THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2021 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

Grind from home The toxic mix of remote working and long hours — BROOKE MASTERS, PAGE 19

Suez debacle Briefing

Mishap clogs i Intel moves to step up chip production

trade artery
Intel is to spend $20bn on building two factories in
Arizona, the linchpin of a turnround plan that also
includes outsourcing and launching a service to
make chips for other companies.— PAGE 6; LEX, PAGE 20

A digger attempts to release a giant con- i Facebook says China hacked Uyghurs
tainer ship from the banks of the Suez Facebook has discovered a sophisticated Chinese
Canal in Egypt yesterday after the ves- spying push that tried to trick Uyghur activists into
sel, 400 metres long and 59 metres wide, downloading malicious software that would allow
ran aground and became lodged across surveillance of their devices.— PAGE 4; FT VIEW, PAGE 18
one of the world’s busiest trade routes.
The Taiwan-owned Ever Given ship, i Bally’s nears £2bn UK gambling tie-up
which is almost as long as the Empire The US casino operator has
State Building is tall, is wedged across agreed the key terms of a tie-up
the southern end of the canal, with tug with gambling group Gamesys,
boats also struggling to free it and dredg- the latest transatlantic takeover
ers on their way to help the rescue effort. designed to crack the American
About 50 vessels transit the 120-mile sports-betting market.— PAGE 8
canal every day, transporting at least
10 per cent of global seaborne trade and i KKR tunes in to music boom with BMG
a similar amount of oil shipments. Fears The US private equity firm has teamed up with one
are growing that the disruption might of the largest music groups to target big labels and
hit global supply chains. Oil is trans- catalogues during a consolidation boom.— PAGE 8
ported through the waterway from the
Middle East to Europe and North Amer- i BA pledges slots to secure new funds
ica, as well as from Russia to Asia. British Airways owner IAG has for the first time
Report page 3 offered some of its “crown jewel” landing slots as
Lex page 20 collateral to secure $1.8bn in new funding.— PAGE 10
Suez Canal/AFP via Getty Images

i Netanyahu faced with unlikely alliance

Israelis face months of coalition

Brussels demands reciprocity

talks after the country’s fourth
election in two years offered PM
Benjamin Netanyahu only an
unlikely coalition deal with an
Islamist party.— PAGE 3

from Britain on vaccines supply i Tencent confirms antitrust discussions

Tencent confirmed that it was “actively co-operating
with the regulatory authorities” as big tech groups in
China come under scrutiny.— PAGE 6; LEX, PAGE 20

i Erdogan asks Turks to bolster markets

3 Barbs traded on access to jabs 3 Talks aim to calm tensions 3 UK points to contract law
SAM FLEMING AND
MICHAEL PEEL — BRUSSELS
GEORGE PARKER — LONDON
A senior Brussels policymaker has
accused the UK of “vaccine national-
ism” in its pandemic response, even as
the two sides tried to calm tensions over
access to Covid-19 jabs.
Thierry Breton, internal market com-
missioner, said that the UK needed to
recognise how dependent it was on EU
vaccines and display greater “reciproc-
ity” in its dealings.
The tough comments were made as
EU leaders prepared to discuss contro-
versial new rules aimed at tightening
restrictions on vaccine exports.
Britain and the European Commis-
sion issued a joint statement saying that
there had been discussions on develop-
ing a “reciprocally beneficial relation-
ship” to tackle Covid-19.
The statement committed both sides
to working together “to create a win-win
situation and expand vaccine supply for
all our citizens”. Boris Johnson, UK
prime minister, insisted that he did not
want to see a tit-for-tat vaccine war.
Britain has offered to help boost pro-
duction of the AstraZeneca vaccine at
the Halix plant in the Dutch city of Lei-
den, while the UK has not ruled out “giv-
ing up” some of the millions of doses it
claims have been contracted to it.
But Britain’s health secretary, Matt
Hancock, said the EU would be making
a serious mistake if it started blocking
vaccine exports to the UK, including
shipments of AstraZeneca doses.
“I believe that free trading nations fol-
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Turks to
cash in their gold to shore up markets rocked by his
abrupt sacking of the central bank chief. The lira is
low the law of contracts,” he told the more successful in meeting its commit- off nearly 10 per cent.— PAGE 4; DAVID GARDNER, PAGE 19
Financial Times. Referring to the EU’s ments to Britain than to Brussels.
AstraZeneca contract, he said: “They “We have a feeling that the vaccine
have a ‘best efforts’ contract and we nationalism is really on the other side of Datawatch
have an exclusivity deal.” the Channel,” he said in an interview
Hancock said that both sides were try- with the FT.
ing to resolve the dispute and that talks Thierry Breton: European Commission proposals to Points of view Young people
were “co-operative, practical and col- ‘We have a strengthen the bloc’s ability to block % of UK adults, by age group* in Britain were
laborative”. But he added: “Our contract feeling that exports of Covid-19 vaccines will be dis- Past year better Next year will be surprised at how
than expected as good as much they were
trumps theirs. It’s called contract law — the vaccine cussed at today’s EU leaders’ meeting. pre-pandemic able to enjoy the
it’s very straightforward.” nationalism The rules aim to clamp down on exports 16-24 past year, despite
Hancock said that in future life sci- is really on to countries that are failing to share 25-34 lockdown curbs
ences companies would base them- the other side their production of vaccines. 35-44 to control the
selves in Britain, not in a protectionist of the Channel’ Breton is leading efforts to bolster 45-54 virus pandemic.
EU: “In the UK you can export any- vaccine production as the EU seeks to 55-64 However, they
where in the world — we’re never going recover from AstraZeneca delivery 65+ are much less
to put a stop to that.” shortfalls in the first quarter of the year. 0 20 40 60 optimistic that the
Breton piled pressure on Astra- News & analysis page 2 *Mar 12-15 2021 Sources: The Policy Institute, year ahead will be
Zeneca, saying he wanted explanations AstraZeneca in the spotlight page 9 King’s College London, Ipsos back to normal.
for why the company had been so much Lex page 20

Ant demands higher online fees as Ma

seeks to boost valuation after pulled IPO
SUN YU — BEIJING service, to increase its share of the Ant,” said a banker who works with the
processing fee from transactions on its fintech group.
Ant Group is demanding a larger slice
platform by up to 80 per cent this year. Ant’s fee increase also underscores
of lucrative fees from its popular pay-
Merchants in China pay a fee on each the challenges faced by Beijing in tam-
ment platform at the expense of local
transaction made using Alipay that is ing the fintech champion, whose domi-
banks as China’s largest fintech tries to
Eastern Europe’s fragile offset losses from a government crack-
split between the fintech, the customer’s nance of online finance in China has
defences face virus surge down on its lending business.
bank and Unionpay, the country’s card weakened the state’s grip on the sector.
services company. Alipay’s share of this “Ant has the upper hand in price
Analysis i PAGE 2 The move will help Ant’s controlling fee has been increasing while that of the negotiations because we count on Ali-
shareholder, Chinese billionaire Jack banks has been shrinking. pay to expand our business,” said an
Ma, rebuild the group’s valuation after Instead of using cash or credit cards, executive at a bank that works with Ant.
Austria €3.90 Malta €3.70
Bahrain Din1.8 Morocco Dh45 Beijing pulled its planned $37bn initial most Chinese consumers make pay- “There is little the government can do.”
Belgium
Bulgaria
€3.90
Lev7.50
Netherlands
Norway
€3.90
NKr40 public offering in November. ments through mobile apps, such as Ali- Ant did not respond to requests for
Croatia Kn29 Oman OR1.60 Ma has since largely disappeared from pay, for everything from Starbucks cof- comment from the FT. One person close
Cyprus €3.70 Pakistan Rupee350
Czech Rep Kc105 Poland Zl 20 public view while Beijing has launched fees to train tickets and online shopping. to Ant said it was “still looking for an IPO
Denmark
Egypt
DKr38
E£59
Portugal
Qatar
€3.70
QR15
new rules restricting online lending as This has given Alipay significant pricing and it wants to improve its valuation”,
Finland €4.70 Romania Ron17 part of a wider crackdown on fintechs, power in what it charges for its services. adding: “The solution is to grow in areas
France €3.90 Russia €5.00
Germany €3.90 Serbia NewD420 which President Xi Jinping signalled this China’s mobile payment platforms, that come with fewer restrictions.”
Gibraltar
Greece
£2.90
€3.70
Slovak Rep
Slovenia
€3.70
€3.70
month was only just beginning. led by Alipay, recorded Rmb295tn People close to the PBoC said the cen-
Hungary Ft1200 Spain €3.70 Multiple lenders told the Financial ($45.2tn) in transactions last year, tral bank was considering various meas-
India Rup220 Sweden SKr39
Italy €3.70 Switzerland SFr6.20 Times they had agreed to allow Ant’s against Rmb117tn for bank card sales. ures to break Ant’s monopoly.
Lithuania
Luxembourg
€4.30
€3.90
Tunisia
Turkey
Din7.50
TL19
Alipay, China’s largest mobile payment “We can’t afford to lose a partner like Lex page 20
North Macedonia Den220 UAE Dh20.00

Subscribe In print and online World Markets

STOCK MARKETS CURRENCIES INTEREST RATES
www.ft.com/subscribetoday
email: fte.subs@ft.com Mar 24 prev %chg Mar 24 prev Mar 24 prev price yield chg
Tel: +44 20 7775 6000 S&P 500 3929.11 3910.52 0.48 $ per € 1.183 1.187 £ per $ 0.729 0.725 US Gov 10 yr 146.46 1.64 -0.01
Fax: +44 20 7873 3428 Nasdaq Composite 13169.31 13227.70 -0.44 $ per £ 1.372 1.379 € per £ 1.160 1.162 UK Gov 10 yr 0.76 -0.01
Dow Jones Ind 32689.54 32423.15 0.82 £ per € 0.862 0.861 ¥ per € 128.734 128.959 Ger Gov 10 yr -0.35 -0.01
© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2021 FTSEurofirst 300 1630.40 1630.68 -0.02 ¥ per $ 108.815 108.625 £ index 81.444 81.520 Jpn Gov 10 yr 116.44 0.06 -0.01
No: 40,665 ★ Euro Stoxx 50 3832.10 3827.02 0.13 ¥ per £ 149.305 149.815 SFr per £ 1.283 1.287 US Gov 30 yr 105.67 2.34 -0.02
FTSE 100 6712.89 6699.19 0.20 SFr per € 1.107 1.108 Ger Gov 2 yr 106.64 -0.72 0.00
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
FTSE All-Share 3826.52 3817.33 0.24 € per $ 0.845 0.842
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
CAC 40 5947.29 5945.30 0.03
Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul,
Dubai Xetra Dax 14610.39 14662.02 -0.35 COMMODITIES price prev chg
Nikkei 28405.52 28995.92 -2.04 Fed Funds Eff 0.08 0.09 -0.01
Hang Seng 27918.14 28497.38 -2.03 Mar 24 prev %chg US 3m Bills 0.01 0.03 -0.02
MSCI World $ 2788.01 2809.65 -0.77 Oil WTI $ 60.76 57.76 5.19 Euro Libor 3m -0.55 -0.54 -0.01
MSCI EM $ 1323.77 1336.27 -0.94 Oil Brent $ 63.99 60.79 5.26 UK 3m 0.09 0.08 0.01
MSCI ACWI $ 668.84 674.18 -0.79 Gold $ 1726.20 1736.15 -0.57 Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar
2 ★
Germany
Merkel rows back on Easter shutdown plan
Business and public vent
fury at effect on supply
chains and grocery stores
ERIKA SOLOMON AND GUY CHAZAN
BERLIN
Angela Merkel has reversed course on a
controversial Easter shutdown and
apologised for a policy she admitted had
been a mistake, in a move that under-
lined growing doubts about Germany’s
management of the coronavirus
pandemic.
The U-turn came just a day after
authorities had decided to extend the
Easter holidays from three to five days,
Central and eastern Europe ravaged by virus
Threat of highly infectious
variant combined with policy
missteps bode ill for region
JAMES SHOTTER — WARSAW
VALERIE HOPKINS — SOFIA
When spring arrives in Prague, its Old
Town Square is usually packed with
tourists. But this year, it is almost
25,000 white crosses that throng the
cobbles, painted by activists to mark the
brutal toll of Covid-19.
Like much of central and eastern
Europe, the Czech Republic came
through the first wave of the pandemic
largely unscathed. But since October, it
has been ravaged by the virus. In per
capita terms, it has the highest cumula-
tive death toll in the world, with 231
fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants.
The pattern is repeated across the
region. Hungary, Montenegro, Slovenia,
Bosnia Herzegovina and Bulgaria are
among the 10 worst hit nations in the
world, according to Financial Times
data. Slovakia and Poland are in the top
25. And as the latest wave sweeps across
the region, the picture is darkening.
One of the main drivers of the surge in
new cases is the advent of the highly
infectious B.1.1.7 variant of coronavirus,
first discovered in the UK. In Poland, it
accounts for 80 per cent of new cases,
according to health minister Adam
Niedzielski. Officials say similar levels
have been reached in some regions of
the Czech Republic, while a study last
month found the variant was behind 74
per cent of new infections in Slovakia.
“The behaviour of people during the
latest wave has been comparable to how
they behaved in the second wave last
autumn,” said Daniel Prokop, founder of
PAQ Research in Prague. It has been
monitoring various markers such as the
number of personal contacts and preva-
lence of homeworking among a group of
2,500 Czechs during the pandemic.
“But . . . this time, it wasn’t enough
[to reduce case numbers] because the
British variant is so infectious.”
Prokop said structural factors had
complicated central and eastern
Europe’s struggle with the pandemic.
The region has more multigenerational
households than Scandinavian coun-
tries or western Europe, putting the eld-
erly at greater risk of infection from
younger relatives. The region’s econo-
mies also had a greater share of jobs
MAKE A SMART INVESTMENT
Subscribe to the FT today at FT.com/subscription
FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017
Trump vs the Valley
Tech titans need to minimise
political risk — GILLIAN TETT, PAGE 13
HMRC warns
customs risks
being swamped
by Brexit surge
3 Confidence in IT plans ‘has collapsed’
3 Fivefold rise in declarations expected
JAMES BLITZ — WHITEHALL EDITOR
A computer system acquired to collect
duties and clear imports into the UK
may not be able to handle the huge
surge in workload expectedonce Britain
leaves the EU, customs authorities have
admitted toMPs.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Bracken House, 1 Friday Street, London EC4M 9BT.
Subscriptions & Customer service
Subscription offers: www.ft.com/subscription
Contact: +44 207 775 6000, fte.subs@ft.com
Manage your personal account: mma.ft.com
Advertising
Tel: +44 20 7873 4000 asiaads@ft.com,
emeaads@ft.com
Letters to the editor
letters.editor@ft.com
Executive appointments
Tel: +44 20 7873 4909
www.exec-appointments.com
Published by: The Financial Times Limited,
Bracken House, 1 Friday Street, London EC4M 9BT.
Tel: +44 20 7873 3000; Fax: +44 20 7407 5700.
Editor: Roula Khalaf.
Germany: Demirören Media, Hurriyet AS-Branch
Germany, An der Brucke 20-22, 64546 Morfelden-
Walldorf, +49 6105 327100. Responsible Editor, Roula
Khalaf. Responsible for advertising content, Jon Slade.
Italy: Monza Stampa S.r.l., Via Michelangelo Buonarroti,
153, Monza, 20900, Milan. Tel. +39 039 28288201
Owner, The Financial Times Limited; Rappresentante e
Direttore Responsabile in Italia: I.M.D.Srl-Marco Provasi -
Via G. Puecher, 2 20037 Paderno Dugnano (MI), Italy.
Milano n. 296 del 08/05/08 - Poste Italiane SpA-Sped. in
Abb.Post.DL. 353/2003 (conv. L. 27/02/2004-n.46) art. 1
.comma 1, DCB Milano.
Spain: Bermont Impresion, Avenida de Alemania 12, CTC,
triggering an outcry. All grocery shops
would have had to close and Easter
church services held online only.
Opposition MPs said the affair risked
undermining public confidence in the
government’s handling of the pandemic
just as a third wave is driving up new
infections and hospital intensive
care units are filling up with Covid-19
patients.
Three opposition parties even called
on Merkel to hold a vote of confidence so
as to ascertain whether her government
still holds a majority in the Bundestag.
The row over the government’s plans
for Easter comes at a time of mounting
frustration with the slow pace of vacci-
nations in Germany and anger over
Memorial:
a woman and
child prepare
to lay flowers
in Old Town
Square, Prague,
this week,
where almost
25,000 crosses
have been
painted to
highlight the
Covid death toll
Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty
WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER UK £2.70 Channel Islands £3.00; Republic of Ireland €3.00
A Five Star plan? Dear Don...
Italy’s populists are trying to woo May’s first stab at the break-up
the poor — BIG READ, PAGE 11 letter — ROBERT SHRIMSLEY, PAGE 12
Lloyd’s of Brussels Insurance market
to tap new talent pool with EU base
UK £3.80; Channel Islands £3.80; Republic of Ireland €3.80
Briefing
THE END
i US bargain-hunters fuel Europe M&A
Europe has become the big target for cross-border
dealmaking, as US companies ride a Trump-fuelled
equity market rally to hunt for bargains across the
HOW DRIVERLESS
OF THE TECHNOLOGY IS
Atlantic.— PAGE 15; CHINA CURBS HIT DEALS, PAGE 17
i Report outlines longer NHS waiting times
A report on how the health service can survive CHANGING AN
ROAD
more austerity has said patients will wait longer for
AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE
non-urgent operations and for A&E treatment while
some surgical procedures will be scrapped.— PAGE 4
i Emerging nations in record debt sales
FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE
Developing countries have sold record levels of
government debt in the first quarter of this year,
taking advantage of a surge in optimism toward
emerging markets as trade booms.— PAGE 15
Credit Suisse
Art of persuasion Mystery deepens
i London tower plans break records
A survey has revealed that a
record 455 tall buildings are
planned or under construction over disputed painting of Jane Austen
engulfed in
adjust its negotiation position with the in London. Work began on
EU, a Whitehall official said. “If running almost one tower a week
our own customs system is proving during 2016.— PAGE 4
much harder than we anticipated, that
ought to have an impact on how we i Tillerson fails to ease Turkey tensions
fresh tax probe
press for certain options in Brussels.” The US secretary of state has failed to reconcile
In a letter to Andrew Tyrie, chairman
of the Commons treasury select com-
tensions after talks in Ankara with President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan on issues including Syria and the
28821, Coslada, Madrid. Legal Deposit Number
(Deposito Legal) M-32596-1995;
Publishing Director, Roula Khalaf;
Publishing Company, The Financial Times Limited,
registered office as above. Local Representative office;
C/ Infanta Maria Teresa 4, bajo 2, 28016, Madrid. ISSN
1135-8262.
UAE: Masar Printing & Publishing, P.O. Box 485100,
Dubai. Editor in Chief: Roula Khalaf.
France: Publishing Director, Jonathan Slade, 46 Rue La
Boetie, 75008 Paris, Tel. +33 (0)1 5376 8256; Fax: +33 (01)
5376 8253; Commission Paritaire N° 0919 C 85347; ISSN
1148-2753.
Turkey: Dunya Super Veb Ofset A.S. 100. Yil Mahallesi
34204, Bagcilar- Istanbul, Tel. +90 212 440 24 24.
Sweden: Responsible Publisher - Christer Norlander
© Copyright The Financial Times 2021.
Reproduction of the contents of this newspaper in any
manner is not permitted without the publisher’s prior
consent. ‘Financial Times’ and ‘FT’ are registered trade
marks of The Financial Times Limited.
The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a
self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of
Practice: www.ft.com/editorialcode
Reprints are available of any FT article with your
company logo or contact details inserted if required
(minimum order 100 copies).
One-off copyright licences for reproduction of FT articles
are also available.
For both services phone +44 20 7873 4816, or email
syndication@ft.com
FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021
INTERNATIONAL
Inoculation dispute
Discovery of
AstraZeneca
revelations that several MPs from Mer- leaders of Germany’s 16 federal states, a coronavirus variant, which is more con- doses in Italy
highlights rift
kel’s party earned huge commissions on marathon, 12-hour session that dragged tagious than other strains. Yesterday,
deals to procure coronavirus masks. into the early hours of Tuesday. authorities reported 15,813 new infec-
Faced with criticism of the shutdown But the backlash that ensued took tions and said the incidence level had
idea, Merkel was forced into issuing a
mea culpa yesterday.
“The mistake is mine and mine alone.
authorities by surprise. Business lead-
ers worried about the impact on supply
chains and company revenues of pro-
risen to 108 cases per 100,000 people
over seven days.
The government says an “emergency
with Brussels
Because in the end, I bear responsibility claiming two additional public holidays. brake” of tougher lockdown restrictions
as chancellor,” she told journalists at a Ordinary members of the public fretted must be applied when the incidence VICTOR MALLET — PARIS
MICHAEL PEEL — BRUSSELS
hastily convened press conference. “I about grocery stores being shut for two level rises above 100. DONATO PAOLO MANCINI — ROME
regret it deeply, and I ask our citizens for more days than normal. Under the cur- Merkel acknowledged the plan for the
forgiveness.” rent national lockdown, grocery stores Easter shutdown had been reached too The fate of 29m AstraZeneca vaccine
The decision to extend Germany’s have been allowed to stay open. hastily, and it had quickly become clear doses in Italy prompted finger-point-
Easter vacation to five consecutive days, Merkel said the aim had been to put a how difficult it would be to implement. ing and recriminations yesterday as the
beginning next Thursday and ending brake on the pandemic at a time of Although the plans for Easter have EU warned the company was far short
the following Monday, was taken during exponential growth in infections. been reversed, the extension of the of meeting its latest supply target.
the latest video conference on coronavi- Experts attribute the new surge to the lockdown until April 18 will remain in
rus policy between Merkel and the increasing dominance of the B.1.1.7 place. The European Commission called on
AstraZeneca to explain the origin and
intended destination of a stockpile iden-
tified by Italian authorities at the
Covid. Third wave Anagni finishing plant, while some EU
officials asked if the doses’ active ingre-
dients had come from a Dutch facility as
yet unlicensed to supply to the bloc.
AstraZeneca said it was “incorrect” to
describe it as a stockpile, saying the
doses were waiting for “quality control”
processes to be completed before being
released.
The Czech Republic has the highest rate Approximately 13m of the doses were
of confirmed Covid-19 deaths in the world destined for the international Covax
Confirmed deaths per 100,000 people scheme that distributes mainly to poor
and middle-income countries. Those
Czech Republic 250 doses were made with vaccine drug sub-
Other countries stance manufactured outside the EU,
with highest 200 the company said.
death rates
The remaining 16m jabs were due to
150
be dispatched to EU countries, with
100 almost 10m doses earmarked for deliv-
ery during the last week of March, and
50 the rest in April, it added. “The process
of manufacturing vaccines is very com-
0 plex and time-consuming. In particular,
Mar 2020 Mar vaccine doses must wait for quality con-
2021
trol clearance after the filling of vials is
Infection rates are climbing again completed.”
across much of eastern Europe The mistrust over the vaccine doses at
Percentage of tests that are positive the factory near Rome highlights the
near-complete breakdown in relations
Serbia between the EU and AstraZeneca,
Poland 50
Hungary whose low-priced jab was supposed to
Romania 40 be a cornerstone of the bloc’s troubled
Bulgaria immunisation drive.
Czech 30 “Europe doesn’t want to be a useful
Republic idiot in all this,” said an official from
20 France, which has been at the forefront
of a push for tougher vaccine export
10 controls floated by the commission.
The measures will be discussed at a
0
summit of EU leaders today. Italy also
Sep 2020 2021 Mar stressed the need to be tough in policing
Sources: FT analysis of Johns Hopkins University CSSE; Our World in Data
export authorisations. But the proposals
have provoked concern in some other
that cannot be done remotely, he added. was done it would open the door for the ‘We were Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm vac- capitals, which warn they may jeopard-
But there have also been policy mis- new variant and that is what happened,” cine to complement those it receives ise complex supply chains for vaccines
steps. Much of central Europe’s success said Maria Ganczak, a professor in epi- concerned from the EU, has struggled to lower case and their ingredients. “They are ill-
during the first wave was due to locking demiology and infectious diseases at that if numbers, despite having given at least thought-through, impetuous and
down rapidly. But restrictions since have Poland’s Zielona Gora university. one dose to 16 per cent of its population. aggressive and they seem to be a solu-
been less aggressive, as governments try This, she added, was compounded by nothing was On Monday, doctors from the Hun- tion to a problem we don’t actually
to juggle economic pressures to keep a decision to ease some restrictions on done it garian Medical Chamber in the north- have,” said one EU diplomat.
businesses operating with the public hotels, ski slopes and other businesses western county of Gyor-Moson-Sopron Valdis Dombrovskis, EU trade com-
health imperative to keep them closed. in mid-February, even though the more would open called for volunteers to help hospitals missioner, said AstraZeneca was far
Olga Loblova, a health policy infectious variant was circulating. the door for cope with the influx of patients. “The short of delivering even a quarter of the
researcher at Cambridge university, said “This was not based on the epidemio- Covid-19 departments in almost all the maximum 120m doses originally tar-
another problem in the Czech Republic logical situation. It was more a populist the new hospitals are hugely overburdened, geted by the end of March in the com-
was the government had not reacted gesture to satisfy holidaymakers,” she variant and there is a shortage of nurses and they are pany’s contract with the commission
when it became clear the test-and-trace said. “We know people are devastated becoming increasingly exhausted,” Las- last year. “They are promising to be able
system was languishing in the middle of physically and psychologically by lock- that zlo Szijjarto, the county chamber’s to deliver 30m doses but they are not
last of year, meaning it was unable to downs. But strategies should not be is what leader, wrote in an online post. even close to this figure as of today,” he
cope with the surge in cases from Octo- based on emotions, but on [science].” Given pressures on hospitals, coun- told reporters.
ber. “The government has done a lot of As elsewhere in Europe, the situation happened’ tries have imposed new restrictions. AstraZeneca said it had made “best
things too late,” she said. has not been helped by a halting vaccine The Czech Republic went into a tough efforts”, as required by the contract, to
In Poland, observers say one of the rollout, with inoculations constrained lockdown earlier this month, closing meet the EU delivery schedule, adding
government’s biggest mistakes was not by supply problems, and vaccine hesi- shops and schools and limiting move- the timetable had been hit by low prod-
adopting a more rigorous approach to tancy fuelled by concerns over the ment. Poland on Saturday closed hotels, uct yields at a plant in Belgium. Italian
screening the thousands of Poles who AstraZeneca jab. In Slovakia, Prime shopping centres and cultural and sport- authorities identified the 29m doses
returned from the UK for Christmas, Minister Igor Matovic’s decision to buy ing facilities. But experts say such meas- after the commission ordered an
thus helping the variant that originated the Russian Sputnik V vaccine without ures should have been taken far sooner, inspection of the plan, Rome said.
in the UK to spread more quickly the agreement of his coalition partners once it became clear the infectious vari- Additional reporting by Leila Abboud
through the country. has left his government in turmoil. ant was in circulation. “The milk has Intense spotlight see Companies
“We were concerned that if nothing Even Hungary, which has bought both already been spilled,” said Ganczak. See Lex
EU states balk at attempt to reform bloc during health crisis
distraction for governments who have the conference renegades. Germany has apathetic citizens about their views on
GLOBAL INSIGHT spent the past year fighting the pan- not signed the paper, but would largely the EU. But warring policymakers have
demic. Even France’s Emmanuel agree with its goals. Macron has also failed to communicate what the point of
Mehreen
SATURDAY 1 APRIL / SUNDAY 2 APRIL 2017
Macron, one of the plan’s cheerleaders, shown little sign of wanting to make the the format is. A Eurobarometer survey
Khan
seems to have abandoned it ahead of format live up to his initial aims to found that only 51 per cent of respond-
presidential elections next year that will reform the EU after the UK’s exit. ents would take part in the exercise.
Censors and sensitivity
Warning: this article may be
FEBRUARY 4 2017
upsetting — LIFE & ARTS
be dominated by his handling of the The pandemic will also throw up
How To Spend It
F
health and economic crisis. logistical challenges. The commission is
The conference has
Chic new lodgings
irst envisioned as a grassroots The latest blow came this week when planning a digital platform for online
debate over the EU’s demo- a dozen smaller member states issued a become a distraction “agoras” where civil society groups and
cratic institutions, the Confer- position paper on what they want from citizens can contribute ideas to help
ence on the Future of Europe is the exercise. The short answer: not a lot.
for governments build momentum behind the exercise.
at risk of becoming a gathering The paper’s signatories include the fighting the pandemic Health policy, the post-pandemic
of bureaucrats who want to stifle the Nordics, Netherlands, Ireland, Malta, economy and climate change are likely
project at birth. Austria, Estonia and the Czech Repub- to be among the themes put to partici-
Due to start in Strasbourg on May 9, lic. The paper reflects deep-seated sus- Even previously low-hanging fruit pants. The exercise will run for less than
the initiative seeks to echo the Conven- picion among governments about now looks out of reach. Contrary to a year, concluding next spring under the
tion on the Future of Europe, which late launching a process of institutional hopes that the initiative could help set- French presidency of the council.
French president Valéry Giscard d’Esta- renewal during a pandemic. tle issues like how to appoint the Euro- At best, the conference may still serve
ing led in 2001 to revamp the EU’s trea- One diplomat from a signatory coun- pean Commission president, the dozen as a useful experiment in deliberative
ties. The 2021 version will not be as try said: “[Citizens] expect results, not critics want no navel-gazing over the and digital democracy, as seen in
grandiose in its aims or design. inward-looking institutional debates.” future of the Spitzenkandidaten system Macron’s “great national debate” organ-
Rather than a single president in the The paper says the conference should of selection, or federalist hopes for a sys- ised in the wake of grassroots gilets
mould of Giscard d’Estaing, the confer- be an opportunity to ask voters what they tem of transnational MEPs. jaunes protests in 2019, or Ireland’s mini-
ence will have six chiefs, with two repre- expect from the union rather than start- Sophie in ’t Veld, Liberal Dutch MEP, assemblies. At worst, it will be a wasted
sentatives from the EU’s three institu- ing a debate about reforming the EU. The says the sceptical states are a “dozing opportunity that shuts the door on insti-
tions: the commission, council, and par- conference’s findings “should not create dozen, rather than a dirty dozen, snooz- tutional and political reform for another
liament. “Brussels has out Brussels-ed legal obligations, nor should it duplicate ing while the world is moving fast”. generation at a time when the EU is
itself,” laments one EU official. or unduly interfere with the established The raison d’être of the conference, moving towards fiscal integration.
The byzantine management is largely legislative processes”, write the 12. and a measure by which it could still be
by design. The conference has become a That sentiment is widespread beyond deemed successful, is to engage often mehreen.khan@ft.com
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3

INTERNATIONAL

Suez Canal blockage threatens severe

Investment accord

EU warns
China action
disruption to global trade supplies on sanctions
poses risk to
Waterway handles at least 10 per cent of worldwide seaborne goods and similar amount of oil shipments access deal
JIM BRUNSDEN — BRUSSELS
YUAN YANG — BEIJING

The EU’s trade policy chief has warned

that China’s decision to escalate a sanc-
Damietta tions dispute risks imperilling a
market-access deal meant to be the
Port Said cornerstone of future relations
Mediterranean between Brussels and Beijing.
Sea
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s trade
commissioner, said that the fate of the
freshly negotiated EU-China Compre-

DAVID SHEPPARD AND HARRY DEMPSEY
LONDON
HEBA SALEH — CAIRO
Frantic efforts were under way to
unblock the Suez Canal yesterday after
one of the world’s largest container
ships ran aground, severing a vital trade
artery and threatening to disrupt global
shipments for days.
The Ever Given container ship, which
is almost as long as the Empire State
Building is tall, is wedged across the
southern end of the canal, with tug boats
struggling to free it.
Every day, about 50 vessels sail
through the 120-mile long Suez Canal. It
is a key artery handling at least 10 per
cent of global seaborne trade and a simi-
lar amount of oil shipments, leading to
fears that a prolonged shutdown could
disrupt supply chains worldwide.
Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine,
which operates the 220,000-tonne ves-
sel, said yesterday that the ship had
entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea
on Tuesday and became stuck after
being blown off course.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement,
the technical manager of the container
ship, said that despite earlier reports,
the boat remained stuck yesterday
afternoon in Egypt and “initial investi-
gations” had ruled out “any mechanical
or engine failure as a cause of the
grounding”.
Leth Agencies, a transit agent, said
that two dredgers were en route to the
site and were expected to begin work in
the evening to assist the rescue effort.
VesselsValue said that by yesterday
afternoon almost 100 vessels were at
anchor waiting to transit the canal.
While officials in Egypt said they were
hopeful the Ever Given would be freed
shortly and the canal reopened, the oil
market was still spooked by the closure.
Brent crude, international oil bench-
mark, rose almost 6 per cent to $64 a
barrel, reversing part of its recent slide.
Samir Madani at TankerTrackers said
that about 13m barrels of crude and
petroleum product shipments had
backed up at the entrances of the canal
by yesterday afternoon.
Apart from crude flowing from the
Middle East to Europe and North Amer-
ica, the canal has become a large transit
route for oil from Russia to Asia in
recent years.
“The canal is a key chokepoint for glo-
bal trade,” Madani said. “If they can free
the vessel quickly, then the impact will
be minimised but any prolonged block-
age would have severe consequences,
from affecting oil prices and shipping
rates to forcing container vessels to take
the much longer route around Africa.”
The canal, which was built between
1859 and 1869 to connect the Mediterra-
nean to the Red Sea and Asia is also a key
route for consumer goods and bulk raw
materials. Almost 50 per cent of the ves-
sels that passed through the canal in
February were container ships, accord-
30 km
Cairo
Source: Vessel Finder
at 09:45 GMT
© Mapcreator | OSM.org
Texas Texas petrochemical plants hit by last
storm month’s Arctic blast have still not
returned to full capacity, threatening
Chemical months of disruption to the global
plants supply chain for chemical raw
battle to materials critical to everything from
reach full cars to medical equipment to nappies.
capacity The storm knocked as much as 80
again per cent of Texas’s chemicals output
offline, disrupting production of the
world’s three most widely used plastic
polymers — polyethylene,
polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride.
Most plants expect to be back up
and running by the end of this month.
But a return to full output could still be
months away, industry sources said.
The US Gulf Coast has become a
main hub for the global chemicals
business as companies have built new
plants to convert cheap shale gas into
the chemical inputs critical to every
corner of the global economy.
The outages came at a time when
supplies of those chemicals were
already tight because of strong
demand during the pandemic for
everything from medical personal
protective equipment to single-
serving food packaging. “We’ll be well
into the fourth quarter before we see
conditions back to normal,” said
Bhavesh Patel, chief executive of
LyondellBasell, one of the producers.
Justin Jacobs and Harry Dempsey
Suez Canal
EGYPT
Ever Given
container ship
wedged and
blocking the
canal
Build-up of ships
behind the vessel
Blocked artery: ing to the Suez Canal Authority.
the Ever Given Osama Rabie, head of the SCA gave no
container ship, timeline for when it might be freed.
almost as long as Brokers and shipping analysts said
the Empire State that the blockage threatened to cause
Building is tall, backlogs at ports in Europe for days and
is wedged across exacerbate the shortage of containers in
the southern Asia that had led to surging freight rates.
end of the canal “It’s a massive problem as literally
Planet Labs/AFP/Getty
everything from Asia to Europe comes
through there,” said Philip Edge, chief
executive of UK freight forwarder Edge
Worldwide Logistics, who has goods
held up.
“The longer this lasts, the worse it
gets,” said Lars Jensen, chief executive of
Seaintelligence Consulting.
Jensen added that “this has the poten-
tial of creating bottlenecks in European
ports” next week, as delayed vessels idle
at ports at the same time as those arriv-
ing on time from elsewhere, while also
risking delays to the return of desper-
ately needed containers to China.
Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at
‘This Bimco, said there were no signs yet of
vessels being redirected around the
has the Cape of Good Hope but he was “sure we
potential will see some redirection due to risk
management” by shipping companies.
of creating Ranjith Raja, head of Middle East and
bottlenecks north Africa oil and shipping research at
Refinitiv, said the congestion could take
in “several days to weeks to clear”.
European Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille in
Taipei
ports’ See Lex
hensive Agreement on Investment — or
CAI — was tied up with the diplomatic
dispute, which erupted this week.
“China’s retaliatory sanctions are
regrettable and unacceptable,” Dom-
brovskis said. “The prospects for the
CAI’s ratification will depend on how
the situation evolves,” he added. “The
ratification process cannot be separated
from the evolving dynamics of the wider
EU-China relationship.”
The European Commission was
already navigating choppy political
waters over its decision last year to
agree an investment treaty with Beijing
— a move that has been attacked by
human rights groups as placing the
interests of business ahead of funda-
mental values. But the deal’s fate is even
more uncertain following China’s deci-
sion on Monday to place sanctions on
members of the European Parliament,
the assembly that must decide whether
the deal should take effect.
“The EU has been making every effort
to foster a balanced, rules-based eco-
nomic relationship with China, and the
CAI was a major step in that direction,”
Dombrovskis said. “But our trade and
economic agenda has European values
at its core: pursuing our economic inter-
est goes hand in hand with standing up
for our values, including where neces-
sary through sanctions.”
The bulk of the deal, struck at the end
of last year, is focused on opening up
investment opportunities for EU com-
panies. Specifically, it offers possibilities
for European companies to increase
production in promising fields such as
electric cars, while eliminating require-
ments in some sectors to form partner-
ships with local firms.
But the European Parliament’s large
centre-left Socialists and Democrats
group has already made clear that end-
ing the sanctions against the parliament
is a “precondition” for work on ratifying
the investment agreement to advance.
MEPs point to the political impossibility
of the parliament voting through an eco-
nomic pact with a country actively
attacking its members.
China announced the sanctions on
Monday as retaliation against travel
bans and asset freezes imposed on four
Chinese officials and a security organi-
sation because of the persecution of
Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region.
See FT View

Israel. Impasse Genetics

Netanyahu premiership rests on unlikely alliance ‘Mini-brains’ research gives

PM’s path to power runs via
partnership with anti-Arab
bloc and small Islamist party
MEHUL SRIVASTAVA — TEL AVIV
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu’s chances of retaining power
appear uncertain as results from the
country’s fourth election in two years
offer few realistic ways for the five-time
premier to form a coalition.
As results trickled in yesterday,
Netanyahu had only one path to a gov-
erning coalition — an unlikely alliance
that would require a rightwing bloc,
with openly anti-Arab members, to sit
in partnership with an Islamist party.
His rivals, who ran without a candidate
in a disorderly group committed to
ousting Netanyahu, would also struggle
to form a ruling coalition.
That leaves Israelis facing months of
fractious coalition talks and a possible
fifth election to break the stalemate that
has been the hallmark of the country’s
politics for the past two years. Final
results are expected this weekend.
With 90 per cent of the vote counted,
Netanyahu’s Likud is ahead of its biggest
rival, the Yesh Atid (There is A Future)
party. But his bloc of rightwing parties is
two seats short of a majority in the 120-
seat Knesset, even if he succeeds in
enticing a former ally, ex-defence minis-
ter Naftali Bennett, into joining him.
That has left Mansour Abbas, a 46-
year-old dentist from Israel’s Arab-
dominated north, as the unlikely king-
maker in an election defined by a single
issue — the future of Netanyahu’s career.
The impasse presents the Jewish
state’s Zionist leadership with a histori-
cally fraught choice — risk another
round of elections or work out a deal
with an Islamist party dedicated to pro-
tecting conservative Muslim lifestyles.
Netanyahu was now trapped by a par-
adigm he himself created, said Yohanan
Plesner, a former lawmaker, citing the
premier’s vilification of Yitzhak Rabin’s
1992 minority government, which
counted on an Arab party for support,
as traitorous to the Zionist cause.
“Netanyahu continued from [the
Rabin government] with a very clear
strategy of delegitimising the Arab
minority,” said Plesner, now president
of the Israel Democracy Institute.
The prime minister campaigned on
his success in reopening Israel’s econ-
Israeli election 2021
Number of Knesset seats won (with 87.5% of votes counted)
New Hope 6
Yisrael Beitenu 7
Blue and White 8
Yesh Atid 17
Labour 7
Meretz 5
Ra’am 5 Joint
(Undeclared) Oppose List
Netanyahu 6 120 seats
for PM 56
Source: Preliminary results
omy on the back of the world’s most
aggressive coronavirus vaccination
drive. His rivals, which included defec-
tors from Likud and a constellation of
leftwing groups, used Netanyahu’s
ongoing corruption trial to make a case
for his removal.
Abbas’s Ra’am party, which has not
declared support for Netanyahu or his
rivals, gambled that staying above this
fray would bring it outsize influence in
coalition talks. Abbas has already sig-
nalled that his party is open to all
options, including supporting a minor-
ity government from outside a coalition.
“We have to be very careful, but we also
need to wait — this is a big responsibil-
ity,” Abbas told Anas radio in Nazareth
yesterday.
For his part, the premier stopped
short of declaring outright victory but
said early yesterday morning that “we
Yamina 7
(Leaning towards Netanyahu)
Likud 30
Religious
Zionists 6
Possible
coalitions
Shas 9
United
Total Support Torah
Netanyahu Judaism
for PM 59 7 “The door is still open to the Joint
achieved something huge tonight —
we’ve led the Likud to become the larg-
est party in Israel, by a very large mar-
gin”. He also vowed to avoid a fifth elec-
tion even as four elections have shown
voters who want to oust him evenly bal-
anced by those who backed him.
It remained equally unclear if the
committed anti-Netanyahu parties
would be able to muster a coalition —
their camp includes a six-member right-
wing party of ex-Likud leaders who have
been openly averse to a government
that includes any Arab parties.
“As of this moment, Netanyahu does
not have 61 seats,” said Yair Lapid, the
leader of Yesh Atid. He added that he
had already started talks within the
bloc. “We will do everything possible to
establish a sane government in the state
of Israel.”
Benny Gantz, the wartime general
who challenged Netanyahu in three pre-
vious elections, was punished by voters
who felt betrayed by his decision last
year to join a coalition government as
defence minister. The results showed
his Blue and White party winning fewer
than seven or eight seats.
The Joint List of Arab parties, which
originally counted Ra’am in its ranks,
split up when Abbas broke away from its
policy of staunch opposition to Netan-
yahu. The rest of the List received fewer
than eight seats, down from 15 in the
previous election. Abbas hinted that the
List could regroup, further strengthen-
ing his hand in coalition talks.
List,” he told the radio station. “We are
not enemies.”
greater insight into humans
CLIVE COOKSON — LONDON
Researchers in Cambridge have identi-
fied a key genetic switch that ensures
humans develop much bigger brains
than apes, an important step in the
scientific understanding of neural
development.
The team at the MRC Laboratory of
Molecular Biology led by Madeline Lan-
caster made the discovery after compar-
ing so-called mini-brains grown from
human, gorilla and chimpanzee stem
cells. Mini-brains, known as cerebral
organoids, are pea-sized neural assem-
blages grown in laboratories that mimic
aspects of real brains.
The researchers found that a gene
called ZEB2, a master regulator that
switches other genes on and off, played a
vital role in determining brain size.
ZEB2 activates later in humans than in
apes, allowing more time for stem cells
called neural progenitors to multiply
and laying the foundation for the larger
human brain.
“A delayed change in the shape of cells
in the early brain is enough to change
the course of development, helping
determine the numbers of neurons,”
said Lancaster, who in 2013 made the
world’s first mini-brain.
“It is remarkable that a relatively sim-
ple evolutionary change in cell shape
could have major consequences in brain
evolution,” she added. “I feel like we’ve
really learnt something fundamental
about the questions I’ve been interested
in for as long as I can remember: ‘what
makes us human?’” The findings were
reported in the journal Cell yesterday.
The Cambridge team made their dis-
covery after examining the early stages
of brain development, when general-
purpose stem cells are beginning to
become specialised neurons, a process
that starts about four weeks after
conception.
They found that, in early embryos,
ZEB2 promotes the conversion of neural
progenitors into primitive brain cells
known as radial glia. They showed how
the cells change during the transition, as
the cylindrical progenitor cells mature
into a conical shape and slow their mul-
tiplication.
The transition took five days in goril-
las and chimpanzees but seven days in
humans, allowing more time for the
progenitor cells to multiply. As a result,
mini-brains derived from human stem
cells grew to become twice as big as the
ape ones.
When the researchers delayed the
gene’s activity with chemicals in gorilla
organoids, they developed more like
human ones, growing slower and larger.
Conversely, switching on ZEB2 sooner
in human mini-brains made them
develop more like ape organoids.
Lancaster emphasised that, although
ZEB2 was important in making human
brains, it interacted with hundreds of
other genes that are involved in various
stages of neural development, most of
them still unknown. “Although ZEB2 is
a master regulator, we do not know what
turns it on,” Lancaster said.
4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

