failed a key late-stage trial.
Another in the oncology
pipeline suffered an
unexpected Covid delay.
Some analysts thought GSK
was just having a bad spell.
Others had deeper concerns
about the business under
chief executive Dame Emma
Walmsley. “These serial
role, Walmsley and her “new
GSK” have a new potential
critic to appease. Elliott, the
American hedge fund headed
by Paul Singer and feared in
boardrooms across the City
and Wall Street, is reported to
have taken a multibillion-
pound stake in GSK. The
news caused the shares to
rise 4.6 per cent on Thursday.
Elliott’s aim is unclear.
Both it and GSK declined to
comment on its stake, but its
reputation is for gatecrashing
share registers and forcing
break-ups to boost value for
shareholders — such as when
it pushed Whitbread to spin
off Costa Coffee. In GSK’s
case, a break-up is already
under way, although Elliott
could seek to accelerate it.
known products such as
Panadol pain-relief tablets
and Sensodyne toothpaste.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
performing stock of the big He added: “When GSK split
European pharma groups. off the pharma and vaccines
“We’re coming to a critical business from consumer, the
key thing for the pharma
business was whether it’s
ready to stand on its own and
whether it has a robust and
strong enough pipeline to do
that. Personally, at the
moment, I think maybe not,
and that’s always been my
worry with GSK.”
One of Walmsley’s big
moves was spending
$5.1 billion on oncology
specialist Tesaro. Among the
drugs in development that
GSK inherited from Tesaro
was dostarlimab, which was
hit by delays in January after
Barron’s speech. GSK still has
high hopes for the potential
cancer treatment.
despite her consumer
background. She ran GSK’s
consumer arm and spent 17
years at L’Oréal before that.
One top 20 shareholder
said it was possible Elliott
could push for a management
shake-up after years of poor
share-price performance.
“GSK is seen as an
underperformer, but there
are not easy fixes, unless they
are going to push for
management change, which
is a possibility,” he said.
Executives will get a
chance to make their case in
June, when the company
hosts an investor day on its
biopharma business. Singer’s
son Gordon, who runs
Elliott’s London office, will be
watching closely.
The Sunday Times April 18, 2021 3

BERKELEY GROUP WINNY’S MEALS CREDICAR

6 More well-paid accountants and
bankers mean more demand for luxury
homes. Berkeley Group, better known
for selling flats in London towers to
Middle Eastern and Russian tycoons,
launched a division called St Joseph in
2017 to focus on the West Midlands.
Berkeley acquired an office for the
subsidiary — which is led by Ashley
Kensington and named after the 19th-
century Birmingham mayor ayor
Joseph Chamberlain — on
Colmore Row in the business
siness
district the following year.
ar.
Berkeley’s leadership p has
hailed the city council as
being easier to work withth
than some of its counterparts in the
capital, with late chairman Tony Pidgley
describing the local authority’s style as
“progressive and refreshing”.
Duplex apartments in Berkeley’s
Snow Hill Wharf development range
from £478,400 to £795,000. Average
house prices in the city have risen
28.5 per cent in the past five years,
according to Knight Frank. Ashley
Hudson, papartner at the estate
agent’s Birmingham
B office, said
the quality
qu of housing stock in
the centre
c had “improved
dramatically
dram with the quality of
jobs that
t have been brought to
Birmingham”.
Birmin
6 Shaun Sookoo, 27, moved Winny’s 6 Birmingham native Amar Rana ecosystem has grown massively since
Meals from London to Birmingham early moved back home in March last year then — and Birmingham is attracting the
last year. Named after Sookoo’s mother after his start-up Credicar shifted to ... people we went to London to find.”
and inspired by her cooking, it makes remote working when n the pandemic hit. Credicar, which employs
e 11 people
healthy, ready-made Caribbean meals. He has decided to base se the business and is preparing a fu fundraising round
As well as the cost savings of moving there permanently. targeting a valuation
valuat of £8 million to
his business out of the capital, Sookoo After starting Credicar,
icar, which £10 million, is looking
loo for office
said he was attracted by a growing uses AI to simplify carr financing space in the city.
city Rana, 40, is
community of founders. “A lot of the decisions, in 2018, Ranana moved to hoping to create up to 12 more jobs
fast-growing retail and e-commerce London to take advantagetage of its later this year. HHe thinks Covid is
businesses I look up to are based in the Winny’s Meals now employs six staff fintech scene. “When I founded likely to lead more
m companies to
Midlands,” he said. Sookoo has become at its base in Tyseley and is about to take the firm in Birmingham,m, I consider
consid life outside the
involved in the local business on three more. It will start distributing struggled to find the capital.
capita “The pandemic
community and said he had been meals through Morrisons later this year. people I needed to push
ush has made
m the world a
impressed by “how forthcoming and It had sales of £300,000 last year, and is the business forward,”” smaller
sma place and
collaborative business owners are in this targeting £1.2 million this year after he said. “The Birmingham
Birm really
neck of the woods”. expanding rapidly during the pandemic. Birmingham [fintech] works for us.”
wo

crisis bubbles GETTY IMAGES

The last thing the fading
steel industry needs?
UK REFINERIES
A big bill for going green
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES

Grangemouth A radical plan for capacity, which is very much

at risk ... Decarbonisation
(Ineos and
PetroChina)
Tata’s south Wales should be a massive
opportunity — we need to be
site highlights the making more steel, not less.”
Humber dire choices faced The potential costs are eye-
(Phillips 66) watering. Community wants
Lindsey by ministers, says ministers to pump cash into a
(Prax)
John Collingridge £1 billion direct reduced iron
(DRI) furnace that strips the
oxygen from iron ore. That
Stanlow When Kwasi Kwarteng took could extend the life of the
(Essar) the reins of the business blast furnaces, while cutting
department in January, he Unions want £1bn to make Port Talbot’s furnaces cleaner their emissions.
Pembroke
was given a prescient Steel-makers are also
(Valero) Fawley

warning: every business
(ExxonMobil)
secretary has a steel crisis.
Sajid Javid’s came when
Tata announced its intention
to sell or close its entire UK
steel business in 2016. Greg
Clark’s was British Steel’s
last year and was replaced by PKF Little- liquidation in 2019, which led
john. Sources said PwC, one of its finan- him to travel to China to
7%
steel production, according exploring trapping carbon
to the government. underground and using
The COP26 climate hydrogen. Sweden’s SSAB
summit, due to take place in plans to sell the world’s first
November in Glasgow, has “fossil-free” steel by 2026,
focused minds. But concern using hydrogen and electric-
Steel’s share of global
is growing over how quickly arc furnaces fed with DRI.
carbon emissions. UK steel
changes will be made — and Stephen Kinnock, Labour
must be net zero by 2035
what will be lost. Last year, MP for Aberavon, said that a

£1bn
cial advisers, had also parted company convince Jingye to buy the The Sunday Times revealed “just transition” was vital for
with Essar Oil UK. EY is said to be advising Scunthorpe steelworks. that Port Talbot’s Indian Port Talbot. “The objective
on various matters. Kwarteng’s crisis took less owner Tata may replace its musts be to decarbonise
A source at one of the firms that cut ties than two months to two blast furnaces with without deindustrialising.
with Essar said the underlying business materialise. The collapse of electric-arc furnaces, which That means cleaner methods
at Stanlow was sound, but that there finance firm Greensill Capital use electricity to melt scrap Sum sought by unions from of making steel must be
were concerns over the way it was being last month left Liberty Steel, metal rather than iron ore ministers to make British combined with retaining
run. Essar Oil UK insisted it was in talks which employs 3,000 in the and emit much less carbon. steel plants greener good jobs.”
with alternative lenders to Lloyds. Sky UK, fighting for survival. Its It can also be revealed that The UK steel industry is a

proved the final straw for Lloyds, which
walked away. Sources close to Essar Oil
UK claimed that this was a technical cove-
nant breach and not a big concern.
The departure of two chief executives
in a short space of time is thought to have
rung alarm bells within the bank. Mark
Wilson left last June after just a few
months, while his successor, Stein Ivar
Bye, left last month, though the company
said this was for personal reasons.
Two other directors left earlier this
month, according to filings at Companies
House: Stephen Welch and Rewant Ruia,
the son of Ravi, one of the two billionaire
tycoon brothers who control Stanlow
through Essar. Prashant Ruia, son of the
other brother, Shashi, remains Essar Oil
UK’s chairman and has been steering it
through the current crisis.
Linklaters recently quit as legal adviser
to Essar Oil UK, reportedly over concerns
about the way it was being run.
The Sunday Times understands that
Deloitte resigned as auditor in October
32,600
News reported that US investment giant owner, Sanjeev Gupta, is Tata is exploring building the shadow of its 1970s peak,
Apollo was among them. scrambling to raise funds but electric-arc furnaces at its when it employed more than
On Friday, the company said it had his request for a £170 million Llanwern site at Newport — 322,000 and produced
replaced “more than half” of the Lloyds bailout has been rejected by costing more than £1 billion almost 30 million tonnes,
facility and was “confident that replace- the government. and with potentially according to government
ment arrangements for all the facility will Now the problems are devastating consequences for People employed in steel data. Today it employs about
be secured in the near term”. Essar Oil mounting up. Beyond the Port Talbot’s 3,500 workers. today — down from 32,600 staff, says trade body
UK said it had “always sought to imple- immediate challenge of saving Tata would also lose the 322,000 in the 1970s UK Steel, and produces
ment the highest standards of corporate Liberty’s factories in areas ability to produce primary 7.1 million tonnes a year.
governance”. It said operations at Stan- such as south Yorkshire is the steel in the UK. Tata said it is “We are pretty concerned And crucially, many of the
low would not be affected and that it task of trying to give the UK in “active discussions with about how this is panning remaining steel jobs are in old
expected the site to return to profitability steel sector a chance in a the UK government on out, and the timescales Labour heartlands now in
this month. world waking up to emissions several options for the future involved are the biggest Tory hands. Ben Houchen,
Before the pandemic, Essar Oil UK from polluting blast furnaces of our UK operations” but issue,” said Alasdair the Conservative mayor for
racked up revenues of $12.6 billion in the and coke ovens. Steel-making that “no decisions have been McDiarmid at Community, Tees Valley, is standing for re-
18 months to September 2019 and profits accounts for about 7 per cent made”. “If and when we do the steelworkers’ union. election on a ticket of
topped $150 million. of global carbon emissions. have progress to report, we “There’s a growing returning steel-making to
Stanlow in The strong performance led Essar to Kwarteng has spoken of a will first inform our consensus that closing down Teesside after the closure of
Ellesmere Port is dip into the company’s coffers. Between government committed to employees and consult with steel plants here is not a the Redcar steelworks in
one of the UK’s 2017 and December 2019, Essar paid out “decarbonised steel and a our employee green steel strategy — it 2015, with plans for an
six remaining $717 million (£518 million) in dividends to decarbonised industrial representatives,” it said. makes no sense to rely on electric-arc furnace there.
refineries its Indian owners — the first time they had strategy”. Britain has set a Any plan to reduce Port high-carbon imports from In a report by The Institute
taken money out since buying Stanlow. target of 2050 to achieve net Talbot’s workforce or wind China and elsewhere. for Public Policy Research, a
Sources close to Essar said it had zero emissions, but for steel down the site will be met with “We want to retain left-leaning think tank, it
invested $1 billion in the refinery since that deadline has been set at fury from unions. primary steel-making claims that decarbonising
taking it over and that the dividends were 2035. How the government steel could create many jobs,
paid before the pandemic. It has also plans to do that, and who will particularly in north England.
pledged hundreds of millions of pounds pay for it, are vexed questions Annual crude steel production, tonnes Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP
to turn Stanlow into the UK’s first zero- for an industry shrunk to a China UK for Barnsley Central, said: “I
emission refinery. fraction of its former glory. can’t understand why the
The return of motorists as the pan- The owners of the 1bn 20m government is not more
demic ends should help, but an industry Scunthorpe steelworks in proactive in thinking about
source said that refineries faced a perma- Lincolnshire and Port Talbot 0.75 15 how we make the transition
nent drop in demand for fuel thanks to in south Wales must now to ensure we have got a steel
factors such as people working at home balance cleaning up 0.5 10 industry that is competitive.”
and more electric cars on the road. emissions while trying to Ministers face a dilemma:
“The pandemic has changed behav- achieve financial stability and 0.25 5 fund the cost of cleaning up
iours — it’s structurally down and won’t preserve jobs. Those two sites steel, or watch thousands of
come back. The recovery won’t be back are home to the UK’s last blast jobs disappear. Neither
0 0
to the status quo,” the source said. The furnaces and account for option will be cheap.
question for Stanlow is whether Essar 95 per cent of carbon dioxide 2011 2020 2011 2020
can even see it through to that recovery. emissions from UK iron and Source: ISSB Oliver Shah, page 7

