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WEDNESDAY 29 APRIL 2020 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

Covid-19: the 3 Crisis poses uncomfortable questions over financial fragility — MARTIN WOLF
3 Without private capital, more companies will go to the wall — JON GRAY
global impact PAGE 17 3 Golf course walks could ease urbanites’ craving for space — IZABELLA KAMINSKA

Wave of relief Briefing

Australia eases i British Airways to slash 12,000 jobs
back on curbs Chief Alex Cruz has written to the airline’s 42,000
staff saying it is preparing to cut almost 30 per cent
of the workforce. Parent IAG warned that a return
to 2019 passenger levels would take years.— PAGE 5
Surfers head for the water at Bondi
Beach in Sydney yesterday for the first i Wirecard questions remain after audit
time in a month as Australia begins to The German payments group has announced that
ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions. KPMG’s six-month special audit could not verify the
Beaches are accessible to swimmers genuineness of sales and profit from third parties at
and surfers to exercise only, while some the heart of fraud allegations.— PAGE 5
non-essential businesses in Australia
including food takeaways have also re- i France to ease lockdown from May 11
opened following a steep fall in Covid-19 Premier Edouard Philippe has set out plans to relax
infections in recent weeks. gradually coronavirus curbs to avert economic
Australia, which has benefited from “collapse”. Businesses, except cafés, restaurants and
its remote location and early decisions big meeting places, will be allowed to open.— PAGE 2
to ban travellers from China and then
close its borders entirely, reported just i Lakers lambasted over rescue fund
12 cases of coronavirus yesterday. There US Treasury secretary Steven
have been 84 deaths and the rate of Mnuchin has hit out at the Los
infection has been cut from 25 per cent Angeles basketball team for
in late March to less than 0.5 per cent. tapping a loan scheme designed
Report page 4 for small businesses.— PAGE 4;
Rick Rycroft/AP EDITORIAL COMMENT, PAGE 14

i Trade finance in danger of drying up

Brazil faces turbulence as judges

Export credit insurance providers have warned that
the finance that underpins flows of goods around
the world is at risk of running short as disruption to
transactions caused by the crisis worsens.— PAGE 3

i Chinese industry shows signs of uptick

authorise inquiry into Bolsonaro Manufacturers of construction machinery have

raised prices by up to 10 per cent as sales take off, in
a sign of how the economy is restarting after weeks
of shutdown during the virus epidemic.— PAGE 4

i Fifth of workers seek to be paid by state

3 Ex-star minister alleges influence peddling 3 Congress has final say on any indictment
BRYAN HARRIS AND ANDRES SCHIPANI
SAO PAULO
Brazil’s Supreme Court has authorised a
police investigation into President Jair
Bolsonaro, heightening tension and rais-
ing the prospect of political turbulence
in Latin America’s largest democracy.
The move by Justice Celso de Mello to
allow a formal probe by federal police
comes days after the resignation of
Sérgio Moro as justice minister. He had
accused Mr Bolsonaro of political inter-
ference in police work.
The former star minister made a
string of allegations against the Brazil-
ian leader at a press conference, includ-
ing influence peddling, obstruction of
justice and misrepresentation of public
documents. The claims triggered a req-
uest for investigation by the attorney-
FT analysis has shown that more than 30m workers
in Europe’s five biggest economies have applied to
have their wages paid by the state, highlighting the
general, which late on Monday was Brazil’s Congress is notoriously frac- Congress says no, just like in the pro- scale of disruption to labour markets.— PAGE 2
accepted by the Supreme Court. tured and it is unclear how the 513 law- ceedings against Donald Trump, it is
“Nobody, absolutely nobody, is above makers in the lower house will respond. Inside over.”
the authority of the state legal system,” Despite warring openly with much of Mr Moro accused Mr Bolsonaro of Datawatch
said Justice de Mello. the political establishment, the presi- 3 Virus reports pressing him to change the federal
Federal police have 60 days to investi- dent retains support from conservative Pages 2-4 police chief. One of Mr Bolsonaro’s sons
gate the president and to decide on lawmakers, particularly those in the 3 Corporate has faced questions over alleged links to Lockdown v economy Britons are the
pressing charges. Any indictment, how- evangelical caucus. impact Rio de Janeiro’s underworld, which he % saying business should resume least likely among
ever, would first need to be accepted by In recent weeks, the former army cap- Pages 5-7 denies, and another son on the sus- even if virus is not contained 14 surveyed
the lower house of Congress before a tain has also made overtures to centrist 3 Markets pected targeting of the president’s polit- Disagree Agree nations to believe
the economy
trial could commence at the Supreme groups willing to do deals in return for Pages 8-9 ical foes with digital “fake news”, which Russia should open even
Court. their support. While anathema to the 3 Big Read he also denies. China if the coronavirus
If indicted by Congress, Mr Bolsonaro president’s diehard supporters, who Page 15 The scandal has bolstered calls for the Italy pandemic is not
would be temporarily suspended and decry the “old politics” of horse-trading, 3 Editorial impeachment of Mr Bolsonaro, Brazil fully contained.
replaced by Hamilton Mourão, his vice- support from this bloc would hinder any Comment although Rodrigo Maia, a political rival US In Russia, China
president, for a period of up to 180 days. proceedings against Mr Bolsonaro. Page 16 and the Speaker of the lower House who Spain and Italy more
If found guilty at the Supreme Court “In the end, it is a very political proc- 3 Opinion holds the power to decide whether to UK respondents agree
trial, Mr Bolsonaro would be removed ess . . . the national Congress holds the Page 17 start such a process, has said tackling 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 that a restart
from office. Mr Bolsonaro has denied key,” said Oscar Vilhena, the dean of law 3 Lex Page 18 coronavirus is the immediate priority. Source: Ipsos Mori (16-19 April 2020) should go ahead
any wrongdoing. at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation. “If Additional reporting by Carolina Pulice

Nintendo’s ‘Animal Crossing’ gamers

make riskier bets after virtual rate cut
LEO LEWIS — TOKYO The shock Bank of Nook rate cut of insect collection and home improve-
ROBIN WIGGLESWORTH — OSLO
mirrors efforts by monetary authorities ment, where economic activity often
Savers at Nintendo’s the Bank of Nook around the world to ease the effects of depends on bank lending.
are being driven to speculate on tur- coronavirus by cutting rates and lower- It did not take long, however, for play-
nips and tarantulas, as the most popu- ing longer-term borrowing costs ers to spot that they could defraud the
Africa’s low death rate lar video game of the coronavirus era through vast bond-buying programmes. game’s bank by depositing large sums in
stirs hope and caution mimics global central bankers by mak- Total worldwide stimulus announced saving accounts and then “time travel-
ing steep cuts in interest rates. in recent months comes to about $14tn, ling” by tweaking the console’s internal
Analysis i PAGE 3 according to the IMF, after adding in clock. The bank duly paid decades of
The estimated 12m players of the Japa- various government spending packages. interest, making rapid bell millionaires.
Austria €3.90 Malta €3.70
nese gaming group’s cartoon fantasy “Now that the [Bank of Nook] has cut People familiar with the situation said
Bahrain Din1.8 Morocco Dh45 Animal Crossing were informed last week interest rates to near zero, their next the Bank of Nook rate cut was an effort
Belgium
Bulgaria
€3.90
Lev7.50
Netherlands
Norway
€3.90
NKr40 about the move, in which the Bank of logical step is quantitative easing. It’s to curb the practice. Nintendo has made
Croatia
Cyprus
Kn29
€3.70
Oman
Pakistan
OR1.60
Rupee350
Nook slashed the interest on savings essential players try to hook their game no official comment on the matter.
Czech Rep Kc105 Poland Zl 20 from 0.5 per cent to just 0.05 per cent: up to their printers as it might start The much lower interest rate means
Denmark
Egypt
DKr38
E£45
Portugal
Qatar
€3.70
QR15 1.9m bells, the in-game currency, can be churning out money,” joked Albert the most effective way of making money
Finland €4.70 Romania Ron17 bought online for about $1. Edwards, strategist at Société Générale. now is to gamble on the game’s internal
France €3.90 Russia €5.00
Germany €3.90 Serbia NewD420 The abrupt policy shift provoked fury The latest instalment in the Animal “stalk” market — a bourse in which the
Gibraltar
Greece
£2.90
€3.70
Slovak Rep
Slovenia
€3.70
€3.70
that a once-solid stream of income had Crossing series has proved a well-timed only commodity is rotting turnips. Play-
Hungary Ft1200 Spain €3.70 been reduced to a trickle. “I’m never addition for those looking for diversions ers can also make money by catching
India Rup220 Sweden SKr39
Italy €3.70 Switzerland SFr6.20 going to financially recover from this,” during lockdown. The game thrusts the and selling dangerous tarantulas, which
Latvia
Lithuania
€6.99
€4.30
Tunisia
Turkey
Din7.50
TL19
one player wrote on an online forum. player on to a violence-free ecosystem appear only after 7pm local time.
Luxembourg €3.90 UAE Dh20.00
North Macedonia Den220

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 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

CORONAVIRUS

National curbs
CORONAVIRUS
ROUND-UP

US considers making further

France to ease lockdown next month
cash payments to individuals
Spain and Portugal also hour crowding. Passengers will be “We have never known such a situa- ‘We have Mr Philippe warned that if the
required to wear face masks. tion in our country’s history,” Mr number of new Covid-19 cases did not
The White House is debating whether Congress should
announce plans to reduce Schools will reopen progressively, Philippe said. The prime minister said a never continue to fall as predicted “we will not
provide more money to US taxpayers beyond the restrictions on public starting with nursery and primary prolonged stoppage of whole sectors, as known such end the lockdown on May 11”.
$1,200 payments being made as part of the $2.2tn res- schools and with attendance depending well as disruption of education “would Spain hopes to phase out its coronavi-
cue package passed this month. VICTOR MALLET — PARIS on agreement from the parents, and mean for the country not only the pain- a situation rus lockdown over the next two months,
Kevin Hassett, former chairman of the council of eco- class sizes will be limited to 15. ful inconvenience of confinement but in our Pedro Sánchez, prime minister,
nomic advisers who has returned to help during the cri- French prime minister Edouard However, the ending of the lockdown also [ . . .] the serious risk of collapse”. announced to the nation last night. Mr
sis, said the idea of providing more emergency help for Philippe yesterday outlined plans for would vary from place to place, Mr The easing of the lockdown depended country’s Sánchez said the shift towards a “new
individuals, was being studied “very closely”. The the gradual relaxation of the country’s Philippe said. Departments would be on a triple strategy of “protection, test- history’ normality” would take place over four
House of Representatives was also debating the issue. coronavirus lockdown, in force since labelled “red” or “green” on May 7 for ing and isolation”, Mr Philippe said. stages, which in the best case would be
March 17, from May 11 in order to avert the proposed easing of restrictions four France has struggled to provide completed by the end of June and would
the risk of economic “collapse”. days later depending on the local enough masks for its health workers vary by province by province. Apart
Businesses could reopen from May 11 number of new cases as well as on the and for the general population, a prob- from exceptional cases, schools would
Greece prepares to lift restrictions in — except cafés, restaurants and large capacity for testing and receiving lem the prime minister admitted had not return until September.
stages after premier sets out timetable meeting places such as big museums patients in hospital. Mr Philippe said aroused “incomprehension and anger”. Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo
and cinemas — although teleworking beaches would remain closed until But he said the government was procur- de Sousa announced yesterday that the
should be continued wherever possible June 1 and that the 2019-20 professional ing 100m surgical masks a week for country’s state of emergency would end
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, has for at least the first three weeks, he said. football season would not resume. health workers, and promised there on May 3. António Costa, prime minis-
announced a road map for lifting the lockdown and Local public transport will be largely More than 23,000 deaths from Cov- would be enough washable masks for ter, said that social distancing and other
restarting the economy by July 1. restored, with the Paris metro and buses id-19 have been recorded in French hos- the general population. The govern- measures would remain in place.
Curbs on movement in urban areas will be lifted on set to run at 70 per cent of normal capac- pitals and old people’s homes since the ment aims to have the capacity to per- Additional reporting by Peter Wise in Lis-
May 4, when booksellers, electronics, sports stores and ity, although the plan is to avoid rush- beginning of March. form 700,000 tests a week by May 11. bon and Daniel Dombey in Madrid
hairdressers reopen, and most other shops on May 11.
Parks and archaeological sites will open on May 18.
Masks will be required in public and social distancing
must continue, he added.
Europe. Job retention
Mexico investor gloom darkens
Furlough schemes tapped by 30m workers
Huge take-up of policies aimed
at helping employers keep
staff shows scale of disruption
MARTIN ARNOLD — FRANKFURT

More than 30m workers in Europe’s five

biggest economies have applied to have
their wages paid by the state via short-
Investor gloom in Mexico has deepened, with 99 per cent term leave schemes designed to stop
of respondents to a Credit Suisse survey saying President unemployment rocketing in the corona-
Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government is not doing virus crisis.
enough to protect the economy from coronavirus. The rapidly rising figure for the
number of furloughed workers in Ger-
many, France, the UK, Italy and Spain —
amounting to nearly a fifth of those
Revolutionary Guard helps Iran countries’ total workforces, according
screen most of 80m population to data collected by the FT — underlines
the scale of disruption caused to
Europe’s labour markets.
The recruitment of half a million volunteers by Iran’s Europe’s governments are hoping to
Revolutionary Guard Corps has expedited efforts to persuade employers to keep people on
carry out a sweeping national coronavirus screening their payroll until the crisis is over by
programme, a senior military commander has said. allowing companies to send workers
Iran has screened 72m out of its 80m population for home or reduce their hours temporarily
symptoms to track the disease, with the army suppor- while the state pays part of their wages.
ting the health service. “If they had not joined health The number of Europeans who have
teams, the screening would have taken much longer,” applied to join the subsidised schemes Social distance: hit many smaller companies, such as A survey by IMK found that 40 per is either extended or phased out as peo-
said Brigadier General Nasrollah Fathian. exceeds the 26m Americans who have commuters wait restaurants, hotels and shops. They may cent of people believed they would have ple gradually return to work. Whatever
filed for unemployment benefits in the for trains at simply lay off staff or go out of business. financial problems after less than three the scale of the UK furlough scheme, the
five weeks since the lockdowns began. Gare du Nord in “The problem is that the shock is very months of being on Kurzarbeit, which plight of airlines was underlined yester-
The policy is one of the most expen- Paris this week. large and it is many small companies pays up to 60 per cent of net salaries, or day by British Airways which
Beijing police reported to have arrested sive measures introduced by European The number that are hit, and it is in sectors where the 67 per cent for parents. announced it was making 12,000 of its
three journalists over virus articles governments in response to the pan- of furloughed companies may not be so keen to keep “Germany is always lauded for the 42,000 workforce redundant.
demic and has been forecast to cost the workers in hold of their employees,” said Sebastian level of Kurzarbeit but if you look at it the Last weekend, industry body Airlines
region’s five largest economies more France is rising Dullien, scientific director of the Insti- level is not that high compared to Aus- UK wrote a letter to the chancellor say-
Beijing police are reported to have detained three Chi- than €100bn in total. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
tute for Macroeconomics and Business tria or other countries, particularly for ing that aviation was “facing a cliff-edge
nese journalists who archived censored reports about But there are concerns in some coun- Cycle Research (IMK) in Düsseldorf. lower paid workers, like waitresses or post-June, whilst services are scaled up”.
coronavirus on open-source coding website GitHub. tries, such as Spain and the UK, that the shop cashiers,” Mr Dullien said. In Spain, there are similar worries
Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Chen Mei, schemes will not last long enough to The German government plans to that the government may not extend
Cai Wei and Mr Cai’s partner, who helped run the Ter- avoid a surge in unemployment. Mean- European workers put jobs on hold increase Kurzarbeit to as much as 87 per the special version of its Erte short-term
minus 2049 website, were arrested on April 19. while, low-paid workers in other coun- Short-term leave applications (millions) cent for parents who are still relying on leave scheme, which is supporting
The website, where Chinese citizens post articles tries, such as Germany, fear they will not Total workforce (end 2019, millions) it after several months. But Mr Dullien about 4m workers and is set to expire on
about the outbreak, was hosted on GitHub, which is not be able to last for more than a couple of 0 10 20 30 40 50 said this was still not enough. “This is a May 9. An existing version of the Erte
blocked in China, the rights group added. months on the money provided. France crisis that disproportionately hits scheme is considered too bureaucratic
Many of the European schemes are poorer people and, if you want to stabi- by many companies.
modelled on Germany’s Kurzarbeit pro- Italy lise aggregate demand, those people Spain’s CEOE employers’ federation
Cases so far gramme, which was widely credited who are liquidity constrained and live said on Twitter after meeting officials
with shielding the country from a big Germany* hand to mouth, if you give them more last week that “the prolongation and the
3,074,948 jump in unemployment after the 2008
financial crisis, when it supported the
Spain money, they will spend it.”
In the UK, companies in the airline,
greater flexibility of the Erte system is
fundamental and urgent, and this is
and 213,273 deaths by 6.15pm BST on April 28
Source: Johns Hopkins University, CSSE
wages of 1.5m workers. However, econo- UK retail and hospitality sectors are wor- what we have conveyed”.
mists say the schemes may not work as ried about the end of the country’s fur- Additional reporting by Daniel Thomas in
Read more at ft.com/coronavirus
well this time because the economic * Extrapolated from a survey by University of Mannheim lough scheme in June. They may have to London, Daniel Dombey in Madrid and
Sources: National governments; FT research
contraction is deeper and it has badly make many people redundant unless it Davide Ghiglione in Rome

Capital relief
MAKE A SMART INVESTMENT
Subscribe to the FT today at FT.com/subscription Brussels relaxes bank rules to fund €450bn lending boost
FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER UK £2.70 Channel Islands £3.00; Republic of Ireland €3.00
JIM BRUNSDEN — BRUSSELS viding state guarantees for vast Valdis Dombrovskis, the commission’s second quarter increased by a net
MARTIN ARNOLD — FRANKFURT
Trump vs the Valley
Tech titans need to minimise
political risk — GILLIAN TETT, PAGE 13
A Five Star plan?
Italy’s populists are trying to woo
the poor — BIG READ, PAGE 11
Dear Don...
May’s first stab at the break-up
letter — ROBERT SHRIMSLEY, PAGE 12
amounts of loans to struggling borrow- executive vice-president in charge of 77 percentage points, a record since its
HMRC warns 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
SATURDAY 1 APRIL / SUNDAY 2 APRIL 2017

Brussels has offered banks temporary ers, while also supporting the banking financial regulation. He urged banks to survey started in 2003.
customs risks THE END
i US bargain-hunters fuel Europe M&A
Europe has become the big target for cross-border

system with cheap loans and reduced show restraint in paying bonuses and However, the tightening of credit
dealmaking, as US companies ride a Trump-fuelled
equity market rally to hunt for bargains across the
HOW DRIVERLESS
OF THE
capital relief that it said could boost
Atlantic.— PAGE 15; CHINA CURBS HIT DEALS, PAGE 17
TECHNOLOGY IS
being swamped 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
non-urgent operations and for A&E treatment while AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE Censors and sensitivity
by Brexit surge
some surgical procedures will be scrapped.— PAGE 4

capital requirements. dividends, saying spare cash should be availability reported by eurozone banks
i Emerging nations in record debt sales Warning: this article may be

lending by up to €450bn this year,

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 4 2017

Developing countries have sold record levels of

government debt in the first quarter of this year,
upsetting — LIFE & ARTS
taking advantage of a surge in optimism toward
emerging markets as trade booms.— PAGE 15

3 Confidence in IT plans ‘has collapsed’

Credit Suisse Art of persuasion Mystery deepens
i London tower plans break records
How To Spend It
The latest proposals by Brussels come harnessed to support businesses and in the first quarter appeared to be much
A survey has revealed that a
3 Fivefold rise in declarations expected record 455 tall buildings are
planned or under construction over disputed painting of Jane Austen

arguing the economic damage wrought

JAMES BLITZ — WHITEHALL EDITOR adjust its negotiation position with the in London. Work began on

A computer system acquired to collect
duties and clear imports into the UK
may not be able to handle the huge
surge in workload expected once Britain
engulfed in
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
press for certain options in Brussels.” The US secretary of state has failed to reconcile

fresh tax probe

on top of more than $500bn in capital households. more “contained” than in previous
leaves the EU, customs authorities have In a letter to Andrew Tyrie, chairman tensions after talks in Ankara with President Recep
admitted to MPs.
HM Revenue & Customs told a parlia-
of the Commons treasury select com-
mittee, HMRC said the timetable for
Tayyip Erdogan on issues including Syria and the
extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen.— PAGE 9
Chic new lodgings

by the coronavirus crisis justified a

mentary inquiry that the new system
needed urgent action to be ready by
March 2019, when Brexit is due to be
completed, and the chair of the probe
said confidence it would be operational
in time “has collapsed”.
delivering CDS was “challenging but
achievable”. But, it added, CDS was “a i Toshiba investors doubt revival plan
in Scotland
complex programme” that needed to be In a stormy three-hour meeting, investors accused MAGAZINE
linked to dozens of other computer sys- managers ofhaving an entrenched secrecy culture
tems to work properly. In November, 3 UK, France and Netherlands swoop
and cast doubt on a revival plan after Westinghouse
HMRC assigned a “green traffic light” to filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.— PAGE 16
3 Blow for bid to clean up Swiss image

relief that financial regulators around Loan demand from companies had downturns, such as in the 2008 financial
Setting up a digital customs system CDS, indicating it would be delivered on
has been at the heart of Whitehall’s time. But last month, it wrote to the i HSBC woos transgender customers
Brexit planning because of the fivefold committee saying the programme had The bank has unveiled a range of gender-neutral it followed “a strategy offull client tax

“targeted” easing of regulations intro-

RALPH ATKINS — ZURICH
increase in declarations expected at been relegated to “amber/red,” which DUNCAN
titles such asROBINSON — BRUSSELS
“Mx”, in addition to Mr, Mrs, Misscompliance”
or but was still trying to
British ports when the UK leaves the EU. means there are “major risks or issues Ms, in a move to embrace diversity and cater togather the information about the probes.

FINANCIAL TIMES
About 53 per cent of British imports
come from the EU, and do not require
checks because they arrive through the
single market and customs union. But
apparent in a number ofkey areas”. Credit
needs Suisse hascustomers.
of transgender been targeted by
— PAGE 20 HM Revenue & Customs said it had
HMRC said last night: “[CDS] is on sweeping tax investigations in the UK, launched a criminal investigation into
track to be delivered by January 2019, France and the Netherlands, setting suspected tax evasion and money laun-
and it will be able to support frictionless back Switzerland’s attempts to clean up dering by “a global financial institution
Datawatch

(Deposito Legal) M-32596-1995;

the world — including the ECB, Bank of shot up since the pandemic started, the crisis, according to the ECB.
Theresa May announced in January that international trade once the UK leaves its image as a tax haven. and certain ofits employees”. The UK
Brexit would include departure from the EU . . . Internal ratings are designed The Swiss bank said yesterday it was tax authority added: “The international
Terror attacks inwith
co-operating western Europe after
authorities reach
itsattacks — of this investigation sends a clear The lure of the exotic

duced after the 2008 financial crash.

both trading blocs. HMRC handles 60m
declarations a year but, once outside the
customs union, the number is expected
to hit 300m.
to make sure that each project gets the Recent
focus and resource it requires for suc- offices in London, Paris and Amsterdam notably the message
2011 that there is no hiding place for
cessful delivery.” were contacted
Highlighted attack byOthers massacre bythose seeking to evade tax.”
local officials Robin Lane Fox on the flair
“concerning client tax matters”. Anders BreivikDutch in prosecutors, who initiated the
HMRC’s letters to the select commit- of foreign flora — HOUSE & HOME

Bracken House, 1 Friday Street,

The revelations about the system,
called Customs Declaration Service, are
likely to throw a sharper spotlight on
tee, which will be published today, pro-
vide no explanation for the rating
change, but some MPs believe it was
Lloyd’s of London chose Brus-
sels over “five or six” other
insurers to follow. Most of the
business written in Brussels
EU, with Dublin and Luxem-
bourg thought to be more likely
AFP
parts in Germany wereBrussels
while Australia’s revenue department
Norway
said it was investigating a Swiss
Publishing Director, Roula Khalaf;
Norway, the
Dutch authorities said their counter- action, said they seized jewellery, paint-
attacks in Paris
also involved,
and Nice, and
ings and gold ingots as part of their
Brussels suicide
Nice bank.
the while French officials said their
probe;
investigation had revealed “several

whether Whitehall can implement a
host of regulatory regimes — in areas
caused by Mrs May’s unexpected deci-
sion to leave the EU customs union.
cities in its decision to set up an
EU base to help deal with the
will be reinsured back to the
syndicates at its City of London
homes for the industry. But Paris
Mr Nelson said the city won on The inquiries threaten to undermine
efforts by the country’s banking sector
England and US Federal Reserve — have ECB said, finding a net 26 percentage- Banks reporting a tightening in credit
bombings — have
thousand” bank accounts opened in
bucked the trend
Switzerland and not declared to French

London EC4M 9BT.

ranging from customs and immigration
to agriculture and fisheries — by the
time Britain leaves the EU.
Problems with CDS and other projects
essential to Brexit could force London to
Timetable & Great Repeal Bill page 2
Scheme to import EU laws page 3
Editorial Comment & Notebook page 12
Philip Stephens & Chris Giles page 13
JPMorgan eye options page 18
expected loss of passporting
rights after Brexit.
John Nelson, chairman of the
centuries-old insurance mar-
ket, said he expected other
headquarters, pictured above.
The Belgian capital had not
been seen as the first choice for
London’s specialist insurance
groups after the UK leaves the
its transport links, talent pool
and “extremely good regula-
tory reputation”.
Lex page 14
Insurers set to follow page 18
to overhaul business models and ensure
customers meet international tax
requirements following a US-led clamp- Publishing Company, The Financial Times Limited,
of generally low

western Europe
tax authorities.
fatalities from
The Swiss attorney-general’s office
Sources: Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre terror incidents in
said it was “astonished at the way this
down on evaders, which resulted in operation has been organised with the
billions of dollars in fines. deliberate exclusion of Switzerland”. It

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The probes risk sparking an interna- demanded a written explanation from
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City watchdog sends a clear message as

The announcement came as the results already provided to banks to help them point increase in the number of banks standards for businesses increased by a
general’s office expressed “astonish- In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guilty
ment” that it had been left out of the in the US to an “extensive and wide-
actions co-ordinated by Eurojust, the ranging conspiracy” to help clients THE RISE
Escape OF
the taper ECO-GLAM
trap
EU’s judicial liaison body. evade tax. It agreed to fines of $2.6bn.