INTERNATIONAL

Malware Lira in decline

Facebook blames Chinese for Uyghur hack Erdogan urges

Perpetrators try to target
hundreds of dissidents
and activists living abroad
have referred to as a “genocide”. The
operation, which Facebook attributed
to a known Chinese hacking group,
created fake versions of news websites
but that it could not say how many of
them had successfully been hacked
without access to their devices.
The victims were predominantly
well-resourced and persistent opera-
tion, while obfuscating who is behind
it,” Facebook said, and identified the
Chinese hacking group responsible as
Turks to
stressed that it will take a hard line invest and
help bolster
against Beijing over human rights issues
including possible offences in Xinjiang.
The Canadian and Dutch parliaments

HANNAH MURPHY — SAN FRANCISCO

DEMETRI SEVASTOPULO — WASHINGTON
Facebook has uncovered a sophisticated
Chinese espionage campaign that tried
to trick pro-Uyghur activists and dissi-
dents around the world into download-
ing malicious software that would allow
surveillance of their devices.
The revelations come after growing
concern from the US and its allies about
China’s repression of 1m Uyghur people
in Xinjiang, which politicians globally
popular in Uyghur communities
and injected them with malicious
software.
Users who clicked on the sites would
then inadvertently download the mal-
ware, allowing the hackers access to
their devices.
In other cases, the hackers hid mal-
ware in certain pages of websites fre-
quently visited by their targets, and in
malicious apps they created in fake ver-
sions of app stores.
Facebook said the number of targets
was “less than 500” across the world,
Pandemic. Logistical hurdles
Uyghur dissidents, journalists and
activists from Xinjiang who are based
outside of China, in countries including
the US, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Canada
and Australia, among others.
Fake accounts on Facebook — imper-
sonating journalists, students, human
rights activists and other Uyghur com-
munity members — were used to share
links to the malicious sites and apps, the
company said, adding that it found evi-
dence that the campaign had been run-
ning since 2019.
“This activity had the hallmarks of a
Earth Empusa, or Evil Eye. It is unclear
whether the group is backed by the Chi-
nese government.
The US, EU, UK and Canada this week
co-ordinated the imposition of sanc-
tions on several Chinese Communist
party officials for their role in the
repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The
move marks the growing concern from
the west over vast detention camps in
the north-western province.
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state,
has described the repression as “geno-
cide” and the Biden administration has
have also passed resolutions declaring
that Beijing is committing “genocide”.
Some lawmakers in Washington are also
calling for the US to boycott the Winter
Olympics that are scheduled to be held
in China next year unless the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee moves the
games elsewhere.
Facebook said it was taking action to
thwart the network by blocking its
infrastructure and the malicious links
from its platform. It also said it was
alerting victims.
See FT View
markets
AYLA JEAN YACKLEY — ISTANBUL
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
called on Turks to cash in their gold
and invest their savings to shore up
financial markets roiled by his abrupt
decision to sack the central bank chief.
The lira currency has slid nearly 10 per
cent and stocks and bonds have fallen
sharply since the dismissal of Naci
Agbal, who had raised interest rates to
combat double-digit inflation.
Sahap Kavcioglu, his replacement,
shares Erdogan’s bias against high inter-
est rates, and concerns that Turkey will
soon lower borrowing costs sent mar-

Rural South Africa faces long wait for jab rollout
High death rate in deprived
areas linked to mismanaged
hospitals and poor road links
JOSEPH COTTERILL — NQILENI
In a remote South African village, set in
windswept hills not far from the Indian
Ocean, Nolindele Mdibanto fears she
will never get the Covid-19 vaccine.
The nearest government clinic to
Nqileni, deep in the rural Eastern Cape,
lies several miles beyond a river and
over hilly terrain. Despite daily hikes to
fetch firewood and water for her
thatched one-room home, the prospect
of a long trek unnerves the Xhosa elder.
“Now I’m too old, and it’s not easy to
walk,” said Mdibanto, who is in her
eighties and says she “kicked away” a
mild Covid-19 infection in a recent out-
break. “They say it’s coming, but it will
take a long time, or it will never come.”
The Eastern Cape, one of South
Africa’s most deprived provinces, is one
of the regions in the world hardest hit by
the pandemic. It is the first place the
more infectious 501.V2 variant was seen
and “excess” deaths above statistical
norms over the past year are estimated
to be about 32,000, equivalent to nearly
one in 200 of its 6.7m population. Outreach:
The figures reflect mismanaged hos- Bulungula
pitals, shortages of supplies such as oxy- Incubator health
gen and poor infrastructure, say workers in the
experts. These issues will also test the rural Eastern
limits of South Africa’s vaccine rollout, Cape conduct
which began in February and will kick coronavirus
off an ambitious nationwide phase for screening and,
the elderly, vulnerable and other high- below, explain
risk groups within months. the vaccination
How the vaccination campaign goes programme
in places such as Nqileni will have an Joseph Cotterill
impact not only in South Africa, which
with 52,000 official deaths is the worst
hit on the African continent, but for vac-
cination drives everywhere. As rich
countries press ahead with their immu-
nisation efforts, what will be the biggest
vaccination campaign in history is only
just beginning in the developing world.
As has now become a mantra,
Covid-19 will not be contained any-
where until it is suppressed everywhere,
a reality brought home by the rapid
spread of variants such as 501.V2, some
of which are more resistant to current
vaccines. And while South Africa and
other developing countries are well
versed in mass childhood vaccination
campaigns, they have less experience in
vaccinating adults such as Mdibanto.
While officially the old and sick of
Nqileni and nearby villages are in line
for jabs, “it is extremely worrying that
we could be forgotten”, said Lynne
Wilkinson, acting director of the Bulun-
gula Incubator, a local non-profit.
So far, South Africa has vaccinated a
little more than one in 10 of an initial
phase of 1.25m frontline health workers,
in part because of limited supplies. The
second stage, targeting 16m out of a pop-
ulation of 58m, is due to begin in April.
The country’s vaccination planning
was dealt a blow last month when it sus-
pended an initial rollout of the Oxford/
AstraZeneca vaccine after a preliminary
study found it was not effective against
milder illness with the 501.V2 variant.
It was replaced with Johnson & John-
son’s single-dose jab, but there have
been limited supplies so far. Larger
deliveries of the J&J and BioNTech/
Pfizer vaccines are expected to under-
pin the second phase. Rollout must
accelerate to at least 150,000 to 250,000
doses a day to protect a large portion of
the population by the end of the year,
business leaders have said.
“It’s going to be a tough one,” said Rus-
sell Rensburg, director of South Africa’s
Rural Health Advocacy Project.
There will be questions over access in
cities, where huge outbreaks have been
centred, and also rural areas, such as the
Eastern Cape. “If you’re going to go
rural, do everyone when you’re there.
We shouldn’t expect people to go to
[central vaccination sites], but go on
vaccination drives,” said Rensburg.
J&J’s one-shot vaccine, which is stored
at normal fridge temperatures, “helps a
lot” with these problems, Rensburg
added. Because it needs colder storage
and two doses, “in practice, the Pfizer
vaccine is better suited to GP practices
and urban areas”.
Nqileni, which was relatively
unscathed in the second wave, is an
hour or more car journey down bone-
shaking gravel tracks from Mthatha, the
nearest big city, and 40km from a hospi-
tal. Not even public ambulances brave
the bad roads.
Nor is its situation unique. In January,
health officials said nearly 3,000 com-
munities in the province were more
than 5km from the nearest health facil-
ity and that schools and other sites were
being considered for vaccinations.
If the government health clinic over
the river is the only local place for dis-
tributing vaccines in the months to
come, “old people, it’s going to be hard
for them”, said Nosomeleze Sontundu, a
community health worker who is still
waiting for her own jab. “The road to the
clinic is for the strong and healthy. It is
not for the old and sick.”
It would be just about possible to
arrange transport for nearly two dozen
health workers across four villages to
receive jabs at distant clinics or hospi-
tals, Wilkinson said. “When we start
moving to the old people, that is com-
pletely not feasible.”
So urgent is the problem that the
Bulungula Incubator is installing a solar
power system at a small “health point”
sub-clinic it runs in Nqileni to run a
fridge for vaccines. Doses “would be
‘The road stored at the health point but ideally,
they would go into the villages”, Wilkin-
to the clinic son said.
is for the Nosintu Gwebindlala, chair of the
Bulungula Incubator and the commu-
strong and nity’s presiding traditional leader,
healthy. It wanted the government to be more
proactive on vaccines. “When it’s elec-
is not for tion time, they do have resources, they
the old do go door to door,” she said. “It would
be nice if they can use the same energy
and sick’ they have when they are campaigning.”
kets in a tailspin.
“I want my citizens to invest foreign
currency and gold kept at home, which
is our national wealth, in various finan-
cial instruments to benefit our economy
and production,” Erdogan said. Finan-
cial institutions that complied with
Islamic tenets in particular provided
customers with favourable returns, he
added.
In his first comments since sacking
Agbal, Erdogan did not mention him.
He reiterated his confidence in the
Turkish economy and urged interna-
tional investors “to trust Turkey’s
strength, potential and future”.
“Fluctuations in the markets in the
last few days certainly do not reflect the
Turkish economy’s fundamentals, true
dynamics or its potential and future,”
said Erdogan, during a speech at a ruling
party congress yesterday. “We have
repeatedly proven our resistance to any
kind of shock with our dynamic eco-
nomic structure, fiscal discipline, com-
mitment to a free-market economy.”
Erdogan suggested he remained
focused on economic growth. “We will
reach much better places by expanding
the Turkish economy based on invest-
ment, production, employment and
exports in the coming period,” he said.
Similar calls for domestic investment
were made during previous periods of
economic tumult, including in a 2018
currency crisis sparked by fears over
Erdogan’s foreign and economic policies.
Turks have stockpiled gold “under
the mattress” worth about 40 per cent
of gross domestic product, according to
Bloomberg. Dollar and euro savings also
help Turks hedge against inflation and
the lira’s decline, which has lost 40 per
cent of its value since the 2018 crisis.
Foreign investors have said the latest
upheaval at the central bank has erased
hopes the governor can pursue policies
free of political pressure. Kavcioglu
became the fourth Turkish central bank
governor in less than two years.
Economists have urged the govern-
ment to outline how it will curb inflation
under Kavcioglu, who has argued that
high interest rates cause inflation, a view
that contradicts mainstream economic
thinking. Economists say the easiest way
to calm the currency and slow inflation
would be to raise interest rates — keeping
prices of imported goods in check.
“Turkey’s economy faces major prob-
lems, from the budget deficit to inflation
to the current account deficit to the
exchange rate, but the biggest problem
is the credibility gap. As long as
[Erdogan] can’t fill that, none of these
plans are taken seriously,” said Kerim
Rota, a former banker who is now a dep-
uty chair of the centre-right opposition
Future party.
He called Erdogan’s latest comments
on the recent financial volatility “weak
and insufficient”.
David Gardner see Opinion

Environment Misinformation

Top central banks identify greener policies
MARTIN ARNOLD — FRANKFURT
The world’s biggest central banks have
identified nine ways in which they
could use monetary policy to tackle the
risks of climate change, including
greener asset purchases and climate-
related lending schemes, according to a
report.
The options were outlined by the
Network for Greening the Financial Sys-
tem, a group of 89 central banks and
financial supervisors formed to support
the Paris climate goals, in research pub-
lished yesterday.
It advises central bankers on how to
shield themselves from climate change
risks and support their national govern-
ments’ green policies without diluting
their main monetary policy tools. Each
option was evaluated for its effective-
ness in tackling climate risk and its
impact on monetary policy.
“This is a real milestone, a first of its
kind, offering central banks worldwide
nine options to address climate change,”
said Sabine Mauderer, a Bundesbank
executive who oversaw the report.
Global warming has shot up the
agenda of central banks in the past year.
However, the question of whether
they should use their multi-trillion-
dollar bond-buying programmes to
tackle climate risk by selling the bonds
of big carbon emitters and buying more
green bonds is a contentious area of
monetary policy.
The NGFS report proposed two ways
for central banks to make their corpo-
rate asset purchases greener. One is by
tilting them towards issuers that per-
form better against a chosen climate
metric, and another is by screening out
the assets, issuers or sectors that pro-
duce the most carbon emissions, such as
coal-fired power stations.
Applying a negative screen to corpo-
rate asset purchases, such as the one
introduced by Sweden’s Riksbank at the
start of this year, would be a harder-
hitting way to tackle climate change and
reduce its risks, the report stated.
However, it said the tilting strategy, as
proposed recently by Banque de France
governor François Villeroy de Galhau,
would be a more efficient option that
impinged less on the effectiveness of
monetary policy.
The NGFS sets out four ways central
banks could change the rules on the col-
lateral they accept from banks, such as
cutting the collateral value of assets
with higher carbon intensity, and exam-
ined three ways for central banks to
make their own lending greener.
One would be to offer a lower rate on
financing to banks that meet certain
climate-related lending criteria. A sec-
ond is to lower the financing rate for
banks that offer collateral with a smaller
carbon footprint. Finally, central banks
could make access to their financing
conditional on lenders meeting a
threshold for green lending or for
disclosing climate risk.
Social media pressed to root out anti-vaxxers
KIRAN STACEY — WASHINGTON
HANNAH MURPHY — SAN FRANCISCO
Social media groups are facing renewed
pressure to clamp down on a small
group of anti-vaccine campaigners that
researchers blame for flooding plat-
forms with misinformation.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate
has urged Facebook, Google and Twitter
to ban 12 people it has found are respon-
sible for about two-thirds of online anti-
vaccine content, among them Robert F
Kennedy Jr, the son of the late Robert F
Kennedy, and the alternative medicine
entrepreneur Joseph Mercola.
The CCDH’s research comes as 12
Democratic state attorneys-general say
they plan to write to Facebook and Twit-
ter urging them to do more to curb anti-
vaccine misinformation. And it comes a
day before the chief executives of Face-
book, Twitter and Google are all sched-
uled to testify in front of Congress about
online extremism and misinformation.
Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of
the CCDH, said: “Facebook, Google and
Twitter have put policies into place to
prevent the spread of vaccine misinfor-
mation; yet to date, all have failed to sat-
isfactorily enforce those policies.”
He added: “All have been particularly
ineffective at removing harmful and
Those adamantly opposed
to taking the vaccine are
far more likely to read
their news on Facebook
dangerous misinformation about coro-
navirus vaccines, though the scale of
misinformation on Facebook, and thus
the impact of their failure, is larger.”
Facebook did not respond to a request
for comment.
Recent polls conducted by the Kaiser
Family Foundation think-tank show 42
per cent of Americans say they do not
want to get vaccinated immediately —
though that figure is down from 63 per
cent in December. The KFF also found
those who were adamantly opposed to
taking the vaccine were far more likely
to read their news on Facebook.
Researchers say much anti-vaccine
content can be traced back to a handful
of individuals or groups.
Mercola, the most prolific, has 3.6m
followers across Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. In one of the sample posts
highlighted by the CCDH, Mercola
wrote on Instagram: “Forced vaccina-
tion is part of the plan to ‘reset’ the glo-
bal economic system.”
Mercola’s office did not respond to a
request to comment.
The second most significant anti-vaxx
influencer, the report found, was
Kennedy, who is head of the anti-vacci-
nation group Children’s Health Defense.
While Instagram has already removed
Kennedy, Twitter and Facebook have
rejected calls to do so.
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 5
6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

Green fix Avoid extend-and-pretend and pursue an environmental path to sovereign debt restructurings y MARKETS INSIGHT, PAGE 11

Intel to boost Under pressure Tencent in talks with antitrust

regulators as Beijing scrutinises tech groups
Tribune board
shuns higher
chip output not-for-profit
takeover offer
with $20bn ANNA NICOLAOU AND
JAMES FONTANELLA-KHAN — NEW YORK

Arizona sites
3 Turnround hinges on manufacturing
3 Chief fends off activist investor’s call
PATRICK MCGEE — SAN FRANCISCO
Intel says it will spend $20bn on build-
ing two semiconductor factories in
Arizona, the linchpin of a turnround
strategy that also includes outsourcing
whenever necessary and launching a
service to make computer chips for
other companies.
The multiyear strategy from Pat Gels-
inger, newly appointed chief executive,
reflects Intel’s determination to build
most of its chips, ending any discussion
that it should withdraw from manufac-
turing after falling behind Asian com-
petitors such as Taiwan Semiconductor
Manufacturing Company and Samsung.
At the same time, the group is launch-
ing Intel Foundry Services to produce
‘A key challenge is access to
manufacturing capacity.
Intel is in [a] unique position
to rise to the occasion’
chips for other companies, a significant
move for a US company that formerly
made a point of being both the designer
and the manufacturer of its chips.
The new strategy coincides with a glo-
bal chip shortage that is causing havoc
in the automotive industry.
“A key challenge is access to manufac-
turing capacity,” Gelsinger said. “Intel is
in [a] unique position to rise to the occa-
sion and meet this growing demand.”
The two chipmaking “fabs” Intel is
building in Arizona mark a decisive
move just months after Daniel Loeb’s
Third Point hedge fund, an activist inv-
estor, took a $1bn stake in the tech group
and suggested it consider shedding its
manufacturing operations.
The plants are expected to begin pro-
duction in 2024. Construction will start
this year, creating 3,000 building jobs.
Once complete, they will create at least
3,000 “permanent high-tech, high-wage
jobs” and about 15,000 local long-term
posts, Intel said.
The company called its plan IDM 2.0,
an abbreviation for the “integrated
device manufacturing” approach in
which it designs and makes its chips,
whereas most of the industry is frag-
mented.
But Intel said it would be more open to
what it called “co-opetition”, or finding
ways to partner, and outsource to, tradi-
tional rivals including TSMC and South
Korea’s Samsung. Intel’s “strategic use
of outside foundries is an under-appre-
ciated fact”, Gelsinger said.
Shares in TSMC and Samsung fell as
much as 3.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent,
respectively, in Asian trading yesterday.
Intel’s new foundry service, to be led
by Randhir Thakur, will build chips in
the US and Europe — an important
development given the concentration of
where chips are built today.
Gelsinger cited figures giving Asia an
80 per cent market share for the foun-
dry industry, which he expects to be a
$100bn market by 2025. The US has a
15 per cent share and Europe 5 per cent.
Intel said it planned to become a
“major provider of foundry capacity” in
both the US and Europe, with additional
plans to be announced “within a year”.
Gelsinger said the move would allow
Intel to go to the likes of Qualcomm, a
chip designer, and say: “Hey, let’s find
ways to leverage our technologies in
ways that weren’t possible before, and
can we become your foundry partner?”
He added: “We also will pursue cus-
tomers like Apple.”
The iPhone maker announced in June
that it would shift away from relying on
Intel and instead design its own chips for
Mac products, which are then manufac-
tured by TSMC.
See Lex
Tencent says it is in compliance with new policies designed to rein in unwieldy private enterprises — Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
RYAN MCMORROW — BEIJING
Tencent has confirmed it is in talks
with Chinese antitrust regulators
amid intensifying scrutiny of the
country’s technology sector, with the
group’s chief rival Alibaba under
investigation.
Pony Ma, chief executive, said Ten-
cent was “actively co-operating with
the regulatory authorities” on various
issues, including “sorting out some . . .
past investments”.
The company was fined by regula-
tors for failing to seek approval for
acquisitions such as a stake in Yuan-
fudao, the online education platform.
Tencent spent $12bn on investments
in 163 start-ups last year, outspending
Alibaba, and analysts at Bernstein
estimate its investment portfolio now
amounts to roughly $260bn.
James Mitchell, chief strategy
officer at Tencent, said the group pri-
marily took minority stakes in com-
panies and that it was continuing to
invest at a normal pace.
Martin Lau, president, maintained
that the tech group, which is involved
in everything from gaming to social
media and finance, was “compliant”
with a host of new policies Chinese
authorities have rolled out in an effort
to tame financial risk and rein in
unwieldy private enterprises.
Lau described Tencent’s talks this
month with the antitrust regulator as
a “voluntary meeting . . . conducted
in the normal course of business”. He
said they discussed creating a healthy
environment for innovation in China.
“We have always been very focused
on compliance, and we’ll continue to
operate strictly in compliance with
the rules and regulations,” Lau said.
The company reported that reve-
nue rose 26 per cent year on year to
Rmb133.7bn ($20.5bn) in the fourth
quarter, ahead of analysts’ expecta-
tions, as lockdown gaming interna-
tionally boosted sales and Chinese
people spent more through Tencent’s
WeChat Pay. Net profit, adjusted for
non-cash items and one-time gains,
hit Rmb34.5bn, up 29 per cent from a
year earlier. The company proposed a
dividend of HK$1.6 per share.
In fintech, WeChat Pay holds 40 per
cent of China’s mobile payments mar-
ket, second to Alipay at 55 per cent,
and in co-ordination with affiliate
WeBank also issues online loans to
users. Lau said Tencent was already in
compliance with forthcoming regula-
tions for online lending, among them
requirements that platforms put up
30 per cent of the capital for each
loan, cap loans at Rmb200,000 and
halt lending to students.
“We’ve always approached our fin-
ancial business with relatively strong
self-discipline,” Lau said. “We co-oper-
ate with financial institutions, we don’t
want to disrupt their businesses.”
See Lex
Tribune Publishing’s board has recom-
mended that shareholders back a take-
over by Alden, a hedge fund, rather
than a higher offer from a Baltimore-
based hotel magnate who wants to run
the papers as non-profit organisations.
The owner of the Chicago Tribune and
New York Daily News said in a regula-
tory filing that the board had decided
not to pursue the higher offer from
Stewart Bainum, chair of Choice Hotels,
after Alden, which owns about a third of
the publisher and controls three board
seats, “had made it clear it would not
support an alternative transaction”.
Nevertheless, the Bainum bid has
thrown Alden’s takeover into doubt and
given heart to Tribune journalists who
regard the battle as an existential fight
against the influx of financial groups
into their business.
The takeover requires the approval of
at least two-thirds of Tribune share-
holders, excluding Alden. That puts the
spotlight on Patrick Soon-Shiong, the
pharmaceuticals billionaire and owner
of the Los Angeles Times, who holds
about 24 per cent of Tribune, a stake big
enough to complicate Alden’s plans.
Alden, which has more than 200
newspapers, secured board agreement
to buy Tribune last month in a $630m
deal. As part of the deal, Tribune would
sell the Baltimore Sun and two other
Maryland titles to Bainum for $65m.
However, Bainum last week launched
a counterbid for all of Tribune at $18.50
a share, valuing the company at $650m,
about 7 per cent higher than Alden’s
offer. The move was made after Alden
demanded terms that, in effect, doubled
the cost of the Baltimore Sun acquisi-
tion, said two people familiar with the
talks. Alden asked that Bainum also pay
$12m a year for five years to continue
using Tribunes’s corporate infrastruc-
ture, those people said.
Bainum sent a letter last week to the
committee of independent board mem-
bers for permission to lift a non-
disclosure agreement so that he could
find investors to join his bid. He plans to
invest $100m of his own money and
seek about $200m in debt financing and
another $100m in equity, according to
people familiar with his bid.
The Tribune committee, however,
recommended Alden’s offer as it pro-
vided greater certainty than any other
option, the regulatory filing said.

Contracts & Tenders

Russian market valuation discounts reveal investor mistrust
are continually cited by investors to jus-
INSIDE BUSINESS tify the significant markdowns across
the Russian investment universe.
RUSSIA Russia’s benchmark Moex index
trades at 7.8 times expected earnings for
Henry the next 12 months, less than half of the
forward price-to-earnings ratio for the
Foy MSCI Emerging Markets index, accord-
ing to Bloomberg data.
Few companies have a lower such
ratio than Surgutneftegaz’s 4 times. Run
oligarchs and bankers in Russia in the
1990s, when chunks of the country’s
vast mineral wealth were snapped up by
politically connected financiers in con-
troversial privatisation auctions.
But investors prefer clarity over
shareholders and their intentions. Take
Yandex, the Russian tech conglomerate.
It had suffered from concerns over what
a golden share held by Sberbank, the
Kremlin-controlled lender, could be

T
here are valuation dis-
counts and risk premiums,
and then there is Surgut-
neftegaz. Russia’s fourth-
largest oil producer pumps
out more than 10 per cent of the coun-
try’s crude, has barely any debt and a
cash pile of about $50bn. But investors
value it at just $20.5bn.
There have been many justifications
for the discount. Analysts have given up
guessing why the cash is being saved,
when it might be spent, and on what. It
is so large that during some quarters the
interest generates more income than
the company makes from oil production.
Minority investors know they have
zero chance of changing strategy: the
chief executive is a former Soviet appa-
ratchik who has run the business since
1984. And overshadowing all, there is no
public information on who actually con-
trols the company.
The huge gap between Surgutnefte-
gaz’s cash pile and its market capitalisa-
tion is legendary among Russian inves-
tors. But it is only the most conspicuous
example of the discount that hangs over
much of the country’s financial markets.
Worries over judicial independence
and protection of private property are
part of the reason for this. But concerns
over corporate governance, the rights
afforded to minority investors and
political influence on company strategy
by the same man, Vladimir Bogdanov,
since it was still a division of the USSR’s
oil ministry, it was privatised in 1993.
Yet despite its public listing, details of its
ownership have been only sporadically
published, and remain opaque.
In the early 2000s, it said about 40 per
cent of its ordinary shares were held in
treasury. In its 2012 annual report, the
first results it reported under interna-
tional standards
for 11 years, those Worries about corporate
treasury shares
had disappeared — governance, minority
less than 1 per cent investors’ rights and
were declared as
being owned by the political influence are
company, and there cited to justify markdowns
were no records of
any being sold or transferred elsewhere.
According to the Vedomosti news
organisation, the shares had been sold
off to a web of interconnected compa-
nies controlled by Surgutneftegaz insid-
ers, in tranches smaller than 5 per cent.
That meant that the sales, and the new
owners, did not have to be disclosed.
Russian commentators have long
speculated that the company’s shares
are being held on behalf of other enti-
ties, potentially politicians or officials
keen to keep such ownership secret.
Surgutneftegaz did not respond to a
request for comment.
Such “beneficial ownership” relation-
ships were common among politicians,
used for. Such shares typically give hold-
ers veto power over issues such as a
change of corporate control.
In 2019, Yandex agreed on a restruc-
turing in which the golden share was
transferred to a Russian foundation
designed to protect the company from
foreign takeover. With the uncertainty
over Moscow’s intentions removed,
shares rallied. Today, its stock is more
than double the pre-restructuring value.
Such a restructuring at Surgutnefte-
gaz looks unlikely, though investors
never seem to lose hope. In the winter of
2019, its shares jumped 52 per cent in 10
weeks, triggered by the formation of a
subsidiary that analysts speculated
could be used to spend the cash pile on
new investments. Nothing happened,
and the shares retreated.
Ron Smith, executive director at BCS
Global Markets in Moscow, reckons that
if Surgutneftegaz were to pay out a spe-
cial dividend of about 90 per cent of the
cash, and cancel the treasury shares that
vanished from the published accounts
after 2004, the company’s equity value
would be $70bn.
Bogdanov rarely speaks to the media.
Asked in 2019 whether he planned to
step down, he replied: “Ask God.”
If Russia’s equities are to close the valu-
ation gap with other markets, investors
might need a little more clarity than that.
henry.foy@ft.com
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 7
8 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Media Travel & leisure

KKR to tap music boom with BMG tie-up Bally’s banks

Buyout firm and German
group will jointly acquire
lucrative back catalogues
and has caught the attention of large fin-
anciers. Many are scooping up lucrative
back catalogues with more than $1bn of
deals up for grabs over the coming year,
Masuch said that there had been a
huge rise in deals in the past year as
more musicians and songwriters have
become “willing sellers” because of the
times multiple was more expensive
than a 20 times multiple now.”
The deal is not structured as a direct
investment by KKR in BMG or a joint
on Gamesys
asset and said that KKR was a good part- for assault on
US sports
ner for BMG given their joint history.
Thomas Rabe, chief executive of Ber-
telsmann, said: “KKR was already the

NIC FILDES
KKR has teamed up with BMG, one of
the world’s largest music companies, to
target large acquisitions of music labels
and catalogues during a consolidation
boom in the industry.
A return to growth in the music sec-
tor, driven by streaming, has led to the
rise of acquisitive specialist funds
including Hipgnosis and Primary Wave
according to Hartwig Masuch, chief
executive of BMG.
KKR was an original majority share-
holder in BMG when the music com-
pany was relaunched in 2008 but sold
out to its partner Bertelsmann, the Ger-
man media company, five years later.
It re-entered the sector this year when
it bought a majority stake in the cata-
logue of songwriter Ryan Tedder, but
the BMG deal represents KKR’s biggest
foray into music this decade.
Financials. Faber fight
rise in valuations and the lack of touring
income.
He added that KKR would provide the
financial firepower for BMG to compete
for the best assets with “north of $1bn”
worth of music catalogues likely to
come to the market in the coming year.
BMG had previously argued that valu-
ations for assets had become too high
but Masuch said that the growth in the
industry meant that higher valuations
were now justified. “In 2011, a 9 or 10
venture. Instead, the two companies
will jointly purchase music assets and
share the proceeds in the future.
Revenue in the music sector has
grown for six consecutive years with a
7.4 per cent rise last year to $21.6bn,
according to the IFPI. Paid-for stream-
ing has increased the value of music
rights and given proven older songs a
second life.
Masuch said that a number of funds
were looking at music as an investable
ideal partner and catalyst once before,
following the re-establishment of our
music subsidiary in 2008. [Since 2013],
betting sector
BMG has developed into one of the most
successful music companies of the ALICE HANCOCK
streaming age, and one of Bertelsmann’s
Bally’s, the US casino operator, has
three global content businesses. Now we
agreed the “key terms” of a £2bn tie-up
will ignite the next stage with KKR.”
with Gamesys, the UK gambling com-
BMG has built an eclectic catalogue of
pany, in what would be the latest trans-
artists since it sold its original business
atlantic takeover designed to crack the
to Sony, including new musicians such
American sports betting market.
as Mabel, Alt-J and Thunder.
Under the terms of the possible deal,
Bally’s would pay £18.50 in cash for each
Gamesys share, an almost 13 per cent
premium to where the UK company’s
stock closed on Tuesday.
Rhode Island-based Bally’s said

Spirited boutique led call to arms against Danone boss
Little-known Bluebell owns
less than €20m of target but
became campaign’s public face
LAURENCE FLETCHER — LONDON
LEILA ABBOUD — PARIS
On January 18, a letter from an activist
calling for replacement of Danone chief
Emmanuel Faber was leaked to a maga-
zine. It proved to be a call to arms among
the group’s biggest shareholders, who
began contacting London-based Blue-
bell Capital to learn more.
“If you take the largest investors in
the shareholder register, we’ve been
called by everyone,” said Bluebell co-
founder Marco Taricco. But he said the
firm was not the source of the leak: “The
vast majority was highly critical and dis-
satisfied with Mr Faber’s performance.”
The episode turned the spotlight on
the hedge fund boutique that is less than
two years old. The group owns less than
€20m of Danone, which has a market
cap of €41bn, and has a fraction of the
firepower of such US activists as $40bn
group Elliott and $15.5bn Third Point.
Nevertheless, Bluebell quickly
became the public face of a campaign at
Danone that led to Faber’s ouster.
The activist, set up by former Gold-
man Sachs bankers, had verbalised
growing and multiyear frustration over
performance at the group.
It marked the latest example of how
Taricco and co-founder Giuseppe Biv-
ona have taken on big companies such
as Monte dei Paschi di Siena, GAM, and
Solvay, drumming up support for its
campaigns from fellow shareholders.
In the case of Danone, it reflected the
view of many when it called to replace
Faber and split the roles of chair and
chief executive. Bluebell’s campaign
was soon followed by a separate push by
US-based fund Artisan.
Amid the revolts, initially Danone
pushed to look for a new CEO but keep
Faber as chair. This was too little to sat-
isfy activists but enough to reassure
Bluebell the balance was shifting. Two
weeks later Faber was out completely.
Faber’s eviction was reminiscent of
the years before the financial crisis
when activists with tiny stakes could
create fear. Bluebell’s rivals see the part
it played in it as a vital win. “They were
particularly effective in building a con-
sensus among fellow shareholders who
may have been nervous” of being seen
to criticise Faber’s ethical credentials,
said one hedge fund activist.
The campaign at Danone, which over
the past decade has found itself in the
crosshairs of activists such as Nelson
Peltz and Corvex, comes after a tricky
period for the strategy. Many activists
have been wary of being seen to attack
companies struggling in the pandemic.
There are signs of an uptick in activity
after some funds used last year’s sell-off
Bluebell Capital as a chance to increase stakes in targets. alongside the partner’s investment,
supported With equity markets having rebounded while negotiating profit-sharing. Tar-
now-ousted so strongly over the past year, activists icco said: “What matters is the quality of
Danone chief are again putting pressure on compa- the suggestion you put forward. Our
Emmanuel nies, particularly over how to use cash strategy lends itself well to gathering
Faber’s ESG reserves built up during the pandemic. investor support.”
focus, but ‘it There were 57 new campaigns In 2019 they set up Bluebell Capital
can’t come at launched in the fourth quarter, up 128 Partners with Francesco Trapani, the
the expense of per cent on the third quarter, according former head of Bulgari, and launched
shareholder to Lazard. The “Covid pause is over” for the hedge fund in November that year.
returns’ activists, the investment bank said. Today, as Bluebell Capital, the €70m
Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty
Bluebell began life as an advisory asset base mainly comprises the found-
firm. It was set up in 2014 by Taricco ers’ money and that of friends and fam-
and Bivona, who met at Columbia busi- ily. It has continued its strategy of team-
ness school. They sold stock ideas to ing up with bigger operators to make its
activists such as Paul Singer’s Elliott and voice heard in activist situations.
Jana. It included working with Elliott in This was shown at Monte dei Paschi di
Ansaldo and with Jana at Tiffany. The Siena. It argued that the lender, which
pair would back ideas with their money had received a state bailout and become
a political issue, was hiding derivative
transactions. Working with York and
Revival of activism Alken, the campaign attracted support
Number of European campaigns initiated from the Five Star Movement. In 2019,
10 13 former bankers from Monte dei Pas-
chi, Deutsche and Nomura were sen-
8 tenced to jail for helping the bank hide
hundreds of millions of euros of losses
using derivatives, and last year former
6 chair Alessandro Profumo was also sen-
tenced to jail.
4 Bluebell runs just 11 positions. It
focuses on medium and large groups
2 rather than small-caps where there is
more chance a firm will have a domi-
nant — and potentially less amenable —
0 shareholder. It has built a stake of undis-
Jan 2020 Dec closed size in UniCredit, where it
Source: Lazard opposes appointment of chair-desig-
‘There’s nate Pier Carlo Padoan, ex-finance min-
ister. Bluebell says Padoan is not inde-
never pendent because of his role in the bail-
anything out of Monte dei Paschi, a possible take-
over target for UniCredit. Taricco said:
personal in “We’re firmly opposed to this acquisi-
what we do’ tion. There’s a long list of issues” at
Monte dei Paschi. “It’s a total disaster.”
Marco Taricco, Another target, Solvay, reflects Blue-
Bluebell bell’s commitment to undertake one
campaign a year at a company where it
buys one share and advocates better
ESG conduct.
Bluebell still sometimes looks to work
with bigger funds, as in a private equity
co-investment, taking a fee for selling
the activism idea.
Taricco said his firm preferred a low-
profile, constructive approach, “but if
it’s made public, we don’t shy away from
being vocal”.
Faber was one of the most vocal
champions of ESG. Taricco said that
while he supported Faber’s focus, the
issue was governance — and perform-
ance. “It can’t come at the expense
of shareholder returns. The first duty of
a public company is to remunerate
shareholders.”
Taricco said he had rarely found com-
panies to be defensive when ideas were
presented to them. Even when that
meant removing an executive, the move
was always driven by financial analysis.
“There’s never anything personal in
what we do.”
Additional reporting by Silvia Sciorilli
Borrelli in Milan
acquiring Gamesys, which owns Virgin
Casino and Jackpotjoy, would secure it
expertise in online products. At the
same time, Gamesys would “benefit
from Bally’s fast-growing land-based
and online platform” in the US.
Neil Goulden, the chair of Gamesys,
said the deal was “about putting
together someone with a lot of online
capability and capacity with a US retail
operator to really tap into what will
become the biggest gambling market.”
If the takeover does happen, Lee Fen-
ton, Gamesys chief executive, will lead
the combined company, which will
retain the UK group’s domestic business
and its operations in Japan and Spain.
In its statement, the US casino opera-
tor said “the Gamesys board has indi-
cated to Bally’s that it is minded to rec-
ommend the cash offer to Gamesys
shareholders”.
Shares in Gamesys surged more than
18 per cent to £19.544 in afternoon trad-
US states struggling with a
lower tax take are moving
to legalise online gambling
and sport betting
ing in London, giving the company a
market value of £2.1bn.
Jack O’Halloran, analyst at Davy, said
his “initial sense is that the bid under-
values the medium-term prospects of
the Gamesys business” because it was
one of few European gambling compa-
nies that owned its technology outright.
The deal would be the latest in a string
of acquisitions by US companies turning
to operators in the long-established UK
market to help them win share in the
American sports betting market.
William Hill, the UK bookmaker, is
being bought by Caesars Entertain-
ment, the US casino operator, in a
£2.9bn deal, expected to be completed
next month. Entain, owner of the Lad-
brokes and Bwin brands, fought off a
proposed takeover by MGM, its US part-
ner, earlier this year arguing that its
offer undervalued the company.
Several analysts have speculated that
888, the London-listed online gaming
company, could also be a target.
Bally’s and Gamesys first had contact
in December, said a person familiar with
the matter. Bally’s said yesterday it had
made an initial proposal on January 26.
Bally’s, which operates 11 casinos, a
racetrack and 13 betting shops in Colo-
rado, has been expanding rapidly
online. This month it bought Monkey
Knife Fight, the fantasy sport website,
and in November Bet. Works, the US
sports betting platform. It plans to
launch online gaming products in the
US from the second quarter of this year.
The deal spree has been triggered as
US states, struggling with lower tax rev-
enues in the pandemic, moving to legal-
ise online gambling and sport betting.
Vixio GamblingCompliance, which
monitors the market, said in its most
recent report that it expected the online
gaming and sports betting markets in
the US to be worth about $25bn by 2025.