Gupta’s circular money trail
→ Continued from page 1
director of Liberty Industries,
and Rajeev Gandhi, finance
chief of his Simec energy
division.
GFG said: “We refute any
suggestion of wrongdoing.
We abided by all the normal
rules that apply to inventory-
based financing and in full
knowledge of all parties
involved.
“While GFG companies
have done business with
people known to the founder,
the company has long-term
customer relationships with
major infrastructure,
industrial, aerospace and
automotive customers — as
you would expect from one of
the world’s largest steel
producers and the operator
of Europe’s largest
aluminium smelter.”
Selling a product and then
repurchasing it is not illegal,
but GFG did not say why
the circular trade was
necessary.
Greensill’s administrator,
Grant Thornton, is trying to
recoup $5 billion (£3.6 billion)
that Greensill lent to GFG —
money that Gupta has
stopped repaying.
Credit Suisse, which
invested in Greensill’s supply
chain finance funds, is trying
to claw back its $1.2 billion of
exposure to GFG and has
launched proceedings to
wind up several of Gupta’s
businesses.
However, those attempts
are being delayed by
coronavirus measures that
give breathing space to firms
facing winding up petitions.
VS International is one of
several companies with close
links to Gupta run by
individuals known internally
as “Friends of Sanjeev”.
Gupta also used such
companies to borrow from
the government’s business
interruption loan scheme for
large companies hit by the
pandemic — exceeding the
scheme’s £50 million limit
through eight separate loans
to GFG and companies linked
to his empire.
VSI is now run by a
German businessman,
Christian Marc-Olivier Favre,
and is owned by Evershine
Metals, a Singaporean metals
trading business. Accounts
show that it generated
$92 million of turnover in
2019 and profits of $157,000.
It is based in a serviced
office in central London, has
no website or phone number
and employs one person.
VSI’s auditor, King & King, a
small firm based in central
London, also audits Liberty
Steel Newport. VSI has
borrowed from Gupta’s
Wyelands Bank.
VSI temporarily owned
Nathrach Hydro, a Scottish
renewable power business
that it bought from Gupta in
2018 but sold in 2019.
Favre and Sharma did not
respond to requests for
comment.
Red lights flashing, page 7
City grants agony
Cafés, shops and restaurants
in the City of London paying
their rent in full during the
pandemic face being blocked
from Covid recovery grants,
writes Sam Chambers.
Businesses applying for
grants through the City of
London Corporation’s
recovery fund will have to
demonstrate that they have
“actively engaged” with their
landlord during the crisis and
“agreed a rent-free period or
a reduction in rent”.
At the budget in March, the
Treasury announced a
£5 billion restart grant
scheme to help high street
businesses as they prepared
to reopen after lockdown.
Footfall in the City has
been destroyed by the
pandemic as the vast majority
of the roughly 500,000
people employed in London’s
financial district have worked
from home. With most
companies expected to allow
staff to work more flexibly on
a long-term basis, businesses
in the area face a highly
uncertain recovery.
The City of London
Corporation said that if
“viable City businesses are to
survive, it is also vital that
landlords support their
tenants and help them
through this difficult period.
Therefore, we ask those
applying to the fund to
contact their landlords and
agree rent concessions and/
or lease alterations, and urge
landlords to be supportive of
this approach.”
Sandwich chain Greggs,
long priced out of the Square
Mile, plans to open “half a
dozen” outlets there this year
as landlords are forced to
swallow lower rents.
Under a moratorium
introduced in March last year,
tenants have been able to
forgo the rent without being
evicted. The British Property
Federation estimates that by
the end of June £7 billion of
commercial rent will have
gone unpaid.
Peacocks suppliers ‘devastated’
Sam Chambers
Suppliers to Peacocks have
hit out at the discount fashion
chain after it was bought from
administration by former
executive Steve Simpson.
Peacocks pushed one
Bangladeshi supplier to
produce orders while it was
in administration, before
cancelling them and offering
to pay half the agreed price
after this month’s buyout,
according to emails seen by
The Sunday Times.
“What Peacocks did with
us is not fair or professional,”
said Anil Srivastava of
Bangladeshi supplier KL
Design, which claims it is
owed $438,151 (£316,732) for
products delivered last June.
Until this month, Peacocks
was owned by Edinburgh
Woollen Mill tycoon Philip
Day. Simpson was his right-
hand man.
On November 4 last year,
Peacocks buyer Mellissa Reid
emailed one supplier asking
for an urgent shipment. After
Peacocks went into
administration on November
19, Reid then sent a series of
emails admitting that it could
not guarantee payment,
while asking him to continue
producing orders. On
December 16, she urged the
supplier to get “as much stock
as possible” ready for the
The fashion chain has been
through administration
New Year, when it would start
“sending through payments”.
Last Monday she told the
supplier that the directors
had cancelled all outstanding
orders with him. “I’m truly
devastated — this is not the
way to do business,” said the
supplier, who claimed to have
been left with $2.6 million
(£1.9 million) of goods
produced for Peacocks.
A source close to Peacocks
said the order was cancelled
only because it had learned
the supplier had sold the
goods to another company,
but the emails show it tried to
buy some stock at half the
originally agreed price three
days after cancellation.
A Peacocks spokesman
said it had excellent relations
with the vast majority of its
1,000-plus suppliers and it
was “deeply grateful to them,
our landlords and other
partners for helping us
through these unprecedented
hard times. We won’t forget
their support.”
4 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021
BUSINESS
TECH TALK
DANNY FORTSON IN SAN FRANCISCO
Facebook weighs Trump’s fate
The social media giant’s ‘Supreme Court’ faces its first big test: should it allow the former president back to attack the ‘radical left’?
S
ir Nick Clegg had a dream — a
fantasy, really. The deputy
prime minister turned Face-
book PR supremo had hoped
the social media giant’s new
“Supreme Court”, an inde-
pendent body set up to make
the toughest calls on what is
and is not allowed online,
would have “a relatively
uncontroversial period of time” to get its
feet wet, he told The New Yorker.
No such luck. The oversight board,
which started accepting cases only six
months ago, is about to face its defining
moment: the case of one Donald Trump.
Facebook asked the board to rule on
whether it was right to de-platform the
former president “indefinitely” for his
alleged role in inciting the US Capitol riot
on January 6. The verdict is expected in
days. Given the board’s willingness to
overturn other Facebook decisions — it
has reversed the majority of cases it has
ruled on so far — and the vagaries of Face-
book’s own policies, there is a good
chance that it will allow him back.
The board said this weekend: “This
case raises exactly the kinds of issues the
oversight board was set up to address,
and we recognise there will be intense
global interest in our decision.”
The implications reach far beyond
Trump and his 35 million Facebook fol-
lowers. When Facebook, Snapchat, Twit-
ter and YouTube kicked Trump off their
sites in the wake of the attack on Con-
gress, conservative politicians screamed
censorship. Even industry supporters
were unsettled by the awesome display of
power: a handful of west coast executives
had, in effect, banished a sitting presi-
dent from the web. Trump’s de-platform-
ing crystallised regulators’ concerns over
how to govern the web, and the limits of
free speech and who sets them.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive,
hopes that his corporate tribunal will
dampen the zeal for a Big Tech crack-
down. The company spent almost two
years setting up the oversight board —
writing its charter, putting it under a sep-
arate trust with $130 million in backing
from Facebook, and assembling a
20-strong panel of men and women, from
Nobel prize winners to the former prime
minister of Denmark and Alan Rus-
bridger, former editor of The Guardian.
Its decisions are binding. Zuckerberg’s
hope is that other platforms will join,
creating a global social media court. He
said: “Over time we hope it will expand
its scope and potentially include more
companies across the industry.”
The idea of a Facebook-funded supra-
national judiciary becoming the web’s
governing body has raised hackles. Chris
Riley, an internet governance expert at
Washington-based policy firm R Street,
which submitted a written argument
supporting Trump’s ban, said: “I am
deeply uncomfortable with the privatisa-
tion of government function.”
The Trump decision will be the biggest
test of the oversight board’s legitimacy.
The idea for such a board goes back to
2018 when Noah Feldman, a Harvard law
professor who helped craft the Iraqi con-
stitution, handed a memo outlining the
idea to his friend Sheryl Sandberg, Face-
book’s operations chief. Zuckerberg had
long been clear about his discomfort with
Donald Trump’s Facebook’s role as “arbiter of truth”
account was online. Yet he had not alighted on a way
removed after to solve this. When Feldman pitched the
the Capitol riot idea to the board in November 2018,
some directors objected. But Zucker-
berg, with his super-voting shares, gave it
the green light and announced it in Janu-
ary 2019, pledging “a new way for people
to appeal content decisions to an inde-
pendent body, whose decisions would be
transparent and binding . . . even if I, or
anyone at Facebook, disagrees with it.”
They He added: “I’ve increasingly come to
believe that Facebook should not make
crafted so many important decisions about free
expression and safety on our own.”
the Facebook’s policy and government
board’s teams crafted the board’s charter, at one
point using pens with feathers in a nod to
charter the quills used by the US founding fathers
using pens when writing the constitution.
The first 20 members of up to 40 were
with announced last May. Each takes a six-fig-
feathers ure salary for 15 hours’ work a week. They
range from Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel
prize-winning human rights activist in
Yemen, to Endy Bayuni, an Indonesian
journalist at The Jakarta Post, to Michael
McConnell, a retired judge who once
argued at the US Supreme Court that the
Boy Scouts should be allowed to prohibit
membership for gay people.
The board announced on October 22
that it was open for business — and the
floodgates were opened. It has received
more than 300,000 appeals, which can
be made by Facebook users or by the
company itself, equating to about 1,700 a
day. The board has so far chosen to look
into only 12, with each case assigned to a
group of five board members for review.
They make their recommendation,
which is subject to a majority vote before
it is passed. The board has ruled on
seven, overturning five Facebook deci-
sions and upholding two. Those over-
turned included a case in France where
Facebook took down a post promoting
unproven Covid-19 treatments. It ruled
against the removal of another that misat-
tributed a quote to Joseph Goebbels,
claiming that it did not violate Facebook’s
“dangerous individuals” policy.
The path to Trump’s reinstatement, a
case that has generated more than 9,000
public submissions, may lie in Face-
book’s patchy enforcement. For years,
SEASON FOUR OF
DANNY IN THE VALLEY
LARVA LABS’ MATT HALL:
CREATING
TING CRYPTOPUNKS
THESUNDAYTIMES.CO.UK/DANNYINTHEVALLEY
SAUL LOEB
the site had allowed him to make wild
claims, promote violence and spread lies.
The decision to ban him on January 7
appeared to be a reaction not to what he
said, which was similar to the message he
had been delivering for months, but to
the insurrection it catalysed.
The members chosen to review this, or
any case, are not revealed, the board
said, “to avoid individuals being lobbied
or targeted for their role in these cases”.
The case is fraught not just for Face-
book but potentially for social media
companies and governments seeking to
rein them in. However, it is important to
remember, Riley at R Street said, that
“this is fundamentally a self-regulatory
process. The board is a very valuable
piece, but frankly it is a small piece in the
grand scheme of things.”
Zuckerberg has pledged to abide by
the board’s rulings but there would be no
legal fallout if he didn’t. It can’t levy fines
or sue management.
The experiment continues to evolve
and last week the board made a crucial
change to its mandate. Until then, it had
considered cases only about posts
removed from Facebook or Instagram.
Now it will accept appeals about content
that has perhaps wrongly been left up.
Should Trump be reinstated, those new
powers might come in handy against the
former president, who has not toned
down his rhetoric. “Happy Easter to
ALL,” he recently posted on his website,
“including the Radical Left CRAZIES who
rigged our Presidential Election, and
want to destroy our Country!”
Clubhouse buzz
is already fading
Clubhouse is the hottest
social media start-up since
Snapchat burst on to the
scene a decade ago.
Clubhouse is a flash in the pan
whose mooted $4 billion
valuation will, in retrospect,
be seen as a moment of
pandemic-induced madness.
For the year-old company,
both narratives are raging.
Here are the facts. The audio
chatroom app topped
10 million weekly active users
in late February, even though
it was invitation-only (it still
is) and was not available on
Android phones — 84 per cent
of the market. It hit the
headlines as a buzzy meeting
space where Tesla founder
Elon Musk would drop in to
conversations, along with A-
list Hollywood stars,
comedians and tech bros.
It is fair to say that
Clubhouse, created by
entrepreneur Paul Davison
and Rohan Seth, a former
Google engineer, caught
lightning in a bottle,
answering the boredom of
lockdown by providing a
stream of spontaneous
discussions. In January, just
nine months after its launch,
Andreessen Horowitz, the
blue-chip venture capital
firm, led a $100m investment
round that valued the
company at $1 billion. It
emerged last week that
Andreessen, along with Yuri
Milner’s DST Global and Tiger
Global Management, was set
to pour in more cash at a
$4 billion valuation — an
extraordinary rise in just
three months.
Copycats emerged quickly.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack,
Spotify and Twitter have
either launched, or plan to
launch, their own audio chat
features. Twitter’s product,
Spaces, has won some early
traction. The social media
giant has 187 million daily
users who can simply tap to
open the extra feature.
The pandemic’s end is also
coming into view. Businesses
are reopening and people are
leaving their homes, no
longer cooped up inside with
little to do other than listen to
others talk. So what does this
mean for Clubhouse?
The numbers are not
encouraging. Apptopia, a
research firm, estimated that
Clubhouse’s daily active users
have plunged by 53 per cent
from their peak on February
27. Download rates have
slumped by two-thirds, from
6.9 million in February to
2.5 million last month. The
company declined to
comment on the figures.
Despite the figures
indicating a sudden loss of
momentum, some of the
canniest tech investors think
the company is worth four
times what it was three
months ago — Clubhouse also
briefly discussed a $4 billion
sale to Twitter.
In Silicon Valley, however,
there is an art to generating
buzz. Marc Andreessen and
Ben Horowitz, the founders
of the eponymous venture
capital giant, Clubhouse’s
biggest backer, are among the
app’s most prolific users.
They can be found on it
several times a week, holding
forth on all things tech.
Leaked news of new funding
rounds is, in its way, a form of
marketing — an affirmation
that something might just be
“the next big thing”.
The picture is hazy. With
start-ups, especially the most
hyped ones, it always is.
Shaan Puri, an angel
investor who sold his last
company to Twitch, the video
game streamer, identified
Clubhouse’s potential
Achilles heel. He dubbed it
the “interesting-ness”
problem. Social media thrives
by drawing people in as soon
as they open the app. This is
difficult for Clubhouse
because it is live and
unscripted. There are not
billions of pieces of high-
quality, pre-assembled
content waiting to be found.
The closest comparison is
Twitch, where gamers stream
for hours a day for legions of
loyal fans. Puri wrote:
“Twitch creators are live — 40
hours a week. [Clubhouse’s]
best creators do weekly
shows — 3-4 hrs a week max.”
To be interesting,
Clubhouse needs an army,
millions of people,
broadcasting at any given
time, across a range of
subjects. That is hard. It may,
in fact, be impossible. If so,
Clubhouse’s rocket ship
could simply run out of fuel.
Puri wrote: “The end of the
story isn’t so much fun.
Growth slows. Users churn.
You end up getting acquired
for $90M by Facebook.”
Huge bets are being placed
that Puri is wrong.
The Sunday Times April 18, 2021
BUSINESS
Gen Z craze
that spells
trouble for
fast fashion
A
fter moving to London for
university, Fiona Short loved
nothing more than going to
the East End Thrift Store in
Stepney Green, paying £20
for a shopping bag and stuff-
ing it with as many vintage
clothes as she could fit in. As
her wardrobe groaned and
her money ran low, she
turned to Depop, a fledgling online mar-
ketplace, to see whether other fashion
obsessives would buy some of her
unwanted clothes. Short, whose parents
are antique dealers, quickly realised she
had stumbled across a big opportunity.
What began as a way to clear out her
belongings turned into a money-spinner.
Over the next seven years, Short, 26, sold
more than 6,000 corsets, skirts, tops and
shirts, and amassed 185,000 followers on
Depop. Now she stays up into the night
swapping tips in her “Depop house” in
Hackney, east London, which she shares
with two other sellers.
“My parents are proper old-school
wheeler-dealers. They couldn’t believe
the trade had gone online and a bunch of
kids were making the same money as
them,” Short said.
Short is one of a new breed of Genera-
tion Z entrepreneurs selling “pre-loved”
clothes on Depop, an eBay-style online
marketplace for the Instagram masses.
After Depop almost doubled its user base
to 27 million during the pandemic, one in
three 16 to 24-year-olds has an account.
For comparison, fast-fashion giant Asos
has an active customer base of 25 million.
Buying second-hand through Depop
allows a more sustainably minded gener-
ation to indulge consumerist impulses
without compromising their values. Its
burgeoning popularity and the embrace
of “slow fashion” more broadly poses a
looming threat to high street chains
struggling back to their feet after Covid.
S
imon Beckerman got the idea for
Depop in 2011 while trying to save
cultural magazine People in Groove
from falling victim to the digital rev-
olution. He wanted to create a mar-
ketplace allowing readers to buy the
goods they saw in the magazine — but
with apps taking off, he soon saw a bigger
opportunity to create something for a
generation immersed in social media.
In 2013, Depop launched in Italy and
then in the UK, which is now its biggest
market with 10.5 million users. As well as
buying and selling second-hand “garms”,
Depop users can follow influencers,
“like” particular pieces and message
each other. Amusing ones are often
shared with Depop Drama, an Instagram
account that anonymously re-posts the
best to its 500,000 followers. The
twentysomething behind the account
has started selling T-shirts emblazoned
with messages such as “not my problem
bab xx” and “don’t call me hun”.
Those who joined Depop early have
reaped the rewards. In 2016, Asal Tehrani
(@susamusa) started selling on her first
day at King’s College London and has
never looked back. Encouraged by how
quickly her first 40 garments sold, Teh-
rani splurged £900 on 200 pairs of flares
she found at a market. Her “side hustle”
soon took precedence over her chemis-
try degree and today she sells about
1,000 garments a month, many manufac-
James Timpson
My lightbulb moment: recruit when you don’t need to
H
ow do you recruit the most
talented people, while treating
those you don’t select with
dignity, in a process that can
all too easily be inhumane?
People looking for work are
often at their most vulnerable.
Automated recruitment
processes, clunky and impersonal online
applications, and companies that don’t
reply can give employers a bad name.
It needn’t be this difficult. I hope
anyone who applies for a job with us
comes away thinking we’re great, even if
we tell them they’re not right for us.
It’s tempting to take shortcuts that
lead us to recruit people like ourselves,
with little diversity or inclusion. It’s
better to put in the hard yards and look
for people from all walks of life, even if
they have imperfect CVs. They just need
the two things we love but can’t always
find — energy and personality.
The recruitment industry has
tured using offcuts at her west London
studio. “On Monday I woke up and I was
just scrolling through Instagram and I
saw a photo of Bella Hadid wearing some-
thing she had bought from me. That just
makes it all worthwhile,” Tehrani said.
Isabella Vrana (@bellavrana) scrapped
plans to apply for jobs in the fashion
industry to go full-time on Depop, where
she sells styles from the Nineties and
early Noughties inspired by Rachel from
Friends. Vrana, 23, uses TikTok and Insta-
gram to alert her 100,000-plus followers
to weekly “drops”.
“The fashion industry is intimidating.
If your aunt isn’t Stella McCartney or
something then you don’t have a chance
of making it. I’m absolutely loving what
I’m doing,” said Vrana.
Worries over global warming, financial
insecurity and the proliferation of social
media have driven the boom in the resale
market. Analysts at GlobalData forecast
that the American market for resale cloth-
ing will grow from $7 billion in 2019 to
My parents could
not believe a
bunch of kids were
making the same
money as them
$36 billion in 2024. Two American sites —
Poshmark and ThredUp — have cashed in
with stock market listings that valued
them at $3 billion (£2.2 billion) and
$1.3 billion respectively. Clothing rental
services such as Hurr Collective and My
Wardrobe are growing in popularity, too.
“This generation really cares about
sustainability, where products are manu-
factured and who the company is
employing — even down to whether they
have a diverse board. It genuinely mat-
ters to them,” said Devran Amaratunga
Karaca, chief executive of Kyra, a media
company that advises brands on how to
market to Gen Z consumers.
Peter Semple, Depop’s chief brand
officer, says buying second-hand allows
young consumers to get the “constant
newness” they crave without sacrificing
their principles. “Living on TikTok and
Instagram means they are constantly rep-
resenting themselves publicly and they
don’t want to be seen wearing the same
stuff,” he said.
Maximilian Bittner, chief executive of
resale site Vestiaire Collective, believes
cheap prices are driving growth but the
feelgood factor of buying second-hand is
spurring young shoppers to brag about
purchases on social media, providing a
useful tailwind.
Still, the sustained growth of the scan-
dal-hit fast-fashion giant Boohoo, which
pumps out dresses for £5 and T-shirts for
£3, indicates that accessible, cheap fash-
ion continues to trump sustainability for
a big chunk of Gen Z consumers.
Depop, now run by chief executive
Maria Raga, takes a 10 per cent cut of
developed elaborate algorithms to help
employers weed out anyone who doesn’t
tick the right boxes, even though they’ve
often never met the applicants. If the
employer is looking for candidates with
a 2:1 but not a 1st, a Duke of Edinburgh
gold award and an A* in maths A-level,
no problem. Names are spat out of the
machine, people are contacted and
interviewed, and one or two (very
similar) people are offered the job.
Arctic Shores, a recruitment
technology business, is developing new
techniques to find the best talent
through “gamified psychometrics”,
based on cognitive neuroscience. (It’s
way out of my comfort zone, and if this
becomes the norm, I will never land
another job.) By getting applicants to
play games online, recruiters can work
out whether they have the right skills. It
sounds fun, but at Timpson we do things
a bit differently. Your CV has only two
purposes: it tells us your name and your
Twentysomethings are buying and selling millions of
pounds’ worth of ‘pre-loved’ clothes on Depop. Sam
Chambers investigates the threat to big retail chains
WEB v STORES — A QUESTION OF CARBON
The hordes of twentysomethings and
teenagers shopping on Depop believe
that by buying second-hand they are
doing their bit for the planet. What
some may have forgotten is that the
van delivering their clothes is spewing
fumes into the atmosphere.
The explosion of demand for online
shopping has ignited a debate over its
environmental impact — and who
better to settle it than Amazon?
The tech juggernaut commissioned
a report by consultancy Oliver Wyman
comparing the combined impact
from deliveries, packaging and
energy use in warehouses with the
impact of consumers buying
phone number. That’s all we need.
Most of our recruits never actually
filled out a CV; they were introduced by a
friend or relative. Our colleagues know
the type of personality we want, and
what the job entails, so they find us the
best people. The £200 bonus helps.
If you add online and walk-in
applications, and finding people in
prison, we have more than enough
people to interview. The next step is a
complex filter known as the “cobbler
algorithm”, better known as a phone call
or a face-to-face chat. We want people
with a great personality; we can train
anyone to cut keys and repair shoes, but
we can’t change someone’s personality.
Happy, energetic, funny, quirky
people seem to flourish, so that’s what
we look for. A ten-minute chat is our first
filter. If we like what we hear, we offer a
paid trial day. Not every candidate turns
up, but when they do, it’s a great way to
see if we like each other. We assess their
from old-fashioned bricks and mortar
shops. It claimed that physical retail
creates twice the level of emissions
per product sold compared with
ecommerce.
The consultants, who said their
report was produced independently,
calculated that every kilometre driven
by a delivery driver in London saved
nine kilometres driven by people
travelling to shops in their cars.
The study, though, was predicated
on the idea that an online delivery
replaces a trip to the shops, when in
many cases, customers still go to the
shops anyway, to seek ideas that then
inform online purchases. If online
We use a complex
filter known as a
phone call or a
face-to-face chat
personality fit out of ten. It’s crude and
based on gut feel, but it works.
We look for people who are nine or
ten out of ten. An eight isn’t good
enough; my colleagues only want to
work alongside someone as amazing as
they are. The danger zone is six, seven
and eight. They’re OK, but their best
isn’t good enough. It costs the same to
retailers are doing their job right, they
will also be stimulating demand that
did not exist before.
Efforts are afoot to make online
greener still. New warehouses are
being kitted out with photovoltaic, or
solar, cells on roofs that can produce
much of the electricity they require.
Electric charging points for vans are
becoming standard on new
developments.
The courier DPD has opened four
parcel depots that use electric vans to
make “last mile” deliveries. Globally,
Amazon aims to have about 10,000
electric delivery vans on the road by
the end of next year.
train and recruit someone great as it
does someone who’s poor, so we always
try to pick the best.
In 2007, I was walking around the
Southwest Airlines offices in Love,
Texas, soaking up the culture and
learning how its bosses run the business,
when I had one of those lightbulb
moments. I learnt how to recruit. When
you operate an airline, you can’t take off
unless enough employees are in place.
Two pilots, eight crew members,
numerous ground staff and the baggage
handlers all need to turn up to get the
wheels up. It doesn’t work when one
crew member fails to show up.
Southwest used a simple recruitment
tool called a waiting list. This is now the
focus of our recruitment and, like most
great ideas, it’s simple.
We recruit when we don’t need to
recruit. We find great people with loads
of personality who want to join us and
are willing to wait until we have a
5
Depop’s influential sellers include,
from left, Isabella Vrana, Asal
Tehrani and Fiona Short
every transaction on its site. After raising
more than £80 million from investors
including Benchmark, the first investor
in eBay, Raga is focused on building its
community, with a particular focus on
expanding in America.
Looming over Depop are the 800lb
gorillas of social media, which have plans
to get young audiences shopping through
their platforms. In America, Instagram is
trialling in-app purchases that will enable
businesses to sell directly to its one bil-
lion-plus users. The video sharing app
TikTok has a partnership with Shopify.
The resale trend is creating vast sec-
ondary markets, particularly in trainers.
Young “sneakerheads” routinely form
long queues outside JD Sports and Foot-
locker whenever they “drop” limited edi-
tion trainers from Nike or Adidas. Depop
is also trying to crack down on “dropship-
ping”, where sellers find a corresponding
product on a cheap ecommerce site and
then list it on Depop at a vastly inflated
price. Meanwhile, established sellers
admit that they benefit from Depop’s algo-
rithm, which they say makes it harder for
new sellers to build up a following.
I
n 2019 some £266 million of purchases
were made through Depop, translat-
ing into sales of £21.4 million for the
site and a pre-tax loss of £15.5 million.
Regardless of whether the platform
manages to become profitable, a growing
number of the fashion industry’s estab-
lished players feel they cannot ignore the
popularity of the resale market.
“Resale is absolutely in the sweet spot
of how consumers are feeling about
everything right now. It has always been
there but Depop is the first company to
really sex it up. Their growth has been
phenomenal and we are watching it
closely,” said a senior source at one of the
UK’s leading online fast fashion firms.
John Lewis is exploring ways of renting
products or creating a second-hand mar-
ketplace of its own, while sales of Asos’s
“reclaimed vintage” ranges, launched in
2016, increased by 92 per cent last year.
Selfridges sells used fashion and jewel-
lery, and offers a designer rental service.
As retail giants tinker around the
edges, Depop’s influencers sense a power
shift. Celia Marment (@celiapops), 21, is
amazed that the high street has not cot-
toned on to the demand for low rise jeans
and mesh tops sweeping through Depop.
“As the platform grows, we are becom-
ing the directors of what happens in
young fashion,” said Short, the resident
of Depop House. “I really see that now.”
THREE OTHER
DISRUPTORS
THE NU WARDROBE
Gen Z members are less interested in
ownership than previous generations,
and the Dublin-based platform Nu
Wardrobe offers short-term borrowing
as well as permanent swapping. Since
its launch in January last year, the
service has grown to 10,000 users.
STOCKX
StockX is a market where users place a
bid or field an offer for electronics,
streetwear and trainers. It has benefited
from the marketing strategies of Nike
and Adidas, whose limited edition
trainers have created an enormous
secondary market. A pair of Nike SB
Dunks sold for $51,950. In total, goods
worth a total of $1.8 billion were traded
on StockX last year, helping to drive up
the platform’s valuation to $3.8 billion.
VINTED
A clothing resale platform that is even
bigger than Depop, Vinted has amassed
37 million users across Europe and
America since it was founded in 2008
by Lithuanian entrepreneurs Milda
Mitkute and Justas Janauskas. Unlike
Depop, it does not earn a commission
on sales and the clothes tend to be high
street brands rather than vintage finds.
A fundraising valued it at more than
€1 billion (£870 million) in 2019, giving
Lithuania its first tech unicorn.
vacancy. If you panic-recruit, you are
tempted to say “yes” to someone who is
OK, but not great. OK is not OK. Our
waiting list is a pool of truly talented
people who are ready to go.
The hardest part of the recruitment
process is telling someone they have
been unsuccessful. When a candidate
has put themselves on the line to be
judged, they should be dealt with
sensitively. Automated emails are not
compassionate, but offering
constructive career advice is.
I remember the companies that
turned me down for graduate jobs in
1995. At the time it felt like a series of
hammer blows, but I still spend money
with those that did it well, and I avoid
those that didn’t. Every applicant today
could be a customer in the future, so
treat them all like your best customers.
James Timpson is chief executive of
Timpson Group
6 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021

BUSINESS

‘Marks out of ten for British

Airways? Two. They lost focus’
Qatar Airways boss and BA investor Akbar Al Baker says he doesn’t care who he offends. That’s just as well
CHRIS RATCLIFFE
rates in Dubai. “The rapid growth of
JOHN infections in some countries in our
region happened because people were THE LIFE OF
ARLIDGE having a fantastic holiday, enjoying
Christmas and New Year. And look at the
cost. We have to be very careful.”
AKBAR AL BAKER

M
His gloom is all the more remarkable VITAL STATISTICS by a chauffeur”
when you consider that he currently Born: “I can tell Favourite book:
any airline bosses are heads the world’s biggest long-haul car- you the day and “I don’t waste my
smoothies — global diplo- rier, serving 130 destinations. Unlike month — July 25 time reading
mats with pocket squares, most of its competitors, Qatar Airways — but not the books. I have lots
silky language and effort- never stopped flying last year, serving up year.” Wikipedia of things to read
less charm. Akbar Al to 100 destinations daily. It was a deliber- says 1962 in my job”
Baker, who runs Qatar ate strategy — an air grab — to tempt first- Status: married, Film: “I don’t
Airways, is not like many time flyers who had no other choice; he with two sons watch films, but
airline bosses. hopes they will keep coming back. “The aged 29 and 32 if I’ve finished my
In the course of just 45 majority of passengers since last March School: St work and I don’t
minutes from his board- were abandoned by airlines that they had Peter’s boarding want to nap, I
room in Doha, he dismisses British Air- confidence in. We stepped in,” he says. school in watch National
ways as a “two out of ten” carrier; accuses The end of the economic blockade Panchgani, India Geographic”
Dubai of becoming a Covid-19 super- against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia, cre- University: Music: “I don’t
spreader and lambasts arch-rival Emir- ates another opportunity. Not only can Al Bombay — he have time to
ates as a gas-guzzling dinosaur; says any Baker’s 234-strong fleet fly to every desti- studied listen to music”
airline that offers premium economy is nation in the Middle East again, but his commerce and Gadget: “I like
ripping off its customers; and demands jets heading west can also fly over the economics, paper. I avoid
$5 billion (£3.6 billion) in compensation kingdom, avoiding a long and costly dog- majoring in using
from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emir- leg over Iran. That alone will reduce accounting computers”
ates, Bahrain and Egypt for their “illegal” annual costs — mainly fuel — by $1.2 bil- First job: Last holiday:
economic blockade of his country, which lion. Will he continue seeking the $5 bil- assistant Singapore
ended in January. That’s all before he lion in compensation from the blockad- accountant at Charity: “We
commits the cardinal aviation sin — warn- ing states? “Yes. Short and sweet answer.” the Civil Aviation have a Qatar
ing that good times are, alas, no longer Flying planes half-empty over the past Authority in Airways charity.
around the corner for air travellers. year has led to criticism from environ- Qatar But in my custom
Al Baker’s comments about BA are par- mentalists that Al Baker knows will only Pay: undisclosed when we have
ticularly remarkable because Qatar Air- Homes: two in charity, we don’t
ways owns 25 per cent of International Doha, one in like to mention
Airlines Group, BA’s parent. When I ask London and one where we are
what he thinks of the flag carrier’s torrid in Singapore giving. So I
time under recently departed chief Alex Car: BMW X5. “I would not be
Cruz, whom critics accused of penny drive myself — able to answer
pinching — notably with his decision to
cut free food and drink from economy- Coronavirus is I’m too impatient
to be
that question”

class short-haul flights — Al Baker lets rip.