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of a European Central Bank survey of cope with the strain of the pandemic, reporting increased demand for credit net 4 percentage points in the first quar-
LAURA NOONAN — DUBLIN Berrys after discussions with regulators. media at work, but banks are unable to
JENNIFER THOMPSON — LONDON

Tel: +44 207 775 6000, fte.subs@ft.com,

Shutdown risk as border
A boastful WhatsApp message has cost
a London investment banker his job
and a £37,000 fine in the first case of
Christopher Niehaus, a former Jeffer-
ies banker, passed confidential client
information to a “personal acquaint-
ance and a friend” using WhatsApp,
according to the FCA. The regulator said
ban people from installing apps on their
private phones.
Andrew Bodnar, a barrister at Matrix
Chambers, said the case set “a precedent
in that it shows the FCA sees these mes-
1135-8262.
Brussels takes tough stance on Brexit
with Spain handed veto over Gibraltar
regulators cracking down on commu- 390_Cover_PRESS.indd 1 19/01/2017 13:57

wall bid goes over the top nications over Facebook’s popular Mr Niehaus had turned over his device saging apps as the same as everything

www.ft.com/subscribetoday Congressional Republicans seeking to

avert a US government shutdown after
April 28 have resisted Donald Trump’s
attempt to tack funds to pay for a wall
on the US-Mexico border on to
chat app.
The fine by the Financial Conduct
Authority highlights the increasing
problem new media pose for companies
that need to monitor and archive their
to his employer voluntarily.
The FCA said Mr Niehaus had shared
confidential information on the messag-
ing system “on a number of occasions”
last year to “impress” people.
Several banks have banned the use of
else”.
Information shared by Mr Niehaus
UAE: Masar Printing & Publishing, P.O. Box 485100,
144 lenders published yesterday according to FT research. from corporate customers. The ECB ter, compared with the net 60 percent-
included the identity and details of a
client and information about a rival of ALEX BARKER — BRUSSELS ambitious trade and airline access deals. mise. If Britain wants to prolong its
Jefferies. In one instance the banker GEORGE PARKER — LONDON Gibraltar yesterday hit back at the status within the single market after
boasted how he might be able to pay off STEFAN WAGSTYL — BERLIN clause, saying the territory had “shame- Brexit, the guidelines state it would

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stopgap spending plans. They fear
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Several large investment banks have
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new media from work-issued devices,
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his mortgage if a deal was successful.
Mr Niehaus was suspended from Jef-
feries and resigned before the comple-
tion of a disciplinary process.
Jefferies declined to comment while
Living wage rise to pile
pressure on care services
Dubai. Editor in Chief: Roula Khalaf.
The EU yesterday took a tough opening
stance in Brexit negotiations, rejecting
Britain’s plea for early trade talks and
explicitly giving Spain a veto over any
arrangements that apply to Gibraltar.
fully been singled out for unfavourable
treatment by the council at the behest of
Spain”. Madrid defended the draft
clause, pointing out that it only reflected
“the traditional Spanish position”.
require “existing regulatory, budgetary,
supervisory and enforcement instru-
ments and structures to apply”.
Mr Tusk wants talks on future trade
to begin only once “sufficient progress”

Qatar: Dar Al Sharq, PO Box 3488, Doha-Qatar. Tel: +97 showed demand for loans from Euro- The commission’s plans, which said the proportion of banks expecting age points reported during the 2008
to accept the proposals. encryption system that cannot be as iPhone-loving staff spurn their work- Facebook did not respond to a request Senior EU diplomats noted that has been made on Britain’s exit bill and

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US budget Q&A and
Trump attack over health bill i PAGE 8
accessed without permission from the
user. Deutsche Bank last year banned
WhatsApp from work-issued Black-
issued BlackBerrys.
Bankers at two institutions said staff
are typically trained in how to use new
for comment.
Additional reporting by Chloe Cornish
Lombard page 20
About 2.3m people will benefit from
today’s increase in the national living
wage to £7.50 per hour. But the rise
will pile pressure on English councils,
which will have to pay care workers a
European Council president Donald
Tusk’s first draft of the guidelines,
which are an important milestone on
the road to Brexit, sought to damp Brit-
ain’s expectations by setting out a
Mr Tusk’s text left room for negotiators
to work with in coming months. Prime
minister Theresa May’s allies insisted
that the EU negotiating stance was
largely “constructive”, with one saying it
citizen rights, which Whitehall officials
believe means simultaneous talks are
possible if certain conditions are met.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary,
reassured European colleagues at a

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44557825
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drawal terms.
was “within the parameters of what we
were expecting, perhaps more on the
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had not intended to “threaten” the EU
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pean businesses had surged since the require approval from governments and corporate loan demand to rise in the financial crisis.
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Wednesday 29 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3

CORONAVIRUS

Low death toll in Africa raises hopes

Cross-border business

Global traders
fear loss of
but amplifies calls for wider testing finance as
banks balk
Regional leaders advised to err on side of caution until nature of disease is better understood at added risk
DAVID PILLING — AFRICA EDITOR DELPHINE STRAUSS

Trade finance that underpins flows of

Since the first African coronavirus case
was confirmed on February 14 when a
Chinese national was diagnosed in
Egypt, the virus has spread to almost
every corner of the continent.
Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder
whose charitable foundation is focused
on the pandemic, has warned that, if left
unchecked in a region of crowded slums
and flimsy health systems, the disease
could claim a horrifying 10m lives.
Yet more than two months on, some
are daring to whisper a more hopeful
message. Maybe, just maybe, the conti-
nent could be spared the worst of the
pandemic. “I don’t get it,” said Kennedy
Odede, a grassroots organiser who
explained that of 400 people tested ran-
domly in Nairobi’s huge Kibera slum
last week, only three were positive. “For
me, it was good news.”
Africa has just over 32,000 official
cases of the virus that has infected 3m
people around the world, and suffered
fewer than 1,400 deaths. Given the lim-
ited testing capacity, the numbers may
greatly underestimate the true burden,
although Mr Odede, like others, said
there was little evidence of unexplained
outbreaks of the virus. At face value, the
figures suggest that a continent of 1.2bn
people had suffered fewer Covid-19
deaths than the US was recording each
day.
“People are very cautiously beginning
to breathe a sigh of relief, although it
is too early to say that we’ve dodged a
bullet,” said Murithi Mutiga, an analyst
with the Crisis Group think-tank in
Nairobi.
John Nkengasong, director of the
Africa Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, warned it would be wrong
to draw any firm conclusions. There
was, he said, no hard evidence that any
factors specific to Africa — whether a
younger population, warm weather or
even the prevalence of BCG vaccina-
tions against tuberculosis — had any
impact on the disease’s spread.
“I would be extremely cautious at this
point to make any statement that we are
moving slowly and that there are special
factors,” he said, adding that confirmed
cases had risen by more than 40 per
cent in a week. That suggested Africa
might simply be behind the curve, with
the pandemic picking up speed now.
“Our testing level is extremely low,”
he said, implying many cases might
have gone undetected. Some 415,000
tests meant only 400 per million had
been carried out, which is much lower
than in Europe.
Rather than speculate about
unproven factors retarding the disease’s
spread, Mr Nkengasong said he pre-
ferred to praise the decisive action
taken by governments. “African coun-
tries took very radical steps very early
on by shutting frontiers and doing lock-
downs,” he said.
Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at
the University of East Anglia in the UK,
said the authorities were right to be cau-
tious. Still, he said, there were reasons to
suspect the virus might be less deadly in
32,000 merchandise around the world is at
risk of drying up as the disruption to
Number of official coronavirus
cases in Africa. The continent transactions caused by the pandemic
has recorded fewer than 1,400 worsens.
deaths
Companies doing cross-border business
often seek credit, insurance or other
guarantees to help them with working
19.4 years
The median age in Africa,
capital and to cover the risk that they
will not be paid for goods they export, or
will not receive the goods they paid for.
compared with 40 in Europe Now, multilateral institutions are
and 38 in the US
warning of a growing scarcity of trade
finance as global banks reassess the
risks involved and some local banks
struggle to access dollar liquidity.
415,000 Euler Hermes, one of the biggest trade
credit insurance providers, acknowl-
Number of tests carried out edged it was reassessing risk, cutting
in Africa, equivalent to 400 credit limits and increasing the cost of
per million people and much
lower than in Europe cover in many cases. “The current crisis
brings with it a significant increase in
late payments and additional risks that
our clients may face unpaid invoices as
certain buyers may present heightened
levels of risk of non-payment and dete-
riorated credit worthiness,” it said.
A shortfall in trade finance is a con-
cern because it could exacerbate the
sharp contraction already seen in global
trade. For developing countries strug-
gling to secure essential supplies, it
could cause as much of a problem as
export bans on food and medical sup-
plies put in place by some governments.
Last week, the IMF and World Trade
Organization sounded the alarm, saying
it was “important to ensure that imports
Front line: Africa where droplet-spread diseases, the risk of high numbers of fatalities is ‘African 337 deaths, one epidemiologist said the of food and essential medical equip-
Florence Akiuor, such as flu, have tended to spread more substantially reduced.” data released by the health ministry ment reach the economies where they
left, and Lucy slowly. The continent had only one case Nor was there strong evidence that countries were insufficient to predict the course of are most needed”.
Awuor of the of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the benefit of young populations was took very the disease. But he doubted that the offi- Some trade experts argue the decline
Coalition for or Sars, during the 2002-03 outbreak, undermined by poor nutrition. “Malnu- cial statistics were wildly inaccurate: “If simply reflects the sharp contraction in
Grassroots with a sole infection in Cape Town. trition may be a contributing factor to radical infections were drastically higher, we global trade volumes. Ebru Pakcan, glo-
Human Rights Slower spread of airborne infections, mortality, but there is no evidence for steps very would see hospitals being over- bal head of trade at Citi, noted that Chi-
Defenders said Prof Hunter, might be attributable what is at this stage just a hypothesis.” whelmed, which is not happening. But it nese factories were reopening as orders
demonstrate the to less dense populations, the effect of One way to judge whether coronavi- early on by could still happen.” from European clients were in decline.
use of masks in ultraviolet light or a climate that meant rus deaths might be being under- shutting Trudie Lang, director of the Global “This will create cash flow challenges
a Nairobi slum people spent more time outside. reported was to search overall fatality Health Network at Oxford university’s and those cash flow challenges will turn
Fredrik Lerneryd/AFP/Getty
In the case of coronavirus, he said, a statistics for deaths in excess of normal frontiers Nuffield Department of Medicine, said it into credit challenges . . . that will
youthful population may also help to levels. In South Africa, deaths in the and doing would be wrong — and potentially dan- impact credit availability for some of
explain the low death rate so far. The year up to April 14 were “generally gerous — to jump to conclusions. It was those companies,” she said.
median age in Africa is 19.4 years, com- within the bounds of expectation”, lockdowns’ far too early to conclude from the data But others say the scarcity of finance
pare with 40 in Europe and 38 in the US. according to the country’s Medical available that the disease was spreading is itself a barrier to trade taking place. “I
Prof Hunter said: “There have been so Research Council, suggesting few hid- more slowly, she said. can absolutely confirm that the trend is
few cases of severe disease in people den coronavirus deaths. However, Prof Lang said it was possi- real,” said Francis Malige, who leads the
under 20 in the west that, when you In Egypt, a country of 100m people ble the virus was spreading “differently” European Bank for Reconstruction and
have a population that is median age 19, that has recorded 4,782 infections and in Africa, including with more asympto- Development’s investments in the
matic cases. It was possible, too, that financial sector.
people with underlying conditions such Coronavirus lockdowns had hit trade
African countries have much smaller elderly populations than other parts of the world as tuberculosis might respond differ- volumes, he said, but “the financing
Share of population aged 70 or over, 2020 ently to Covid-19, conceivably making available for trade flows in emerging
= Country
patients more resistant, because of a and frontier markets has dropped even
previously triggered immune response, more than the volume of trade”.
rather than more vulnerable as is usu- The lack of trade finance is forcing the
Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania ally surmised. EBRD to step into the breach. It partners
“It is really important to have evi- with local banks in the countries where
dence-based conclusions,” said Prof it operates, guaranteeing political and
Lang, and it was vital to research the dis- payment risks for trade transactions
Cameroon 1.5% ease’s progress to help governments financed by local banks.
Australia
implement informed policies. The EBRD said the value of transac-
South Africa 3.2% US 11.2% Japan Italy Until health experts knew exactly tions supported under its trade facilita-
21.8% 17.5% 11.4%
what was going on with the disease, she tion programme in March, at €385.6m,
said, governments were right to err on was the highest for a single month,
the side of caution. “We need to keep including backing for imports of ambu-
0 5 10 15 20% 0 5 10 15 20% 0 5 10 15 20% 0 5 10 15 20% 0 5 10 15 20%
measuring and to keep testing.” lances from Portugal to Morocco, and of
Source: UN world population projections
Additional reporting by Heba Saleh in Cairo medicines from Switzerland to Jordan.

Negative forecast Moscow Anti-monopoly act

Rate cut is wrong answer, says Putin extends lockdown and
head of Sweden’s central bank warns worst is still to come
RICHARD MILNE
NORDIC AND BALTIC CORRESPONDENT
Sweden’s central bank governor has
said cutting interest rates is not the cor-
rect response to the current phase of
the coronavirus crisis and that he is
focused instead on ensuring problems
from the real economy do not
“migrate” to the financial sector.
The Riksbank held its main interest rate
at zero yesterday and forecast it would
remain there for the next year. Stefan
Ingves, the bank’s governor, said his goal
was to make sure financial markets and
credit supply worked properly by buy-
ing government debt, commercial
paper and mortgage and municipal
bonds.
“The key issue today is not the policy
rate. We are comfortable at zero. Who
knows where it will go in the future?
Time will tell. The key thing at the
moment is to ensure we have stability.
Without stability you have the potential
for markets to freeze. If markets freeze,
it doesn’t really matter what you do with
the policy rate,” he said.
Sweden ended its five-year experi-
ment with negative rates at the end of
last year and has been reluctant to
return below zero even as the Riksbank
forecasts the Scandinavian country’s
economy will contract by 7-10 per cent
this year.
The central bank justified the move to
zero — even as Sweden’s economy weak-
ened — by a desire to avoid the “negative
effects” of sub-zero rates still in force in
the eurozone, Denmark, Japan and
Switzerland.
Mr Ingves said yesterday the Riks-
bank’s decision did not establish zero as
the new effective lower-bound for its
policy rate, as some local economists
had suggested.
“It is not correct. We don’t know what
will happen in the future. The Swedish
economy will take a substantial hit, and
we will do our utmost to alleviate the
damage. Going forward, everything is
on the table,” he added.
The Riksbank’s forecasts on the direc-
tion of rates, which have been reduced
to one year rather than two because of
lower visibility in the pandemic, showed
an equal chance of a rate rise or cut.
Mr Ingves said the central bank was
also ready to increase its quantitative
easing programme if needed. “If things
get difficult we are willing to expand our
balance sheet — we are willing to expand
it substantially beyond the size it is
today,” he added.
HENRY FOY — MOSCOW
Russian president Vladimir Putin has
extended the country’s national lock-
down until May 11 and warned citizens
that they had still not felt the full
impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a televised speech that marked his
most sombre comments on the out-
break so far, Mr Putin, pictured, said
Russia had not yet reached the peak of
infections and that “a hard and difficult
path lies ahead”.
He added: “Ahead of us is a new stage,
perhaps the most intense stage of the
fight against the epidemic.
“The risks of getting infected are at
the highest level, and the threat, the
mortal danger of the virus persists.”
The pandemic has hit Russia eco-
nomically as lockdowns stymie
global and domestic demand. Oil
prices have collapsed, reducing
Moscow’s income from crude
exports and forcing it to burn
through its financial reserves to
fill the hole in its budget.
“Of course, I want
the inconvenience to
end soon,” said Mr
Putin. “But I will
repeat: assuming
that the threat has supposedly
decreased and is now going to bypass us
would be careless and even dangerous.”
The warning contrasts with some
European countries which have moved
gradually to ease restrictions and
quarantine rules, and came as Russia
reported its highest daily rises so far in
Covid-19 infection cases and in deaths
from the virus.
In an effort to curb the outbreak, Rus-
sia has declared a “national holiday”
since late March, which has closed all
but essential businesses and barred peo-
ple from leaving homes except in special
circumstances. Mr Putin said the meas-
ures would be in place until May 11.
Russia reported far fewer cases than
other European countries in the early
weeks of the pandemic but a surge in
infections has seen it reach almost
95,000 cases, overtaking Iran and
China to become the world’s
eighth-most affected country.
The spread of the virus outside of
Moscow is a big worry for the
Kremlin. Mr Putin said
yesterday some
re g i o n s wo u l d
remain under lock-
down longer than
others.
Warren and Ocasio-Cortez
propose ban on acquisitions
JAMES FONTANELLA-KHAN — NEW YORK
LAUREN FEDOR — WASHINGTON
Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Oca-
sio-Cortez, two staunch Democratic
critics of Wall Street, have proposed
halting “risky” mergers and acquisi-
tions to stop large companies from
exploiting the coronavirus pandemic
to gobble up smaller businesses.
The two progressives said yesterday
that their Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act
would impose a moratorium on deals by
companies with more than $100m in
revenues or financial institutions with a
market capitalisation above $100m.
The bill also aims to block deals by
companies backed by private equity
and hedge funds, and seeks to protect
groups that hold patents that could be
crucial amid the pandemic.
“As we fight to save livelihoods and
lives during the coronavirus pandemic,
giant corporations and private equity
vultures are just waiting for a chance to
gobble up struggling small businesses
and increase their power through pred-
atory mergers,” said Ms Warren, the
senator from Massachusetts and former
Democratic presidential candidate.
The bill is unlikely to gain traction in
the Republican-controlled Senate or
with the White House. However, it could
pile pressure on presumptive Demo-
cratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, a
centrist who is looking to shore up sup-
port from the younger, left-leaning
Democrats who supported Bernie Sand-
ers in the party’s primary process.
Mr Biden has made increasingly
explicit overtures to Mr Sanders’ sup-
porters after the Vermont senator
dropped out of the race this month. In
an interview with Politico at the week-
end, Mr Biden lashed out at big busi-
nesses and banks in particular, saying:
“This is the second time we’ve bailed
their asses out.”
Wall Street dealmakers are not partic-
ularly concerned about a law blocking
them from doing deals, partly as M&A
activity has come to a halt during lock-
downs. But they worry that the rhetoric
used by progressive politicians angered
at how large corporations are benefiting
more than smaller ones from the federal
rescue packages could result in more
stringent regulation of business.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a New York con-
gresswoman, was the only House Demo-
crat to vote last week against a $484bn
interim stimulus package, saying it
favoured big business and did not do
enough for people with Covid-19.

4 ★
Infrastructure
Chinese construction sector bounces back
Prices and sales of heavy
equipment surge as stalled
building projects resume
SUN YU AND XINNING LIU — BEIJING
Chinese manufacturers of construction
machinery have raised prices as sales
take off, in an early sign of how eco-
nomic activity is resuming after weeks
of shutdown during the coronavirus
epidemic.
Some leading heavy equipment man-
ufacturers have announced 5-10 per
cent price increases since sales hit a
record high in March, when infrastruc-
ture construction rebounded.
The national lockdown pummelled
the world’s second-largest economy,
with gross domestic product contract-
ing 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of this
Funding rollout
US small
businesses
overwhelm
rescue plan in
claims rush
KIRAN STACEY AND JAMES POLITI
WASHINGTON
LAURA NOONAN — NEW YORK
The Trump administration will audit
any loan over $2m disbursed under a
$659bn programme to help small busi-
nesses, said US Treasury secretary Ste-
ven Mnuchin as he lashed out at the Los
Angeles Lakers basketball team for
participating in the scheme.
Launched as part of a $2tn coronavirus
stimulus plan last month, the Paycheck
Protection Program has been over-
whelmed by demand from ailing busi-
nesses and had to have a further $310bn
injected from its original $349bn.
But the rollout has been overshad-
owed by questions over unequal access,
as some larger businesses and public
companies received funding early
thanks to their connections with finan-
cial institutions, while smaller entities
were unable to secure the money. Some
companies, including restaurant chains
Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steak
House, have said they would return the
money after a public backlash.
“I’m encouraged by the number of
people that have paid them back,” Mr
Mnuchin told CNBC yesterday ahead of
the audit announcement, adding he
would have “never expected in a million
years” that the LA Lakers would take a
$4.6m loan.
“I’m a big fan, but I’m not a big fan of
the fact that they took a $4.6m loan.
That’s outrageous and I’m glad they
returned it or they would have liability.”
The computer system processing loan
applications crashed on Monday after
being overwhelmed on launch day.
Bankers from all US lenders said they
encountered delays and outages as they
tried to log on to seek loans for the PPP.
The programme was relaunched with
the $310bn extra funding after its initial
$349bn ran dry on April 16. It offers for-
givable loans so businesses can continue
to pay employees after revenues dry up.
Banks said on Monday that the elec-
tronic system to handle applications,
known as E-Tran, had stopped working
almost as soon as it was launched. Some
said they had been unable to load the
web page, while others said they could
load the portal but were unable to log in.
“As soon as it opened at 10.30am, the
system crashed,” said Cynthia Blanken-
ship, vice-chair at Texas-based lender
Bank of the West. “First the page would
not load, then it just showed us an error
message. It was very frustrating.”
Ms Blankenship said her bank proc-
essed 15 of the 300 applications it had
prepared, then staff had unsuccessfully
spent the day trying to reload the site on
mobile and desktop computers.
A person familiar with E-Tran’s oper-
ations said the system could run
extremely slowly and return errors if it
was overloaded with demand.
The Small Business Administration,
the US government agency in charge of
running the programme, hoped to avoid
such a situation by creating a side proc-
ess for lenders to submit 15,000 or more
applications in one batch. That thresh-
old was lowered to 5,000 on Monday
after smaller banks argued they were at
a disadvantage.
Ms Blankenship’s complaints were
echoed by Robert Fisher, chief execu-
tive at Tioga State Bank in New York
state, which by mid-afternoon had proc-
essed seven out of the 85 to 90 claims it
had prepared. “They always knew they
were going to have a high volume of
claims,” he said. “They should have
been prepared for this.”
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year. But manufacturers hope the
uptick in equipment sales heralds a sus-
tained recovery.
At Anhui Heli, a forklift truckmaker
in the central city of Hefei, workers have
been taking weekend shifts since March
to meet growing demand. An executive
at Heli said sales were “very strong” as
infrastructure investment “bounced
back”.
Sales of excavators rose 12 per cent
year on year in March following a 51 per
cent plunge in the previous month,
according to official data.
Hengli Hydraulic, based in the east-
ern province of Jiangsu, reported a jump
of more than 50 per cent in orders of
high-pressure tanks this month from a
year earlier. The tanks are a key compo-
nent of excavators.
“This points to strong sales of con-
struction machinery down the road,”
Lebanon
Banks hit as
currency
crisis mounts
Demonstrators on a street in the
northern city of Tripoli yesterday.
Public anger has flared against a
deepening crisis that has left
thousands jobless and led to a
sharp rise in inflation — Bilal Hussein/AP
Argentina’s president sees silver linings and breaks free of former leader’s clutches
GLOBAL INSIGHT
Benedict
Mander
R
elatively unknown to Argen-
tines a year ago when he was
picked by Cristina Fernán-
dez de Kirchner as the Per-
onist presidential nominee,
Alberto Fernández was at risk of
remaining under the influence of the
country’s former populist president.
But the coronavirus crisis has since
unfolded, emerging as a health and
financial curse for the newly elected
leader — but also a political blessing.
The Covid-19 pandemic has cut Mr
Fernández’s political honeymoon short.
The first case was confirmed in Argen-
FINANCIAL TIMES
CORONAVIRUS
said a company official. Makers of con-
struction machinery have been quick to
profit from the trend as nearly a dozen
excavator makers, led by industry lead-
ers Sany and Zoomlion, raised prices.
Building momentum: site workers
wear masks in Beijing yesterday
Protesters have attacked banks in
northern Lebanon and clashed with
security forces, leaving one
demonstrator dead and dozens
wounded, as anger over increased
economic hardship due to coronavirus
and a mounting currency crisis erupted
in three cities.
Defying a state curfew imposed to
curb the spread of Covid-19, protesters
on Monday and yesterday
demonstrated against a deepening
crisis that has left thousands of people
jobless and led to a sharp rise in
inflation. As public anger flared, banks
that have become a symbol of alleged
corruption within the political and
financial elite were set on fire.
“We have recession with
hyperinflation. This accelerates
poverty and precarity and increases
social unrest,” said Jad Chaaban, a
Lebanese economist. “There’ll be more
violence on the street because of deep
anger and poverty.”
The World Bank has warned that the
number of Lebanese people living in
poverty could hit 50 per cent this year,
while a leaked government recovery
plan estimated that average consumer
price inflation in 2020 will exceed
tina on March 3, less than three months
after the 61-year-old politician took
office. The crisis has allowed him to slip
away from Ms Fernández de Kirchner ’s
grips and consolidate his leadership.
His action to deal with the pandemic
has boosted his approval ratings to
53.2 per cent, from 42 per cent in Sep-
tember, according to pollster Synopsis.
Meanwhile those of Ms Fernandez de
Kirchner — now deputy to Mr Fernan-
dez — have slid to just 27.5 per cent, from
44.5 per cent in September. “It has fit
him like a ring on his finger to consoli-
date power,” said Luis Tonelli, a political
scientist at Buenos Aires university.
The pandemic has provided a distrac-
tion from Argentina’s existing economic
woes. Before Covid-19, the economy was
already due to contract for a third con-
secutive year in 2020. It had one of the
highest inflation rates in the world at
about 50 per cent, and the odds of a
default on $65bn in sovereign debt for
“Our clients are so eager to start new
construction that they don’t mind
paying extra,” said an executive at
Liugong Machinery, which this month
raised prices by up to 10 per cent on a
range of products including loaders and
excavators.
A Chinese excavator usage index
compiled by CICC, an investment bank,
was up 13.7 per cent in March following a
22.4 per cent drop in the first two
months of this year.
CICC expects the figure to keep “beat-
ing expectations”, as Beijing counts on
infrastructure investment to bolster the
economy.
Yet analysts warn the recovery could
lose steam as local governments, which
are the main financial backers of infra-
structure projects, grapple with a short-
age of capital.
Beijing has relaxed bank lending and
25 per cent. The IMF projects that the
country’s downturn will be the region’s
worst this year, with gross domestic
product expected to fall 12 per cent.
The latest riots centred on Tripoli,
one of the most deprived cities, which
was at the heart of anti-corruption
protests last year that forced the
resignation of the previous
government. The army said it had
The army said it had
responded to threats to
private property after
banks were set on fire
responded to threats to private
property after several bank branches
were set on fire. Yesterday, the military
expressed regret for the killing of
Fawaz Fouad al-Saman, 26, on Monday
but did not directly take responsibility
for his death. Fatima Fouad, the
deceased man’s sister, alleged on
Facebook that he had died of wounds
sustained from a “live bullet” in
violence between demonstrators and
the army. The military did not
immediately comment.
the ninth time in its history were high.
Now Mr Fernández can blame the
deeper recession looming on the pan-
demic. Many analysts argue the health
crisis provides the government with a
legitimate excuse to stop paying Argen-
‘[A default] will not
be as damaging as it
would have been
without the pandemic’
tina’s creditors. There is also still time to
use the emergency to push for greater
debt relief, if a default is avoided.
“What’s valuable for Fernández is
that [a default] will not be as damaging
as it would have been without the
pandemic. He can now blame it on the
current economic circumstances,” said
Jimena Blanco, head of Latin America at
boosted infrastructure bond issuance in
a bid to revive investment. But it has
stopped short of embarking on a credit
binge for fear of exacerbating the coun-
try’s already mounting debt pressure.
That has made the recovery in con-
struction an unbalanced one, with a few
well-off provinces reporting strong
activity and poorer ones struggling to
catch up.
“China’s fixed investment is returning
to the normal level of 2 per cent growth
from a 20 per cent decline,” said Larry
Hu, an economist at Macquarie Group.
“Don’t expect a double-digit increase, as
Beijing isn’t ready to launch a massive
stimulus programme.”
China’s fiscal revenue dropped by
more than a quarter last month as
domestic businesses had a hard time
reopening following the spread of coro-
navirus.
Lebanon was already suffering
from simultaneous banking,
economic and financial crises
before the pandemic triggered a
government-enforced lockdown
last month. Although prime
minister Hassan Diab has
announced a schedule for lifting
restrictions in the coming weeks,
many fear the hardest-hit
businesses will not survive.
The value of the Lebanese pound,
which for more than two decades
has been pegged at roughly 1,500
LBP to one US dollar, is falling.
Lebanon’s central bank has
released a flurry of orders in the
past month in an attempt to clamp
down on informal currency
exchange shops and stabilise the
pound, but the measures appear to
have had little effect. On Monday
black market prices were quoted at
about 4,000 LBP to the dollar, down
from 2,500 LBP to the dollar at the
start of the lockdown in March.
Although Lebanese depositors
have traditionally kept their savings
in US dollars, commercial banks
stopped issuing the foreign currency
last year. Chloe Cornish
Verisk Maplecroft, a risk consultancy.
But such benefits from the crisis may
be shortlived. “You don’t build [lasting]
leadership in an emergency. What mat-
ters is how to sustain that leadership
once it’s over,” said Graciela Romer, a
sociologist. “You need a strategy, and
I’m not sure if there is one.”
Ms Fernández, who is not related to
the president, is probably waiting in the
wings to recover her power when the
right moment comes, some political
analysts say. The unity of the disparate
ruling coalition will be strained in the
run-up to midterm elections next year.
As the recession deepens, the social
movements that are loyal to Ms Fernán-
dez are expected to take to the streets to
demand handouts from the state, caus-
ing difficulties for the sitting president.
The social needs caused by the coro-
navirus crisis will place pressure on
state finances, which are already
stretched to the limit. Mr Fernández has
Wednesday 29 April 2020
Control measures
New Zealand
and Australia
relax curbs
after drop in
infection rate
JAMIE SMYTH — SYDNEY
New Zealand and Australia began to
ease social distancing restrictions
yesterday after reporting steep falls
in new coronavirus infections in recent
weeks.
“We can say with confidence that we do
not have community transmission in
New Zealand. The trick now is to main-
tain that,” said Jacinda Ardern, the
prime minister. The Pacific nation
reduced its Covid-19 alert from level 4,
the highest level of restrictions.
Some non-essential businesses,
including food takeaways, health and
education services will be allowed to
reopen. But people are still expected to
stay at home unless they are undertak-
ing essential activities, such as buying
groceries, working or exercising.
New Zealand imposed one of the
world’s toughest lockdown regimes
in mid-March, shutting most businesses
to eliminate rather than contain the
virus.
Strict measures, high levels of compli-
ance and a remote location helped
reduce the number of new cases to a
‘It’ll be nice to be able
to break up the long
hours inside by getting
down for a dip’
handful in recent days. Authorities in
New Zealand reported three new infec-
tions yesterday, bringing the total to
1,472, of whom 1,214 recovered and
19 died.
Australia has achieved a similarly
positive record, with authorities
reopening Sydney’s Bondi beach yester-
day to local swimmers and surfers after
a month-long closure.
“Bondi’s not really Bondi without the
beach,” said Ivan Ah Sam, a resident of
the suburb. “It’ll be nice to be able to
break up the long hours inside by get-
ting down for a dip.”
Australia reported 12 new cases of
coronavirus yesterday and has reduced
the rate of infection from above 25 per
cent in late March to less than 0.5 per
cent during the past week.
This has enabled the federal and state
governments to relax restrictions,
including resuming elective surgeries,
reopening some schools and allowing
individuals to drive for longer distances.
Australia has also benefited from a
remote location and early decisions to
ban travellers from China and eventu-
ally close its borders altogether. It has
also implemented an efficient testing
and tracing regime, with more than 2m
people downloading a contact-tracing
mobile phone app within 24 hours of its
launch this week.
COVIDSafe uses Bluetooth technol-
ogy to log the details of other people
using the app who come within 1.5
metres of their mobile phone. If the user
tests positive for Covid-19, health
authorities will be able to inform others
using the app. Canberra said strong
uptake of the app would enable it to
relax social distancing restrictions.
However, the release of the app,
which is based on technology licensed
from the Singapore government, has
raised privacy concerns among civil
rights advocates and even some of the
coalition government’s own backbench
MPs. In an effort to ease concerns, the
government has pledged to pass laws to
restrict access to the data to health pro-
fessionals.
See FT Big Read
broken from the previous government’s
austerity drive backed by creditors and
is now aiming to eliminate the fiscal def-
icit by 2023. Meanwhile officials say
plunging oil prices have killed the near-
term prospects of a vast Patagonian
shale deposit conveniently known as
Vaca Muerta, or dead cow, depriving the
country of future export revenues.
The government has increased
money printing to cover its costs, with
the risks of fuelling inflation even fur-
ther despite falling oil prices.
Some analysts warn of a repeat of the
experience after Argentina’s last big
economic collapse in 2001-02, when
regional governors resorted to issuing
their own quasi-currencies. Others even
fear that hyperinflation could be lurk-
ing around the corner. “If it turns out to
be a tsunami, there’s no one who can
withstand that,” said Professor Tonelli.
benedict.mander@ft.com
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
Wednesday 29 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 5

Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi The pandemic will turbocharge the tech industry’s share of America’s GDP y MARKETS INSIGHT, PAGE 9

KPMG unable Safety net Tennis organisers plan relief fund

for players after season’s prize money dries up
BA to cut 30%
of workforce
to verify sales as outlook
darkens
of Wirecard TANYA POWLEY — LONDON

British Airways is preparing to cut

third parties
3 Payments group rejects allegations
3 Special audit following FT reports
OLAF STORBECK — FRANKFURT
DAN MCCRUM — LONDON
Wirecard announced yesterday that
KPMG’s six-month special audit of the
German payments company could not
verify the genuineness of sales and prof-
its from third parties at the heart of
whistleblower allegations of accounting
fraud.
The KPMG investigation was commis-
sioned by Wirecard’s supervisory board
after the Financial Times reported the
allegations, which focused on three of
the company’s business partners.
Wirecard’s relationship with the part-
ners was central to the special audit, and
KPMG said they “comprised the major
part” of the fintech group’s operating
profit between 2016 and 2018.
The FT reported in October that
‘Wirecard’s role in
assisting in the process
has been found lacking
and inconsistent’
Wirecard appeared to have attributed
billions of euros in payments processing
to one of these partners, much of it
under the names of clients that had
ceased to exist or denied a relationship
with either company.
“KPMG was not sufficiently able to
forensically trace the existence of the
transaction volumes in the 2016 to 2018
investigation period,” according to the
report from KPMG published by Wire-
card, which said the information was
held by third parties that had not co-op-
erated with the probe.
KPMG’s examination of the third-
party business is ongoing, Wirecard
said, and publication of annual results
planned for tomorrow was postponed.
The payments specialist, which
replaced Commerzbank in Germany’s
flagship Dax stock market index in
2018, has spent the past year fighting
questions about its accounting practices
and governance.
KPMG’s lengthy report, which had
been set for publication last week,
described an absence of original docu-
ments such as bank records, a “signifi-
cant delay” in accessing material and
difficulty in securing interviews with
key Wirecard employees.
“Bank statements that prove the
receipt of payments of about €1bn at
escrow agent 1, were not submitted to
us,” KPMG said.
It also pointed out that its investiga-
tors “have not been able to conclusively
assess the reliability of the bank confir-
mations” sent to Wirecard’s longstand-
ing auditor, EY. In some cases, KPMG
had to rely on screenshots instead of
original documents, the report added.
Shares in Wirecard closed down 26.1 per
cent at €97.60 in Frankfurt.
Markus Braun, Wirecard’s chief exec-
utive and single largest shareholder,
told journalists yesterday morning that
the report was a “big step forward” for
the company. “There is not any reason
to have even the faintest doubts over
account balances,” said Mr Braun.
KPMG did not find “incriminating
evidence for the public allegations of
balance sheet forgery”, Wirecard said.
Neil Campling, an analyst at Mira-
baud Securities, said: “KPMG’s report
remains incomplete, Wirecard’s role in
assisting in the process has been found
lacking and inconsistent, internal con-
trols are criticised and Wirecard has,
once again, delayed the annual report
filing and presentation.”
The FT’s reporting in October focused
on billions of euros of payments
processing that Wirecard internal docu-
ments appeared to have attributed to 34
clients in 2016 and 2017.
KPMG said that it was unable to verify
the existence of the 34 clients as Wire-
card did not reveal their identities.
Cancellation of events such as Wimbledon because of the pandemic has hit players’ income — Charlie Bibby/FT
MURAD AHMED — LONDON
The organisers of global tennis are
preparing a multimillion-dollar
relief fund to prop up players suffer-
ing a steep loss of income, as the
sport considers radical change
following a financial crisis caused by
the coronavirus pandemic.
While big sponsorship deals mean
that top players such as Novak Djoko-
vic, Roger Federer and Serena Wil-
liams are among the world’s highest
earning athletes, the vast majority of
professional players below them rely
on prize money won during a gruel-
ling and expensive tour of tourna-
ments worldwide.
With events such as Wimbledon
cancelled because of the Covid-19 out-
break, and no tournaments expected
before July at the earliest, many play-
ers are struggling financially.
Speaking to the Financial Times,
Andrea Gaudenzi, chair of the ATP,
the body in charge of men’s tennis,
said the disparate organisations that
run the sport were close to agreeing a
deal for a “relief fund” that could be
tapped by up to 400 players.
He said the groups, which include
the ITF, the global governing body,
and the organisers of the four annual
“Grand Slam” tournaments, were
finalising the size of this fund and how
money would be distributed.
“Nobody knows how long the crisis
will last, so this is a first step,” he
added.
Mr Gaudenzi stressed that the cur-
rent crisis required a larger rethink.
He said the ATP would review how it
distributed prize money — which
would have been close to $158m this
year and mostly flows to the top play-
ers, while lower-ranked competitors
struggle to fund the costs of training
and travel.
The ATP chair also endorsed calls
for the body to merge with the WTA,
the women’s tour, to streamline oper-
ations and cut costs across the sport.
Mr Gaudenzi would not be drawn
on the financial hit the ATP has faced
as a result of the pandemic but said he
was confident the group would sur-
vive the crisis if matches could be
played in empty arenas later this sum-
mer. This would sacrifice ticketing
income but protect global broadcast-
ing deals and tour-wide sponsorship
contracts, which represent the vast
majority of ATP revenues.
According to the most recent finan-
cial filings for ATP Media Holdings, its
UK-based broadcast and production
group, revenues grew 15.3 per cent to
$139.5m last year. The organisation
also makes money from running tour-
naments such as the ATP Finals.
Mr Gaudenzi insisted that the ATP
was better placed than most sports to
bounce back. “Once we will be able to
go back and play, our business will go
back to be strong on day one,” he said.
almost 30 per cent of its 42,000 work-
force, as its parent company IAG
warned that a return to 2019 passenger
levels would take years.
In a letter to BA’s 42,000 staff, chief
executive Alex Cruz announced plans
for 12,000 redundancies as he warned
that in the past few weeks “the outlook
for the aviation sector has worsened fur-
ther and we must take action now”.
In recent days, carriers have moved
from furloughing workers to making
redundancies as optimism evaporates
for a fast rebound.
Lufthansa, the German airline group,
is considering filing for creditor protec-
tion, according to its cabin crew union,
while Norwegian Air Shuttle on Monday
warned that the bulk of its fleet was
likely to remain grounded for the next
year and that a full recovery would not
take place until 2022, laying bare the
scale of the crisis engulfing the industry.
In his letter, seen by the Financial
Times, Mr Cruz wrote: “There is no Gov-
ernment bailout standing by for BA and
we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset
salaries indefinitely. Any money we bor-
row now will only be short-term and will
not address the longer-term challenges
we face.”
He said that the airline did not know
when countries would reopen borders
or when the lockdowns would lift.
“The scale of this challenge requires
substantial change so we are in a com-
petitive and resilient position, not just to
address the immediate Covid-19 pan-
demic, but also to withstand any longer-
term reductions in customer demand,
economic shocks or other events that
could affect us,” he wrote.
BA will now consult on the redundan-
cies with its three unions — Balpa, Unite
and the GMB — over the next 45 days.
The move to cut jobs came as IAG
reported an operating loss before excep-
tional items of €535m for the first quar-
ter, compared with a profit of €135m
last year.
Its pre-tax profit was hit by an excep-
tional charge of €1.3bn from fuel and
currency hedges following the sharp fall
in the oil price this year.
IAG said: “Recovery to the level of
passenger demand in 2019 is expected
to take several years, necessitating
group-wide restructuring measures.”
Additional reporting by Joe Miller in Frank-
furt and Richard Milne in Oslo

China’s fraud rules leave small businesses struggling to access loans
local government of Shenzhen is doing
INSIDE BUSINESS what it can to support the sector.
The problem lies more with Beijing.
ASIA China is slowly returning to normal but
the normal that it is returning to is not
Henny that of more hopeful days, but of an ear-
lier time.
Sender That is not immediately obvious. The
rhetoric from Beijing is still all about
embracing SMEs, which account for
about 70 per cent of jobs. “The subject
comes up every time the State Council
Public Notice
and they, in turn, would lend money to
SMEs, taking on the risk of default. But a
combination of policies, from denying
official licences to almost all such lend-
ers to a regulation known as Document
141, has put a stop to this.
That document, now more than two
years old, requires state-owned credit
guarantee companies to guarantee such
transactions, which has had the
knock-on effect of making it far more
difficult for microlenders to support

I
n Shenzhen, across the now almost
entirely sealed border with Hong
Kong, things are returning to a kind
of normal. After a first quarter in
which the economy shrank by
6.8 per cent, the worst of the coronavi-
rus induced downturn appears past.
And while most governments worry
that a financial crisis will follow the eco-
nomic shock the virus has forced upon
the globe, China appears exempt from
that fear. Both bankers and those who
work in the world of non-bank
“shadow” lending say overdue loans
came down dramatically in March from
the peak in February and demand for
new loans is slowly returning.
That isn’t to say all is well. For exam-
ple, Shenzhen is home to some of the
most successful private firms in China,
from drone maker DJI to insurer Ping
An and Tencent, the second most valua-
ble company in the country.
But the city, which has long attracted
the best and brightest from all parts of
China, is also home to millions of small
and medium enterprises, and these are
having a much harder time recovering
— in large part because state-owned
banks don’t like to have too much to do
with them.
“The banks are sloshing with funds
and the [SMEs] are starving,” said
Henry Ma of WeBank, a Tencent affili-
ate that lends to smaller companies. The
meets,” said one political insider.
Five years ago, a spirit of experimen-
tation led to the formation of thousands
of peer-to-peer lenders and other busi-
nesses that extended credit to smaller
companies.
But a number of them proved to be
frauds or pyramid schemes, and almost
all died or were shuttered. But the dis-
tinction between
the bad apples and ‘The deleveraging is
legitimate microfi-
nance organisa- creating a crisis for
tions was never the SMEs and for
clearly made. And
in killing the microfinance institutions.
frauds, the get- Both need help’
rich-quick, and
other Ponzi schemes, regulators have
dealt a severe blow to all small-business
lenders.
In President Xi Jinping’s China, only
the state-owned banks are really trusted
by authorities. Meanwhile, the most
obvious victims of the disappearance of
non-bank lenders are the smaller busi-
nesses that the largest state-owned
banks have never had an incentive to
embrace.
This is partly because banks can
charge consumers market rates but are
expected to give SMEs lower rates,
which bankers say don’t reflect the risk.
In the past, risk-averse banks would
fund the microfinance lenders instead
SMEs.
“The banks are no longer lending
indirectly to the SMEs,” said the founder
of one Shenzhen-based microfinance
lender that provides credit to owners of
SME businesses.
“The deleveraging is creating a crisis
for the SMEs and for microfinance insti-
tutions. Both need help.”
In the main, the SMEs don’t deserve
their reputation as risky borrowers. By
the end of March, WeBank found that
just 1 per cent of loans were non-
performing. By April, 90 per cent of bor-
rowers were repaying their loans within
30 days. “It just shows how vibrant
these SMEs are,” the founder said.
The plight of SMEs would be even Legal Notices Financial
more dire were it not for the credit busi-
nesses of Alibaba, Tencent (and the
much lesser known Baidu business
along the same lines). Recently, Beijing
announced it was extending a limited
number of consumer-finance licences
to these large groups, with a minimum
of Rmb300bn ($42bn) in assets.
Meanwhile, executives at these big
businesses have learnt to sing from the
Beijing songbook. They have aban-
doned all talk of challenging the tradi-
tional system.
“We work with financial institutions,”
said one. “Our model has changed.”
henny.sender@ft.com
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6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Banks Automobiles

HSBC suffers 48% drop in quarterly profit Musk draws

Loan provisions on course
to reach highest annual
level since financial crisis
STEPHEN MORRIS — LONDON
PRIMROSE RIORDAN — HONG KONG
HSBC cut its first-quarter profit in half
yesterday after reserves for bad loans
surged, prompting Europe’s largest
bank to deliver a warning on the deep
and lasting impact of coronavirus on the
sector.
Loan provisions rose 417 per cent to
$3bn — on course to the highest annual
level since the financial crisis — as the
lender prepared for a run of bankrupt-
cies and defaults caused by lockdowns.
Executives said that it was just
the beginning, with provisions set to
total $7bn-$11bn by the end of the year,
causing “materially lower profitability”
in 2020.
The bank has responded by suspend-
ing its dividend, reducing expenses and
slashing the bonus pool by a third.
“We are anticipating deep, severe
recession events in western Europe and
the US in the second quarter,” Ewen Ste-
venson, chief financial officer, said.
The scale of loan losses depended
on the “path of the economic impact
and the shape of the recovery”, which
were unknown.
The numbers and outlook underline
the challenges facing Noel Quinn, who
was named chief executive last month.
The crisis has forced him to delay what
he has described as one of the “deepest
restructurings” in HSBC’s 155-year his-
tory. This saw it strengthen its focus on
SMEs. Lockdown exit
the lender’s pivot to Asia — where it
makes the majority of its earnings — and
shrink less profitable operations in
Europe and the US.
The bank is “seeing some encouraging
signs of recovery in Asia . . . but as the
rest of the world enters its crisis, China
will not be immune from the impact of
falling global demand”, Mr Quinn said.
“The outlook for world economies in
2020 has substantially worsened in the
past two months.”
Group pre-tax profit fell 48 per cent to
$3.2bn, about a third lower than ana-
lysts had expected, while net income fell
57 per cent to $1.8bn from the same
period last year.
A large chunk of the loan losses
was blamed on a single “corporate
exposure in Singapore”, which the bank
said was “the primary driver” of a
$700m increase in expected loan losses
in the region.
The FT has previously reported that
HSBC has the biggest known exposure
to Singapore oil trader Hin Leong at
$600m. It has filed for bankruptcy and
is under police investigation for fraud.
Mr Quinn declined to comment on
the company.
Ronit Ghose, an analyst at Citigroup,
said: “Loan losses are larger than
expected, but HSBC usually errs on the
side of conservatism. Business perform-
ance and a strong capital level is reassur-
ing.” This was a reference to the bank’s
core CET1 ratio of 14.6 per cent, among
the strongest of any big lender.
HSBC’s rise in provisions was more
severe than US rivals, with the six larg-
est US lenders increasing first-quarter
loan provisions by a combined $25.4bn,
a year-on-year 350 per cent rise. At
Credit Suisse, the measure rose 600 per
cent last week, while UniCredit set aside
an additional €900m for the first quar-
ter. Yesterday UBS increased provisions
by a factor of 268 (1,240%) — albeit
from a low base in 2019 — and
Santander posted an additional €1.6bn
of Covid-19 related reserves.
HSBC had previously said it wanted to
cut annual costs by $4.5bn and shed
$100bn of assets adjusted for risk by the
end of 2022, with the aim of reducing
headcount from 235,000 to 200,000
over three years. But it has put its job
cuts programme on hold until at least
the end of the year.
Overall revenue fell 5 per cent. Oper-
ating expenses were $400m lower than
the same period last year, at $7.9bn.
See Lex
ire after offer
to provide
insurance for
Tesla board
RICHARD WATERS — SAN FRANCISCO
Elon Musk has stepped in to provide
personal liability insurance for direc-
tors of electric car maker Tesla, after
premiums soared in the wake of recent
legal claims against the board.
The unusual personal guarantee adds a
new twist to an unconventional board-
room relationship that has brought crit-
icism from governance experts over the
sway that Mr Musk, Tesla’s founder and
chief executive, has over the way the
company is run.
The personal insurance offer was
made after Tesla said it had “deter-
mined not to renew its directors and
officers liability insurance policy for the
2019-2020 year due to disproportion-

Businesses focus on survival as Italy reopens
Economy had not recovered
from the 2008 financial crisis
when the pandemic hit
RACHEL SANDERSON — MILAN
For the past five years, Giuseppe feels as
if he has been “walking in Dantean cir-
cles of hell, always going deeper”.
Three years ago, this owner of a small
business in Italy’s Veneto region lost his
life savings, when two regional banks
failed after the European debt crisis.
Today, he is struggling with a new tor-
ment: the outbreak of coronavirus that
has devastated lives and shuttered busi-
nesses. His company’s revenues have
dried up even as his overheads remain
unchanged. “I am scared for the future.”
It is a familiar story in northern Italy,
an industrial powerhouse of Europe
that is dominated by small and medi-
um-sized businesses, and which became
the epicentre of the global pandemic.
While business owners around the
world are facing crisis, keeping afloat
the smaller companies with less than
€100m in revenues that are the back-
bone of the Italian economy is an acute
challenge. This is partly because there
are so many of them and partly because
of the way they traditionally fund them-
selves: with short-term bank loans.
Northern Italy is home to more than
2m businesses, according to Prometeia,
a research firm. Lombardy, the region
around Milan that has been in lockdown
since mid-March, has more than
900,000 of them.
Andrea Guerra, former chief of eye-
wear multinational Luxottica and gov-
ernment adviser who is currently advis-
ing small business owners, said the sec-
tor was suffering a “balance sheet crisis”.
This is a problem for the average Ital-
ian business, he said, because they gen-
erally rely on one local bank for funding
— via short-term loans of a few months
based on their revenue flows — and do
not have bonds or institutional inves-
tors to draw on. By contrast in the UK,
for example, the average business has
cash in hand to keep paying their oper-
ating expenses for 18 months, according
to analysts’ estimates.
“Near-term survival is the only item
on the agenda,” Mr Guerra told the
Financial Times. “We need cash even for
[smaller Italian] companies to reopen.”
Another significant complication is
the fact that Italy is the only G7 econ-
omy that had failed to return to its pre-
financial crisis levels of growth before
the Covid-19 outbreak.
For this reason, the shutdown might
have implications for Italy’s often tested
financial stability, with the crisis threat-
ening a rise in the bad loans that its
banking system has spent four years
A man sanitises shedding. By the end of last year, the nomic activity was closed. Citi estimates
a bridge in total volume of bad loans had been that Italian gross domestic product will
Venice. The reduced to €159bn, from €340bn at the shrink 7.7 per cent in 2020.
government has end of 2015, according to Banca Ifis. The banks have stronger balance
passed a decree Azzurra Guelfi, analyst at Citi, said in sheets than they did five years ago but
to provide state a recent research note on Italian banks’ the economy still has a very high density
guarantees for exposure to small and medium-sized of small and midsized businesses, rais-
businesses to businesses: “We are concerned about ing the risk of an increase in bad
access credit the asset quality development in the loans. Italian credit rating group Cerved
Manuel Silvestri/Reuters
coming months ahead.” has warned that the risk of default
UniCredit, Italy’s largest bank by among smaller businesses could double
assets, said this week it would increase if the crisis lasts throughout 2020.
its loan loss provisions by €900m in To try to prevent a corporate crisis,
preparation for a sharp economic con- the government passed a decree on
traction. Ms Guelfi said that, at the pan- April 8 to provide state guarantees for
demic’s peak, about 60 per cent of eco- businesses to access liquidity. Prime
Minister Giuseppe Conte has also
Trio of recessions appointed Vittorio Colao, the well-re-
garded former chief executive of Voda-
GDP (% change on previous quarter) fone, to lead a task force overseeing how
1 the country should reopen, with a par-
ticular focus on business.
For larger businesses, Italy has pro-
0 vided guarantees for up to 90 per cent of
a loan but the banks must still go
Third recession
through the usual process of approval.
-1 For the smallest companies, with less
Eurozone debt crisis, than €50m in revenues, the decree also
second recession
-2 includes a standstill on debt repayment
until the end of September.
Financial crisis, first recession One bank chief executive argued that
-3 the decree was a “game changer for
2007 10 15 19 business that will indirectly help banks
Sources: Refinitiv; Istat
as well” by reducing the risk of business
collapse. Nonetheless, lawyers say the
‘Near-term guarantee for larger companies does not
erase risks for either the companies —
survival is which may not receive funding fast
the only enough to fend off a short-term liquidity
crunch — or for the banks.
item on the Carlo Messina, chief executive of
agenda. We Intesa Sanpaolo, said that the bank had
earmarked up to €15bn to help fund
need cash businesses coming out of the crisis.
even for But in an interview with La Repub-
blica newspaper, he demanded com-
[smaller pany owners who have money in Italy or
Italian] elsewhere “bring their money back into
their own business and leave the public
companies funds to the weakest companies”.
to reopen’ Reopening is now being planned and
starting to happen in parts of northern
Italy. In Veneto, some businesses
around the manufacturing hubs of Tre-
viso, home of the Benetton dynasty, and
Belluno, a global hub for eyewear manu-
facturing, started to open last week,
according to local media reports.
Paola Subacchi, professor of interna-
tional economics at the University of
London’s Queen Mary Global Policy
Institute, is cautiously optimistic Italy
Inc may emerge from lockdown less
devastated than many expect: two dec-
ades of low growth and the country’s
failure to recoup the losses of the finan-
cial crisis have given its businesses a cer-
tain strength.
“There is a huge amount of resilience
in Italy,” she said.
ately high premiums quoted by insur-
ance companies”.
Mr Musk had himself “agreed with
Tesla to personally provide coverage
substantially equivalent to such a policy
for a one-year period,” the company
said in a regulatory filing.
Tesla’s board has been the target of a
number of legal actions claiming that it
failed to maintain sufficient independ-
ence in controlling the company’s
impulsive chief executive.
Early this year, all the directors apart
from Mr Musk agreed to provisionally
settle a shareholder lawsuit over Tesla’s
acquisition of SolarCity, the clean
energy company where Mr Musk was
also a director. Tesla said the $60m set-
tlement “would be entirely paid under
the applicable insurance policy”.
Mr Musk was due to appear in his own
defence in court in Delaware before the
coronavirus crisis brought the case
to a standstill.
A federal court this month cleared the
way for another shareholder lawsuit
against Tesla and its chief executive
over Mr Musk’s claim, in a series of
tweets in 2018, that he was close to tak-
ing the company private.
The board and Mr Musk are also
facing a trial next year stemming from
a shareholder action over a pay award
to Mr Musk that was valued in 2018
at $2.6bn.
The personal insurance policy from
the chief executive drew immediate
criticism from governance experts.
“If [the directors’] job is to oversee
him and he’s paying their insurance,
that creates a relationship that
threatens that,” said Charles Elson, a
professor of corporate governance at
the University of Delaware. “If he
reneges on payment, what will that do
to the relationship?”
Tesla said it did not believe the insur-
ance offer threatened its boardroom
independence because it was “intended
to replace an ordinary course insurance
policy”, and because the arrangement
“is governed by a binding agreement
with Tesla as to which Mr Musk does not
have unilateral discretion to perform”.
The personal insurance was disclosed
in a revised copy of Tesla’s annual
report, which was filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
yesterday.
Musk’s personal guarantee raises
questions over his influence at Tesla