Aerospace & defence Financials

Leonardo puts off float of US electronics unit
SYLVIA PFEIFER AND SARAH PROVAN
LONDON
Leonardo, one of Europe’s largest
defence groups, has postponed the US
listing of its US military electronics
operation, citing “adverse” market
conditions.
The Italian company had hoped to use
the money raised from the flotation of a
minority stake in DRS to reduce its debt
and to build a war chest for potential
acquisitions in Europe.
Analysts had estimated the group,
which acquired the US unit in 2008 for
$5.2bn, would sell between 20 per cent
and 30 per cent for at least $3bn.
DRS was set to list on the New York
Stock Exchange this week but Leonardo
said yesterday that a lack of investor
demand had prevented an “adequate”
valuation. It added that it would revisit
plans for the initial public offering once
conditions became more favourable.
Alessandro Profumo, chief executive
of Leonardo, told the Financial Times
that the market conditions had changed
in recent days. He stressed that the list-
ing was only postponed, although
declined to give a firm date when it
might be revived. He said the company
remained “fully convinced of the qual-
ity of the business”.
Last week’s decision by President Joe
Biden to cut US military spending had
played a role in the move to suspend the
IPO, according to people familiar with
the situation. DRS relies on the US
Department of Defense for 84 per cent
of its revenue, which last year came in at
$2.8bn, with operating profits of $181m.
Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency
Partners, said it was ultimately a “tim-
ing issue”. “They still own the asset, they
just haven’t crystallised it and it’s one of
the best assets they’ve got,” he added.
The decision to postpone the IPO will,
however, hamper Leonardo’s attempts
to reduce its debt burden, which it has
struggled with since it acquired DRS.
Results for the financial year to the end
of December revealed a rise in net debt
to €3.31bn, compared with €2.84bn the
year before. Free operating cash flow for
the year was hit by the pandemic and
came in at €40m, compared with
€241m in 2019.
“The big issue is that they are not gen-
erating very much cash. Their civil aero-
space business has been consuming the
majority of cash flow from the strong
defence businesses over the past year,”
said Cunningham.
TSB sale delay prompts chair’s departure
NICHOLAS MEGAW AND STEPHEN MORRIS
LONDON
Richard Meddings, TSB chair, has
announced that he will resign from the
board this year after Sabadell, the
Spanish owner, postponed plans to sell
the British bank.
TSB said yesterday that Meddings had
indicated he intended to leave last year
but stayed on while Sabadell held
merger talks with BBVA, a Spanish rival,
and launched a strategic review that
could have led to a sale of TSB.
Last week, however, Sabadell said
that it had decided not to sell TSB in the
near future, leading Meddings to decide
it was “the right time” to step down.
Josep Oliu, Sabadell chair, said: “In
attracting the right leadership, develop-
ing and delivering a growth strategy and
focusing on serving its customers better,
Richard has ensured TSB is well set for a
successful future.”
Sabadell received several expressions
of interest in TSB late last year, but peo-
ple close to the bank said that it decided
to delay any major changes until at least
the end of this year, when it expects an
improved economic outlook and fur-
ther evidence of TSB’s turnround to give
it a higher valuation.
Meddings has been TSB chair for
three years, including eight months as
executive chair after IT woes had led to
the removal of its chief executive. The
bank has been working to restore its
reputation since the failure that locked
millions of customers out of their
accounts when it tried to move from the
system built by Lloyds, its former
owner, to one designed by Sabadell.
It has since won praise for initiatives
to fight scams and led calls for the indus-
try to guarantee refunds to victims of
fraud. It has also started a programme of
cost cutting and branch closures under
Debbie Crosbie, chief executive, who
joined from Virgin Money in 2019.
The bank now runs its own IT system
and has improved its customer service
ranking. Meddings brought in four new
non-executive directors last year.
Crosbie said: “TSB will forever be
indebted to Richard for stepping in to
lead the business after migration and
then, as chairman, taking the right steps
to get us to where we are now.”
Meddings, a former finance director
at Standard Chartered and non-
executive of Deutsche Bank, is also a
board member at Credit Suisse, Teach
First, the charity, and the UK Treasury.
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 9

COMPANIES & MARKETS

AstraZeneca labours under intense spotlight

Latest snag for rollout is concern voiced by independent board of experts overseeing large US study of jab
HANNAH KUCHLER — NEW YORK
SARAH NEVILLE AND OLIVER BARNES
LONDON
DONATO PAOLO MANCINI — ROME
The latest blow to AstraZeneca’s tor-
tured effort to bring a Covid-19 vaccine
to the world arrived by way of a terse
statement in Washington at 22 minutes
past midnight on Tuesday.
The intervention by the National
Institutes of Health warned that an
independent board of experts oversee-
ing a large US study of the vaccine had
“expressed concern that AstraZeneca
may have included outdated informa-
tion” when it announced results from
the trial on Monday.
The point of contention between
AstraZeneca and the independent sci-
entists, who sit on the trial’s data and
safety monitoring board, or DSMB, cen-
tred on whether the company was
wrong to publish data from before a Feb-
ruary cut-off point instead of including
more recent figures.
The data up to February 17 showed
that the vaccine was 79 per cent effec-
tive at stopping symptomatic Covid-19,
the company said on Monday morning.
But in a letter to AstraZeneca later
that day, which was copied to the NIH
and another US government agency
funding the trial, the DSMB said that it
thought a broader analysis including
up-to-date results would show a lower
efficacy rate, of between 69 per cent and
74 per cent, according to a person who
has seen it.
Anthony Fauci, an official at the NIH,
said the agency was “not accusing any-
body of anything . . . just saying very,
very frankly and simply that we urge the
company to work with the DSMB to
review the data and to ensure that it’s
the most accurate, up-to-date data that
was made public”.
AstraZeneca responded to the NIH
statement by promising to publish
the final data set from the trial within
48 hours.
The vaccine is approved for use in the
EU, the UK and other countries, and the
primary purpose of the trial in question
is to get the green light from US regula-
tors as well.
But the US trial has acquired a signifi-
cance that goes far beyond paving the
way for an authorisation from the Food
and Drug Administration, an endorse-
ment that Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s
chief executive, has long sought.
Instead, the study offered a shot at
redemption for a company that had
been accused of bungling previous tri-
als, which left unanswered questions
over whether the jab was as effective in
older people.
It was also hoped that the US
study would boost confidence in the
vaccine by alleviating concerns over
whether it causes rare, but potentially
deadly, blood clots, which prompted
several European countries to suspend
its rollout.
According to a person briefed on the
matter, AstraZeneca was “under pres-
sure” to release the findings on Monday
to prove that the vaccine had strong effi-
cacy in people aged 65 and over. The
drugmaker also worried that it might be
“accused of sitting on the data and not
being transparent”.
However, far from quelling the con-
cerns, the findings from the US trial
have caused more confusion.
Art Caplan, a professor of medical
ethics at New York university who has
served on about 20 DSMBs, said the sci-
entists’ decision to challenge Astra-
Zeneca’s claims of efficacy was “very
close to going nuclear”.
The DSMB members must have been
“gravely concerned that the claims in
the press release were not merited” by
the data they had seen, Caplan said.
“The next move by AstraZeneca is
going to determine the fate of the vac-
cine,” he said. “If they mess it up, the
vaccine may be beyond redemption in
some countries.”
This was not the first time that the
DSMB had questioned how AstraZeneca
handled its trial data, said a person
briefed on the relationship, who said the
scientists had become “impatient” with
Supply race
Covid-19 shots under contract (bn doses)
0 1
AstraZeneca
BioNTech/Pfizer
Novavax
Moderna
Sanofi/GSK
Johnson & Johnson
Gamaleya Research Institute
CureVac
Sinovac*
Other
UK
Sinopharm
Covaxx
Inovio Pharma
CanSino
* International deals only
Source: Airfinity
the company. But now the simmering When AstraZeneca released its US
tensions have spilled into public view. trial results early on Monday, it
The UK-based pharmaceuticals appeared as though the data would
group, which developed the vaccine finally put to rest many of the lingering
invented at Oxford university, has huge doubts over the vaccine.
ambitions for its rollout: it wants to pro- In addition to an overall efficacy rate
duce more jabs than any other company of 79 per cent, its release said the vac-
and to sell them at a non-profit price. cine was 100 per cent effective at stop-
But AstraZeneca has struggled in the ping severe disease and hospitalisation
spotlight compared with other vaccine — an improvement on its earlier phase 3
makers, including a clutch of much trial. Nor was there any evidence of
smaller and younger companies such as problematic blood clots.
Moderna, the US biotechnology group. Armed with the trial’s findings,
AstraZeneca’s efforts have been tar- executives took to US television studios
nished by difficulties understanding to tout the benefits of the jab, with
how it sliced and diced data from its first Ruud Dobber, AstraZeneca’s US presi-
phase 3 trial in November, an episode dent, telling CNBC that the company
that has echoes of the latest drama, was “thrilled”.
replete with confusing press releases But behind the scenes, things were
that frustrated scientists. about to go wrong. Within hours of the
The company has also been press release, a frustrated DSMB con-
embroiled in a dispute over production tacted AstraZeneca, Fauci at the NIH,
shortages in the EU. and the US Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Agency, or
Barda, which has provided funding for
vaccine development, according to peo-
ple familiar with the developments.
2 3 4 AstraZeneca scrambled to address
the DSMB’s concerns, with a person
briefed on the matter suggesting that
Soriot had taken a lead in resolving the
dispute. “He would obviously rather
this hadn’t happened, but he is com-
pletely focused on sorting it out,” the
person said.
A person briefed on the disagreement
US EU Other suggested that the DSMB had seen only
“raw data”, where Covid-19 cases had
not been confirmed by a positive test
result. Once “adjudicated”, it might be
found that a positive case was in fact the
flu, or someone simply losing their
sense of smell, the person said. Now
AstraZeneca is speeding through the
final analysis. “It is a painful way to
spend 48 hours,” the person said.
Another person with knowledge of
the situation said that, before
Monday’s announcement of the interim
data, AstraZeneca had already been
in the process of assessing the newer
data that arrived after the February 17
cut-off point.
The company did not expect that the
newer figures would result in a mean-
ingful change to its conclusions on
efficacy, they said.
The person pointed out that the com-
pany had always said that it would con-
duct a so-called interim analysis and
had twice described the findings as
“interim” in its press release.
“This isn’t just something they have
cooked up . . . It was very clear more
data was coming,” they said. The effi-
cacy figure announced on Monday was
likely to be “pretty close to where it will
end up in the final analysis. If the num-
bers do move around they probably
won’t move around massively.”
However, that does not explain how
the company ended up angering the sci-
entists on the DSMB. Dan Barouch, a
‘It is becoming a bit of
a PR headache and seems
to be sucking up a lot
of management time’
Technicians professor at Harvard and a clinical trial
work at Oxford investigator in the Johnson & Johnson
BioMedica, vaccine trial, said it was unusual and
where the “not optimal” that the board had not
Oxford/ seen what was going to be released.
AstraZeneca “Typically the DSMB does an
vaccine is being analysis and provides that to the com-
manufactured pany and in this case the govern-
Heathcliff O’Malley/AFP/Getty
ment . . . The statement that comes out
is one that everybody agrees to in
advance,” Barouch said.
In the US, the White House was
concerned enough to ask for a briefing
from the NIH. The impact will also
be felt in Europe, where health
officials were hoping for a readout
with clean, easy to understand figures to
help increase public trust in the vaccine.
One global health official asked: “How
does AstraZeneca manage to screw up
every time?”
Investors, who do not stand to
profit from the vaccine during the pan-
demic, fret that the company’s broader
reputation could be hurt by its handling
of the situation.
Dan Mahony, co-head of healthcare
for Polar Capital and an AstraZeneca
investor, said the company was develop-
ing the vaccine for the “right reasons”,
but described the latest developments
as “frustrating”.
“It is becoming a bit of a PR headache
and it seems to be sucking up a lot of
management time . . . As an investor
you think, ‘Was it really worth it?’ You
don’t want to be constantly fighting
fires, particularly over something that
isn’t making you much money.”
Additional reporting by Kiran Stacey
in Washington
See Lex

Pharmaceuticals Airlines Retailers

GSK says Trump vaccine tsar Ryanair to increase flights as
accused of sexual harassment it banks on summer holidays
HANNAH KUCHLER — NEW YORK
Moncef Slaoui, the former GlaxoSmith-
Kline research boss who became the
Trump administration’s vaccine tsar,
has been accused of sexual harassment
and inappropriate conduct towards an
employee during his time at the UK
drugmaker.
GSK said yesterday that an investigation
by a law firm had substantiated the alle-
gations, which involved incidents that
occurred several years ago. The inquiry
is continuing.
Following the allegations, Slaoui, who
led research and development at GSK
until 2017, has been terminated from his
remaining post at the company, chair of
the board of its subsidiary Galvani Bioe-
lectronics, a joint venture with Alpha-
bet’s Verily. The company will also
rename its vaccines R&D facility, which
had been named after Slaoui.
GSK is also reviewing Slaoui’s stock
options, which last year were reported
to be worth about $10m. He had previ-
ously refused to give them up when join-
ing Operation Warp Speed, the Trump
administration’s vaccine development
programme, arguing that they were his
retirement savings.
Slaoui did not respond to a request for
comment.
Emma Walmsley, GSK’s chief execu-
tive, wrote to employees saying the
company had received a letter detailing
the allegations in February. She said she
was “shocked” and “angry”.
“Protecting the woman who came
forward and her privacy has been a crit-
ical priority throughout this time,”
Walmsley wrote. “This will continue. I
respect and admire her courage and
strength. I’ve spent many nights lately
putting myself in her shoes. More than
anything, this simply should not have
happened.”
GSK hired Grace Speights, a partner at
Washington-based law firm Morgan
Lewis, to lead the probe. Speights is
known for her high-profile work in
workplace misconduct cases, particu-
larly in the era of #MeToo.
The company said Slaoui’s actions
had been “wholly unacceptable”.
“They represent an abuse of his lead-
ership position, violate company poli-
cies and are contrary to the strong val-
ues that define GSK’s culture,” it said.
Operation Warp Speed was praised as
a bright spot in the Trump administra-
tion’s response to the coronavirus pan-
demic. But the project was wrapped up
after the Biden administration took
over, as the focus shifted to rolling out
vaccines.
Additional reporting by Kiran Stacey in
Washington
HARRY DEMPSEY
Ryanair is banking on the return of
summer holidays as the low-cost Euro-
pean airline plans to ramp up its flight
schedule to 80 per cent of pre-pan-
demic levels from the middle of June.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary was
upbeat on vaccine rollouts in the UK
and EU helping to kickstart interna-
tional travel this summer, after falls in
European airline stocks this week
fuelled by doubts about overseas vaca-
tions.
“We are very confident at this point in
time that, given the success of firstly the
UK vaccine rollout programme and sub-
sequently a European catch-up pro-
gramme, that by June or mid-June, July,
August, families will be travelling to and
from the UK,” he said.
Despite the uncertainty around sum-
mer travel, the carrier said it planned to
add 26 routes to its expanded UK sum-
mer schedule of flights to include loca-
tions in France, Greece, Italy, Spain and
Portugal.
Ryanair’s route expansion is a stark
contrast to its more hesitant rivals. Brit-
ish Airways, for example, has cut the
frequency of some flights over the sum-
mer as part of continuing management
of its schedule.
“We are sorry that, like other airlines,
due to the current coronavirus pan-
demic and global travel restrictions, we
are operating a reduced and dynamic
schedule,” BA said.
Ryanair’s service is expected to run at
about 50 per cent of normal levels until
June, when it will increase to 80 per
cent, reflecting the fact that tough coro-
navirus restrictions might remain in
place in the UK and across Europe.
O’Leary believes the
carrier could reach 85% to
90% of normal levels in the
later summer months
When asked about potential passen-
ger volumes, O’Leary said the airline
could reach 85 per cent to 90 per cent of
normal levels in the later summer
months.
His bullish comments fly in the face of
the cautious approach to reopening bor-
ders adopted by the UK government,
with social care minister Helen Whately
warning people against booking sum-
mer holidays.
The government set out a road map to
reopen travel by mid-May at the earli-
est, which has helped trigger an uptick
in bookings for carriers from a very
depressed base.
Carrefour to buy smaller rival
Grupo BIG in Brazil for €1.1bn
LEILA ABBOUD — PARIS The French group expected to gener-
ate cost savings of R$1.7bn, or €260m,
Carrefour, the European grocer, has
on an annual basis by the third year
unveiled the €1.1bn acquisition of
after the acquisition. The synergies will
Grupo BIG, a competitor in Brazil, in a
come from switching over stores to the
move aimed at growth in its second-
Carrefour brand and local hypermarket
biggest country by sales after its home
brand Atacadão, as well as from expand-
market of France.
ing Carrefour’s financial services such as
The acquisition announced yesterday is credit cards, and wringing out costs
the largest by Alexandre Bompard since from logistics and overheads.
he took over as chief executive in 2017. It Carrefour is France’s largest grocer,
comes two months after Couche-Tard, a with about 2,000 supermarkets and
Canadian convenience store chain, more than 700 hypermarkets in
made a takeover bid worth €16.2bn for Europe. Its shares have risen 5 per cent
Carrefour that was thwarted by French this year, lagging behind a 7.5 per cent
government opposition. rise for France’s blue-chip CAC 40
If approved by competition regula- index, to close at €14.75 per share on
tors, the deal would combine Carrefour Tuesday.
Brazil, the top local player in food retail,
with Grupo BIG, the number three. The
entity would have sales of about
R$100bn (€15.3bn) and would operate Legal Notices
876 stores with 137,00 employees.
Grupo BIG is owned by Advent Inter-
national, the buyout firm that bought an
80 per cent stake in the company from
Walmart, the US retailer, in 2018.
Carrefour’s Brazilian unit will pur-
chase Grupo BIG with 70 per cent in cash
and 30 per cent in new shares to be
issued. Once the deal is completed in
2022, Carrefour Brazil will own 67.7 per
cent of the new group, while Advent and
Walmart will jointly own 5.6 per cent.
10 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Fixed income. Sell-off Cross asset

Big portfolio
Sliding gilts part company rebalancing
with eurozone haven assets set to check
bond falls
JOSHUA OLIVER

Billions of dollars are set to flow from

stocks to bonds around the end of
March as big investors move money to
rebalance their portfolios, analysts say.
The large fall in bond prices and a
rally in stocks in the first three months
of the year have thrown many investors’
typical portfolio mix of 60 per cent equi-
ties and 40 per cent bonds out of whack.
To get back in line near the end of the
financial quarter, pension funds, insur-
ers and other big investment groups
need to load up on bonds. That could tap
the brakes on a market shift that has
defined the opening months of 2021.
“It should be happening as we speak,”
said Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, cross-
asset research analyst at JPMorgan. The
rebalancing could already help to
explain the stronger bond market per-
formance so far this week, as the trans-
fers are typically concentrated in the
last two weeks of the quarter, he added.
Global bonds have slumped of late,
led by a fall in prices in the US Treasury
market, which has sent yields on 10-
year notes up 0.7 percentage points to
around 1.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the
MSCI index of developed market equi-
ties has risen 3.7 per cent in that period.
The divergence has fuelled expecta-
tions that the reshuffle will be sizeable.
“Given the rally in equities and sharp

markets,” said John Wraith, head of UK

Yield gap with Bunds widest
since autumn 2019 as outlook
for UK economy brightens
JOSHUA OLIVER
Holders of UK government bonds are
suffering the worst quarter in at least
two decades as Britain’s economic pros-
pects brighten, setting a contrast with
the eurozone where a more sputtering
recovery from the coronavirus crisis is
helping haven assets hold their value.
Global bond markets have struggled
broadly in the first three months of
2021, with US Treasuries at the centre of
the market storm.
But the selling has also been severe in
UK debt, which has fallen 6.5 per cent on
a total return basis — on track for the
worst performance on records stretch-
ing to 2000, according to a Bloomberg
Barclays index.
Debt issued by Germany, France, Italy
and Spain, the biggest eurozone econo-
mies, has fared better, with losses rang-
ing from 0.5 to 3 per cent.
The drop in the price of UK debt has
come as the swift rollout of coronavirus
vaccines has given investors more confi-
dence in the route to recovery.
Traders have unwound expectations
that the Bank of England will need to cut
its main policy rate below zero and the
narrative has shifted to focus on when
policymakers will need to raise rates
from historic lows if more rapid growth
leads to stronger inflation.
It marks a stark contrast to last year,
when the debt of many countries rose in
tandem as central banks flooded the
market with unprecedented stimulus
measures at the height of the pandemic.
UK government debt lags far
behind eurozone counterparts
Total return (%)
Italy Germany UK
Spain France
Jan 2021 Mar
Bloomberg Barclays government bond indices
Sources: Bloomberg; Refinitiv
“The gilt strength of 2020 is over. This
is the market to be short as a global
investor,” said Theo Chapsalis, head of
UK rates strategy at NatWest Markets,
referring to betting against the debt.
“We have a strong backdrop for a cor-
rection in gilts yields and for gilts to
underperform [German] Bunds.”
Analysts are expecting a further spell
of poor performance for gilts as the
reflation trade led by US bonds has fur-
ther to run, while Europe faces a differ-
ent trajectory on the back of economic
uncertainty and more central bank
intervention.
The benchmark 10-year gilt yield has
increased 0.56 percentage points this
quarter to 0.76 per cent — the flip side of
sliding prices. This has pushed the gap
between yields on gilts and Bunds to the
widest since the autumn of 2019 at
around 1.1 percentage points.
German Bunds and other eurozone
bonds have been bolstered by the
European Central Bank, which stepped
up earlier this month to support
the eurozone debt market in a bid
to ward off a rise in borrowing costs
Gap between UK and German
yields highest since 2019
Difference in yield between 10-year
gilts and Bunds (percentage points)
2 1.4
0 1.2
-2 1.0
-4 0.8
-6 0.6
-8 0.4
2019 20 21
against the backdrop of a slower recov-
ery in Europe.
Facing the darker outlook, the ECB
quickened its bond purchases to hold
down the rise in yields, which Christine
Lagarde, the central bank’s president,
said could “translate into a premature
tightening of financing conditions for all
sectors of the economy”.
The BoE meanwhile followed in the
footsteps of the US Federal Reserve,
keeping its policy levers unmoved and
upgrading its growth forecasts. Andrew
Bailey, BoE governor, said last week that
the rise in gilt yields is consistent with
the “change in the economic outlook”.
Demand for gilts has weakened since
January as investors concluded that
negative rates are not on the cards for
the UK, and reckoned with a flood of
debt supply from heavy government
borrowing.
The resolution of the Brexit process
removed another support for gilts from
investors looking for a safeguard against
uncertainty.
“Haven demand is easing out of gilts
before it is easing out of some eurozone
UK debt has
fallen 6.5% on a rates strategy at UBS.
total return Some investors expect reflation to
play out differently in the EU where the
basis in the first
three months of economic prospects are more uncer-
the year while tain. Several countries including
German, France, Italy and Germany have
French, Italian recently had to tighten lockdown rules
and Spanish to contain a third wave of infections and
paper has fared the EU has suffered from vaccination
better with delays.
losses ranging “Europe is already on a different
from 0.5% to 3% path,” said Frédérique Carrier, head of
FT Montage
investment strategy at RBC Wealth
Management.
The EU’s fiscal stimulus was smaller
in relation to its economy than the UK
and would be a “slow drip” over five
years beginning later this year.
A rocky period for gilts is likely to be a
more supportive for sterling and other
UK assets, if the economic recovery
keeps up with expectations.
“There’s a lot of rebound left in the UK
economy, which equates to higher ster-
ling and higher yields,” said Jim Caron,
portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley
Investment Management.
But investors might be too caught up
in the enthusiasm around stronger eco-
nomic prospects, said Mike Riddell, a
portfolio manager at Allianz Global
Investors. He pointed to a sharp rise in
‘This is the market-based inflation expectations as
an indication that investors were pricing
market to in a high level of optimism about
be short as growth.
The rosy economic picture is vulnera-
a global ble to shocks, which could come from
investor’ snags in the vaccination programme,
new Covid-19 variants, or subpar global
Theo Chapsalis, growth, analysts have noted.
NatWest “I would say we are priced for some-
Markets thing close to a best-case scenario over
the coming months,” Wraith added.
BofA estimates US private
pensions will need to pull
about $88bn from equities
and put it in bonds
bond sell-off, quarter-end rebalancing
could be large, out of equities into fixed
income,” said Sphia Salim, European
rates strategist at Bank of America.
BofA estimates US private pensions
alone will need to pull about $88bn from
equities and put it in bonds, which ana-
lysts said was “historically significant”
compared with the past three years.
Balanced mutual funds are expected
to sell $136bn of equities to buy fixed
income, according to JPMorgan. Among
stores of sovereign wealth, the bank
expects Japan’s $1.6tn state pension
fund GPIF will shift $44bn while Nor-
way’s oil fund would need to move about
$70bn to meet its target allocation.
Panigirtzoglou said that in isolation,
rebalancing around the end of March
could prompt a fall of 4 to 5 per cent in
equities and a rally in fixed income of
roughly 0.1-0.15 percentage points on
the US 10-year Treasury yield. “But
these flows are not going to be the only
game in town,” he said.
BNP Paribas this month cautioned
against expecting a major market cor-
rection because of the rebalancing
flows. The bank estimated a 1.2 per cent
fall in US equities in the last week of the
quarter based on $50-67bn of selling.
Our global US retail investors are expected to put
team gives you a large chunk of their stimulus funds
market-moving into the stock market. The inflow could
news and views, amount to $170bn over time, Deutsche
24 hours a day Bank said last month. The influx of cash
ft.com/markets from small traders will counterbalance
moves out of stocks by large managers.

Airlines Fixed income

IAG pledges Heathrow and Gatwick
slots to secure $1.8bn in fresh funds
PHILIP GEORGIADIS
IAG has offered some of its lucrative
crown jewel landing slots at London’s
airports as collateral for the first time
to secure $1.8bn in new funding.
Rising virus cases in continental Europe
have dented expectations that mass
travel will be able to restart in time for
the peak summer holiday season, which
airlines are relying on to boost their bat-
tered finances.
The facility will be available to three
of IAG’s stable, Aer Lingus, British Air-
ways and Iberia, and be secured against
aircraft assets and take-off and landing
rights at Heathrow and Gatwick.
“Putting up aircraft is normal, but
slots are the crown jewels and don’t tend
to be part of financing,” said Mark Simp-
son, an aviation analyst at Goodbody.
“There is access to funding; there is
appetite to support that. But having to
put up slots is indicative the demand to
fund IAG looks to be a bit tougher than
some of their competitors.”
IAG has avoided putting its slots at the
UK’s leading airports up as collateral,
though other airlines including Virgin
Atlantic, Delta and Norwegian have
done so. IAG considered a bond backed
The strongest carriers by its slots at Heathrow in 2012, but
dropped the plan.
have not struggled to raise Slots at Heathrow were crucial to BA’s
money but the sector faces business model, although slots that
could be used as collateral were a “rela-
a mounting debt burden tively small” proportion of the airline
group’s portfolio, according to a person
with knowledge of the deal.
The strongest airlines, including
IAG, have not struggled to raise money
during the crisis. But the sector faces
a mounting debt burden as a conse-
quence, meaning the pandemic will
hang over balance sheets for years
to come.
The new facility gives IAG greater
flexibility in its debt repayments, as it
has simultaneously cancelled a dollar
facility for BA due to expire in June. As a
net result, the carrier’s credit facilities
have increased by nearly €400m.
“They are managing maturity
extremely well, and this deal adds to
that,” Simpson said.
The airline on Tuesday said that the
three-year revolving credit facility
would boost its liquidity to an estimated
The BA owner has offered some of its €10.3bn by the end of March, including
jewels as collateral for the first time €7.8bn in cash.
Investors pump record $43bn into
niche ETFs in first two months of year
EMMA BOYDE
Ark ETFs have led a broader stampede
into thematic exchange traded funds,
in which assets under management
rose to a record $394bn globally by the
end of February.
Data gathered by ETFGI show that these
more narrowly invested ETFs, which
allow investors to choose products that
focus on anything from innovation to
ageing populations and renewable
energy, drew net inflows of $42.6bn in
the first two months of this year.
This was more than three times the
$13.3bn for the same period last year
and a significant slice of the $222.5bn
invested in ETFs as a whole during this
period.
The Ark suite of ETFs comprised the
top five thematic ETFs by net new
assets, collectively gathering $13.5bn by
the end of February.
However, Ark Innovation, the most
popular of all, illustrates some of the
risks associated with expressing such
narrow investment views.
After rewarding investors with
meteoric returns of 153 per cent in 2020,
and gains of more than 10 per cent in
January, the fund racked up losses in
February.
“The space is definitely a little hot, so
caution should be heeded. One
shouldn’t invest blindly based on the
headline theme,” said Mark Perchtold,
co-founder of Omba Advisory and
Investments, an asset and wealth
manager.
“People are shooting from the hip.
‘People are shooting from
the hip. They just read
about something and
they want to buy it’
They just read about something and
they want to buy it,” he added.
Omba is planning to launch an
Irish-domiciled Ucits mutual fund that
will invest in a portfolio of thematics,
but Perchtold said that the underlying
holdings would be scrutinised to assess
valuation, risk and to avoid overexpo-
sure to companies such as Tesla that
might be categorised under a number of
themes.
Deborah Fuhr, founder of ETFGI, said
that the data showed that thematics had
become the most popular niche ETF
strategy.
In the same two months smart beta
ETFs, which invest according to factors
such as value and momentum,
attracted only $29bn, actively managed
ETFs $34bn and ETFs that invest
according to environmental, social and
governance (ESG) principles $41bn,
though there is an overlap between the
categories.
Fuhr said that the surge in interest
was coming from wealthy investors as
well as the retail market.
“Some of them have put money aside
and they’re watching the news and
investing on it,” she said.
Fuhr added that the real shift in inves-
tor behaviour was coming from inves-
tors who were using the products as they
might have invested in single company
stocks in the past: to express their per-
sonal views on what they thought were
long-term trends.
Bill Davis, managing director
of Stance Capital, an ESG ETF specialist,
said that the growing maturity of the
ESG market was driving thematic
interest.
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 11

COMPANIES & MARKETS

The day in the markets A green solution

What you need to know
to sovereign debt
3 Tech stocks out of favour on Wall
restructuring
Oil prices rally after Suez Canal blockage
Street after upbeat PMI data
$ per barrel
3 Suez Canal blockage provides a
reprieve for oil sell-off
3 Europe shares fail to budge amid
growing coronavirus restrictions Brent crude
70
Lee Buchheit
Energy shares and oil prices rallied
yesterday after a ship ran aground in the
65
Markets Insight
Suez Canal, while cyclical sectors climbed

M
as business activity surveys suggested a 60
strong rebound for the US economy was any countries, developed struggle to attract the new investment paid to the creditor and the equivalent
under way. and developing, entered and lending that will be needed to in Ruritanian currency of $20 is paid to
Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 index 2020 with government restore economic growth. fund a conservation easement over the
rose 0.4 per cent in afternoon trading in 55 debt at historically high But there are alternatives to seeking Ruritanian rainforest.
New York, led by a 3.2 per cent gain for West Texas Intermediate levels. The Covid-19 pan- outright principal haircuts in post- The benefits to the debtor country lie
energy stocks. Brent crude, the demic made things worse, much worse. Covid sovereign debt workouts. One in the ability to discharge a portion of
international oil marker, climbed 5.8 per 50 The World Bank estimates that might involve giving the debtor country the country’s foreign debt obligations
cent to $64.29 a barrel, rebounding from roughly $10tn has been added to sover- the option to discharge a portion of its with local currency, as well as in the pro-
its biggest weekly fall since October. eign debt stocks since the beginning of restructured external liabilities by pay- motion, in effect with creditors’ money,
The moves came as a giant container 2020, representing 12 per cent of world ing the equivalent amount in local cur- of local conservation projects.
ship remained stuck on the Suez Canal 45 gross domestic product last year. rency to fund environmental and con- The creditors would realise a number
after blocking the quickest seaborne Jan 2021 Mar For some emerging market countries, servation projects in its own territory. of benefits.
route between Europe and Asia for more public debt has reached an unsustaina- These debt projects could be struc- First, a debt restructuring with a fea-
Source: Refinitiv
than a day. Before yesterday, Brent had ble level. The IMF and World Bank tured and monitored by multilateral ture of this kind improves the debt
fallen 15 per cent since early March. reckon more than 38 (out of 70) low- bodies or non-government organisa- dynamics of the country without the
“The oil market sell-off has been given manufacturing and services sectors was buoying growth of orders for both goods income developing countries are in debt tions. They could support measures need for outright principal haircuts.
a reprieve,” said Stephen Brennock of oil booming, lifting stocks whose fortunes and services to multiyear highs,” said distress or “at high risk” of being so. And the whole point of any sovereign
broker PVM. “Price support is coming were pegged to a reopening of the global Chris Williamson, at IHS Markit. Several of these countries have debt workout from the creditor’s per-
courtesy of a transport blockage in one of economy. Cyclical sectors such as industrials and already announced an intention to seek Even a deferment to spective is to improve the collectability
the world’s critical chokepoints for the oil The manufacturing PMI, which is a financial rose on the S&P 500, climbing a restructuring of their foreign curren- the 12th of Never can be of the balance of its claim.
trade.” gauge of sentiment among factory 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively, cy-denominated debt. Others will Second, a loan in which the debtor can
But Brennock warned that “market bosses, rose to a two-month high of 59, while the tech-focused Nasdaq surely follow as this year progresses. more palatable than an discharge a portion of its obligations by
sentiment will likely struggle to shake off well above the 50 watermark that Composite index slid almost 1 per cent. The question of the hour is what form outright principal ‘haircut’ funding local projects in local currency
its newfound bearish trend”, as the separates expansion from contraction. In Europe, sentiment was weaker amid these post-Covid sovereign debt is less likely to attract political or social
outlook for demand was clouded by The same index for the services sector hit growing coronavirus restrictions, delayed restructurings will take. Will they, as the resentment in the debtor country. It is
worsening pandemic trends in Europe. an 80-month peak of 60. vaccine rollouts and a plan by Brussels to wags like to say, be extend and pretend such as conservation easements, marine thus less likely to be a candidate for a
Technology stocks were out of favour “The vaccine rollout, the reopening of tighten jab exports. The region-wide exercises in which maturing debt is sim- protection, fossil fuel substitution future default and restructuring.
on Wall Street after the IHS Markit the economy and an additional $1.9tn of Stoxx 600 index was little changed for ply pushed off to some date in the future projects and so forth. Third, depending on the rules in the
purchasing managers’ index for March stimulus all helped lift demand to an the day although its energy stocks rose. or will the restructurings result in actual The mechanics are straightforward. lender’s home jurisdiction, there may
showed business activity in the US extent not seen for over six years, Naomi Rovnick reductions in the size of the affected Take, for example, a restructuring of the be tax or regulatory benefits to diverting
debt stocks? Probably the former. external debt of the fictional republic of a portion of loan receipts to fund a
All lenders, government and com- Ruritania. project of this kind.
Markets update mercial, loathe debt write-offs. Defer- The relevant creditors (bilateral or Fourth, a recycling feature trans-
ring the repayment of a loan, even a commercial) would agree that Ruritania forms a sovereign debt restructuring
deferment to the 12th of Never, is often may elect to discharge a percentage of into a vehicle for acquitting the environ-
more palatable than an outright princi- principal and interest payments due on ment, social and governance aims
US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil pal “haircut”. the restructured debt by funding, in now embraced by many institutional
Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa However, simply stretching out the local currency, an environmental con- investors.
Level 3929.11 1630.40 28405.52 6712.89 3367.06 114596.37 repayment profile of a bloated sover- servation project in the country. The Finally, it is the right thing to do and
% change on day 0.48 -0.02 -2.04 0.20 -1.30 1.18 eign debt stock without reducing the structure and monitoring for the project the right time to do it.
Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ aggregate size of those liabilities risks would be preapproved by the creditors.
Level 92.439 1.183 108.815 1.372 6.523 5.561 becoming a temporary fix. The creditors would not be cancelling Lee Buchheit is a lawyer who has represen-
% change on day 0.112 -0.337 0.175 -0.508 0.203 1.507 For so long as the debtor country is or writing off any part of their claims. ted many countries in sovereign debt
Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond perceived to be groaning under an If $100 is due as an interest payment restructurings. Mitu Gulati, a professor at
Yield 1.636 -0.354 0.063 0.756 3.220 8.931 unsustainable debt-to-GDP ratio, it will on restructured Ruritanian debt, $80 is Duke University, contributed to this article
Basis point change on day -1.220 -1.200 -1.240 -0.600 -1.800 11.800
World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX)
Level 439.93 63.99 60.76 1726.20 25.62 3842.40
% change on day -0.36 6.00 5.91 -0.57 -0.47 -1.53
Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon.

Main equity markets

S&P 500 index Eurofirst 300 index FTSE 100 index
4000 1680 6880

1640 6720
3840 1600
6560
1560
| | | | | | | | |
3680 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
1520 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 6400 | | | | | | | | | | |

Jan 2021 Mar Jan 2021 Mar Jan 2021 Mar

Biggest movers
% US Eurozone UK
Applied Materials 6.01 Asml Holding 4.17 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. 3.98
Nucor 4.97 Arcelormittal 4.11 Kingfisher 3.17
Ups

Laboratory 4.87 Tenaris 3.72 Whitbread 3.11

Diamondback Energy 4.75 Raiffeisen Bank Internat 3.32 British Land 2.63
Carnival 4.70 Omv 3.25 Rolls-royce Holdings 2.56
%
Viacomcbs -18.52 Volkswagen -7.82 Taylor Wimpey -3.10
Discovery -10.81 Porsche -3.13 Just Eat Takeaway.com N.v. -2.94
Downs

Discovery -10.39 Iliad -2.45 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust -2.69

General Mills -5.29 Edp -2.43 London Stock Exchange -2.48
Marketaxess Holdings -4.25 Novo Nordisk -2.24 Ocado -2.33
Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone
All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.

Wall Street Europe London

General Mills fell despite announcing that Dufry Group dived after a bond offering. A positive spell of trading sent Harry
share repurchases will begin in the fourth The Swiss duty-free operator raised Potter publisher Bloomsbury higher. The
quarter. For its fiscal third quarter, the SFr500m (€452m) through the selling of group said revenue and profits were
consumer foods group reported adjusted new convertible bonds and launched a expected to be ahead of market
diluted earnings per share of $0.82, which voluntary incentivised conversion offer to expectations for the year ending
missed analysts’ expectations. holders of SFr350m of convertible bonds February 28, surpassing the £171m in
The Minneapolis company also due in 2023. Both measures were aimed revenue and £14.8m in pre-tax profits
revealed its intention to sell its 51 per at allowing “Dufry to further strengthen previously forecast.
cent controlling stake in its European its balance sheet and financial flexibility “The popularity of reading during
Yoplait yoghurt operations to France’s as the business environment for travel lockdown is a ray of sunshine in an
Sodiaal in exchange for full ownership of retail shows signs of recovery”, it said. otherwise very dark last year. February,
the Canadian Yoplait business and a Dufry is exposed to the pressures the final month of our financial year, saw
reduced royalty rate for use of the Yoplait facing the travel sector, with rising an exceptional sales performance for
and Liberté brands in the US and Canada. coronavirus cases in Europe in particular Bloomsbury as the surge in reading
PLBY Group, owner of the Playboy raising doubts over the viability of this continued,” said Nigel Newton, chief
brand, hit a record high after reporting a summer’s holiday season. executive.
118 per cent year-on-year rise in fourth- Leonardo, the Italian aerospace and Bloomsbury’s backlist was “selling very
quarter revenue to $46.3m. Much of the defence company, fell after announcing well”, noted Numis, “especially in
performance was “driven by our the postponement of its initial public Children’s,” said the broker.
expansion of direct-to-consumer digital offering for Leonardo DRS, its tech- Halma, which runs safety-equipment
commerce sales”, said Ben Kohn, chief focused military arm in the US. companies, rose after announcing that its
executive, adding the licensing business “Notwithstanding investor interest pre-tax adjusted profit for its fiscal 2020
had achieved 20 per cent annual growth. within the price range during the course year would be similar to 2019, having
Steel producer Nucor rallied after of the roadshow, adverse market previously expected a year-on-year fall of
signing a 10-year virtual power purchase conditions did not allow an adequate around 5 per cent. The Amersham group
deal with Orsted Onshore North America valuation of DRS,” said Leonardo, which added that its order intake was ahead of
for 100 megawatts. “This agreement will did not rule out a listing in the future if the same period last year.
enable us to further reduce our climate the climate was deemed more favourable. Housebuilder Bellway dipped after
footprint beyond our operations,” French supermarket Carrefour climbed reporting a 4 per cent fall in pre-tax
said Leon Topalian, Nucor’s chief on news it had bought Grupo BIG from profits to £280m for the six months
executive. Advent International and Walmart for ending January 31 — a drop that
Orsted’s wind farm project is under €1.1bn. Brazil’s third-biggest food retailer demonstrated “how extra Covid-related
construction and is expected to be in will join Carrefour Brazil, which has been costs ate into its significantly higher
service this year. Ray Douglas in the country since 1975. Ray Douglas revenue”, said AJ Bell. Ray Douglas
12 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

MARKET DATA

WORLD MARKETS AT A GLANCE FT.COM/MARKETSDATA

Change during previous day’s trading (%)
S&P 500 Nasdaq Composite Dow Jones Ind FTSE 100 FTSE Eurofirst 300 Nikkei Hang Seng FTSE All World $ $ per € $ pe r £ ¥ per $ £ pe r € Oil Brent $ Sep Gold $

-0.44% -0.02% -2.04% -2.03% -0.36% -0.337% -0.508% -0.57%

0.48% 0.82% 0.20% 0.175% 0.116% 3.25%
Stock Market movements over last 30 days, with the FTSE All-World in the same currency as a comparison
AMERICAS EUROPE ASIA
Feb 25 - - Index All World Feb 25 - Mar 24 Index All World Feb 25 - Mar 24 Index All World Feb 25 - Mar 24 Index All World Feb 25 - Mar 24 Index All World Feb 25 - Mar 24 Index All World

S&P 500 New York S&P/TSX COMP Toronto FTSE 100 London Xetra Dax Frankfurt Nikkei 225 Tokyo Kospi Seoul
3,929.11 18,780.33 6,712.89 14,610.39 30,156.03 3,070.09
3,881.37 18,330.09 6,625.94 2,996.35
13,864.81
28,405.52
Day 0.48% Month 0.06% Year 60.49% Day 0.59% Month 1.57% Year 49.36% Day 0.20% Month 0.90% Year 23.37% Day -0.35% Month 0.09% Year NaN% Day -2.04% Month -5.76% Year 68.27% Day -0.28% Month -2.40% Year 102.12%

Nasdaq Composite New York IPC Mexico City FTSE Eurofirst 300 Europe Ibex 35 Madrid Hang Seng Hong Kong FTSE Straits Times Singapore
13,465.20 30,632.64 3,133.31
46,806.26 1,630.40
13,169.31 8,443.70
44,946.60 1,583.81 8,252.10
27,918.14 2,890.70
Day -0.44% Month -3.19% Year 77.46% Day 0.32% Month 3.72% Year 36.24% Day -0.02% Month 2.57% Year 36.28% Day 0.64% Month 2.11% Year 25.70% Day -2.03% Month -8.92% Year 28.59% Day 0.05% Month 8.37% Year 40.26%

Dow Jones Industrial New York Bovespa São Paulo CAC 40 Paris FTSE MIB Milan Shanghai Composite Shanghai BSE Sensex Mumbai
32,689.54 24,208.66 3,636.36
115,227.46 114,596.37 5,947.29
31,537.35 5,779.84 22,939.38 49,744.32 49,180.31
3,367.06
Day 0.82% Month 2.25% Year 57.83% Day 1.18% Month -0.91% Year 64.36% Day 0.03% Month 2.58% Year 40.18% Day 0.39% Month 4.80% Year 42.83% Day -1.30% Month -7.41% Year 26.57% Day -1.74% Month -1.15% Year 89.29%

Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous
Argentina Merval 48615.26 49185.87 Cyprus CSE M&P Gen 68.46 68.68 Italy FTSE Italia All-Share 26363.06 26268.25 Philippines Manila Comp 6497.01 6446.35 Taiwan Weighted Pr 16032.12 16177.59 Cross-Border DJ Global Titans ($) 450.54 451.58
Australia All Ordinaries 7013.90 6986.60 Czech Republic
PX 1090.19 1088.84 FTSE Italia Mid Cap 42484.41 42466.24 Poland Wig 57046.95 57695.05 Thailand Bangkok SET 1570.83 1564.25 Euro Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3832.10 3827.02
S&P/ASX 200 6778.80 6745.40 Denmark OMXC Copenahgen 20 1416.13 1437.35 FTSE MIB 24208.66 24113.86 Portugal PSI 20 4844.82 4878.09 Turkey BIST 100 116840.94 116315.98 Euronext 100 ID 1173.25 1172.47
S&P/ASX 200 Res 5086.40 5093.90 Egypt EGX 30 10702.18 10471.36 Japan 2nd Section 7437.22 7541.60 PSI General 3573.55 3619.89 UAE Abu Dhabi General Index 5745.27 5735.39 FTSE 4Good Global ($) 9521.10 9536.04
Austria ATX 3132.34 3101.22 Estonia OMX Tallinn 1486.90 1485.15 Nikkei 225 28405.52 28995.92 Romania BET Index 10851.60 10864.39 UK FT 30 2679.10 2667.30 FTSE All World ($) 439.93 441.54
Belgium BEL 20 3872.00 3880.73 Finland OMX Helsinki General 11457.57 11407.07 S&P Topix 150 1619.28 1654.67 Russia Micex Index 3485.33 3467.21 FTSE 100 6712.89 6699.19 FTSE E300 1630.40 1630.68
BEL Mid 8823.99 8811.81 France CAC 40 5947.29 5945.30 Topix 1928.58 1971.48 RTX 1437.18 1435.67 FTSE 4Good UK 6309.64 6294.71 FTSE Eurotop 100 3066.47 3068.00
Brazil IBovespa 114596.37 113261.80 SBF 120 4692.50 4691.18 Jordan Amman SE 1752.51 1743.59 Saudi-Arabia TADAWUL All Share Index 9464.08 9547.42 FTSE All Share 3826.52 3817.33 FTSE Global 100 ($) 2525.72 2533.44
Canada S&P/TSX 60 1123.10 1115.77 Germany M-DAX 31511.15 31750.08 Kenya NSE 20 1931.34 1931.35 Singapore FTSE Straits Times 3133.31 3131.74 FTSE techMARK 100 6438.38 6452.12 FTSE Gold Min ($) 2118.85 2163.61
S&P/TSX Comp 18780.33 18669.80 TecDAX 3378.20 3416.11 Kuwait KSX Market Index 6633.44 6603.51 Slovakia SAX 369.08 369.45 USA DJ Composite 10878.88 10752.54 FTSE Latibex Top (Eur) 4440.00 4432.20
S&P/TSX Div Met & Min 700.29 750.72 XETRA Dax 14610.39 14662.02 Latvia OMX Riga 1119.57 1119.11 Slovenia SBI TOP - - DJ Industrial 32689.54 32423.15 FTSE Multinationals ($) 2788.73 2810.75
Chile S&P/CLX IGPA Gen 24395.96 24199.01 Greece Athens Gen 837.09 831.86 Lithuania OMX Vilnius 851.89 856.53 South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share 65257.09 65318.52 DJ Transport 14204.18 13906.55 FTSE World ($) 782.72 784.54
China FTSE A200 13200.57 13421.18 FTSE/ASE 20 2011.74 1997.52 Luxembourg LuxX 1478.55 1466.68 FTSE/JSE Res 20 64969.14 64365.78 DJ Utilities 865.68 859.13 FTSEurofirst 100 (Eur) 4230.04 4224.17
FTSE B35 9000.71 8988.96 Hong Kong Hang Seng 27918.14 28497.38 Malaysia FTSE Bursa KLCI 1602.40 1595.29 FTSE/JSE Top 40 59768.81 59793.26 Nasdaq 100 12976.90 13017.79 FTSEurofirst 80 (Eur) 5236.89 5230.57
Shanghai A 3529.23 3575.87 HS China Enterprise 10847.98 11111.18 Mexico IPC 46806.26 46659.18 South Korea Kospi 2996.35 3004.74 Nasdaq Cmp 13169.31 13227.70 MSCI ACWI Fr ($) 668.84 674.18
Shanghai B 241.15 241.89 HSCC Red Chip 4065.49 4119.69 Morocco MASI 11382.52 11442.78 Kospi 200 407.10 408.71 NYSE Comp 15428.52 15551.58 MSCI All World ($) 2788.01 2809.65
Shanghai Comp 3367.06 3411.51 Hungary Bux 44290.24 43603.02 Netherlands AEX 686.13 681.74 Spain IBEX 35 8443.70 8390.30 S&P 500 3929.11 3910.52 MSCI Europe (Eur) 1705.02 1707.68
Shenzhen A 2267.09 2299.52 India BSE Sensex 49180.31 50051.44 AEX All Share 982.03 977.58 Sri Lanka CSE All Share 7135.84 6979.29 Wilshire 5000 41319.92 41192.85 MSCI Pacific ($) 3202.69 3225.91
Shenzhen B 1103.16 1109.13 Nifty 500 12197.20 12417.30 New Zealand NZX 50 12358.88 12394.34 Sweden OMX Stockholm 30 2184.60 2168.12 Venezuela IBC 2660.15 2661.18 S&P Euro (Eur) 1766.83 1765.38
Colombia COLCAP 1319.82 1324.54 Indonesia Jakarta Comp 6156.14 6252.71 Nigeria SE All Share 38704.97 38722.87 OMX Stockholm AS 867.15 862.66 Vietnam VNI 1161.81 1183.45 S&P Europe 350 (Eur) 1686.27 1685.70
Croatia CROBEX 2013.05 2011.29 Ireland ISEQ Overall 7965.56 7934.49 Norway Oslo All Share 1017.37 1006.88 Switzerland SMI Index 11063.87 11098.66 S&P Global 1200 ($) 3089.45 3087.36
Israel Tel Aviv 125 1660.98 1668.37 Pakistan KSE 100 45544.20 45407.33 Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3275.38 3276.26
(c) Closed. (u) Unavaliable. † Correction. ♥ Subject to official recalculation. For more index coverage please see www.ft.com/worldindices. A fuller version of this table is available on the ft.com research data archive.