BA management “lost focus”, he says. going to be a fact of driven

Instead of making it “an airline Britain

and the British people would be proud life. The roaring
of ”, the leadership reduced it “to a low-
cost carrier — a level I never expected BA Twenties means
to be”. He explains: “British Airways is
the flag carrier of the UK. You remember roaring infections
the motto? ‘To fly, to serve’. That was not Akbar Al Baker has a BMW X5. He
any more the motto of the company. It presented the trophy to Barcelona
was only on a billboard.” When Qatar Air- grow as full flight schedules resume. He in a friendly against Saudi Arabia
ways decided to invest, “we wanted BA to says he is investing heavily to reduce his
get the glitter back. We wanted an airline planes’ emissions. “We want to have car- WORKING DAY enjoy doing what
that doesn’t sell food but serves food.” bon-neutral growth in the not too distant The chief of I do”
How many marks out of ten would he future. All the new aeroplanes that we are Qatar Airways
give BA in recent years? “Two.” getting are extremely fuel-efficient.” gets up between DOWNTIME
But all is not lost, Al Baker says. He He is phasing out half his ten-strong 7am and 8am. He Al Baker says he
praises Cruz’s replacement, Sean Doyle, fleet of four-engine Airbus A380 super- works through works seven
one of whose first moves was to bring jumbos and older Boeing 777s because the day until 7pm days a week.
back free food and drink in short-haul they guzzle too much fuel. He is replacing — sometimes “I don’t have the
economy. “He’s a very good leader. He them with twin-engine long-haul jets with beyond. “I have time to relax. I
has my confidence . . . British Airways will lean burn engines — 60 Boeing 777Xs, 23 hands on the don’t go to the
come back to its old glory.” As the world’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners to add to the 37 throttles of my gym, but walking
favourite airline? “I cannot say that already delivered, and 23 more Airbus company. Every around in the
because that is Qatar Airways!” A350s to add to his existing fleet of 53. He Akbar Al Baker says the industry needs to be ‘very careful’ after winter holidays caused a spike in Covid cases in Dubai single day that company and

O
ne initiative that Doyle has intro-
duced is vaccine passports. Al
Baker thinks BA is getting ahead in
that area. He is doing the same,
testing the new International Air
Transport Association “vax app” on
flights between Doha and Istanbul. Pas-
sengers upload their vaccine status and
PCR test results and can, if regulations
allow, avoid quarantine. “Coronavirus is
going to be a fact of life. We’ll have to live
with it,” he says.
But it will not be easy. As leisure travel
returns, “this roaring Twenties will con-
vert into roaring coronavirus infections”,
he predicts. “We’ll keep on getting waves
until such time that there is herd immu-
nity. It will be a struggle for quite some
time.” He notes the recent spike in Covid
is also replacing most of his short-haul
and mid-haul Airbus A320s and A330s
with new models that are less thirsty. Will
Qatar Airways be the world’s greenest air-
line? “I hope that would be the fact.”
He can’t resist a dig at “somebody else
who has 122” A380s. He means Sir Tim
Clark, boss of Emirates. Clark rejects Al
Baker’s claim that the A380 is less green
than the 787 or 777X. He says that, unlike
other carriers, Emirates can regularly fill
all its seats, reducing CO2 emissions per
passenger. He adds that Al Baker is not
taking into account the overall carbon
“costs” of using two smaller jets to carry
the same number of people as one A380.
Qatar Airways made a $1.9 billion loss
for the 2019-20 financial year and Al
Baker confirms that the airline has had to
secure $2 billion in financial support
from its owner, the Qatari government.
But he tries to turn the situation to his
advantage: “Many airlines actually got a
lot more than we got. We got an equity
injection to give us more liquidity, but for
the others it was subsidy and state aid.”
He has Air France, Lufthansa and US
carriers in his sights, all of which have
long bitterly complained that Qatar Air-
ways enjoys vast state subsidies. But he
says, with a knowing smile: “I will not
mention any airline because I don’t want
to become controversial.”
Al Baker has cut staffing by about one
third and shaved costs to save $1 billion
since the pandemic hit. He says he will
begin rehiring soon. But one thing he will
not be doing is hiring cabin crew to work
in a new premium economy cabin — the
class between economy and business
that Emirates has introduced, joining BA
and Virgin Atlantic. He thinks the 25 per
cent extra that airlines charge for pre-
mium economy is a rip-off. “It’s the most
uncomfortable seat. You can’t rest your
feet on the floor. And they give you the
same meal, the same bottle of wine, or
whatever they give in economy.”
Al Baker was born in Qatar before the
natural-gas boom made it the world’s
richest nation on a per capita basis. It was
a very different place then — so much so
that he does not know the exact date of
his birth. He went to secondary school
and college in India before returning to
Doha to work as an accountant in the
country’s Civil Aviation Authority. He
rose to become chief executive of Qatar
I’m in my office is the airport is
Airways in 1997 and also led the develop- a good day for enough of a gym
ment of Doha’s Hamad airport, which he me, because I itself”
is now expanding “from 30 million pas-
sengers to 58 million. We are not far from
Heathrow now: it is 80 million.”
He is back where he is most comforta-
ble, challenging the airline establish-
ment. It’s his management style — one
that has got him into hot water in the
past. In 2017, he said US airlines were
“crap” and that passengers were “always
being served by grandmothers”. A year
later, he said his airline “has to be led by a
man because it is a very challenging posi-
tion.” He later apologised.
“I’m very direct,” he says. “I don’t care
what people think. People need to hear
frank opinions.” Or in other words: sorry,
BA — it’s just the way I am.

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The Sunday Times April 18, 2021
BUSINESS
Oliver Shah
Red lights are flashing over Sanjeev
Gupta’s empire. Where is the SFO?
F
ive years ago it was all about little
red boxes. In 2016, steel tycoon
Sanjeev Gupta’s team began
scouring the market for used
diesel generators, planning to
take advantage of subsidies for
power from renewable sources
such as cooking oil.
Project LRB — named after the
shipping containers that housed the
generators — saw Gupta securitise the
subsidies and sell the income to Swiss
fund manager GAM via £600 million of
bonds. But Gupta was unable to find a
cost-efficient fuel. GAM fell into crisis and
he was forced to buy back the bonds.
Those little red boxes were an early
warning. Now big red lights are flashing
over Gupta’s GFG Alliance empire,
which stretches from Lochaber in
Scotland to Whyalla in Australia and
employs 35,000. There are signs that
Gupta’s financial engineering — carried
out with Greensill Capital, the finance
firm whose collapse has tarnished the
reputations of David Cameron and the
late Sir Jeremy Heywood — has put huge
sums of investors’ money in jeopardy.
On April 9, the Financial Times
Pluses and minuses of the
return to business as usual
David Smith Economic Outlook
T I
hings are changing, and not so
imperceptibly. If you have
ventured out to the shops in
recent days, you will have
noticed that there are people
around. Not necessarily
madding crowds, at least in the
ones I visited, but certainly
what retailers would call decent footfall.
There is also another change under
way. The talk is of a return to the office,
even for people for whom over the past
12 months, a daily commute and face-to-
face meetings have seemed about as
likely as a trip down the Amazon.
Indeed, there are hard facts to back
this up, The Office for National Statistics
(ONS), in its latest weekly assessment of
the coronavirus and its impact on the
economy and society, found that the
proportion of the workforce at their
normal place of work rose to 49 per cent
in the two weeks to April 4 and is clearly
on a rising trend.
All of which is rather interesting. Both
of these examples of a degree of
normality returning have pluses and
minuses. The opening up of non-
essential retailing is an undoubted plus
for the retailers concerned, particularly
those that have eschewed an online
presence. It is great news for high streets
and shopping malls, which have taken
on an eerie feel over the past year.
Similarly, the return of people to
offices will transform city centres,
particularly the centre of London,
restore the viability of public transport
and allow the tens of thousands of
businesses dependent on legions of
office workers, and busy offices, to get
back on their feet.
All these are undoubted economic
and social benefits, along with restoring
all the other things missing from our
lives during three lockdowns, including
pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres,
travel and, perhaps most of all, freedom
to do more or less what we want.
But, and there has to be a but, it is also
important to recognise that there are
minuses in the return to business as
usual. One of these could be in the most
important driver of prosperity,
productivity: the amount we produce
per worker, or — a better measure — per
hour worked.
A few days ago, the ONS published
data for productivity last year. This
showed that it was a volatile year, with
sharp movements from quarter to
quarter and a different picture
depending on which measure was used.
But output per hour across the whole
economy rose by 0.4 per cent last year,
during the deepest recession for more
than 300 years. This was in sharp
contrast to the experience of the last
recession, when output per hour fell in
both 2008 and 2009.
The simple reason for this was that
hours worked fell even more sharply
than gross domestic product. Behind
this, however, something else important
was happening. Productivity held up
because of what statisticians call the
allocation effect. It means that if you
take out the least productive parts of the
economy, average productivity
improves. You can explain this by
reference to batting averages. If you
don’t play the three weakest members of
reported that suspect invoices had been
used to secure Greensill loans to Gupta
that were later sold to investors in Credit
Suisse funds, raising suspicions of fraud.
Companies named in Gupta invoices
denied having done business with his
Liberty Commodities trading group.
Gupta rejected “any suggestion of
wrongdoing” and complained that the
headline had “caused considerable
damage at a critical time when we are
seeking refinancing”.
On Friday, Bloomberg said that four
banks had stopped working with Liberty
Commodities after becoming concerned
about problems with bills of lading and
other paperwork used to guarantee
shipments of goods, such as nickel, as
collateral for loans. Gupta replied that
an investigation by internal lawyers in
2019 had found no evidence to support
“alleged rumours of double pledging” —
the practice of improperly raising funds
several times using the same collateral.
On our front page today, John
Collingridge reveals that Gupta planned
to raise money from Greensill based on
circular transactions with connected
companies. This could have had the
The shift to online
retailing has seen
an improvement
in productivity
the team, or they never get to bat, the
average of the team as a whole improves.
This is what happened last year, fairly
spectacularly. What is known as the food
and beverages services industry — pubs,
cafés, coffee shops, restaurants — is a
low-productivity sector, a dramatic
54 per cent below the average.
Lockdowns and restrictions took these
players out of the economy for much of
last year. In contrast, the share in hours
worked of high-productivity service
industries rose, including legal services,
accounting and computer services.
A lot of non-economists have
difficulty with the idea that service
sector productivity exists and can be
measured. But it does, and can be
improved — or consultants would be out
of a job. The service sector has been the
driver of productivity improvements in
recent years, excluding financial
services, which, unlike in the run-up to
the 2008-9 crisis, has been weak.
PRODUCTIVITY WAS BUMPY IN THE PANDEMIC…
Whole economy GDP per hour
105
100
95
90
2005 06 07 08 09 10 11
Source: CSO
... AND SHOPPING SHIFTED TO THE INTERNET
Proportion of retail sales online
40%
30
20
10
0 in need of purpose and I suspect, no pun
1999
Source: CSO
GFG's UK staff
Stocksbridge Dalzell/Clydebridge
762 139
Rotherham Newport
664 136
Hartlepool Brinsworth
266 101
Scunthorpe Tredegar
176 50
West Bromwich Other
167 2,395
Source: GFG Alliance
effect of artificially boosting his working
capital. Again, he denies wrongdoing.
These three reports alone (and there
are more) show there are reasonable
grounds for authorities to investigate
Gupta. So where is the Serious Fraud
Office (SFO)? That question was posed
by Tory MP Richard Fuller last month.
He told parliament the Gupta-Greensill
double act had “the characteristics of a
potential Ponzi scheme”.
I asked the watchdog on Friday. It said
it could “neither confirm nor deny
One of the elements of improved
service sector productivity, which was
supercharged last year, has been the
shift to online retailing. Online retailing
is more productive than face-to-face.
Getting the shop to come to you is more
productive than getting you into the
shop. Anybody who has worked in a
shop in the lonely hours when there is
nobody there knows this. There are only
so many times you can refold a jumper. I
make no judgment on the quality of the
shopping experience.
The other big question, which is not
yet captured explicitly in official
statistics, is the productivity effect of
working from home. A study last month
by Shivani Taneja and Paul Mizen of
Nottingham University, and Nicholas
Bloom of Stanford University, based on
interviews with some 5,000 full-time UK
workers, found a strong preference for
continued home-working after the
pandemic, for at least two days a week.
Asked about the impact on their own
productivity, the most popular answer,
from 49 per cent, was that it had made
no difference. But some, 29 per cent in
all, thought their productivity had
improved, in some cases substantially
so. This exceeded the 21 per cent who
thought their productivity had gone
down. Controlling these results for the
special circumstances of lockdowns is
not easy — some had to combine home-
working with home-schooling — and the
results could also reflect people’s
preference for working from home.
Another way of looking at it is from
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
2020 2021
interest in these matters”. It declines to
comment on possible cases unless there
is a reason to do so, “to protect our
investigations, and to avoid unfairness to
individuals and companies”.
That is understandable as a general
principle, less so in the particular
instance of Gupta, 49. He continues to
run a bank, Wyelands, which was
ordered by the Bank of England to repay
all retail depositors last month. He is still
trying to raise new financing, even as
Credit Suisse petitions to have parts of
his group wound up. Administration
would be the best outcome.
The SFO’s record does not inspire
confidence. More slobbering labrador
than rottweiler, it fumbled a raid on the
Tchenguiz brothers in 2011, failed to
convict individuals in its cases against
Tesco, metals manufacturer Sarclad and
seismic testing firm Güralp Systems, and
saw its pursuit of former Barclays bosses
over its 2008 fundraising implode.
The SFO is underfunded and
underpowered. Neither is the fault of
director Lisa Osofsky. Yet she, and it,
need to look a lot livelier in this case of
potentially international significance.
the perspective of employers. The
Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) did this in a report
earlier this month. It found, in a survey
of 2,000 employers, that 33 per cent
thought working from home had
boosted productivity. This was an
increase compared with a June 2020
CIPD survey, in which 28 per cent of
organisations reported improved
productivity. In the most recent survey,
23 per cent reported a productivity
decrease from home-working, pointing
to a net benefit overall. In June last year,
28 per cent thought productivity had
decreased, so the two balanced out.
This tells us, or tells me, that there
were potential productivity
improvements that were discovered,
almost by accident, during the
pandemic. They include, as above, a
likely future model of hybrid working,
partly at home and partly at work. They
should not mean that the share of online
shopping goes back to where it was.
Many pubs, restaurants, cafés and
coffee shops will not reopen and neither
will some retail outlets, as we have seen
from John Lewis, and countless others
on a smaller scale. This is the creative
destruction that results from serious
economic shocks. We will see whether it
helps lift us out of our long productivity
malaise.
PS
So farewell then, Andy Haldane, chief
economist at the Bank of England. An
original thinker and a free spirit —
perhaps a bit too free for some at the
Bank — he will soon be leaving the Old
Lady of Threadneedle Street.
I don’t blame him. After the
excitement of the past 12 months,
monetary policy will be more of a hard
slog from now on. The government has
just abolished the industrial strategy
council which he chaired, and which
was doing good work. If you want to get
a flavour of his approach, I would
suggest a readable speech called
“Ashington”, the northeast town where
Bobby and Jackie Charlton were born
and brought up. It is available online.
He will take over as chief executive of
the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures
and Commerce, the RSA. I have been a
fellow of the RSA for many years, as have
many other people. When I became a
fellow, a colleague thought I had been
awarded a fellowship of the even more
august Royal Society, and wanted to put
a story about it in the paper.
I have not been an active fellow. It is
many years since I attended, or spoke at,
an event. Most times its magazine, which
is good, goes unread. I used to pop into
the library at its building off The Strand
to kill time and respond to emails. But
then they took the computers away,
probably because people (not me) were
using them to write treatises or novels. It
is still a nice library.
The RSA has been run by Matthew
Taylor, the former head of the No 10
policy unit under Tony Blair. He has
done good work, notably on the gig
economy. But the RSA is an organisation
intended, that this is no easy gig. I wish
Haldane every success.
david.smith@sunday-times.co.uk
Why Brexit is also squeezing steel
The steel industry and ministers must
try to find a private sector rescue for
Gupta’s more strategically important
assets, such as Liberty Speciality Steels.
But there is something simple the
government could do to ease pressure
on the supply chain in the meantime.
When the Brexit transition period ended
in January, we carried over European
“safeguarding” rules designed to protect
the industry from overseas competition.
These set out quarterly sector-wide
quotas for various types of steel product,
with 25 per cent tariffs for imports above
those levels. The twist was that after
Brexit, for the first time there were also
quotas for imports of steel from Europe.
For example, only 17,211 tonnes of large
welded tubes can be brought into the UK
from the EU in the current quarter.
Many manufacturers are now
bumping up against these limits. I spoke
to a Sheffield-based engineer who buys a
certain size of steel product from
Liberty. Gupta’s firms are asking for
payment upfront — before the steel is
even rolled — which is less than
appealing to a small customer with its
It’s getting hard to
follow the money
Irwin Stelzer American Account
t’s not easy to follow the trillions
trail. Here is a road map. Six relief
bills have pumped $5.3 trillion
(£3.8 trillion) in newly created fiat
money into the economy, equal to
about 25 per cent of GDP. The early
tranches of this spending reflected a
bipartisan view that something had
to be done to relieve the distress caused
by Covid-19, and quickly, even if it was
difficult to separate the needy from the
unneedy when cutting cheques. The
last, $1.9 trillion, tranche ended the era
of political comity.
President Biden then introduced his
$2.5 trillion infrastructure plan, to be
followed by a $2 trillion to $3 trillion
social infrastructure programme to
expand the welfare state. Further
expansion of government is planned
when the president submits his first
budget to Congress. Covering the fiscal
year beginning October 1, it will call for a
16 per cent increase in health, education
and other social spending, along with a
mere 1.7 per cent increase in “national
defence programmes” — the latter a cut
when inflation is taken into account.
Republicans aren’t having any of it,
and Joe Biden is not backing down. This
partisan warfare is not simply a case of
politicians behaving badly. It is a result
of their attempts to reconcile what they
believe to be the national interest, the
interest of their constituents, and their
own interest in keeping their jobs.
Broadly put:
l Democrats believe that government is
a force for good, and that more is better
than less. Republicans think government
is an inefficient and malign force in
national life, and the smaller the better.
l Democrats believe that expansion of
the entitlement state and the battle
against climate change should take
precedence over military spending.
Republicans generally fear that larger
entitlements sap individual initiative,
believe that climate change can be
managed without massive expenditure,
and say that military strength and
preparedness should have a high claim
on the nation’s resources.
l Democrats have no fear of large
deficits, especially if needed to assure
super-full employment and a bigger
welfare state. Out-of-power Republicans
have recovered their belief in fiscal
prudence and again abhor deficits,
especially now the economy is heading
towards a boom that should take growth
this year to about 8 per cent.
l Democrats have won the latest battle
in the partisan war. The result is a new
roster of economic winners and losers.
l The private sector is a loser. Eager to
participate in infrastructure investment,
it finds itself frozen out — and, to add to
the pain, its taxes are due to go up.
l Women and people of colour are
winners, benefiting from targeted
programmes ($5 billion for black farmers
and billions for care givers —
“disproportionately, women of colour
and immigrants”, says Biden).
l The better-off are losers, the poorer
are winners, as taxes on the former and
benefits for the latter both head up.
l Workers who prefer not to join trade
unions will be losers and trade unions
winners as regulations favouring unions
in representation elections take effect.
7
own financial constraints. So this
engineer needs to look abroad, but the
quota-and-tariff system means he faces
complications, and a possible 25 per
cent charge if he gets it wrong.
The system is due to be reviewed in
June and the Confederation of British
Metalforming wants to see it suspended
for a year. That would give the industry
immediate breathing space.
Babcock’s accounting puzzle
Square this circle: in summer 2020,
outsourcer Babcock says it has reviewed
its big contracts and the accounting is
“appropriately conservative”. In spring
2021, another review reveals £1.7 billion
of writedowns, including on contracts.
It transpires that last year’s review
was a high-level look at accounting
practices, while the one last week delved
into the business prospects of contracts.
For years, under former chairman Mike
Turner, the market worried about
Babcock’s numbers. The 30 per cent
bounce in the share price last week
suggests investors finally believe the bad
news has been flushed out.
oliver.shah@sunday-times.co.uk
l Fossil fuels lose, renewables win. Tax
provisions that benefit fossil fuels to the
tune of $3.2 billion a year (not including
the absence of a carbon tax) will go
down, while the $9.8 billion benefits to
renewables industries will rise.
l Immigrants, legal or illegal, win as
entry is eased and benefits are made
available (in New York, $15,600 to any
illegal immigrant who lost a job in the
pandemic). Low-wage workers facing
increased competition and taxpayers
footing the $2 billion bill are losers.
The unanswered question is how the
redistribution of costs and benefits will
affect the national interest, as opposed
to the interests of specific groups.
One indicator will be whether the
redistribution of income and advantage
reduces criticism of America’s system of
market capitalism. There is a common
Democrats have
no fear of deficits.
Republicans now
abhor them again
belief that inequality is at unacceptable
levels, with reports that median
compensation for chief executives rose
15 per cent while many companies were
laying off workers being grist to the mill
for the critics. Biden’s version of
reformed capitalism might reduce
support for the socialist alternative.
Another indicator will be whether
Biden’s spending programmes produce
disturbing inflation. A White House team
depicts the recent jump in the prices of
almost everything as “moderate” and
“transitory”. Larry Summers, Bill
Clinton’s Treasury secretary and hardly
a small-government advocate, says
“going big” — as current Treasury
secretary Janet Yellen puts it — “could
manifest itself … in rising inflation and
ratcheting-up of inflation expectations …
[it] doesn’t seem prudent”.
The Biden team is counting on a
booming economy to win voter
endorsement of the “end of the end of
the era” of big government, and enable
them to retain control of both houses of
Congress. But Trump will not be on the
ballot this time, and in 2020 voters
preferred most Republicans lower down
on the ballot even as they abandoned
Trump. And losers, especially white men
who refuse to co-operate with pollsters,
might turn their resentment into votes.
irwin@irwinstelzer.com
Irwin Stelzer is a business adviser
8 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021