Banks Banks

UBS wealth division helps lift profits 40%
SAM JONES — ZURICH
UBS has warned that the coronavirus
pandemic will disrupt its profit drivers
even as the Swiss lender struck a confi-
dent tone on its ability to weather the
crisis and revealed a sharp rise in first-
quarter earnings.
“The likelihood is high that the stress
will be as severe or more severe than the
2008 crisis,” said UBS chief Sergio
Ermotti, referring to the bank’s baseline
forecast on the impact the pandemic
will have on economies globally.
Banks were, nevertheless, in a more
secure position than 12 years ago, he
added, and mostly prepared for a wave
of bankruptcies and credit writedowns
in the coming months.
The effects of coronavirus on UBS’s
clients were already clear, with the bank
reporting in its first-quarter results that
its expenses for loan losses jumped
more than 13-fold to $268m from the
same period last year.
The rise in soured loans — driven by
losses in the struggling energy industry
— only slightly dented its capital posi-
tion in the first quarter.
UBS’s core equity tier one capital
ratio, a basic measure of balance sheet
strength, fell year on year, down from
13 per cent to 12.8 per cent. Total risk
weighted assets increased 7 per cent to
$286bn, indicating rising stress among
the bank’s clients.
On a call with analysts, Mr Ermotti
said that in the months ahead, protect-
ing the bank’s balance sheet would be
his priority. “Capital strength as the
largest wealth manager in the world is
an absolute must,” he said.
UBS reported a 40 per cent rise in net
profits to $1.6bn as its wealth manage-
ment business and investment bank
performed robustly amid the market
turmoil last month. The bank’s shares
were up 4 per cent in early morning
trading yesterday.
“Revenues were much stronger and
across more divisions than we expected,
but a cautious outlook statement and
the decline in the [core equity tier one
capital ratio] dampen the excitement
somewhat,” said Anke Reingen, analyst
at RBC Capital Markets.
See Lex
Loan-loss provisions hit Santander figures
NICHOLAS MEGAW — LONDON
Banco Santander suffered a large drop-
off in profits in the first quarter and put
aside an extra €1.6bn to deal with an
expected jump in loan losses as the
eurozone’s largest retail bank prepared
for a “strong global recession” caused
by coronavirus.
Santander said yesterday that net prof-
its had fallen 82 per cent year on year
during the period, because of an 80 per
cent increase in loan-loss provisions.
Although the Spanish lender felt only
a “relatively limited impact” from the
pandemic in the first part of the year, its
lending business has been transformed
since the end of the reporting period.
In the UK and Spain, for example, new
consumer loan applications were 70 per
cent lower in April compared with Feb-
ruary, whereas lending to businesses
doubled as the bank joined government
rescue schemes in several markets.
José Antonio Alvarez, Santander chief
executive, said he was optimistic that
the global economy would rebound rel-
atively quickly, but cautioned that the
impact on the bank could be worse if the
recovery was slower than expected.
“We remain relatively confident if the
scenarios we have [play out], but it’s a
big if at this stage . . . what matters is
not how deep house prices fall, but how
long it takes to recover prices after.”
Shares rose more than 4 per cent early
on, closing up 0.94 per cent after Mr
Alvarez reassured analysts about the
strength of its balance sheet. He said: “It
takes time for us to build up capital, but
it is also extremely resilient when with-
standing the shocks of a crisis.”
He said he expected the bank’s com-
mon equity tier one ratio, a key measure
of its financial strength, to be in the
“upper half” of its target range of 11 to 12
per cent by the end of the year.
The CET1 ratio was 11.58 per cent at
the end of March, down from 11.65 per
cent at the end of 2019.
Benjie Creelan-Sandford, an analyst
at Jefferies, said that “some comfort
may be taken from management’s indi-
cation that provisions should peak
below previous crisis levels” but cau-
tioned that the bank was “vulnerable to
a drop-off in new lending activity”.

Wednesday 29 April 2020
Crisis bolsters Alibaba’s drive for global clout
Chinese retailer ships protective equipment to 150 countries whose shoppers then discover its wider product ranges
RYAN MCMORROW AND NIAN LIU
BEIJING
Alibaba already had its sights on global
expansion — but the coronavirus out-
break has given China’s largest ecom-
merce company an opportunity to
accelerate that vision.
In recent weeks, the Hangzhou-based
tech group has emerged as a crucial
middleman between Chinese factories
and immense global demand for the
equipment needed to fight the pan-
demic, from protective masks to hand
sanitiser and ventilators.
In part this is down to the donation
efforts of founder Jack Ma and Alibaba’s
charitable arm, which has shipped more
than 40m items of personal protective
equipment to 150 countries and pledged
to give 101m masks to the World Health
Organization.
But Alibaba’s new-found PPE profi-
ciency has also opened it up to an enor-
mous potential new market, as global
consumers turn to the Chinese ecom-
merce giant for the first time and dis-
cover what else it has to offer them.
In Europe and the US in particular, the
company’s platforms have benefited
from an acute spike in demand that has
‘Whenever Amazon is
weak or not present at all,
AliExpress is stronger’
Ralph Huebner, Ecom Consulting
made protective equipment difficult to
find locally and on overburdened ecom-
merce platforms such as Amazon and
eBay. In Spain and Italy, traffic to the
company’s AliExpress platform, which
connects Chinese merchants with shop-
pers around the world, increased by
20 per cent and 14 per cent respectively
during the first quarter compared with
the previous year, according to Similar-
Web data.
“We are very much in need,” said 20-
year-old Emanuele from northern Italy,
who placed his first Alibaba orders this
month after being unable to find masks
elsewhere. “The state only gave us one
disposable mask, but we are six adults
and two children.”
In recent months, Alibaba has tar-
geted southern Europe in particular,
where online shopping is less well estab-
lished than in countries such as the US,
UK and Germany, and so its competitors
are not so entrenched.
The company has poured advertising
resources into these regions in an effort
to win customers. According to Sensor
Tower, Alibaba’s were among the most-
displayed shopping app advertisements
in France, Spain and Italy in February
and March on Facebook’s ad network.
Meanwhile, the company is gaining
customers across other parts of Asia.
“Where I live, there is an absolute
shortage of PPE,” said 31-year-old Sajjad
Ahmed from Pakistan, who last month
made his first order for 50 masks on
AliExpress. “Masks here are selling like
hot cakes at the moment. Local sellers
are doubling the prices to customers
after getting them from AliExpress.”
Alibaba’s emergence as a go-to sup-
plier of PPE comes in the midst of a glo-
bal expansion plan that was already
under way. Last year, AliExpress
Oil & gas
BP’s earnings fall two-thirds
as pandemic saps demand
ANJLI RAVAL
SENIOR ENERGY CORRESPONDENT
BP reported a 66 per cent drop in earn-
ings and a rise in debt in the first quar-
ter as the collapse in oil demand and
crude prices triggered by the coronavi-
rus crisis took their toll on its finances.
The UK energy major said consumption
of refined products had fallen dramati-
cally in March, when governments
worldwide imposed severe restrictions
to curb the pandemic.
But it maintained its dividend of 10.50
cents a share for the quarter as the com-
pany, like many of its peers, pulls on an
array of financial levers to protect
shareholder payouts.
In the three months to March 31,
underlying replacement cost profits —
BP’s definition of net income and the
measure tracked most closely by ana-
lysts — were $791m against almost
$2.4bn in the same period last year.
That beat consensus estimates of
$710m, and the company’s shares
closed up 2.6 per cent at 322.1p.
BP, which at the start of the year was
confident it could generate more cash,
has been thrown into crisis just as new
chief executive Bernard Looney has
taken the helm. “The environment is
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opened up to local sellers in Spain and
Italy, among other countries, undercut-
ting some rival platforms by charging
lower commissions.
According to David Dai of Bernstein
Research, the company is pursuing
international growth on two fronts:
directly through AliExpress in mature
and competitive markets, and through
locally run ecommerce platforms in
brutal,” Mr Looney said. He said BP was
bolstering its finances and boosting
liquidity to lower its break-even price to
under $35 a barrel, from $56 last year.
Lockdowns and travel bans have trig-
gered a collapse in oil demand, coincid-
ing with a supply glut and causing an
unprecedented price crash, forcing the
sector into cash conservation mode.
Yesterday morning Brent crude slid
4.3 per cent to $19 per barrel, having
dropped below $20 last week for the
first time in almost two decades.
BP was also hit by weaker earnings
from its oil trading business, as well as
poorer performance from its stake in
Russia’s Rosneft. Cash flow slid to $1bn
in the quarter versus $5.3bn last year.
It said an “exceptional level of uncer-
tainty” remained over short-term prices
and demand for refined products.
Mr Looney said that while BP did not
plan on making any redundancies for
three months, “there will be job cuts glo-
bally, towards the end of this year”, with
the pandemic accelerating a plan to
lower costs and reorganise the business.
Gearing rose to more than 36 per cent
in the first quarter, one of the highest in
the sector. Mr Looney said BP would
“review” the dividend decision in the
second quarter.
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
COMPANIES & MARKETS
Top shopping apps
downloaded in selected
European countries
Q1 2020 (m)
France
0 0.5 1.0
Vinted
Leboncoin
Amazon
Wish
AliExpress
Spain
0 0.5 1.0
Wallapop
Amazon
AliExpress
Vinted
Wish
Poland
0 0.5 1.0
Vinted
InPost
Mobile
Lidl Plus
AliExpress
Allegro
Source: Sensor Tower
Alibaba’s charitable arm has shipped
more than 40m items of personal
protective equipment abroad,
supported by founder Jack Ma,
below left — Alex McBride/AFP/Getty; Kiyoshi
Ota/Bloomberg
emerging markets. “Alibaba certainly 2010, is at the centre of its international
has the ambition to expand overseas efforts, though so far it has offered glo-
and become a global ecommerce giant,” bal customers a somewhat mixed prop-
he said. osition: lower prices in exchange for
In recent years, the company has cul- longer waits, since most packages origi-
tivated a substantial global footprint, nate in China.
with a patchwork of local ecommerce As a result, AliExpress — which offers
sites including Singapore’s Lazada, in everything from vacuum cleaners to
which it has invested $4bn, and Tur- wigs — has been most successful
key’s Trendyol and Pakistan’s Daraz, in countries where Amazon’s penetra-
which it acquired in 2018. tion is low and rapid delivery is hard
Elsewhere, it has invested $945m in to come by.
Indonesia’s Tokopedia, taken a stake in “Whenever Amazon is weak or not
India’s Snapdeal, and formed a joint present at all, AliExpress is stronger,”
venture, AliExpress Russia, which has said Ralph Huebner, partner at Ecom
come to dominate online sales in the Consulting GmbH.
country. The coronavirus pandemic is intro-
Before the outbreak, Alibaba’s inter- ducing new customers to the platform.
national ecommerce businesses con- In the first three months of the
tributed about 6 per cent of its sales in year, AliExpress ranked among the
the fourth quarter of 2019, having most downloaded shopping apps in FastFT
grown by 23 per cent from the previous countries including Spain, France and Our global team
year. Its logistics arm Cainiao reported Poland, according to data from Sensor gives you the
market-moving
67 per cent growth — in part a result of Tower. news and views
ferrying more packages overseas to its Meanwhile the company has seen an 24 hours a day
120m annual overseas shoppers. uptick in air shipments — mostly con- ft.com/fastft
AliExpress, which was launched in taining face masks and other medical
Technology Airlines
EU restarts work on rules for Lufthansa considers creditor
Google, Twitter and Facebook protection as bailout talks stall
JAVIER ESPINOZA — BRUSSELS the coronavirus crisis by moving quickly JOE MILLER — FRANKFURT
to remove misleading content and warn-
Brussels wants more power to audit Lufthansa is considering filing for cred-
ing users about disinformation. While
how tech companies harvest and use itor protection, as negotiations over
that has won praise in Brussels, there are
consumer data, as the EU prepares to state aid in Berlin become embroiled in
now questions about whether compa-
launch a consultation on its flagship arguments over bailout conditions,
nies can be similarly proactive in tack-
digital platform regulation. according to cabin crew union UFO.
ling other harmful content.
After pausing work on this year’s Digital Alex Saliba, an MEP in charge of The carrier, which warned last week it
Services Act during the coronavirus cri- drafting recommendations for the new could no longer raise money on the capi-
sis, senior EU officials are now consider- internet rules, said the pandemic had tal markets and might end up with
ing plans to force companies such as shown US technology companies could 10,000 staff in excess as it becomes a
Google, Twitter and Facebook to be do more. “I am totally in favour of a sys- smaller airline, is contemplating a pro-
more transparent. tem where the European Commission cedure similar to Chapter 11 bank-
“We need to be able to look under the will work towards a system where con- ruptcy in the US, UFO told the FT.
hood,” said one person with direct sumers and regulators will have more The procedure, known as Schut-
knowledge of the discussions. “We have information on how tech giants work. zschirmverfahren, would buy Lufthansa,
no systematic way of finding out what’s We must have a clearer picture.” whose subsidiaries include Austrian,
going on. In the areas of disinformation This month Google said it was requir- Swiss and Brussels Airlines, time to
or illegal content, we always have to take ing all advertisers using its platform to restructure.
the company’s word for it.” verify their identities and countries of The group, which is burning through
“People are tired of that,” the person origin, something the search giant €1m in cash per hour, has requested
added. “It’s not like we want their demanded only in political ads. emergency funding from governments
secrets but we need to make sure that Separately, Facebook last week said it in Brussels, Vienna and Bern, and has
areas of public interest are checked.” would start alerting users if they had held detailed talks with German chan-
The idea has the backing of EU com- been exposed to disinformation on its cellor Angela Merkel’s administration
missioners in charge of digital policy platform. Twitter has aggressively this week.
including Thierry Breton, Vera Jourova removed misleading or “potentially Any aid for the airline, which is facing
and Margrethe Vestager, according to harmful” content since introducing new loan repayments of more than €1bn a
multiple people, who added that calls for policies in March that broadened the year post-crisis, is likely to come in the
tougher scrutiny and legal oversight had company’s definition of harm. form of an equity stake.
gained traction in the past few weeks. Facebook, Google and Twitter did not However, Germany’s coalition part-
Tech companies have responded to respond to a request for comment. ners have been sparring over whether to
7
gear — to its European hub in Liège, Bel-
gium, where Cainiao is building a €75m
logistics centre over about 30 football
pitches’ worth of land.
The hub connects to a new freight
train line from China and is critical to
Alibaba’s plan to take on Amazon in
1.5 Europe.
“From Hangzhou to Liège we used to
do three flights per week. Now it’s four.
We are adding another one in the next
two weeks,” said James Zhao, general
manager of Cainiao Global Supply
Chain.
Cainiao plans to build a similar logis-
tics hub in Africa, Mr Zhao said, noting
that preparations were still in the early
stages. The ecommerce company hopes
that the continent’s 1.2bn people could
help it meet its goal of reaching 2bn cus-
tomers by 2036.
1.5 After the current crisis, the challenge
for Alibaba will be to harness its recent
gains and convince the world to turn to
it for more than just PPE.
“The mask business is providing a
reason for customers to try AliExpress.
When people realise it’s easy to buy
masks on AliExpress, they will use it to
buy other things in the future,” said
Chris Bu, a manager at Alibaba-backed
‘From Hangzhou to Liège
we used to do three flights
1.5
per week. Now it’s four and
we are adding another’
4PX, a Cainiao logistics partner. In
Europe, the company faces a battle sim-
ilar to the one it overcame in its home
market, where five years ago it was
known for slow, unreliable shipping
compared with rival JD.com, which pio-
neered next-day delivery.
Alibaba eventually prevailed by
investing heavily in its logistics infra-
structure and taking stakes in partner
courier firms — and is now pursuing a
similar strategy in Europe.
4PX had warehouses in seven Euro-
pean countries and was working
with AliExpress to build out local fulfil-
ment options, said Mr Bu. “China’s
ecommerce took off after the Sars out-
break. I believe we will see a similar
trend in Europe this time,” he said.
Still, the company’s freewheeling
marketplaces pose challenges to luring
casual shoppers away from Amazon.
Last week Alibaba took steps to pre-
vent sales of counterfeit and low-quality
masks — an issue that has tarnished
China’s reputation as a provider. Facto-
ries selling masks in bulk on Ali-
baba.com now have to undergo addi-
tional verification, and most AliExpress
shipments to the US have been curtailed
as sellers are reviewed.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahmed in Pakistan
said he diligently read through reviews
before ordering with one seller, who
then never shipped his first batch of
masks — though AliExpress did eventu-
ally provide a refund.
“With KN95 masks or N95 masks,
[they] give you 100,000 results . . . It’s a
difficult site to navigate,” said Yury Tsu-
kerman, who built an intermediary
website called Areweoutofmask-
syet.com to help people buy PPE
through AliExpress. “It’s not like just
going to Amazon.”
demand seats on the group’s supervi-
sory board and a say in its day-to-day
operations, as well as whether any gov-
ernment aid should be contingent on job
guarantees. The country’s Social Demo-
crats have also called for any rescue
package to come with constraints on
bonuses and executive pay.
Lufthansa refused to comment. The
company’s shares were up 3 per cent in
Frankfurt on Monday afternoon.
Last week, in comments to staff,
Lufthansa chief executive Carsten
Spohr warned that the airline would not
be back to normal until 2023.
On Monday, Steffen Seibert, a spokes-
man for the German government,
refused to comment on whether the
state would insist on control of
Lufthansa in the event of a bailout, but
said the administration’s aim was “to
avert lasting damage and to maintain as
many jobs as possible”.
Ms Merkel’s administration has
already come to the aid of one German
airline, lending €550m to Condor in
conjunction with the state of Hesse,
after a takeover by Polish airline Lot fell
through this month.
Lufthansa is reported to be seeking
roughly €9bn, although the company
has refused to confirm this figure.
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
8 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Asset management. Portfolio protection Commodities

Tanker rates
‘Black swan’ funds enjoy rare surge as
demand for
chance to spread their wings storage jumps
NEIL HUME
NATURAL RESOURCES EDITOR

Demand for “clean” tankers is soaring as

refiners scramble to find places to stash
unwanted jet fuel, diesel and petrol.
Most of the attention in the shipping
market has been focused on surging
rates for very large crude carriers
(VLCCs) capable of carrying more than
2m barrels of unrefined oil, as the col-
lapse in demand stemming from the
coronavirus outbreak leaves the world
awash in crude.
Now the focus has switched to long-
range product tankers, which are used
to transport finished petroleum prod-
ucts and have become more expensive
to charter than VLCCs.
The cost of hiring a Long Range 2
tanker, capable of carrying about
800,000 barrels of oil, has more than
doubled over the past week to a record
$173,000 per day on Monday, according
to Clarksons Platou Securities.
Day rates for LR1 tankers, which can
carry between 345,000 barrels and
615,000 barrels of petrol, have also dou-
bled — hitting almost $112,000.
VLCC rates, in contrast, have slipped
slightly to about $167,000 per day,
shortly before the huge production cuts
agreed by Opec and Russia come into
force at the start of May.
“The VLCC market continues to be

The 2008 is 25 per cent owned by hedge fund firm

Outlook still remains tough for
firms that cashed in on March
chaos with 57% gains this year
LAURENCE FLETCHER — LONDON
ROBIN WIGGLESWORTH — OSLO
Crisis-hunting hedge funds enjoyed
blowout returns in March but investors
say the strategy of waiting years for
markets to crumple is still unlikely to
draw new fans.
Funds that seek to profit from
collapses have gained 57.2 per cent so far
in 2020 — their best year on record —
reflecting the damage inflicted by the
coronavirus pandemic.
Standouts include New York-based
Capstone’s “tail risk” strategy, up 350
per cent over the first three months; and
36 South Capital Advisors of London,
whose $2bn flagship fund is up more
than 130 per cent. Theirs are among the
best-performing strategies in the world
this year, even as most hedge funds and
other investors are nursing losses.
Another big winner is Mark
Spitznagel’s Universa Investments,
which boasts that its tail risk strategy —
designed to profit from highly unusual
swings in asset prices — has made a
return for investors of 4,000 per cent
this year.
But Mr Spitznagel, who, in addition
to his fund, runs a cheese farm in
Michigan, is still not expecting a large
inflow of new investments.
Universa’s strategy should be a part of
many investors’ portfolios, he said, as a
way of protecting against violent moves.
“But we never will be because most
people only want it when there’s a
crash.”
‘Black Swan’ hedge funds soar again after years of losses
CBOE Eurekahedge Tail Risk index
2008 09 10 11 12
Sources: Eurekahedge; Chicago Board Options Exchange
Tail risk funds captured investors’
imaginations during the 2008 crisis,
generating large profits as markets
tumbled.
Their popularity was helped by the
best-selling 2007 book The Black Swan,
by former hedge fund manager Nassim
Nicholas Taleb, who now advises
Universa.
One of Mr Taleb’s key arguments was
that unexpected events that can shake
our view of the world are more common
than we think.
Such an event happened in March
when efforts by governments around
the world to control the coronavirus
outbreak sparked a record-breaking
rush out of risky investments.
“The virus is popping the bubble,”
said Mr Spitznagel. “Markets were
priced for perfection but all of a sudden
the world lost its veil of perfection.”
Even with the huge gains so far this
year, many funds in the sector remain
deeply in the red after a long bull
market punctuated by occasional dips.
“This strategy costs you most of the
140
120
100
80
60
40
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
time,” said Cedric Vuignier, head of
alternative investments at SYZ Asset
Management, who said he has not
invested in such funds for several years.
“Moreover, it is really difficult to time
the entry and sometimes you don’t have
the time to get out,” he added, citing the
Brexit referendum in 2016 and the
market sell-off in February 2018, when
big gains were rapidly unwound.
Such funds on average lost money
every year from 2012 to 2019 inclusive,
according to CBOE Eurekahedge’s tail
risk hedge fund index.
Despite having three crises to profit
from since the start of 2008 — the global
financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis
and the coronavirus crisis — they are
still down by an average of 24 per cent
over that period.
Protection strategies should be
assessed “over the full market cycle
from boom to bust, including long
stretches of low volatility and stock
market gains”, said Ari Bergmann, chief
investment officer of Penso Advisors, a
specialist in derivatives protection that
financial crisis Brevan Howard.
allowed tail risk The 131 per cent gain made by 36
funds to capture South in its flagship Kohinoor fund puts
investors’ it on track for easily its biggest annual
imaginations gain since launch in 2011, according to
Seth Wenig/AP
an investor letter seen by the Financial
Times.
The fund profited mainly from bets
on equity options, as well as currency
and commodity options.
Chief executive Jerry Haworth wrote
in March that “we are all on the bus and
that bus is now on the highway to
stagflation hell”.
But Kohinoor lost money for five
straight calendar years before 2020. A
sum of €1,000 invested at the fund’s
launch would now be worth €685, even
taking into account this year’s gains. 36
South declined to comment.
Man Group’s TailProtect fund also lost
money for five consecutive years to
2020. But, just as it was starting to make
money from the coronavirus crisis, it
was shut down as investors pulled out
their cash.
A small number of hedge funds in
other sectors have had some success
exploiting volatility but without suffer-
ing quite so many losses in between.
Dominice & Co’s volatility-trading
‘Markets Cassiopeia fund, for example, gained
nearly 21 per cent in March, yet has also
were made money in 14 of the past 16 years.
priced for One River Asset Management’s
Dynamic Convexity fund, another vola-
perfection tility specialist, is up 53 per cent this
but the year and also up since launch in 2015.
But for outright “black swan” funds,
world lost the uncertainty as to when the next big
its veil of payout will come means they are
unlikely to regain the popularity that
perfection’ they enjoyed after the 2008 crisis.
‘Refiners are trimming
production but supply is
building with minimal
onshore storage available’
strong . . . but we are starting to see
demand flow over into the product
market,” said Lois Zabrocky, chief exec-
utive of New York-listed International
Seaways.
“Refiners are facing challenges recali-
brating supply and demand,” she added.
The world typically consumes about
100m barrels of oil and finished prod-
ucts a day and produces roughly the
same amount.
However, with much of the industrial-
ised world in lockdown, demand has
plummeted by as much as 30m b/d, cre-
ating a huge supply glut.
As a result, refiners face a stark choice
— to find places to store unwanted prod-
uct or cut output (or even close).
With onshore storage facilities
already full or leased, many refiners are
turning to floating storage.
According to Vortexa, an oil analytics
firm, the volume of key oil products
held in floating storage around the
world hit 72m barrels on Sunday, up
from 33.7m a month ago.
“The massive drop in gasoline, diesel
and jet demand with the spread of
Covid-19 has led to a huge global
products oversupply,” said Jay Maroo,
FastFT senior analyst at Vortexa.
Our global “Refiners are trimming production
team gives you but supply is building in the meantime
market-moving with minimal onshore storage now
news and views, available. We’re seeing traders, refiners
24 hours a day and majors all clamouring to secure
ft.com/fastft tankers to deploy as floating storage as a
result,” he said.

