Author: Arabian Media staff

One scoop to start: BlueCrest Capital Management, the hedge fund turned family office founded by billionaire Michael Platt, has gained more than 28 per cent this year after betting on a weakening US dollar.And a second scoop: Lex Greensill, the Australian financier, is set to make his first public courtroom appearance since his eponymous lending company collapsed when he testifies in a high-stakes London court case brought by a Credit Suisse fund against SoftBank.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Investment in fossil fuels will fall this year for the first time since the Covid pandemic, according to the International Energy Agency, led by a contraction in the oil sector where a sharp drop in prices is forcing companies to reassess their plans. In its annual report on money flowing into the energy sector, the IEA predicted a 6 per cent drop in spending on oil production this year. Excluding the Covid-19 pandemic years, it will mark the largest fall since 2016, when…

The couple’s gorgeous backdrop for their vows wasn’t far from their love nest in Encino, Calif., which Lovato purchased in 2020 for $7 million. Source link

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The EU is being flooded with super-strength cannabis that puts users at greater risk of psychosis, the bloc’s drugs monitoring agency has warned.Alexis Goosdeel, director of the EU Drugs Agency, said some cannabis circulating today was five times stronger than “the pot that was smoked at Woodstock”, the counterculture music festival of 1969.“It’s a concern because with such a high potency, the probability of it being the cause of a psychotic episode or other mental health issues is much higher,” Goosdeel told…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the EU trade myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.EU businesses are lobbying Beijing to set up a special channel to fast-track Chinese approval of rare earth export licences for “reliable” companies, as China’s strict controls on shipments of the critical minerals threaten supply chains worldwide. The proposal was made at a meeting between European companies and China’s ministry of commerce officials, according to three people briefed on the matter, and comes as European officials warn that their factories are at risk of shutdowns owing to the Chinese measures that were…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Citigroup has laid off 3,500 technology staff in mainland China as part of the bank’s push to cut costs and streamline its global operations amid a broader turnaround effort.The cut affects a division based in Shanghai and Dalian, north-eastern China, that provides IT services to Citi businesses in more than 20 countries.Citi said some positions would be moved to other countries “to be closer to the businesses and products they support”, without providing figures or specific locations. The bank said the process…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wizz Air’s profits fell by more than 40 per cent last year as the low-cost carrier grappled with the grounding of its planes due to engine problems, sending shares down 24 per cent on Thursday. The London-listed airline said net profit for the year to the end of March slumped 41.5 per cent year on year to €213.9mn, as it was hit with higher costs and capacity constraints resulting from more than 40 of its aircraft being out of action. Problems with…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Procter & Gamble said it would slash 15 per cent of its office roles over the next two years as part of an effort to cut costs, as weak consumer sentiment and tariff uncertainty weighs on growth. The maker of household brands including Gillette and Tide revealed the cuts of 7,000 non-manufacturing jobs in a presentation for a Paris-based conference on Thursday, as well as plans to divest a number of categories and brands and restructure the organisation.The company did not specify…

Morizo is holding court at the foot of Mount Fuji. The location is the edge of a 4.5km-long speedway, where he’s just brought his multicoloured GR Corolla to a standstill. This Toyota is racing using liquid-hydrogen fuel. The driver’s door opens and out steps Morizo, clad in his trademark black-and-yellow racing gear, face hidden behind a bulbous helmet.The crowd, many of whom have come specifically to brush shoulders with this living legend, erupts in cheers. Making his way off the track, Morizo is trailed by journalists, Toyota employees and a security detail, as well as by a gaggle of “Race…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Global commodities trader Trafigura has warned “turbulence” in the market would extend into the second half of the year as geopolitical uncertainty, higher tariffs and inflationary pressures take their toll on the industry.The trading houses that move raw materials around the world have responded to the whiplash of US policy pronouncements and sudden changes to proposed trade tariffs, which have triggered huge flows of commodities into the US.Chief executive Richard Holtum this year said he was “semi-seriously” considering changing the working hours…