BUSINESS

Jamie Nimmo
ALAMY

Nothing’s impossible Never knowingly

for romantic Sorrell
Has Cupid’s arrow struck
again for Sir Martin Sorrell?
It emerged last year that
the pint-sized ad tycoon was
being divorced by his second
wife, Cristiana Falcone,
following allegations that he
paid for a prostitute using
funds from WPP, the holding
company he built. He denies
the allegations and has said
the divorce is unrelated.
So tongues were set
wagging when Sorrell, 76,
was spotted dining at the
River Café in west London
last Monday with Caroline
Michel, 62, literary agent to
the likes of Bear Grylls and
Rose Tremain.
Like Sorrell, Michel, the
boss of Peters Fraser &
effusive about Browne’s
commitment to “the energy And finally, some FUNNY BUSINESS
City light relief
unemployed transition” — at BP he
Former John Lewis boss
famously linked its initials to
the “Beyond Petroleum” The Takeover Panel, one of
Paula Nickolds could soon pledge. Sadly, BP failed to live the City’s more old-fashioned
Dunlop, is a habitué of resurface after 15 months in up to its new image, causing institutions, redrafted its
Ruthie Rogers’s restaurant. the retail wilderness. one of the worst spills in code on Thursday and took
Reopening night at the River A mystery retailer is Alaska’s history in 2006. the chance to scrub out the
Café was a grandee-heavy understood to be gearing up Browne’s ESG credentials M&A bible’s assumption that
occasion: other guests to announce that Nickolds, might come under further readers are men, replacing
included comedian Jimmy 48, will join its executive scrutiny, especially in the US, “chairman” with “chair” and
Carr and outgoing Ocado ranks, with Next tipped as a which has accused Chinese “him” with “person”.
chairman Lord (Stuart) Rose. possible destination. telecoms giant Huawei of Prufrock notes this step
Sorrell and Michel have After 22 years with the playing a role in China’s into the 21st century but is
been friends for years — he John Lewis Partnership, alleged persecution of Uighur pleased to hear that in other
went to university with Nickolds became the first Muslims. Huawei denies this. respects the panel retains its
another of her clients, Sir woman to run its department Huawei’s UK chairman quirkily traditional character.
Simon Schama — and store chain in 2016. Her until last year’s 5G ban? One In the waiting room where
onlookers said they looked tenure ended in acrimony in Lord Browne of Madingley. chief executives and bankers
distinctly coupley. January 2020 when she left fighting fraught bid battles
In 2014, Michel said Sorrell shortly after being made the gather, there is still a
had given her some of the partnership’s “head of humorous notice from Peter
best career advice she’d had:
“Impossible is nothing, Sir Martin Sorrell
brand” in a restructuring that
eliminated her previous job.
Frazer, then deputy director
general, in 1989. TWITTER POLL
nothing is impossible.” was spotted at the She will no doubt hope “To save time, please
New era Risky bubble
Might that apply to affairs River Café with that post-partnership life is a accept that we understand
of the heart, too?

6 A new book on Sir Richard Branson proves a little too

Caroline Michel little less eventful. your position is as follows,” it
says. “Everything done or 24% 76%
JUST SAYING . . .
said by ‘the other side’ is
revealing for Prufrock’s liking. Nicholas Schmidle’s Test Gods: ESG expert gets tactics whereas everything
Tragedy and Triumph in the New Space Race gives a unique done or said by your side is in
insight into Beardie’s bedroom life. The Virgin founder and We need to do a better job for our his hands dirty the interests of shareholders
wannabe spaceman would apparently openly share how he Lord ( John) Browne was generally . . . Adverse press
and his first wife had a “bizarre sexual allergy” to each other. employees . . . it’s clear to me that we unveiled last week as an comments represent flagrant
The book, out next month, quotes Branson, 70, as saying: adviser to US private equity breaches of the code by ‘the
“Whenever we made love a painful rash spread across me
need a better vision for how we firm General Atlantic. The other side’, whereas Coinbase has become the
which would take about three weeks to heal. We went to a create value for employees former BP boss will advise on favourable press comments, first big cryptocurrency
number of doctors but we never resolved the problem.” environmental, social and even if they involve direct company to go public. Is
Schmidle goes on to divulge an even more intimate detail Jeff Bezos on controversies over the governance (ESG) issues. quotations containing errors, this the start of a new era
related to Branson’s attempt to find a solution, but you’ll treatment of workers at Amazon, in his General Atlantic chief are nothing to do with you”. or another sign of a risky
thank me for sparing the gory details over breakfast. last letter to investors as chief executive executive Bill Ford was Comeback: Paula Nickolds Some things don’t change. bubble? @ST_Business

DATABANK
INSIDE THE CITY SAM CHAMBERS THE WEEK IN THE MARKETS THE ECONOMY
FTSE 100 FTSE 100 DOLLAR Consumer prices index current rate prev. month

7,019.53
Dr Martens third to 494p, valuing it at
£4.9 billion. The listing has
been a big success for private
Dr Martens’ underlying
earnings leapt from
£85 million to £185 million in
7,500
USD > GBP

$1.38 CPI including housing

0.4% 0.7%
current rate prev. month

rocked too equity owner Permira, which

in 2014 bought Dr Martens for
the year to March 2020, with
analysts from HSBC,
7,000 +0.01
12-month high: $1.41
low: $1.21 Retail prices index
0.7% 0.9%
current rate prev. month

hard before £300 million from the Griggs

family, who founded the
business in 1960. After raking
describing its 27 per cent
ebitda margin as
“surprisingly high”. +103.78 H: 7,019.5
6,500

6,000
EURO
EUR > GBP
1.4% 1.4%

its float €1.15

+1.50% L: 5,577.3 Average weekly earnings on prev. monthon last year
in the bulk of the £1.3 billion Dr Martens puts it down to
raised in the listing, Permira a focus on selling direct to 5,500
£572 U 0.2% U 4.4%
retains a 43 per cent stake. consumers via its 130 stores FTSE 250 +0.01

22,522.18
Unemployment current rate prev. month
2020 2021 12-month high: €1.18
After stomping onto the Permira, though, has a and website. One third of the Source: Thomson Reuters Eikon
low: €1.08
1.70m 5.0% 5.1%
public markets in January, Dr mixed past with consumer 11 million pairs of boots
RISERS FALLERS YEN Manufacturing output on the year on last month
Martens is on the cusp of brands. Its huge expansion of shifted last year, up from YEN > USD
Babcock 307.8p U 31.9% on job cuts Airtel Africa 75p V 9.4% on share placing
4.2% 1.3%
¥108.77
joining the FTSE 100. For a New Look left the chain 7 million the year before, V U
Elementis 135.3p U 12.5% on sentiment Jupiter Fund Management 271.4p V 8.8%
brand synonymous with saddled with more than 800 were sold through its own GCP Student Living 177.4p U 10.7% on on trading ex-dividend Rolls-Royce Retail sales on the year on last month
youthful rebellion, it’s all stores. Two years after buying channels, and the company
embarrassingly mainstream. the fashion retailer from aims to lift this to 60 per cent. +270.92 H: 22,522.2
reopening optimism Just Eat Takeaway
£78.83 U 9.1% on orders boom
104.6p V 6.5% on sentiment Legal &
General 279p V 5.9% on trading ex-
+3.41
12-month high: ¥110.71 V 3.7% U 2.1%
Can it keep pleasing the City Permira for £780 million, For a brand with cachet, it +1.22% L: 15,378.6 Electrocomponents £10.99 U 8.3% on dividend SSP 303pV 5.7% on rights issue low: ¥102.72
UK trade latest 3 mths prev. 3 mths latest 12 mths
trading update plans Source: Refinitiv/AJ Bell
and the disaffected youth? South African investor Brait is a credible strategy, but OIL
balance (£bn)
-15.41 -11.35 -17.16
Ever since the 1960s, when wrote its value down to zero. there are signs that cost DOLLARS/BARREL

$66.71
Gross domestic latest quarter prev. quarter annual change
The Who’s Pete Townshend The float of Polish cutting has left a few scuff DOW JONES HANG SENG FTSE EUROFIRST product
U 1.3% U 16.9% V7.3%
strode across the stage in a marketplace Allegro has gone marks. While most recent 34,200.67 28,969.71 1,703.38
pair of DMs, the brand has a little more smoothly. After reviewers on Trustpilot laud +400.07 H: 33,810.8 +270.91 H: 31,183.4 +20.34 H: 1,703.38
+7.37 Budget deficit last month prev. month year to date
12-month high: $69.63
somehow managed to appeal listing last October, its shares the boot-maker’s customer +1.18% L: 22,789.6 +0.94% L: 22,519.7 +1.19% L: 1,336.3 low: $19.33
(PSNB) in £bn
V 19.1 V 3.1 V 278.8
to the masses without are trading about 35 per cent service, a significant minority
shedding its rebellious roots above the offer price. vent anger that their boots fell NASDAQ SHANGHAI SENSEX GOLD
14,041.97 3,426.62 48,832.03 DOLLARS/TROY OZ

$1,776.31
in the eyes of consumers. apart after 18 months.
Its £672 million of annual Dr Martens Dr Martens has more +141.78
+1.00%
H: 14,175.1
L: 8,036.0
-25.06
-0.69%
H: 3,731.7
L: 2,758.3
-759.29
-1.55%
H: 52,516.8
L: 29,968.5
10-YEAR BOND YIELDS %
sales come from around the growth in future, but the
-35.31
world. Rapid vaccine rollouts jump in profits ahead of the
in America and the UK — Dr
550p
float should act as a warning
S&P 500 CAC 40 ALL ORDS 12-month high: $2,063.19
low: $1,680.09
variation 12 months

Martens’ two biggest markets 500 sign. Brands that focus on

4,185.47 6,287.07 7,325.80 high low

+56.67 H: 4,191.31 +117.66 H: 6,299.56 +73.5 H: 7,260.6 BITCOIN UK 0.77 -0.01 0.88 0.08
— have helped and boss Kenny short-term profits tend to +1.35% L: 2,721.2 +1.87% L: 4,194.6 +1.00% L: 5,156.0 DOLLARS

$62,006.92
Wilson, who owns a stake 450 store up long-term problems. US 1.60 -0.07 1.75 0.51
worth about £55 million, is 400 Permira, which will be able NIKKEI DAX S&P TSX
chasing growth in Asia. to start selling down its stake 29,683.37 15,234.16 19,351.32 +24,146.66
JAPAN 0.09 -0.02 0.17 -0.04
After floating at 370p a Feb Mar Apr in July, may not stick around -84.69 H: 30,714.5 +126.99 H: 15,311.9 +123.29 H: 19,380.68 12-month high: $63,398.46
low: $6,864.65 GERMANY -0.26 +0.04 -0.23 -0.64
share, its stock has risen by a Source: Thomson Reuters Eikon to see how it pans out. Avoid. -0.28% L: 18,858.3 +0.84% L: 10,160.9 +0.63% L: 11,172.7 Price at 9.30pm Friday