Currencies Equities

Bearish bets ramp up against sterling
with renewed worries over Brexit deal
PHILIP GEORGIADIS
Investors have increased their bets
against the UK pound to the highest
level of the year, raising the spectre
of a fresh bout of volatility for the
currency.
Fund managers and other companies
betting in the futures market have
turned bearish as concerns over Brexit
rise in parallel with the damage the
coronavirus pandemic is causing the UK
economy, analysts said.
Sterling shorts have overtaken longs
for the first time since mid-December,
according to Commodity Futures Trad-
ing Commission data released this
week, meaning investors on the whole
are wagering on a fall.
The net positioning of “non-commer-
cial” players in the futures markets — a
category that includes individual inves-
tors, hedge funds and other asset man-
agers — fell to minus 1,380 in the week to
April 21, having previously been posi-
tive all year.
Downing Street has said it will not
seek an extension to the current post-
Brexit transition period, which ends on
December 31, despite the business and
political upheaval caused by the
Covid-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told EU
leaders this week that they would have
to change tack to secure a deal while
cabinet office minister Michael Gove
said the pandemic should concentrate
minds rather than provide an excuse to
delay negotiations.
The position leaves just two months to
The pound has steadied over the
past month after falling to low levels
go until both sides take stock of whether
an agreement is possible and means
Brexit fears are back for investors.
“My inbox is full of questions about
what a failure to extend Brexit negotia-
tions might mean,” said Kit Juckes,
macro strategist at Société Générale.
“Sterling’s at best stuck in a tight
range, at worst vulnerable to a fresh
bout of nerves in due course,” Mr Juckes
added.
Sterling has steadied over the
past month after falling to histori-
cally low levels as concerns over the
pandemic tore through markets in
March.
The currency was recently trading
just below $1.25, around the levels it has
been lodged in for most of the month.
The return of Brexit uncertainty,
combined with concerns over Covid-19,
has caused investors to “curtail some
long positions on the pound and to build
back some of those ‘Brexit shorts’”, said
Francesco Pesole, a foreign exchange
strategist at ING.
He added that, unless the prospects
for an extended transition increased,
“the risk of pound shorts piling up again
is high”.
Watchdog warns banks after reports
of gratuitous fees for UK share issues
MATTHEW VINCENT AND SAMUEL AGINI
LONDON
The UK’s financial watchdog has
warned banks not to pressure compa-
nies seeking debt finance into paying
them unnecessary fees for share issues
amid the Covid-19 economic crisis.
In an unusually strongly worded letter
to the bosses of UK lenders, the Finan-
cial Conduct Authority said yesterday
that it had “credible reports” that some
were abusing their lending relationships
with clients to demand lucrative roles
on equity capital raisings they would
never normally be awarded.
Banks will often lend to listed compa-
nies on favourable or lossmaking terms,
in the hope that the relationship will
enable them to win more profitable
advisory work on share issues or takeo-
ver deals. But the regulator said some
recent advisory roles may have been “in
name only” — with little or no work
actually being done by the bank to earn
a share of the fees.
Its letter followed complaints from
several City firms, including the inde-
pendent investment bank Numis,
suggesting lenders with relatively
limited capability in equity raisings
were appearing on lists of paid advisers.
According to a person with knowledge
of their grievances, company sharehold-
ers had questioned why lenders not nor-
mally associated with large-scale UK
share issues, such as HSBC and
Santander, had been paid to facilitate
them. “They suddenly see five institu-
tions on the list but three of them are
‘We are committed to
treating customers fairly
and complying with the
expectations of regulators’
doing nothing,” the person claimed.
“They are only there because they have
been lending.”
Any bank seeking to extract money
from a customer in this way would
potentially be in breach of UK regula-
tions governing standards of market
conduct, prevention of conflicts of inter-
est and acting in clients’ best interests.
The FCA letter said: “We will be look-
ing into this further but want any prac-
tice of this nature to cease immediately.”
Another person familiar with the reg-
ulatory process characterised the letter
as “the strongest way of saying what
[the FCA] is concerned about before
taking action”.
Santander said: “We are entirely com-
mitted to treating our customers fairly
and complying with the expectations of
our regulators in this regard.”
HSBC declined to comment. Two peo-
ple with knowledge of the banks’ equity
capital markets operations pointed out
that both would have won new work as
US banks retreated from Europe.
Many UK listed companies have
rushed to raise both debt and equity
funding in response to coronavirus dis-
ruption. While larger public companies
sought £7.6bn of new borrowing via the
government-backed Covid Corporate
Financing Facility, an estimated £2.7bn-
worth of new shares were also issued
between March and mid-April.
Nick Bayley, head of UK regulation at
consultants Duff & Phelps, suggested
that lenders should consider their
reputation ahead of their profits. “Firms
should not be taking advantage of des-
perate clients,” he said.
Additional reporting by Arash Massoudi
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
Wednesday 29 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 9

COMPANIES & MARKETS

The day in the markets Tech’s appeal is

What you need to know
turbocharged
3 Global stocks hit highest level since
by pandemic
March as lockdown exits are outlined
Reprieve from S&P downgrade helps Italian debt rally
3 Financials help lift European bourses 10-year Italian bond yield (%)
after UBS posts promising results
3 Recent sell-off in Italian bonds pauses
after S&P holds off downgrading debt
2.5
Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi
Investors brushed aside another chaotic
day in oil markets to help global stocks 2.0 Markets Insight
hit their highest level since early March.
The FTSE All-World index rose for a

R
fifth consecutive day while the price of oil apid advances in technology service in April, just five months after its interaction. Cloud software checks this
swung as much as 20 per cent. 1.5 in the past have been launch. It took pioneer Netflix more box because it can be bought with a
The US crude benchmark plummeted brought about by innova- than 10 years to reach the same thresh- credit card and used with a click.
to $10.07 a barrel before paring back tions such as the birth of the old in 2014. Companies such as Smartsheet, a
losses to be down 5 per cent at $12.20 in microprocessor or the Some teledermatology applications, collaboration software company, have
afternoon trading. 1.0 advent of the internet. But this upheaval which diagnose skin conditions remo- gone all-in on cloud deployment while
The sector has yet to stabilise since an is different. tely, have had higher accuracy in some others have pivoted to the cloud more
oil price war erupted between Saudi Tech this time is being propelled by a studies than in-person consultations. recently. This trend also clearly benefits
Arabia and Russia in March, causing shock to the physical world — a shift that These experiences are often cheaper the big publicly listed cloud providers,
crude to be pumped into a world where 0.5 will profoundly change the way we per unit of consumption than their which manage the infrastructure needs
demand was rapidly contracting. consume, interact and invest. physical counterparts. A subscription for these services.
The price war has ended but the Jan 2020 Apr We are not facing a typical reces- for a digital fitness app, for example, can Companies with remote workforces
surplus oil remains, raising concerns that sion. This one disproportionately hurts cost $12.99 a month — less than single are also likely to be particularly resil-
Source: Refinitiv
a glut of unwanted supplies will companies that rely on a physical foot- studio classes in many cases. ient. Software for consumer and enter-
overwhelm global storage capacity. print while enabling digital businesses Similarly, video conferencing and dig- prise applications has a digital supply
Brent crude, the global benchmark, governments and companies released points since Monday after the rating to mitigate cyclical headwinds with ital collaboration tools have gained a lot chain that does not require large groups
edged up 0.3 per cent yesterday at plans to ease lockdown restrictions. agency held Italy’s creditworthiness at gains in market share. of people to physically work together.
$20.05 a barrel, still close to a two-decade Ford said it would reopen its European BBB, two notches above “junk” status. Today, the digital economy makes up This also makes these companies
low. plants in May while Prime Minister But analysts at Rabobank said the rally about 8 per cent of US gross domestic Such services diminish more agile, allowing them to recruit glo-
Weakness in the sector has been taking Édouard Philippe outlined a road map for was “decidedly premature”. The bank product while growing about five times the need for travel and bally and grant employees more flexible
its toll on some companies. BP reported a reopening the French economy. warned that Italy’s “debt metrics were faster than overall output, according to hours, saving on office space. GitLab, a
66 per cent drop in earnings yesterday The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 under immense pressure going into the the Bureau of Economic Analysis. offices — something that private company that builds tools for
with chief executive Bernard Looney gained 1.7 per cent with financials the [Covid-19] crisis and have deteriorated The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to will have a lasting impact software developers, has thrived in this
referring to the environment as “brutal”. best-performing sector after Swiss bank further because of it”. accelerate digital adoption by three environment. With team members in at
However, Goldman Sachs was bullish UBS reported a 40 per cent jump in its On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was flat at years and could bring the digital share of least 65 countries, it has a claim to be the
on the energy sector. “We believe wealth management business. midday while the tech-heavy Nasdaq GDP to 9.5 per cent by next year. of traction on the business side. For world’s largest all-remote company.
investors should add exposure to energy A late-Friday reprieve from Standard & Composite was down 0.7 per cent ahead In time, we will also begin to see that example, Zoom’s daily active users But there may be another element to
stocks as we see micro/macro Poor’s helped Italian bonds rally for a of the release of closely watched earnings some companies are operationally more surged in March while collaboration identifying long-term winners. Many of
fundamentals bottoming,” said the bank. second day. The yield on the 10-year results from Alphabet, Google’s parent resilient to real-world shocks. The long- tools from Microsoft and Slack those in a position of relative strength
In Europe, the major bourses rose as government debt has fallen 13 basis company. Ray Douglas term winners will be companies offering registered their highest ever increases in have stepped up to help in this crisis.
easy-to-use digital products in the cloud usage that month. Zoom and web performance provider
and with a distributed workforce. This Such services diminish the need for Cloudflare, for example, have made
Markets update holds true for all businesses — both travel and offices — something that will their offerings available for free to assist
consumer and enterprise. have a lasting impact on corporate schools and small businesses as they try
On the consumer side, online gaming, travel and office real estate. A Gartner to pull off a digital transition.
video conferencing, video streaming, survey found that close to half of all The resulting societal goodwill and
US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil telemedicine, online learning and dig- chief financial officers plan to keep at brand value will probably make such
Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa ital fitness are accelerating at an unprec- least 10 per cent of their workforce in companies even stronger. In this way, a
Level 2874.15 1337.01 19771.19 5958.50 2810.02 80869.03 edented pace. There is no appointment remote locations after the crisis. watershed moment in digital could
% change on day -0.15 1.61 -0.06 1.91 -0.19 3.36 or waiting in line necessary to enjoy any Not all travel is necessary for business also prove a watershed moment for cor-
Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ of these and we can tailor them to our — Zoom pioneered a virtual roadshow porate social responsibility.
Level 99.527 1.083 106.950 1.244 7.085 5.587 needs and preferences. Better experi- for its initial public offering last year.
% change on day -0.514 -0.092 -0.229 0.242 0.018 -0.926 ences translate into new habits. Best positioned are software compa- Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi is a managing
Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Disney Plus, for example, announced nies with solutions that are easy to buy director and senior portfolio manager at
Yield 0.609 -0.470 -0.050 0.285 2.500 8.113 50m subscribers for its video-streaming and install and require no physical Tudor Investment Corporation
Basis point change on day -3.570 -1.400 -0.750 -1.500 -4.600 -18.000
World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX)
Level 317.84 20.10 12.30 1714.95 15.21 2399.40
% change on day 0.30 0.75 -4.50 -0.06 -0.72 0.80
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
3200 1600 7040

2880 1440 6400

2560 1280 5760

2240 1120 5120

| | | | | | | | |
1920 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 960 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4480 | | | | | | | | | | |

Feb 2020 Apr Feb 2020 Apr Feb 2020 Apr

Biggest movers
% US Eurozone UK
Alliance Data Systems 14.38 Bbva 8.97 Lloyds Banking 8.88
Harley-davidson 11.40 Cnp Assurances 8.61 Jd Sports Fashion 8.54
Ups

Dr Horton 11.23 Klepierre 7.97 Informa 8.49

Simon Property 11.07 Cap Gemini 7.87 Carnival 8.02
Pultegroup 9.95 Kbc 7.22 Legal & General 7.61
%
Cinnati Fin -10.99 Seadrill -3.14 Easyjet -2.85
National Oilwell Varco -5.99 Danone -2.68 Evraz -2.45
Downs

Waters -5.63 Dassault Systemes -2.62 Fresnillo -2.03

yte -5.49 Iliad -2.50 Reckitt Benckiser -1.91
United Parcel Service -5.16 Inditex -1.93 Hikma Pharmaceuticals -1.40
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 Eurozone London

Waters Corp dropped after delivering Husqvarna slipped after Berenberg cut Lloyds Banking and Barclays were among
much weaker than expected first-quarter the robotic lawnmower maker off its the FTSE 100’s best performers after the
results, largely on a slump in Chinese “buy” list. European Commission set out a package
sales, and withdrawing its 2020 guidance. Covid-19 had already caused a rapid of measures aimed at supporting
The laboratory instrument maker also drop in end-market demand and, with household and business lending.
suspended an $800m share buyback risks remaining around consumer The proposal to adopt looser capital
programme to preserve its balance sheet. confidence and channel partner buffer ratios was “an incremental
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the cystic disruption, the outlook was likely to get positive” for banks, said Morgan Stanley.
fibrosis drug developer, slipped after RBC tougher, Berenberg said. J Sainsbury was weakest among the
Capital Markets turned cautious on ProSiebenSat.1, the German supermarkets after Berenberg
valuation grounds. broadcaster, gained on renewed talk downgraded from “buy” to” “sell”.
While Vertex remained attractive for about a potential takeover by Italian peer Non-food demand was likely to remain
investors seeking high quality and low Mediaset. subdued and Sainsbury’s bank would
risk, the stock’s rally to near a record high Ceconomy led Germany’s retail sector require further cash injections, disrupting
had left few near-term catalysts, the higher on hopes that a rule banning management’s debt paydown strategy,
broker said. shops larger than 800 square metres the broker said.
UPS slid after weak numbers from its from opening would soon be lifted. Games Workshop led retail and leisure
US domestic arm meant that quarterly A Munich court ruled on Monday that stocks higher after outlining its reopening
profit missed expectations. the ban was unjust. plans and saying profit for the year ending
Earnings dropped 42 per cent in spite Wirecard led the Stoxx Europe 600 May would be ahead of expectations.
of 9 per cent volume growth. fallers after auditor KPMG said it could Micro Focus advanced after industry
The mix of parcels moved towards not verify the genuineness of the German website TMT Finance reported that
higher cost consumer post and away payments group’s sales and profits. potential buyers were in talks about
from more profitable business-to- KPMG had been unable to confirm taking the software group private.
business channels. €1bn of transactions with third parties, Royal Mail was a gainer after Citigroup
Forecast-beating results lifted storage KPMG said in an independent report. turned positive, saying it was “acutely
and networking specialist F5 Networks. Sector peer Worldline slipped after SIX exposed to this accelerating ecommerce
Harley-Davidson rallied after setting Swiss Exchange sold about 11m shares to theme” given that it has a 50 per cent
out a new strategy aimed at cost-cutting, raise €675m. share of UK parcel volumes.
reducing complexity and abandoning Kion, the German manufacturer of While cost pressures will erase most of
attempts to break non-core markets. materials handling equipment, was under the benefit this year, 2021 consensus
SmileDirectClub was a gainer after the pressure after its first-quarter results earnings forecasts look to be 400 per
home dentistry provider set out its showed truck orders falling a sharper cent too low if current online shopping
reopening plans. Bryce Elder than expected 8 per cent. Bryce Elder trends stick, Citi argued. Bryce Elder
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
10 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

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 € $ per £ ¥ per $ £ per € Oil Brent $ Sep Gold $

-0.15% -0.90% -0.06% -0.092% -0.229% -0.343% -11.39% -0.06%

0.08% 1.91% 1.61% 1.22% 0.30% 0.242%
Stock Market movements over last 30 days, with the FTSE All-World in the same currency as a comparison
AMERICAS EUROPE ASIA
Mar 29 - - Index All World Mar 29 - Apr 28 Index All World Mar 29 - Apr 28 Index All World Mar 29 - Apr 28 Index All World Mar 29 - Apr 28 Index All World Mar 29 - Apr 28 Index All World

S&P 500 New York S&P/TSX COMP Toronto FTSE 100 London Xetra Dax Frankfurt Nikkei 225 Tokyo Kospi Seoul
2,874.15 10,795.63
14,771.25 1,934.09
5,958.50 19,771.19
5,815.73 10,000.96 19,084.97
2,541.47 12,687.74 1,717.12

Day -0.15% Month 13.03% Year -2.29% Day 0.88% Month 16.42% Year -11.09% Day 1.91% Month 8.07% Year -19.83% Day 1.27% Month 5.32% Year NaN% Day -0.06% Month 1.97% Year -11.18% Day 0.59% Month 12.60% Year -11.25%

Nasdaq Composite New York IPC Mexico City FTSE Eurofirst 300 Europe Ibex 35 Madrid Hang Seng Hong Kong FTSE Straits Times Singapore
8,651.81 24,575.96
1,337.01
35,706.57 35,449.46 7,033.20 2,528.76 2,562.95
7,502.38 1,265.16 6,836.40 23,175.11

Day -0.90% Month 15.29% Year 6.17% Day 1.38% Month 4.92% Year -21.15% Day 1.61% Month 9.14% Year -13.04% Day 1.55% Month -11.32% Year -28.08% Day 1.22% Month 4.66% Year -16.98% Day 0.53% Month 1.13% Year -23.82%

Dow Jones Industrial New York Bovespa São Paulo CAC 40 Paris FTSE MIB Milan Shanghai Composite Shanghai BSE Sensex Mumbai
24,153.33 80,869.03 32,114.52
4,543.58 4,569.79 17,677.15
21,636.78 73,428.78 17,369.38 2,810.02
2,772.20
26,674.03
Day 0.08% Month 11.66% Year -8.98% Day 3.36% Month 10.14% Year -15.96% Day 1.43% Month 5.02% Year -17.95% Day 1.71% Month 5.15% Year -18.63% Day -0.19% Month 1.36% Year -8.95% Day 1.17% Month 7.71% Year -17.80%