STOCK MARKET: BIGGEST MOVERS UK MARKET WINNERS AND LOSERS

AMERICA LONDON EURO MARKETS TOKYO Mar 24 %Chg %Chg Mar 24 %Chg %Chg Mar 24 %Chg %Chg Mar 24 %Chg %Chg
ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's FTSE 100 price(p) week ytd FTSE 250 price(p) week ytd FTSE SmallCap price(p) week ytd Industry Sectors price(p) week ytd
traded m's price change traded m's price change traded m's price change traded m's price change Winners Winners Winners Winners
Apple 41.8 121.56 -0.98 Prudential 226.9 1553.50 7.50 Asml Holding 634.7 492.20 19.70 Softbank . 1424.2 9340.00 -435.00 Dcc 6614.00 11.1 - Gamesys 1944.00 20.7 - Amigo Holdings 15.90 42.0 - - - -
Viacomcbs 38.1 74.35 -16.90 Astrazeneca 219.6 7130.00 -85.00 Volkswagen Ag Vzo O.n. 450.6 218.85 -7.55 Mitsubishi Ufj Fin,. 883.3 604.50 -28.20 Rightmove 587.40 5.7 - 888 Holdings 394.00 18.1 - Aptitude Software 725.00 18.9 - - - -
Amazon.com 38.0 3139.00 1.50 Royal Dutch Shell 157.8 1387.20 18.60 Royal Dutch Shella 305.7 17.15 0.27 Fast Retailing Co., 883.2 83740.00 -3060.00 Natwest 195.95 4.5 - Provident Fin 216.00 14.4 - The Gym 268.50 11.9 - - - -
Intel 28.6 63.24 -0.25 Bp 157.6 301.55 5.80 Daimler Ag Na O.n. 303.2 71.65 -0.96 Tokyo Electron 859.9 44250.00 2130.00 Kingfisher 325.00 4.4 - Softcat 1785.00 13.8 - Bakkavor 117.00 11.9 - - - -
Boeing 28.5 243.44 2.19 Gamesys 144.1 1944.00 302.00 Total 236.9 40.07 0.63 Toyota Motor 611.2 8120.00 -184.00 Imperial Brands 1495.50 4.4 - Sanne 616.00 9.8 - De La Rue 206.50 11.6 - - - -
Microsoft 25.5 236.49 -1.09 Barclays 143.5 184.22 3.14 Sap Se O.n. 233.5 102.82 -0.24 Sumitomo Mitsui Fin,. 527.3 4036.00 -167.00 Smurfit Kappa 3480.00 4.4 - Ssp 344.00 8.0 - Jpmorgan Mid Capital Investment Trust 1230.00 7.0 - - - -
Facebook 21.5 286.13 -4.50 Lloyds Banking 124.4 42.24 0.90 Novo Nordisk B A/s 211.1 56.76 -1.30 Sony 409.7 11225.00 -305.00 National Grid 862.20 3.7 - Ferrexpo 384.60 6.8 - Restaurant 119.00 6.9 - - - -
Advanced Micro Devices 16.0 78.19 -0.19 Rio Tinto 123.6 5422.00 77.00 Eni 206.3 10.25 0.27 Takeda Pharmaceutical 369.7 4178.00 -83.00 British American Tobacco 2850.00 3.6 - Quilter 163.35 6.2 - Dignity 690.00 6.8 - - - -
Nvidia 13.0 518.60 -4.23 Glaxosmithkline 110.4 1284.80 -13.40 Intesa Sanpaolo 190.9 2.30 0.01 Ana Holdings 269.3 2463.00 -191.50 Sage 601.40 3.5 - Computacenter 2312.00 5.9 - Halfords 362.50 6.8 - - - -
Applied Materials 11.8 123.37 6.99 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. 103.2 194.80 7.45 Arcelormittal Sa 188.1 22.66 0.90 Shiseido , 245.3 7176.00 -252.00 Sse 1429.00 3.1 - Spectris 3318.00 5.8 - Medica 154.00 6.2 29.3 - - -
Mondi 1871.50 2.9 - Telecom Plus 1266.00 5.7 - Bloomsbury Publishing 298.00 5.3 -0.3 - - -
BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's
Schroders 3545.00 2.9 - Unite 1062.00 5.1 - Kier 90.70 5.2 - - - -
price change chng% price change chng% price change chng% price change chng%
Ups Ups Ups Ups Losers Losers Losers Losers
Applied Materials 123.37 6.99 6.01 Gamesys 1944.00 302.00 18.39 Asml Holding 492.20 19.70 4.17 Nikon 1091.00 66.00 6.44 Rolls-royce Holdings 108.00 -15.1 - Hammerson 32.34 -14.2 - Lamprell 60.80 -16.3 - - - -
Nucor 70.87 3.36 4.97 Softcat 1785.00 226.00 14.50 Arcelormittal Sa 22.66 0.90 4.11 Isuzu Motors 1186.00 61.00 5.42 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. 194.80 -9.9 - Cineworld 102.80 -11.0 - Premier Oil 25.45 -14.7 - - - -
Laboratory 250.42 11.64 4.87 Tui Ag 378.60 23.70 6.68 Tenaris 9.43 0.34 3.72 Tokyo Electron 44250.00 2130.00 5.06 Melrose Industries 169.10 -6.5 - Apax Global Alpha 190.20 -10.9 - On The Beach 385.50 -12.7 - - - -
Diamondback Energy 75.56 3.43 4.75 Ssp 344.00 20.60 6.37 Volvo, Ab Ser. B 22.16 0.74 3.44 Agc 4405.00 115.00 2.68 Associated British Foods 2330.00 -5.3 - Babcock Int 234.50 -9.4 - Hostelworld 75.10 -12.1 -0.3 - - -
Carnival 26.52 1.19 4.70 Tullow Oil 51.94 2.99 6.11 Raiffeisen Bank Internat. Ag 18.38 0.59 3.32 Aeon Co., 3244.00 63.00 1.98 M&g 203.20 -5.1 - Oxford Biomedica 945.00 -9.3 - Costain 56.10 -11.9 - - - -
Jd Sports Fashion 818.00 -4.9 - Wh Smith 1764.00 -9.2 - Pharos Energy 21.20 -11.9 19.2 - - -
Downs Downs Downs Downs
Burberry 1993.50 -4.8 - Tui Ag 378.60 -9.0 - Photo-me Int 58.00 -10.8 - - - -
Viacomcbs 74.35 -16.90 -18.52 Xp Power 4630.00 -320.00 -6.46 Volkswagen Ag St O.n. 285.20 -24.20 -7.82 Unitika 412.00 -42.00 -9.25
Just Eat Takeaway.com N.v. 6660.00 -4.7 - Easyjet 943.60 -8.4 - Ricardo 440.00 -9.3 - - - -
Discovery 56.18 -6.81 -10.81 Hicl Infrastructure 163.00 -6.60 -3.89 Volkswagen Ag Vzo O.n. 218.85 -7.55 -3.33 Ana Holdings 2463.00 -191.50 -7.21
Royal Dutch Shell 1387.20 -4.7 - Investec 212.90 -7.3 - Enquest 20.10 -9.0 - - - -
Discovery 64.23 -7.45 -10.39 Pz Cussons 263.00 -8.50 -3.13 Porsche Autom.hldg Vzo 84.68 -2.74 -3.13 Mazda Motor 858.00 -54.00 -5.92
Compass 1470.00 -4.5 - Ncc 265.50 -7.2 - Keller 780.00 -8.2 12.1 - - -
General Mills 57.96 -3.24 -5.29 Taylor Wimpey 178.15 -5.70 -3.10 Iliad 159.40 -4.00 -2.45 Fukuoka Fin,. 2177.00 -133.00 -5.76
Bt 146.25 -4.1 - Centrica 51.64 -6.9 - Foxtons 58.80 -8.1 - - - -
Marketaxess Holdings 503.75 -22.38 -4.25 Cmc Markets 444.00 -14.00 -3.06 Edp 4.90 -0.12 -2.43 Thb Chiba Bank, 728.00 -44.00 -5.70
Intercontinental Hotels 4940.00 -4.1 - Xp Power 4630.00 -6.8 - Norcros 244.00 -7.9 - - - -
Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index
Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension.

CURRENCIES
DOLLAR EURO POUND DOLLAR EURO POUND DOLLAR EURO POUND DOLLAR EURO POUND
Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's
Mar 24 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Mar 24 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Mar 24 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Mar 24 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change
Argentina Argentine Peso 91.4516 -0.1837 108.1922 -0.5970 125.4807 -0.9023 Indonesia Indonesian Rupiah 14425.0000 30.0000 17065.5745 -24.1483 19792.5738 -60.9863 Poland Polish Zloty 3.9108 0.0236 4.6266 0.0118 5.3659 0.0047 ..Three Month 0.7288 0.0037 0.8621 0.0014 - -
Australia Australian Dollar 1.3119 0.0101 1.5521 0.0065 1.8001 0.0046 Israel Israeli Shekel 3.3040 0.0120 3.9088 0.0005 4.5333 -0.0070 Romania Romanian Leu 4.1315 0.0134 4.8878 -0.0012 5.6688 -0.0108 ..One Year 0.7290 0.0037 0.8616 0.0014 - -
Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3771 - 0.4461 -0.0016 0.5174 -0.0027 Japan Japanese Yen 108.8150 0.1900 128.7340 -0.2253 149.3050 -0.5102 Russia Russian Ruble 76.4557 0.4044 90.4512 0.1633 104.9048 0.0152 United States United States Dollar - - 1.1831 -0.0041 1.3721 -0.0071
Bolivia Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.1749 -0.0286 9.4812 -0.0490 ..One Month 108.8150 0.1899 128.7341 -0.2252 149.3050 -0.5102 Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 3.7503 - 4.4368 -0.0155 5.1458 -0.0266 ..One Month - - 1.1830 -0.1961 1.3721 -0.0071
Brazil Brazilian Real 5.5607 0.0826 6.5786 0.0750 7.6298 0.0744 ..Three Month 108.8149 0.1898 128.7342 -0.2250 149.3049 -0.5103 Singapore Singapore Dollar 1.3452 0.0020 1.5914 -0.0032 1.8457 -0.0068 ..Three Month - - 1.1828 -0.1961 1.3721 -0.0071
Canada Canadian Dollar 1.2553 0.0004 1.4851 -0.0048 1.7224 -0.0084 ..One Year 108.8145 0.1889 128.7345 -0.2244 149.3050 -0.5107 South Africa South African Rand 14.8775 0.1550 17.6009 0.1224 20.4134 0.1082 ..One Year - - 1.1820 -0.1961 1.3723 -0.0071
Chile Chilean Peso 728.2850 5.9100 861.6005 3.9988 999.2797 2.9829 Kenya Kenyan Shilling 109.8000 -0.0500 129.8993 -0.5143 150.6566 -0.8482 South Korea South Korean Won 1133.7000 4.0500 1341.2283 0.1108 1555.5496 -2.4594 Venezuela Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte - - - - - -
China Chinese Yuan 6.5232 0.0132 7.7173 -0.0114 8.9505 -0.0281 Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar 0.3021 -0.0001 0.3574 -0.0014 0.4145 -0.0023 Sweden Swedish Krona 8.5967 0.0292 10.1703 -0.0010 11.7955 -0.0207 Vietnam Vietnamese Dong 23082.5000 8.5000 27307.8551 -85.5776 31671.5282 -152.0925
Colombia Colombian Peso 3640.0200 38.5500 4306.3410 30.6843 4994.4711 27.3362 Malaysia Malaysian Ringgit 4.1305 0.0080 4.8866 -0.0076 5.6675 -0.0183 Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9354 0.0024 1.1066 -0.0010 1.2834 -0.0033 European Union Euro 0.8453 0.0029 - - 1.1598 -0.0019
Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 611.1950 1.7350 723.0767 -0.4726 838.6206 -1.9444 Mexico Mexican Peso 20.8020 0.1693 24.6099 0.1147 28.5424 0.0858 Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 28.5355 0.0445 33.7590 -0.0654 39.1536 -0.1411 ..One Month 0.8452 0.0030 - - 1.1597 -0.0019
Czech Republic Czech Koruna 22.1880 0.1277 26.2496 0.0597 30.4441 0.0187 New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.4320 0.0099 1.6941 0.0058 1.9648 0.0035 Thailand Thai Baht 31.0000 0.0300 36.6747 -0.0928 42.5351 -0.1786 ..Three Month 0.8450 0.0030 - - 1.1596 -0.0019
Denmark Danish Krone 6.2854 0.0223 7.4360 0.0004 8.6242 -0.0138 Nigeria Nigerian Naira 409.4800 -2.2700 484.4369 -4.3916 561.8474 -6.0367 Tunisia Tunisian Dinar 2.7800 0.0047 3.2888 -0.0059 3.8144 -0.0132 ..One Year 0.8443 0.0030 - - 1.1592 -0.0019
Egypt Egyptian Pound 15.7619 0.0325 18.6472 -0.0267 21.6269 -0.0670 Norway Norwegian Krone 8.5637 0.0073 10.1313 -0.0268 11.7502 -0.0507 Turkey Turkish Lira 7.9195 0.0742 9.3692 0.0553 10.8663 0.0462
Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.7678 0.0008 9.1897 -0.0312 10.6582 -0.0540 Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 155.3000 -0.3500 183.7283 -1.0590 213.0871 -1.5848 United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6732 - 4.3455 -0.0152 5.0399 -0.0261
Hungary Hungarian Forint 308.3978 0.2610 364.8512 -0.9679 423.1525 -1.8286 Peru Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.7224 0.0039 4.4037 -0.0107 5.1074 -0.0210 United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7288 0.0038 0.8622 0.0014 - -
India Indian Rupee 72.5663 0.1450 85.8498 -0.1285 99.5681 -0.3150 Philippines Philippine Peso 48.6800 0.0550 57.5911 -0.1364 66.7938 -0.2696 ..One Month 0.7288 0.0037 0.8622 0.0014 - -
Rates are derived from WM Reuters Spot Rates and MorningStar (latest rates at time of production). Some values are rounded. Currency redenominated by 1000. The exchange rates printed in this table are also available at www.FT.com/marketsdata
UK SERIES
FTSE ACTUARIES SHARE INDICES www.ft.com/equities FT 30 INDEX FTSE SECTORS: LEADERS & LAGGARDS FTSE 100 SUMMARY
Produced in conjunction with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Mar 24 Mar 23 Mar 22 Mar 19 Mar 18 Yr Ago High Low Year to date percentage changes Closing Day's Closing Day's
£ Strlg Day's Euro £ Strlg £ Strlg Year Div P/E X/D Total FT 30 2679.10 2667.30 2679.60 2681.80 2709.10 0.00 3314.70 1337.80 Industrial Transport 24.59 Media 4.95 Consumer Goods 0.30 FTSE 100 Price Change FTSE 100 Price Change
Mar 24 chge% Index Mar 23 Mar 22 ago yield% Cover ratio adj Return FT 30 Div Yield - - - - - 0.00 3.93 2.74 Industrial Metals & 20.27 Financials 4.79 Aerospace & Defense 0.07 3I Group PLC 1152 11.00 Land Securities Group PLC 696.90 16.50
FTSE 100 (101) 6699.19 -0.40 6064.25 6726.10 6708.71 4993.89 3.10 1.36 23.63 60.46 6460.98 P/E Ratio net - - - - - 0.00 19.44 14.26 Banks 14.66 Chemicals 4.74 Utilities -0.19 Admiral Group PLC 2993 -53.00 Legal & General Group PLC 272.60 -0.50
FTSE 250 (250) 21331.76 -0.58 19309.96 21455.89 21420.31 13078.01 1.94 1.60 32.21 55.64 16977.32 FT 30 since compilation: 4198.4 high: 19/07/1999; low49.4 18/02/1900Base Date: 1/7/35 Oil & Gas Producers 13.85 FTSE 250 Index 4.46 Equity Invest Instr -0.47 Anglo American PLC 2783 62.00 Lloyds Banking Group PLC 42.24 0.90
FTSE 250 ex Inv Co (183) 22096.83 -0.63 20002.51 22237.06 22244.20 62.27 1.85 0.94 57.44 0.21 17928.73 FT 30 hourly changes Travel & Leisure 13.47 Technology 4.32 Automobiles & Parts -0.71 Antofagasta PLC 1685.5 25.50 London Stock Exchange Group PLC 7080 -180.00
FTSE 350 (351) 3837.13 -0.43 3473.45 3853.82 3844.51 2766.23 2.89 1.39 24.85 30.14 7366.45 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 High Low Oil & Gas 13.41 General Retailers 4.32 Real Est Invest & Se -1.59 Ashtead Group PLC 4328 63.00 M&G PLC 203.20 1.20
FTSE 350 ex Investment Trusts (282) 3741.50 -0.43 3386.88 3757.63 3750.80 67.47 2.94 1.19 28.56 0.75 3707.65 2667.3 2659 2664.6 2666.2 2399.1 2395.8 2394.3 2414 2426.7 2439.2 2366.1 Life Insurance 13.05 Support Services 4.16 Food & Drug Retailer -1.98 Associated British Foods PLC 2330 -10.00 Melrose Industries PLC 169.10 2.95
FTSE 350 Higher Yield (143) 3091.51 -0.68 2798.50 3112.60 3121.23 2294.30 4.05 1.11 22.23 33.62 6546.42 FT30 constituents and recent additions/deletions can be found at www.ft.com/ft30 Mobile Telecomms 10.58 FTSE All{HY-}Share Index 4.16 Pharmace & Biotech -3.07 Astrazeneca PLC 7130 -85.00 Mondi PLC 1871.5 24.50
FTSE 350 Lower Yield (208) 4327.18 -0.19 3917.05 4335.39 4302.53 3041.84 1.74 2.04 28.14 20.86 5145.27 Telecommunications 10.04 Beverages 4.07 Electricity -3.14 Auto Trader Group PLC 573.20 -8.80 National Grid PLC 862.20 1.20
FTSE SmallCap (255) 6713.09 -0.53 6076.83 6748.55 6738.84 3705.45 2.24 -0.71 -62.41 29.50 10723.76
FTSE SmallCap ex Inv Co (137) 5572.89 -0.54 5044.69 5603.04 5595.31 64.23 1.54 -1.78 -36.47 0.34 9291.02 FX: EFFECTIVE INDICES Fixed Line Telecomms
FTSE SmallCap Index
8.81
8.66
NON FINANCIALS Index
FTSE 100 Index
3.97
3.91
Health Care
Nonlife Insurance
-3.47
-3.49
Avast PLC 472.40 -6.60 Natwest Group PLC 195.95 0.85
Aveva Group PLC 3390 -71.00 Next PLC 7668 -6.00
FTSE All-Share (606) 3817.33 -0.44 3455.53 3834.05 3824.92 2727.86 2.87 1.34 26.09 29.53 7402.23 Consumer Services 7.08 Tobacco 3.76 Financial Services -3.78
Mar 23 Mar 22 Mnth Ago Mar 24 Mar 23 Mnth Ago Aviva PLC 398.50 0.80 Ocado Group PLC 2055 -49.00
FTSE All-Share ex Inv Co (419) 3684.75 -0.43 3335.51 3700.72 3694.03 67.42 2.92 1.16 29.57 0.74 3708.17 Basic Materials 6.93 Industrials 3.47 Tech Hardware & Eq -4.12 B&M European Value Retail S.A. 541.80 -5.80 Pearson PLC 786.00 -4.00
FTSE All-Share ex Multinationals (536) 1247.47 -0.16 937.13 1249.42 1246.55 790.61 2.21 1.59 28.52 3.61 2507.50 Australia - - - Sweden - - - Mining 6.67 Household Goods & Ho 3.00 Personal Goods -6.22 Bae Systems PLC 499.90 -0.10 Pershing Square Holdings LTD 2590 -10.00
FTSE Fledgling (86) 11668.10 -0.06 10562.21 11675.44 11663.92 5997.49 2.14 2.30 20.30 35.92 24102.41 Canada - - - Switzerland - - - Construct & Material 6.67 Real Est Invest & Tr 2.42 Health Care Eq & Srv -6.98 Barclays PLC 184.22 3.14 Persimmon PLC 2945 -32.00
FTSE Fledgling ex Inv Co (39) 15112.40 -0.31 13680.06 15159.52 15136.08 59.80 1.79 6.25 8.93 0.29 30453.89 Denmark - - - UK 81.44 81.52 81.49 Food Producers 6.00 Industrial Eng 1.24 Oil Equipment & Serv -11.44 Barratt Developments PLC 764.60 -13.40 Phoenix Group Holdings PLC 720.40 3.80
FTSE All-Small (341) 4663.70 -0.50 4221.68 4687.17 4680.53 2564.47 2.24 -0.56 -79.84 20.15 9557.28 Japan - - - USA - - - Software & Comp Serv 5.31 Gas Water & Multi 0.87 Leisure Goods -14.05 Berkeley Group Holdings (The) PLC 4399 -29.00 Polymetal International PLC 1443.5 -23.00
FTSE All-Small ex Inv Co (176) 4175.36 -0.53 3779.62 4197.60 4191.79 64.09 1.55 -1.45 -44.71 0.33 8817.45 New Zealand - - - Euro - - - Electronic & Elec Eq 0.80 Oil & Gas Producers -40.36 Bhp Group PLC 2057.5 11.00 Prudential PLC 1553.5 7.50
FTSE AIM All-Share (725) 1200.17 -0.23 1086.42 1202.93 1197.69 596.36 0.71 0.23 623.27 1.72 1380.31 Norway - - -
BP PLC 301.55 5.80 Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC 6434 -116.00
FTSE All-Share Technology (20) 2107.57 -0.04 2000.58 2108.38 2089.53 69.05 1.12 0.96 92.90 0.45 2964.93 Source: Bank of England. New Sterling ERI base Jan 2005 = 100. Other indices base average 1990 = 100. British American Tobacco PLC 2850 -21.00 Relx PLC 1799.5 4.00
FTSE All-Share Telecommunications (7) 1984.29 1.32 1883.55 1958.37 1969.04 55.62 4.24 0.93 25.23 0.02 2744.64 Index rebased 1/2/95. for further information about ERIs see www.bankofengland.co.uk British Land Company PLC 514.20 13.20 Renishaw PLC 5870 -65.00
FTSE All-Share Health Care (15) 11005.73 -1.12 10447.02 11130.19 10915.18 110.63 3.74 1.00 26.60 1.83 9733.09
Bt Group PLC 146.25 -2.70 Rentokil Initial PLC 491.30 -4.40
FTSE All-Share Financials (251) 4657.43 -0.13 4420.99 4663.28 4657.70 60.17 2.38 3.28 12.78 0.62 4896.70
FTSE All-Share Real Estate (57) 997.02 0.31 990.05 993.95 1000.00 66.71 2.36 -2.04 -20.83 0.65 997.02 FTSE GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX SERIES Bunzl PLC 2318 -35.00 Rightmove PLC 587.40 -6.80
Burberry Group PLC 1993.5 -8.50 Rio Tinto PLC 5422 77.00
FTSE All-Share Consumer Discretionary (89) 5377.55 -0.80 5104.56 5420.79 5450.85 55.10 1.07 1.36 68.56 0.16 5502.47 Mar 23 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total
YTD Gr Div Mar 23 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total YTD Gr Div Coca-Cola Hbc AG 2279 -3.00 Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC 108.00 2.70
FTSE All-Share Consumer Staples (27)18549.59 0.88 17607.93 18387.66 18162.99 70.83 4.01 1.34 18.57 0.48 15875.55 Regions & countries stocks indices % % % retn
% Yield Sectors stocks indices % % % retn % Yield Compass Group PLC 1470 15.00 Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1387.2 18.60
FTSE All-Share Industrials (91) 6150.02 -0.41 5837.82 6175.17 6155.84 68.14 1.56 1.25 51.15 0.30 6860.04 FTSE Global All Cap 9237 756.55 -0.9 -0.7 3.9 1170.04
4.3 1.8 Oil Equipment & Services 26 214.34 -1.3 -1.3 13.2 367.46 14.4 5.2 Crh PLC 3272 55.00 Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1463.2 27.00
FTSE All-Share Basic Materials (25) 7570.30 -1.22 7186.00 7663.50 7723.15 72.69 3.85 2.54 10.21 3.15 9286.32 FTSE Global All Cap 8952 740.29 0.0 2.8 1.7 1141.62
1.8 1.8 Basic Materials 365 634.18 -1.6 -1.6 4.0 1086.64 4.8 2.8 Croda International PLC 6394 -2.00 Rsa Insurance Group PLC 680.80 -0.60
FTSE All-Share Energy (14) 5241.52 -3.38 4975.44 5424.74 5450.03 43.17 4.41 -2.02 -11.23 0.50 5953.05 FTSE Global Large Cap 1732 671.59 -0.7 -0.8 3.1 1070.02
3.5 1.8 Chemicals 171 897.45 -1.2 -1.2 3.1 1512.80 3.3 2.3 Dcc PLC 6614 138.00 Sage Group PLC 601.40 2.00
FTSE All-Share Utilities (10) 7125.00 1.63 6763.30 7010.91 6980.26 82.45 4.97 1.52 13.19 0.41 9999.84 FTSE Global Mid Cap 2313 973.33 -1.3 0.1 6.2 1415.70
6.5 1.8 Forestry & Paper 21 337.19 -0.8 -0.8 6.6 644.24 7.1 2.5 Diageo PLC 3008.5 1.50 Sainsbury (J) PLC 242.60 -0.90
FTSE All-Share Software and Computer Services (18) 2274.33 -0.05 2158.87 2275.43 2255.49 68.13 1.14 0.94 93.23 0.46 3385.68 FTSE Global Small Cap 5192 1067.86 -2.2 -1.7 6.1 1492.02
6.3 1.5 Industrial Metals & Mining 95 506.08 -2.6 -2.6 8.0 879.49 9.3 3.0 Entain PLC 1540 15.00 Schroders PLC 3545 31.00
FTSE All-Share Technology Hardware and Equipment (2) 4964.10 0.37 4712.10 4945.78 4865.73 97.17 0.29 4.32 80.95 0.00 6206.63 FTSE All-World 4045 441.54 -0.8 -0.6 3.7 4.0722.791.8 Mining 78 904.77 -1.6 -1.6 2.8 1598.62 4.6 3.6 Evraz PLC 533.80 3.00 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC 1122 -31.00
FTSE All-Share Telecommunications Equipment (2) 579.58 -1.75 550.16 589.91 587.94 183.72 1.54 2.82 23.10 2.36 807.10 FTSE World 2622 784.54 -0.8 -0.1 3.7 1724.17
4.1 1.8 Industrials 761 546.67 -1.2 -1.2 4.4 844.47 4.6 1.5 Experian PLC 2453 -7.00 Segro PLC 928.40 8.20
FTSE All-Share Telecommunications Service Providers (5) 3079.27 1.43 2922.95 3035.83 3053.31 54.50 4.33 0.91 25.30 0.00 3870.94 FTSE Global All Cap ex UNITED KINGDOM In 8945 799.81 -0.9 -0.7 3.9 1214.43
4.2 1.7 Construction & Materials 148 645.05 -0.9 -0.9 4.7 1045.48 4.9 1.7 Ferguson PLC 8642 44.00 Severn Trent PLC 2281 -14.00
FTSE All-Share Health Care Providers (4) 6337.81 0.13 6016.08 6329.41 6209.14 33.40 0.88 9.11 12.52 0.27 5846.34 FTSE Global All Cap ex USA 7462 584.34 -0.8 -1.7 3.7 4.0986.552.2 Aerospace & Defense 38 763.76 -2.0 -2.0 4.1 1162.07 4.4 2.0 Flutter Entertainment PLC 16405 -135.00 Smith & Nephew PLC 1342 -6.00
FTSE All-Share Medical Equipment and Services (2) 6185.33 -1.04 5871.33 6250.15 6209.14 91.16 2.22 1.33 33.87 0.00 5705.68 FTSE Global All Cap ex JAPAN 7843 781.08 -1.0 -0.7 4.0 1219.55
4.3 1.8 General Industrials 72 270.04 -1.3 -1.3 6.7 459.19 7.4 2.0 Fresnillo PLC 910.00 -18.20 Smith (Ds) PLC 404.20 5.70
FTSE All-Share Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology (9)15400.83 -1.15 14619.01 15580.39 15262.14 116.53 3.94 0.95 26.77 2.10 12258.78 FTSE Global All Cap ex Eurozone 8581 796.66 -1.0 -0.9 4.0 1206.89
4.3 1.8 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 145 686.30 -1.4 -1.4 2.6 960.30 2.7 1.2 Glaxosmithkline PLC 1284.8 -13.40 Smiths Group PLC 1475 8.00
FTSE All-Share Banks (11) 2810.55 0.02 2667.87 2809.94 2834.19 54.83 1.60 5.11 12.20 0.89 2350.03 FTSE Developed 2179 717.85 -0.8 0.0 3.7 1119.71
4.1 1.8 Industrial Engineering 147 1107.62 -2.1 -2.1 8.1 1702.23 8.3 1.3 Glencore PLC 278.15 6.15 Smurfit Kappa Group PLC 3480 2.00
FTSE All-Share Finance and Credit Services (9) 9988.74 0.28 9481.67 9961.25 9920.34 38.48 1.24 2.18 36.89 0.62 13014.54 FTSE Developed All Cap 5723 755.08 -1.0 -0.2 4.0 1161.01
4.4 1.7 Industrial Transportation 124 944.99 -0.8 -0.8 3.1 1469.93 3.4 1.5 Halma PLC 2359 54.00 Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC 11430 90.00
FTSE All-Share Investment Banking and Brokerage Services (31) 9920.39 -1.02 9416.79 10022.92 9920.34 72.85 4.05 1.47 16.80 0.91 12925.49 FTSE Developed Large Cap 862 668.40 -0.6 0.0 3.1 1061.20
3.5 1.8 Support Services 87 657.01 -0.3 -0.3 2.2 956.30 2.3 1.0 Hargreaves Lansdown PLC 1528 -7.00 Sse PLC 1429 -18.00
FTSE All-Share Closed End Investments (187)12906.93 -0.50 12251.72 12972.00 12838.17 75.83 2.18 4.61 9.92 0.54 7759.92 FTSE Developed Europe Large Cap 233 404.14 -0.7 0.6 2.9 3.5759.842.3 Consumer Goods 535 615.18 -0.7 -0.7 0.7 996.50 0.9 2.0 Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC 2219 -10.00 St. James's Place PLC 1266 -1.50
FTSE All-Share Life Insurance (6) 8256.48 0.74 7837.34 8195.76 8222.11 47.53 3.26 2.15 14.26 0.00 9386.18 FTSE Developed Europe Mid Cap 345 724.07 -0.9 0.1 3.7 1186.42
3.9 1.9 Automobiles & Parts 130 637.16 -2.0 -2.0 4.0 1003.00 4.1 1.2 HSBC Holdings PLC 423.70 -0.65 Standard Chartered PLC 488.00 3.80
FTSE All-Share Nonlife Insurance (7) 3637.30 0.58 3452.65 3616.34 3622.09 68.23 3.02 1.73 19.17 0.00 7214.01 FTSE Dev Europe Small Cap 718 1010.26 -1.1 0.4 4.8 1594.09
5.0 1.6 Beverages 68 711.82 0.3 0.3 -3.7 1166.41 -3.2 2.4 Imperial Brands PLC 1495.5 -2.50 Standard Life Aberdeen PLC 289.40 3.40
FTSE All-Share Real Estate Investment and Services (16) 2464.04 0.20 2338.95 2459.06 2431.54 64.35 1.04 2.91 33.16 0.10 7108.08 FTSE North America Large Cap 238 857.82 -0.6 0.6 3.3 1256.75
3.7 1.5 Food Producers 133 715.82 -0.3 -0.3 -0.3 1181.56 -0.1 2.2 Informa PLC 569.00 -2.20 Taylor Wimpey PLC 178.15 -5.70
FTSE All-Share Real Estate Investment Trusts (41) 2484.11 0.33 2358.00 2475.82 2501.22 67.16 2.67 -2.50 -14.96 0.79 3567.83 FTSE North America Mid Cap 421 1134.08 -1.6 0.1 7.0 1532.29
7.3 1.6 Household Goods & Home Construction 60 587.47 0.6 0.6 2.0 946.83 2.4 2.4 Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC 4940 54.00 Tesco PLC 229.00 -0.40
FTSE All-Share Automobiles and Parts (2) 4641.30 -3.61 4405.69 4815.19 4719.69 24.93 0.71 -12.59 -11.24 0.32 4783.44 FTSE North America Small Cap 1297 1223.10 -2.8 -2.4 6.9 1592.18
7.1 1.3 Leisure Goods 44 332.69 0.0 0.0 0.8 459.46 0.9 0.9 Intermediate Capital Group PLC 1884 15.00 Unilever PLC 4056 -18.00
FTSE All-Share Consumer Services (4) 2484.74 -0.77 2358.60 2504.08 2519.58 64.53 0.23 5.75 75.50 0.01 3109.81 FTSE North America 659 563.16 -0.8 0.5 4.0 4.4843.071.6 Personal Goods 86 1028.80 -0.5 -0.5 -2.4 1538.21 -2.2 1.4 International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. 194.80 7.45 United Utilities Group PLC 910.00 -0.80
FTSE All-Share Household Goods and Home Construction (11)15272.07 1.60 14496.79 15031.79 15080.74 59.18 2.67 1.87 20.02 1.07 12371.89 FTSE Developed ex North America 1520 302.18 -0.8 -0.9 3.1 3.5549.762.2 Tobacco 14 980.72 -1.6 -1.6 8.0 2510.92 8.7 6.2 Intertek Group PLC 5530 14.00 Vodafone Group PLC 133.92 -0.18
FTSE All-Share Leisure Goods (2) 24012.71 -0.13 22793.71 24043.95 24335.36 49.38 1.87 1.60 33.47 0.00 25239.18 FTSE Japan Large Cap 174 463.95 -0.7 -3.1 2.3 2.4651.911.9 Health Care 326 677.61 -1.0 -1.0 -1.2 1049.97 -0.7 1.8 Jd Sports Fashion PLC 818.00 7.00 Weir Group PLC 1766.5 23.00
FTSE All-Share Personal Goods (5) 29289.66 0.17 27802.78 29240.56 29591.18 55.68 0.00 0.00 31.09 0.00 22137.79 FTSE Japan Mid Cap 335 702.17 -1.0 2.0 8.9 9.0935.911.9 Health Care Equipment & Services 124 1379.36 -0.6 -0.6 -0.9 1665.40 -0.7 0.9 Johnson Matthey PLC 3002 47.00 Whitbread PLC 3348 101.00
FTSE All-Share Media (10) 8507.40 0.01 8075.53 8506.25 8552.44 65.74 1.71 2.54 23.03 0.00 5733.87 FTSE Global wi JAPAN Small Cap 885 748.08 -1.4 2.2 4.9 1033.24
5.0 2.0 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 202 437.90 -1.3 -1.3 -1.5 723.04 -0.7 2.5 Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. 6660 -202.00 Wpp PLC 929.40 14.60
FTSE All-Share Retailers (21) 2486.87 -1.44 2360.63 2523.16 2519.58 54.71 0.31 10.58 30.13 0.03 3112.48 FTSE Japan 509 193.78 -0.8 -2.1 3.6 3.6304.811.9 Consumer Services 442 707.57 -0.8 -0.8 2.6 993.18 2.8 0.9 Kingfisher PLC 325.00 10.00
FTSE All-Share Travel and Leisure (34) 8887.29 -2.16 8436.13 9083.41 9169.48 40.65 0.68 -4.60 -31.88 0.00 9121.02 FTSE Asia Pacific Large Cap ex Japan 906 903.78 -0.9 -5.9 3.3 1569.94
3.6 2.0 Food & Drug Retailers 71 310.54 -0.7 -0.7 3.9 473.83 4.5 2.4
FTSE All-Share Beverages (6) 23704.73 0.20 22501.36 23656.54 23611.58 79.57 2.40 0.74 56.04 0.92 18371.80 FTSE Asia Pacific Mid Cap ex Japan 950 1079.47 -0.9 -1.6 5.1 1801.34
5.4 2.4 General Retailers 146 1263.23 -0.3 -0.3 -0.2 1703.74 -0.1 0.6
FTSE All-Share Food Producers (10) 7552.65 -0.99 7169.24 7628.35 7619.13 63.87 1.25 3.54 22.53 0.00 7024.91
FTSE All-Share Tobacco (2) 30052.26 1.51 28526.67 29605.21 29233.97 45.98 7.66 1.43 9.11 0.31 24825.74
FTSE Asia Pacific Small Cap ex Japan
FTSE Asia Pacific Ex Japan
2007
1856
676.78
707.08
-1.1
-0.9
-2.4
-5.5
4.1
3.5
1103.44
4.4
1304.89
3.8
2.1 Media
2.0 Travel & Leisure
84 502.54
141 530.73
-1.0
-1.9
-1.0
-1.9
7.1 709.45
6.6 761.72
7.2
6.7
0.7
1.3
UK STOCK MARKET TRADING DATA
FTSE All-Share Construction and Materials (16) 7620.82 -0.30 7233.95 7644.14 7688.24 61.90 2.02 -0.04-1197.53 1.60 8934.46 FTSE Emerging All Cap 3514 920.92 -0.9 -5.0 3.5 1518.86
3.8 2.1 Telecommunication 89 160.40 0.0 0.0 4.2 351.76 4.8 4.0 Mar 24 Mar 23 Mar 22 Mar 19 Mar 18 Yr Ago
FTSE All-Share Aerospace and Defense (9) 3786.58 -0.94 3594.36 3822.62 3890.01 64.54 2.62 0.55 69.56 0.04 4421.02 FTSE Emerging Large Cap 870 884.94 -0.9 -5.8 3.2 1468.91
3.4 2.0 Fixed Line Telecommuniations 37 120.28 0.0 0.0 3.4 297.33 4.5 5.4 - - - - - -
FTSE All-Share Electronic and Electrical Equipment (11)11663.77 -0.45 11071.66 11716.72 11546.66 77.14 1.32 1.85 40.91 0.04 11210.15 FTSE Emerging Mid Cap 996 1092.50 -0.7 -1.0 4.3 1801.42
4.6 2.6 Mobile Telecommunications 52 193.80 0.0 0.0 5.3 370.06 5.4 3.3 Order Book Turnover (m) 82.95 57.77 305.21 305.21 305.21 81.02
FTSE All-Share General Industrials (9) 5322.63 -0.08 5052.43 5326.65 5309.30 63.41 1.99 1.07 46.86 0.00 6667.44 FTSE Emerging Small Cap 1648 900.91 -0.8 -2.4 5.7 1423.87
5.9 2.2 Utilities 198 317.13 0.9 0.9 -1.1 701.09 -0.4 3.3 Order Book Bargains 1004377.00 1026138.00 1308195.00 1308195.00 1308195.00 1076974.00
FTSE All-Share Industrial Engineering (4)16368.51 -0.62 15537.57 16470.58 16199.17 79.23 0.61 3.95 41.40 0.00 21400.92 FTSE Emerging Europe 84 375.02 -1.5 -2.3 1.2 1.4712.454.7 Electricity 137 357.80 1.0 1.0 -0.9 780.75 -0.1 3.3 Order Book Shares Traded (m) 1681.00 1439.00 3279.00 3279.00 3279.00 1586.00
FTSE All-Share Industrial Support Services (32) 9847.74 -0.12 9347.82 9859.36 9781.81 74.85 1.28 1.78 44.08 0.20 10965.00 FTSE Latin America All Cap 246 772.43 -0.7 -1.4 -6.0 1333.03
-5.4 2.5 Gas Water & Multiutilities 61 315.52 0.7 0.7 -1.6 718.08 -1.1 3.3 Total Equity Turnover (£m) 6983.38 5756.25 9096.83 9096.83 9096.83 7111.36
FTSE All-Share Industrial Transportation (10) 5424.47 -1.26 5149.10 5493.93 5464.57 52.50 0.80 3.74 33.57 0.18 5512.36 FTSE Middle East and Africa All Cap 327 702.39 -0.8 1.4 7.5 1222.56
8.3 2.9 Financials 868 272.69 -0.8 -0.8 8.1 497.53 8.5 2.6 Total Mkt Bargains 1256581.00 1276225.00 1595660.00 1595660.00 1595660.00 1373641.00
FTSE All-Share Industrial Materials (1)22004.11 2.80 793.50 21403.99 21454.00 59.96 0.46 7.29 29.75 0.00 26805.08 FTSE Global wi UNITED KINGDOM All Cap In 292 332.97 -0.9 -1.0 5.0 5.9641.452.9 Banks 270 209.83 -1.1 -1.1 13.8 420.73 14.4 2.8 Total Shares Traded (m) 9483.00 10307.00 12129.00 12129.00 12129.00 13597.00
FTSE All-Share Industrial Metals and Mining (12) 6282.17 -1.33 5963.26 6367.01 6426.87 74.26 4.11 2.60 9.34 3.94 8606.00 FTSE Global wi USA All Cap 1775 978.67 -1.0 0.0 4.2 1383.39
4.5 1.5 Nonlife Insurance 71 314.26 -0.3 -0.3 5.0 495.56 5.4 3.8 † Excluding intra-market and overseas turnover. *UK only total at 6pm. ‡ UK plus intra-market turnover. (u) Unavaliable.
FTSE All-Share Precious Metals and Mining (5)21644.22 -2.06 20545.46 22099.81 22373.02 85.92 3.82 1.92 13.61 0.00 14048.48 FTSE Europe All Cap 1451 485.97 -0.8 0.4 3.1 3.6877.452.2 Life Insurance 53 251.22 -0.9 -0.9 8.1 452.36 8.4 3.1 (c) Market closed.
FTSE All-Share Chemicals (7) 15711.54 0.22 14913.95 15677.75 15534.63 68.44 1.61 1.76 35.17 0.22 15134.53 FTSE Eurozone All Cap 656 480.40 -0.7 0.8 3.7 3.9861.721.9 Financial Services 212 437.12 -1.0 -1.0 4.1 645.50 4.4 1.4
FTSE All-Share Oil. Gas and Coal (14) 5086.84 -3.38 4828.61 5264.65 5289.20 43.17 4.41 -2.02 -11.23 0.50 5991.60 FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient All-World 4045 495.73 -1.1 0.4 5.0 5.4749.852.0 Technology 331 538.59 -0.5 -0.5 3.5 692.07 3.7 0.8
FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient Developed Europe 578 385.15 -0.8 0.7 3.1 3.4643.971.9 Software & Computer Services 177 883.29 0.0 0.0 5.1 1058.62 5.2 0.5 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. All elements listed are indicative and believed
FTSE Sector Indices
Oil & Gas 130 293.56 -1.5 -0.6 13.8 14.8553.864.1 Technology Hardware & Equipment 154 433.36 -1.2 -1.2 1.6 594.83 1.9 1.2 accurate at the time of publication. No offer is made by Morningstar or the FT. The FT does not warrant nor
Non Financials (355) 4542.33 -0.53 4111.81 4566.55 4554.03 67.58 3.02 0.87 38.23 0.74 7744.61
Oil & Gas Producers 89 279.71 -1.6 -0.6 15.8 16.8539.264.2 Alternative Energy 15 223.19 -1.4 -1.4 -16.9 317.22 -16.9 0.5 guarantee that the information is reliable or complete. The FT does not accept responsibility and will not be
Real Estate Investment & Services 163 372.44 0.0 0.0 3.8 688.15 4.0 2.5 liable for any loss arising from the reliance on or use of the listed information.
Hourly movements 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 High/day Low/day Real Estate Investment Trusts 99 473.68 0.1 0.1 4.2 1049.91 4.7 3.5 For all queries e-mail ft.reader.enquiries@morningstar.com
FTSE 100 6659.10 6689.30 6683.55 6681.31 6680.84 6681.37 6692.64 6707.25 6711.73 6722.52 6652.56 FTSE Global Large Cap 1725 659.57 0.0 0.0 1.3 1047.63 1.3 1.9
FTSE 250 21260.27 21331.74 21365.51 21368.29 21333.90 21370.37 21360.33 21388.12 21398.12 21419.06 21244.78
FTSE SmallCap 6717.61 6719.12 6726.47 6729.17 6727.69 6730.80 6735.99 6742.53 6748.41 6754.64 6710.37
The FTSE Global Equity Series, launched in 2003, contains the FTSE Global Small Cap Indices and broader FTSE Global All Cap Indices (large/mid/small cap) as well as the enhanced FTSE All-World index Series (large/
mid cap) - please see https://research.ftserussell.com/Products/indices/Home/indexfiltergeis?indexName=GEISAC&currency=USD&rtn=CAP&segment=global-developed–emerging. The trade names Fundamental Index®
Data provided by Morningstar | www.morningstar.co.uk
FTSE All-Share 3797.13 3813.00 3811.63 3810.77 3809.44 3810.89 3815.74 3823.31 3825.75 3831.24 3794.05 and RAFI® are registered trademarks and the patented and patent-pending proprietary intellectual property of Research Affiliates, LLC (US Patent Nos. 7,620,577; 7,747,502; 7,778,905; 7,792,719; Patent Pending Publ.
Time of FTSE 100 Day's high:16:19:15 Day's Low08:10:15 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 6873.26(08/01/2021) Low: 6407.46(29/01/2021) Nos. US-2006-0149645-A1, US-2007-0055598-A1, US-2008-0288416-A1, US-2010- 0063942-A1, WO 2005/076812, WO 2007/078399 A2, WO 2008/118372, EPN 1733352, and HK1099110). ”EDHEC™” is a trade mark
Time of FTSE All-Share Day's high:16:19:00 Day's Low08:10:00 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 3880.43(08/01/2021) Low: 3641.93(29/01/2021) of EDHEC Business School As of January 2nd 2006, FTSE is basing its sector indices on the Industrial Classification Benchmark - please see www.ftse.com/icb. For constituent changes and other information about FTSE,
Further information is available on http://www.ftse.com © FTSE International Limited. 2013. All Rights reserved. ”FTSE®” is a trade mark of the please see www.ftse.com. © FTSE International Limited. 2013. All Rights reserved. ”FTSE®” is a trade mark of the London Stock Exchange Group companies and is used by FTSE International Limited under licence.
London Stock Exchange Group companies and is used by FTSE International Limited under licence. † Sector P/E ratios greater than 80 are not shown.
For changes to FTSE Fledgling Index constituents please refer to www.ftse.com/indexchanges. ‡ Values are negative.