TOP 200 COMPANIES

Market cap ranking Price Change 52-week Mkt Cap Market cap ranking Price Change 52-week Mkt Cap Market cap ranking Price Change 52-week Mkt Cap Market cap ranking Price Change 52-week Mkt Cap
Yield P/E Yield P/E Yield P/E Yield P/E
V on week high low (£bn) V on week high low (£bn) V on week high low (£bn) V on week high low (£bn)
42 3i 1257.0 +16.0 1257.0 716.0 2.8 17.2 12.2 105 Dr Martens 493.6 +31.8 514.8 442.0 N.A N.A 4.9 56 JD Sports Fashion 929.6 +12.6 940.8 476.2 0.0 40.3 9.6 169 RWS 686.0 +20.0 747.0 520.0 1.3 40.7 2.7
170 3I Infrastructure 296.0 +1.0 314.0 245.0 3.2 13.1 2.6 91 DS Smith 420.2 +5.4 424.4 252.7 1.0 29.0 5.8 159 Jet2 1326.5 +32.5 1503.0 451.8 0.0 N.A 2.8 146 S4 Capital 580.0 +36.0 580.0 164.0 0.0 N.A 3.2
144 Abcam 1442.0 +0.0 1719.0 1119.0 0.0 N.A 3.3 154 Dunelm 1447.0 +74.0 1561.0 857.0 0.8 26.8 2.9 86 Johnson Matthey 3186.0 +52.0 3300.0 1845.5 1.6 59.7 6.2 77 Sage 644.0 -8.2 765.4 558.6 2.7 22.7 7.0
58 Admiral 3200.0 +50.0 3207.0 2136.0 3.7 18.8 9.5 111 Easyjet 995.4 +22.6 1047.5 470.7 0.0 N.A 4.5 43 Just Eat Takeaway.com 7883.0 +658.0 9980.0 6382.0 0.0 N.A 11.9 53 Schroders 3621.0 -5.0 3665.0 2477.0 3.2 21.0 9.7
194 Aggreko 871.5 -1.5 895.0 353.6 1.7 N.A 2.2 101 Electrocomponents 1099.0 +84.0 1099.0 533.5 1.4 38.1 5.2 123 Kaz Minerals 849.0 -19.8 868.8 387.6 0.3 9.0 4.0 32 Scottish Mortgage IT 1245.0 +52.5 1415.0 613.0 0.3 2.6 17.7
160 Airtel Africa 75.0 -7.8 96.1 34.0 N.A 10.0 2.8 54 Entain 1647.5 +81.0 1647.5 649.0 0.0 105.4 9.6 196 Keywords Studios 2934.0 +134.0 2942.0 1363.0 0.0 119.7 2.2 45 SEGRO 986.0 +13.4 988.2 789.4 1.9 8.2 11.7
150 Alliance Trust 981.0 +15.0 981.0 687.0 1.5 13.7 3.1 60 EVRAZ 636.4 +37.2 636.4 233.8 5.9 15.1 9.3 72 Kingfisher 355.3 +11.4 355.3 136.3 2.3 12.7 7.5 90 Severn Trent 2431.0 +25.0 2589.0 2168.0 4.1 51.1 5.8
12 Anglo American 3199.5 +116.5 3199.5 1329.2 2.3 26.5 43.6 24 Experian 2716.0 +63.0 3171.0 2258.0 1.3 51.9 24.9 99 Land Securities 721.2 +4.6 725.6 489.1 2.0 N.A 5.3 176 Shaftesbury 640.0 +12.0 689.0 420.0 0.0 N.A 2.5
30 Antofagasta 1872.5 +142.5 1872.5 730.8 2.1 51.0 18.5 113 F&C Investment Trust 846.0 +13.0 846.0 610.0 1.4 9.0 4.5 34 Legal & General 279.0 -17.4 296.4 178.0 6.4 13.3 16.6 139 Signature Aviation 403.5 -3.7 435.5 166.5 0.0 N.A 3.4
157 Ashmore 403.6 +0.4 479.6 342.0 4.0 14.4 2.9 28 Ferguson 9344.0 +34.0 9458.0 5000.0 2.2 26.7 21.0 20 Lloyds Banking Group 43.5 +0.2 44.4 24.0 1.3 36.4 30.8 41 Smith & Nephew 1445.0 +45.0 1736.0 1336.5 1.2 39.1 12.7
27 Ashtead 4675.0 +102.0 4675.0 1675.5 0.9 34.3 21.0 192 Ferrexpo 387.2 +23.0 390.0 130.2 2.5 4.9 2.3 13 London Stock Exchange 7700.0 +222.0 9910.0 6914.0 0.9 64.7 42.8 81 Smiths 1643.5 +30.0 1643.5 1133.5 2.9 87.7 6.5
98 ASOS 5374.0 +14.0 5918.0 2087.0 0.0 30.6 5.4 164 Fevertree Drinks 2361.0 +91.0 2547.0 1301.0 0.7 66.0 2.8 92 M&G 221.2 +3.2 225.6 109.2 8.3 5.0 5.8 168 Smithson Investment Trust 1742.0 +16.0 1742.0 1202.0 0.0 4.4 2.7
29 Associated British Foods 2428.0 -56.0 2494.0 1624.0 0.0 42.2 19.2 195 Fidelity China Special Situations 429.0 +0.0 498.0 218.0 1.0 3.6 2.2 181 Man 166.4 +0.8 168.4 107.6 4.5 24.5 2.4 61 Smurfit Kappa 3617.0 +169.0 3728.0 2216.0 2.7 18.1 9.2
185 Aston Martin Lagonda Global 2063.0 +91.0 2273.0 30.7 0.0 N.A 2.4 23 Flutter Entertainment 15685.0 +390.0 16915.0 7796.0 0.0 525.7 27.5 151 Marks and Spencer 156.5 -0.4 159.0 85.0 0.0 N.A 3.1 128 Softcat 1913.0 -32.0 1969.0 1032.0 1.2 42.9 3.8
5 AstraZeneca 7380.0 +93.0 9320.0 6794.0 2.7 41.8 96.9 171 Frasers 502.5 -1.5 504.5 221.0 0.0 22.4 2.6 186 Mediclinic International 319.0 +13.8 335.0 238.2 0.0 N.A 2.4 125 Spectris 3371.0 -7.0 3416.0 2370.0 2.0 18.4 3.9
95 Auto Trader 577.6 +8.2 615.4 425.4 0.0 34.9 5.6 79 Fresnillo 925.8 +31.4 1357.5 673.6 2.0 25.1 6.8 131 Meggitt 480.8 +0.7 504.8 231.9 0.0 N.A 3.8 64 Spirax-Sarco Engineering 12130.0 -110.0 12240.0 8322.0 1.0 51.6 8.9
106 Avast 467.0 -1.0 600.0 420.0 2.4 39.4 4.8 163 Future 2300.0 +110.0 2348.0 911.0 0.1 50.7 2.8 66 Melrose Industries 178.9 +5.3 186.8 82.0 0.4 N.A 8.7 37 SSE 1490.5 -51.0 1612.0 1171.0 5.3 14.6 15.5
46 AVEVA 3809.0 +33.0 5114.0 3164.0 0.9 244.7 11.5 127 G4S 244.7 +0.0 269.0 85.1 0.0 222.7 3.8 197 Mercantile Investment Trust 275.5 +3.5 276.0 168.6 2.4 N.A 2.2 183 SSP 303.0 -18.4 392.4 177.9 0.0 N.A 2.4
36 Aviva 411.4 +6.8 420.4 228.9 3.2 8.6 16.2 136 Games Workshop 10830.0 +330.0 11730.0 4702.0 1.3 36.5 3.5 55 Mondi 1977.5 +70.0 1977.5 1279.5 2.7 19.0 9.6 74 St. James's Place 1343.0 +0.0 1358.5 749.2 3.7 27.6 7.2
94 B&M European Value Retail 558.6 +11.4 601.0 302.5 1.7 14.9 5.6 200 Gamesys 1937.0 +10.0 2005.0 760.0 2.1 31.5 2.1 140 Monks Investment Trust 1412.0 +16.0 1484.0 863.0 0.2 5.7 3.3 38 Standard Chartered 494.0 -3.5 513.6 336.8 1.3 68.0 15.4
33 BAE Systems 522.0 +7.0 558.4 397.0 4.5 12.9 16.8 138 Genus 5255.0 +105.0 5435.0 3160.0 0.6 71.3 3.4 19 National Grid 902.3 +1.8 991.0 806.4 5.5 N.A 32.0 84 Standard Life Aberdeen 289.6 -11.9 331.1 203.6 5.1 7.6 6.3
18 Barclays 189.2 +3.5 189.2 86.5 0.5 21.9 32.3 8 GlaxoSmithKline 1346.4 +26.8 1742.2 1190.8 5.9 11.8 67.7 25 Natwest 199.6 +2.9 199.6 93.3 1.5 N.A 23.1 85 Stars Inc N.A N.A. 39.3 30.7 N.A N.A 6.2
69 Barratt Developments 784.0 -10.6 794.8 432.6 0.9 19.9 8.0 15 Glencore 302.0 +13.3 305.0 131.6 2.9 N.A 40.2 182 Network International 439.0 +4.0 495.0 205.4 0.0 531.4 2.4 134 Tate & Lyle 761.4 -23.8 785.8 595.2 3.9 14.5 3.6
110 Bellway 3710.0 +59.0 3712.0 2060.0 2.3 25.1 4.6 173 Grafton 1085.0 +19.0 1105.0 516.5 1.3 24.1 2.6 47 Next 8204.0 -92.0 8296.0 4277.0 0.0 37.1 10.9 78 Taylor Wimpey 191.0 +0.9 191.7 99.2 2.2 32.5 7.0
93 Berkeley 4610.0 -24.0 4889.0 3814.0 2.3 16.5 5.6 174 Greencoat UK Wind 129.0 +1.0 148.0 124.6 5.5 20.0 2.5 190 Ninety One 250.2 +3.0 251.2 152.6 2.4 14.8 2.3 177 Templeton Emerging Markets IT 1036.0 +22.0 1072.0 673.0 1.8 N.A 2.4
1 BHP 2239.5 +89.5 2357.0 1226.0 5.0 22.5 126.1 188 Greggs 2298.0 +70.0 2305.0 1119.0 0.0 713.8 2.3 35 Ocado 2181.0 +31.0 2895.0 1569.0 0.0 N.A 16.3 31 Tesco 231.9 -2.6 248.2 203.0 4.5 24.7 17.9
114 Boohoo 357.3 +13.1 415.0 210.0 0.0 52.0 4.5 51 Halma 2563.0 +4.0 2612.0 1981.0 0.7 55.0 9.7 199 OSB 479.0 +1.4 494.2 205.6 3.1 11.3 2.1 82 THG 668.0 +0.0 799.4 574.8 N.A N.A 6.5
10 BP 303.0 +7.9 365.8 193.4 7.5 N.A 61.6 133 Harbour Energy 19.3 -0.2 53.9 11.3 0.0 N.A 3.6 87 Pearson 816.8 +11.0 867.8 423.5 2.4 19.8 6.2 191 Trainline 474.4 -0.2 532.0 256.8 0.0 N.A 2.3
9 British American Tobacco 2901.0 +115.0 3275.0 2448.0 7.5 10.6 66.6 70 Hargreaves Lansdown 1658.5 -8.5 1865.0 1348.5 2.3 24.1 7.9 117 Pennon 1025.5 +10.0 1193.0 867.8 3.6 54.1 4.3 119 Travis Perkins 1659.5 +14.0 1679.5 867.0 0.0 N.A 4.2
108 British Land Company 515.6 +3.2 532.0 322.0 1.3 N.A 4.8 161 Hays 168.0 +5.8 168.0 98.0 0.0 N.A 2.8 88 Pershing Square 2790.0 +15.0 2790.0 1532.0 0.9 2.1 5.9 143 Tritax Big Box Reit 191.0 +4.5 191.0 111.6 2.9 7.3 3.3
189 Britvic 868.5 +3.5 874.5 665.0 2.5 24.5 2.3 142 HICL Infrastructure 171.2 +2.2 180.2 157.8 4.9 44.2 3.3 49 Persimmon 3201.0 -9.0 3210.0 1889.0 7.3 16.0 10.2 2 Unilever 4164.0 +33.0 4892.0 3733.0 3.4 22.6 109.4
39 BT 154.4 +0.8 156.5 97.9 0.0 10.2 15.3 97 Hikma Pharmaceuticals 2367.0 -66.0 2695.0 2100.0 1.5 18.0 5.5 193 Pets at Home 451.4 +18.6 451.4 220.0 1.7 31.7 2.3 115 Unite 1127.5 +44.0 1127.5 696.5 0.9 N.A 4.5
67 Bunzl 2508.0 +99.0 2603.0 1597.5 2.2 19.6 8.5 152 Hiscox 860.2 +5.8 1108.5 666.4 0.0 N.A 3.0 71 Phoenix 759.8 +11.2 786.2 545.0 6.4 7.8 7.6 80 United Utilities 957.2 -0.6 978.2 822.8 4.4 59.4 6.5
68 Burberry 2074.0 +30.0 2123.0 1252.5 0.0 404.0 8.4 124 HomeServe 1185.0 -6.0 1365.0 1018.0 2.0 41.6 4.0 145 Polar Capital Technology Trust 2386.0 +36.0 2440.0 1674.0 0.0 3.3 3.3 162 Virgin Money UK 194.0 -0.7 199.5 66.4 0.0 N.A 2.8
107 Howden Joinery 803.4 +43.0 803.4 490.3 1.1 32.5 4.8 73 Polymetal International 1557.0 +98.5 2050.0 1389.5 6.1 9.5 7.3 166 Vistry 1230.0 +64.0 1230.0 529.0 1.6 36.5 2.7
26 Carnival 1656.0 -80.4 1799.0 802.0 0.0 N.A 21.9
6 HSBC 427.5 -9.9 455.5 283.4 2.6 30.6 87.3 14 Prudential 1552.5 -5.0 1577.5 934.4 0.7 26.2 40.6 16 Vodafone 135.2 +0.5 141.1 101.7 5.8 18.2 38.1
141 Centrica 56.5 -0.9 58.0 30.2 0.0 N.A 3.3
149 Hutchison China MediTech 419.0 +0.0 528.0 298.0 0.0 N.A 3.1 155 Quilter 165.5 +2.9 167.8 111.2 2.8 33.4 2.9 102 Weir 1984.0 +130.0 2107.0 785.0 0.0 37.2 5.2
187 Ceres Power 1259.0 +9.0 1588.0 327.5 0.0 N.A 2.3
137 IG 950.0 +2.0 952.5 699.0 4.5 10.2 3.5 11 Reckitt Benckiser 6661.0 +50.0 7960.0 5854.0 2.6 41.8 47.5 180 WH Smith 1860.0 +38.5 2016.0 829.5 0.0 N.A 2.4
179 Close Brothers 1616.0 -7.0 1685.0 946.5 3.6 22.2 2.4
129 IMI 1391.0 +1.0 1391.0 753.5 1.6 22.2 3.8 184 Redrow 675.4 +6.2 682.4 361.2 0.9 18.5 2.4 75 Whitbread 3529.0 +63.0 3595.0 2049.0 0.0 N.A 7.1
62 Coca Cola HBC 2510.0 +97.0 2510.0 1755.0 2.2 25.5 9.1
40 Imperial Brands 1582.0 +40.0 1735.0 1219.0 8.9 10.0 15.0 17 Relx 1935.5 +25.0 1944.5 1527.5 2.4 30.6 37.4 156 William Hill 275.8 +0.8 312.2 90.5 0.0 35.8 2.9
21 Compass 1588.5 +30.0 1607.0 1050.5 0.0 150.3 28.3
148 Inchcape 796.0 +9.0 796.0 425.0 0.9 N.A 3.1 172 Renewables Infrastructure 123.6 +2.4 139.6 119.6 5.5 21.7 2.6 118 Wizz Air 4962.0 +23.0 5565.0 2470.0 0.0 N.A 4.2
153 Computacenter 2598.0 +28.0 2602.0 1336.0 1.9 19.4 3.0
63 Informa 596.0 +11.8 598.6 354.4 0.0 N.A 9.0 109 Renishaw 6425.0 -50.0 6900.0 3120.0 0.2 103.1 4.7 116 WM Morrison Supermarkets 180.5 -2.3 198.5 161.8 1.1 45.4 4.3
121 ConvaTec 206.4 +7.3 219.2 174.9 2.0 50.7 4.1
57 InterContinental Hotels 5214.0 +52.0 5312.0 3152.0 0.0 N.A 9.6 52 Rentokil Initial 520.4 +6.2 571.0 409.6 1.0 52.1 9.7 178 Worldwide Healthcare Trust 3770.0 +55.0 3960.0 3155.0 0.7 4.3 2.4
158 Countryside Properties 544.0 +22.5 544.0 271.6 0.0 N.A 2.9
89 Intermediate Capital 2017.0 +49.0 2050.0 923.5 2.6 37.1 5.9 198 RHI Magnesita 4482.0 -78.0 4622.0 2080.0 2.9 102.3 2.2 44 WPP 978.0 +34.4 978.0 527.8 2.5 N.A 11.9
22 CRH 3515.0 -13.0 3528.0 2148.0 2.4 34.2 27.6
48 International Airlines Group 208.3 -1.9 331.6 91.0 0.0 N.A 10.4 100 Rightmove 610.4 -8.0 683.2 453.2 0.7 48.6 5.3
59 Croda International 6740.0 +128.0 6740.0 4520.0 1.4 43.5 9.4
165 International Public Partnerships 169.6 -0.2 176.6 149.6 4.3 45.1 2.7 4 Rio Tinto 6054.0 +391.0 6480.0 3557.0 5.7 13.9 100.3
83 DCC 6448.0 +154.0 7204.0 5006.0 2.3 22.2 6.4
50 Intertek 6098.0 +44.0 6440.0 4416.0 1.7 40.0 9.8 126 RIT Capital Partners 2475.0 +45.0 2475.0 1720.0 1.4 7.8 3.9
120 Dechra Pharmaceuticals 3850.0 +248.0 3850.0 2622.0 0.9 93.1 4.2
175 Investec 247.5 +15.4 247.5 127.1 2.2 44.6 2.5 65 Rolls-Royce 104.6 -7.3 398.4 69.6 0.0 N.A 8.7
112 Deliveroo 247.0 -7.5 287.5 247.0 N.A N.A 4.5 Price/earnings ratios are based on historic data, with yield and p/e values
167 ITM Power 495.0 +4.4 717.0 137.4 0.0 N.A 2.7 147 Rotork 360.0 -2.4 376.6 227.0 2.9 33.7 3.1
130 Derwent London 3360.0 +37.0 3385.0 2360.0 1.9 26.5 3.8 calculated from most recent reported dividends and earnings per share, using
104 ITV 122.7 -0.0 127.6 56.7 0.0 17.2 4.9 3 Royal Dutch Shell 1412.8 +17.0 1583.6 900.0 3.3 N.A 109.3
7 Diageo 3230.0 +47.0 3230.0 2440.0 2.2 67.4 75.6 trailing 12-month figures. P/E is not calculated when last twelve months EPS is
132 IWG 367.3 +5.4 383.6 190.5 0.0 N.A 3.7 103 Royal Mail 512.6 +11.6 528.0 137.8 0.0 233.2 5.1
135 Diploma 2858.0 +118.0 2858.0 1537.0 1.1 65.7 3.6 less than or equal to zero. 52-week highs and lows are end of day. Excludes
96 J Sainsbury 248.7 +3.1 252.9 179.2 1.3 N.A 5.6 76 RSA Insurance 683.0 -0.6 683.6 339.8 1.2 22.2 7.1
122 Direct Line Insurance 302.2 -0.9 342.0 258.0 7.3 11.9 4.1 exchange-traded funds. nc = no change. N.A. = not applicable. Source: Refinitiv
MONEY
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What is going on at the Pru?
An IT meltdown
has left customers
waiting months for
their pensions,
report Imogen Tew
and Kate Palmer
S
avers struggling to cash in
their pensions with Pruden-
tial have been waiting up to
four months for a bank trans-
fer, spent hours on hold and
lost out on valuable tax
breaks after the pensions
giant upgraded its IT sys-
tems.
In a saga echoing TSB’s
botched IT upgrade in 2018, Prudential,
which holds more than £51 billion of
people’s retirement savings, moved its
five million customers on to a new system
in November 2020.
Since then staff, many of whom are
working from home, have struggled to
process simple requests for pension with-
drawals. They are insisting on sending
paper forms instead of using a secure
messaging service, leaving customers
waiting months for a bank transfer.
Many savers have lost out on valuable
tax breaks because Prudential, which is
owned by the investment conglomerate
M&G, could not pay them before the new
tax year began on April 6. Many pension-
ers carefully plan how they can withdraw
money and use up their tax-free personal
allowance each year. The allowance was
worth £12,500 in 2020-21, rising to
£12,570 this year.
Janet Hawkins, 66, a retired council
worker from Solihull in the West Mid-
lands, asked Prudential to cash in her
£6,000 pension before Christmas, and is
still waiting for the money. She retired in
At last, a
piece of good
news for the
self-employed
Lenders have relaxed their mortgage
rules in a sign that they think earnings
will recover, writes David Byers
5m
The pandemic has made
some self-employed workers
feel like second-class citizens
as they struggle to get bank
loans, government financial
support and mortgages.
Now a leading mortgage Self-employed
lender has set out to make people, up from
their lives easier by agreeing 3.2m in 2000
to ignore last year’s income
25%
when deciding how much the
self-employed can borrow.
Santander will not include
income from the 2020-21 tax
year if a business has been
affected by the coronavirus The deposit
and use the previous two many lenders ask
years’ earnings instead. for from the
Brokers said the change self-employed
was significant because it
suggests that lenders are
accepting that the pandemic
is an aberration and are
feeling confident that
earnings will recover.
The number of job
October. “I’ve finished work and got that
all sorted out, and it’s the last thing to see
me off into the sunset,” said Hawkins.
“Every day I’m looking and waiting for an
envelope at the door. It’s so frustrating.”
Hawkins was initially told that she
would get the money on January 18. She
has struggled to get answers from Pru-
dential after spending more than six
hours on hold to the company over sev-
eral calls.
Prudential then pledged to pay Hawk-
ins by mid-February. “My money is just
lying there,” said Hawkins. “No one has
told me why they are holding on to it.”
It took 19 phone calls and two months
before Derek Rodd, 70, from Preston,
Lancashire, was told that Prudential was
in the process of transferring a £10,000
lump sum from his stakeholder pension,
which he had saved from a job running
training courses for Crown Paints.
Rodd asked Prudential for the lump
sum in February so that he could pay off a
car loan and book a holiday with his wife,
Yvonne, 69, who is celebrating her 70th
birthday in May.
“We’re planning on doing something
special, since my 70th was spent at home
with a bottle of champagne,” said Rodd, a
retired management development
trainer.
On March 25 he thought he had finally
achieved success with Prudential when
he noticed that £10,000 had been with-
drawn from his online account. A day
later it reappeared in his account before
disappearing again that same day.
“It’s been soul-destroying,” Rodd said.
He calls when Prudential’s phone lines
open at 8.30am, but says he still waits for
nearly an hour.
“If I didn’t need the money I wouldn’t
have asked for it, and now I don’t know
where it is,” he said.
It took a month for Prudential to send
Rodd the first of three forms required to
make a withdrawal. He had to sign it and
send it back. Each form is sent only when
the previous one has been completed.
Other pension companies allow custom-
ers to sign these declarations electroni-
cally.
The Pensions Regulator tells compa- to callers, telling them lines are “excep-
nies to provide “appropriate warnings” tionally busy” and could be waiting more
to customers about the risk and implica- than an hour to speak to someone.
tions of accessing their pension, but does Rodd has little sympathy for Pruden-
not specify this has to be done by post. tial’s software problems, because he
Prudential has been getting to grips oversaw a wide-scale computer upgrade
with an IT system update it carried out in at Crown Paints. “We still had to manu-
late 2020, even though many call-centre facture and deliver the paint. The point
staff were still working from home is, you train people up before swapping
because of the coronavirus pandemic. systems,” he said.
Prudential plays a recorded message When Rodd eventually does get his
vacancies last week had
returned to 99.5 per cent of
its February 2020 level,
according to the Office of
National Statistics.
Goldman Sachs, the
investment bank, expects
economic growth of 7.1 per
cent this year, while UBS, the
Swiss investment bank, has
raised its forecast from
3.8 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
Santander has also
reduced its deposit
requirements for self-
employed workers, allowing
applicants to put down
25 per cent rather than
40 per cent for remortgages
or new loans. Self-employed
borrowers will still need to
declare coronavirus loan
repayments.
“Things were looking bleak
for self-employed
borrowers,” said Nick Morrey
from the mortgage broker
John Charcol. “This is a very
good sign and I expect other
lenders to follow suit.”
Most leading lenders are
asking self-employed
mortgage applicants to
submit their past three
months of business banking
statements to show current
trading levels; some require
as much as six months of
statements. Others are
excluding self-employed
applicants unless they have
substantial deposits.
NatWest requires three
months of personal and
business bank statements and
will lend only to those “who
have not and do not expect to
experience a change in their
self-employed income”
because of the pandemic.
HSBC asks for business
bank statements from the
past 60 days and won’t
consider anyone whose work
has been affected by the
lockdown. Nationwide will
not lend to self-employed
workers with deposits of less
than 15 per cent. TSB will lend
only to those with 25 per cent
deposits.
Banks have also been
reluctant to lend to people
who have been furloughed.
Virgin Money, NatWest,
Halifax, TSB, Clydesdale
Bank, HSBC, Yorkshire Bank,
Nationwide, Yorkshire
Building Society, Accord
Mortgages and Leeds
Building Society will not
accept furloughed income for
affordability calculations.
The number of self-
employed people has grown
from 3.2 million in 2000 to
about five million and their
share of the labour market
has grown from 12 per cent to
15 per cent.
Campaigners say an
estimated three million
self-employed people have
been excluded from the
government’s coronavirus-
support schemes.
Chris Sykes from the
mortgage broker Private
Finance said that “quirky”
lenders can be more flexible
than larger banks when
assessing self-employed
income, but that workers
need to be organised.
“Where many newly self-
employed people struggle is
they don’t have the two to
three years of accounts that
most lenders need to see,” he
said. “Some lenders can base
income on projected earnings
or one year’s figures.”
IONER
THE PENSIONER
RS
WHO WEARS
PRADA
FAME AND
FORTUNE,
PAGE 14
money he will have missed the old tax
year and he will be left with just £2,570 of
his tax-free personal allowance for
2021-22. He has another pension from a
previous job with AkzoNobel so is very
likely to bust the limit and face a tax bill.
Once you reach 55 most pension
schemes allow you to withdraw 25 per
cent of your pot tax-free. The remaining
75 per cent will be taxed as income.
It is possible to withdraw some or all of
Jessie Hewitson
Happiness is £68k a year. Clearly
Madoff didn’t get the memo . . .
W
ho would want to be insanely
rich? Reading the details of
Bernie and Ruth Madoff’s life
is a powerful reminder that
being rich can be awful.
Ruth put large amounts of salt over
her food to stop her eating too much of it
and was controlled by her monster of a
husband who was convicted in the US in
2009 of masterminding the largest Ponzi
scheme in history and ended up dying
alone in jail this week.
Sheesh. Give me mediocrity any day
of the week.
Not for the first time I found myself
wondering if the benefits of great career
success and enormous wealth can be
overplayed. Footballers who can earn
£200,000 a week also have to contend
with being retired in their thirties, if not
their twenties, when they have had most
of their education on the football pitch
rather than a classroom and been
isolated from their family at a young age.
Being broke makes you miserable,
no doubt, but the opposite end of the
spectrum can come with its problems
too. Which is a thrilling thought for
those of us sitting in the middle of the
pay scale, sometimes succumbing to the
thought that life might be better if you
were edging towards the top.
So what is the tipping point? When
does money go from giving you choice,
security and holidays in the Maldives to
making you miserable? Researchers
at Purdue University in Indiana
concluded that an income of between
No one
has told
me why
they are
holding
on to my
money
? wrong, systems shut down,” he said.
Janet Hawkins has
been waiting since
before Christmas for
Prudential to cash in
her £6,000 pension
your lump sum and keep the rest of the
money invested, and you do this by con-
tacting your pension provider, who will
send you a form to sign and return, either
in the post or electronically, confirming
that you are aware of the tax liability.
Victoria Wince, 60, retired from sec-
ondary school teaching in January and
tried to cash in her £8,000 additional
voluntary pension that she held with the
Pru the same month. It took 12 weeks
£43,478 and £54,347 per person (not
household) was necessary to be happy
and not have money worries. Yet if you
were to earn £68,840 a year you would
be even happier, according to the study
of 1.7 million people in 164 countries
in 2018.
Earn any more, however, and your
happiness starts to slide as you take on
more stress, see friends and family less,
and compare yourself with your more
loaded friends.
The first half of the last sentence rings
true for me. My dad was a businessman
who enjoyed a brilliant, interesting
career that came with financial
rewards, the occasional crash and a lot
of accompanying stress. He suffered
health problems throughout his
retirement, possibly linked to the toll
that his working life had taken on his
body. Meanwhile, my mum, who was
What’s wrong
with a normal,
uneventful life?
WHA
WHAT NOW FOR THE
FUTU
FUTURE OF CARE?
PAGE 10
TWO YEARS TO BUILD
A GREENHOUSE
GR ...
QQUES
QUESTION OF MONEY,
PAG
PAGE 13
until the money finally arrived, and only
after The Sunday Times highlighted her
case. She said that the delay has cost her
more than £1,000 because she missed the
opportunity to use last year’s tax-free
personal allowance.
“It’s been an agonising wait, only for
Pru to miss the deadline,” said Wince.
“My other pension schemes let you do it
all online.”
Prudential, based in London, manages
big company pensions, including the
additional contribution scheme for
teachers, and it is separate to the listed
insurance company Prudential Plc. It
charges an annual management fee,
typically 0.8 per cent, on top of the char-
ges paid to the funds that its customers
invest in.
In 2018 TSB caused chaos for nearly
two million customers after a botched IT
upgrade meant many people were shown
the current accounts of other customers
when they logged in, or were blocked
from their own accounts. Experts from
IBM were hired to investigate. They said
the bank hadn’t carried out enough tests
to make sure the system would work
properly once it was switched on.
Martyn James from the complaints
website Resolver said banks and financial
firms have ageing IT systems that mean
even basic upgrades can go wrong and
prove expensive to fix. “The process of
modernising is tricky and, when it goes
“When they do, there’s often little prepa-
ration on how to help people with the
basics, like accessing their cash.”
The Pru said it was looking into the
cases and would check to ensure that cus-
tomers had not been financially disad-
vantaged as a result of its delays. It said
Hawkins and Rodd had now been paid.
The company said: “We encountered
some problems when implementing a
new system designed to offer our corpo-
rate pension customers greater digital
capability and online access to their poli-
cies. We have been working hard to
resolve the situation, including recruit-
ing and training over 100 additional staff
to meet the increased customer demand
we’re experiencing.”
It added: “We would like to emphasise
that there will be no financial detriment
to a customer’s claim or investment as a
result of the delays.”
YOUR STORY
Are you having trouble with
Prudential?
Email money@sundaytimes.co.uk
divorced from my dad when I was
young, had a normal nine-to-five job
with a steady income. Through
judicious saving she has a regular source
of income in her illness-free retirement.
When I observed the two of them, I
didn’t see my mum as being significantly
worse off despite my dad ostensibly
having the more successful career and
higher, though more fluctuating,
income.
Madoff’s own father was made
bankrupt when Bernie was growing up
and one wonders if this experience
drove the pyramid scheme-peddler to
make appalling, criminal decisions.
At some point his legitimate investment
company tipped into one that stole
other people’s money to avoid having to
lose his.
How much is enough? It’s the age-old
question, but my guess is that Bernie and
Ruth Madoff would have been happier if
they had traded in their private jets,
their villas in the Hamptons, Palm Beach
and the Cote D’Azur and made peace
with having a normal, uneventful life.
She could have eaten salt-free food
and, who knows, he might not have been
such a monster when the stress of
knowing a bomb was going to go off at
some point was taken away. The case for
mediocrity is increasingly compelling,
even in a world where advertising and
social media tells us otherwise.
How different things could have been
if Bernie had earned £68,840 a year.
James Coney is away
10 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021