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 32000.85 29986.23 Cyprus
CSE M&P Gen 68.46 68.68 Italy FTSE Italia All-Share 19333.41 19028.30 Philippines Manila Comp 5574.98 5450.45 Taiwan Weighted Pr 10616.06 10567.27 Cross-Border DJ Global Titans ($) 336.85 338.78
Australia All Ordinaries 5381.20 5388.30 Czech Republic
PX 867.16 859.33 FTSE Italia Mid Cap 31707.87 31390.70 Poland Wig 44875.37 44704.71 Thailand Bangkok SET 1274.99 1267.41 Euro Stoxx 50 (Eur) 2928.89 2882.09
S&P/ASX 200 5313.10 5321.40 OMXC Copenahgen 20
Denmark 1179.54 1169.02 FTSE MIB 17677.15 17380.21 Portugal PSI 20 4213.76 4136.57 Turkey BIST 100 100707.48 101267.36 Euronext 100 ID 900.85 886.07
S&P/ASX 200 Res 3815.20 3846.90 Egypt
EGX 30 10376.00 10377.24 Japan 2nd Section 5570.90 5544.97 PSI General 2918.74 2876.76 UAE Abu Dhabi General Index 4170.07 4181.84 FTSE 4Good Global ($) 7144.57 7170.50
Austria ATX 2164.62 2115.13 Estonia
OMX Tallinn 1108.42 1102.12 Nikkei 225 19771.19 19783.22 Romania BET Index 8191.09 8019.11 UK FT 30 2170.20 2123.30 FTSE All World ($) 317.84 316.90
Belgium BEL 20 3121.32 3036.43 Finland
OMX Helsinki General 8438.84 8194.35 S&P Topix 150 1199.13 1199.92 Russia Micex Index 2597.45 2570.91 FTSE 100 5958.50 5846.79 FTSE E300 1337.01 1315.86
BEL Mid 7566.92 7544.16 France
CAC 40 4569.79 4505.25 Topix 1449.15 1447.25 RTX 1101.83 1083.68 FTSE 4Good UK 5479.39 5387.47 FTSE Eurotop 100 2591.06 2549.65
Brazil IBovespa 80869.03 78238.60 SBF 120 3601.73 3551.44 Jordan Amman SE 1668.18 1675.47 Saudi-Arabia TADAWUL All Share Index 6827.80 6838.67 FTSE All Share 3281.88 3220.29 FTSE Global 100 ($) 1850.23 1862.93
Canada S&P/TSX 60 892.90 884.53 Germany M-DAX 22817.07 22584.22 Kenya NSE 20 1967.84 1970.79 Singapore FTSE Straits Times 2562.95 2549.40 FTSE techMARK 100 4971.80 4927.35 FTSE Gold Min ($) 2330.57 2331.17
S&P/TSX Comp 14771.25 14642.11 TecDAX 2854.32 2932.13 Kuwait KSX Market Index 6633.44 6603.51 Slovakia SAX 325.95 324.10 USA DJ Composite 7882.55 7860.19 FTSE Latibex Top (Eur) 4440.00 4432.20
S&P/TSX Div Met & Min 294.16 305.61 XETRA Dax 10795.63 10659.99 Latvia OMX Riga 1003.90 1001.32 Slovenia SBI TOP 873.85 - DJ Industrial 24153.33 24133.78 FTSE Multinationals ($) 1991.19 1963.98
Chile S&P/CLX IGPA Gen 19354.00 18497.72 Greece Athens Gen 634.96 626.16 Lithuania OMX Vilnius 692.39 687.92 South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share 50029.22 49527.23 DJ Transport 8385.21 8317.42 FTSE World ($) 565.45 563.89
China FTSE A200 10188.18 10095.44 FTSE/ASE 20 1539.34 1505.53 Luxembourg LuxX 964.33 944.92 FTSE/JSE Res 20 44182.41 44643.73 DJ Utilities 808.04 805.80 FTSEurofirst 100 (Eur) 3462.61 3403.84
FTSE B35 9000.71 8988.96 Hong Kong Hang Seng 24575.96 24280.14 Malaysia FTSE Bursa KLCI 1372.20 1370.16 FTSE/JSE Top 40 46100.71 45595.47 Nasdaq 100 8728.72 8837.66 FTSEurofirst 80 (Eur) 3997.46 3935.51
Shanghai A 2945.14 2950.86 HS China Enterprise 9983.69 9875.59 Mexico IPC 35449.46 34968.09 South Korea Kospi 1934.09 1922.77 Nasdaq Cmp 8651.81 8730.16 MSCI ACWI Fr ($) 480.94 472.62
Shanghai B 209.92 210.72 HSCC Red Chip 3864.10 3793.22 Morocco MASI 9043.76 9009.80 Kospi 200 256.39 254.84 NYSE Comp 11339.31 11264.84 MSCI All World ($) 2022.49 1987.65
Shanghai Comp 2810.02 2815.49 Hungary Bux 33808.22 33196.85 Netherlands AEX 519.97 512.18 Spain IBEX 35 6836.40 6731.80 S&P 500 2874.15 2878.48 MSCI Europe (Eur) 1364.53 1340.21
Shenzhen A 1812.92 1818.67 India BSE Sensex 32114.52 31743.08 AEX All Share 733.94 722.83 Sri Lanka CSE All Share 4571.63 4874.73 Wilshire 5000 28961.30 28990.13 MSCI Pacific ($) 2352.70 2301.86
Shenzhen B 827.22 826.99 Nifty 500 7672.45 7603.95 New Zealand NZX 50 10759.56 10419.48 Sweden OMX Stockholm 30 1568.50 1539.51 Venezuela IBC 282383.09 286273.03 S&P Euro (Eur) 1338.16 1317.79
Colombia COLCAP 1116.17 1122.37 Indonesia Jakarta Comp 4529.55 4513.14 Nigeria SE All Share 22680.16 22744.60 OMX Stockholm AS 596.33 587.95 Vietnam VNI 767.21 770.77 S&P Europe 350 (Eur) 1371.19 1349.25
Croatia CROBEX 2013.05 2011.29 Ireland ISEQ Overall 5481.11 5393.27 Norway Oslo All Share 826.08 812.64 Switzerland SMI Index 9889.46 9758.82 S&P Global 1200 ($) 2255.03 2246.73
Israel Tel Aviv 125 1381.28 1343.16 Pakistan KSE 100 32553.39 32314.57 Stoxx 50 (Eur) 2888.72 2847.31
(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 Apr 28 %Chg %Chg Apr 28 %Chg %Chg Apr 28 %Chg %Chg Apr 28 %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
Amazon.com 60.5 2315.84 -60.16 Astrazeneca 182.3 8188.00 -102.00 Allianz Se Na O.n. 417.3 167.76 7.46 Softbank . 984.5 4610.00 18.00 Ashtead 2096.00 25.1 -12.7 Grafton 677.50 31.2 -24.6 Brown (n) 25.50 65.4 -84.0 Construction & Materials 5612.51 12.0 -
Apple 36.2 281.15 -2.02 Bp 157.0 322.10 8.10 Siemens Ag Na O.n. 370.4 84.88 3.13 Fast Retailing Co., 428.4 49000.00 20.00 Taylor Wimpey 155.40 21.0 -21.1 Aj Bell 368.00 23.5 -14.4 Tullow Oil 23.36 43.5 -60.8 General Industrials 4786.57 10.2 -
Boeing 28.7 129.68 1.00 Hsbc Holdings 154.5 420.55 4.25 Sap Se O.n. 330.6 108.84 1.04 Sony 337.6 6763.00 -16.00 Barratt Developments 541.00 19.6 -28.1 Travis Perkins 1066.00 23.0 -34.5 Rps 48.75 34.5 -72.0 Life Insurance 5747.22 9.8 -
Microsoft 25.7 171.11 -2.94 Lloyds Banking 144.0 33.25 2.71 Asml Holding 318.8 272.45 2.75 Toyota Motor 261.3 6685.00 26.00 Carnival 996.40 17.2 -72.7 Cairn Energy 110.60 21.9 -45.8 Xaar 41.20 32.9 -21.4 Oil & Gas Producers 5228.88 9.4 -
Netflix 23.0 405.67 -15.71 Glaxosmithkline 116.4 1687.60 -15.40 Bayer Ag Na O.n. 305.4 63.02 0.02 Takeda Pharmaceutical 255.8 3956.00 -30.00 Intermediate Capital 1068.00 15.6 -34.9 Paypoint 634.00 21.5 -38.1 Sig 22.36 24.8 -82.1 Support Services 7668.03 9.2 -
Advanced Micro Devices 21.5 56.12 -0.37 British American Tobacco 102.2 3129.50 157.00 Intesa Sanpaolo 273.8 1.45 0.05 Fanuc 248.3 16880.00 250.00 Centrica 35.92 14.5 -60.2 Vistry 822.50 20.6 -38.2 Premier Oil 26.05 24.2 -73.8 Index - Technology Hardware & Equipment 1999.41 8.5 1.2
Nvidia 18.7 294.66 -2.42 Royal Dutch Shell 98.1 1404.40 38.20 Sanofi 269.0 92.19 -1.21 Kao 246.0 8473.00 -291.00 Persimmon 2210.00 14.3 -19.0 Watches Of Switzerland 242.50 20.0 -37.8 Amigo Holdings 19.90 21.9 -71.9 Tobacco 32756.36 8.4 -5.2
Facebook 16.7 185.00 -2.50 Diageo 95.7 2763.50 38.50 Royal Dutch Shella 259.4 16.67 0.42 Mitsubishi Ufj Fin,. 226.6 425.10 1.60 Lloyds Banking 33.25 13.8 -47.8 Redrow 462.60 19.7 -39.7 Paypoint 634.00 21.5 -38.1 Forestry & Paper 15940.62 7.8 -20.3
Alphabet 13.5 1249.22 -21.64 Unilever 93.6 4071.00 -31.00 Bnp Paribas Act.a 250.1 29.60 1.81 Tokyo Electron 212.4 22085.00 200.00 Prudential 1113.00 13.6 -24.0 Micro Focus Int 450.50 19.5 -59.5 Schroder Eur Real Estate Investment Trust 74.40 20.0 -32.1 Banks 2369.35 7.3 -
Alphabet 11.0 1251.80 -24.08 Barclays 86.8 97.76 6.70 Basf Se Na O.n. 247.1 47.27 1.85 Shionogi & Co., 167.9 6001.00 211.00 Smurfit Kappa 2518.00 13.6 -14.4 Virgin Money Uk 79.34 19.2 -58.4 Forterra 239.00 19.2 -33.1 Household Goods 16293.55 7.1 -9.3
Barclays 97.76 13.0 -47.2 Forterra 239.00 19.2 -33.1 Batm Advanced Communications Ld 56.00 19.1 44.7 Beverages 21626.48 6.9 -
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
Crh 2421.00 12.7 -21.9 Bellway 2744.00 19.0 -28.7 Galliford Try Holdings 141.00 18.1 -84.1 Mining 14639.92 6.9 -23.1
price change chng% price change chng% price change chng% price change chng%
Ups Ups Ups Ups Losers Losers Losers Losers
Alliance Data Systems 47.34 5.95 14.38 Cineworld 63.36 9.24 17.07 Skanska Ab Ser. B 18.29 1.73 10.45 Nitto Denko 5290.00 230.00 4.55 Easyjet 572.20 -6.1 -60.0 Marston's 31.82 -8.7 -75.4 Asa Int 50.00 -29.3 - Personal Goods 33762.60 -2.8 -
Harley-davidson 21.10 2.16 11.40 Micro Focus Int 450.50 59.80 15.31 Bbva 2.93 0.24 8.97 Nippon Meat Packers,. 3815.00 140.00 3.81 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. 217.90 -4.8 -65.7 Hiscox Ltd 732.60 -8.1 -48.8 Restaurant 52.30 -15.3 -68.6 Aerospace & Defense 3474.12 -0.4 -
Dr Horton 46.84 4.73 11.23 Wood (john) 175.00 16.70 10.55 Cnp Assurances 9.15 0.72 8.61 Sony Fin Holdings . 2048.00 73.00 3.70 Bae Systems 512.60 -4.1 -10.7 Qinetiq 308.80 -7.2 -15.7 Ediston Property Investment 46.00 -10.7 -48.6 Pharmaceuticals & Biotech. 18159.36 1.2 1.8
Simon Property 63.52 6.33 11.07 Petrofac 168.55 15.10 9.84 Klepierre 17.81 1.32 7.97 Shionogi & Co., 6001.00 211.00 3.64 Unilever 4071.00 -3.1 -6.3 Pphe Hotel 1140.00 -6.9 -40.6 Georgia Capital 425.00 -9.3 -53.0 Food & Drug Retailers 4058.44 1.2 -3.5
Pultegroup 29.95 2.71 9.95 Pantheon Int 1950.00 170.00 9.55 Capgemini 85.00 6.20 7.87 Dainippon Screen Mfg.co., 5060.00 160.00 3.27 Fresnillo 704.20 -2.2 9.3 Pollen Street Secured Lending 600.00 -4.8 -27.5 Metro Bank 91.20 -8.8 -56.4 Electricity 7021.74 2.2 -
Sage 615.00 -1.9 -17.7 Just 53.35 -3.9 -35.7 Marston's 31.82 -8.7 -75.4 Electronic & Electrical Equip. 8099.38 2.4 -6.1
Downs Downs Downs Downs
Intertek 4861.00 -0.8 -16.5 Tui Ag 310.30 -3.6 -68.7 Reach 82.00 -8.5 -40.7 Software & Computer Services 1712.35 2.5 -
Cinnati Fin 73.02 -9.02 -10.99 Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings 55.05 -3.30 -5.66 Seadrill 0.49 -0.02 -3.14 Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings 614.10 -36.40 -5.60
Hikma Pharmaceuticals 2323.00 -0.5 17.0 Hyve 23.00 -2.1 -77.0 Macau Property Opportunities Fund 64.00 -7.9 -43.4 Food Producers 6648.72 2.6 -
National Oilwell Varco 11.61 -0.74 -5.99 Centamin 162.55 -5.30 -3.16 Danone 62.36 -1.72 -2.68 Kyocera 5665.00 -288.00 -4.84
Associated British Foods 1857.50 -0.4 -28.0 Sequoia Economic Infrastructure ome Fund 101.80 -2.1 -13.0 Ten Entertainment 166.00 -7.3 -45.5 Real Estate Investment Trusts 2502.84 3.1 -
Waters 184.04 -10.97 -5.63 Avon Rubber 2645.00 -85.00 -3.11 Dassault Systemes 137.30 -3.70 -2.62 Kao 8473.00 -291.00 -3.32
Sainsbury (j) 200.70 -0.4 -13.5 Uk Commercial Property Reit 60.60 -1.6 -31.3 Riverstone Energy 153.00 -7.0 -64.5 Nonlife Insurance 2502.60 3.2 -
yte 97.32 -5.66 -5.49 Easyjet 572.20 -16.80 -2.85 Iliad 138.45 -3.55 -2.50 Olympus 1660.00 -54.00 -3.15
Spirax-sarco Eng 8784.00 -0.4 -2.8 Dechra Pharmaceuticals 2678.00 -1.4 -8.8 Goodwin 2220.00 -6.7 -28.2 Industrial Engineering 10262.95 3.6 -
United Parcel Service 97.26 -5.29 -5.16 Avast 439.60 -12.60 -2.79 Inditex 23.32 -0.46 -1.93 Toyo Seikan Kaisha, 1085.00 -34.00 -3.04
Halma 2107.00 -0.3 -2.1 Greencoat Uk Wind 135.80 -1.0 -11.0 Funding Circle Holdings 93.60 -6.4 -3.1 Equity Investment Instruments 9688.81 3.7 -
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
Apr 28 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Apr 28 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Apr 28 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Apr 28 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change
Argentina Argentine Peso 66.6372 0.1122 72.1815 0.0653 82.8769 0.3223 Indonesia Indonesian Rupiah 15445.0000 60.0000 16730.0457 51.9823 19209.0113 116.8803 Poland Polish Zloty 4.2010 0.0182 4.5505 0.0162 5.2247 0.0341 ..Three Month 0.8041 -0.0018 0.8708 -0.0026 - -
Australia Australian Dollar 1.5414 -0.0057 1.6697 -0.0075 1.9171 -0.0029 Israel Israeli Shekel 3.4996 -0.0021 3.7908 -0.0052 4.3525 0.0070 Romania Romanian Leu 4.4720 0.0058 4.8440 0.0026 5.5618 0.0195 ..One Year 0.8042 -0.0018 0.8703 -0.0026 - -
Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3771 - 0.4084 -0.0003 0.4689 0.0010 Japan Japanese Yen 106.9500 -0.2450 115.8483 -0.3560 133.0141 -0.0102 Russia Russian Ruble 74.2675 -0.2550 80.4466 -0.3392 92.3668 -0.1124 United States United States Dollar - - 1.0832 -0.0008 1.2437 0.0027
Bolivia Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 7.4849 -0.0058 8.5940 0.0190 ..One Month 106.9499 -0.2451 115.8483 -0.3560 133.0141 -0.0103 Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 3.7598 0.0003 4.0726 -0.0029 4.6760 0.0106 ..One Month - - 1.0831 -0.1577 1.2437 0.0027
Brazil Brazilian Real 5.5868 -0.0522 6.0517 -0.0613 6.9484 -0.0494 ..Three Month 106.9498 -0.2454 115.8483 -0.3559 133.0139 -0.0106 Singapore Singapore Dollar 1.4173 -0.0008 1.5352 -0.0021 1.7627 0.0029 ..Three Month - - 1.0830 -0.1577 1.2438 0.0027
Canada Canadian Dollar 1.3998 -0.0050 1.5163 -0.0066 1.7409 -0.0024 ..One Year 106.9491 -0.2468 115.8484 -0.3558 133.0141 -0.0112 South Africa South African Rand 18.6913 -0.1687 20.2464 -0.1987 23.2464 -0.1581 ..One Year - - 1.0822 -0.1577 1.2439 0.0027
Chile Chilean Peso 851.9050 -3.2750 922.7841 -4.2705 1059.5176 -1.7237 Kenya Kenyan Shilling 107.3000 0.0500 116.2274 -0.0365 133.4494 0.3568 South Korea South Korean Won 1225.1000 -1.0000 1327.0292 -2.1198 1523.6616 2.1247 Venezuela Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte - - - - - -
China Chinese Yuan 7.0849 0.0013 7.6744 -0.0046 8.8115 0.0211 Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar 0.3098 -0.0007 0.3356 -0.0010 0.3853 0.0000 Sweden Swedish Krona 9.8949 -0.1509 10.7182 -0.1719 12.3063 -0.1601 Vietnam Vietnamese Dong 23445.0000 -11.5000 25395.6645 -32.2880 29158.6845 50.1621
Colombia Colombian Peso 4054.8300 23.9000 4392.1949 22.4803 5043.0093 40.7983 Malaysia Malaysian Ringgit 4.3645 0.0065 4.7276 0.0034 5.4281 0.0201 Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9751 -0.0007 1.0562 -0.0016 1.2127 0.0018 European Union Euro 0.9232 0.0007 - - 1.1482 0.0034
Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 566.5500 0.0500 613.6873 -0.4248 704.6204 1.6185 Mexico Mexican Peso 24.4645 -0.3690 26.5000 -0.4207 30.4266 -0.3907 Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 30.0020 0.0040 32.4982 -0.0210 37.3136 0.0874 ..One Month 0.9231 0.0007 - - 1.1481 0.0034
Czech Republic Czech Koruna 25.0697 -0.1556 27.1555 -0.1899 31.1793 -0.1242 New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.6525 0.0004 1.7900 -0.0010 2.0552 0.0050 Thailand Thai Baht 32.4275 -0.0450 35.1255 -0.0762 40.3302 0.0332 ..Three Month 0.9230 0.0007 - - 1.1480 0.0034
Denmark Danish Krone 6.8832 0.0043 7.4559 -0.0012 8.5607 0.0242 Nigeria Nigerian Naira 384.0000 - 415.9491 -0.3247 477.5822 1.0549 Tunisia Tunisian Dinar 2.9035 -0.0009 3.1450 -0.0034 3.6110 0.0069 ..One Year 0.9222 0.0007 - - 1.1475 0.0034
Egypt Egyptian Pound 15.7567 0.0354 17.0677 0.0251 19.5967 0.0872 Norway Norwegian Krone 10.4000 -0.1656 11.2652 -0.1883 12.9345 -0.1769 Turkey Turkish Lira 6.9965 0.0072 7.5786 0.0019 8.7016 0.0282
Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.7502 0.0001 8.3950 -0.0064 9.6390 0.0214 Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 161.1250 0.2750 174.5307 0.1619 200.3918 0.7839 United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6732 0.0001 3.9788 -0.0030 4.5683 0.0102
Hungary Hungarian Forint 330.7238 2.6070 358.2402 2.5465 411.3224 4.1437 Peru Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.3828 -0.0118 3.6642 -0.0156 4.2071 -0.0053 United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.8040 -0.0018 0.8709 -0.0026 - -
India Indian Rupee 76.1875 -0.0600 82.5263 -0.1295 94.7547 0.1348 Philippines Philippine Peso 50.6700 -0.0300 54.8858 -0.0754 63.0185 0.1020 ..One Month 0.8041 -0.0018 0.8709 -0.0026 - -
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 Apr 27 Apr 24 Apr 23 Apr 22 Apr 21 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 2170.20 2123.30 2152.70 2140.40 2108.70 0.00 3314.70 1337.80 Pharmace & Biotech 2.03 NON FINANCIALS Index -22.22 Real Est Invest & Tr -27.41 FTSE 100 Price Change FTSE 100 Price Change
Apr 28 chge% Index Apr 27 Apr 24 ago yield% Cover ratio adj Return FT 30 Div Yield - - - - - 0.00 3.93 2.74 Tech Hardware & Eq 1.61 Technology -22.81 FTSE 250 Index -28.31 3I Group PLC 793.20 21.20 Land Securities Group PLC 659.00 26.20
FTSE 100 (100) 5958.50 1.91 5330.54 5846.79 5752.23 7440.66 5.17 1.41 13.73 79.94 5577.10 P/E Ratio net - - - - - 0.00 19.44 14.26 Health Care -0.84 Health Care Eq & Srv -23.26 Media -28.51 Admiral Group PLC 2333 47.00 Legal & General Group PLC 205.00 14.50
FTSE 250 (251) 16291.58 2.12 14574.63 15952.72 15687.43 19911.20 3.92 2.03 12.61 106.73 12759.83 FT 30 since compilation: 4198.4 high: 19/07/1999; low49.4 18/02/1900Base Date: 1/7/35 Food & Drug Retailer -4.06 FTSE SmallCap Index -23.28 Telecommunications -29.84 Anglo American PLC 1450.6 65.20 Lloyds Banking Group PLC 33.25 2.71
FTSE 250 ex Inv Co (187) 16640.75 2.40 14886.99 16250.65 16007.43 21012.02 4.27 1.48 15.85 92.05 13312.55 FT 30 hourly changes Gas Water & Multi -6.89 FTSE 100 Index -23.74 Consumer Services -30.56 Antofagasta PLC 774.40 9.40 London Stock Exchange Group PLC 7488 2.00
FTSE 350 (351) 3323.66 1.95 2973.38 3260.22 3207.25 4135.08 4.96 1.49 13.53 40.83 6207.62 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 High Low Utilities -9.45 FTSE All{HY-}Share Index -24.49 Financials -30.63 Ashtead Group PLC 2096 111.00 M&G PLC 129.85 3.95
FTSE 350 ex Investment Trusts (286) 3263.29 1.99 2919.37 3199.65 3148.67 4087.75 5.08 1.42 13.89 40.64 3144.59 2123.3 2167.1 2165 3120.5 2162.3 2166 2158.6 2154.4 2158.9 2172.6 2123.3 Electronic & Elec Eq -9.45 Basic Materials -24.53 General Retailers -30.94 Associated British Foods PLC 1857.5 -0.50 Meggitt PLC 271.10 7.10
FTSE 350 Higher Yield (107) 2709.13 2.30 2423.62 2648.13 2612.18 3675.84 7.60 1.24 10.62 43.48 5510.95 FT30 constituents and recent additions/deletions can be found at www.ft.com/ft30 Household Goods & Ho -9.67 Construct & Material -24.56 Aerospace & Defense -31.08 Astrazeneca PLC 8188 -102.00 Melrose Industries PLC 94.42 4.38
FTSE 350 Lower Yield (244) 3713.70 1.62 3322.31 3654.33 3586.19 4239.59 2.58 2.15 17.97 32.89 4348.93 Tobacco -10.25 Mining -24.58 Life Insurance -34.37 Auto Trader Group PLC 475.60 16.60 Mondi PLC 1416 33.00
FTSE SmallCap (264) 4641.26 0.91 4152.13 4599.50 4565.49 5661.06 4.86 1.36 15.15 42.12 7251.63 Personal Goods -12.31 Software & Comp Serv -24.60 Industrial Metals & -34.41
FTSE SmallCap ex Inv Co (146) 3552.93 1.02 3178.49 3517.16 3494.48 4661.07 6.16 0.67 24.41 23.55 5827.87 FX: EFFECTIVE INDICES Consumer Goods -13.08 Real Est Invest & Se -24.61 Oil & Gas Producers -37.72
Aveva Group PLC 3432 26.00 Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets PLC 188.90 2.70
Aviva PLC 249.50 10.70 National Grid PLC 947.20 4.60
FTSE All-Share (615) 3281.88 1.91 2936.01 3220.29 3168.88 4080.32 4.96 1.48 13.58 39.95 6192.42
FTSE All-Share ex Inv Co (432) 3195.58 1.97 2858.80 3133.76 3084.32 4006.14 5.10 1.40 13.99 39.46 3127.87 Apr 27 Apr 24 Mnth Ago Apr 28 Apr 27 Mnth Ago Equity Invest Instr -15.41 Support Services -24.76 Oil & Gas -38.03 Bae Systems PLC 512.60 -1.40 Next PLC 4786 81.00
Electricity -17.95 Nonlife Insurance -25.16 Industrial Transport -38.24 Barclays PLC 97.76 6.70 Ocado Group PLC 1651.5 -1.00
FTSE All-Share ex Multinationals (541) 963.61 2.48 714.49 940.33 927.31 1194.73 4.41 1.55 14.61 6.40 1896.98 Australia - - - Sweden - - - Beverages -18.03 Forestry & Paper -25.53 Fixed Line Telecomms -38.48 Barratt Developments PLC 541.00 27.00 Pearson PLC 474.50 20.90
FTSE Fledgling (96) 7382.28 0.74 6604.27 7327.89 7268.44 9420.43 5.01 0.73 27.20 67.69 14925.72 Canada - - - Switzerland - - - Food Producers -19.63 Industrials -25.82 Banks -41.26 Berkeley Group Holdings (The) PLC 4300 141.00 Pennon Group PLC 1104 11.00