UK RIGHTS OFFERS UK COMPANY RESULTS UK RECENT EQUITY ISSUES

Amount Latest Company Turnover Pre-tax EPS(p) Div(p) Pay day Total Issue Issue Stock Close Mkt
Issue paid renun. closing Applied Graphene Materials Int 0.042 0.035 1.794L 2.278L 3.300L 4.000L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 date price(p) Sector code Stock price(p) +/- High Low Cap (£m)
price up date High Low Stock Price p +or- Baillie Gifford Japan Trust (The) Int 157.338 53.606L 170.280 58.810L 0.00000 0.00000 - 4.500 3.481 03/22 5.00 ROQ Roquefort Investments PLC 8.25 0.10 8.50 7.00 267.3
There are currently no rights offers by any companies listed on the LSE. Bellway Int 1720.500 1541.400 280.200 291.800 185.900 194.400 35.00000 0.00000 Jul 1 84.725 100.000 03/12 175.00 AIM AMTE Amte Power PLC 254.00 -14.49 337.03 175.00 8805.2
Bonhill Group Pre 17.812 24.429 10.876L 4.146L 13.240L 9.280L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.280 03/08 88.00 AIM TEAM Team PLC 89.00 -2.00 91.90 84.00 1473.8
Circassia Group Pre 23.900 34.600 18.400L 27.600L 9.000L 13.000L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 03/02 197.00 AIM VINO Virgin Wines UK PLC 225.00 -2.00 236.65 200.00 12563.5
CPP Group Pre 141.144 138.362 2.012 1.132 19.280L 11.690L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 02/23 600.00 ATG Auction Technology Group PLC 801.20 -13.00 839.00 734.63 80120.0
ECR Minerals Pre 0.000 0.000 0.704L 0.757L 0.000 0.180L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 02/19 5.00 CBX Cellular Goods PLC 9.75 -0.25 30.00 8.55 4921.3
ECSC Group Pre 5.663 5.905 0.319L 0.750L 2.700L 8.500L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 02/17 118.00 AIM 4BB 4basebio UK Societas 340.00 -8.00 744.00 175.00 4187.9
Frontier IP Group Int 0.184 0.170 3.033 2.088 5.560 4.660 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000 02/16 100.00 CORD Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd 98.20 -0.30 101.00 97.40 36334.0
Keywords Studios Pre 373.538 326.463 32.494 17.371 0.303 0.152 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.600 02/16 7.00 AIM CUSN Cornish Metals Inc 8.50 0.10 13.00 7.70 2270.7
Oriole Resources Pre 0.000 0.000 0.468L 1.739L 0.030L 0.220L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
Pendragon Pre 2766.700 4083.800 25.500L 156.700L 1.800L 8.400L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
Pittards Pre 15.233 22.301 2.282L 0.579 17.670L 2.930 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
Softcat Int 576.988 524.148 56.950 40.523 23.300 16.700 0.00000 0.00000 - 16.509 10.400

Figures in £m. Earnings shown basic. Figures in light text are for corresponding period year earlier. §Placing price. *Intoduction. ‡When issued. Annual report/prospectus available at www.ft.com/ir
For more information on dividend payments visit www.ft.com/marketsdata For a full explanation of all the other symbols please refer to London Share Service notes.
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 13

MARKET DATA

FT500: THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANIES

52 Week 52 Week 52 Week 52 Week 52 Week 52 Week
Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m
Australia (A$) Finland (€) Japan (¥) Sweden (SKr) AT&T 30.12 0.12 33.24 26.35 7.33 18.79 214773.06 Lowes 182.48 2.08 184.15 72.05 1.31 24.22 130885.03
ANZ 28.00 - 29.55 15.07 3.74 23.14 60732.2 Nokia 3.39 -0.04 4.95 2.62 - 24.29 22728.18 AstellasPh 1691.5 -69.50 1982 0.00 2.56 21.40 28940.98 AtlasCpcoB 437.70 9.20 440.10 251.30 1.55 35.05 19868.07 AutomData♦ 186.39 2.35 190.50 114.30 1.97 32.18 79763.78 Lyondell 104.14 3.88 112.73 42.03 4.28 27.64 34796.56
BHPBilltn 44.88 -0.07 50.93 28.03 4.58 19.62 100776.57 SampoA 36.73 0.36 40.37 24.36 4.30 16.09 24079.88 Bridgestne 4296 -99.00 4498 3045 3.31 35.21 28176.7 Ericsson 114.40 -2.70 118.05 72.70 1.34 25.86 40885.94 Avago Tech 464.77 0.71 495.14 201.29 2.97 69.19 189766.67 Marathon Ptl 53.89 1.45 59.93 16.57 4.47 -3.32 35097.2
CmwBkAu♦ 86.37 1.60 89.20 57.00 3.51 23.75 116798.19 France (€) Canon♦ 2382 -49.00 2517.5 0.00 5.51 36.87 29196.56 H&M 206.50 -4.00 229.50 112.70 2.40 112.95 35086.77 BakerHu 22.08 0.09 31.26 20.09 3.24 -1.40 11412.93 Marsh&M 118.10 1.17 120.97 78.95 1.56 29.86 60014.29
CSL 266.02 5.02 332.68 242.00 1.12 32.85 92286.02 Airbus Grpe 95.97 0.76 103.98 48.21 - -11.42 89242.99 CntJpRwy 16770 -645.00 19165 0.00 0.88 -30.60 31747.64 Investor 684.40 3.00 687.60 402.60 1.94 6.52 36262.19 BankAm♦ 37.32 0.42 39.97 19.01 1.94 19.88 321969.07 MasterCard 362.00 6.73 389.50 215.00 0.57 56.61 356618.26
NatAusBk 25.84 -0.10 27.10 14.90 4.36 23.46 64970.82 AirLiquide 136.10 -2.45 144.45 102.65 2.09 27.06 76271.68 Denso 7105 -127.00 7765 0.00 2.08-208.63 51448.32 Nordea Bk 85.49 1.71 85.67 52.42 - 14.27 40275.03 Baxter♦ 81.97 0.37 95.19 72.10 1.17 38.34 41403.37 McDonald's 225.42 1.05 231.91 146.10 2.24 35.59 168066.87
Telstra♦■ 3.30 -0.03 3.54 2.66 3.08 21.80 29916.64 AXA 22.52 0.08 23.01 13.34 3.42 18.44 64421.51 EastJpRwy 7787 -358.00 8881 0.00 1.80 -7.99 27045.53 SEB 109.35 2.85 109.35 63.34 - 14.19 27602.8 BectonDick♦ 241.02 0.76 284.97 199.15 1.33 46.26 70030.77 McKesson♦ 190.68 2.25 193.36 118.65 0.87 -7.12 30350.05
Wesfarmers♦ 52.13 1.03 56.40 31.70 2.96 30.81 45054.23 BNP Parib 51.12 0.76 53.66 24.51 - 8.79 75584.97 Fanuc 25195 -265.00 29700 0.00 0.81 63.28 46753 SvnskaHn 101.15 1.10 101.20 71.70 - 12.23 22882.66 BerkshHat 380525.01 3085.01 407750250926.02 - 16.26 243439.73 Medtronic 116.63 1.60 120.53 76.56 2.04 42.11 157225.74
Westpc 24.19 -0.24 25.30 14.53 3.30 38.05 67644.28 ChristianDior 506.50 -2.50 519.00 271.00 1.00 47.57 108163.14 FastRetail 83740-3060.00 110500 0.00 0.61 88.91 81630.36 Swedbank 161.60 2.42 165.90 99.14 - 13.86 21279.47 Biogen 269.70 2.49 363.92 223.25 - 10.83 41084.95 Merck♦ 76.45 0.18 87.80 66.75 3.39 15.90 193455.03
Woolworths♦ 40.33 0.63 42.05 33.82 2.37 35.40 38899.14 Cred Agr 12.07 0.15 12.65 6.00 - 8.40 41631.5 Fuji Hvy Ind 2106.5 -71.00 2683.5 1671.5 2.81 13.27 14890.12 Telia Co 37.99 0.45 39.16 30.75 5.58 49.69 18072.74 BkNYMeln 45.56 1.19 47.76 29.17 2.89 9.46 39953.91 Metlife 59.12 0.46 62.66 24.53 3.09 10.37 52285.68
Belgium (€) Danone 58.30 -0.94 65.68 46.03 - 19.00 47358.24 Hitachi 5193 -104.00 5475 0.00 2.04 13.90 46190.58 Volvo 225.40 7.50 240.80 106.65 - 26.80 41648.77 BlackRock 727.27 10.70 788.00 346.29 2.07 22.77 111006.02 Microsoft 236.49 -1.09 245.92 141.27 0.89 35.111783658.61
AnBshInBv 52.92 -0.28 59.51 35.11 2.45 -37.97 106009.17 EDF 11.29 0.22 13.58 6.55 1.40 20.21 41404.69 HondaMtr 3246 -53.00 3475 0.00 2.74 12.72 54035.73 Boeing 243.44 2.19 278.57 113.89 0.85 -11.62 141924.76 Mnstr Bvrg 88.98 -0.64 95.11 51.39 - 37.76 46993.63
Switzerland (SFr)
KBC Grp 62.28 0.24 65.66 38.83 1.69 15.85 30702.31 Engie SA 11.97 -0.15 13.87 8.63 - -25.22 34472.04 JapanTob 2084 -25.00 2234 0.00 8.09 11.65 38303.54 Booking Holdings 2256.1 41.10 2469.58 1200.58 - 1560.84 92413.7 MondelezInt 58.38 -0.22 60.00 42.95 2.06 23.55 82439.25
ABB 29.05 -0.24 29.49 15.33 2.85 127.23 67338.11
EssilorLuxottica 133.60 1.85 142.80 92.04 - -4224.16 69389.45 KDDI 3450 -56.00 3584 2604 3.68 11.39 73054.45 BrisMySq 62.76 0.14 67.16 47.39 2.94 -15.67 140612.22 Monsanto 9.71 0.05 9.83 9.57 - - 242.75
Brazil (R$) CredSuisse 12.24 0.07 13.50 6.98 1.23 7.40 32018.16
Hermes Intl 938.40 -2.00 1018 592.00 0.51 84.29 117200.82 Keyence 49790 -450.00 59310 32570 0.42 62.48 111283.47 CapOne 125.75 3.34 134.70 39.90 1.10 57.52 57749.02 MorganStly 80.54 1.42 86.64 29.40 1.84 12.82 145926.08
Ambev 15.23 0.15 16.91 10.68 3.37 26.57 43096.29 Nestle 104.06 -0.42 112.62 92.78 2.76 22.84 320518.37
LOreal 318.20 -3.50 326.40 223.70 1.26 48.35 210762.53 MitsbCp 3148 -79.00 3298 0.00 4.54 13.44 42981.74 CardinalHlth 59.69 1.99 59.85 40.97 3.26 12.79 17527.55 MylanNV 15.86 0.31 23.11 12.75 - 29.73 8586.21
Bradesco 23.09 0.12 25.15 15.02 1.13 7.12 18416.11 Novartis 80.61 -0.33 89.34 70.42 3.55 24.39 212615.36
LVMH 553.40 -0.80 570.80 316.10 0.86 57.20 330465.66 MitsubEst 1920.5 -11.00 1980.5 0.00 1.65 16.23 24555.86 Carnival 26.52 1.19 30.12 7.80 1.94 -1.95 24729.52 Netflix 527.22 -7.87 593.29 339.17 - 86.39 233503.24
Cielo 3.70 0.05 5.93 3.15 1.88 19.09 1807.71 Richemont 90.60 -0.90 93.10 49.50 1.19 197.53 50562.04
Orange 10.43 -0.13 11.88 8.63 5.06 10.09 32807.38 MitsubishiEle 1674 -37.00 1785.5 0.00 2.28 19.98 33032.36 Caterpillar 225.54 7.29 237.78 95.17 1.83 41.15 122987.83 NextEraE 73.24 -0.78 87.69 46.62 1.92 49.30 143541.22
ItauHldFin 24.86 0.08 29.38 19.50 3.52 12.56 22166.83 Roche 304.65 -4.70 357.85 284.25 3.14 17.36 228829.55
PernodRic 158.30 -0.75 166.45 122.90 1.74 144.88 49043.57 MitsuiFud 2495.5 -93.00 2675 1645.5 1.87 12.68 22137.21 Celgene 108.24 0.11 110.70 58.59 - 12.71 77035.98 Nike♦ 135.58 -1.54 147.95 64.00 0.77 74.53 172387.09
Petrobras 23.27 0.72 32.34 12.46 2.38 -6.16 31144.59 Swiss Re 92.82 0.94 92.82 58.52 6.78 -19.22 31507.03
Renault 37.00 0.01 41.42 15.77 - -1.13 12944.65 MitUFJFin 604.50 -28.20 660.30 383.40 4.53 15.25 75452.06 CharlesSch 65.23 1.87 68.21 29.24 1.11 30.65 117612.95 NorfolkS 265.65 5.38 269.96 125.81 1.42 33.76 72318.54
Vale 94.36 3.30 104.00 36.86 4.87 31.98 89672.73 Swisscom 504.00 2.00 548.00 456.30 4.64 16.06 27912.74
Safran 116.65 1.15 127.45 60.00 - 70.93 55282.01 Mizuho Fin 1617.5 -62.00 1732.5 1162 2.70 38.51 37745.14 Charter Comms 650.13 4.68 681.71 396.52 - 42.06 139955.5 Northrop 320.07 5.93 357.12 272.63 1.78 16.76 53361.55
Canada (C$) Syngent 453.40 0.90 471.20 402.50 - 28.99 43035.76
Sanofi 81.90 -0.57 95.82 72.50 4.05 8.78 121984.44 Murata Mfg 8798 -146.00 10835 0.00 1.26 34.67 54639.59 Chevron Corp 104.88 2.91 112.70 60.32 5.12 -16.09 202038.4 NXP 191.00 -0.62 209.59 72.86 0.83-346.08 52908.57
BCE♦ 57.60 0.01 60.14 47.87 5.70 22.92 41506.1 UBS 14.92 0.11 15.15 8.15 2.40 9.89 61556.76
Sant Gbn 49.31 0.59 49.79 18.35 2.65 19.45 31074.86 NipponTT 2914.5 -51.00 3000 2127 3.54 11.43 104478.69 Chubb 159.32 1.94 179.01 93.10 2.04 29.78 71730.73 Occid Pet♦ 27.46 0.87 32.52 8.52 6.18 -1.62 25580.49
BkMontrl 111.00 1.35 112.69 59.01 3.75 13.77 57216.32 Zurich Fin 400.30 1.80 401.00 271.10 4.89 16.68 64392.16
Schneider 124.95 -1.35 130.70 70.20 2.15 30.00 83825.54 Nissan Mt 581.10 -24.30 664.50 311.20 - -1.99 22539.72 Cigna♦ 241.33 2.89 248.39 136.55 0.02 15.93 83833.67 Oracle 67.17 -0.10 73.62 45.30 1.47 19.87 193687.05
BkNvaS 78.58 0.53 80.16 49.11 4.50 15.04 75913 Nomura 687.00 -16.50 717.50 402.50 3.98 8.30 20415 Taiwan (NT$) Cisco 49.98 -0.03 50.68 35.28 2.88 20.93 211004.84 Pepsico♦ 139.87 0.41 148.77 109.37 2.89 27.21 192958.96
SFR Group 34.50 - 34.56 21.87 - -23.02 17905.81
Brookfield 57.10 0.72 57.35 34.08 1.09-1168.95 71705.3 Nppn Stl 1781 -95.50 1954 0.00 - -7.83 15554.13 Chunghwa Telecom 111.00 - 117.00 106.00 3.98 24.92 30175.62 Citigroup 71.54 0.63 76.13 36.67 3.03 13.16 149271.12 Perrigo♦ 42.67 0.55 58.83 38.20 2.20-803.90 5698.64
SocGen 22.11 0.09 23.01 10.77 - -25.63 22321.91
CanadPcR 448.18 2.37 482.74 275.85 0.79 25.22 47591.74 NTTDCMo 3880 - 3928 2678 3.25 19.99 120882.79 Formosa PetChem 95.40 -0.20 104.00 76.20 3.18 203.22 31847.19 CME Grp♦ 204.66 4.73 216.75 144.67 1.71 32.14 73483.8 Pfizer 35.86 0.50 43.08 27.38 4.44 21.80 200013.79
Total 40.07 0.63 42.19 24.51 6.78 -19.85 124651.93
CanImp 126.17 0.97 127.00 70.88 4.61 15.36 45042.13 Panasonic 1379.5 -23.00 1520 733.50 1.92 17.13 31105 HonHaiPrc 128.00 -2.00 134.50 69.00 3.43 16.52 62184.39 Coca-Cola♦ 51.84 0.45 54.93 38.83 3.34 25.31 223373.17 Phillips66 80.83 1.85 90.59 42.40 4.47 -8.89 35316.73
UnibailR 190.00 0.35 236.45 177.35 2.94 -7.05 22215.04
CanNatRs 38.27 1.92 41.05 12.69 4.30 -78.30 36144.15 Seven & I 4316 -202.00 4606 2937.5 2.45 19.83 35159.52 MediaTek 894.00 20.00 1010 323.00 1.23 41.66 49821.61 Cognizant 77.06 0.83 82.73 42.14 1.15 29.87 40889.13 PhilMorris 88.93 0.88 91.25 60.78 5.35 17.17 138504.19
Vinci 87.92 1.80 92.38 63.18 2.45 29.16 61526.45
CanNatRy♦ 146.44 3.33 149.11 101.82 1.55 29.61 82928.35 ShnEtsuCh 18060 -210.00 19710 9694 1.29 25.31 69153.43 TaiwanSem 576.00 5.00 679.00 262.50 1.82 28.57 523414.59 ColgtPlm 78.23 0.48 86.41 59.01 2.25 24.82 66383.06 PNCFin 171.70 2.30 184.33 84.02 2.84 21.95 72804.32
Vivendi 28.14 -0.27 32.35 17.42 2.25 17.58 39490.18
Enbridge 46.42 0.85 46.75 35.80 6.90 31.71 74903.04 Softbank 9340 -435.00 10695 3465 0.50 21.86 179376.6 Thailand (THB) Comcast 56.24 0.10 58.59 31.78 1.64 24.57 257084.95 PPG Inds 149.85 2.38 153.81 75.62 1.41 33.62 35506.41
GtWesLif♦ 33.50 0.23 33.85 19.13 5.17 10.68 24773.91 Germany (€)
Sony 11225 -305.00 12545 0.00 0.47 12.29 130086.7 PTT Explor♦ 40.25 - 45.00 28.75 3.30 29.36 37085.91 ConocPhil 53.31 1.60 61.14 26.45 3.18 -21.16 72220.91 Praxair 164.50 -0.99 169.75 140.00 2.29 39.25 47306.22
ImpOil♦ 30.51 1.78 32.67 12.53 2.85 -12.19 17841.7 Allianz 212.55 1.10 217.90 138.82 4.76 12.59 103674.45
SumitomoF 4036 -167.00 4354 2521 5.11 152.71 50963.79 United Arab Emirates (Dhs) Corning♦ 40.51 0.64 42.55 17.82 2.18 74.74 31158.83 ProctGmbl 132.93 0.33 146.92 96.07 2.35 25.03 327336.94
Manulife 26.86 0.30 27.68 13.95 4.12 9.27 41537.64 BASF 69.98 0.97 72.84 40.36 4.96 -30.94 76040.95
Takeda Ph 4178 -83.00 4365 3138 4.56 34.41 60526.11 Emirtestele 21.38 0.38 21.38 13.74 3.97 19.56 50620.5 Costco 340.08 -0.26 393.15 279.21 0.83 33.97 150496.89 Prudntl 89.46 1.03 95.49 42.17 4.94 -89.12 35515.62
Nutrien 68.82 0.08 74.34 38.52 3.48 303.85 31246.55 Bayer 53.65 -0.50 73.63 39.91 5.49 -3.14 62355.28
TokioMarine 5391 31.00 5746 4368 3.83 24.37 34779.05 United Kingdom (p) CrownCstl♦ 167.88 -0.81 180.00 114.18 2.95 71.17 72555.59 PublStor♦ 242.04 -0.86 246.52 159.08 3.32 38.34 42306.11
RylBkC 116.35 0.51 117.52 75.11 3.65 14.67 132030.29 BMW 82.59 -0.84 88.78 41.53 3.18 14.82 58820
Toyota 8120 -184.00 8712 0.00 2.97 13.50 243491.59 CSX 94.76 1.84 97.54 49.51 1.10 26.22 72254.98 Qualcomm♦ 131.12 -1.40 167.94 62.19 1.97 22.37 148952.32
Suncor En♦ 26.84 1.19 29.55 14.28 4.85 -6.41 32545.6 Continental 110.90 -2.15 130.85 58.50 2.85 -14.36 26240.92 AscBrFd 2330 -10.00 2796.19 1581.5 1.47 40.45 25309.76
Mexico (Mex$) CVS 73.67 1.77 77.23 52.28 2.73 13.42 96607.52 Raytheon 116.96 -5.47 233.48 103.00 2.98 10.60 32566.46
ThmReut 110.20 -1.41 115.66 77.45 1.81 22.06 43439.29 Daimler 71.65 -0.96 74.66 24.30 1.30 20.36 90685.64 AstraZen♦ 7130 -85.00 10120 6598 2.88 39.94 123897.59
AmerMvl 14.25 0.18 15.93 12.33 2.53 13.34 31179.56 Danaher 219.73 -0.59 248.86 123.78 0.34 48.37 156492.63 Regen Pharm 465.03 -4.73 664.64 424.01 - 15.18 48959.72
TntoDom 82.19 0.47 83.65 51.40 3.78 12.79 119071.45 Deut Bank 10.61 0.12 11.25 5.39 - -13.63 25952.33 Aviva 398.50 0.80 399.40 215.40 2.38 7.26 21943.68
FEMSA UBD 158.02 2.34 162.97 112.72 1.90 307.23 16417.13 Deere 365.59 8.10 392.42 112.70 0.88 39.64 114590.14 S&P Global 348.95 2.12 379.87 199.90 0.77 35.99 83992.27
TrnCan 58.75 1.59 67.89 48.31 5.45 12.53 45781.15 Deut Tlkm 16.73 -0.03 16.94 11.30 3.77 24.09 94212.98 Barclays♦ 184.22 3.14 210.45 80.00 - 13.66 43131.73
WalMrtMex 62.74 0.01 68.25 49.81 0.88 34.28 52664.64 Delphi 17.02 0.31 18.51 5.39 - -7.42 1469.67 Salesforce 211.83 -3.17 284.50 130.04 - 52.39 195095.43
ValeantPh 30.80 -1.06 36.02 14.01 - -15.33 8158.48 DeutsPost 44.62 -0.24 46.30 21.95 2.71 21.10 65407.31 BP 301.55 5.80 376.54 188.52 9.32 -3.64 82464.49
Delta 47.01 1.37 52.28 17.51 0.86 -2.40 29999.27 Schlmbrg♦ 27.77 1.10 30.41 12.17 3.16 -3.65 38829.81
E.ON 9.15 0.07 10.81 7.97 5.29 18.91 28592.12 Netherlands (€) BrAmTob 2850 -21.00 3308.5 2400.5 5.41 10.29 72909.03
China (HK$) Devon Energy♦ 22.70 0.96 26.13 5.46 1.86 -3.34 15279.37 Sempra Energy 129.28 0.86 137.47 95.37 3.37 18.77 39119.01
Fresenius Med 61.50 -0.36 79.96 54.62 2.03 14.96 21309.06 Altice 5.34 0.00 6.86 2.26 - -4.03 9137.97 BSkyB 1727.5 1.50 1740 893.50 0.76 36.60 38843.72
AgricBkCh 3.15 -0.04 3.30 2.38 7.00 4.91 12465.21 DiscFinServ 94.12 2.14 104.49 27.51 1.88 26.05 28833.19 Shrwin-Will 732.11 6.17 758.00 412.01 0.73 33.03 65598.42
Fresenius SE 36.29 - 46.51 30.91 2.44 10.61 19416.55 ASML Hld 492.20 19.70 502.60 220.85 0.54 55.91 244273.03 BT 146.25 -2.70 155.35 94.68 3.16 9.62 19910.28
Bk China 2.89 -0.03 3.19 2.33 8.02 4.34 31111.67 Disney 186.16 -2.57 203.02 91.80 - -68.18 337929.53 SimonProp 111.69 1.28 121.92 42.25 5.23 23.92 36689.43
HenkelKgaA 81.50 -1.60 86.10 58.05 2.37 18.99 25049.23 Heineken 87.92 -0.96 94.48 68.90 2.01 51.80 59912.39 Compass 1470 15.00 1721.63 991.20 1.83 183.75 33171.16
BkofComm 4.59 -0.03 5.09 3.66 8.32 4.31 20688.51 DominRes 74.65 0.47 87.34 62.02 5.31 26.34 60141.63 SouthCpr 69.49 1.32 83.15 24.66 2.14 39.44 53720.86
Linde 229.00 0.10 229.60 143.05 1.47 61.07 141646.5 ING 10.17 0.19 10.71 4.51 - 21.48 46931.52 Diageo♦ 3008.5 1.50 3125.1 2050.6 2.32 62.03 103919.19
BOE Tech 0.75 - 1.10 0.47 - -4.88 19.21 DowDupont 30.52 -0.65 48.38 30.06 3.63 -8.38 68559.76 Starbucks 106.64 0.39 112.34 60.90 1.58 186.38 125547.27
MuenchRkv 261.20 2.30 267.10 161.90 3.95 28.47 43292.49 Unilever 47.09 -0.24 53.66 41.01 - 23.02 169863.14 GlaxoSmh♦ 1284.8 -13.40 1772.51 1190.8 6.23 10.16 86695.6
Ch Coms Cons 3.80 -0.09 5.49 3.21 7.42 3.30 2161.52 DukeEner 94.69 0.67 98.88 66.13 4.26 32.56 72784.75 StateSt 80.60 1.22 87.89 45.19 2.59 12.71 28353.98
SAP 102.82 -0.24 143.32 89.93 1.62 23.90 149437.23 Norway (Kr) Glencore 278.15 6.15 329.26 2.44 2.87 -13.75 55052.02
Ch Evrbrght 3.38 -0.11 3.97 2.40 7.64 4.81 5516.9 Eaton♦ 135.67 2.74 141.37 61.17 2.16 38.73 54043.98 Stryker 234.86 5.43 250.02 131.66 1.01 55.71 88352.67
Siemens 135.56 -0.42 141.32 64.68 2.99 25.26 136318.57 DNB 179.30 2.75 188.20 104.40 - 14.95 32460.5 HSBC 423.70 -0.65 515.00 281.50 - 30.48 116563.25
Ch Rail Cons 4.87 -0.12 8.95 4.07 5.17 3.07 1301.73 eBay 58.54 -1.77 64.85 26.24 1.10 16.47 39833.3 Sychrony Fin 39.59 0.79 43.61 12.98 2.23 17.37 23115.88
Volkswgn 285.20 -24.20 357.40 105.45 1.77 33.55 99565.36 Equinor 167.80 3.30 176.80 109.10 4.77 -18.28 63615 Imperial Brands♦ 1495.5 -2.50 1758 1142 12.42 9.46 19570.44
Ch Rail Gp 4.01 -0.10 4.85 3.33 5.06 3.23 2171.98 Ecolab 210.72 2.81 231.36 132.03 0.95 48.43 60282.38 T-MobileUS 124.24 -0.15 135.54 75.83 - 52.22 154405.98
Hong Kong (HK$) Telenor 149.45 -0.50 163.80 138.25 5.46 19.75 24422.88 LlydsBkg 42.24 0.90 59.94 23.59 - 35.20 41765.4
ChConstBk 6.40 -0.11 6.74 4.93 6.05 5.45 198082.23 Emerson 89.54 2.32 93.38 40.16 2.25 25.86 53726.66 Target 188.59 -0.33 199.96 90.17 1.50 23.57 94034.03
AIA 92.75 -3.60 109.30 61.25 1.51 23.86 144417.5 Natl Grid 862.20 1.20 998.80 789.13 5.63 20.33 39709.01
China Vanke 31.15 -1.05 35.00 22.95 3.93 7.19 7593.34 Qatar (QR) EOG Res 72.00 2.35 77.15 31.22 1.95-128.00 42022.56 TE Connect 125.48 1.73 136.01 57.02 1.52 446.45 41519.92
BOC Hold 27.80 -0.75 29.00 20.05 6.15 8.76 37838.71 Natwest Group 195.95 0.85 198.50 90.54 - -31.60 32172.12
ChinaCitic 3.84 -0.07 4.05 2.93 7.59 3.92 7357 QatarNtBk 17.40 0.20 19.18 16.35 3.46 14.57 44140.06 EquityResTP 72.14 0.33 76.13 45.43 3.35 29.33 26883.92 Tesla Mtrs 657.89 -4.27 900.40 89.28 - 1024.08 631476.39
Ch OSLnd&Inv 20.80 -0.30 28.50 14.92 5.45 4.59 29307.15 Prudential 1553.5 7.50 1581 826.40 2.39 38.24 55149.43
ChinaLife 16.08 -0.14 21.90 13.74 5.55 7.33 15403.83 Russia (RUB) Exelon 43.38 0.58 46.02 31.36 3.54 21.50 42366.97 TexasInstr 181.79 3.01 182.57 96.07 2.05 30.34 167285.68
ChngKng 47.95 -1.10 50.55 35.65 4.87 7.82 22799.07 ReckittB 6434 -116.00 8020 5542 2.71 -16.64 62167.84
ChinaMBank 61.10 -1.90 69.45 33.20 2.38 14.06 36111.11 Gzprm neft 185.71 -3.02 272.68 158.17 - -71.33 58976.64 ExpScripts 92.33 -3.47 101.73 66.93 - 11.10 52061.19 TheTrvelers♦ 150.60 3.60 161.19 85.10 2.25 14.26 37983.48
Citic Ltd 6.62 -0.01 8.60 5.20 7.82 3.65 24791.89 RELX 1799.5 4.00 2000 1482 2.54 28.47 47715.08
ChinaMob 52.10 -0.05 63.75 39.00 6.97 8.28 137332.75 Lukoil 4745.5 -157.00 6810 3663 10.47 32.79 44107.51 ExxonMb 56.78 1.56 62.55 31.11 6.50 68.59 240379.42 ThrmoFshr♦ 450.42 -1.59 532.57 261.30 0.20 34.79 177372.41
Citic Secs 16.28 0.02 21.45 13.06 3.72 11.90 4774.99 RioTinto♦■ 5422 77.00 6561 3232.5 5.19 12.36 99780.19
ChinaPcIns 30.35 -0.80 42.75 20.10 4.83 9.46 10843.54 MmcNrlskNckl 20150 -66.00 23656 13352 5.44 13.99 42774.79 Facebook 286.13 -4.50 304.67 150.83 - 28.25 688270.95 TimeWrnr 98.77 0.82 103.89 85.88 1.54 15.09 77269.69
CK Hutchison 61.00 -1.80 64.05 45.80 5.78 6.12 30282.79 RollsRoyce 108.00 2.70 159.43 0.90 1.46 -1.05 2756.04
ChMinsheng 4.93 -0.03 6.06 3.85 9.10 4.20 5280.64 Novatek 973.20 -3.20 1382.2 682.80 3.05 46.54 39639.58 Fedex♦ 272.72 5.91 305.66 103.40 0.73 28.87 72364.09 TJX Cos 64.87 0.34 71.06 38.86 0.75 100.22 77890.71
CNOOC 8.11 -0.15 10.60 6.50 10.74 7.23 46614.18 RylDShlA♦ 1463.2 27.00 1718.36 878.10 6.59 -8.80 92294.68
ChMrchSecs 19.85 0.25 28.18 13.77 - 17.68 22585.09 Rosneft 324.00 -11.00 489.90 229.80 9.45-126.68 46063.6 FordMtr 12.35 0.14 13.62 4.17 1.22 -38.44 48247.4 Truist Financial Corp 56.71 0.63 61.26 26.23 3.37 18.49 76237.21
HangSeng♦ 147.90 -1.50 156.30 110.00 4.56 17.59 36401.75 Shire# 4690 111.00 4780 2944 0.58 11.63 56567.13
Chna Utd Coms 4.23 -0.07 5.72 4.01 1.45 23.64 19801.89 Sberbank 188.91 -2.03 270.80 172.15 9.07 5.92 54705 Franklin 28.90 0.25 30.55 14.91 3.79 18.46 14606.17 UnionPac♦ 214.59 6.54 221.28 118.80 1.81 27.13 143735.33
HK Exc&Clr 435.80 -13.20 587.00 227.80 1.71 52.49 71129.97 StandCh 488.00 3.80 519.80 334.25 - 64.76 22074.76
ChShenEgy 14.30 -0.22 16.32 11.94 10.76 5.92 6217.71 Surgutneftegas 35.13 -0.76 54.89 24.06 1.70 1.55 16833.73 GenDyn 178.50 3.63 180.35 110.58 2.43 16.17 51096.81 UPS B 161.43 1.57 178.01 88.35 2.51 104.43 116149.95
MTR 43.95 -0.45 49.00 36.20 3.11 39.89 34972.56 Tesco 229.00 -0.40 329.33 217.10 5.06 17.09 25726.71
ChShpbldng 4.06 -0.02 5.44 3.94 - -105.00 11379.72 GenElectric♦ 12.82 0.16 14.42 5.48 0.31 21.64 112575.31 USBancorp 54.17 0.59 57.02 28.36 3.11 17.64 81394.43
SandsCh 37.20 -1.60 40.55 26.50 2.96 139.55 38748.64 Saudi Arabia (SR) Vodafone 133.92 -0.18 157.52 100.00 6.10 17.27 49013.65
ChStConEng 5.15 - 5.70 4.68 3.65 5.02 32088.49 GenMills 57.96 -3.24 66.14 46.95 3.51 14.46 35435.81 UtdHlthcre 371.40 2.90 373.61 199.00 1.33 20.10 351091.63
SHK Props 113.00 -4.00 126.00 87.60 4.88 12.50 42154.67 AlRajhiBnk 93.50 -0.10 99.90 51.10 1.61 21.98 62328.35 WPP 929.40 14.60 947.00 481.30 2.44 -4.99 16145.81
ChUncHK 4.39 -0.06 6.70 3.95 4.12 9.01 17292.53 GenMotors 56.55 0.39 62.24 17.79 0.67 13.01 81483.62 UtdTech♦ 86.01 -5.36 158.44 69.02 2.27 -41.47 74498.84
Tencent 623.50 -5.00 775.50 369.60 0.22 47.69 770126.15 Natnlcombnk 48.60 -0.40 52.80 32.70 2.48 13.20 38876.88 United States of America ($)
CNNC Intl 5.65 0.13 5.77 4.02 2.20 16.54 13481.87 GileadSci♦ 64.67 0.17 85.79 56.56 4.38 62.17 81257.6 ValeroEngy 72.50 2.42 84.39 33.51 5.43 -20.64 29635.06
SaudiBasic 108.00 0.40 112.00 67.00 3.64-111.84 86393.1 21stC Fox A 40.98 -0.84 44.80 20.55 1.13 16.01 13700.05
CSR 3.38 -0.07 4.22 2.53 5.38 8.21 1901.98 India (Rs) GoldmSchs♦ 331.78 0.01 356.85 141.67 1.51 13.36 114727.65 Verizon 57.23 0.32 61.95 48.84 4.59 12.20 236805.55
SaudiTelec 116.60 0.60 120.00 82.50 3.64 20.50 62181.7 3M 192.38 4.05 192.42 121.00 3.07 20.72 111407.26
Daqin 6.82 -0.09 7.30 6.32 7.16 9.45 15543.23 Bhartiartl 523.65 -5.60 623.00 394.00 0.38 -9.66 39368.17 Halliburton 21.51 0.70 24.74 5.81 1.47 -6.42 19114.49 VertexPharm 212.38 -1.22 306.08 202.57 - 20.56 55209.02
Gree Elec Apl 0.13 0.00 0.21 0.07 - -0.04 6.69 HDFC Bk 1478.8 -21.35 1641 755.25 - 27.84 112342.78 Singapore (S$) AbbottLb 119.14 -1.35 128.54 64.50 1.21 47.67 211060.01 HCA Hold♦ 187.04 3.38 194.01 79.74 0.23 17.05 63020.67 VF Cp 78.26 1.80 89.68 47.80 2.48-169.49 30661.62
GuosenSec 12.05 0.20 16.14 10.39 1.69 16.02 16305.9 Hind Unilevr 2318.6 -18.70 2614.3 1902 1.61 73.23 75072.09 DBS 28.30 0.10 29.02 17.82 4.21 13.47 53463.79 Abbvie 104.09 -0.75 113.41 65.55 4.55 38.12 183700.72 Hew-Pack♦ 29.76 0.18 31.11 13.39 2.51 14.02 37098.77 ViacomCBS♦ 74.35 -16.90 101.97 11.85 1.37 32.58 42196.59
HaitongSecs 7.09 -0.08 9.42 5.79 - 6.37 3112.05 HsngDevFin 2465.75 -44.15 2896 1476 0.85 24.94 61282.37 JardnMt US$ 66.71 0.01 68.88 37.37 2.86-115.53 48021.07 Accenture 268.80 2.77 271.51 148.11 1.25 32.21 178784.37 HiltonWwde 120.42 1.52 128.92 53.70 0.13 -46.50 33429.53 Visa Inc 209.54 1.39 228.23 143.58 0.58 43.04 355403.64
Hngzh HikVDT 51.23 -1.07 70.48 27.06 1.39 36.20 64101.83 ICICI Bk 567.50 -18.90 679.40 281.50 - 26.11 54077.16 JardnStr US$ 33.84 -0.41 37.47 18.89 1.16 -38.57 37508.54 Adobe 455.35 -4.85 536.88 289.71 - 40.91 218440.04 HomeDep♦ 295.01 5.03 295.19 172.01 2.11 24.03 317608 Walgreen 52.86 0.83 56.12 33.36 3.60 -65.10 45673.24
Hunng Pwr 2.74 -0.05 4.12 2.44 6.13 20.44 1658.01 Infosys 1353.75 -17.80 1406 565.70 1.54 31.50 79469.79 OCBC 11.61 -0.01 11.82 8.33 3.86 14.20 38607.14 AEP 85.12 0.48 94.21 68.09 3.49 20.78 42275.86 Honywell 214.26 5.67 219.00 109.25 1.70 31.76 149014.6 WalMartSto 133.78 -0.16 153.66 106.85 1.71 18.19 376867.85
IM Baotou Stl 1.54 -0.06 2.24 1.04 - -145.81 7478.36 ITC 215.95 -6.25 239.20 139.00 4.69 20.08 36626.99 SingTel 2.37 0.01 2.86 2.00 5.41 22.24 28769.04 Aetna - - - - - - - HumanaInc 416.60 12.59 474.70 218.10 0.60 16.40 53746.57 WellsFargo 38.57 0.33 41.54 20.76 3.18 93.72 159453.95
In&CmBkCh 5.39 -0.08 5.75 3.96 5.91 5.64 60225.52 L&T 1369.15 -35.20 1593 661.00 1.31 64.51 26496.41 UOB 25.44 -0.04 25.99 18.61 4.63 11.09 31635.75 Aflac 50.41 0.91 52.78 26.68 2.23 7.53 34661.92 IBM 131.38 0.92 135.88 99.26 4.97 21.35 117400.39 Williams Cos♦ 23.35 0.34 24.69 11.59 6.88 136.83 28342.01
IndstrlBk 22.56 -0.80 28.07 15.50 3.43 7.65 67837.97 OilNatGas 104.80 -2.35 122.35 59.65 4.76 145.98 18168.44 South Africa (R) AirProd 280.21 5.52 327.89 179.27 1.92 32.73 62004 IllinoisTool 222.18 5.45 224.69 122.28 2.00 33.39 70356.02 Yum!Brnds 108.15 0.15 111.68 61.58 1.74 36.65 32450.98
Kweichow 1989 -7.00 2627.88 1057 0.87 55.13 383029.47 RelianceIn 2047.3 -40.20 2369.35 954.17 0.32 31.86 190777.17 Firstrand 50.25 -0.13 59.82 33.83 5.64 17.41 18946.49 Alexion 151.99 -0.19 162.60 81.10 - 55.67 33414.69 Illumina 408.02 -8.41 555.77 243.87 - 91.35 59530.12 Venezuela (VEF)
Midea 0.58 -0.03 0.85 0.52 - -1.63 22.48 SBI NewA 359.85 -12.85 427.70 149.45 - 13.89 44256.43 MTN Grp 85.08 -0.42 92.56 33.61 6.15 9.81 10775.57 Allergan 193.02 0.03 202.22 114.27 1.54 -25.19 63659.11 Intcntl Exch 112.45 0.80 119.02 69.89 1.07 29.72 63163.91 Bco de Vnzla 120000 5000 125990 2400 341.89 - 240.53
New Ch Life Ins 28.60 -0.50 37.30 22.50 5.91 5.82 3807.45 SunPhrmInds 585.30 -2.55 654.40 312.00 0.68 58.42 19352.39 Naspers N 3471.43 -26.37 3888 2365.15 - 32.33 101619.64 Allstate♦ 113.12 1.26 117.80 75.01 1.92 6.51 34261.04 Intel 63.24 -0.25 67.44 43.61 2.10 12.75 256923.81 Bco Provncl 3300000 50000 3300000 127000 - -17.69 195.56
PetroChina 2.78 -0.03 3.19 2.16 5.61 22.74 7551.09 Tata Cons 3121.1 -21.50 3339.8 1650 1.28 37.61 159097.49 Alphabet 2054.3 12.97 2145.14 1075.08 - 34.92 617804.16 Intuit 383.82 0.62 423.74 204.34 0.58 58.20 105103.85
South Korea (KRW) Mrcntl Srvcs 3850000-50000.00 4000000 120000 0.02 -3.75 128.82
PingAnIns 93.15 -0.70 103.60 73.50 2.69 9.72 89309.93 Altria 49.66 0.01 51.72 31.71 7.22 119.97 92302.53 John&John 161.89 1.54 173.65 113.86 2.47 29.27 426208.87
Indonesia (Rp) HyundMobis♦ 283000-3500.00 405000 156000 1.09 16.51 23662.74
PngAnBnk 20.53 -0.70 25.31 12.47 - 14.65 61074.37 Amazon 3139 1.50 3552.25 1885.78 - 74.761580689.73 JohnsonCn 59.28 0.84 62.40 24.30 1.76 54.68 42656.4
Bk Cent Asia 22300 200.00 24700 16800 - - 38879.26 KoreaElePwr 22800 50.00 30050 18000 - 153.90 12910.63 Closing prices and highs & lows are in traded currency (with variations for that
Pwr Cons Corp 4.09 - 4.88 3.40 0.99 8.73 6987.43 AmerAir 22.82 0.55 26.09 8.25 0.44 -1.24 14597.4 JPMrgnCh 151.85 2.39 161.69 82.40 2.38 17.04 463355.99
Israel (ILS) SK Hynix 133500-1500.00 150500 71300 0.77 30.93 85726.66 country indicated by stock), market capitalisation is in USD. Highs & lows are
SaicMtr 20.18 -0.17 28.80 16.90 4.43 10.81 36143.6 AmerExpr 139.22 3.14 151.46 71.70 1.24 36.79 111852.25 Kimb-Clark♦ 135.67 0.39 160.16 110.66 3.17 19.67 45857.37
TevaPha 37.79 -1.01 46.23 27.20 - -3.13 12541.71 SmsungEl 81000 -800.00 96800 45350 3.87 20.13 426525.86 based on intraday trading over a rolling 52 week period.
ShenwanHong 0.07 0.00 0.10 0.03 - -0.24 80.06 AmerIntGrp♦ 45.63 0.65 49.00 19.90 2.82 -6.61 39460.4 KinderM 16.14 0.46 17.97 11.36 6.45 321.47 36536.9
Italy (€) Spain (€) AmerTower 225.91 -3.94 272.20 179.25 2.03 50.32 100390.89 ♦ ex-dividend
ShgPdgBk 10.68 -0.10 12.69 9.22 5.71 6.45 48056.21 Kraft Heinz♦ 38.45 -0.47 39.71 21.53 4.18 132.10 47034.53 ■ ex-capital redistribution
Enel 8.43 0.03 9.05 5.71 4.10 19.07 101345.63 BBVA 4.40 0.06 4.90 2.13 6.22 -46.42 34669.81 Amgen 247.13 2.09 276.69 190.01 2.60 20.00 142733.98
Sinopec Corp 3.98 -0.08 4.69 2.95 5.82 10.37 13072.32 Kroger 35.97 -0.67 42.99 27.33 1.95 9.04 27385.65 # price at time of suspension
ENI 10.25 0.27 10.53 5.73 5.65 -3.58 43705.47 BcoSantdr 2.88 0.02 3.07 1.44 3.50 -6.98 56572.05 Anadarko 72.77 0.56 76.23 40.40 1.50 -63.37 36563.54
Sinopec Oil 1.99 -0.02 2.37 1.67 - 88.93 4139.47 L Brands 58.12 0.64 62.08 8.80 1.10 -72.06 16203.3
Generali 16.89 0.09 17.27 11.18 3.12 13.81 31492.33 CaixaBnk 2.60 0.05 2.68 1.50 2.83 14.59 18426.84 Anthem♦ 359.81 7.98 362.29 181.12 1.06 19.94 88119.52
Denmark (kr) Iberdrola 10.93 -0.07 12.57 8.34 3.85 18.79 82953.77 LasVegasSd 60.24 0.89 66.77 36.80 1.32 -27.15 46010.08
IntSPaolo 2.30 0.01 2.35 1.32 - 6.34 52767.31 Aon Cp 226.67 2.69 235.88 150.25 0.79 26.72 51223.87 LibertyGbl 26.18 -0.45 27.04 15.31 - -9.66 4747.88
DanskeBk 119.30 1.05 124.95 69.42 - 21.39 16364.69 Inditex 27.97 0.14 30.79 20.86 1.31 52.59 103130.08
Unicred 9.09 0.08 9.69 6.01 - -7.64 24051.48 Apple 121.56 -0.98 145.09 58.58 0.67 32.642040760.95 Lilly (E) 180.44 -3.24 218.00 117.41 1.65 26.47 173040.55
MollerMrsk♦ 13630 -215.00 15400 5530 1.03 14.90 20454.64 Repsol 10.69 0.27 11.14 5.04 7.57 -4.83 19828.88 ArcherDan 56.75 1.19 59.12 30.50 2.55 17.95 31690 Lockheed♦ 361.38 7.77 417.62 280.24 2.72 14.69 101223.78
NovoB 422.10 -9.65 467.90 358.90 2.11 22.60 121723.88 Telefonica 4.00 -0.04 5.01 2.71 10.33 76.11 26171.85