MONEY

Sharing is Rejoice!
The 0.99%
caring: is this mortgage
is back
the future Imogen Tew and Kate Palmer
Homeowners will soon be able to get a
mortgage rate below 1 per cent for the

after Covid?
first time since the pandemic began.
Hinckley and Rugby Building Society
will this week offer a two-year 0.99 per
cent variable-rate loan to remortgagers
with 40 per cent equity. It comes with a
£999 product fee. The minimum loan is
£150,000 and the borrower cannot have
any credit issues.
With the costs of care likely to soar, the The variable rate is tied to the Bank of
England base rate, which is at a record
sandwich generation may need other low of 0.1 per cent.
Mark Harris from the mortgage broker
ways to fill the gaps, says Kate Palmer SPF Private Clients said: “It’s not clear
whether anyone is expecting further base
rate cuts. The reality with this deal is: can

P
amela Darge, 43 and her
mother, Aileen Fenn, 69, get
together every week for a
Sunday roast with Pamela’s
son, Harry, eight. All three
generations live under the
same roof, so they’ve been
able to keep up their weekly
tradition throughout the
pandemic.
Mother, daughter and grandson live in
the house in Rickmansworth, Hertford-
shire, that Pamela and Aileen bought for
just under £970,000 five years ago after
each selling their old homes.
Aileen, a retired osteopath, had lived
alone in a four-bedroom house near High
Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, but
decided it was time for change when she
was temporarily confined to the ground
floor after a fall. “Mum said, ‘Would you
consider buying somewhere together
and I can help you with childcare,’” said
Pamela, who works full time in events.
“She helps with the school run and when
the time comes for Mum to need help,
we’ll be there to support her.”
They used money from the sale of
Aileen’s home to build a one-bedroom
self-contained flat with a door to the liv-
ing room of the main home. The project
cost more than £100,000.
Aileen said she didn’t want to think
about going into a care home, and had
looked after her own parents after her
mother had a severe stroke. “I remember
saying to Mum, ‘I’ll struggle to do what
you did for Gran and Papa,” said Pamela.
The care-costs time bomb
Pamela is one of the sandwich generation
of people in their forties and fifties who
are bringing up children while also hav-
ing care responsibilities for their parents.
While many have benefited from house
price rises, they may well struggle to help
children through university and on to the
housing ladder while also footing care
bills for parents.
Age UK says the average care home
costs £600 a week (£800 a week for nurs-
ing care), but the bills can vary hugely
depending on where you live and your
specific needs. There are fears that costs
could be pushed higher due to the coro-
navirus pandemic, which has added to
the huge financial pressures on care
homes. As well as the costs of Covid-19
measures such as PPE and changes
needed for social distancing, they have
also had a drop in demand as families fear
further outbreaks of the virus.
Some 60 per cent of the sandwich gen-
eration have not spoken about the cost of
care with their parents, according to
research by the investment house Killik &
Co. The pandemic had forced 64 per cent
of those in their forties and fifties to
reflect on their family’s financial situa-
tion and just 9 per cent said that they
were confident their parents had consid-
ered their own care costs.
John Dovey, 40, a deputy head teacher
from Halesowen, West Midlands, said it
was too difficult to discuss with his par-
ents, who are in their seventies. “They’re
both healthy and active so it doesn’t seem
pressing, and it feels awkward. It’s a con-
versation I’d rather not have, one that
would possibly be emotional for all of us.”
Dovey said he has managed to save a
little more each month during the pan-
demic, but worries about paying for uni-
versity costs for his children as well as a
care bill. “I absolutely think care is some-
thing I will have to budget for, and that is
difficult because I have very little idea
about the cost.”
The funding system for social care is
She complex. The charity Age UK says that
families pay just under £8 billion a year
helps caring for elderly relatives — an average of
nearly £46,000 over a lifetime. There is
with the no cap on how much you have to contrib-
ute, so some families may pay for care for
school years. On Thursday an inquiry into the
£23 billion care sector closed its call for
run, and evidence, with many experts saying that
the funding system is “broken”.
we’ll be Who pays what
there to Care homes are run by private companies
and councils and costs vary. Anyone with
support savings of more than £23,250 will not
normally be able to get help with the cost
her of residential care from their council.
The exception is for those who qualify
for free care from the NHS, known as con-
tinuing healthcare, which can be pro-
vided at home, in a care or nursing home,
or a hospice. It’s normally for people with
long-term and complicated care needs,
requires you to have a needs assessment
by a social or healthcare professional,
then a full assessment by at least two pro-
fessionals, such as a doctor or social
worker.
When it comes to determining if you
need to pay for care, the council will look
at your income and savings and the value
of your property. Your home will be
included in your savings unless you get
care and support at home or your spouse
or partner is still living in your home and
you need to go into residential care.
The property market value, minus any
Pamela Darge’s mortgages or loans, will be taken, but
mother Aileen 10 per cent could be deducted for
Fenn now lives expenses associated with selling it (such
with her and as a lender’s early repayment charge).
helps with Some people consider giving their
childcare home away to family or friends, but coun-
cils will look out for what they call a depri-
vation of assets. If they think you have
deliberately given away property to avoid
fees, you would still have to pay care fees
as if you still owned your home.
Any gifts made within seven years of
your death could also be liable for inher-
itance taxes levied on your estate.
Does the system need to change?
Sir Andrew Dilnot, whose 2019 report
called for a reform to social care funding,
told MPs in July that means-testing cre-
ated a “horrible cliff edge” in social care
funding.
“It creates a great sense of unfairness,
and inefficiency, incentives to cheat and
all kinds of problems,” he said. Dilnot
said the means test looks after people
who can’t look after themselves, but
failed to help people who had the finan-
cial resources to plan ahead.
Boris Johnson promised to “fix the cri-
sis in social care once and for all”, but has
yet to unveil a plan of how to increase the
provision of care for the elderly.
This year the government is expected
to spend £20.2 billion on social care, but
the funding gap is still expected to reach
£7.7 billion by 2024, according to the
TIMES MONEY Health Foundation charity. The pan-
MENTOR demic is expected to have cost an extra
Take control of £6 billion.
your finances at Most care for the elderly is unpaid, by
thetimes.co.uk/ family members, neighbours and
money-mentor friends.
the borrower afford the gamble of rates
rising? If not, a fix would be advisable.”
The best two-year fixed rates are Plat-
form’s 1.06 per cent and Nationwide’s
1.08 per cent for remortgaging custom-
ers, available through brokers.
Many borrowers with lower deposits,
especially the self-employed, have strug-
gled to get loans during the coronavirus
pandemic as lenders withdrew high loan-
to-value deals. In February this year
there were just five 95 per cent loans on
the market. But the number of high LTV
mortgages offered now stands at 34, with
more expected as lenders move to use
the mortgage guarantee scheme.
According to the property website
Rightmove more sales were agreed on
March 23 than any other day in the past
ten years.
Banks and building societies are
expecting increased demand for loans as
buyers make the most of the chancellor’s
stamp duty holiday that has been
extended until July. It means that no duty
is payable on the first £500,000 value of
all homes. Second or additional homes
still attract a 3 per cent stamp duty sur-
charge
The government’s new Help to Buy
mortgage guarantee scheme, which
underwrites a portion of the mortgage
for borrowers with a 5 per cent deposit,
began on April 1.
Halifax will be the first lender to intro-
duce a 95 per cent deal under the
scheme, offering a two-year fixed rate of
3.73 per cent and a five-year fix at 4 per
cent, both with £999 fees, from tomor-
row.
HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Santander,
Virgin Money and NatWest had also all
said they will offer loans under the
scheme.

Lisa not only helps

returns you have earned from Over your lifetime you can
any interest or investments. save £1.073m into a pension
For a higher earner — a before the government

you buy a house,

person earning £50,000 — imposes punitive tax charges.
the fund would be worth So a higher-rate taxpayer who
about £233,000 over 30 years has reached the limit needs to

she can be a friend

if they contributed £4,000 a look elsewhere
year into their pension pot, A lower earner earning
or 8 per cent of their salary, £10,000 and enrolled in their

in retirement too
Kate Palmer
Most people do not realise
that the government scheme
that offers a 25 per cent top-
up can be a retirement pot as
well as a house fund.
Lisas were set up in 2017 as
a way to help first-time
buyers get on the property
ladder, paying a 25 per cent
government bonus on money
saved, but they are also
intended as a retirement
fund. They allow deposits of
up to £4,000 a year, to which
the government adds £1,000.
The money is held in cash or
invested in stocks and shares.
A little-known rule of the
Lisa is that homeowners who
have already cashed in their
bonus for a property deposit
can still open another Lisa, as
long as they are aged 18-39.
The money is accessible
from the age of 60, and it is
possible to save into a Lisa
until the age of 50. The
exception is if you pay into a
Lisa and close it in the same
tax year, as you cannot have
a new one in the same year.
Low earners and high
earners who have a lot of
savings can use a Lisa as an
alternative or supplement to
a traditional pension.
The most common type of
pension is known as a defined
contribution scheme, where
savers are taxed only when
they come to withdraw
money from their pension
pot. This can be done at the
age of 55, when 25 per cent
can be withdrawn as a tax-
free lump sum and 75 per
cent taxed as income.
With Lisas there is no tax
to pay on the money or the
according to AJ Bell. Of this,
£2,000 is from the individual,
£1,500 from the employer
and £500 from pensions tax
relief. It assumes 4 per cent
investment growth.
If they paid their £2,000
into a Lisa it would be topped
up to £2,500 with the 25 per
cent bonus. After 30 years, if
they enjoyed 4 per cent
yearly growth, it would be
worth £146,000.
“A pension is likely to be a
better port of call if you’re a
higher-rate taxpayer, because
you get more tax relief up
front,” said Laith Khalaf, a
financial analyst at AJ Bell.
company’s “net pay” scheme
would benefit too. A quirk in
the system means low
earners don’t get tax relief on
pension contributions.
The £10,000 earner would
have a pension pot of £41,000
after 30 years, assuming they
pay 4 per cent of their salary
into a pension and get no tax
relief but receive a 3 per cent
contribution from their
employer.
By saving the same amount
(£400 a year) into a Lisa they
could end up with £29,000
and get 25 per cent free from
the government.
In this case, although the
pension still pays more, the
Lisa is a good option should
the employee want to make
additional savings for their
retirement, because any extra
pension contributions would
not get any tax relief in the
net pay scheme.
Even without tax relief the
pension wins. As long as you
get a matched employer
contribution you end up with
a much bigger fund.
“A good long-term savings
plan will include a mix of
pensions, Isas and Lisas,”
Khalaf said.

What you get for an extra 1% . . .

Imogen Tew
Saving just 1 per cent more of
your salary into your pension
during your twenties can
increase your pot by a
quarter by retirement age.
Wealth at Work, a financial
education provider,
calculated that a 25-year-old
earning £20,000 and paying
5 per cent into a pension,
with an employer adding
3 per cent, could expect a pot
of about £99,340 by the time
they are 68, their expected
state pension age.
But if that worker were to
increase their contributions
1 per cent, and their
employer matched it, the
pension pot could grow to
£124,177 — 25 per cent more.
This assumes 5 per cent a
year investment growth,
annual salary increases of
2.5 per cent and pension
charges of 0.75 per cent.
That extra 2 per cent of
contributions would amount
to £400, but would only cost
the saver £136 because of the
employer’s contribution and
the savings on tax and
national insurance.
The same would be the
case for a higher earner and
higher-rate taxpayer.
If a 25-year-old earning
£55,000 was paying 8 per
cent into their pension —
including 3 per cent from
their employer — their pot
would reach about £273,190
by the age of 68. With an
extra 1 per cent from the
worker and employer, which
in this case is £550 each but,
with tax relief, costs the
worker £319, the pension
would grow to £341,486
instead. This, again, is an
increase of about 25 per cent.
Jonathan Watts-Lay, the
director of Wealth at Work,
said many young people felt a
pension was something they
did not need to worry about
during their twenties, despite
the benefits of saving for
longer. Since 2012 auto-
enrolment has added
10.2 million workers to a
workplace pension scheme. It
requires employers to
contribute a minimum of
3 per cent of a worker’s salary
to their pension, and the
employee 5 per cent.
There are still concerns the
UK population is not saving
enough to fund lifestyles and
care costs in retirement.
To retire at the age of 67
with a yearly retirement
income of £20,000, savers
would need to accumulate a
pot of £700,000, according to
the investment platform
Interactive Investor.
The Sunday Times April 18, 2021 11

MONEY

Ian Cowie Personal Account

Profitable lift-off or burst balloon?
My punt on helium could go either way

B
onkers, totally bonkers. That
would be a reasonable reac-
tion to what I have just done
— especially if you said it in a
squeaky, high-pitched voice.
Maybe I am suffering from
a form of madness after
months of lockdown, or per-
haps recent rising share pri-
ces have turned bull run
bravery into sheer folly. Either way, I just
broke all the rules with my latest invest-
ment.
It’s a “penny stock”, which is high risk,
engaged in gas exploration, which is even
riskier. It is based in one of the world’s
poorest countries, next door to another
where an armed insurrection left decapi-
tated bodies in the streets last month.
So, for the avoidance of any doubt,
perhaps I had better emphasise that this
column is not financial advice, and no
recommendation is implied by what is
merely the personal account of one DIY
investor.
With drilling due to start next month,
the shares I bought for 10.6p each could
be worthless within weeks if the wells
prove dry. This is what City suits call a
binary bet. In plain English, it’s hit or
miss and much closer to speculation than
investment. So why did I do it?
Five years ago, academics from Dur-
ham and Oxford universities were seek-
ing to solve global supply shortages of
helium. As you may know — although I
freely confess I did not — this gas is the
second-most abundant element in the
universe, but it is very hard to hold on to
because it is so light and the molecules
are so small it keeps disappearing into the
atmosphere.
Unlike hydrogen, helium is inert, so
we need not worry about explosions, and
it has the lowest boiling point of any
chemical element. Its super-cooling
properties make it vital for cloud com-
puting, data centres and magnetic reso-
nance imaging (MRI) for medical scans.
Other characteristics make it useful for
excited about helium. In addition to ris-
ing demand from data centres — includ-
ing those that power cryptocurrencies
— plus MRI scanners, military rockets
and space satellites, helium is handy
for keeping vaccines very cold, as
required by Pfizer (PFE) and other
companies’ coronavirus jabs.
So a green, clean and carbon-
neutral form of this gas could
become increasingly valuable if
rising demand meets a fixed sup-
ply. The latter might even fall as the
US nears the end of a 25-year pro-
gramme to privatise its helium
reserves.
Against all that, if imminent drill-
ing in the Great Rift Valley disap-
points, HE1 will deflate from its
£65 million stock market value
as rapidly as a burst balloon.
Nobody should invest a
penny in this outfit unless
they are prepared to lose it.
Even so, it is only fair to
say I have enjoyed uplift-
ing returns from carbon-
free hydrogen, closer to
home, with Sheffield’s
ITM Power (ITM). That
the Durham and Oxford academics even- green dream prompted sul-
tually discovered a pure or carbon-neu- phurous cynicism from
tral helium field estimated to contain some readers when I wrote
138 billion cubic feet of the gas, or enough about it here last year with, no
to match current global demand for 20 doubt, more to come today.
years. Either way, I have punted only
Less fortunately, they found it in Tan- just over 1 per cent of my “forever”
zania, a country best-known for a dor- fund on this new stake. That’s enough
mant volcano, Mount Kilimanjaro, the for me to care about but not enough to
highest peak in Africa. Tanzania qualified lose any sleep over. HE1 is just a small part
for “frontier market” status only last in a global portfolio of about 50 shares,
year, which means independent statisti- with most of my money in big and long-
cians at FTSE Russell regard it as riskier established businesses. So there is some
than an “emerging market” but just method in my madness.
about investable. Talk of the Great Rift Valley reminds
Africa’s only female political leader, me of King Solomon’s Mines but I don’t
Samia Suluhu Hassan, was sworn in last not their neighbours’ keepers. Dozens of suppose many people read Rider Hag-
month and said she wants to encourage deaths in nearby Mozambique — includ- gard these days.
helium exploration. But Tanzanians are ing the murder of gas exploration work- Out of Africa or out of my mind? You
ers — remain a timely reminder of how decide. But it does demonstrate that
Let the losses
in my forever
fund be a
warning to all
Cowie’s clangers — shares whose price
fell 10 per cent or more after I bought
them — are rarer than they used to be
now that stock markets are hitting new
highs. So it is more important than ever
to remind prospective investors of the
risks, and how low share prices can go.
Versarien (VRS) is my stand-out
stinker, having slumped 77 per cent,
according to Hargreaves Lansdown’s
helpful online calculator. This
Cheltenham-based maker of a “wonder
material” called graphene remains a
solution in search of a problem.
Schroder UK Public Private (SUPP),
the start-ups investment trust, is down
64 per cent. Thank heavens neither of
this dreadful duo ever accounted for
more than 1 per cent of my forever fund.
Carnival (CCL) is a more serious
mistake. Although it is “only” 56 per cent
down, nearer 2 per cent of my money
was on board when the coronavirus
holed this cruise ship operator below the
waterline. Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) was
a similar-sized stake before Covid closed
down the global economy and many
investors shunned fossil fuels. Nobody
says “never sell Shell” now and my stake
has shrunk 41 per cent.
Dignity (DTY), the funeral director,
got into a price war and fell into a deep
hole. Now an unseemly row has broken
out between its board of directors and its
biggest shareholder while this small
investor has suffered a 17 per cent paper

10.6p
the production of semiconductors, the
building blocks of almost everything digi-
tal. Three sources in the United States,
Qatar and Russia account for three quar-
ters of the world’s supply.
Most helium in current use is a
by-product of oil and hydrocarbon gas
refining. That means it increases carbon
emissions, which more than 190 coun-
tries are committed to decrease via
United Nations treaties and other pledges
to cut pollution. So it was fortunate that
real the physical dangers are.
So it was brave of Helium One Global
(stock market ticker: HE1) to raise capital
on London’s alternative investment mar-
ket (AIM) to fund further exploration last
December. The share price doubled on
the first day’s trading and surged another
11 per cent in one day earlier this month,
which caught my attention and led to this
The share price for modest investment.
Helium One Global Eagle-eyed readers may already have
when Cowie invested guessed why Mr Market is becoming
diversification does not have to be bor-
ing.
You don’t get this kind of high — or low
— from a tracker fund.
Let’s hope I won’t wake up with a head-
ache next month.
ST DIGITAL
Read a full list of Ian Cowie’s
‘forever’ fund
thesundaytimes.co.uk/cowieholdings
loss. BlackRock Latin American (BRLA)
investment trust reminds me why City
cynics say Brazil is the country of
tomorrow — and always will be. About
16 per cent of my stake has sambaed off
into the crowd, perhaps never to be seen
again.
When the going is good, it is easy
to forget how badly stock market
investment can go wrong. So six of the
worst might be salutary. Don’t say you
weren’t warned.