FTSE Fledgling ex Inv Co (42) 8405.91 0.74 7520.01 8343.92 8267.84 11188.04 8.75 -0.43 -26.45 56.28 16683.73 Denmark - - - UK 78.32 78.01 75.85 Leisure Goods -19.66 Mobile Telecomms -25.90 Travel & Leisure -42.18 Bhp Group PLC 1333.6 16.80 Persimmon PLC 2210 80.00
FTSE All-Small (360) 3208.80 0.90 2870.63 3180.23 3156.58 3924.05 4.87 1.32 15.55 29.15 6431.85 Japan - - - USA - - - Chemicals -22.20 Industrial Eng -26.41 Automobiles & Parts -53.29 BP PLC 322.10 8.10 Phoenix Group Holdings PLC 602.40 33.20
FTSE All-Small ex Inv Co (188) 2647.62 1.01 2368.59 2621.22 2604.06 3474.13 6.25 0.61 26.18 17.55 5501.32 New Zealand - - - Euro - - - Financial Services -26.49 Oil Equipment & Serv -58.21 British American Tobacco PLC 3129.5 157.00 Polymetal International PLC 1674 8.50
FTSE AIM All-Share (735) 804.96 1.26 720.12 794.95 782.15 970.47 1.75 1.41 40.47 2.15 919.11 Norway - - -
British Land Company PLC 400.80 14.00 Prudential PLC 1113 73.50
FTSE Sector Indices Source: Bank of England. New Sterling ERI base Jan 2005 = 100. Other indices base average 1990 = 100. Bt Group PLC 120.35 3.00 Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC 6454 -126.00
Oil & Gas (12) 5388.37 2.68 4820.50 5247.82 5175.84 9400.57 9.80 1.05 9.68 127.10 5827.47 Index rebased 1/2/95. for further information about ERIs see www.bankofengland.co.uk Bunzl PLC 1725.5 -4.50 Relx PLC 1853 57.50
Oil & Gas Producers (8) 5248.81 2.62 4695.64 5114.71 5041.65 9094.93 9.75 1.06 9.66 125.00 5883.06 Burberry Group PLC 1394.5 47.00 Rentokil Initial PLC 475.70 12.10
Oil Equipment Services & Distribution (4) 3763.22 8.34 3366.62 3473.39 3623.64 10847.63 14.39 0.60 11.58 6.80 3240.42 FTSE GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX SERIES Carnival PLC 996.40 74.00 Rightmove PLC 490.20 19.40
Basic Materials (23) 4914.32 1.66 4396.40 4833.88 4790.46 6660.24 7.04 2.16 6.59 136.03 5794.63 Centrica PLC 35.92 1.92 Rio Tinto PLC 3772 11.50
Chemicals (7) 11466.86 1.98 10258.38 11243.84 11040.61 15673.70 3.05 1.99 16.49 87.38 10909.04 Apr 27 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total
YTD Gr Div Apr 27 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total YTD Gr Div Coca-Cola Hbc AG 2055 37.00 Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC 319.50 11.70
Forestry & Paper (1) 17394.14 2.39 15560.99 16988.77 16214.88 21134.62 1.78 5.96 9.43 0.00 20581.06 Regions & countries stocks indices % % % retn
% Yield Sectors stocks indices % % % retn % Yield Compass Group PLC 1341.5 2.50 Royal Bank Of Scotland Group PLC 115.05 7.55
Industrial Metals & Mining (2) 2695.59 -1.92 2411.51 2748.41 2669.56 6175.01 20.47 1.06 4.63 261.34 3441.55 FTSE Global All Cap 8913 535.78 1.9 10.2 -15.8
-15.2 814.68
2.7 Oil Equipment & Services 36 166.14 1.6 1.6 -38.0 270.19 -37.0 7.0 Crh PLC 2421 42.00 Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1432.8 34.20
Mining (13) 14012.29 1.64 12535.54 13785.98 13710.20 18882.94 7.60 2.16 6.10 429.47 8726.74 FTSE Global All Cap 7079 462.39 0.3 7.3 -0.3
0.2 624.68
2.5 Basic Materials 351 411.07 2.0 2.0 -20.0 684.65 -19.1 4.0 Croda International PLC 4978 133.00 Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1404.4 38.20
FTSE Global Large Cap 1771 488.59 1.6 10.0 -13.9
-13.2 764.79
2.8 Chemicals 159 601.59 2.6 2.6 -19.8 991.98 -19.2 3.5 Dcc PLC 5520 -46.00 Rsa Insurance Group PLC 370.60 25.50
Industrials (99) 4672.19 2.40 4179.80 4562.71 4446.68 5481.54 2.92 1.46 23.42 14.63 5132.78
Construction & Materials (14) 5858.64 1.69 5241.20 5761.07 5572.51 6399.18 3.31 0.56 54.02 95.82 6730.66 FTSE Global Mid Cap 2190 656.87 2.4 10.2 -20.8
-20.3 940.46
2.7 Forestry & Paper 20 213.13 3.2 3.2 -23.4 398.85 -22.2 4.0 Diageo PLC 2763.5 38.50 Sage Group PLC 615.00 -0.60
Aerospace & Defense (9) 3666.74 0.54 3280.30 3647.13 3593.98 5037.63 3.38 1.16 25.43 2.61 4160.03 FTSE Global Small Cap 4952 674.89 3.0 12.0 -22.0
-21.5 930.29
2.5 Industrial Metals & Mining 93 252.04 2.8 2.8 -33.3 421.75 -32.7 5.2 Easyjet PLC 572.20 -16.80 Sainsbury (J) PLC 200.70 -0.40
General Industrials (7) 3855.71 3.13 3449.36 3738.68 3630.40 4750.32 4.23 0.93 25.31 0.00 4748.93 FTSE All-World 3961 316.90 1.7 10.0 -15.1
-14.5 509.84
2.8 Mining 79 635.56 0.6 0.6 -12.8 1084.72 -11.2 4.5 Evraz PLC 246.90 -6.20 Schroders PLC 2696 108.00
Electronic & Electrical Equipment (10) 9488.55 1.15 8488.56 9380.81 9264.91 9188.33 1.45 2.15 31.99 0.00 9032.77 FTSE World 2596 563.89 1.8 10.3 -15.1
-14.5 1218.12
2.8 Industrials 747 357.69 2.6 2.6 -20.3 544.90 -19.8 2.5 Experian PLC 2469 126.00 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC 645.50 -4.50
Industrial Engineering (12) 11227.86 1.96 10044.57 11012.30 10851.01 14409.39 2.93 1.70 20.06 39.56 14535.13 FTSE Global All Cap ex UNITED KINGDOM In 8611 564.43 1.8 10.4 -15.2
-14.5 843.02
2.6 Construction & Materials 148 425.50 2.6 2.6 -23.3 678.91 -22.7 2.8 Ferguson PLC 5692 212.00 Segro PLC 818.00 -3.20
Industrial Transportation (6) 2594.43 4.75 2321.00 2476.73 2429.44 3745.06 9.32 0.81 13.27 0.00 2624.60 FTSE Global All Cap ex USA 7130 411.57 2.0 6.1 -20.7
-19.9 681.05
3.6 Aerospace & Defense 37 568.55 1.2 1.2 -36.5 852.84 -36.2 3.2 Flutter Entertainment PLC 9384 258.00 Severn Trent PLC 2374 11.00
Support Services (41) 7302.56 3.21 6532.95 7075.64 6860.70 8205.69 2.30 2.18 19.96 10.09 8030.83 FTSE Global All Cap ex JAPAN 7561 551.18 1.8 11.1 -15.9
-15.3 845.80
2.7 General Industrials 64 175.71 3.5 3.5 -22.9 292.39 -22.2 3.2 Fresnillo PLC 704.20 -14.60 Smith & Nephew PLC 1557 -6.50
FTSE Global All Cap ex Eurozone 8263 566.27 1.8 10.7 -14.9
-14.3 843.66
2.6 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 140 421.25 3.0 3.0 -17.3 581.54 -16.9 2.0 Glaxosmithkline PLC 1687.6 -15.40 Smith (Ds) PLC 310.30 13.70
Consumer Goods (42) 17998.21 2.00 16101.40 17644.74 17502.92 19851.47 4.60 1.69 12.89 223.98 14901.47
FTSE Developed 2171 518.28 1.7 10.5 -14.4
-13.8 794.92
2.7 Industrial Engineering 146 671.60 2.6 2.6 -19.0 1020.47 -18.1 2.8 Glencore PLC 145.56 5.58 Smiths Group PLC 1241.5 19.00
Automobiles & Parts (2) 2531.85 -1.96 2265.02 2582.38 2567.78 6546.18 3.76 2.32 11.48 62.05 2657.10
FTSE Developed All Cap 5640 537.14 1.9 10.6 -15.3
-14.6 812.48
2.7 Industrial Transportation 126 630.21 2.3 2.3 -16.8 964.18 -16.4 2.6 Halma PLC 2107 4.00 Smurfit Kappa Group PLC 2518 74.00
Beverages (6) 21650.20 1.47 19368.51 21335.65 20813.48 25507.85 2.62 2.12 18.02 195.72 16361.35
FTSE Developed Large Cap 884 489.68 1.6 10.5 -13.2
-12.4 764.19
2.7 Support Services 86 442.76 2.5 2.5 -12.3 638.57 -11.8 1.6 Hargreaves Lansdown PLC 1600 92.50 Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC 8784 42.00
Food Producers (10) 6571.29 1.50 5878.75 6474.02 6489.16 7811.75 2.74 1.93 18.94 7.75 6025.99
FTSE Developed Europe Large Cap 234 300.83 2.1 5.3 -21.7
-20.8 553.51
4.2 Consumer Goods 546 438.55 1.5 1.5 -14.1 698.26 -13.3 3.0 Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC 2323 -33.00 Sse PLC 1226 26.00
Household Goods & Home Construction (14)13610.18 0.58 12175.81 13531.61 13599.23 13836.31 4.08 2.03 12.04 141.01 10831.54
FTSE Developed Europe Mid Cap 354 473.95 2.0 7.5 -25.0
-24.6 764.20
3.6 Automobiles & Parts 132 300.72 4.0 4.0 -21.0 467.90 -20.3 3.9 HSBC Holdings PLC 420.55 4.25 St. James's Place PLC 841.00 46.80
Leisure Goods (2) 14919.23 8.82 13346.91 13709.38 13361.53 11673.79 3.41 1.48 19.88 109.33 15469.18
FTSE Dev Europe Small Cap 694 644.48 1.7 8.7 -28.2
-27.9 1001.65
3.6 Beverages 66 589.18 1.9 1.9 -16.8 944.09 -16.3 2.7 Imperial Brands PLC 1631.5 61.50 Standard Chartered PLC 389.90 6.80
Personal Goods (6) 29184.33 -0.25 26108.62 29257.39 29050.68 34453.55 3.47 2.72 10.58 220.67 21382.60
FTSE North America Large Cap 254 630.48 1.3 13.6 -9.5
-9.0 909.26
2.2 Food Producers 130 631.10 -0.2 -0.2 -7.5 1028.03 -6.3 2.4 Informa PLC 453.60 35.50 Standard Life Aberdeen PLC 223.00 9.90
Tobacco (2) 32756.42 5.04 29304.25 31186.11 30951.36 34591.72 7.64 1.12 11.66 710.53 25415.90
FTSE North America Mid Cap 409 772.31 2.7 13.3 -18.4
-18.0 1027.76
2.1 Household Goods & Home Construction 60 446.79 0.4 0.4 -11.8 708.10 -10.9 2.8 Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC 3627 26.00 Taylor Wimpey PLC 155.40 6.70
Health Care (16) 12768.05 -1.02 11422.44 12899.02 12764.76 10662.51 3.35 0.97 30.72 193.60 10921.86
FTSE North America Small Cap 1309 753.85 3.6 14.0 -21.0
-20.6 970.02
2.0 Leisure Goods 43 228.46 1.1 1.1 -5.7 313.21 -5.1 1.3 Intermediate Capital Group PLC 1068 24.00 Tesco PLC 236.20 0.90
Health Care Equipment & Services (7) 6603.03 -0.17 5907.15 6614.60 6485.36 7260.17 2.08 1.69 28.45 77.97 6044.82
FTSE North America 663 407.70 1.6 13.5 -11.2
-10.6 600.87
2.1 Personal Goods 102 764.28 1.6 1.6 -15.2 1126.12 -14.9 2.0 International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. 217.90 -2.20 Unilever PLC 4071 -31.00
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology (9) 18029.20 -1.10 16129.12 18229.14 18055.55 14588.26 3.47 0.93 30.97 279.28 13842.25
FTSE Developed ex North America 1508 217.01 2.1 4.9 -20.2
-19.4 387.31
3.7 Tobacco 13 844.63 1.3 1.3 -15.2 2037.74 -13.6 7.1 Intertek Group PLC 4861 121.00 United Utilities Group PLC 908.20 9.20
Consumer Services (86) 4148.41 2.32 3711.21 4054.37 3945.34 5271.92 3.70 1.58 17.13 33.33 4209.22 FTSE Japan Large Cap 181 342.96 2.2 0.5 -13.5
-12.5 476.04
2.7 Health Care 281 609.15 1.5 1.5 -0.3 928.48 0.5 1.9
Food & Drug Retailers (5) 4215.92 0.44 3771.61 4197.54 4184.37 4304.28 2.58 0.99 39.20 0.00 5202.26 Itv PLC 75.84 3.64 Vodafone Group PLC 113.04 2.24
FTSE Japan Mid Cap 327 518.88 1.8 0.0 -17.4
-16.4 684.38
2.6 Health Care Equipment & Services 95 1109.57 1.8 1.8 -5.4 1330.04 -5.1 1.0 Jd Sports Fashion PLC 522.60 41.10 Whitbread PLC 2950 167.00
General Retailers (27) 1741.88 2.84 1558.31 1693.85 1663.19 2257.04 3.34 1.82 16.48 2.90 2170.77
FTSE Global wi JAPAN Small Cap 844 565.18 1.6 -1.0 -18.8
-17.7 772.13
2.6 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 186 419.80 1.3 1.3 2.3 678.17 3.4 2.4 Johnson Matthey PLC 1991.5 29.50 Wpp PLC 590.40 19.60
Media (18) 7112.67 3.93 6363.07 6843.65 6638.07 8631.85 3.82 1.55 16.88 80.58 4762.79
FTSE Japan 508 143.20 2.1 0.4 -14.3
-13.3 222.58
2.7 Consumer Services 452 507.54 1.3 1.3 -9.0 707.00 -8.6 1.5 Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. 8016 220.00
Travel & Leisure (36) 6204.97 1.51 5551.04 6112.80 5849.63 9132.54 4.46 1.69 13.24 79.44 6364.69
FTSE Asia Pacific Large Cap ex Japan 921 612.46 1.8 7.7 -15.7
-15.3 1040.58
3.2 Food & Drug Retailers 66 258.69 1.6 1.6 -12.3 385.65 -11.5 2.7
Telecommunications (6) 1653.74 2.20 1479.45 1618.13 1594.74 2339.97 8.01 0.02 547.44 0.00 2185.30 FTSE Asia Pacific Mid Cap ex Japan 852 666.74 2.2 9.7 -23.0
-22.7 1086.64
3.7 General Retailers 148 917.39 0.6 0.6 1.4 1230.37 1.6 0.9
Fixed Line Telecommunications (3) 1518.86 2.77 1358.78 1477.92 1454.23 2753.82 11.75 1.45 5.86 0.00 1660.09
Mobile Telecommunications (3) 2555.05 1.98 2285.77 2505.33 2470.61 3240.63 6.58 -0.95 -15.93 0.00 3023.89
FTSE Asia Pacific Small Cap ex Japan
FTSE Asia Pacific Ex Japan
1814
1773
444.90
475.21
2.1
1.9
13.9
7.8
-18.1
-17.6
-16.4
-15.9
709.68
3.5 Media
857.65
3.3 Travel & Leisure
88 325.69
150 380.00
2.3
2.6
2.3 -15.2 456.91 -14.8
2.6 -26.6 540.68 -26.1
1.7
2.5
UK STOCK MARKET TRADING DATA
Utilities (8) 7074.98 1.15 6329.35 6994.36 6991.93 6763.59 6.07 0.51 32.48 37.80 9457.79 FTSE Emerging All Cap 3273 627.80 1.7 6.4 -20.6
-20.1 1013.06
3.3 Telecommunication 94 139.03 1.5 1.5 -13.3 294.77 -11.9 4.9 Apr 28 Apr 27 Apr 24 Apr 23 Apr 22 Yr Ago
Electricity (3) 7005.79 2.51 6267.46 6834.36 6882.57 6902.15 7.49 -0.36 -37.23 148.16 12355.93 FTSE Emerging Large Cap 887 610.63 1.7 6.1 -19.4
-18.9 991.85
3.2 Fixed Line Telecommuniations 41 113.67 1.2 1.2 -16.1 270.27 -14.2 5.7 - - - - - -
Gas Water & Multiutilities (5) 6709.79 0.80 6002.65 6656.81 6641.53 6363.72 5.68 0.81 21.64 7.47 8864.93 FTSE Emerging Mid Cap 903 693.38 1.8 6.1 -28.8
-28.2 1117.78
4.3 Mobile Telecommunications 53 151.07 1.9 1.9 -9.4 280.46 -8.7 3.8 Order Book Turnover (m) 133.73 124.27 124.27 124.27 47.01 106.82
Financials (308) 3742.12 2.78 3347.74 3641.06 3569.60 5039.86 4.59 1.99 10.95 36.52 3854.37 FTSE Emerging Small Cap 1483 596.86 1.8 10.7 -21.1
-20.6 922.22
3.8 Utilities 190 279.29 1.4 1.4 -12.1 597.35 -11.4 3.8 Order Book Bargains 1155251.00 954667.00 954667.00 954667.00 998024.00 1056952.00
Banks (10) 2337.44 3.31 2091.10 2262.59 2194.31 3953.50 5.63 2.17 8.20 0.02 1925.15 FTSE Emerging Europe 75 292.80 0.5 10.1 -33.5
-33.3 527.66
8.2 Electricity 133 313.81 1.5 1.5 -11.9 662.13 -11.1 3.7 Order Book Shares Traded (m) 2254.00 1803.00 1803.00 1803.00 1884.00 1839.00
Nonlife Insurance (8) 2864.71 2.55 2562.80 2793.52 2774.59 3767.19 4.95 1.64 12.31 11.84 5517.78 FTSE Latin America All Cap 242 516.75 3.5 -1.9 -47.5
-47.1 869.27
4.2 Gas Water & Multiutilities 57 280.36 1.1 1.1 -12.7 618.03 -12.2 4.1 Total Equity Turnover (£m) 8548.44 5056.94 5056.94 5056.94 3509.64 7661.96
Life Insurance/Assurance (7) 5860.00 6.53 5242.42 5500.80 5390.59 8311.01 6.40 1.72 9.11 160.72 6569.29 FTSE Middle East and Africa All Cap 329 496.31 2.1 7.2 -28.1
-26.5 4.5 Financials
851.10 861 193.15 3.1 3.1 -27.0 344.01 -26.3 4.1 Total Mkt Bargains 1404270.00 1147832.00 1147832.00 1147832.00 1185534.00 1249677.00
Real Estate Investment & Services (18) 2231.67 0.45 1996.48 2221.62 2213.98 2570.48 2.59 2.27 17.01 5.28 6340.60 FTSE Global wi UNITED KINGDOM All Cap In 302 255.90 2.2 6.7 -28.4
-27.7 5.2 Banks
479.34 280 138.66 3.6 3.6 -35.1 270.22 -34.3 5.9 Total Shares Traded (m) 7398.00 4622.00 4622.00 4622.00 4927.00 5910.00
Real Estate Investment Trusts (41) 2238.68 2.10 2002.75 2192.72 2188.85 2679.63 4.50 -0.26 -83.97 27.03 3133.83 FTSE Global wi USA All Cap 1783 695.89 1.8 13.5 -11.8
-11.3 2.1 Nonlife Insurance
969.42 73 235.45 1.9 1.9 -23.7 364.10 -23.1 2.7 † Excluding intra-market and overseas turnover. *UK only total at 6pm. ‡ UK plus intra-market turnover. (u) Unavaliable.
General Financial (41) 8334.73 2.34 7456.34 8144.09 8011.43 9378.95 3.93 1.61 15.81 134.74 10576.85 FTSE Europe All Cap 1431 349.50 2.0 6.1 -23.2
-22.4 4.2 Life Insurance
618.04 58 172.55 3.0 3.0 -28.5 301.27 -27.7 4.4 (c) Market closed.
Equity Investment Instruments (183) 9790.23 0.99 8758.44 9693.82 9511.37 10596.28 2.87 3.73 9.34 92.24 5762.52 FTSE Eurozone All Cap 650 326.75 2.6 4.4 -24.9
-24.5 4.0 Financial Services
574.58 211 302.98 3.0 3.0 -18.2 439.81 -17.7 2.1
Non Financials (307) 3997.93 1.63 3576.59 3933.94 3875.91 4832.96 5.09 1.33 14.76 51.89 6617.24 FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient All-World 3961 353.99 2.1 10.0 -18.2
-17.6 2.9 Technology
525.60 289 348.50 0.7 0.7 -3.1 443.80 -2.8 1.3
Technology (15) 1798.99 1.04 1609.40 1780.55 1747.02 2181.19 3.76 0.84 31.84 13.03 2485.36 FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient Developed Europe 588 265.29 1.9 7.3 -21.5
-21.0 3.7 Software & Computer Services
436.34 149 607.83 0.4 0.4 0.0 724.56 0.1 0.7 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. All elements listed are indicative and believed
Software & Computer Services (13) 1924.08 1.16 1721.30 1901.94 1868.42 2424.41 3.98 0.76 32.89 13.43 2810.91 Oil & Gas 150 222.69 1.7 15.7 -38.8
-38.0 400.94
7.0 Technology Hardware & Equipment 140 259.35 1.1 1.1 -6.7 351.16 -6.2 2.1 accurate at the time of publication. No offer is made by Morningstar or the FT. The FT does not warrant nor
Technology Hardware & Equipment (2) 4550.41 -0.25 4070.85 4561.90 4420.78 3255.15 1.51 2.76 24.03 43.15 5622.36 Oil & Gas Producers 104 214.01 1.7 16.5 -39.4
-38.6 393.55
7.1 Alternative Energy 10 109.23 1.3 1.3 -13.7 154.05 -13.1 1.5 guarantee that the information is reliable or complete. The FT does not accept responsibility and will not be
Real Estate Investment & Services 158 294.86 2.6 2.6 -20.1 530.71 -19.5 3.6 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 81 403.21 3.1 3.1 -18.7 867.42 -17.7 4.5 For all queries e-mail ft.reader.enquiries@morningstar.com
FTSE 100 5826.42 5850.58 5849.19 5848.88 5833.28 5845.41 5831.90 5807.23 5813.53 5855.50 5795.04 Real Estate Investment & Services 152 258.63 2.8 2.8 -30.0 463.40 -29.7 4.2
FTSE 250 15899.79 16015.29 16003.55 16062.85 16035.97 16019.56 15985.76 15967.11 15967.95 16099.09 15899.79 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 www.ftse.com/geis. The trade names Fundamental Index® and RAFI® are registered trademarks and the patented and patent-pending proprietary intellectual property of Research Affiliates, LLC
Data provided by Morningstar | www.morningstar.co.uk
FTSE SmallCap 4574.13 4601.43 4604.74 4611.63 4611.06 4607.11 4603.52 4601.85 4599.39 4614.85 4573.11
FTSE All-Share 3208.95 3224.04 3223.12 3225.04 3217.22 3222.00 3214.82 3203.19 3205.97 3226.64 3196.91 (US Patent Nos. 7,620,577; 7,747,502; 7,778,905; 7,792,719; Patent Pending Publ. Nos. US-2006-0149645-A1, US-2007-0055598-A1, US-2008-0288416-A1, US-2010- 0063942-A1, WO 2005/076812, WO 2007/078399 A2,
Time of FTSE 100 Day's high:07:52:00 Day's Low13:45:30 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 7674.56(17/01/2020) Low: 4993.89(23/03/2020) WO 2008/118372, EPN 1733352, and HK1099110). ”EDHEC™” is a trade mark of EDHEC Business School As of January 2nd 2006, FTSE is basing its sector indices on the Industrial Classification Benchmark - please see
Time of FTSE All-Share Day's high:07:52:00 Day's Low13:46:00 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 4257.93(17/01/2020) Low: 2727.86(23/03/2020) www.ftse.com/icb. For constituent changes and other information about FTSE, 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.
Further information is available on http://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. † 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 BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust Int 3.195L 27.652L 3.860L 32.260L 1.75000 1.75000 Jun 10 5.828 5.750 date price(p) Sector code Stock price(p) +/- High Low Cap (£m)
price up date High Low Stock Price p +or- BP 1st 59650.000 66321.000 4524.000L 4782.000 0.216L 0.145 0.00000 10.52000 - 30.800 41.200 03/23 0.69 SYME Supply@ME Capital PLC 0.35 -0.03 1.10 0.25 11300.5
There are currently no rights offers by any companies listed on the LSE. Ceiba Investments Ltd Pre 1.946 3.917 0.060 0.020 0.00000 6.21800 - 0.000 6.200
Fidelity Special Values Int 44.618L 44.732L 15.890L 16.700L 0.00000 2.10000 - 3.630 5.250
Foresight VCT Pre 5.853 5.384 3.300 3.100 3.30000 5.00000 Jun 19 3.300 10.000
Gaming Realms Pre 6.883 6.173 4.665L 6.048L 1.880L 0.340 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
HSBC Holdings 1st 13614.000 18761.000 3229.000 6213.000 0.090 0.210 0.00000 10.22100 - 29.200 60.700
ICG Enterprise Trust Pre 80.505 81.789 116.630 118.120 0.00000 7.00000 - 5.000 12.000
Ince Group Int 0.000 0.000 0.212L 0.227L 23.599L 25.193L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
IQE Pre 140.015 156.291 24.948L 6.747 4.510L 0.130 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
Keystone Law Group Pre 49.631 42.689 5.226 4.745 13.300 12.200 0.00000 6.50000 - 3.200 9.000
Life Settlement Assets Pre 12.841 6.087L 0.234 0.084L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000
Menhaden Pre 22.129 1.049L 27.600 1.500L 0.00000 0.70000 - 0.000 0.700
NAHL Group Pre 51.314 48.957 2.150 9.772 6.400L 14.500 0.00000 5.70000 - 2.600 8.900