FT 500: TOP 20 FT 500: BOTTOM 20 BONDS: HIGH YIELD & EMERGING MARKET BONDS: GLOBAL INVESTMENT GRADE
Close Prev Day Week Month Close Prev Day Week Month Day's Mth's Spread Day's Mth's Spread
price price change change % change change % change % price price change change % change change % change % Red Ratings Bid Bid chge chge vs Red Ratings Bid Bid chge chge vs
ASML Hld 492.20 472.50 19.70 4.17 31.10 6.7 3.96 ViacomCBS 74.35 91.25 -16.90 -18.52 -21.89 -22.7 12.85 Mar 24 date Coupon S* M* F* price yield yield yield US Mar 24 date Coupon S* M* F* price yield yield yield US
Telstra 3.30 3.33 -0.03 -0.90 0.18 5.8 2.17 IM Baotou Stl 1.54 1.60 -0.06 -3.75 -0.31 -16.8 6.21 High Yield US$ US$
E.ON 9.15 9.08 0.07 0.73 0.42 4.8 4.84 RollsRoyce 108.00 105.30 2.70 2.56 -19.20 -15.1 -99.04 HCA Inc. 04/24 8.36 BB- Ba2 BB 113.75 4.24 0.00 0.12 - FleetBoston Financial Corp. 01/28 6.88 BBB+ Baa1 A- 129.00 2.54 -0.01 -0.05 -
Citic Secs 16.28 16.26 0.02 0.12 0.74 4.8 -7.08 ChinaPcIns 30.35 31.15 -0.80 -2.57 -5.10 -14.4 -27.02 High Yield Euro The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/28 5.00 BBB+ A3 A 117.21 2.47 0.00 0.32 -
UtdHlthcre 371.40 368.50 2.90 0.79 16.80 4.7 11.97 Softbank 9340.00 9775.00 -435.00 -4.45 -1280.00 -12.1 -11.18 Aldesa Financial Services S.A. 04/21 7.25 - - B 71.10 28.23 0.00 0.64 25.98 NationsBank Corp. 03/28 6.80 BBB+ Baa1 A- 127.69 2.72 -0.01 0.06 -
Anthem 359.81 351.83 7.98 2.27 16.24 4.7 18.05 FastRetail 83740.00 86800.00 -3060.00 -3.53 -11450.00 -12.0 -20.11 GTE LLC 04/28 6.94 BBB+ Baa2 A- 128.27 2.80 0.00 -0.11 -
Northrop 320.07 314.14 5.93 1.89 14.23 4.7 6.07 Sinopec Corp 3.98 4.06 -0.08 -1.97 -0.49 -11.0 -12.53 Emerging US$ United Utilities PLC 08/28 6.88 BBB Baa1 A- 130.43 2.62 -0.07 -0.22 -
Target 188.59 188.92 -0.33 -0.17 8.38 4.7 0.89 CNOOC 8.11 8.26 -0.15 -1.82 -0.96 -10.6 -21.54 Peru 03/19 7.13 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 104.40 2.60 - - 0.34 Barclays Bank plc 01/29 4.50 A A1 A+ 96.46 5.02 0.00 0.02 -
HomeDep 295.01 289.98 5.03 1.73 12.93 4.6 13.42 OilNatGas 104.80 107.15 -2.35 -2.19 -10.30 -8.9 -6.60 Colombia 01/26 4.50 - Baa2 BBB- 109.50 2.33 0.16 0.52 1.28
Brazil 04/26 6.00 - Ba2 BB- 115.15 2.78 -0.01 0.65 1.73 Euro
Fedex 272.72 266.81 5.91 2.22 11.92 4.6 4.90 ValeroEngy 72.50 70.08 2.42 3.45 -6.82 -8.6 -7.40 Electricite de France (EDF) 04/30 4.63 A- A3 A- 137.45 0.82 -0.01 0.10 -
Natwest Group 195.95 195.10 0.85 0.44 8.35 4.5 -98.94 IndstrlBk 22.56 23.36 -0.80 -3.42 -2.05 -8.3 -14.58 Poland 04/26 3.25 - A2 A- 111.22 0.98 0.03 0.16 -0.07
Mexico 05/26 11.50 - Baa1 BBB- 149.00 1.61 0.00 -0.12 0.56 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/31 3.00 BBB+ A3 A 121.70 0.93 0.00 0.02 -
Imperial Brands 1495.50 1498.00 -2.50 -0.17 63.00 4.4 -98.94 EastJpRwy 7787.00 8145.00 -358.00 -4.40 -705.00 -8.3 2.35 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/31 3.00 BBB+ A3 A 124.42 0.68 0.00 -0.11 -
Pepsico 139.87 139.46 0.41 0.29 5.86 4.4 5.92 PetroChina 2.78 2.81 -0.03 -1.07 -0.25 -8.3 -4.50 Turkey 03/27 6.00 - Ba2 BB+ 101.26 5.82 0.00 0.17 3.07
Turkey 03/27 6.00 - B2 BB- 102.88 5.43 0.14 0.83 4.38 Finland 04/31 0.75 AA+ Aa1 AA+ 111.08 -0.27 0.00 -0.05 -0.87
CardinalHlth 59.69 57.70 1.99 3.44 2.42 4.2 13.66 Continental 110.90 113.05 -2.15 -1.90 -9.85 -8.2 -8.16
Peru 08/27 4.13 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 103.50 3.66 0.01 -0.02 0.80 Yen
Hunng Pwr 2.74 2.79 -0.05 -1.79 0.11 4.2 1.49 BBVA 4.40 4.34 0.06 1.34 -0.38 -7.9 -5.08
Russia 06/28 12.75 - Baa3 BBB 168.12 2.48 0.07 0.05 - Mexico 06/26 1.09 - Baa1 BBB- 98.73 1.34 -0.02 -0.14 0.27
ChngKng 47.95 49.05 -1.10 -2.24 1.90 4.1 4.79 KoreaElePwr 22800.00 22750.00 50.00 0.22 -1950.00 -7.9 -3.59
Lockheed 361.38 353.61 7.77 2.20 14.25 4.1 4.22 Volkswgn 285.20 309.40 -24.20 -7.82 -23.60 -7.6 -7.64 Brazil 02/47 5.63 - Ba2 BB- 101.48 5.52 0.08 0.80 - £ Sterling
Lowes 182.48 180.40 2.08 1.15 7.15 4.1 12.39 Chubb 159.32 157.38 1.94 1.23 -13.10 -7.6 -6.77 Emerging Euro innogy Fin B.V. 06/30 6.25 BBB Baa2 A- 137.45 2.19 -0.03 0.02 -
HonHaiPrc 128.00 130.00 -2.00 -1.54 5.00 4.1 14.80 AstellasPh 1691.50 1761.00 -69.50 -3.95 -138.00 -7.5 -4.55 Brazil 04/21 2.88 BB- Ba2 BB- 103.09 0.05 0.01 -0.09 -1.19 innogy Fin B.V. 06/30 6.25 BBB Baa2 A- 128.68 3.20 0.00 -0.01 0.40
Costco 340.08 340.34 -0.26 -0.08 12.83 3.9 -0.23 Chna Utd Coms 4.23 4.30 -0.07 -1.63 -0.34 -7.4 -3.42 Mexico 04/23 2.75 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 107.76 0.76 0.00 -0.07 -1.56 Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company. US $ denominated bonds NY close; all other London
Mexico 04/23 2.75 - Baa1 BBB- 106.48 -0.26 - - -0.36 close. *S - Standard & Poor’s, M - Moody’s, F - Fitch.
Based on the FT Global 500 companies in local currency Based on the FT Global 500 companies in local currency
Bulgaria 03/28 3.00 BBB- Baa2 BBB 117.04 1.00 0.02 -0.15 -1.42
Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company. US $ denominated bonds NY close; all
other London close. *S - Standard & Poor’s, M - Moody’s, F - Fitch.

INTEREST RATES: OFFICIAL BOND INDICES VOLATILITY INDICES GILTS: UK CASH MARKET
Mar 24 Rate Current Since Last Mnth Ago Year Ago Day's Month's Year Return Return Mar 24 Day Chng Prev 52 wk high 52 wk low Red Change in Yield 52 Week Amnt
US Fed Funds 0.00-0.25 15-03-2020 1.00-1.25 1.50-1.75 1.25-1.50 Index change change change 1 month 1 year VIX 19.53 -0.77 20.30 69.10 18.80 Mar 24 Price £ Yield Day Week Month Year High Low £m
US Prime 4.75 30-10-2019 5.25 5.25 4.25 Markit IBoxx VXD 18.50 -0.40 18.90 66.77 7.84 - - - - - - - - -
US Discount 2.65 30-09-2019 2.75 2.75 1.75 ABF Pan-Asia unhedged 217.76 0.02 -1.86 -4.23 -2.57 10.46 VXN 27.57 -0.26 27.83 62.64 24.96 - - - - - - - - -
Euro Repo 0.00 16-03-2016 0.00 0.00 0.00 Corporates( £) 392.64 0.46 0.24 -3.96 -0.59 12.77 VDAX 19.35 0.22 19.12 93.30 - - - - - - - - - -
UK Repo 0.10 19-03-2020 0.25 0.75 0.25 Corporates($) 326.94 0.34 -1.31 -4.27 -1.31 -4.27 † CBOE. VIX: S&P 500 index Options Volatility, VXD: DJIA Index Options Volatility, VXN: NASDAQ Index Options Volatility. - - - - - - - - -
Japan O'night Call 0.00-0.10 01-02-2016 0.00 0.00--0.10 0.00--0.10 Corporates(€) 242.58 0.10 0.28 -0.65 -0.10 9.60 ‡ Deutsche Borse. VDAX: DAX Index Options Volatility. Tr 8pc '21 101.64 -0.06 -14.29 -14.29 -14.29 -175.00 102.75 100.21 24.59
Switzerland Libor Target -1.25-0.25 15-01-2015 -0.75--0.25 -1.25--0.25 -1.25--0.25 Eurozone Sov(€) 258.15 0.28 0.44 -2.03 0.10 2.82 Tr 4pc '22 103.84 -0.03 0.00 50.00 -40.00 -127.27 107.59 103.84 38.77
Gilts( £) 354.83 0.63 1.00 -6.43 0.10 -5.67 BONDS: BENCHMARK GOVERNMENT Tr 5pc '25 118.97 0.18 0.00 -28.00 20.00 -14.29 124.02 118.70 35.84
INTEREST RATES: MARKET Global Inflation-Lkd 305.49 0.35 0.67 -2.87 -0.23 18.79 Red Bid Bid Day chg Wk chg Month Year Tr 1.25pc '27 104.93 0.46 -2.13 -14.81 2.22 76.92 109.23 104.30 39.34
Over Change One Three Six One Markit iBoxx £ Non-Gilts 380.43 0.42 0.30 -3.67 -0.42 8.62 Date Coupon Price Yield yield yield chg yld chg yld Tr 4.25pc '32 135.91 0.88 -2.22 -8.33 -1.12 51.72 147.41 134.33 38.71
Mar 24 (Libor: Mar 23) night Day Week Month month month month year Overall ($) 272.82 0.31 -1.03 -4.16 -1.03 -4.16 Australia 11/22 2.25 103.60 0.08 0.00 0.00 -0.04 -0.22 Tr 4.25pc '36 144.01 1.06 -1.85 -7.83 -5.36 53.62 158.29 141.77 30.41
US$ Libor 0.07688 0.000 -0.001 0.001 0.10863 0.20063 0.20538 0.27938 Overall( £) 357.98 0.57 0.81 -5.69 -0.04 -1.80 05/32 1.25 94.06 1.84 -0.03 0.05 0.18 0.83 Tr 4.5pc '42 162.22 1.23 -1.60 -6.11 -6.82 51.85 184.05 158.98 27.21
Euro Libor -0.58100 -0.002 -0.001 -0.003 -0.57829 -0.54871 -0.52143 -0.49171 Overall(€) 249.72 0.21 0.33 -1.67 0.00 3.81 Austria - - - - - - - Tr 3.75pc '52 164.80 1.25 -0.79 -6.02 -8.76 71.23 196.84 160.38 24.10
£ Libor 0.04075 0.000 0.004 -0.001 0.04938 0.08663 0.10388 0.16150 Treasuries ($) 250.99 0.31 -0.96 -4.33 -0.96 -4.33 02/47 1.50 126.33 0.42 -0.03 0.03 0.01 0.04 Tr 4pc '60 187.67 1.18 -1.67 -7.81 -11.28 87.30 230.92 180.90 24.12
Swiss Fr Libor -0.004 -0.81060 -0.75420 -0.70860 -0.59580 FTSE Belgium 09/22 1.00 102.34 -0.60 -0.01 -0.02 -0.02 -0.18 Gilts benchmarks & non-rump undated stocks. Closing mid-price in pounds per £100 nominal of stock.
Yen Libor 0.000 -0.08117 -0.07383 -0.04817 0.04950 Sterling Corporate (£) - - - - - - Canada 11/22 2.00 103.00 0.17 0.01 -0.01 0.02 -0.48
Euro Euribor
Sterling CDs
0.000
-
-0.54900
-
-0.53800
-
-0.51800
-
-0.49100 Euro Corporate (€) 104.47 -0.05 - - 0.54 -1.73 06/30 1.25 98.54 1.42 -0.03 -0.06 0.25 0.57 GILTS: UK FTSE ACTUARIES INDICES
Euro Emerging Mkts (€) 638.06 5.25 - - -7.25 31.54 Denmark 11/22 0.25 101.23 -0.49 -0.04 -0.03 0.03 0.05
US$ CDs - - - - Eurozone Govt Bond 110.04 -0.19 - - -0.34 -0.64 11/30 0.10 117.81 -1.59 -0.02 0.03 -0.24 -0.11 Price Indices Day's Total Return Return
Euro CDs - - - - Fixed Coupon Mar 24 chg % Return 1 month 1 year Yield
CREDIT INDICES Day's Week's Month's Series Series Finland 04/23 1.50 104.53 -0.68 -0.01 0.00 -0.03 -0.34
04/31 0.75 109.11 -0.15 -0.03 0.00 -0.03 -0.25 1 Up to 5 Years 88.24 0.00 2476.24 -0.05 -0.03 0.15
Short 7 Days One Three Six One Index change change change high low 2 5 - 10 Years 180.75 0.09 3702.74 -0.02 -1.58 0.61
Mar 24 term notice month month month year Markit iTraxx France 05/23 1.75 105.32 -0.68 0.00 -0.02 -0.05 -0.28
3 10 - 15 Years 212.27 0.19 4662.12 0.38 -2.86 0.99
Euro -0.74 -0.44 -0.80 -0.50 -0.71 -0.41 -0.64 -0.34 -0.67 -0.37 -0.67 -0.37 Crossover 5Y 268.82 -2.43 - - 273.86 268.82 11/26 0.25 104.22 -0.48 -0.02 -0.02 -0.07 -0.42
4 5 - 15 Years 187.61 0.12 3937.96 0.09 -1.86 0.78
Sterling 0.45 0.55 0.70 0.80 0.78 0.88 0.82 0.97 0.89 1.04 Europe 5Y 53.87 -0.39 - - 55.28 53.87 Germany - - - - - - -
5 Over 15 Years 360.04 0.39 5952.40 2.56 -8.85 1.21
Swiss Franc - - - - - - - - - - - - Japan 5Y 49.15 0.15 - - 49.50 49.00 08/23 2.00 106.64 -0.74 -0.01 -0.02 -0.03 -0.08
7 All stocks 181.93 0.20 3921.67 1.12 -4.55 1.06
Canadian Dollar - - - - - - - - - - - - Senior Financials 5Y 61.86 -1.35 - - 64.29 61.86 02/27 0.25 105.35 -0.64 -0.02 -0.02 -0.05 -0.11
US Dollar 0.11 0.31 0.02 0.22 0.05 0.25 0.13 0.33 0.14 0.34 0.20 0.40 08/50 0.00 93.51 0.23 -0.03 0.03 0.04 0.27 Day's Month Year's Total Return Return
Markit CDX Greece 02/27 4.30 120.61 0.73 -0.04 -0.04 -0.08 -2.10
Japanese Yen -0.15 0.05 -0.40 -0.20 -0.15 0.05 -0.15 0.05 -0.15 0.15 -0.15 0.15 Index Linked Mar 24 chg % chg % chg % Return 1 month 1 year
Emerging Markets 5Y 180.37 14.23 - - 180.37 166.14
Libor rates come from ICE (see www.theice.com) and are fixed at 11am UK time. Other data sources: US $, Euro & CDs: Ireland 10/22 0.00 100.97 -0.62 0.00 -0.03 -0.07 -0.38 1 Up to 5 Years 302.99 -0.01 0.11 -0.51 2512.65 0.13 1.16
Nth Amer High Yld 5Y 303.77 6.46 4.09 6.47 421.26 283.37
Tullett Prebon; SDR, US Discount: IMF; EONIA: ECB; Swiss Libor: SNB; EURONIA, RONIA & SONIA: WMBA. 05/30 2.40 123.46 -0.15 -0.03 -0.01 -0.06 -0.48 2 Over 5 years 802.48 0.85 5.87 2.90 6073.44 5.92 3.27
Nth Amer Inv Grade 5Y 58.00 0.80 - - 58.00 57.20
05/30 2.40 123.46 -0.15 -0.03 -0.01 -0.06 -0.48 3 5-15 years 502.90 0.31 1.22 0.55 4015.36 1.27 1.30
Websites: markit.com, ftse.com. All indices shown are unhedged. Currencies are shown in brackets after the index names.
Italy 08/22 0.90 101.79 -0.41 -0.01 0.00 -0.06 -1.07 4 Over 15 years 1053.64 1.04 7.75 3.74 7760.24 7.79 3.96
11/25 2.50 112.01 -0.08 -0.04 -0.03 -0.09 -1.30 5 All stocks 715.11 0.75 5.29 2.42 5513.38 5.33 2.92
05/30 0.40 108.89 -0.55 -0.05 0.03 -0.18 -2.15
COMMODITIES www.ft.com/commodities BONDS: INDEX-LINKED 03/48 3.45 142.28 1.53 -0.05 0.03 0.04 -0.92 Yield Indices Mar 24 Mar 23 Yr ago Mar 24 Mar 23 Yr ago
Japan 04/23 0.05 99.97 0.06 0.00 0.00 -0.03 - 5 Yrs 0.31 0.32 0.10 20 Yrs 1.26 1.28 0.85
Energy Price* Change Agricultural & Cattle Futures Price* Change Price Yield Month Value No of
04/25 0.05 99.92 0.07 0.00 0.01 -0.03 - 10 Yrs 0.82 0.84 0.46 45 Yrs 1.14 1.16 0.57
Crude Oil† Apr 59.42 1.87 Corn♦ May 550.25 -1.50 Mar 23 Mar 23 Prev return stock Market stocks
03/34 1.50 116.44 0.22 -0.01 -0.03 -0.05 -0.04 15 Yrs 1.13 1.15 0.75
Brent Crude Oil‡ 63.99 3.62 Wheat♦ May 628.50 -6.50 Can 4.25%' 26 130.57 -0.968 -0.968 0.68 5.00 75522.55 7
12/49 0.40 94.34 0.62 -0.02 -0.04 -0.08 0.18
RBOB Gasoline† Mar 1.93 0.05 Soybeans♦ May 1426.50 4.75 Fr 1.10%' 22 104.68 -2.302 -2.302 0.16 19.85 255766.63 16
Netherlands 07/23 1.75 105.76 -0.72 -0.01 -0.01 -0.05 -0.21 inflation 0% inflation 5%
Heating Oil† - - Soybeans Meal♦ May 401.40 3.40 Swe 0.25%' 22 110.55 -1.159 -1.159 -0.54 28.26 211172.60 7
07/26 0.50 105.94 -0.60 -0.02 -0.01 -0.07 -0.30 Real yield Mar 24 Dur yrs Previous Yr ago Mar 24 Dur yrs Previous Yr ago
Natural Gas† Mar 2.52 0.01 Cocoa (ICE Liffe)X May 1724.00 5.00 UK 1.875%' 22 109.32 -3.518 -3.518 0.01 15.74 773621.56 30
Ethanol♦ - - Cocoa (ICE US)♥ May 2442.00 -4.00 New Zealand 04/25 2.75 108.26 0.68 -0.09 -0.16 -0.02 0.12 Up to 5 yrs -2.88 3.07 -3.04 -2.25 -3.24 3.08 -3.27 -2.70
UK 2.50%' 24 356.64 -3.156 -3.156 0.37 6.82 773621.56 30
Uranium† - - Coffee(Robusta)X May 1366.00 -12.00 05/31 1.50 98.17 1.70 -0.07 -0.07 0.06 0.50 Over 5 yrs -2.12 23.99 -2.11 -1.98 -2.15 24.05 -2.12 -1.99
UK 2.00%' 35 288.72 -2.398 -2.398 0.87 9.08 773621.56 30
Carbon Emissions‡ - - Coffee (Arabica)♥ May 128.20 0.65 05/31 1.50 98.17 1.70 -0.07 -0.07 0.06 0.50 5-15 yrs -2.53 9.63 -2.55 -2.35 -2.64 9.64 -2.62 -2.41
US 0.625%' 23 106.31 -2.344 -2.344 0.53 47.03 1628703.02 44
White SugarX 449.50 8.20 Norway 08/30 1.38 99.92 1.38 -0.02 0.00 0.05 0.40 Over 15 yrs -2.07 28.77 -2.06 -1.94 -2.09 28.79 -2.06 -1.94
Diesel† - - US 3.625%' 28 135.14 -1.140 -1.140 0.69 16.78 1628703.02 44
Sugar 11♥ 15.38 -0.05 08/30 1.38 99.92 1.38 -0.02 0.00 0.05 0.40 All stocks -2.13 21.71 -2.12 -1.99 -2.17 21.80 -2.14 -2.00
Base Metals (♠ LME 3 Months) Representative stocks from each major market Source: Merill Lynch Global Bond Indices † Local currencies. ‡ Total market
Aluminium 2253.00 39.00 Cotton♥ May 82.65 -0.84 Portugal 10/22 2.20 104.57 -0.70 0.01 0.00 -0.06 -0.71 See FTSE website for more details www.ftse.com/products/indices/gilts
value. In line with market convention, for UK Gilts inflation factor is applied to price, for other markets it is applied to par
Aluminium Alloy 2209.50 -13.00 Orange Juice♥ May 110.75 -0.85 02/26 3.30 117.96 -0.31 -0.04 -0.05 -0.10 -0.87 ©2018 Tradeweb Markets LLC. All rights reserved. The Tradeweb FTSE
amount.
Copper 8893.00 22.00 Palm Oil♣ - - Spain 10/22 0.45 101.62 -0.55 -0.02 -0.02 -0.06 -0.52 Gilt Closing Prices information contained herein is proprietary to
Lead 1940.00 -11.00 Live Cattle♣ Apr 119.05 0.40 BONDS: TEN YEAR GOVT SPREADS 11/30 1.00 121.10 -1.06 -0.03 0.02 -0.24 -1.50 Tradeweb; may not be copied or re-distributed; is not warranted to be
Nickel 16165.00 120.00 Feeder Cattle♣ Apr 134.88 - Sweden 06/22 0.25 110.55 -1.17 0.00 -0.02 0.15 -0.04 accurate, complete or timely; and does not constitute investment advice.
Tin 25310.00 -295.00 Lean Hogs♣ Apr 96.53 1.53 Spread Spread Spread Spread 06/26 0.13 118.24 -1.64 -0.01 0.03 0.08 -0.46 Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that might result from the use of this information.
Zinc 2792.00 -24.00 Bid vs vs Bid vs vs 06/30 0.13 116.18 -1.44 -0.02 0.05 0.16 -0.30
% Chg % Chg Yield Bund T-Bonds Yield Bund T-Bonds Switzerland 05/22 2.00 103.28 -0.79 0.00 -0.02 0.00 0.01 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. All elements listed are indicative and believed accurate
Precious Metals (PM London Fix)
Gold 1726.20 -9.95 Mar 23 Month Year 05/30 0.50 108.12 -0.37 -0.03 -0.02 -0.05 -0.02 at the time of publication. No offer is made by Morningstar, its suppliers, or the FT. Neither the FT, nor
Australia 1.84 - - Netherlands -0.60 - -
Silver (US cents) 2562.00 -12.00 S&P GSCI Spt 471.65 -3.64 74.26 United Kingdom - - - - - - - Morningstar’s suppliers, warrant or guarantee that the information is reliable or complete. Neither the FT nor
Austria - - - New Zealand 1.70 - -
Platinum 1186.00 3.00 DJ UBS Spot 84.10 -4.02 31.83 Canada 1.42 - - Norway 1.38 - - 07/23 0.75 101.63 0.05 -0.03 -0.05 0.01 -0.06 Morningstar’s suppliers accept responsibility and will not be liable for any loss arising from the reliance on the
Palladium 2643.00 1.00 TR/CC CRB TR 198.69 -4.19 46.02 Denmark -1.59 - - Portugal -0.31 - - 07/26 1.50 106.06 0.35 -0.04 -0.03 0.06 0.19 use of the listed information. For all queries e-mail ft.reader.enquiries@morningstar.com
Bulk Commodities M Lynch MLCX Ex. Rtn 231.14 -9.84 -33.05 Finland -0.15 - - Spain -1.06 - - 07/47 1.50 104.78 1.29 -0.06 -0.02 -0.02 0.52
Iron Ore 159.55 -0.95 UBS Bberg CMCI TR 13.20 4.85 -4.74 Germany - - - Sweden -1.44 - - United States 03/22 0.38 100.30 0.08 0.00 -0.03 0.00 - Data provided by Morningstar | www.morningstar.co.uk
GlobalCOAL RB Index 100.00 0.25 LEBA EUA Carbon 41.10 8.04 43.66 Ireland -0.15 - - Switzerland -0.37 - - 03/27 0.63 97.19 1.11 -0.03 0.01 0.28 -
Baltic Dry Index 2194.00 -77.00 LEBA CER Carbon 0.29 0.00 52.63 Italy -0.55 - - United Kingdom - - - 04/32 3.38 146.46 - - - - -
LEBA UK Power 2439.00 18.28 95.12 Japan 0.22 - - United States - - - 02/50 0.25 105.67 0.05 -0.03 -0.09 -0.01 -0.35
Sources: † NYMEX, ‡ ECX/ICE, ♦ CBOT, X ICE Liffe, ♥ ICE Futures, ♣ CME, ♠ LME/London Metal Exchange.* Latest prices, $ Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company. Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company.
unless otherwise stated.
14 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

MANAGED FUNDS SERVICE

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Rubrics Global Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 180.00 - 0.01 0.00 Data Provided by