Fill your wallet as well as your

stomach with new food firms
LATEEF OKUNNU

David Brenchley European restaurants and

The lockdowns have forced
many businesses to change
tack — some for the better.
Jonny Boud had been
thinking about a change of
menu before Covid-19 forced
his restaurants to close for
most of 2020.
His plan to open a salad
bar restaurant in central
London was in tatters, so
Boud, from Chiswick in west
London, turned Local Greens
into a dark kitchen — where
food is produced exclusively
for delivery — by renting part
of an Indian restaurant in
Kensington Olympia.
Kitchen Ventures now
owns four chef-led delivery
platforms is expected to grow
from £15 billion in 2020 to
$21.38 billion by 2024.
“There will be winners and
losers, but the long-term shift
in consumer behaviour
means there should be a very
big market opportunity for
the winners,” said Rebecca
Hunt from Octopus Ventures,
which runs venture capital
trusts.
“Given the size of the
prize, we should see lots
more disruption from new
challengers, probably with
New foodies: having these things at their new and more efficient
Gizzi Erskine and fingertips.” business models.”
Professor Green Dark kitchens can reduce Alice de Lamaze from
overheads for smaller Pictet Asset Management said
restaurants, potentially she was “very selective”

brands, including Giz ‘n’
Green, which makes pizzas
and was set up by the chef
Gizzi Erskine and the rapper
Professor Green. In January,
it secured £1.47 million in
seed funding.
This is one of the many
ways in which restaurants
54%
making them more
profitable, but online
delivery has generally always
been an unprofitable
business. As Just Eat’s chief
Deliveroo growth executive noted, “it is very
in 2020, down difficult to make a profit on
from 62% in 2019 logistics.” Tesco has just
announced a profit from its
when picking stocks in food
delivery. “Bridging the gig
economy with decent work
environments is a challenge
and requires significant
commitments.”
De Lamaze said she
preferred to invest in delivery
companies that employ their

have adapted to the
pandemic, and could be part
of the future of takeaway
food.
It is easy to see the boom in
food delivery services as a
result of the three lockdowns,
but the market has been
thriving for years,
particularly in big cities like
London. Deliveroo grew sales
54 per cent in the 12 months
to December 2020, but in the
year to December 2019 they
grew 62 per cent.
Boud, 34, reckons the
convenience provided by the
likes of Deliveroo, Just Eat
and Getir, which promises to
deliver groceries to your
home in minutes, is here to
stay.
“I think the restaurant
market will come back, but
it’s almost certain that
delivery is [still] going to be a
huge part of the hospitality
industry in the UK.
“It extends beyond just
cooked meals. Groceries are
becoming an incredibly
popular marketplace. People
are going to get very used to
£15bn
internet channel in 2020, the
first time in 25 years.
It is competitive, too. Uber
Eats is another key player,
while the United States and
Europe have the likes of
Value of the food Doordash and Delivery Hero.
delivery business That is part of the reason
in Europe in 2020 Deliveroo’s recent flotation
was a spectacular flop. Shares
started trading at 251p, 35 per
DELIVERING THE GOODS cent down on the initial offer
price of 390p. That said,
Investment growth other problems for Will Shu’s
Just Eat company were the sky-high
Delivery Hero valuation for an unprofitable
GrubHub company and concerns over
the employment status of its
120% workers, who are self-
employed.
100 Investors will be closely
watching regulation, after the
80 Supreme Court ruled Uber
drivers must be treated as
60 workers rather than self-
employed. Uber said that the
40 ruling relates solely to its taxi
business, but it may
20 eventually extend to the
whole gig economy system.
0 There is still plenty of
2020 2021 potential for the sector.
Source: Morningstar Direct Online food delivery for
couriers directly or via an
agency, and give them
equipment and incentives.
Other positives include using
electric and hybrid vehicles
and developing
biodegradable packaging.
Laura Hoy, an equity
analyst at Hargreaves
Lansdown, said that while
appetite for delivery services
is here to stay, “the past year
was probably as good as it’s
going to get for them”. She
was “sceptical about their
future path to profits”.
Just Eat considers itself
an order and payment
processor, with fulfilling
orders a smaller part of its
business. Hoy thinks this
unique business model,
alongside its massive global
footprint, puts it in a strong
position. “This focus on
offering a one-stop search for
hungry patrons has plenty of
room to scale up, both
geographically and into new
product categories. Plus, with
a price-to-sales ratio of 3.7, its
valuation is at the bottom end
of the industry average.”
12 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021

MONEY

Best Buys THE

FIVER
CURRENT ACCOUNTS FOREIGN MORTGAGES 5
CREDIT INTEREST
Provider Account name Account fee Reward Balance Contact
CURRENCY 2-YEAR FIXED RATES
Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact
Interbank rates at 5pm
Halifax Reward Current Account None £5 a month – 0345 720 3040 First Direct 1.24% Fixed for 2 years 40% £490 LV 0800 482 448
on Friday, which show
TSB Spend & Save None £5 a month – 0345 975 8758 where the market is Leeds BS 1.95% Fixed to 31.07.23 20% £999 LV 0345 045 4049
Co-operative Bank Current with Everyday Rewards None £2 a month – 0345 721 2212 trading. They are not Coventry BS 2.99% Fixed to 30.06.23 10% £999 PV 0800 121 8899 5
indicative of the rate
OVERDRAFTS * 3-YEAR FIXED RATES
you could get.
Provider Account name Account fee Interest rate 1 0% overdraft limit Contact Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact 5
Starling Bank Current Account None 15% £0 starlingbank.com
EURO
TSB
Leeds BS
1.44%
1.99%
Fixed to 31.08.24
Fixed to 31.0.24
40%
20%
£995
£999
RS
LV
0800 056 1088
0345 045 4049 FIVE THINGS
First Direct 1st Account None 39.9% £250 0345 600 2424
YOU NEED TO

1.15
Virgin Money M Plus Account None 19.9% £0 0345 600 6103
GBP>EUR Virgin 2.77% Fixed to 1.08.24 15% £0 LV 0345 605 0500
1
Equivalent annual rate. LONG-TERM FIXED RATES KNOW ABOUT . . .
TERRY SMITH’S
* Based on overdraft of £500 for 7 days a month.
Some accounts require minimum funding/direct debits to open or receive rates shown. Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact
Source: moneyfacts.co.uk
NatWest
First Direct
1.28%
2.19%
Fixed to 30.06.26
Fixed for 5 years
40%
20%
£995
£490
LV
LV
0800 400 999
0800 482 448
PAY PACKET
Yorkshire BS 3.38% Fixed to 31.05.26 10% £995 PV 0345 166 9510
USA
CREDIT CARDS
1
1.38
GBP>USD Barclays 1.99% Fixed to 31.05.3 40% £999 LV 0333 202 7580 This week it was
revealed that
INTRODUCTORY RATES TRACKERS */ DISCOUNTS
the founder of
Provider Card type Introductory purchase APR 1 Reward Contact Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact Fundsmith, the country’s
Lloyds Bank Purchase & Balance Transfer Mastercard 0% for 21 months 19.9% No 0345 602 1997 Nationwide 1.39% Tracker+1.29% for 2 years 40% £999 ERS 0800 302 010 biggest fund, pocketed
MBNA 0% Transfer & Purchase Mastercard 0% for 20 months 20.9% No 0345 606 2062 HSBC 2.99% Tracker+2.89% for 2 years 15% £999 ELV 0800 494 999 a cool £29.7 million
Newbury BS 1.69% 2.26% discount for 5 years 25% £850 LV 01635 555 777 in the 12 months to the
Barclaycard All-rounder Visa 0% for 20 months 21.9% No 0808 151 0900
end of March 2020,
SWITZERLAND First Direct 2.19% Tracker+2.09% for term 25% £490 ELV 0800 482 448
almost twice as much as

1.27
BALANCE TRANSFERS GBP>CHF FIRST-TIME BUYER / LOW DEPOSIT the previous year.
Provider Card type Introductory purchase Transfer fee 2 APR 1 Contact

2
Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact
M&S Bank Bank Transfer Plus Mastercard 0% for 29 months 2.75% (min £5) 21.9% 0800 997 996 This accounted
Skipton BS 3.95% Fixed to 31.07.23 5% £0 PV 0345 850 1755
Sainsbury’s Bank Balance Transfer Mastercard 0% for 29 months 3% (min £3) 21.9% 0808 540 5060 for 61 per cent
Coventry BS 3.89% Fixed to 30.06.26 5% £999 PV 0800 121 8899
Virgin Money Balance Transfer Mastercard 0% for 29 months 3% (min £3) 21.9% 0800 389 2875 of Fundsmith’s
Nationwide BS 1.84% Fixed for 5 years 25% £999 HV 0800 302 010 £48.5 million profit.
CASHBACK CARDS

3
BUY TO LET
Provider Card type APR 1 Cashback Contact AUSTRALIA Lender Rate Scheme Deposit Fee Notes Contact
A £10,000

1.79
American Express Platinum Cashback 27.3% 1%-1.25%. Intro 5% for 3 months 0800 917 8047
GBP>AUD investment in
HSBC 1.44% Tracker+1.34% for 2 years 40% £1,999 ELV 0800 494 999 Smith’s flagship
American Express Platinum Cashback Everyday 22.2% 0.5%-1%. Intro 5% for 3 months 0800 917 8047 TSB 1.69% Fixed to 30.06.23 25% £1,995 LV 0800 056 1088 Fundsmith Equity fund at
Santander All in One Mastercard 23.7% 0.5% 0800 912 3123 Virgin 3.59% Fixed to 01.08.26 20% £995 RT 0345 605 0500 its launch in November
1
APR = annual percentage rate, dependent on credit rating. 2 Fee charged on the amount of each balance transfer during the introductory period. Early repayment charge applies unless otherwise stated. * Most deals track Bank of England base rate. 2010 would today be
Source: moneyfacts.co.uk Notes: SVR = Standard variable rate; E = No early repayment charge; H = Help to Buy; L = Free legal work for remortgages; P = Purchases only; worth £58,000. That’s
R = Free valuation and legal work for remortgages; S = Remortgage only; T = £500 cashback for purchases; V = Free valuation almost £25,000 more
Source: landc.co.uk — 0800 373 300
than the return on the
Vanguard Global Stock
SAVINGS ACCOUNTS Index fund, the largest
INSTANT ACCESS index tracker fund in the
IA Global sector and
Provider
Yorkshire BS
Account name Min deposit Interest rate Contact
CASH ISAS so a good comparison
Annual Access Issue 7 £100 0.5% ybs.co.uk INSTANT ACCESS for Fundsmith.

4
Paragon Limited Edition Easy Access Account £1 0.41% paragonbank.co.uk Provider Account name Min deposit Interest Transfers in Contact
Marcus by Goldman Sachs Online Savings Account £1 0.4% marcus.co.uk Kent Reliance
The rival fund
Easy Access Isa Issue 28 £1,000 0.45% Yes kentreliance.co.uk
managers Nick
Yorkshire BS Annual Access Isa Issue 4 £100 0.45% Yes ybs.co.uk
NOTICE ACCOUNTS Train and Michael
FIXED RATE Lindsell at Lindsell Train
Provider Account name Notice period Min deposit Interest rate Contact
Provider Account name Term Min deposit Rate Transfers in Contact equally shared
Moneycorp Bank1 90-Day Notice Issue 1 90 days £10,000 0.65% moneycorpbank.com £31.2 million in dividends
Charter Savings Bank 1-Year Fixed Rate Cash Isa 1 year £5,000 0.45% Yes chartersavingsbank.co.uk
Secure Trust Bank 120-day Notice 120 days £1,000 0.6% securetrustbank.com between them in the
Tipton & Coseley BS Isa fixed to 30.6.23 2 years £1,000 0.6% No thetipton.co.uk
Oxbury Bank Personal 95-day Notice Issue 3 95 days £1,000 0.52% oxbury.co.uk 12 months leading
Source: savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354
up to January 2020.
FIXED-RATE BONDS

5
Provider Account name Term Min deposit Interest rate Contact Smith thinks anyone
who doesn’t like it
Raisin 1-Year Fixed Term Deposit 1 year £1,000 0.61% raisin.co.uk
should lump it.
Zopa 2-Year Fixed Term Savings 2 years £1,000 0.77% zopa.com “My view is that if people
Hodge Bank 3-Year Fixed Rate Account 3 years £1,000 0.95% hodgebank.co.uk — my investors — are
1
Protected by the Gibraltar Deposit Guarantee Scheme CHILDREN’S ACCOUNTS happy with the returns
DEALS ARE LISTED ONLY IF THEY ARE COVERED BY THE UK FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME (FSCS) OR A EUROPEAN EQUIVALENT I have made for them,
Provider Account name Account type Min deposit Interest rate Contact
Source: savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354
Halifax Kids’ Monthly Saver Regular Saver £10 3.5% halifax.co.uk then they should just
focus on that and remain
Santander 1 123 Mini Current Account Current Account £1,500 2.96% santander.co.uk
happy” he told the
HSBC2 MySavings Easy Access £10 2.47% hsbc.co.uk website This is Money last
1
Interest paid on balances between £1,500 and £2,000 2 0.25% paid on balances above £3,000 year. “If they’re not happy

ENERGY DEALS Supplier Average annual bill Rate Contact

JUNIOR ISAS
Provider Account name Min deposit Interest rate Rate Contact
with what they are getting
from me, then they
Table shows the cheapest tariff from the three 3 cheapest Neo Energy £873 Fixed 0800 702 2683* shouldn’t be invested
suppliers.Excludes
cheapest suppliers.fixed
Excludes
tariffsfixed
of less
tariffs
thanof12 Bath BS Junior Cash Isa £1 2.5% Variable bathbuildingsociety.co.uk
months’
less thanduration.
12 months’
Excludes
duration,tariffs
tariffs
that
that
do not have Green £896 Variable 0800 702 2698* in our funds.”
Darlington BS Junior Cash Isa 2 £1 2.5% Variable darlington.co.uk
national
do not have
coverage.
nationalExcludes
coverage tariffs
and tariffs
where payments
are taken
where payments
in advance
are taken
of theincustomer
advancecoming
of on Outfox the Market £908 Variable 0330 100 5487*
Dudley BS Cash Junior Isa £1 2.5% Variable dudleybuildingsociety.co.uk David Brenchley
supply.
the customer
F=Fixed
coming
rates V=Variable
on supply. rates *Phone numbers provided will call through to theenergyshop.com switch support team. Source: theenergyshop.com — 0800 448 0205
Source: savingschampion.co.uk — 0808 178 5354

Subway takes Forget the life coach, now you Desperately

a big bite out of seeking solutions
landlords’ rent need a guru for your finances for our cash crisis
GETTY IMAGES

David Byers Margolis said he gave his
franchisee a rent-payment
The sandwich giant Subway holiday for the first four
has again been accused of months of the pandemic.
taking tens of thousands of Subway has struggled, with
pounds of rent for its shops a vastly reduced number of
and not passing it on to small customers during the
landlords. pandemic. Restaurant
Adam Margolis, 42, a Business, an American
commercial property hospitality industry
investor, said he was owed magazine, estimated that up
£8,500 in rent by the to 2,400 — or about 10 per
American-owned giant for cent — of Subway’s
the first quarter of this restaurants had closed in
year on his outlet in the US last year, although
Welwyn Garden City, even Subway has refused to
though his franchisee had confirm the figures.
paid Subway. In November the property
He said the sandwich giant, investor James Mitchell, 69,
which has 2,229 outlets in the revealed the company owed
UK, had been impossible to him £9,585 for a unit he owns
contact. The payment was in Dalston, east London, even
due on March 25. though his tenant had paid
Margolis, who lives in Subway in full. Mitchell, a
Hertfordshire, said he was retired commercial property
also owed £40,000 for lawyer, was eventually
Subway’s offices in central refunded after an
London, from where it runs intervention by Times Money.
its British franchising Small commercial
operations. landlords have accused other
He says that “after months big-company tenants that
of trying” he is negotiating survived the pandemic of
with the group. taking advantage of them by
“I have a good relationship paying little or nothing of the
with the franchisee, who was rent they owed. In December
hugely apologetic, but has landlords complained about
paid his bill,” Margolis said. Boots Opticians, the
“Subway has been restaurant chain Nando’s, the
completely silent. I rely dentistry chain My Dentist
on that income to support and the furniture giant SCS.
my family, and I should Subway said: “As Subway
not be subsidising their stores are 100 per cent locally
business.” owned and operated
franchised businesses, we are
liaising with the landlord, but
our records show all invoices
Imogen Tew
A year ago Andy Malliff was
saving very little and his
family were living from
month to month despite his
six-figure salary.
After seeing a financial
coach he has paid off his
debts, set up critical illness
and income protection
policies and drawn up a will.
He also pays £150 a month
into a Junior Isa for his
two-year-old son, Freddie,
uses a proper budget every
month, contributes more to
his pension — up from 8 per
cent of his salary to 12 per
cent — and plans to start
funnelling £1,000 a month
into an Isa.
“There was no reason with
my earnings that we should
ever have been living from
month to month, but we had
failed to plan and didn’t think
about the money we spent,”
said Malliff, 34, from Reading.
Financial coaching sits in
the gap between traditional
financial advice and the
do-it-yourself route. It is
potentially suitable for those
who would like guidance on
their finances, but do not yet
have sufficient assets to
warrant full-blown advice.
While financial coaches
cannot recommend specific
products or investments —
that falls within regulated
financial advice — they can
talk you through your
options, explain the benefits
and disadvantages of
A good coach can make your money work harder for you
cent of your investable assets.
You usually need to have
at least £100,000, so you
would pay a minimum of £42
a month.
Robo-advice solutions,
which use algorithms to
support investment
decisions, cost between
0.5 and 1.14 per cent for the
whole investment process,
and could be an option. Yet
they primarily help you to
choose products rather than
work out how much you want
to spend, save, invest or put
in a pension.
Hatch was bought by the
financial services group
Octopus earlier this month.
Renamed Octopus
patterns and making a clear Imogen Tew working with the Post Office
plan for the future. to refurbish and expand its
“But while financial Plans to open a community counter, which is in the back
coaching is typically more banking hub in Ampthill, of a newsagent.
affordable than regulated Bedfordshire, have been More than 500 bank
advice, it is unlikely to scrapped because they branches have been closed or
provide as much value and couldn’t find a venue. earmarked for closure this
ultimately leaves the The main banks are year. The consumer group
individual with the challenge working with the Post Office Which? says 4,000 have
of selecting their own to open hubs in rural closed since 2015 at a rate of
products and funds.” communities where residents about 50 a month.
Colin and Charlene have no access to cash. The The Community Access to
Waterworth, 46 and 42, hubs, provided by the Cash programme is looking to
began using a financial coach Community Access to Cash help in areas where branches
last year, having become Pilots programme, will allow and cash machines have
financially secure and built people to go to a physical disappeared. One option is to
up equity in their home. outlet regardless of who they use local shops to provide
The couple, from bank with to withdraw or cashback over the counter,
Moneycoach, it plans to Cambridge, went into the deposit cash and get face-to- which is being trialled in Hay-
increase its number of process open-minded and face support. on-Wye in Powys and
coaches from 30 to 200 over with plans to buy a second The Ampthill hub , Burslem in Staffordshire.
two years. Octopus is property or a holiday home. however, has been put on Free-to-use ATMs have
investing £10 million in After discussions with their hold. The last bank in town, been placed in villages that
its growth. financial coach, they opted NatWest, shut in 2017. had lost theirs, such as
There are things to be wary instead to focus on the future Natalie Ceeney, who runs Lulworth Camp in Dorset,
of. As a small, unregulated of their children’s savings. the scheme, said it was while Botton Village in North
industry, financial coaching Colin said: “For us, the fact important the hub was Yorkshire is working with
lacks common standards. they had the modelling sustainable once the pilot charities to make it easier for
While coaches at Octopus helped to cement the ideas ended. It is hoped the big people to access debt advice.
Moneycoach must have a and opened our eyes to how banks will pick up the tab for The Financial Services Bill,
degree, take an eight-week investment opportunities the shared branches if the which is due to be debated
training programme and could work for the kids. pilots prove successful. in the House of Lords, may
have their work reviewed, “We knew about this stuff, She said: “If we’re serious now include an amendment
this is not always the but running the numbers and about shared branches, we that would mean people
case elsewhere. seeing what they could be need to move more quickly to could withdraw cash from
Although regulated advice when our kids are 58 was use former bank premises, local shops without having to
can sometimes lead you to such an eye-opener.” before they get swooped up buy anything.
unregulated investments, They have opened up as other amenities.” Wirral, Preston and
high-risk schemes and scams Junior Isas for Charlie, ten, The scheme has opened Liverpool councils are
if you end up with a rogue and Matilda, seven, and hubs in Rochford in Essex, working to set up a
worker, you are less have invested £6,000 into which has its first bank since community bank, North West
protected with a financial each pot. They have also put 2017, and Cambuslang in Mutual, to serve residents in
coach because coaching £1,000 into premium bond South Lanarkshire. the area. It will look for
is unregulated. accounts for each child and In Ampthill the scheme is investors from other local
Martin Bamford from the are planning to invest £2,880 authorities and hopes to
financial planning company every year into a pension for reopen branches in the

received have been paid.”
However, Margolis said:
“The invoice was sent out
well before the rent was due.
On numerous occasions we
have tried to be in contact
with Subway for payment but
Subway: 2,229 UK outlets we received no reply.”
different routes and show you
how your money may grow.
Hatch, the financial
coaching company used by
Malliff, costs a set fee of £14
a month, whereas traditional
financial advice typically
costs between 0.5 and 1 per
Andy Malliff with his wife,
Natalie, and son, Freddie
4,000
Informed Choice, said: both children. region. OneBanks, a digital
“Financial coaching, done The idea is that the start-up, is running a trial hub
well, can be a boost to children will have the in the small town of Denny,
financial resilience. We’ve premium bond cash if they near Falkirk, allowing anyone
seen examples of great need funds before they turn to deposit or withdraw cash,
outcomes including clarity 18, the Junior Isa once they bank branches make payments, transfer
around financial goals, turn 18 and the pension at closed since funds and get help in setting
clearing negative thought retirement. 2015 up online banking.
The Sunday Times April 18, 2021 13

MONEY

People with
glasshouses
shouldn’t
postpone . . .
that about a quarter had been erected.
QUESTION
TION “They continue to make multiple

OF MONEY
NEY
excuses and rarely answer my emails for
an update,” you said.