Aberdeen Standard Capital

PO Box 189, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 9RU 01534 709130
FCA Recognised
Aberdeen Standard Capital Offshore Strategy Fund Limited
Bridge Fund
Global Equity Fund
Global Fixed Interest Fund
Income Fund
Sterling Fixed Interest Fund
UK Equity Fund
Aegon Asset Management UK ICVC
3 Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9SA
0800 358 3009 www.aegonam.com
Authorised Funds
Global Equity GBP B Acc
Aegon Asset Management Investment Company (Ireland) (IRL)
1 North Wall Quay Dublin 1, Ireland +35 3162 24493
FCA Recognised
Absolute Return Bond B GBP Acc 1164.00 -
High Yield Global Bond A GBP Inc
High Yield Global Bond B GBP Inc
Global Equity Income B GBP Acc
Global Equity Income B GBP Inc
lobal Equity Market Neutral Fund - B Acc GBP £ 12.31
Global Sustainable Equity B Acc GBP £ 27.93
Global Sustainable Equity C Acc GBP £ 28.35
Inv Grd Gbl Bond A Inc GBH
Short Dated High Yld Bd B Acc GBP £ 11.17
Short Dated High Yld Bd C Acc GBP (Hdg) £ 11.28
Strategic Global Bond A GBP Inc
Strategic Global Bond B GBP Inc
Algebris Investments
Regulated
Algebris Financial Credit I EUR
Algebris Financial Credit R EUR
Algebris Financial Credit Rd EUR € 110.29
Algebris Financial Income I EUR
Algebris Financial Income R EUR € 156.54
Algebris Financial Income Rd EUR € 102.59
Algebris Financial Equity B EUR
Algebris IG Financial Credit B EUR € 110.32
Algebris IG Financial Credit R EUR € 109.33
Algebris Global Credit Opportunities I EUR € 131.97
Algebris Global Credit Opportunities R EUR € 129.84
Algebris Global Credit Opportunities Rd EUR € 129.84
Algebris Core Italy I EUR
Algebris Core Italy R EUR
Algebris Allocation I EUR
The Antares European Fund Limited
Other International
AEF Ltd Usd
AEF Ltd Eur
Arisaig Partners
(JER) Genesis Investment Management LLP
Other International Funds
Slater
£ 2.2216 - 0.0013 1.44
Emerging Mkts NAV £ 7.21 - -0.16 1.34
Investments www.morningstar.co.uk
Data as shown is for information purposes only. No
offer is made by Morningstar or this publication.
£ 3.1882 - 0.0011 0.89
£ 0.9629 - 0.0012 4.39
£ 0.6477 - 0.0011 -
£ 0.8921
£ 2.0380
-
-
0.0034 2.91
-0.0085 2.13
Guide to Data
Ashmore Investment Management Limited (LUX) Dragon Capital HPB Assurance Ltd New Capital UCITS Fund PLC (IRL) Polar Capital Funds Plc (IRL)
2 rue Albert Borschette L-1246 Luxembourg www.dragoncapital.com Anglo Intl House, Bank Hill, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 4LN 01638 563490 Leconfield House, Curzon Street, London, W1J 5JB Regulated The fund prices quoted on these pages are supplied by
Slater Investments Ltd (UK)
FCA Recognised Fund information:info@dragoncapital.com www.newcapitalfunds.com the operator of the relevant fund. Details of funds
International Insurances Automation & Artificial Intelligence CL I USD Acc $ 17.64 17.64 -0.17 0.00 www.slaterinvestments.com; Tel: 0207 220 9460
published on these pages, including prices, are for the
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Debt Fund $ 88.27 - 0.17 4.44 Other International Funds Holiday Property Bond Ser 1 £ 0.49 - 0.01 0.00 FCA Recognised Asian Financials I USD $ 488.25 488.25 0.08 0.00 FCA Recognised purpose of information only and should only be used
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Frontier Equity Fund $ 172.61 - -0.95 0.49 Vietnam Equity (UCITS) Fund A USD $ 27.97 - -0.53 0.00 Holiday Property Bond Ser 2 £ 0.63 - 0.01 0.00 New Capital UCITS Funds Biotechnology I USD $ 40.03 40.03 -1.16 0.00 Slater Growth 729.56 729.56 0.11 0.00 as a guide. The Financial Times Limited makes no
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Total Return Fund $ 78.09 - -0.06 3.86 New Capital China Equity Fund $ 285.99 - -5.39 - Emerging Market Stars I USD Acc $ 15.39 - -0.12 0.00 Slater Income A Inc 137.88 137.88 -0.14 5.22 representation as to their accuracy or completeness
and they should not be relied upon when making an
Ashmore SICAV Global Small Cap Equity Fund $ 232.74 - -3.72 0.00 New Capital Dynamic European Equity Fund € 133.55 - -0.07 - European Ex UK Inc EUR Acc € 12.20 12.20 0.02 0.00 Slater Recovery 345.50 345.50 -0.94 0.00
investment decision.
(UK) EM Active Equity Fund Acc USD $ 168.56 - -2.28 - New Capital Dynamic UK Equity Fund £ 117.07 - -0.70 - Financial Opps I USD $ 15.24 - -0.19 1.55 Slater Artorius 316.57 316.57 0.06 -
EM Equity Fund Acc USD $ 155.72 - -2.64 - New Capital Global Alpha Fund £ 117.41 - -0.12 0.00 GEM Income I USD $ 13.92 - -0.13 - The sale of interests in the funds listed on these pages
New Capital Global Equity Conviction Fund $ 210.87 - -1.43 - may, in certain jurisdictions, be restricted by law and
EM Mkts Corp.Debt USD F $ 91.35 - 0.03 4.98 Global Convertible I USD $ 16.99 16.99 -0.16 0.00
the funds will not necessarily be available to persons
EM Mkts Loc.Ccy Bd USD F $ 73.96 - -0.37 - New Capital Global Value Credit Fund $ 161.01 - 0.21 - Global Insurance I GBP £ 7.26 - 0.03 0.00 in all jurisdictions in which the publication circulates.
£ 3.16 - -0.04 -
EM Short Duration Fund Acc USD $ 120.68 - -0.08 0.00 New Capital Japan Equity Fund ¥ 1754.26 - -18.60 - Global Technology I USD $ 85.85 - -0.93 0.00 Persons in any doubt should take appropriate
Ennismore Smaller Cos Plc (IRL) Janus Henderson Investors (UK) New Capital US Growth Fund $ 443.58 - -4.20 0.00 professional advice. Data collated by Morningstar. For
Healthcare Blue Chip Fund I USD Acc $ 16.32 16.32 -0.26 0.00
5 Kensington Church St, London W8 4LD 020 7368 4220 other queries contact reader.enquiries@ft.com +44
PO Box 9023, Chelmsford, CM99 2WB Enquiries: 0800 832 832 New Capital US Small Cap Growth Fund $ 239.87 - -8.49 0.00 Healthcare Opps I USD $ 63.61 - -1.22 0.00 (0)207 873 4211.
FCA Recognised www.janushenderson.com New Capital Wealthy Nations Bond Fund $ 152.31 - 0.23 0.00 Income Opportunities B2 I GBP Acc £ 2.51 2.51 -0.01 0.00
Ennismore European Smlr Cos NAV £ 134.74 - -0.60 0.00 Authorised Inv Funds The fund prices published in this edition along with
Japan Value I JPY ¥ 127.04 127.04 -2.55 0.00
Ennismore European Smlr Cos NAV € 156.53 - -0.62 0.00 Janus Henderson Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc £ 0.99 - -0.01 - additional information are also available on the
North American I USD $ 33.67 33.67 -0.42 0.00 Financial Times website, www.ft.com/funds. The
UK Val Opp I GBP Acc £ 12.75 12.75 -0.04 0.00 funds published on these pages are grouped together
by fund management company.
Atlantas Sicav (LUX)
Regulated Prices are in pence unless otherwise indicated. The
change, if shown, is the change on the previously
American Dynamic $ 7183.90 7183.90 -85.55 - quoted figure (not all funds update prices daily). Those
American One $ 6688.37 6688.37 -54.48 0.00 designated $ with no prefix refer to US dollars. Yield
Bond Global € 1513.11 1513.11 -2.14 - percentage figures (in Tuesday to Saturday papers)
Ennismore European Smlr Cos Hedge Fd M & G Securities (1200)F (UK) allow for buying expenses. Prices of certain older
Eurocroissance € 1296.50 1296.50 7.98 -
PO Box 9038, Chelmsford, CM99 2XF insurance linked plans might be subject to capital
Far East $ 1309.91 - -11.27 - Other International Funds
www.mandg.co.uk/charities Enq./Dealing: 0800 917 4472 Polar Capital LLP (CYM) Stonehage Fleming Investment Management Ltd (IRL) gains tax on sales.
NAV € 561.54 - 7.28 0.00 Regulated www.stonehagefleming.com/gbi
Authorised Inv Funds Guide to pricing of Authorised Investment Funds:
European Forager A EUR € 190.85 - 0.26 0.00 enquiries@stonehagefleming.com
M&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Inc £ 1.24 - 0.00 - (compiled with the assistance of the IMA. The
Regulated
M&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Acc £ 42.67 - 0.03 - Investment Management Association, 65 Kingsway,
SF Global Best Ideas Eq B USD ACC $ 245.33 - 0.12 0.00 London WC2B 6TD.
M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Inc £ 0.85 - 0.00 -
SF Global Best Ideas Eq D GBP INC £ 269.87 - 1.34 0.00 Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 0898.)
M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Acc £ 94.98 - -0.25 -
0.72 1.61 OEIC: Open-Ended Investment Company. Similar to a
513.98 - 0.28 4.49 Oasis Crescent Management Company Ltd unit trust but using a company rather than a trust
Other International Funds structure.
1102.59 - 0.63 5.23
Euronova Asset Management UK LLP (CYM)
Oasis Crescent Equity Fund R 11.78 - 0.02 0.20
2166.91 - -6.98 0.00 Regulated Different share classes are issued to reflect a different
Private Fund Mgrs (Guernsey) Ltd (GSY) currency, charging structure or type of holder.
1455.44 - -8.32 3.19 Smaller Cos Cls One Shares € 57.39 - 0.51 0.00 Regulated
- -0.04 0.00 Smaller Cos Cls Two Shares € 37.27 - 0.30 0.00 Selling price: Also called bid price. The price at which
Monument Growth 23/03/2021 £ 511.79 517.31 -3.64 -
- -0.36 - Smaller Cos Cls Three Shares € 18.78 - 0.15 0.00 units in a unit trust are sold by investors.
- -0.37 - Smaller Cos Cls Four Shares € 24.19 - 0.20 0.00 MMIP Investment Management Limited (GSY)
Regulated Buying price: Also called offer price. The price at
606.49 - 0.49 1.81
which units in a unit trust are bought by investors.
- 0.01 0.00 Multi-Manager Investment Programmes PCC Limited
Includes manager’s initial charge.
- 0.00 0.00 UK Equity Fd Cl A Series 01 £ 2829.27 2863.47 166.38 0.00
1316.60 - 1.50 2.70 Diversified Absolute Rtn Fd USD Cl AF2 $ 1759.19 - 88.33 0.00 OGM Oasis Crescent Global Investment Funds (UK) ICVC (UK) Single price: Based on a mid-market valuation of the
Brooks Macdonald International Fund Managers Limited (JER) Diversified Absolute Return Stlg Cell AF2 £ 1646.89 - 80.30 0.00 Regulated underlying investments. The buying and selling price
747.35 - 0.87 3.45 5 Anley Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 3QE for shares of an OEIC and units of a single priced unit
Global Equity Fund A Lead Series £ 1665.84 1670.94 49.44 0.00 OGM Oasis Crescent Global Short Term Income Fund USD Class A Shares (Dist) $ 0.99 - 0.00 1.74
+44 (0) 1534 700 104 (Int.) +44 (0) 800 735 8000 (UK) Prusik Investment Management LLP (IRL) trust are the same.
OGM Oasis Crescent Global Equity Fund USD Class A Shares (Dist) $ 37.06 - -0.21 0.25
Brooks Macdonald International Investment Funds Limited OGM Oasis Crescent Variable Fund GBP Class A Shares (Dist) £ 9.81 - 0.00 0.01 Enquiries - 0207 493 1331
Treatment of manager’s periodic capital charge:
Euro High Income € 1.5337 - 0.0016 2.50 FIL Investment Services (UK) Limited (1200)F (UK) OGM Oasis Crescent Global Income Fund USD Class A Shares (Dist) $ 11.04 - 0.01 2.48
Regulated The letter C denotes that the trust deducts all or part
Beech Gate, Millfield Lane, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, KT20 6RP Prusik Asian Equity Income B Dist $ 188.50 - -2.95 4.15 of the manager’s/operator’s periodic charge from
High Income £ 0.8503 - 0.0028 3.77 OGM Oasis Crescent Global Low Equity Fund USD Class D Shares (Dist) $ 12.97 - -0.03 0.68 Toscafund Asset Management LLP (UK)
Callfree: Private Clients 0800 414161 Prusik Asia Emerging Opportunities Fund A Acc $ 193.18 - -2.79 - www.toscafund.com capital, contact the manager/operator for full details
Sterling Bond £ 1.5738 - 0.0060 2.06 OGM Oasis Crescent Global Medium Equity Fund USD Class A Shares (Dist) $ 14.30 - -0.05 0.18
Broker Dealings: 0800 414 181 of the effect of this course of action.
Prusik Asia Fund U Dist. £ 231.81 - -3.02 0.00 Authorised Funds
Brooks Macdonald International Multi Strategy Fund Limited OGM Oasis Crescent Global Property Equity Fund USD Class A Shares (Dist) $ 8.50 - -0.04 1.19
OEIC Funds Aptus Global Financials B Acc £ 4.27 - 0.01 3.86
Cautious Balanced Strategy £ 1.3522 - -0.0005 0.00 Exit Charges: The letter E denotes that an exit charge
Fidelity American Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 53.81 - -0.10 - Aptus Global Financials B Inc £ 2.94 - 0.01 5.03 may be made when you sell units, contact the
Growth Strategy £ 1.9975 - -0.0050 0.00
Fidelity Cash Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 1.02 - 0.00 0.66 Marwyn Asset Management Limited (CYM) manager/operator for full details.
High Growth Strategy £ 2.7817 - -0.0118 0.00 Regulated
FID Emerg Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 2.60 - 0.01 3.75
US$ Growth Strategy $ 1.9842 - -0.0149 0.00 Marwyn Value Investors £ 329.72 - -6.14 0.00 Time: Some funds give information about the timing of
Fidelity Global Enhanced Income Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 2.07 - 0.00 - price quotes. The time shown alongside the fund
Dealing Daily. Initial charge up to 2%
Fidelity Global Focus Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 34.56 - -0.51 - manager’s/operator’s name is the valuation point for
Fidelity Global High Yield Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 15.70 - -0.05 3.57 their unit trusts/OEICs, unless another time is
indicated by the symbol alongside the individual unit
Fidelity Japan Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 5.37 - -0.10 - Purisima Investment Fds (CI) Ltd (JER)
Omnia Fund Ltd trust/OEIC name.
Fidelity Japan Smaller Companies Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 4.10 - -0.06 0.36 Regulated
Other International Funds
Fidelity Select 50 Balanced Fund PI-ACC-GBP £ 1.16 - 0.00 - PCG B 301.86 - 3.28 0.00 Toscafund Asset Management LLP The symbols are as follows: ✠ 0001 to 1100 hours; ♦
Estimated NAV $ 631.95 - -5.25 0.00 1101 to 1400 hours; ▲1401 to 1700 hours; # 1701 to
Fidelity Special Situations Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 37.21 - -0.10 - PCG C 294.75 - 3.20 0.00 www.toscafund.com
midnight. Daily dealing prices are set on the basis of
(IRL) Short Dated Corporate Bond Fund Y ACC GBP £ 11.11 - 0.01 3.85 Tosca A USD $ 377.23 - 34.90 0.00
the valuation point, a short period of time may elapse
Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Acc £ 1.11 - -0.01 - Tosca Mid Cap GBP £ 244.37 - 36.89 0.00 before prices become available. Historic pricing: The
CCLA Investment Management Ltd (UK)
€ 190.62 - 0.19 0.00 Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Inc £ 1.11 - 0.00 - Tosca Opportunity B USD $ 372.43 - 56.30 0.00 letter H denotes that the managers/operators will
Senator House 85 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4ET
Pegasus Fund Ltd A-1 GBP £ 57.89 - 8.63 0.00 normally deal on the price set at the most recent
€ 165.63 - 0.17 0.00 Authorised Inv Funds Fidelity UK Growth Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.34 - -0.05 -
valuation. The prices shown are the latest available
- 0.11 4.76 Diversified Income 1 Units GBP Inc £ 1.54 1.54 0.00 - Fidelity UK Select Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.29 - -0.01 - before publication and may not be the current dealing
€ 169.41 - -1.64 - Diversified Income 2 Units GBP Inc £ 1.49 1.49 0.01 - Institutional OEIC Funds levels because of an intervening portfolio revaluation
- -1.52 - or a switch to a forward pricing basis. The
Diversified Income 3 Units GBP Inc £ 1.49 1.49 0.00 - Europe (ex-UK) Fund ACC-GBP £ 7.04 - 0.01 -
Oryx International Growth Fund Ltd managers/operators must deal at a forward price on
- -1.01 - request, and may move to forward pricing at any time.
Other International Funds
€ 130.70 - -1.38 0.00 Forward pricing: The letter F denotes that that
NAV (Fully Diluted) £ 9.10 - -0.52 0.00 managers/operators deal at the price to be set at the
- 0.27 0.00
next valuation.
- 0.26 0.00
- -0.18 0.00
Milltrust International Managed Investments ICAV (IRL) Troy Asset Mgt (1200) (UK) Investors can be given no definite price in advance of
mimi@milltrust.com, +44(0)20 8123 8316 www.milltrust.com 65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ
- -0.18 0.00 the purchase or sale being carried out. The prices
Regulated Order Desk and Enquiries: 0345 608 0950 appearing in the newspaper are the most recent
- -0.18 0.00
British Innovation Fund £ 121.92 - 2.89 0.00 Authorised Inv Funds provided by the managers/operators. Scheme
€ 140.05 - 0.04 0.00 CG Asset Management Limited (IRL) Findlay Park Funds Plc (IRL)
MAI - Buy & Lease (Australia) A$ 102.95 - -0.80 0.00 particulars, prospectus, key features and reports: The
Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions
€ 129.86 - 0.00 0.00 25 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AY 30 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Tel: 020 7968 4900 most recent particulars and documents may be
MAI - Buy & Lease (New Zealand)NZ$ 97.26 - -0.02 0.00 Trojan Investment Funds
€ 109.32 - -0.05 0.00 Dealing: Tel. +353 1434 5098 Fax. +353 1542 2859 FCA Recognised obtained free of charge from fund
FCA Recognised Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund - Class A $ 121.97 - 0.14 0.00 managers/operators. * Indicates funds which do not
American EUR Unhedged Class € 137.64 - 0.55 - Ram Active Investments SA Trojan Ethical O Acc 118.00 - 0.03 0.07
The Climate Impact Asia Fund (Class A) $ 141.00 - 2.59 0.00 price on Fridays.
CG Portfolio Fund Plc American Fund USD Class $ 163.40 - -0.17 0.00 www.ram-ai.com Trojan Ethical O Inc 117.77 - 0.03 0.06
Absolute Return Cls M Inc £ 131.81 131.81 0.41 1.36 American Fund GBP Hedged £ 82.22 - -0.09 0.00 Other International Funds Charges for this advertising service are based on the
Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP P £ 36324.84 36324.84 111.23 0.85 American Fund GBP Unhedged £ 118.46 - 0.41 0.00 RAM Systematic Emerg Markets Eq $ 232.10 232.10 -2.18 - number of lines published and the classification of the
RAM Systematic European Eq € 513.46 513.46 -2.05 - fund. Please contact data@ft.com or
Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP V £ 176.66 176.66 0.54 0.85
call +44 (0)20 7873 3132 for further information.
Dollar Fund Cls D Inc £ 161.52 161.52 1.15 1.53 RAM Systematic Funds Global Sustainable Income Eq $ 143.71 143.71 -1.74 0.00
Dollar Hedged GBP Inc £ 104.31 104.31 0.27 1.34 RAM Systematic Global Eq Sustainable Alpha $ 107.26 107.26 -0.19 -
Real Return Cls A Inc £ 197.97 197.97 1.10 1.71 RAM Systematic Long/Short European Eq € 136.52 136.52 -0.20 -
RAM Systematic US Sustainable Eq $ 368.60 368.60 -2.97 -
Milltrust International Managed Investments SPC RAM Tactical Global Bond Total Return € 154.32 154.32 0.05 -
$ 560.24 - 7.57 0.00 WA Fixed Income Fund Plc (IRL)
em@milltrust.com, +44(0)20 8123 8316, www.milltrust.com
Orbis Investments (U.K.) Limited (GBR) RAM Tactical II Asia Bond Total Return $ 156.07 156.07 0.19 - Regulated
€ 522.76 - 7.05 0.00 Regulated 28 Dorset Square, London, NW1 6QG European Multi-Sector € 120.10 - 0.35 3.23
Foord Asset Management Milltrust Alaska Brazil SP A $ 71.23 - -1.18 0.00
Website: www.foord.com - Email: info@foord.com www.orbis.com 0800 358 2030
Milltrust Laurium Africa SP A $ 105.93 - -2.33 0.00 Regulated
FCA Recognised - Luxembourg UCITS
Milltrust Marcellus India Fund $ 123.64 - 1.18 - Orbis OEIC Global Cautious Standard £ 10.59 - -0.01 -
Foord International Fund | R $ 46.93 - -0.41 -
Milltrust Singular ASEAN SP Founders $ 169.55 - -2.15 0.00 Orbis OEIC Global Balanced Standard £ 16.29 - -0.09 -
Chartered Asset Management Pte Ltd Foord Global Equity Fund (Lux) | R $ 18.46 - -0.21 -
Milltrust SPARX Korea Equity SP A $ 163.58 - -2.21 0.00 Orbis OEIC Global Equity Standard £ 20.60 - -0.11 -
Other International Funds Regulated
Milltrust VTB Russia Fund SP $ 123.93 - -3.84 - Orbis OEIC UK Equity Standard £ 9.21 - -0.05 2.82
CAM-GTF Limited $ 342360.92 342360.92 2140.80 - Foord Global Equity Fund (Sing) | B $ 22.63 - -0.26 - Milltrust Xingtai China SP A $ 151.94 - -2.42 -
CAM GTi VCC $ 780.49 - -32.39 - Foord International Trust (Gsy) $ 46.76 - -0.40 0.00 Ruffer LLP (1000)F (UK)

Other International Funds RAIC VCC $ 1.64 1.64 0.03 2.06 65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ Zadig Gestion (Memnon Fund) (LUX)
Order Desk and Enquiries: 0345 601 9610 FCA Recognised
Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Class A (Ex-Alcohol) shares $ 123.86 - -0.63 0.00 Authorised Inv Funds Memnon European Fund - Class U2 GBP £ 203.59 - -0.79 -
Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Limited $ 122.71 - -0.69 0.00 Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer Fund $ 16.37 - -0.20 0.00
LF Ruffer European C Acc 894.47 - -6.06 0.05
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS € 12.85 - -0.01 -
LF Ruffer European C Inc 163.23 - -1.10 -
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS STG £ 14.50 - -0.10 -
LF Ruffer European O Acc 871.60 - -5.96 0.00
Arisaig Latin America Consumer Fund $ 27.11 - -0.02 0.00 Mirabaud Asset Management (LUX)
LF Ruffer Equity & General C Acc 523.94 - -2.35 0.17
Franklin Templeton International Services Sarl (IRL) www.mirabaud.com, marketing@mirabaud-am.com
JPMorgan House - International Financial Services Centre,Dublin 1, Ireland LF Ruffer Equity & General C Inc 479.17 - -2.15 0.17
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds (IRL) Conviction based investment vehicles details available here www.mirabaud-am.com
48-49 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JG. Other International Funds LF Ruffer Equity & General O Acc 510.58 - -2.32 0.00
Regulated
www.dodgeandcox.worldwide.com 020 3713 7664 Franklin Emerging Market Debt Opportunities Fund Plc Mir. - Glb Strat. Bd I USD $ 121.95 - 0.07 0.00 LF Ruffer Equity & General O Inc 472.71 - -2.15 0.00
FCA Recognised Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp CHFSFr 14.77 - 0.04 9.01 Mir. - DiscEur D Cap GBP £ 189.72 - -1.80 - LF Ruffer Gold C Acc 264.75 - -6.92 0.00
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc - Global Bond Fund Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp GBP £ 9.48 - 0.02 6.04 LF Ruffer Gold C Inc 160.24 - -4.18 -
EUR Accumulating Class € 15.11 - 0.09 - Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp SGD S$ 20.82 - 0.03 4.33 LF Ruffer Gold O Acc 257.90 - -6.75 0.00
EUR Accumulating Class (H) € 11.46 - -0.01 0.00 Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp USD $ 16.70 - -0.01 6.17 LF Ruffer Japanese C Inc 172.34 - -4.06 -
Artemis Fund Managers Ltd (1200)F (UK)
EUR Distributing Class € 11.77 - 0.08 - LF Ruffer Japanese C Acc 370.34 - -8.72 0.08
57 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1LD 0800 092 2051
EUR Distributing Class (H) € 8.87 - -0.01 3.46 Platinum Capital Management Ltd LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Acc 394.71 - -0.62 0.79
Authorised Inv Funds
GBP Distributing Class £ 12.38 - 0.09 - Other International Funds LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Inc 107.50 - -0.17 -
Artemis Corporate Bond I Acc £ 1.11 - 0.00 2.14
GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 9.37 - -0.01 3.47 Platinum All Star Fund - A $ 146.55 - - - LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets O Acc 384.28 - -0.62 0.50
Artemis Target Return Bond I Acc £ 1.07 - 0.00 1.97
USD Accumulating Class $ 12.92 - -0.01 - Platinum Global Growth UCITS Fund $ 13.62 - 0.17 - LF Ruffer Total Return C Acc 539.11 - -3.65 0.78
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-Global Stock Fund Platinum Essential Resources UCITS Fund SICAV USD Class E $ 8.51 - -0.07 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return C Inc 347.81 - -2.35 0.79
Platinum Global Dividend UCITS Fund $ 55.34 - 0.38 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return O Acc 525.31 - -3.59 0.78
USD Accumulating Share Class $ 27.61 - -0.47 -
GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 33.04 - -0.29 - GAM LF Ruffer Total Return O Inc 338.71 - -2.32 0.79
GBP Distributing Share class £ 22.75 - -0.20 - funds@gam.com, www.funds.gam.com
EUR Accumulating Share Class € 35.00 - -0.33 - Regulated
LAPIS GBL TOP 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 105.01 - -0.22 3.25
GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 13.39 - -0.22 0.44
LAPIS GBL F OWD 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 104.15 - -0.25 0.71
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-U.S. Stock Fund
USD Accumulating Share Class $ 35.10 - -0.67 0.00
GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 39.72 - -0.43 0.00
GBP Distributing Share Class £ 24.13 - -0.26 -
EUR Accumulating Share Class € 38.42 - -0.44 0.00
Rubrics Global UCITS Funds Plc (IRL)
www.rubricsam.com
GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 14.47 - -0.27 0.87
Regulated
Thursday 25 March 2021 ★ 15
16
Stark romance of fossils and bare feet
FILM
Danny
Leigh
F
ashions move on, a character
says with some edge to their
voice in the stark 19th-century
romance Ammonite. The
film’s director Francis Lee
would agree. In 2017, his debut God’s
Own Country became — in the miniature
world of critics and festivals — a sensa-
tion, a wrenching tale of gay sexuality
set in rural northern England. Now,
even with a pair of movie stars — Kate
Winslet and Saoirse Ronan — his
follow-up finds itself less loved, mostly
shut out of the glow of awards season. If
only prizes didn’t matter so much to the
industry it would be the kind of film that
would prefer it that way, sneering at the
tuxedos, a pointed celebration of raw
natural light, rough plaster walls, respi-
ratory ill-health and grey Dorset mud
oozing into your shoes.
Winslet plays Mary Anning, the real-
life pioneer fossil hunter. The ichthyo-
saur skeleton she unearthed at the age
of 12 now sits in London’s Natural His-
tory Museum. The record of her own
background is spotty by comparison.
The film fills in the blanks with plentiful
creative licence: notably, a central
lesbian relationship. That speculation
has caused controversy, although less
than the British press might have liked
(a single distant Anning niece expressed
mild unease).
Whatever else, this version of Anning
makes sense as a product of her envi-
ronment, the west country resort town
of Lyme Regis elementally off season.
(Come for the cream teas, stay for the
gales whipping bullets of shingle in off
the beach.) Here she gets by — barely —
selling seashell tat to tourists, living in
the back of a cramped little shop with
her ailing mother. Of course, as she is a
woman, the Geological Society of
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
London has no place for her. Yet her rep-
utation is enough that gentlemen ama-
teurs arrive to seek her guidance. She
scowls, as would you.
The terse displeasure Winslet essays
through the film is its own natural won-
der. (Only sometimes can you spot how
much the actor is enjoying herself.) For
Anning, most things post-prehistory
have proved a disappointment.
The exception might be Charlotte
Murchison (Ronan), another figure
plucked from real life. At first she seems
so frail as to be doomed, the delicate tro-
phy wife of a wealthy husband who
commits her to learning a hobby from
the famed Mary Anning. Half-glances
ARTS
Above: Saoirse Ronan and
Kate Winslet in
‘Ammonite’. Right: the
documentary ‘Tina’ tells
the story of Tina Turner,
pictured here in 1976
and glimpses of bare feet lead where
they will. Another film would threaten a
scandal. Lee is more interested in the
stuff of desire — what pulls couples
together and apart, how power shifts
between them.
Why make Ammonite a same-sex
romance? From here, the answer would
seem that each of its characters — soci-
ety belle and solitary outsider — looks at
the other and sees the woman they have
always wondered what it must feel like
to be. Quite the aphrodisiac.
But just a guess. If that’s the truth, it
goes unspoken. Like its version of
Anning — admirable but hard work —
Ammonite refuses to say much at all out
loud. Lee is not good with speeches. And
speeches, oddly, are what tend to win
prizes. Instead, his gift is the image that
now and then makes it all click into
place — the euphoric grin Winslet
breaks into with half the movie gone,
Ronan knocked sideways by churning
waves, a fine metaphor for the ferocity
of love. Amid the hoo-ha of awards sea-
son, such moments risk getting over-
looked. For what it’s worth, they last
longer over time.
On digital platforms from March 26
Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock was
published in 1938, although the figure
in a trilby we meet at the start of
Six Minutes to Midnight has clearly not
yet read the novel. It is a year later:
August 1939. Had our man kept pace
with literary landmarks, he would have
known better than to restage the book’s
cruel opening scene, fleeing in terror
from unknown assailants on to the pier
at Bexhill, a pleasant drive from gang-
land Brighton along the Sussex coast. As
Greene could have told him, nothing
good waits at the end of a pier. The hat is
last seen swept out to sea. In place of the
owner arrives a cast led by Eddie Izzard
and Judi Dench.
The rest of the movie is tied up with
war. The invasion of Poland is just a
month away, but hostilities may already
have broken out in a detached house on
the outskirts of town. This is the
Augusta Victoria College, a finishing
school for aristocratic German girls,
plucked from the stranger-than-fiction
file. The school was an actual fixture
in Bexhill until the last breath of
peacetime; its student roll included a
goddaughter of Himmler and Bettina
von Ribbentrop, daughter of the Nazi
foreign minister.
The script faces competition for the
intrigue of the audience. How it could
have taken British cinema — so exhaus-
tively fascinated by the second world
war — until now to get to such a tantalis-
ing nugget? The answer might be sug-
gested by the stodge of the results here.
Izzard is a diffident English teacher,
hired by headmistress Dench — each
soon key players in a Sunday afternoon
pastiche of Wrong Man thrills and spills,
filled with Whitehall code and dastardly
blighters. Director Andy Goddard
enjoys a queasy visual jolt. The Union
Jack and swastika paired on the college
badge come straight from history. Judi
Dench giving a “Sieg Heil” is all the film’s
own work.
On Sky Cinema and Now from March 26
Of course, you may blithely think, what
perfect timing for Tina, a definitive doc-
umentary portrait of singer Tina
Turner. After all, 2021 marks the 40th
anniversary of the first interview she
gave to expose the trauma she suffered
at the hands of ex-husband Ike Turner.
Now, in the wake of #MeToo, naming
her abuser looks not just a
personal watershed but a pivotal act of
heroism, an example for the future, a
woman publicly saying “Enough”.
Would that it had been. Instead,
rather than exorcising the horror,
Turner would spend decades to come
forced to relive it in interviews. Worse
yet what she felt that implied — that for
all her vast success, Ike Turner still
defined her.
Thursday 25 March 2021
Ammonite
Francis Lee
AAAAE
Six Minutes to Midnight
Andy Goddard
AAAEE
Tina
Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin
AAAAE
Stray
Elizabeth Lo
AAAAE
The welcome surprise of this not
uncandid film — made with Turner’s
involvement — is how openly it wrestles
with that Catch-22. It makes you look
with fresh eyes at the rest of her legacy.
Back in 1981, lacking a record deal and
playing hotel residencies, she resolved
as a black woman in her forties to re-
invent herself as a rock star, one as big as
The Rolling Stones. Then she did it. Old
tellings of the Turner story like Holly-
wood biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It
presented that second act almost as a
postscript, a pat happy ending. Here,
you boggle anew at how extraordinary it
really was.
On Sky Documentaries and Now from
March 28
There will be actors winning prizes at
this year’s Oscars with faces less expres-
sive than that of Zeytin, star of the bit-
tersweet Istanbul documentary Stray.
She is a scuffed golden dog of uncertain
age with some mixed-up trace of
retriever in her genes, a sinewy bruiser
of soulful bearing whose ease in the city
is such that at one point she simply takes
a nap in the road, inches from rush-hour
traffic. At no time do you fear for her
safety. You do worry for the film-maker
following her, the camera slung low
enough to put us on her level.
That camera belongs to director Eliz-
abeth Lo, on this evidence both a dare-
devil cinematographer and inspired
talent-spotter. Yet Zeytin is just one of a
trio of mutts at the heart of the film, only
three among untold comrades in an
Istanbul where homeless dogs have a
limbo-ish status. For a century it has
been illegal to kill or capture them — so
they endure in numbers, a half-starved
Greek chorus living among people but
cut off from the perks of domestication.
Others grow up leashed, of course.
The film is not above the slapstick of
Zeytin bumping into two pedigree yap-
pers in tiny orange rain jackets. More
often, Lo is privy to the pure pack
dynamic of strays, to nomadic wander-
ings and flashpoints over bones tossed
from garbage trucks.
In this dog’s-eye view, our own species
offers background noise — radio news of
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a muezzin’s call
to prayer. Among the Istanbul crowds,
the only humans the dogs seek out are a
gaggle of Syrian teenagers, refugees
from Aleppo afforded less compassion
on the streets than the animals. Stray
doesn’t editorialise, but lets us notice. It
treats us as if we were as smart as Zeytin.
Take that as a compliment.
On digital platforms from March 26
Left: Zeytin, the
star of ‘Stray’, a
documentary
that gives a
dog’s-eye view
of Istanbul.
Below: Judi
Dench in ‘Six
Minutes to
Midnight’
Thursday 25 March 2021
At a time of shortages and superpower competition over new technology, TSMC has become dominant
in chip production. The Taiwanese company aims to cement its lead in the most advanced components.
W
hen Li Ta-sen was a lit-
tle boy, he used to walk
to school through fields
of sugarcane taller than
himself. Some 40 years
later, he is making a living by selling off
the same fields as a property boom takes
hold in his hometown of Shanhua.
The reason for the construction
frenzy in the once shabby rural town in
southern Taiwan is simple: the arrival of
the world’s most advanced chip factory.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufactur-
ing Company, the largest contract chip-
maker in the world, is building a plant to
make 3 nanometre chips, semiconduc-
tors expected to be up to 70 per cent
faster and more power-efficient than
the most advanced in production now
and which will be used in devices from
smartphones to supercomputers.
“Prices for the adjacent agricultural
land tripled last year, and we had the
highest transaction volume in our 10-
year history,” says Li, who runs the local
branch of real estate broker Century 21,
and has watched TSMC engineers snap
up new apartments and town houses.
But the impact of TSMC’s new fabrica-
tion plant, or “fab”, radiates far beyond
southern Taiwan. In the world of
semiconductors, this is the centre of the
universe. The plant, due to start mass
production next year, will use process
technology which so far only TSMC and
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics have
mastered — at present, the most
advanced chips are 5nm. The new chips
bring huge advantages for customers:
the smaller the transistors on a chip, the
lower the energy consumption and
higher the speed.
Measuring 160,000 square metres,
the size of 22 football fields, the plant is
commensurate with TSMC itself: a hulk
with a stranglehold on global semi-
conductor manufacturing.
Normally a low-key company, TSMC’s
massive investment in cutting-edge
technology and growing influence are
quietly drawing it into the limelight.
At a time when a global chip shortage
has forced slowdowns or even suspen-
sions of car production from Japan to
Europe and America, and with politi-
cians in many countries making noises
about bringing more manufacturing
onshore, the Taiwanese company’s
dominant position in global chip pro-
duction is attracting attention.
Given that China retains a standing
threat of invasion of Taiwan, the coun-
try has long been at the centre of the
military rivalry between Washington
and Beijing in east Asia. But it is also
increasingly being caught up in the tech-
nological competition between the two
superpowers.
China’s companies have been unsuc-
cessful in their bid to match TSMC’s
manufacturing prowess, but the US has
also started to struggle: Intel is set to
outsource some production of proces-
sors, its crown jewel, to the Taiwanese
company. In Washington, the Pentagon
has been quietly pressing for the US to
invest more in advanced chipmaking, so
that its weapons are not dependent on
foreign manufacturers.
All of that makes TSMC possibly the
most important company in the world
that few people have heard of.
While many governments would love
to be able to mimic its success, they are
likely to find the costs of trying to match
TSMC prohibitive. And its customers
are beginning to realise they are not
dealing with a traditional supplier.
“The automakers believe they are the
giants in the world,” says Ambrose Con-
roy, chief executive of supply chain con-
sultancy Seraph. “But this is a situation
where the semiconductor manufactur-
ers are the giants, and the automotive
purchasing teams are the ants.”
Foundry victory
TSMC has long gone largely unnoticed
because the semiconductors it manu-
factures are designed and sold in prod-
ucts by branded vendors such as Apple,
AMD or Qualcomm. Yet the company
controls more than half of the world
market for made-to-order chips.
And it is getting more dominant with
every new process technology node:
while it only accounts for 40 to 65 per
cent of revenues in the 28-65nm cate-
gory, the nodes used for producing most
car chips, it has almost 90 per cent of the
market of the most advanced nodes cur-
rently in production.
“Yes, the industry is incredibly
dependent on TSMC, especially as you
get to the bleeding edge, and it is quite
risky,” says Peter Hanbury, a partner at
Bain & Company in San Francisco.
“Twenty years ago there were 20 foun-
dries, and now the most cutting-edge
stuff is sitting on a single campus in
Taiwan.”
Since every new node of process
technology requires more challenging
development and bigger investment in
new production capacity, other chip-
makers have over the years started
focusing on design and left production
FT BIG READ. MANUFACTURING
By Kathrin Hille
Conducting the global economy
$25bn-28bn
TSMC’s planned capital
investment this year — up to
63% more than in 2020 and
ahead of Intel and Samsung.
One analyst says Intel will
outsource 20% of its CPU
production to TSMC in 2023
3nm
Nodes in chips to be built at
Shenhua. Their transistor size is
just 1/20,000th of a human hair.
The most advanced chips
currently in production are 5nm
$20bn
Intel investment in two new
fabrication units in Arizona. It is
setting up a dedicated foundry
business
90%
TSMC’s share of the market for
the most advanced nodes
currently in production. it has
about 40-65% of revenues in
the 28-65nm category used
most in carmaking
TSMC is leading the way in advanced chip technology fabrication
Pure-play foundry revenue, 2020 (%)
TSMC Samsung Foundry GlobalFoundries
Total market size:
$19.3bn $15.8bn
>130 90nm-
nanometres 45nm
Source: Bain/IC Insights/Gartner
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
to dedicated foundries such as TSMC.
The steeper the cost became for new
fabrication units the more other chip-
makers started to outsource, and the
more TSMC’s competitors in the pure-
play foundry market dropped out.
This year, TSMC upped its forecast for
capital investment to a whopping
$25bn-28bn — potentially 63 per cent
more than in 2020 and putting it ahead
of both Intel and Samsung. Analysts
believe that includes at least some
investment in capacity the Taiwanese
manufacturer needs to supply Intel. The
US chipmaker is forced to outsource
part of its processor production because
it has struggled to master two successive
process technology nodes — 10nm and
7nm — in time to make its own chips.
Intel’s stumble on the second succes-
sive generation of manufacturing tech-
nology triggered a call from an activist
investor last year for the company to
abandon chip manufacturing by switch-
ing to a “fabless” business model, as so
many other chipmakers have done.
Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s new chief execu-
tive, rejects that idea. “Confidence in 7
nanometre is increasing,” he told inves-
tors and journalists on Tuesday. He said
the company was increasing its engage-
ment with TSMC and other foundries
and outsourcing the manufacturing of
some processors to TSMC.
Despite Gelsinger’s pledge to resur-
rect Intel’s manufacturing prowess, the
company needs TSMC at least for a
transition period in order to stop losing
market share for central processing
units — the heart of every computer and
server — to its rival AMD.
According to two people familiar with
TSMC and Intel, the US company has
had a team working with TSMC for more
than a year to prepare outsourced pro-
duction of CPUs at the new Tainan fabri-
cation plant. Mark Li, a chip industry
analyst at Bernstein, estimates that
Intel will outsource 20 per cent of its
CPU production to TSMC in 2023, and
the Taiwanese company needs to invest
about $10bn in capacity for that alone.
The prohibitive cost has made it
increasingly difficult for other compa-
nies to stay in the game of advanced chip
manufacturing. But as the Intel exam-
UMC SMIC Others
$19.7bn $21.1bn
100
80
60
40
20
0 the cost gap. In Japan, our investment is
32nm- 10nm-
12nm 5nm
ple shows, money is not the only factor.
Shrinking the size of transistors — the
key feature necessary for cramming
ever more components into one chip,
which in turn allows continued cost and
energy efficiency — is becoming a chal-
lenging feat of engineering.
The transistor size in a 3nm node is
just 1/20,000th of a human hair. The
tweaks to machinery and chemicals
needed to achieve this come more easily
with the single-minded focus on this
manufacturing technology, the large
scale and broad range of applications
that TSMC has developed.
Supply chain concerns
TSMC’s increasingly dominant position
in chip manufacturing is starting to
attract political attention. The shock
from the auto chip shortage is reinforc-
ing the pressure from governments to
bring vital supply chains closer to home
in order to make them less vulnerable to
disruption in scenarios like the Covid-19
pandemic and secure them against
influence from geopolitical adversaries
such as China.
In the US, lawmakers are citing the
chip shortage as proof that the country
needs to revive more semiconductor
manufacturing at home. Last year,
TSMC committed under pressure from
the administration of Donald Trump to
build a $12bn plant in Arizona.
Japan is also getting worried. Last
month, TSMC announced it would set
up a subsidiary in Japan to conduct
research in new semiconductor materi-
als. Japan dominates upstream material
supplies to the semiconductor industry.
“It is unsafe if TSMC is only in Taiwan;
you have to spread things out a little
more,” says a Japanese government
official. “This is to counter the risk of a
Taiwan war. That risk is very real.”
Even EU member states are now
aspiring to bring cutting-edge chip pro-
duction back to Europe with an initia-
tive that seeks investment in a 2nm chip
plant — the next generation of process
technology node after the 3nm factory
that TSMC is building in Shanhua.
If TSMC has to yield to this mounting
pressure, it would put a strain on its
business model. According to analysts,
one key reason the company is so effi-
cient and profitable is its concentration
of manufacturing in Taiwan. “TSMC’s
major sites in Taiwan are sufficiently
close enough that TSMC can flexibly
mobilise our engineers to support each
other when necessary,” says TSMC
spokeswoman Nina Kao. It estimates
that production costs in the US are 8-10
per cent higher than in Taiwan.
TSMC is therefore not ready to dis-
perse its manufacturing operations
across the globe. “In the US, we commit-
ted to building a fab after the authorities
made clear that they would subsidise
focused on an area of technology that is
key to our future,” says a senior TSMC
executive. “But in Europe, the case is
not that strong, and [the Europeans]
really should figure out what exactly it is
they want, and whether they can maybe
achieve it with their own chipmakers.”
European semiconductor insiders
agree. European chipmakers such as
Infineon, NXP and ST Micro dominate
the market for auto chips and some
other niches. But they have long focused
their attention on chip design, not pro-
duction. Several of Europe’s largest chip
companies retain some fabrication
units, but they have avoided investing
billions in new capacity and outsource a
lot of production to foundries such as
TSMC instead. Europe’s chip capacity
therefore lags several generations of
process technology behind industry
leaders like TSMC and Samsung.
“We are at 22nm now. Going from 22
to 2nm is like jumping to the top of the
Taipei 101 skyscraper — if you fail, you
crash,” says a senior executive at a Euro-
pean chip company. “In addition, our
need for cutting-edge capacity in
Europe is really not that convincing. We
specialise in semiconductors different
from the chips for mass market con-
sumer devices that dominate the US
chip demand, and therefore the cost
gains from cutting-edge production
‘This is not a one-time fix.
If you want 3nm, that’s
$15bn. Then two years
later, you’re going to have
to spend another $18bn’
technology are not as crucial for us as for
TSMC’s American customers.”
In the US, TSMC’s commitment is also
more limited than it may seem from the
$12bn it has said it will invest. The new
plant in Arizona is to run on 5nm, a tech-
nology which is cutting-edge now, but
when it starts mass production in 2024
it will trail the 3nm facility TSMC is
building in southern Taiwan.
Moreover, one TSMC plant in the US
cannot be used for everything: most of
the chips used in cars can be produced
with the larger 28-65nm nodes — a
mature segment of the market in which
TSMC is less dominant. The Taiwanese
company’s commitment to invest in the
US is the result of long-term efforts by
the Pentagon to recreate some advanced
chip manufacturing capacity in the US
for a secure defence supply chain.
The increasing concentration of semi-
conductor manufacturing away from
US shores has worried the Washington
defence establishment for more than a
decade. This is because the technology
is key to weapons production, from the
processors powering supercomputers
that help model missile trajectories to
the heat-resistant chips in missiles
themselves. And the significance of
semiconductors for defence will only
increase with the rise of unmanned
systems such as combat drones.
17
Main image: inside one of Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company’s plants. Below: images
of silicon wafers displayed in
TSMC’s innovation museum
FT montage
Industry experts also warn that
efforts to reshore production may be
unsustainable. “I think what folks don’t
realise is that this is not a one-time fix,”
says Hanbury. “If you want 3nm, that is
going to cost you $15bn, and then two
years later, you are going to have to
spend another $18bn, and after that,
another $20bn. The numbers are mas-
sive, and it is an ongoing investment to
stay at the leading edge.”
That is the reason why TSMC grew so
dominant in the first place. Its competi-
tors, including US-based GlobalFoun-
dries and Taiwan rival UMC gradually
abandoned the ambition to compete
with cutting-edge capacity because the
investment required was just too big.
Although the noise about TSMC’s
dominant position has surfaced only
now, the Taiwanese company’s domi-
nance has had its customers concerned
for quite some time.
“The fabless companies have had con-
cerns for several years that TSMC’s
dominant position would give it more
pricing power,” Hanbury says. He adds
that those concerns grew more acute
when GlobalFoundries, TSMC’s only
remaining American competitor,
dropped out of the race to develop lead-
ing-edge production capacity in 2018.
And while Semiconductor Manufac-
turing International Corporation
(SMIC), China’s largest foundry, is still
pledging to press ahead, it is now ham-
pered by the US decision last year to use
export controls to bar it from receiving
equipment needed for building cutting-
edge chip production facilities.
That leaves Intel. Despite its travails
with advanced production technology,
the company announced on Tuesday
that it was setting up a dedicated foun-
dry business, and will invest $20bn in
two new fabrication units in Arizona.
Some industry experts are sceptical.
“Intel tried this before a few years ago,
and they could not make it work even
though they still had the best process
technology at the time,” says Sebastian
Hou, head of technology research at
CLSA, a brokerage.
TSMC will not yield easily. With its
huge capital expenditure plans for this
year, the company has signalled that it is
determined to hold on to its lead. A “sig-
nificant portion” of TSMC’s projected
capex will go into extreme ultraviolet
(EUV) lithography machines, equip-
ment that is indispensable in cutting-
edge fabrication units, says an executive
at a semiconductor tool vendor.
ASML, the Dutch company which
dominates the EUV market, recently
said that its capacity falls short of
demand. Industry insiders therefore
believe that every order placed now by
TSMC will help it keep any potential
competitor at arm’s length.
“The longer Intel takes to tackle their
difficulties, the wider the gap will open,”
says the semiconductor equipment
company executive. “TSMC will remain
unassailable for the time being.”
18
THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2021
Xinjiang sanctions are a
sign of western resolve
Retaliation by Beijing against EU officials jeopardises investment deal
Co-ordinated western sanctions
imposed this week on a small number
of Chinese officials for their role in
human rights abuses in Xinjiang are
welcome if overdue. The mass impris-
onment of Uyghur Muslims in the
north-western region in the name of
fighting terrorism is a moral outrage.
What looks like a multipronged cam-
paign by Beijing to eradicate a whole
culture — outlawing displays of reli-
gious observance, intrusive surveil-
lance and even forced sterilisation —
demanded unambiguous repudiation
by democratic powers.
The US took action last year, placing
sanctions on dozens of companies for
their alleged involvement in Uyghur
repression. Last week, it imposed pen-
alties against two-dozen Chinese and
Hong Kong officials for undermining
that territory’s autonomy. On Monday
the US, EU, UK and Canada together
imposed asset freezes and travel bans
on four officials and a security organi-
sation implicated in the persecution
and internment of Uyghurs. The retri-
bution is modest given the crimes. But
for the first time since the Tiananmen
Square protests were crushed in 1989,
western governments have taken co-
ordinated action to punish human
rights abuses in China.
The move could presage further
western co-ordination now that US
president Joe Biden has re-embraced
multilateralism. In Brussels on
Wednesday, US secretary of state
Antony Blinken will seek to reboot the
US-EU China dialogue, a transatlantic
forum for meshing European and
American policies towards an increas-
ingly assertive China. The dialogue was
set up by Donald Trump but rendered
pointless by his unilateralism.
The EU’s contribution was particu-
larly important. It was the first to
announce Xinjiang sanctions — using
its new Magnitsky Act-style powers —
The City needs to deliver
for tech companies
Investors should be prepared to back more digital insurgents
The sight of teal-clad Deliveroo riders
whizzing around city streets on
L-plated scooters has become one of
the most striking features of lockdown
life. Speedy deliveries of takeaway food
have offered a welcome indulgence
when the temptations of home-cooked
beans on toast have faded.
This consumer enthusiasm has
encouraged Deliveroo to shoot for an
initial public offering on the London
Stock Exchange next week. The com-
pany’s prospectus points to an £8.2bn
valuation. That would make Deliveroo
London’s biggest listing since Glencore,
the commodities group, went public in
2011. It would also be a boost to Lon-
don’s claims to be Europe’s centre for
financing tech-enabled companies.
However, it is far from clear that
Deliveroo will flourish as a public com-
pany. Although its revenues surged 54
per cent last year as demand increased
during lockdown, its full-year losses hit
£224m. Following the recent UK court
ruling that Uber’s drivers are employ-
ees, Deliveroo may come under
increased scrutiny for its gig-economy
employment practices — which is mak-
ing some institutional investors cau-
tious. Many potential investors will
also recoil from investing in a company
in which the founder will retain 58 per
cent of voting rights after flotation.
But similar criticisms surrounded
Ocado, the food delivery software
group, when it floated in 2010 and it
has done better than many predicted.
Its £15.4bn market value is now almost
three times bigger than that of J Sains-
bury, reflecting its success in develop-
ing its technological expertise. The
recent listings of The Hut Group and
Trustpilot suggest that City investors
are becoming more familiar with the
dynamics and financial logic of venture
capital-backed, tech-enabled busi-
nesses. Tech IPOs accounted for 40 per
cent of all capital raised through
and the first to taste the wrath of Bei-
jing. Three months ago, the European
Commission was vaunting the business
benefits of a deal on investment protec-
tion and market opening it had struck
with China despite the misgivings of
the Biden team. That agreement is now
in deep trouble.
China retaliated against EU sanctions
by punishing several parliamentarians,
analysts, and Merics, a think-tank on
China based in Berlin known for its judi-
cious analysis. It also targeted the com-
mittee of 27 member-state ambassa-
dors to the EU who oversee foreign and
security policy. Beijing has in recent
years used a divide-and-conquer
approach with capitals to undermine a
common EU front. With its Xinjiang
abuses and overreaction on sanctions,
Beijing has managed the rare feat of
uniting the EU on a foreign policy issue.
By targeting critics and analysts who
refuse to toe its line, Beijing has demon-
strated its totalitarian mindset. By
punishing European parliament mem-
bers, it has made it all but impossible
for that legislature to ratify the invest-
ment agreement. MEPs were already
clamouring for more concessions from
Beijing, namely the outlawing of forced
labour. China will need to make a dou-
ble retreat to put the deal back on
track, which seems unlikely. Having
used the investment deal to drive a
monetary wedge between Washington
and Brussels, Beijing may feel it can
dispense with it.
The EU still has deep concerns about
being pulled into an all-out confronta-
tion with China alongside the US. Euro-
pean and American interests on trade
and technological standards will inevi-
tably clash. The EU also wants to leave
space for co-operation and fair compe-
tition. Aligning with Washington and
other capitals on human rights is to be
applauded but Brussels must accept
that China will punish it in return.
listings on the LSE in 2020, according
to Tech Nation.
Still, City investors should go much
further in supporting the growth of the
digital champions of the future. Lon-
don’s equity markets are dominated by
traditional finance, mining and energy
companies. The FTSE 100 has failed to
keep pace with the spectacular per-
formance of some other markets, most
notably the US and China, which boast
a higher proportion of racy tech stocks.
The 2016 sale of Arm, one of Britain’s
few globally relevant tech groups, to
SoftBank highlighted investors’ disre-
gard for the tech sector. That has led to
further loss of tech expertise among
investors, analysts and lawyers. It is
notable that several of Deliveroo’s big-
gest pre-IPO shareholders were US-
based: Amazon, T Rowe, Fidelity and
Bridgepoint. The capital gains from the
success of a UK company will largely
accrue to US investors.
To some extent, Europe’s big invest-
ing insurance companies have been
constrained by capital rules that limit
their exposure to riskier asset classes,
such as venture capital. It is disappoint-
ing that family offices commit more
money to venture capital funds in
many European countries than do
institutional investors. But a reluc-
tance to invest at an early stage should
not stop traditional investors support-
ing later-stage companies when they
do eventually come to market.
If the post-Brexit UK economy is to
flourish it needs to deploy more risk
capital to back promising start-up busi-
nesses and develop more supportive
capital markets for tech companies
that emerge as potential global win-
ners. The City has a long history of
backing speculative mining ventures,
which arguably have a similar risk pro-
file to tech companies. It is time to
switch its focus to the potential digital
gold mines of the 21st century.
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
Letters
Killing off Nord Stream 2 risks weakening US financial muscle
As Constanze Stelzenmüller observes
in her latest column (Opinion, March
24) the Russian-German Nord Stream
2 gas pipeline is a problem that defies
easy solutions. US lawmakers are
pushing the Biden administration to
sanction any and all entities associated
with the project. The White House, in
turn, is responding with tougher
rhetoric against the pipeline.
The US has an economic interest in
ensuring Russia doesn’t become
Europe’s energy supplier of choice. But
on balance, there is a real debate to be
Russia’s neighbours were
once glad to ship its gas
In her article “Nord Stream 2 impasse
threatens transatlantic ties” (Opinion,
March 24), Constanze Stelzenmüller
refers to the “key transit route through
Ukraine and Poland”. In fact there are
at least two transit routes for Russian
gas into Europe: the older runs through
Ukraine, the newer through Poland.
Poland, whose lobbying in
Washington has done so much to slow
down the building of the offshore Nord
Stream 2, was once glad to be able to
transport Russian gas because it stood
to earn transit fees. It was not then — in
the late 1990s — quite so vocal in its
support of Ukraine, at whose expense it
won the contract.
The choice of delivery route has
historically been a matter for the gas
buyer and seller to agree on. The
shorter pipeline route that Nord
Stream 2 offers, along with the
reduction in carbon emissions and the
absence of any transit country, has
appealed to five of Russia’s big
customers. And in a post-USSR world,
Ukraine has to find other ways of
making money than from the transit of
Russian gas which it refuses, quite
understandably, to buy directly from
Moscow.
Given the steep reduction in
European gas production, the need to
replace coal with other energy, not to
mention the intermittency of
renewable energy, Europe will need
more, not less, gas. And pipelines are
more secure than LNG.
Europe is a highly competitive
market as well — at least, west of
Poland — and one that takes US gas if
the price is right and if Asia does not
outbid it.
Finally, the European Commission
has in the past limited the access of
Russia’s Gazprom to downstream
pipelines, meaning that there are still
non-physical barriers that may be
erected once Nord Stream 2 has been
commissioned.
William Powell
Editor, Natural Gas World
London SE27, UK
Housebuilders don’t do
conventional economics
It was the Barker Report, published by
the Labour government in 2004, that
to the best of my knowledge
established the case that the problem
with housing in the UK was a lack of
supply.
Martin Wolf has bought into this idea
(Opinion, March 22). It needs to be
challenged.
Housebuilders seem not to operate
in the zone of conventional economics,
where the more there is of something,
Iraqi dreams
of democracy
fade with
arrests of
journalists
Notebook
by Chloe Cornish
had about whether the benefits of
stopping Nord Stream 2 are worth the
costs. Those costs don’t receive much
attention, but they are considerable.
Stelzenmüller rightly explains how
pressuring Berlin on the matter would
sully the very US-German relationship
Biden hopes to improve. Stressing a
key diplomatic relationship, however,
is just the start.
As strange as it may sound, killing
the Russian pipeline could
inadvertently harm America’s long-
term financial power. Freezing out
the lower the price becomes. They have
no desire to lower their prices.
Although many of them deny having
landbanks, a year ago the Local
Government Association calculated
that there are consents outstanding for
a million homes. If the new houses they
build don’t sell fast enough, they pause
the development. Developers build for
desire, not need.
Wolf refers to the heady days
between 1950 and 1970, saying that if
that rate of development had
continued we would now have 2.9m
additional dwellings. But the
government subsidies of that era left a
questionable legacy.
Some councils and architects were
honourable, others not. Remember the
Poulson scandal and also Ronan Point.
And many of the developers’ tall
blocks of flats had to be demolished
before the public purse had finished
paying for them. Others continue to
cause suffering — the fire at Grenfell
Tower the most egregious example.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire, UK
What links UK industrial
strategy and EU jab plans?
Fascinating to see the piece by Andy
Haldane on the success of the UK
vaccine development and distribution
programme (“UK industrial strategy is
dead, long may it live”, Opinion, March
23) on the same page as the article by
Tony Barber on the comparative failure
of the EU effort (Opinion, March 23).
Good copy. As the government has
decided to close the UK industrial
strategy directorate this month it
seems that both could have shared
Barber’s headline — “snatching defeat
from the jaws of victory”.
Marcus H Miller
Professor Emeritus, University of
Warwick, Coventry, Warwickshire, UK
Judging by Guhdar Zebari’s modest
family home in Iraq’s Kurdish
mountains, it is hard to imagine the
journalist and activist could be a well-
paid spy. But a court in Erbil, the
Kurdish regional capital, ruled that he
and fellow journalist Sherwan
Sherwani were, according to a
summary by the region’s government,
“guilty of gathering classified
information and passing it covertly to
foreign actors in exchange for
substantial sums of money” and
possessing “illegal weapons”. The two
were among five journalists and
activists sentenced to six years in jail
last month, after they covered or took
part in anti-government protests in
the Kurdish city of Duhok.
Amnesty International called the
charges “trumped-up”, while Zebari’s
father says his son “was writing about
corruption [and] they didn’t like his
writings”.
Supporters say the Duhok five are
casualties in the escalating battle for
free speech across Opec’s second-
largest producer. In the past 18
months, dozens of Iraqi journalists
have been killed, kidnapped,
detained, or been taken to court on
specious charges. The killings are
widely blamed on militias tied to
Iraq’s political system and backed by
Tehran. But now the Kurdish
authorities and the Iraqi state are
adding to the pressure.
Last weekend, the supreme judicial
council in Baghdad issued arrest
warrants for two political writers for
defaming public authorities. One,
If you are not satisfied with the FT’s response to your complaint, you can appeal
to the FT Editorial Complaints Commissioner: complaints.commissioner@ft.com
European companies participating in
the project will give allies, partners and
adversaries alike even more of an
incentive to gradually distance
themselves from the US dollar, while
reducing their reliance on US banks for
their transactions.
Europe has already attempted to
create alternative payment
mechanisms away from the US-
dominated Swift system in order to
limit financial exposure to US
sanctions. While those efforts have yet
to succeed, European officials continue
Don’t forget the London
mayor’s achievements
In his letter about the London mayoral
race, Tony Devenish (Letters, March
22) claims that “years of Brexit battles”
have harmed the Conservatives in
London. Rather, years of hardship and
uncertainty caused by his party, who
pushed through a hard Brexit, have
harmed London and the entire
country. Brexit is a threat to London, as
it is to all our cities.
Labour’s Sadiq Khan, meanwhile,
has been a largely popular mayor who
has helped build bridges between
communities. As for Devenish’s claim
the mayor has not achieved anything,
Khan introduced the “Hopper” fare
which allows unlimited journeys on
London’s bus and tram network for
£1.50 within one hour of touching in.
He banned advertising on London
transport that demeans women.
He backed expansion of London City
airport, supported expansion at
Gatwick, launched “Homes for
Londoners” to encourage investors to
invest in the construction of
“affordable homes” for Londoners and
launched a “No Nights Sleeping Rough”
task force to tackle youth
homelessness.
He introduced the polluting vehicles’
charge and introduced air quality
audits for primary schools.
Khan has so far been unable to
reduce crime in the capital, but he
blames budget cuts by the
Conservative government stating that
this is “clearly a national problem that
requires national solutions”.
Cecilia Li
London W5, UK
Fashion’s carbon footprint
should be put in spotlight
The article “Ocean trawling emits as
much CO2 as aviation, study finds”
(Report, March 18) made interesting
reading.
I would very much like to see a
further article about the fashion
industry. Undoubtedly it would lead to
howls of protest in the salons of the
world’s fashion capitals, but while
precise numbers can be argued, there
seems to be general agreement that
aviation globally produces about 1
gigatonne of CO2 annually, while the
fashion industry produces about 2
gigatonnes.
This little-known statistic deserves to
be better publicised, especially at a
time when the crisis-hit aviation
industry globally is under enormous
pressure to reduce its carbon footprint.
One doesn’t hear very much about
similar pressure on the “fashionistas”.
Richard Parry
Penang, Malaysia
Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie, was taken from
his home by police. The other lives
abroad. The charges were based on a
1969 law written during the rule of the
Ba’ath party, which choked dissent
and cloaked Iraq in silence until it was
overthrown and eradicated in the
wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.
Since 2003, Iraqis have carved out a
“small space” to speak out, says Diyari
Salih, a lecturer at Baghdad’s
Mustansiriyah University. But he
warns that the judicial council’s use of
the 1969 legislation “confirms that
Saddam [Hussein’s] mentality is still
working in the system”. For Salih, this
underscores failure “to reach the goals
that we were dreaming about, to have
a democratic political system”.
There is media plurality in Iraq, but
not much independence: most
broadcasters and news outlets are
owned by political parties and
militias. Reporters and camera
operators are regularly targeted by
both Kurdish and central government
administrations. When hundreds of
protesters were killed by security
forces and militiamen during mass
anti-government protests in 2019,
Iraq’s media regulator ordered 12
television and four radio stations to
close, allegedly for violating media
licensing rules.
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has
long been a haven for Arab Iraqi
writers, according to Baghdad-based
Salih. But he says that is changing.
Now writers joke they can leave
Baghdad for Erbil, but “what would
we do in Erbil if we criticise the
Thursday 25 March 2021
Email: letters.editor@ft.com
Include daytime telephone number and full address
Corrections: corrections@ft.com
to explore new initiatives.
The EU’s foreign affairs and trade
chiefs have both urged Brussels to
better protect Europe’s financial
interests from what they regard as
Washington’s extraterritorial sanctions
— whether it be on Iran, Russia, or
Venezuela.
The US can live with Nord Stream 2.
Dampening the influence of the US
financial system is another matter.
Daniel R DePetris
Fellow, Defense Priorities
New Rochelle, NY, US
Trading knowhow gives
big banks a crypto edge
The bitcoin market is too big for
investment banks to ignore at $1.1tn.
But with some banks dipping their toes
in the tokenised ocean and others
jumping right in, Wall Street is clearly
divided (Report, March 23). With
crypto pairs such as bitcoin/ethereum
valued differently across multiple
markets, there is no shortage of
opportunity for the most computer-
savvy firms to profit quickly from price
differences.
It would be a mistake to assume that
just because crypto is an algo-driven
market, the computer always knows
best. Few institutions have the
sophisticated trading skills to be able to
trade crypto as an asset by hand. Those
that do are set for the biggest gains.
So, while the perception of crypto is
of this decentralised and highly
democratised market where any “Joe”
can make a fast buck, it is the select
few financial institutions that have the
edge as they have the brain power to
make the easy gains.
As the market matures, participants
should be under no illusion, it is those
who can handle complex
algo-dominated orders and possess the
sophisticated trading skills, with
proven track records to support them,
that will ultimately prove to be the
winners.
Alexandre Carteau
Managing Director, Institutional Crypto
Trading, TradingScreen, London WC2, UK
Headhunters’ comments
show diversity challenge
The letter from two headhunters at
Spencer Stuart positing that audit and
corporate governance reform and the
diversity drive are mutually exclusive
objectives points perhaps to the
reasons why we are still having
difficulty achieving a satisfactory level
of diversity in top management
(Letters, March 24).
If the headhunters don’t believe in it,
how are we ever going to succeed?
Paul Samengo-Turner
Berlin, Germany
Bankers’ long hours blow
hole in productivity stats
Thank you for drawing attention to the
bankers’ blurring of work and home
(“Junior Goldman Sachs bankers
complain of 95-hour week”, Report,
FT.com, March 18). Perhaps you
should also clarify that all these are
“40-hour week” jobs, which means the
“productivity” statistics are flawed, to
say the least.
Shekhar S Patil
Plymouth, MN, US
[ruling] Kurdistan Democratic party?
Then no one would receive us.”
Zebari, who was working for the
opposition Wllat News in KRI, and
Sherwani, a freelancer, were arrested
after covering protests in Duhok, the
KDP’s stronghold. The
demonstrations focused on delayed
public-sector salary payments.
Reving Yassen, the journalists’
lawyer, said their trial was unfair. He
pointed out that less than a week
before their court date, the KDP’s
head and regional premier Masrour
Barzani told a press conference the
defendants were spies: “Those who
were detained . . . are neither activists
nor journalists. Some of them were
spies . . . for other countries . . . Some
were saboteurs,” he claimed.
The UN’s human rights office
confirmed it observed the trial but has
not given its verdict, and the regional
government maintains the judiciary is
independent. But arresting journalists
has become so common in KRI that
the Committee to Protect Journalists,
an international press freedom group,
has called on the authorities to “cease
harassing the media”.
Back in the mountains, Zebari’s
family insists he is innocent. His
father says his son was writing as if
“he was in a country with freedom of
speech”. “For years I’ve been telling
him, look, do not write these things,
they will disappear you or kill you.”
He sighs. “What I was expecting has
happened.”
chloe.cornish@ft.com
Thursday 25 March 2021
Goldman complaints show long hours and Covid do not mix
BUSINESS
Brooke
Masters
T
he PowerPoint presentation
in which 13 young Goldman
Sachs analysts complained
that they were overworked
and disrespected has
divided opinion sharply.
“Snowflakes,” scoffed one bank exec-
utive, remembering that he too worked
95 hours a week when deal flow was
high. So what if 92 per cent of them felt
“ignored” in meetings: “They’re 22
years old and have been working less
than a year. What can they add?” Jim
Cramer of CNBC was equally snarky: “if
they can't live on four hours [sleep] they
should be miserable,” he tweeted.
But others called the long hours a
“form of hazing” and argued that Wall
Street culture must change to diversify
workforces and compete for top talent.
Johnson preys
on Labour’s
self-doubt
BRITAIN
Robert
Shrimsley
O
ne of the disadvantages of
being a progressive in poli-
tics is that most societies
and indeed most people,
regardless of their actual
ideology, are innately conservative.
And since progressives are about
transforming society, they must also
offer reassurances, about their patriot-
ism for example, which are rarely
demanded of the right.
All of which brings us to a trivial and
confected row over the union jack. Last
week, a BBC presenter gently ribbed a
cabinet minister about the size of the
flag in his office. It was a moment of lev-
ity about ministers’ increasing use of
patriotic symbols. But it allowed the
Conservatives a new line of attack, that
the national broadcaster is run by peo-
ple who laugh at the flag itself. One MP,
James Wild, oafishly berated the BBC’s
director-general over the lack of flags in
the annual report, while media outrid-
ers widened the attack to Labour.
In all this sudden zeal for performa-
tive patriotism (which, incidentally, is
shared by those waving EU flags and
Scottish saltires) there is an element of
the fervour of a newly independent
nation, which is of course what Tories
MIDDLE EAST
David
Gardner
E
arly last Saturday morning,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Turkey’s imperious presi-
dent, had a Donald Trump
moment. Instead of one of
the former US president’s Twitter tan-
trums, Erdogan issued decrees. The
first, firing the central bank governor,
could amount to economic suicide. The
second, withdrawing from a treaty
to prevent violence against women
that Turkey was the first to sign a dec-
ade ago, threatens to bury the remnants
of the country’s reputation as a democ-
racy that protects all its citizens.
A brief recap. Last November, the lira,
Turkey’s currency, was plummeting.
The country was entering its second
currency crisis in the two years since
Berat Albayrak, the president’s son-in-
Goldman Sachs’ chief executive David
Solomon tried to split the difference in a
tape-recorded message to staff over the
weekend. “We want a workplace where
people can share concerns freely,” he
said, promising stricter enforcement of
an existing ban on requiring junior
bankers to work on Saturdays. But he
asked staff to continue to “go the extra
mile for our client, even when we feel
that we’re reaching our limit”.
The divisions underscore three
things. Despite reform efforts after a
Bank of America intern died of an
epileptic seizure in 2013, investment
banking remains something of a high-
paid sweat shop. Millennial and Gen Z
workers are more willing to challenge
their bosses than their predecessors.
And the Covid-19 pandemic has made
the ensuing conflict much worse.
Financial and professional services
firm are on a tear in areas connected to
equity capital markets: initial public
offerings, mergers and acquisitions and
private equity. Complaints are rising
about burnout and overwork, although
few match the 11-page Goldman slide
deck for detail. At the Wallstreetoasis
think the UK is. But they also see this as
part of a broader strategy.
To understand this fully, it is neces-
sary to grasp the shock felt by Brexiters
at the backlash against their referen-
dum victory and how it has framed their
thinking since. Across the establish-
ment, from the courts to parliament,
the civil service and sections of the
media, they discerned people trying to
dilute or cancel their win.
Suddenly, the metropolitan liberal
establishment was no longer just a
punchline to rouse supporters but a real
threat, a sneering enemy of the Brexit-
ers’ idea of democracy. So a government
driven by insecurity and contempt
found a weapon in the wider cultural
fight against a progressive establish-
ment “ashamed of its own country”.
This powers many Tory policies:
attacks on the BBC, judicial reform and
the dispersal of Whitehall jobs across
the UK, a happy side-effect of which is to
weaken London’s influence. One Tory
strategist warns against overstating
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s appetite
for conflict: “There are people who want
to push this but so far it’s relatively
minor.”
But each new policy is dusted with a
patriotic sheen of speaking for the wider
nation, and that keeps his opponents on
the defensive. The BBC has been scram-
bling to address his laments of its
“instinctive metropolitan bias”.
And like-minded opponents such as
Labour’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, are
tarred by association. On a raft of issues,
the opposition party’s partial accept-
Erdogan’s tantrum is a sign of weakness
law, took over the finance ministry. The
powerful and abrasive Albayrak chased
the high economic growth based on con-
sumption and cheap credit demanded
by Erdogan. He bowed to his father-in-
law’s belief that interest rates are “the
mother of all evil”, refusing to raise rates
to curb inflation, burning through more
than $100bn in a failed defence of
the lira. Central bank governors that
refused to kowtow were dispensed with.
Suddenly, the cosseted Albayrak
became another weekend casualty.
The currenc y rebounded as
Erdogan appointed Naci Agbal, his
predecessor at finance, to head the
central bank. Insiders say Agbal, loyal
but economically orthodox and critical,
convinced Erdogan the economy was
in peril and, with it the legacy of the
president and his ruling Justice and
Development party (AKP).
L ast weekend, Agbal, who
had restored the credibility of Turkey’s
monetary policy, was also dispensed
with, triggering a sell-off of Turkish
assets, with the lira initially tumbling 14
per cent amid big falls in bonds and
stocks. Conspiracy theories about the
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
Opinion
website, one person wrote: “At UBS, it’s
the same here. Want to die.” Junior
employees at the private equity firm
Apollo griped they were “paid to grind”.
And an associate at the US law firm
Latham & Watkins told the Financial
Times that work “has pervaded every
waking (and sometimes sleeping)
moment”.
The outpouring comes as most work-
Remote work has been a
disaster for banks and
businesses that rely on an
apprenticeship model
places are already struggling with
clashes between senior managers and
millennial and Gen Z workers who
refuse to sit quietly in their allotted
places. “There is less tolerance for abuse
and more of a sense that when you
experience abuse you should speak up,”
says one senior Goldmanite who
expresses a sneaking sympathy.
Covid has only roiled this toxic stew.
ance of the Tory critique is allowing
Johnson to set the terms of debate. From
Brexit to law and order, Labour is suc-
cumbing to a campaign of political gas-
lighting which leaves it fearful of mak-
ing a stand lest it be painted as unpatri-
otic, defeatist or soft on crime. “They
want to maintain the Brexit divide
which has worked for them,” said one
Labour frontbencher.
So the flag row is part of a trap Starmer
has no intention of falling into. But when
a recent strategy document suggested
making more use of the union jack, his
members were appalled. One Labour MP
denounced the “faux flag-waving
brand”. Belittling the flag is clearly a mis-
take. But the trap is double-edged. Fight
back and you can be lumped in with
those out-of-touch metropolitans. But
Each policy is dusted with a
patriotic sheen of speaking
for the wider nation,
wrongfooting opponents
sudden departure abound. Most
probably, Erdogan simply did not like
the numbers. On Thursday, Agbal had
surprised the markets with a sharp rise
in interest rates of 200 basis points.
Since November he has raised rates by
8.75 percentage points to 19 per cent.
Despite the turnround in investor
perceptions of Turkey, Erdogan must
have been grinding his teeth at a time
when other G20 economies are trying to
Turkey’s president has
pushed aside independent
aides and is struggling
to set coherent policy
get their heads round negative interest
rates. Furthermore, Turkish inflation
remained high; it was too early for the
course correction to feed through fully.
For Erdogan, this was surely proof his
theory that interest rate rises accelerate
rather than put a brake on inflation was
correct. Agbal’s replacement, Sahap
Kavcioglu, a little-known banker,
With most white-collar professionals
still working from home, the lines
between work and home are further
blurred. Remote work also removes the
social benefits of long hours: camarade-
rie, contact with senior bankers, even
bragging rights. Instead of sharing
late-night takeaway with work buddies,
many analysts are living at home and
fending off concerns from protective
parents.
Remote work has been a disaster for
banks and other businesses that rely on
an apprenticeship model. Many of the
youngest workers, including the com-
plaining Goldman analysts, have never
met their bosses in person. Juniors feel
less connected to the institution, and
seniors find it hard to judge when
underlings are struggling.
That’s one reason why many senior
bankers, Solomon included, are pushing
to get people back to the office. And
there is a mad dash on at Goldman, UBS
and elsewhere to hire more junior bank-
ers to help share the load.
As they scramble, the big banks
should take a look at the way Jefferies
has responded to the pandemic. The
succumb and you are accepting the dom-
inance of the government’s narrative and
Johnson’s annexation of patriotism. The
result is that the Conservatives are
exploiting Labour’s fear of itself. Even
where it does fight back, it is mechanistic
and uninspiring. The only place where
the Tories face confident opposition is
in Scotland. For all Starmer has got right
in his leadership, Labour is now second-
guessing itself over what policies it can
safely oppose.
Though Johnson has a large majority,
he can be knocked off course by confi-
dent opposition. But, mindful of its lost
red-wall voters, Labour fears the gov-
ernment is making the smart political
calls. Keen not to be seen siding with dis-
ruptive or violent demonstrations, it did
not initially oppose new curbs on pro-
tests, which it sees as decidedly illiberal.
And the more the Tories sense their
opponents’ uncertainty, the more these
challenges will keep coming, be they
tougher asylum laws or moves to limit
the scope of judicial reviews. To an
opposition in a defensive crouch, each
policy looks like a new trap. But each
former MP and cheerleading columnist
on an AKP tabloid, certainly believes so.
Reverting to eccentric monetary poli-
cies carries huge risks. Turkey is low on
foreign exchange reserves, relying on
complicated swap deals with local
banks where half of deposits are in dol-
lars. It needs to refinance roughly
$180bn in foreign borrowings this year.
Rows with its European and US allies
over maritime borders in the Mediterra-
nean and, as a Nato member, buying
Russian missiles and busting sanctions
on Iran, leave it vulnerable to punitive
measures.
But Erdogan’s monetary bombshell
almost pales beside his pulling out of the
Istanbul Convention, the Council of
Europe treaty to combat violence
against women. Erdogan, ever more
autocratic since he ascended to the pres-
idency in 2014, at a stroke lifted still
fragile protections from half the popula-
tion of Turkey, where as many as three
women a day are murdered.
“This is a very dark tunnel we’re going
through”, Elif Shafak, the acclaimed
Turkish novelist, told the FT Weekend
Festival hours after the decree. “When
midsized investment bank reported
record net revenues last year and busi-
ness continues to boom. But the group,
which lost its chief financial officer to
Covid complications in March 2020,
was quicker than most to focus on well-
ness and overwork issues.
The bank recruited a small extra
group of analysts who started in January
to help reduce the workload; its 2021
analyst class will also be some 40 per
cent larger. Last week, the company
emailed all 1,124 analysts and associates
to give them the choice of a Peloton,
Mirror or Apple Watch fitness package
as “a sign of our deep appreciation”.
Admittedly, it is easier for Jefferies to
make quick changes: its entire work-
force is about half the size of Goldman’s
cadre of analysts. But Jefferies HR chief
Cary Friedman is clear that he wants the
benefits to last. While its $3m fitness ini-
tiative is evidence the company cares,
“our ultimate goal is focused on making
sure through our various efforts . . .
they have time to use it”, he says.
That would be money well spent.
brooke.masters@ft.com
Ellie Foreman-Peck
fight ducked is further territory ceded.
Labour cannot surrender the mantle
of patriotism but nor can it win by fight-
ing on Johnson’s terms. The answer is
not judicious silence or some increas-
ingly absurd flag Olympics. It lies in the
Jiu Jitsu of turning Johnson’s strengths
into weaknesses and in finding a coher-
ent argument that the Conservatives are
failing the flag they are so keen to fly.
One Labour strategist offers a few
lines of attack. “How can you respect
the flag when you are cutting the num-
bers of soldiers who defend it?” Another
might be to argue that the party so keen
to fly the union jack is the one that has
most endangered the future of the
Union. But this, and similar fights on law
and order, must be fought with a convic-
tion in their vision that Labour lacks.
At the moment, Johnson can see an
opposition that is scared of itself and,
buoyed by his vaccine success, he is
turning the screw. The Conservatives
control the political agenda, but increas-
ingly they own the battlefield too.
robert.shrimsley@ft.com
you lose democracy, women’s rights
and minority rights are among the
first to go.”
The move is Erdogan’s latest flouting
of the rule of law at home and abroad.
He has all but crushed the independ-
ence of the Turkish judiciary. He serially
ignores judgments of the European
Court of Human Rights, which
demanded the release of political pris-
oners such as the activist and philan-
thropist Osman Kavala, or Selahattin
Demirtas, leader of a leftwing pro-Kurd-
ish alliance.
Cocooned by courtiers after pushing
aside independent aides, Erdogan has
almost lost the ability to set coherent
policy. Instead, after losing control
of most of Turkey’s great cities, includ-
ing Istanbul and Ankara, in 2019’s local
elections, he concentrates on throwing
political red meat to his Islamist and
ultranationalist electorate. A hollowed-
out AKP is more like an opposition than
a ruling party on the cusp of its third
decade in power. This is a demonstra-
tion of power, but also of vulnerability.
david.gardner@ft.com
19
What a
stronger dollar
means for
the world
MARKETS
Megan
Greene
A
t the turn of the year, weak
growth and poor manage-
ment of the Covid-19 pan-
demic led to a consensus
that the US dollar would
weaken significantly in 2021. Instead,
it’s been strengthening — a trend with
significant implications for the US and
the rest of the world.
The twin deficits argument of the
1980s underpins some of the forecasts
for dollar depreciation. The budget
deficit hit around 15 per cent of GDP
in 2020 and is set to balloon further
this year. The current account deficit
was 3.5 per cent and rising in the fourth
quarter of 2020. Investor reluctance
to finance $2.8tn in stimulus packages
might push up yields on US Treasuries,
forcing the Fed to increase QE purchases
to bring them back down. The dollar
would follow. Over the long term, the
twin deficits should put downward pres-
sure on the dollar, but the very reasons
they are rising will overwhelm those
structural issues for now. The dollar’s
turnround began as the Biden adminis-
tration pushed through the whole of its
$1.9tn American Rescue Plan. At the
same time, it significantly ramped up
the pace of vaccinations, from about
900,000 a day to almost 3m.
Now the US economy looks set to out-
perform. According to the OECD, the
rescue package alone should add 3 to
4 percentage points to 2021 GDP. Wall
Street economists see GDP growth of
as much as 8 per cent. That will mean
higher sales and profits for American
A sovereign debt crisis in
poorer nations could drag
on global growth, with
blowback for the US
companies, inviting investments by
foreigners, who will need dollars.
The usual downside of such govern-
ment-financed growth is inflation. If
investors believe the US has lost fiscal
discipline, inflation expectations could
become unanchored; bad for stocks,
bonds and the dollar. But the stewards
of the American economy don’t see a
danger. Federal Reserve policymakers
say they won’t be applying the brakes
anytime soon. Their dot plot this month
suggests rates will be near zero until
2024. In a world where other central
banks are keeping rates negative, that
interest rate differential, small as it is,
will be good for the American currency.
Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has
ditched the long-held US “strong dollar”
policy, insisting the currency’s value will
be “market-determined”. At the same
time, she has pledged not to interfere
with the market’s determinations. That
eases the risk the administration might
work to weaken the dollar to help boost
exports, which would be helpful in try-
ing to revive the manufacturing sector.
Stronger growth and a stronger cur-
rency should boost US imports, generat-
ing demand for the rest of the world. The
OECD expects the rescue plan to add one-
quarter to one-half a point to eurozone
and Chinese GDP and even more for Can-
ada and Mexico. This should also serve as
a useful safety valve on inflation as the
US imports disinflationary pressure.
A higher current account deficit for
the US should mean a higher surplus for
other countries, particularly in Europe
where fiscal stimulus measures are
comparatively small. But the maniacal
focus of the Trump administration on
bilateral trade balances is a thing of the
past, and there is little risk that con-
cerns about currency manipulation will
come to the fore this year.
A stronger dollar isn’t a benefit to
everyone. While faster US growth will
provide support to emerging markets’
growth, the IMF says that is significantly
mitigated by a strengthening dollar. It
pushes down dollar commodity prices,
resulting in lower real income and
depressed domestic demand for EM
commodities exporters. It would also
make EM dollar-denominated debt
more difficult to service.
An EM sovereign debt crisis could drag
on global growth, with negative blow-
back for the US. As long as US officials
keep that in mind, the Biden administra-
tion looks set to continue enjoying the
dollar’s exorbitant privilege.
The writer is a senior fellow at Harvard
Kennedy School
20 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Thursday 25 March 2021

Suez Canal/supply chains: waterway woes

The grounding of a huge container ship in the Suez Canal will be costly for vessel owners and their clients.
A longer route around South Africa adds days of travel. Freight rates, both seaborne and by air, have already
jumped in the past year. Shipping stocks have as a result benefited greatly.

Twitter: @FTLex
AstraZeneca/Soriot: no
good deed unpunished
Governments can generally kick out
bosses they dislike. Politics beats
market economics. The test for Pascal
Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca,
is more complicated. Here, a political
faction is counterbalanced by public
health. The distrust and outrage of
some EU lawmakers must be weighed
against the UK-Swedish company’s
significant but sometimes shambolic
contribution to defeating coronavirus.
Seen through that lens, Soriot’s
position looks less precarious — with
caveats.
In his career, Soriot has made two big
gambles that have largely paid off. The
most recent was forging a non-profit
partnership with Oxford university to
produce a jab. Serious doubts over its
efficacy and safety are in abeyance.
More than half the 28m Britons
vaccinated so far are thought to have
received it. Thousands of people have
avoided infection, some of whom
would have died.
His earlier bet, when AstraZeneca
was facing a patents cliff in 2014, was
that he could accelerate development
of novel drugs. This succeeded,
particularly in cancer treatments. The
shares are about 15 per cent above the
inflation-adjusted price that Pfizer
unsuccessfully bid back then.
But AstraZeneca is unlikely to hit the
sales target of $45bn by 2023 baked
into its bid defence. That reflects a flaw
of its charismatic boss: a tendency to
overpromise. His bullish forecasts for
vaccine deliveries are one reason he is
in trouble with EU leaders. Their plans
to impose export curbs reflect supply
problems with the AstraZeneca shot,
29m doses of which were “found”
stockpiled in Italy recently.
EU hostility reflects dishonourable
motives too. The failure of the bloc to
mount a vaccination programme as
effective as the UK’s has angered
voters. Getting tough with a UK-based
business is a good way to deflect blame.
The jab has been a shot in the arm,
literally and metaphorically, to British
prime minister Boris Johnson. That
buys Soriot a lot of political cover in the
UK, provided he cannot be blamed for
any vaccine problems there.
The other caveat is that recurrent
data concerns must be laid to rest.
White House medical adviser Anthony
Fauci has accused AstraZeneca of an
“unforced error” in its disclosures. The
credibility of drug companies’ bosses
depends crucially on accurate trial
results. Not even the opinions of
politicians matter more.
Tencent:
handicap betting
For Chinese tech companies, an
antitrust investigation is a sure sign
that their business models are working
a little too well. Tencent, the latest
target of official scrutiny, posted a 175
per cent leap in fourth-quarter profits
yesterday, beating expectations.
Profits at the gaming and social
media giant rose to $9.1bn. Sales leapt
more than a quarter, as online games
benefited from lockdowns. Revenues at
its fintech business rose 29 per cent.
Founder Pony Ma has reportedly met
with trust busters. Such news is
ominous at a time when China is intent
on cutting its tech giants down to size.
Tencent has survived previous curbs
on gaming licences and antitrust
investigations into its music unit’s
deals. This is different. A multipronged
regulatory attack leaves it little room to
manoeuvre. Regulators are scrutinising
Tencent’s core businesses. These
include social media, financial services
and investments in tech start-ups.
Watchdogs slapped Tencent with a
fine for issues over investment
approvals last week. A merger of its
game-streaming companies is on hold.
Its fintech business looks particularly
vulnerable since Beijing’s attack on
Ant, Alibaba’s payments arm. Analysts
have valued the unit at $120bn. It
became a core business, receiving hefty
investment after regulators paused
new game licence approvals.
Gaming now looks a risky source of
revenue. Game streaming is unlikely to
move into the mainstream.
Pony Ma has avoided publicly
offending officials, unlike Jack Ma at
Alibaba. But antitrust probes are
unavoidable. Tencent has about 40 per
cent of the market for electronic
consumer payments and about two-
thirds of the local game distribution
market. The Hong Kong-listed shares
are down 19 per cent from a January
high. Chinese tech giants are suffering a
melancholy fate. A crackdown is under
way even as years of heavy investment
0 5 10
Going the long way is costly
Journey time in days using Singapore to Rotterdam
as an example route at a charter cost of $48,000/day.
The additional time translates into an extra $427,200
Source: VesselsValue
Shippers have rallied with freight rates
Share price (rebased $ terms)
Evergreen Marine
Maersk
MSCI World
Transport index
Mar 2020 Jul Sep Nov
FT graphic Source: Refinitv
Taiwan’s Ever Given container ship
has made history by running aground
and blocking the Suez Canal. The
waterway has closed only five times
since it opened 151 years ago. A
stranded vessel longer than the canal
is wide has wedged a stopper in the
fastest seaborne trade route between
Europe and Asia. That will be a blow
to just-in-time supply chains.
The blockage may look like a
bizarre one-off, but think again.
Decades of pared-down trade
delivery times and costs mean vessels
keep getting bigger. The Ever Given
holds more than 20,000 containers
(twenty-foot equivalent units) but
there are even larger ships due for
delivery from 2023. Depending on
how low these sit in the water, there
begin bearing fruit. Time for investors
to switch to smaller groups challenging
these incumbents.
Halma:
safety first
Britons like to make fun of overreaching
health and safety instructions. But UK
rules have made a significant
difference to worker protection. No
company could be happier than
Halma, maker of safety equipment.
The FTSE 100 group upped its
guidance yesterday, stating that pre-
tax profits for the year to March would
be the same as the previous year’s
£267m. Markets have already priced in
a profits recovery and more besides.
15 20
22 days
Suez Canal
$1.06m
Air cargo rates are down from last spring
Air freight rates ($/kg)
500
Shanghai to Europe
Frankfurt to N America
400 Shanghai to N America
300
200
100
Jan Mar 2021 Mar 2019
Source: Berenberg
is the chance that they could get stuck
in the Suez too.
About 50 ships pass through the Suez
every day. Half are container vessels.
The block will raise costs and delay
deliveries. The alternative southern
route, around the Cape of Good Hope
in South Africa, adds days on the water.
Delays could run from an extra nine
days for a container vessel to double
that for an oil tanker, estimate experts
VesselsValue. That could cost more
than $427,000 for the average
container vessel’s journey.
Alternatives to seaborne transport
for intercontinental journeys are
limited. Air freight provides a route but
the cost is much higher per
kilogramme. Only high-value items, or
very urgent deliveries, are worth
Britain’s Health and Safety Executive
was quick to carry out inspections and
issue fines to businesses that failed to
be “Covid secure” during last year’s
temporary lockdown easing. Expect
the HSE to do the same as the country
reopens this summer. That should be
good news for Halma. Still, do not
expect the share price to rise. Even
after underperforming the wider FTSE
350 industrials index by 8 per cent
since the start of the year, shares
remain close to record highs. They
trade on a pricey valuation of 40 times
two-year forward earnings.
That optimism is linked to Halma’s
specialities. Its medical division, which
accounts for about a third of sales, is
also its most profitable, with hefty
ebitda margins of 24 per cent. The
resumption of routine surgery will
25 30 35
30.9 days
Cape of
Good Hope
$1.48m
10
8
6
4 ambitious plan to expand its global
2 chips business. It will spend $20bn to
0 Arizona. It also plans to build a
Nov Mar 2020 Nov Mar 2021
sending at the cost of $2 to $3 per
kilogramme, points out Berenberg. A
container ship costs just 4 cents. Both
have risen above historical averages,
particularly containers. Short-term
rates between China and Europe have
quintupled in a year.
Share prices of both Evergreen and
Maersk, two of the world’s biggest
shippers, have soared. Even so, their
earning valuation multiples have
collapsed. Markets seem to believe
freight rates will fall back this year.
No matter. With so many supply
chain glitches for everything from
automotive chips to medical supplies,
expect companies to order more in a
bid to ensure inventory cushions. The
Suez Canal gridlock is not the only
reason supply chains will stretch.
boost revenues. The recent £37m
acquisition of Static Systems, which
makes communication devices for
nurses, should also bolster the division.
Elsewhere, additional environmental
regulation will support demand for the
group’s detection equipment.
But the stock is expensive. ESG-
focused investors like Halma. This
explains its pricey valuation, a quarter
above the five-year average.
Halma is buying its way to growth.
About 73 per cent of its free cash flow
went to acquisitions in the four years to
March 2020. An estimated return on
equity of 17 per cent coupled with a 50
per cent dividend payout suggests a
sustainable growth rate below 10 per
cent. That sounds low for its premium
earnings multiple. For all its safety
credentials, Halma is not a prudent bet.
Intel:
raising Arizona
Wall Street has soured on Intel in
recent years, turning its attention to
flashy new semiconductor upstarts
instead. Now that Intel is the
beneficiary of goodwill in Washington
and a cold war in Asia, investors are
scurrying back. On Tuesday, the US
microprocessor legend announced an
build two extra fabrication plants in
“foundry” unit to manufacture chips
for third party, “fabless” designers.
Intel’s waning manufacturing
prowess has led at least one investor to
suggest it get out of making its own
chips. New chief executive Pat
Gelsinger is making the opposite bet. It
is made easier by the US president’s
tacit backing. Semiconductors are a
proxy battle between the US and
China. Joe Biden has made domestic
capabilities a key priority.
According to data shared by Intel,
nearly half of global chip sales occur in
the US, though American production is
only about a tenth of the total. That
proportion has dropped with the rise of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company and other manufacturers in
Asia. Tension with China means
Washington will spend to ensure vital
supply chains remain in the US.
Gelsinger claims Intel’s ability to
keep up with cutting-edge chip
manufacturing is improving. The
company also said its 2021 revenue and
profits would exceed forecasts based on
strong laptop PC demand. This is a nice
boost along with the long-term strategy
shift. Intel shares are up 27 per cent
this year while the S&P 500 is up just 4
per cent. The $15bn forecast for annual
free cash flow makes the $20bn capital
commitment seem reasonable.
Intel has taken a back seat to a
resurgent Microsoft and other Silicon
Valley upstarts. Now it is going
supersize. Google was one of several
tech luminaries to offer a statement of
support for Intel’s strategy shift. After
Washington, that may be the most
important endorsement of all.
Lex on the web
For notes on today’s stories
go to www.ft.com/lex

CROSSWORD
No 16,743 Set by BASILISK
• ‘  ‰ …  } y ACROSS
1 Surprise attack by former president on
u America (6)
4 He’s likely to lose, according to boxer? (8)
•¸ ••
10 Calming concerns of nervous capital
leads to new guidelines (9)
11 Bail suspect with one good reason for
doing so? (5)
12 Reduce size of corporation? (4)
•‘ • 13 Append a line by writer associated with
Department of Defense? (10)
•‰ 15 Time travel initially banned in contest (7)
16 Pastry base with crushed garlic’s not
•… • •} good (6)
19 Clubs say accepting racket is giving up
(6)
•y
21 Crowd round saint that is interrupting
father endlessly (7)
•u ‘¸ ‘• 23 Misleading article about dead husband
going astray (3,7)
‘‘ 25 Sport is ultimately like going into battle
(4)
‘ ‘‰ ‘… 27 Newspaper article declared end to
hostilities (5)
‘ 28 Noted prior to supply ideas for opening
of abbey (9)
29 Renewed attack put off Revolutionary
‘} ‘y Guards (8)
30 Sale item charges 60% of cheap dress (6)
DOWN
1 Suitable program location to store zero
‘u ¸ (8)
2 Delight in mentioning insolent manner of
worker? (9)
3 Mark left by The Sound of Music in
Jamaica (4)
5 Close relationship is something fitting for
JOTTER PAD retirement (7)
6 Film about Greek musician and creator of
gospel (10)
7 Sketch concealing son’s stoop (5)
8 Screen reporter’s question thoroughly (6)
9 Opportune issue raised by empty library
(6)
14 Attacker doing time felt wronged (6,4)
17 Crude, popular lament: Burying the
Solution 16,742 Unknown Soldier (9)
18 Object to confuse debugger (8)
ã
B
æ ×
E
‚ ×
Ý
æ 8 Ô
K
Ú E
‚
Ý æ æ 8
7 æ
20 Refuse to get on with actress having
8 ‚ Ý Ý æ Ð < æ E : Ý ‚ € B been snubbed earlier (7)
N N : : Ú K B Ú 21 Trouble for member of British workers’
Ú ~ ‚ : : B æ 7 ~ ‚ Ý Ý æ × organisation (6)
æ × Ú ~ < ~ N 22 Do well without having succeeded in
7 N N
7
ã
€
Ý Ô
Ú
7 7
æ
N Ý
N
€ N ‚ 7
Ï
conforming to accepted norms (6)
~ æ Ú : N × × Ô ~ N Ú ã Ô } 24 Doc perhaps died following cold’s
E ~ Ú < Ú : B recurrence (5)
æ Ý ‚ ~ E N € N N × Ý æ æ × 26 Dancing characters in the middle of silver
B ~
~ Ô ~
‚
Ô 8
Ú
€ N Ý
Ý Ý
Ý ‚
Ú ~
} B Ú E
screen (4)
N Ý N ã × Ò N
Ú E ‚ : : æ × Ú 7 ‚ Ò N Ð Ú