JILL INSLEY
SLEY
I spoke to the managing director, who
blamed delays on the pandemic and said
that the glass had just arrived at his yard.
“We’re hoping to get to him this week
(depending on the weather) to progress,

W
e ordered and paid
£8,000 for a new
greenhouse in June
2019 for delivery and
erection in September
2019, from Pure, the
frameless greenhouse
company. It is still
taking orders via its
website, but we are
still waiting for our greenhouse, with
the managing director making multiple
excuses and broken promises with dates
for delivery. Please can you help us?
You helped me some years ago when
Vodafone cancelled my pay-as-you-go
phone and confiscated my money. I look
forward to your expert help again to
enable me to enjoy my new greenhouse,
a wonderful present from my wife for
my 80th birthday.
Jill replies
You are a Chelsea gold medal-winning
horticulturist and I could see instantly
why you wanted a greenhouse from this
company. Its designs are gorgeous. Who
knew that removing the frame could
make it a thing of such beauty?
However, the service you have
received is far from beautiful. You
contacted me at the start of the first
lockdown last year after waiting seven
months for your greenhouse. Before
you could provide me with any
information the managing director of
Pure promised that your commission
would be at the top of the company’s list
once it could start work again, so you
decided to wait.
You next contacted me in September
2020 — a year after the greenhouse was
supposed to have been delivered — to say
so hopefully [he] will be satisfied,” he
said. “We will need this week and a
further visit, but we will be well on the
way to getting his job finished.”
More weeks passed and no one
arrived. We both continued to chase the
company, and this time the excuse was
the lack of transport. “Had we a van
available we would be on site to continue
the greenhouse already. It’s not an ideal
situation for us. In all honesty we’d like
to get this job out of the way so we can all
move forwards.”
Then the installers had to quarantine,
and at the end of October, after another
missed appointment, the managing
director told me Pure would be working
on your greenhouse the next day. “We
anticipate we will have the greenhouse
fully signed over in the next 14 days,” he
said. A team did turn up and they built
the sides, back and front, leaving the
roof including ventilation, the doors,
and the staging to be completed.
The company continued to make and
break promises, but you received a call
at the end of February. The managing
director told you that Pure had all the
glass and equipment for completion.
The problem was finding a team — “one
has gone for a Covid test today,” you
said. “[The managing director] says that
he may be able to come at short notice.”
A month later you emailed me to say
there had been no progress.
On March 29 the managing director
called me to say an installation team
would arrive that Saturday. Then he
called you to say that the team would
now come the following Monday. They
did, delivering the rest of the glass, but
couldn’t do the construction as they
were missing an A-frame that supports
the roof. They returned on Wednesday
and installed the roof, but you said the
doors were fitted incorrectly and the
team did not have the necessary
brackets to complete the staging.
So, nearly two years after your wife
paid the deposit, and 20 months after
your greenhouse was due to be
delivered, you are still waiting for it to be
completed. Covid has made life difficult
for all businesses, but this problem
started long before the virus was even a
twinkle in a bat’s eye.
I don’t often write up complaints
before they are resolved, but you wanted
me to go ahead in the hope that it
prevents other readers being trapped in
the same cycle of excuses and delays. I
sincerely hope you are wrong when you
say: “At 81 years old I am fast running out
of time to use the greenhouse!”
In need of a tonik after
this energy sapper
My wife and I had a combined gas and
electric account for our house in
Fareham with Tonik from 2017 until the
company wound up in October 2020 —
as did our daughter for the house that
she occupied near by.
At the end of July last year my
daughter moved back home to us. On
that day the final gas and electric meter
readings were given to Tonik by phone
and email with photos.
A woman in the call centre said that it
could take up to six weeks to send us a
refund of the outstanding credit. Tonik
had not provided an account statement
since January 2020 and we assumed that
a refund was due. One month later we
had an email from Tonik saying that it
knew my daughter had moved to a
different supplier, but could not close
her account because it hadn’t received
the final readings from the new supplier.
We called to explain that the account
had been closed, no new provider was
involved and we needed the refund.
A month later she was invited to
submit a complaint. The next day —
October 2 — we heard from Ofgem that
Tonik was being wound up. Scottish
Power took over Tonik’s retail accounts
and two weeks later the company sent
a final energy statement saying my
daughter was £1,646 in credit.
On January 1 this year I had my first
bill from Scottish Power, for £527, which
it agreed to offset against the credit due
to my daughter. Despite this, I had
several reminders to pay, and no refund
was issued to my daughter. In March
Scottish Power said it would like to
discuss an affordable repayment plan
for the £527 bill — not the £1,646 that
Scottish Power owed us. I am caught on
a high tariff and would like to change
suppliers, but am unable to since the
new supplier requires that I settle my
Scottish Power bill first. Please help.
CAN WE HELP YOU?
Please email your questions to Jill
Insley at questionofmoney@sunday-
times.co.uk or write to Question of
Money, The Sunday Times, 1 London
Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF.
Please send only copies of original
documents. Letters should be
exclusive to The Sunday Times.
Advice is offered without legal
responsibility. We regret Jill cannot
reply to everyone who contacts her.
Jill replies
It didn’t surprise me that payment of
your daughter’s credit had become so
delayed: it always seems to take a long
time for those administering the transfer
of accounts from one energy company
to another to work their way through
customers, especially if the refund of
credits has to be verified. On top of that
you were thinking outside the box by
asking for your bill to be set against your
daughter’s credit balance. Although this
might seem a logical thing to do, I
suspect that requesting any energy
company to do something slightly
unusual is asking for trouble.
I asked Scottish Power to resolve your
complaint, and it has refunded the credit
balance to your daughter and your
energy bill has been settled, so you are
free to switch. Good luck.
Still no refund for the
holiday we never had
I would like to think that I’m a calm,
patient person, but I’m beginning to get
extremely riled about the way I’m being
treated by Lloyds Bank.
We bought airline tickets in November
2019 from Turkish Airways and a couple
of domestic Turkish airlines. Yet like
millions of others our holiday plans were
over for the foreseeable future. We
heeded the advice from travel experts
that we should wait and not be too
demanding as these companies would
be inundated with customers looking for
refunds. In May 2020 I contacted all the
airlines and hotels requesting a refund.
Some of the hotels refunded, but
none of the airlines offered so much as
a voucher. Having used my Lloyds credit
card to pay for the flights I got in touch
with the bank in June.
I was asked to complete a claims form
online and was very thorough, giving all
the details requested. To Lloyds’s credit
I did receive a number of repayments
back on to my credit card, which I was
grateful for. However, there are two
outstanding payments.
One is from eSKY UK, a booking
agent, for £146 and another is from
Turkish Airlines for £110. The Turkish
Airlines refund doesn’t really make
sense as it was for an alteration to a
ticket whose main part has already
been refunded.
After countless phone calls and
having twice resubmitted the claims
form, I received messages from Lloyds
Bank in October and December
confirming that the funds had been
repaid to the credit card. This hasn’t
happened. I’ve phoned six times
since December and keep being told
different stories.
Please can you help? I’m on a state
pension but have a part-time job to
pay for these trips which we love. My
wife is a nursing assistant on a low wage,
so this money will make a big difference
to us.
Jill replies
Lloyds told me that the £110 payment
from Turkish Airlines had been delayed,
but was due to be refunded just after
you contacted me. It needed additional
information to process the eSKY
refund of £146. Once it had this
information it completed your refund
and offered you £100 for the
inconvenience you suffered.

Stop the
year and legislation may be
years away. The department
has not said what the
proposed penalties would be
more banking chief
executives are going to
demand that it is stopped at
source,” the source said.

scammers: for scammers, saying that it

would reveal the details when
its public consultation was
published.
Stephen Timms MP said:
“It would still be possible to
provide in the bill for
regulations which could be

why isn’t more Action Fraud, the fraud

reporting service run by City
of London police, had 17,000
reports of investment fraud,
drawn up subsequently, so
deferring most of the work
until after the bill is on the
statute book.”

being done? with £657.4 million of losses

between September 2019 and
the same month last year — a
28 per cent increase on the
Savers are losing thousands of pounds previous year.
The banking industry, led
a year to fraud, so why won’t the by the Bank of England
governor Andrew Bailey, is
government act, asks David Byers frustrated because it is liable
The surge in online scams,
many of which offer
improbable returns for
savings accounts or are get-
rich-quick cryptocurrency
schemes, turned the focus on
online giants that host them,
and make money from the
adverts.

T
errorists, drug-
traffickers and child
pornographers will be
free to continue raising
money for their crimes
through online financial
scams unless the government
clamps down on internet
giants that host their adverts,
banks have warned.
The criminals that run
such activities also make
money through financial
scams that are advertised on
the likes of Google and
Facebook, campaigners say.
They want ministers to
legislate to target these scams
and allow regulators to fine
large tech companies that
profit from the adverts that
bring them to the attention
of thousands of victims
each year.
A senior banking industry
source said the financial
services industry viewed the
decision not to include fraud
in the Online Harms Bill that
is due to be published this
summer as “ludicrous”.
“When we talk to fraud
experts, we are constantly
told that a lot of the
fraudsters’ money ends up in
other areas of crime— the
whole picture is connected,”
the source said.
The bill will force web
platforms to tackle crimes
such as child pornography
and terrorism, but
campaigners say it should
also give regulators the power
to fine companies that fail to
take down fraudulent ads.
Guy Opperman, the
pensions minister, has said
that including such powers
would significantly delay the
legislation. Instead, the
government wants to draw up
new rules through a
advertising review led by the
Department for Culture,
Media and Sport. But a public
consultation on these plans is
not due until the end of the
Kate Mannion and family lost £19,950 to a financial scam
‘SCAMMER WAS
SO CONVINCING’
Kate Mannion, a school
nurse, lost just under
£20,000 when she was
called by a fraudster
pretending to be from
Lloyds Bank last year.
When she spoke to the
real Lloyds, it was less than
sympathetic. “I’d best
describe the staff response
as being angry with me,”
she said. “They showed no
kindness at all, no
sympathy. They said that it
was my fault.”
The scammer had called
on a cloned Lloyds Bank
customer service number,
for refunding people duped
into scams and thinks that
online giants should be
forced to do more to take
down adverts and
compensate victims.
“The more you are asking
the industry to pay out, the
and seemed to know all her
bank balances. He said that
her account security had
been compromised so she
needed to go online and
move her money.
Mannion, 50, transferred
£19,950 into a Metro Bank
account, which the
fraudsters claimed had
been set up in her name.
Lloyds said it provided a
pop-up warning which said
“This is a scam” and told her
that no one would ever call
to ask her to move her
money. Metro Bank said the
account was set up by a
“money-mule” — someone
fraudsters pay to receive
stolen money on their
behalf.
Ashley Hart, the head of
fraud at TSB, which refunds
all fraud victims, reported a
user on the networking site
LinkedIn for pretending to be
his managing director and
trying to “connect” with him.
It took a total of 12 weeks
for LinkedIn to disable the
account of “Natalie Johnson”,
the fictional TSB chief
executive. The company has
apologised for being too slow
to remove it.
The Payment Services
Regulator, which
administrates a fraud refund
scheme run by banks, has just
completed a consultation on
the financial services
industry’s approach to fraud.
Under the terms of the
code, which was launched in
May 2019, the financial
services industry picks up
much of the bill for refunding
victims who are tricked
online. However, many
victims do not get paid back if
they are said to have been
careless with their financial
details.
TSB is not part of the code
and refunds all victims.
Google said that it has
“strict policies” governing the
adverts it allows on its
platform. It added that last
year it blocked or removed
more than 3.1 billion ads for
violating its policies, nearly
5,900 ads a minute.
Facebook said that it does
not allow fraudulent activity
on Facebook or Instagram
(which it owns), has a “global
safety and security team of
35,000 people”, and has
invested in AI and machine
learning to enforce its rules.
It said that “highly trained
teams” monitor its site.
14 The Sunday Times April 18, 2021

MONEY

FAME AND FORTUNE PAULINE BLACK

‘Mum left me
ANDREW MACCOLL
What’s best for retirement —
property or pension?
A bit of both. I am of pensionable age, so
it’s great to have income from the band
and my state pension. I never paid into a

£750. I used it
private pension.

What was your best business decision?

Reforming the band in 2010. Most of the
people who come to see us are in their

to buy an old
forties or fifties, but it’s just a real thrill
to still be out there playing in front of
audiences at this time in my life.

Your best investment?

upright baby
A secondhand Mini I bought for £50
after leaving The Selecter in the 1980s
and moving to London. I needed a car to
get around late at night and having the
Mini made me independent. It never let

grand piano’
me down either. When I returned to
Coventry two years later I gave it
away — you can’t sell a car you’ve
bought for £50.

What about your worst?

Nothing springs to mind.

What’s your money weakness?

The singer from ska revival band The Shopping at Prada, which I shouldn’t
really do, but I do. It has a huge range of
Selecter may be a pensioner, but she still black clothes which just speak to my
sensibilities. I like their jackets, trousers
wears Prada, she tells York Membery . . . everything. I couldn’t afford to buy

P
auline Black was described
as the Queen of British Ska in
the late 1970s as the lead
singer of the two-tone ska
revival band The Selecter.
The Coventry-based band
had hits with On My Radio
and Three Minute Hero, and
they sold more than
500,000 copies of their
debut album Too Much Pressure (1980).
After the band split up Black, now 67,
worked as an actress and TV presenter,
and narrated the BBC Four documentary
Soul Britannia. The Selecter reformed in
2010 and play around the world. Black
lives with her husband Terry in Coventry.
either rich or religious. However, I do
like quality clothes.
Do you own a property?
I moved to Coventry in 1971 to study at
Lanchester Poly [now Coventry
University] and stayed, because I liked
the city. I bought an end-of-terrace with
my husband for £16,000 in 1984. A year
later it was worth three times that so it
was a timely buy. We stayed there too
long — largely because I was away so
much — but six years ago, in 2015, we
traded up to the 1930s semi-detached
where we now live. It overlooks a nice
green, leafy park and we have no plans
to move. I could never afford such a
How much did you earn last year?
Not much, because we had to cancel or
postpone so many concerts. Thankfully,
The Selecter had a good 2019, playing
more than 100 shows.
What was your first job?
A Saturday job when I was 15 at a dress
shop in Romford called Fifth Avenue. I
had to sort out a week’s worth of coat
hangers that were chucked into a room —
I was knee deep in them. I also had to
toured all over the world since
reforming, so I don’t really have to worry
about money. Nonetheless, I’ve never
felt wealthy.
Have you ever worried about how you
were going to make ends meet?
When I first went to poly in Coventry I
was lucky enough to get a grant, but it
wasn’t really enough to cover all my
outgoings. My parents did help out a bit
financially, but they didn’t have a lot
there during my Selecter days; back then
I bought my clothes in Oxfam or C&A.
Mind you, my signature 1979 trilby hat
was recently valued at £600 on Antiques
Roadshow. I’m the Imelda Marcos of
hats. I’m going to donate it to the
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in
Pauline Black at the Coventry, which is staging a 2-Tone
Loopallu music festival exhibition this year.
in Ullapool in 2016 and,
below, in the 1980s What was your most extravagant
purchase?
Probably a stage jacket — I believe in
spending money on what you wear
on stage. You can’t get a decent
woman’s stage suit unless you pay in
excess of £1,000.
What’s your financial priority in the

How much money is in your wallet?

property in London though.
I haven’t used cash for the last year — I’m
strictly contactless now.
Are you better off than your parents?
Undoubtedly. I was adopted by a white
wash the manager’s car. For that, I got
the princely sum of £1. After graduating
themselves, so money was tight. My first job years ahead?
To continue working as a professional
from poly I trained as a radiographer
and worked for the NHS for five years
What was your most lucrative work?
Three years ago I was asked to give a
was in a dress musician with The Selecter. I can’t ever
see myself retiring.

What credit cards do you use?

couple — Arthur, a mechanic, and his
wife Ivy — who already had four sons
before joining The Selecter in 1979. 20-minute speech for a ridiculous
amount of money at the Dive In Festival
shop. I had What would you do if you won the
I use a debit card for personal purchases
because it’s easier to keep an eye on your
when I was 18 months old and grew up in
Essex. I was the only mixed-race kid in
When did you first feel wealthy?
Things took off pretty fast for The
for diversity and inclusion in insurance.
It was founded by Dame Inga Beale, a
to sort out lottery jackpot?
I’ve never gambled. I’m a bit of a puritan
money, but I use a business debit and
credit card for the band.
my school and it was not the most liberal
of places in the 1950s and 1960s. They
Selecter, but all the money we earned in
our heyday got ploughed back into the
former chief executive of Lloyds of
London. Afterwards the organisers took
the hangers in that respect. But if someone gave
me a million pounds I’d donate it to a

Are you a saver or a spender?

rented a house all their lives, but before
she died Mum left £750 in an envelope
band. So by the time we’d gone on tour
with all our equipment in a truck, paid
me for fish and chips at a nice restaurant
and all everyone wanted to talk about
and wash the female mutilation charity: no woman
should be forced to undergo such a
I’m definitely a saver. I was always very
conscious growing up that having
hidden away in a sideboard for me with
my name on it — she knew my brothers
our tour manager and split our earnings
seven ways between the band members,
was The Selecter — I don’t think Dame
Inga had any idea how many staff were
manager’s car barbaric procedure.

enough money was important. Whoever
tells you that money isn’t important is
would never look there. I used it to buy a
secondhand baby upright grand piano.
we only had enough to pay ourselves
about £150 a week. But the band have
ska fans. What is the most important lesson
you’ve learnt about money?
How has the virus affected you? Someone in the music business once
Sadly, live music ground to a halt last told me I should have a stash of “F***
March, forcing us to cancel appearances you” money, so if you’re asked to do
at events such as Camp Bestival and something against your better judgment
Womad. The band and road crew went you can say no. I took that advice very
from having a full year’s events ahead to much to heart.
zero. It was a huge blow.
The Selecter’s Too Much Pressure
Do you invest in shares? three-CD box set is out on Chrysalis on
No, never. April 23. theselecter.net

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Contact us Money,
The Sunday Times,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
Watch out for the gender gap in credit
Imogen Tew
Women pay nearly £17,000
more to borrow money over a
lifetime than men because
they are more likely to be
“subprime”borrowers.
Credit Karma, a credit
scoring agency, said that
women have lower credit
scores than men, so it is more
expensive for them to get
loans, credit cards and
mortgages. Nearly a third
have a thin credit history
because some or all of their
arrangements are in their
partner’s name. They are less
likely to take out credit cards
and personal loans, which
can boost your credit score if
you pay your bills on time,
and more likely to use buy
now, pay later schemes.

Advertising If you would like to

buy an advertisement in Money,
email paul.douglass@news.co.uk
or call him on 07917 598422
£169.8bn
Make our pensions ethical, savers say
Katherine Denham
Four in five savers expect the
companies they invest in
through their pensions to pay
workers the living wage and
one in three say those that
Employers have to pay staff
aged 23 and over the living
wage of £8.91 an hour.
Investors are becoming
increasingly concerned
about environmental, social
and governance (ESG)
up from £3.2 billion in 2019.
PensionBee, a company
that merges pension pots,
found that most of the
1,700 savers it asked wanted
fair treatment for workers
and for companies to

don’t should be removed factors and piled £10 billion publish their ethnicity and
from their portfolios. into ESG funds last year, gender pay gaps.

Last chance to post from home — for free

Imogen Tew
Royal Mail is extending its
free parcel collection service
until May 30. Parcel Collect
was launched in October and
allows you to arrange for a
postal worker to collect up to
five parcels a day for posting
from your doorstep or safe
location. It usually costs
72p a parcel, but Royal Mail is
waiving the fee. You need to
download and print out a
Royal Mail label online and
pay the cost of postage.
Parcels must be no more than
20kg in weight, 61cm long or
46cm wide or deep. Go to the
app or www.royalmail.
com/collection

CHART OF THE WEEK INCOME BOOSTS FOR PENSIONERS

The record amount that
poured into bank and
building societies’ easy
access and current
accounts in the year
from March 2020, up
185 per cent on the
previous 12 months
Average weekly pension income (2020 prices) Pensioner incomes
after they have paid
£350 housing costs have
nearly doubled since
£319 1995. Under-75s had
300 average weekly
incomes of £370 last
£331 year while over-75s
250 received £302. The
official figures include
income from savings,
200
£168 all pensions, benefits
and employment.
Personal pensions,
such as Sipps, were
150 used by 17 per cent of
1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 pensioners, up from
Source: department for work and pensions 4 per cent in 1995.