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.
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
Wednesday 29 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 11

MARKET DATA

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unless otherwise stated.
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
12 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

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 Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

American Fund GBP Hedged £ 63.72 - 0.93 0.00 M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Inc £ 0.74 - 0.01 - Data Provided by
American Fund GBP Unhedged £ 101.23 - 0.91 0.00 M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Acc £ 79.19 - 1.20 -

Aberdeen Standard Capital (JER) CG Asset Management Limited (IRL) Polar Capital LLP (CYM)
Slater
Investments
PO Box 189, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 9RU 01534 709130 25 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AY Regulated
FCA Recognised Dealing: Tel. +353 1434 5098 Fax. +353 1542 2859 Foord Asset Management MMIP Investment Management Limited (GSY) European Forager A EUR € 178.32 - -18.16 0.00
Aberdeen Standard Capital Offshore Strategy Fund Limited FCA Recognised Website: www.foord.com - Email: info@foord.com Regulated www.morningstar.co.uk
Bridge Fund £ 1.9530 - 0.0156 2.04 CG Portfolio Fund Plc FCA Recognised - Luxembourg UCITS Multi-Manager Investment Programmes PCC Limited
Foord International Fund | R $ 41.13 - 0.43 - UK Equity Fd Cl A Series 01 £ 1906.33 1942.70 -772.04 0.00
Data as shown is for information purposes only. No
Global Equity Fund £ 2.6783 - 0.0266 1.24 Absolute Return Cls M Inc £ 122.46 122.46 0.24 1.55
Global Fixed Interest Fund £ 0.8809 - -0.0025 4.89 Foord Global Equity Fund (Lux) | R $ 12.93 - 0.27 - Diversified Absolute Rtn Fd USD Cl AF2 $ 1512.77 - -110.18 0.00 offer is made by Morningstar or this publication.
Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP P £ 33094.89 33094.89 13.40 1.56
Income Fund £ 0.5680 - 0.0039 3.33 Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP V £ 160.95 160.95 0.07 0.62 Regulated Diversified Absolute Return Stlg Cell AF2 £ 1434.21 - -112.66 0.00
Sterling Fixed Interest Fund £ 0.8717 - 0.0013 3.12 Dollar Fund Cls D Inc £ 177.62 177.62 -0.97 1.84 Foord Global Equity Fund (Sing) | B $ 15.86 - 0.34 0.00 Global Equity Fund A Lead Series £ 1281.85 1288.71 -209.37 0.00
UK Equity Fund £ 1.6965 - 0.0274 4.48 Dollar Hedged GBP Inc £ 103.13 103.13 0.05 1.86 Foord International Trust (Gsy) $ 40.85 - 0.42 0.00
Real Return Cls A Inc £ 211.93 211.93 -1.02 2.13 Private Fund Mgrs (Guernsey) Ltd
Regulated
(GSY)
Guide to Data
Orbis Investments (U.K.) Limited (GBR)
Monument Growth 21/04/2020 £ 434.58 438.79 -2.06 1.80
Slater Investments Ltd (UK)
28 Dorset Square, London, NW1 6QG www.slaterinvestments.com; Tel: 0207 220 9460
www.orbis.com 0800 358 2030 FCA Recognised The fund prices quoted on these pages are supplied by
Slater Growth 497.24 497.24 3.77 0.00 the operator of the relevant fund. Details of funds
Regulated
published on these pages, including prices, are for the
Orbis OEIC Global Cautious Standard £ 9.55 - 0.02 0.04 Slater Income A Inc 114.05 114.05 2.38 0.00
Marwyn Asset Management Limited (CYM) purpose of information only and should only be used
Orbis OEIC Global Balanced Standard £ 13.05 - 0.11 0.00 Slater Recovery 240.08 240.08 1.79 0.00
Regulated as a guide. The Financial Times Limited makes no
Franklin Templeton International Services Sarl (IRL) Orbis OEIC Global Equity Standard £ 15.17 - 0.24 0.00 Slater Artorius 197.31 197.31 1.64 0.57
Chartered Asset Management Pte Ltd Marwyn Value Investors £ 340.40 - -14.66 0.00 representation as to their accuracy or completeness
JPMorgan House - International Financial Services Centre,Dublin 1, Ireland Orbis OEIC UK Equity Standard £ 6.17 - 0.06 0.00 and they should not be relied upon when making an
Other International Funds Other International Funds investment decision.
CAM-GTF Limited $ 258908.47 258908.47 6818.39 0.00 Prusik Investment Management LLP (IRL)
Franklin Emerging Market Debt Opportunities Fund Plc
CAM GTi Limited $ 647.03 - -50.48 0.00 Enquiries - 0207 493 1331
Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp CHFSFr 13.42 - -2.47 11.63 The sale of interests in the funds listed on these pages
Raffles-Asia Investment Company $ 1.25 1.25 -0.13 2.39 Regulated may, in certain jurisdictions, be restricted by law and
Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp GBP £ 8.65 - -1.75 8.40
Prusik Asian Equity Income B Dist $ 153.61 - 1.40 6.05 the funds will not necessarily be available to persons
Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp SGD S$ 18.99 - -3.39 6.11
Prusik Asia Emerging Opportunities Fund A Acc $ 118.95 - 0.47 0.00 in all jurisdictions in which the publication circulates.
Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp USD $ 14.77 - -2.71 8.28
Prusik Asia Fund U Dist. £ 169.68 - -0.87 0.00 Persons in any doubt should take appropriate
Milltrust International Managed Investments ICAV (IRL) professional advice. Data collated by Morningstar. For
mimi@milltrust.com, +44(0)20 8123 8369 www.milltrust.com other queries contact reader.enquiries@ft.com +44
(0)207 873 4211.
Regulated
Algebris Investments (IRL)
British Innovation Fund £ 123.94 - 23.92 0.00
Regulated The fund prices published in this edition along with
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds (IRL) MAI - Buy & Lease (Australia) A$ 102.52 - 2.25 0.00 additional information are also available on the
Algebris Core Italy I EUR Acc € 92.33 - 1.13 - MAI - Buy & Lease (New Zealand)NZ$ 98.28 - 0.99 0.00
6 Duke Street,St.James,London SW1Y 6BN Financial Times website, www.ft.com/funds. The
Algebris Allocation Fund - Class I EUR € 87.43 - -0.13 0.00 Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund - Class A $ 77.72 - -0.52 0.00
www.dodgeandcox.worldwide.com 020 3713 7664 funds published on these pages are grouped together
Algebris Core Italy Fund - Class R EUR € 86.69 - 1.05 0.00 GAM
FCA Recognised
The Climate Impact Asia Fund (Class A) $ 81.42 - -9.73 - Purisima Investment Fds (CI) Ltd (JER) by fund management company.
Algebris Financial Credit Fund - Class I EUR € 161.71 - -0.75 0.00 funds@gam.com, www.funds.gam.com
Regulated
Algebris Financial Credit Fund - Class R EUR € 141.23 - -0.66 0.00 Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc - Global Bond Fund Regulated Prices are in pence unless otherwise indicated. The
PCG B 215.42 - 2.01 0.00
Algebris Financial Credit Fund - Class Rd EUR € 97.43 - -0.45 5.62 EUR Accumulating Class € 14.57 - -0.03 0.00 LAPIS GBL TOP 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 96.54 - 1.04 3.31 change, if shown, is the change on the previously
PCG C 210.74 - 1.96 0.00
Algebris Financial Income Fund - Class I EUR € 116.73 - 3.06 0.00 EUR Accumulating Class (H) € 10.19 - 0.00 0.00 LAPIS GBL F OWD 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 87.94 - 1.42 - quoted figure (not all funds update prices daily). Those
Algebris Financial Income Fund - Class R EUR € 108.74 - 2.84 0.00 EUR Distributing Class € 11.65 - -0.02 4.42
Stonehage Fleming Investment Management Ltd (IRL) designated $ with no prefix refer to US dollars. Yield
Algebris Financial Income Fund - Class Rd EUR € 73.17 - 1.91 6.21 EUR Distributing Class (H) € 8.11 - 0.00 4.86 Pictet Asset Management (Europe) SA (LUX) www.stonehagefleming.com/gbi percentage figures (in Tuesday to Saturday papers)
Algebris Financial Equity Fund - Class B EUR € 76.41 - 3.74 0.00 GBP Distributing Class £ 12.37 - -0.06 4.35 15, Avenue J.F. Kennedy L-1855 Luxembourg enquiries@stonehagefleming.com allow for buying expenses. Prices of certain older
Algebris Macro Credit Fund - Class I EUR € 110.21 - 0.76 0.00 GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 8.52 - 0.00 5.18 Tel: 0041 58 323 3000 Regulated insurance linked plans might be subject to capital
Algebris Macro Credit Fund - Class R EUR € 108.43 - 0.75 0.00 USD Accumulating Class $ 11.38 - 0.00 0.00
Morgens Waterfall Vintiadis.co Inc FCA Recognised SF Global Best Ideas Eq B USD ACC $ 185.50 - 1.81 0.00 gains tax on sales.
Algebris Macro Credit Fund - Class Rd EUR € 108.43 - 0.75 0.00 Other International Funds Pictet-Absl Rtn Fix Inc-HI EUR € 109.13 - 0.06 0.00 SF Global Best Ideas Eq D GBP INC £ 226.79 - 0.90 0.13
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-Global Stock Fund
Algebris IG Financial Credit R EUR Acc € 99.18 - 0.15 - Phaeton Intl (BVI) Ltd (Est) $ 588.78 - 0.63 0.00 Pictet-Asian Equities Ex Japan-I USD F $ 288.46 - 4.48 0.00 Guide to pricing of Authorised Investment Funds:
USD Accumulating Share Class $ 17.66 - 0.41 0.00 (compiled with the assistance of the IMA. The
Algebris IG Financial Credit B EUR Acc € 99.53 - 0.15 - Pictet-Asian Local Currency Debt-I USD F $ 173.11 - 0.20 0.00
GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 23.38 - 0.43 0.00 Genesis Investment Management LLP Investment Management Association, 65 Kingsway,
Pictet-Biotech-I USD F $ 985.49 - -10.95 0.00
GBP Distributing Share class £ 16.19 - 0.29 1.76 Other International Funds London WC2B 6TD.
Pictet-CHF Bonds I CHF SFr 499.30 - 0.90 0.00
EUR Accumulating Share Class € 24.49 - 0.52 0.00 Emerging Mkts NAV £ 7.21 - -0.16 0.00 Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 0898.)
Pictet-China Index I USD $ 151.55 - 2.32 0.00
GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 8.71 - 0.20 1.56
Pictet-Clean Energy-I USD F $ 102.32 - 2.11 0.00 OEIC: Open-Ended Investment Company. Similar to a
Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-U.S. Stock Fund Pictet-Digital-I USD F $ 432.53 - 1.45 0.00 unit trust but using a company rather than a trust
USD Accumulating Share Class $ 22.96 - 0.54 0.00 Pictet-Em Lcl Ccy Dbt-I USD F $ 161.94 - 0.23 0.00 structure.
GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 28.74 - 0.54 0.00 Pictet-Emerging Europe-I EUR F € 358.97 - 6.71 0.00
GBP Distributing Share Class £ 17.62 - 0.33 1.37 Pictet-Emerging Markets-I USD F $ 578.94 - 9.10 0.00 Different share classes are issued to reflect a different
The Antares European Fund Limited EUR Accumulating Share Class € 27.50 - 0.61 - Pictet-Emerging Markets Index-I USD F $ 253.91 - 4.50 0.00 currency, charging structure or type of holder.
Other International GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 9.65 - 0.23 1.13 Pictet-Emerging Corporate Bonds I USD $ 120.83 - -0.15 0.00
AEF Ltd Usd (Est) $ 588.79 - -0.64 - Pictet-Emerging Markets High Dividend I USD $ 113.12 - 1.77 0.00 Selling price: Also called bid price. The price at which
HPB Assurance Ltd
AEF Ltd Eur (Est) € 552.21 - -0.60 0.00 Pictet-Emerging Markets Sust Eq I USD $ 89.50 - 1.02 0.00 Ram Active Investments SA units in a unit trust are sold by investors.
Anglo Intl House, Bank Hill, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 4LN 01638 563490
Pictet-EUR Bonds-I F € 623.35 - 1.17 0.00 www.ram-ai.com
International Insurances Buying price: Also called offer price. The price at
Pictet-EUR Corporate Bonds-I F € 212.15 - 0.51 0.00 Other International Funds
Holiday Property Bond Ser 1 £ 0.51 - 0.00 0.00 which units in a unit trust are bought by investors.
Pictet-EUR Government Bonds I EUR € 174.52 - 0.46 0.00 RAM Systematic Emerg Markets Eq $ 149.25 - 2.47 -
Holiday Property Bond Ser 2 £ 0.64 - 0.00 0.00 Includes manager’s initial charge.
Pictet-EUR High Yield-I F € 261.99 - 0.97 0.00 RAM Systematic European Eq € 376.84 - 5.41 -
Pictet-EUR Short Mid-Term Bonds-I F € 135.54 - 0.21 0.00 RAM Systematic Funds Global Sustainable Income Eq $ 104.56 - 2.06 0.00 Single price: Based on a mid-market valuation of the
Pictet-EUR Short Term HY I EUR € 118.23 - 0.29 0.00 RAM Systematic Long/Short Emerg Markets Eq $ 107.18 - -0.37 - Toscafund Asset Management LLP (UK) underlying investments. The buying and selling price
Pictet-EUR Sov.Sht.Mon.Mkt EUR I € 100.29 - 0.00 0.00 RAM Systematic Long/Short European Eq € 138.79 - -0.36 - for shares of an OEIC and units of a single priced unit
New Capital UCITS Fund PLC (IRL) www.toscafund.com
Arisaig Partners Pictet-Euroland Index IS EUR € 134.44 - 3.43 0.00 RAM Systematic North American Eq $ 290.70 - 2.35 -
Authorised Funds trust are the same.
Leconfield House, Curzon Street, London, W1J 5JB
Other International Funds Pictet-Europe Index-I EUR F € 175.60 - 3.28 0.00 RAM Tactical Global Bond Total Return € 147.13 - 0.09 -
www.newcapitalfunds.com Aptus Global Financials B Acc £ 2.54 - 0.05 -
Pictet-European Equity Selection-I EUR F € 571.07 - 19.71 0.00 RAM Tactical II Asia Bond Total Return $ 145.71 - -0.06 - Treatment of manager’s periodic capital charge:
Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Class A (Ex-Alcohol) shares $ 88.03 - 0.82 - FCA Recognised Aptus Global Financials B Inc £ 1.81 - 0.04 -
Pictet-European Sust Eq-I EUR F € 271.44 - 5.73 0.00 The letter C denotes that the trust deducts all or part
Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Limited $ 86.18 - 0.90 0.00
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer Fund $ 10.57 - 0.16 0.00
Intrinsic Value Investors (IVI) LLP (IRL) New Capital UCITS Funds Pictet-Global Bds Fundamental I USD $ 126.77 - 0.26 0.00 of the manager’s/operator’s periodic charge from
1 Hat & Mitre Court, 88 St John Street, London EC1M 4EL +44 (0)20 7566 1210 New Capital China Equity Fund $ 176.68 - 3.14 0.00 Pictet-Global Bonds-I EUR € 198.21 - 0.01 0.00 capital, contact the manager/operator for full details
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS € 12.85 - -0.01 0.00
FCA Recognised New Capital Dynamic European Equity Fund € 111.86 - 1.71 0.00 Pictet-Global Defensive Equities I USD $ 181.10 - 3.89 0.00 of the effect of this course of action.
Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS STG £ 14.50 - -0.10 0.00
IVI European Fund EUR € 19.77 - 0.33 0.00 New Capital Dynamic UK Equity Fund £ 100.92 - 1.47 0.00 Pictet-Global Emerging Debt-I USD F $ 394.17 - 2.59 0.00
Arisaig Latin America Consumer Fund $ 18.25 - 0.24 0.00 Exit Charges: The letter E denotes that an exit charge
IVI European Fund GBP £ 22.99 - 0.31 - New Capital Global Alpha Fund £ 102.86 - 0.46 0.00 Pictet-Global Env.Opport-I EUR € 236.78 - 3.28 0.00
Pictet-Global Megatrend Selection-I USD F $ 302.39 - 5.26 0.00 may be made when you sell units, contact the
New Capital Global Equity Conviction Fund $ 141.01 - 2.27 0.00
manager/operator for full details.
Dragon Capital Group New Capital Global Value Credit Fund $ 146.55 - -0.16 0.00 Pictet-Global Sust.Credit HI EUR € 154.91 - 0.03 0.00
Pictet-Greater China-I USD F $ 695.79 - 11.67 0.00
Ruffer LLP (1000)F (UK)
Toscafund Asset Management LLP
1501 Me Linh Point, 2 Ngo Duc Ke, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam New Capital Japan Equity Fund ¥ 1151.95 - 22.71 0.00 Time: Some funds give information about the timing of
65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ
New Capital US Growth Fund $ 300.50 - 3.26 0.00 Pictet-Health-I USD $ 332.39 - 0.94 0.00 www.toscafund.com price quotes. The time shown alongside the fund
Fund information, dealing and administration: funds@dragoncapital.com Order Desk and Enquiries: 0345 601 9610
New Capital US Small Cap Growth Fund $ 133.90 - 3.69 0.00 Pictet-SmartCity-I EUR € 193.92 - 3.73 0.00 Tosca A USD $ 257.93 - -82.98 - manager’s/operator’s name is the valuation point for
Other International Funds Pictet-India Index I USD $ 96.98 - 1.75 0.00 Authorised Inv Funds
New Capital Wealthy Nations Bond Fund $ 138.05 - -0.20 0.00 Tosca Mid Cap GBP £ 150.61 - -117.34 - their unit trusts/OEICs, unless another time is
Vietnam Equity (UCITS) Fund A USD $ 17.30 - -0.03 0.00 Pictet-Indian Equities-I USD F $ 464.07 - 5.14 0.00 Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions Tosca Opportunity B USD $ 232.96 - -175.67 - indicated by the symbol alongside the individual unit
Artemis Fund Managers Ltd (1200)F (UK) Pictet-Japan Index-I JPY F ¥ 16486.57 - 0.47 0.00 LF Ruffer European C Acc 533.54 - 2.01 0.76 Pegasus Fund Ltd A-1 GBP £ 36.17 - -28.23 0.00 trust/OEIC name.
57 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1LD 0800 092 2051 Janus Henderson Investors (UK)
Pictet-Japanese Equities Opp-I JPY F ¥ 10170.15 - 111.73 0.00 LF Ruffer European C Inc 97.46 - 0.36 0.85
Authorised Inv Funds PO Box 9023, Chelmsford, CM99 2WB Enquiries: 0800 832 832
Pictet-Japanese Equity Selection-I JPY F ¥ 14589.66 - 173.23 0.00 LF Ruffer European O Acc 521.32 - 1.93 0.40 The symbols are as follows: ✠ 0001 to 1100 hours; ♦
Artemis Corporate Bond I Acc £ 1.02 - 0.01 - www.janushenderson.com Pictet-LATAM Lc Ccy Dbt-I USD F $ 113.90 - 0.41 0.00 1101 to 1400 hours; ▲1401 to 1700 hours; # 1701 to
LF Ruffer Equity & General C Acc 420.72 - -1.20 0.54
Artemis Target Return Bond I Acc £ 1.00 - 0.00 - Authorised Inv Funds Pictet-Multi Asset Global Opportunities-I EUR € 124.50 - 0.60 0.00 midnight. Daily dealing prices are set on the basis of
LF Ruffer Equity & General C Inc 385.54 - -1.10 0.55
Janus Henderson Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc £ 0.83 - 0.02 - Pictet-Nutrition-I EUR € 228.34 - 2.56 0.00 LF Ruffer Equity & General O Acc 411.13 - -1.19 0.21 the valuation point, a short period of time may elapse
Pictet-Pacific Ex Japan Index-I USD F $ 367.37 - 7.99 0.00 LF Ruffer Equity & General O Inc 380.63 - -1.11 0.23 before prices become available. Historic pricing: The
Pictet-Premium Brands-I EUR F € 185.15 - 3.73 0.00 letter H denotes that the managers/operators will
Ennismore Smaller Cos Plc (IRL) LF Ruffer Gold C Acc 229.94 - 2.96 0.00
Pictet-Russia Index I USD $ 74.44 - -0.05 0.00 normally deal on the price set at the most recent
5 Kensington Church St, London W8 4LD 020 7368 4220 LF Ruffer Gold C Inc 139.17 - 1.80 - Troy Asset Mgt (1200) (UK) valuation. The prices shown are the latest available
FCA Recognised Pictet-Russian Equities-I USD F $ 72.20 - 1.66 0.00 LF Ruffer Gold O Acc 224.61 - 2.88 0.00 65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQ before publication and may not be the current dealing
Ennismore European Smlr Cos NAV £ 124.48 - 1.15 0.00 Pictet-Security-I USD F $ 287.66 - 7.86 0.00 LF Ruffer Japanese C Inc 127.45 - -1.26 0.34
Order Desk and Enquiries: 0345 608 0950 levels because of an intervening portfolio revaluation
Ennismore European Smlr Cos NAV € 142.50 - 1.77 0.00 Pictet-Small Cap Europe-I EUR F € 1219.01 - 21.77 0.00 LF Ruffer Japanese C Acc 273.68 - -2.71 0.33
Authorised Inv Funds or a switch to a forward pricing basis. The
Pictet-ST Emerg Local Currency Debt-I USD F $ 94.80 - 0.15 0.00 LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Acc 325.72 - 4.30 1.42 managers/operators must deal at a forward price on
Kames Capital ICVC (UK) Pictet-ST.MoneyMkt-I € 138.03 - 0.00 0.00 LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Inc 89.52 - 1.18 1.56 Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions
request, and may move to forward pricing at any time.
Kames House, 3 Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9SA Pictet-ST.MoneyMkt JPY I USD ¥ 100695.93 - 7.58 0.00 LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets O Acc 317.98 - 4.17 1.11 Trojan Investment Funds Forward pricing: The letter F denotes that that
0800 358 3009 www.kamescapital.com Pictet-ST.MoneyMkt-ICHF SFr 119.84 - 0.00 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return C Acc 458.49 - -2.65 1.48 managers/operators deal at the price to be set at the
Trojan Ethical O Acc 111.09 - 0.11 0.15
Authorised Funds Pictet-ST.MoneyMkt-IUSD $ 145.73 - 0.00 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return C Inc 297.70 - -1.72 1.50 next valuation.
Trojan Ethical O Inc 110.94 - 0.10 0.12
Pictet-Timber-I USD F $ 155.15 - 6.58 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return O Acc 447.98 - -2.62 1.48
Kames Global Equity GBP B Acc £ 2.25 - 0.06 0.26
Pictet-US High Yield-I USD F $ 159.94 - -0.22 0.00 LF Ruffer Total Return O Inc 290.71 - -1.71 1.50 Investors can be given no definite price in advance of
Northwest Investment Management (HK) Ltd Pictet-USA Index-I USD F $ 267.84 - 3.89 0.00 the purchase or sale being carried out. The prices
Ennismore European Smlr Cos Hedge Fd 11th Floor, Kinwick Centre, 32, Hollywood Road, Central Hong Kong +852 9331 9220 Pictet-USD Government Bonds-I F $ 769.20 - -3.47 0.00 appearing in the newspaper are the most recent
Other International Funds Other International Funds Pictet-USD Short Mid-Term Bonds-I F $ 142.80 - 0.20 0.00 provided by the managers/operators. Scheme
NAV € 529.30 - -4.57 0.00 Northwest China Opps Class T $ $ 2935.69 - -17.43 0.00 Pictet-USD Sov.ST.Mon.Mkt-I $ 109.62 - 0.00 0.00 particulars, prospectus, key features and reports: The
Northwest Feilong Class T $ $ 2080.28 - 1.22 0.00 Pictet-Water-I EUR F € 387.98 - 10.95 0.00 most recent particulars and documents may be
Northwest Fund Class T $ $ 2680.74 - -45.37 0.00 obtained free of charge from fund
Ashmore Investment Management Limited (LUX) Northwest Warrant Class A $ $ 1330.60 - 12.11 0.00 managers/operators. * Indicates funds which do not
WA Fixed Income Fund Plc (IRL)
2 rue Albert Borschette L-1246 Luxembourg price on Fridays.
Regulated
FCA Recognised
European Multi-Sector € 114.62 - 0.15 - Charges for this advertising service are based on the
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Debt Fund $ 72.70 - -0.12 7.91
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Frontier Equity Fund $ 127.56 - 1.35 1.90 number of lines published and the classification of the
fund. Please contact data@ft.com or
Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Total Return Fund $ 65.54 - 0.00 6.63
Equinox Fund Mgmt (Guernsey) Limited (GSY) call +44 (0)20 7873 3132 for further information.
Ashmore SICAV Global Small Cap Equity Fund $ 118.07 - 0.93 0.04
EM Active Equity Fund Acc USD $ 111.76 - 1.89 0.00 Regulated
EM Equity Fund Acc USD $ 91.46 - 1.26 0.00 Equinox Russian Opportunities Fund Limited $ 143.53 - -35.69 0.00
EM Mkts Corp.Debt USD F $ 74.78 - -0.19 8.30
EM Mkts Loc.Ccy Bd USD F $ 67.27 - 0.11 6.13
EM Short Duration Fund Acc USD $ 89.57 - 0.03 0.00

Kames Capital VCIC (IRL)

1 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, Ireland +35 3162 24493 RobecoSAM (LUX)
Tel. +41 44 653 10 10 http://www.robecosam.com/
FCA Recognised
Euronova Asset Management UK LLP (CYM) Absolute Return Bond B GBP Acc 1106.20 - 1.47 1.72 Regulated
Regulated High Yield Global Bond A GBP Inc 444.98 - -0.53 4.58 RobecoSAM Sm.Energy/A £ 18.61 - 0.35 1.78
Smaller Cos Cls One Shares € 45.48 - 1.04 0.00 High Yield Global Bond B GBP Inc 948.02 - -1.12 5.32 RobecoSAM Sm.Energy/N € 17.71 - 0.38 0.00
Platinum Capital Management Ltd RobecoSAM Sm.Materials/A £ 162.75 - 4.28 2.05
Atlantas Sicav (LUX) Smaller Cos Cls Two Shares € 30.38 - 0.69 0.00 Kames Global Equity Income B GBP Acc 1724.76 - 22.07 0.00
Regulated Smaller Cos Cls Three Shares € 15.18 - 0.34 0.00 Other International Funds RobecoSAM Sm.Materials/N € 175.71 - 5.19 0.00
Kames Global Equity Income B GBP Inc 1455.44 - -8.32 3.19 Oasis Crescent Management Company Ltd
American Dynamic $ 4830.83 4830.83 204.58 0.00 Smaller Cos Cls Four Shares € 19.66 - 0.42 0.00 Kames Global Equity Market Neutral Fund - B Acc GBP £ 10.60 - 0.09 0.00 Platinum All Star Fund - A $ 117.57 - - - RobecoSAM Sm.Materials/Na € 114.59 - 3.38 2.02
Other International Funds RobecoSAM S.HealthyLiv/B € 222.81 - 3.06 0.00
American One $ 4713.70 4713.70 244.96 0.00 Kames Inv Grd Gbl Bond A Inc GBH 590.28 - -0.27 1.85 Platinum Global Growth UCITS Fund $ 10.34 - 0.05 0.00
Oasis Crescent Equity Fund R 10.90 - 0.02 1.12 Platinum Essential Resources UCITS Fund SICAV USD Class E $ 7.01 - 0.04 0.00 RobecoSAM S.HealthyLiv/N € 214.53 - 2.96 0.00 Yuki - Co, LLC (IRL)
Bond Global € 1521.62 1521.62 -1.30 0.00 Global Sustainable Equity B Acc GBP £ 18.45 - 0.39 0.00
Platinum Global Dividend UCITS Fund $ 49.47 - 0.57 0.00 RobecoSAM S.HealthyLiv/Na £ 155.04 - 1.63 1.62 Tel +18015545191 www.yukifunds.com
Eurocroissance € 1046.92 1046.92 2.63 0.00 Global Sustainable Equity C Acc GBP £ 18.67 - 0.40 0.00
RobecoSAM S.Water/A £ 243.21 - 4.85 1.89 Regulated
Far East $ 876.62 - 23.35 0.00 Short Dated High Yld Bd B Acc GBP £ 9.92 - 0.00 0.00
Short Dated High Yld Bd C Acc GBP (Hdg) £ 10.00 - 0.00 0.00 RobecoSAM S.Water/N € 219.81 - 5.08 0.00 Yuki Mizuho Umbrella Fund
Strategic Global Bond A GBP Inc 1153.43 - 0.13 2.49 Yuki Mizuho Japan Dynamic Growth ¥ 5494.00 - 16.00 0.00
Strategic Global Bond B GBP Inc 655.21 - 0.09 3.24 Yuki Japan Low Price ¥ 29579.00 - 318.00 0.00
FIL Investment Services (UK) Limited (1200)F (UK) Yuki Asia Umbrella Fund
130, Tonbridge Rd, Tonbridge TN11 9DZ Yuki Japan Rebounding Growth Fund JPY Class ¥ 24291.00 - 182.00 0.00
Oasis Global Mgmt Co (Ireland) Ltd (IRL)
Yuki Japan Rebounding Growth Fund USD Hedged Class $ 997.18 - 7.43 0.00
Callfree: Private Clients 0800 414161
Regulated
Broker Dealings: 0800 414 181
Barclays Investment Funds (CI) Ltd (JER) Oasis Crescent Global Investment Fund (Ireland) plc
OEIC Funds Rubrics Global UCITS Funds Plc (IRL)
39/41 Broad Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 3RR Channel Islands 01534 812800 Oasis Crescent Global Short Term Income Fund I - Class A Dist $ 0.98 - 0.00 2.47
Fidelity American Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 45.94 - 0.45 0.39 www.rubricsam.com
FCA Recognised Oasis Crescent Global Equity Fund $ 29.13 - 0.27 0.47
Fidelity Cash Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 1.02 - 0.00 0.66 Regulated
Bond Funds Lloyds Investment Fund Managers Limited (1000)F (JER) Oasis Crescent Variable Balanced Fund £ 8.49 - 0.03 0.12
FID Emerg Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 1.70 - 0.01 6.12 Rubrics Emerging Markets Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 132.34 - -0.06 0.00
PO Box 311, 11-12 Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 8ZU 01534 845555 OasisCresGl Income Class A $ 10.47 - 0.03 2.98
Sterling Bond F £ 0.49 - 0.00 2.45 Fidelity Global Enhanced Income Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 1.86 - 0.03 4.25 Rubrics Global Credit UCITS Fund $ 16.63 - 0.02 0.00
Other International Funds OasisCresGl LowBal D ($) Dist $ 11.39 - 0.09 1.10
Fidelity Global Focus Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 25.03 - 0.29 0.29 Rubrics Global Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 182.46 - -0.39 0.00
Lloyds Investment Funds Limited OasisCresGl Med Eq Bal A ($) Dist $ 12.13 - 0.08 0.45 Zadig Gestion (Memnon Fund) (LUX)
Fidelity Global High Yield Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 13.34 - 0.09 4.45 Q Rubrics India Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 10.94 - 0.02 0.00
Oasis Crescent Gbl Property Eqty $ 7.08 - 0.15 1.95 FCA Recognised
Fidelity Japan Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 4.09 - 0.07 0.74 Euro High Income € 1.4970xd - 0.0020 2.82 Rubrics India Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 94.98 - 0.18 0.00
Fidelity Japan Smaller Companies Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.32 - 0.06 0.48 High Income £ 0.8523 - 0.0003 3.91 Memnon European Fund - Class U2 GBP £ 158.32 - 1.51 0.00
Fidelity Select 50 Balanced Fund PI-ACC-GBP £ 1.02 - 0.00 0.85 Sterling Bond £ 1.5430xd - 0.0000 2.24
Fidelity Special Situations Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 27.29 - 0.43 4.37 Lloyds Multi Strategy Fund Limited Polar Capital Funds Plc (IRL)
Short Dated Corporate Bond Fund Y ACC GBP £ 10.56 - 0.01 4.09 Conservative Strategy £ 1.2090 - 0.0030 0.00 Regulated
Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Acc £ 0.90 - 0.03 -
CCLA Investment Management Ltd (UK) Growth Strategy £ 1.6500 - 0.0160 0.00 Automation & Artificial Intelligence CL I USD Acc $ 11.88 11.88 0.22 0.00
Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Inc £ 0.89 - 0.02 - Aggressive Strategy £ 2.1990 - 0.0260 0.00
Senator House 85 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4ET Asian Financials I USD $ 319.01 319.01 2.85 0.00
Fidelity UK Growth Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.34 - -0.05 - Global USD Growth Strategy $ 1.5180 - 0.0180 0.00
Authorised Inv Funds Omnia Fund Ltd Biotechnology I USD $ 29.05 29.05 0.28 0.00
Fidelity UK Select Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 2.69 - 0.04 2.88 Dealing Daily
Diversified Income 1 Units GBP Inc £ 1.47 1.47 0.01 1.07 Emerging Market Stars I USD Acc $ 9.52 - 0.16 0.00
Institutional OEIC Funds Other International Funds
Diversified Income 2 Units GBP Inc £ 1.41 1.41 0.01 1.09 European Ex UK Inc EUR Acc € 10.13 10.13 0.22 0.00
Europe (ex-UK) Fund ACC-GBP £ 5.56 - 0.05 1.07 Estimated NAV $ 494.51 - -151.91 0.00 Financial Opps I USD $ 9.65 - 0.30 3.46
Diversified Income 3 Units GBP Inc £ 1.42 1.42 0.01 1.08
GEM Income I USD $ 9.84 - 0.19 0.00
Global Convertible I USD $ 12.81 12.81 0.12 0.00
Global Insurance I GBP £ 6.04 - 0.12 0.00
Global Technology I USD $ 57.18 - 0.54 0.00
Healthcare Blue Chip Fund I USD Acc $ 14.27 14.27 0.23 0.00
M & G Securities (1200)F (UK) Healthcare Opps I USD $ 52.00 - 1.05 0.00
PO Box 9038, Chelmsford, CM99 2XF Income Opportunities B2 I GBP Acc £ 1.82 1.82 0.03 0.00
Findlay Park Funds Plc (IRL) www.mandg.co.uk/charities Enq./Dealing: 0800 917 4472 Oryx International Growth Fund Ltd Japan Value I JPY ¥ 96.66 96.66 0.30 0.00
30 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Tel: 020 7968 4900 Other International Funds North American I USD $ 22.36 22.36 0.41 0.00
Authorised Inv Funds
UK Absolute Equity I GBP £ 15.48 15.48 0.00 0.00
FCA Recognised M&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Inc £ 1.24 - 0.00 - NAV (Fully Diluted) £ 9.10 - -0.52 0.00
UK Val Opp I GBP Acc £ 9.77 9.77 0.16 0.00
American Fund USD Class $ 125.63 - 1.85 0.00 M&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Acc £ 41.81 - 0.02 -
 UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
Wednesday 29 April 2020 ★ 13

14
Éric Rohmer, a poet of the everyday at 100
The French director’s subtle,
subdued films are an antidote
to today’s hyperactive screen
media, Adam Scovell writes
I
t’s almost impossible to discuss the
cinema of the late French film-
maker Éric Rohmer without quot-
ing a line delivered by Gene Hack-
man in Arthur Penn’s Night Moves
(1975). “I saw a Rohmer film once,”
Hackman’s character quips, “it was kind
of like watching paint dry.” It summa-
rises a kneejerk response to the direc-
tor’s work but also ironically highlights
its quite ordinary appeal too.
Rohmer found poetry in the everyday
and provided little in the way of typical
cinematic thrills, focusing instead on
relationships, conversations and mod-
ern life. With March 21 this year mark-
ing what would have been Rohmer’s
100th birthday and a new box set from
Arrow Films of his celebrated film cycle,
Comedies and Proverbs, there’s never
been a better time to enjoy his wander-
ing, deliciously cosmopolitan oeuvre.
Like his fellow proponents of the Nou-
velle Vague, the movement that defined
French postwar cinema, Rohmer began
his career as a critic. He formed his own
film magazine, La Gazette du Cinéma,
with the future directors Jean-Luc
Godard and Jacques Rivette, before join-
ing André Bazin’s newly founded Cah-
iers du Cinéma in 1951. During this time,
Rohmer had already started making
short 16mm films and eventually fin-
ished his first feature The Sign of the Lion
(1962), funded by the production com-
pany of his Cahiers colleague Claude
Chabrol. From then on, Rohmer worked
regularly on feature films and docu-
mentaries for more than 40 years, win-
ning an array of awards and creating
several successful cycles of films right
up to his death in 2010.
Rohmer’s cinema is much quieter
than that of his peers, often infamously
so. Even when the fallout of the relation-
ships at the heart of his dramas suggests
UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws
the potential for fiery confrontation, the
emotional drama is subdued, rendered
merely as an undercurrent. Consider
the resistance to passion in his Oscar-
nominated My Night with Maud (1969),
the misjudged dalliances of Full Moon in
Paris (1984) or the broken relations of
The Green Ray (1986), and Rohmer’s
skill of understatement is clear. In spite
of being filled with communication, the
lives he shows are riddled with misun-
derstandings and misjudgments. His
characters are deeply and refreshingly
human in their flaws.
Richard Misek, a lecturer at the Uni-
versity of Kent, fell deeply for Rohmer’s
films early on, to such a degree that he
made a feature-length documentary
about him in 2013 called Rohmer in Paris.
“There’s something encyclopedic about
his engagement with relationships,”
Misek says, “and there’s a familiarity to
his films as he worked through so many
amorous permutations. Somewhere in a
Rohmer film is the story of your life.”
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
ARTS
Clockwise,
from above:
Rohmer on set;
Marie Rivière,
centre, in ‘The
Green Ray’; ‘The
Sign of the Lion’
(1962),
Rohmer’s first
feature; Clara
Bellar and
Mathias Mégard
in ‘Rendezvous
in Paris’ — Alamy;
Ajym/Kobal/Shutterstock
It’s certainly one of the reasons why of My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (1987),
Rohmer’s films continue to find new Rohmer explores enough romantic nar-
audiences. Whether in the chance ratives for viewers to find something of
romances of Rendezvous in Paris (1995), themselves reflected within the stories.
the paranoid jealously of The Aviator’s If relationships are one of the driving
Wife (1981) or the intersecting love lives forces of Rohmer’s dramas, then a sense
of place (especially Paris) is the other.
Wandering is essential to the director’s
films, allowing conversations to flow
while mapping streets in real time.
Lauren Elkin, a lecturer at the Univer-
sity of Liverpool and author of Flâneuse,
has been a keen admirer of Rohmer’s
work and its vision of Parisian life for
some time.
“I think what first struck me about
Rohmer’s films was the amazing tension
they strike between realism and theatri-
cality,” she says. “What I love about his
Paris is how inhabited it feels — recog-
nisable but not mythologised.”
Rohmer’s dramas are some of the most
detailed in regards to the French capital,
taking the time to create picturesque
vignettes while avoiding touristic twee.
In many ways, Rohmer laid the foun-
dations for the modern cosmopolitan
romance. The most overt influence can
be seen in Richard Linklater’s films, in
particular his trilogy following the
chance romance of Ethan Hawke and
Julie Delpy as they become entangled
during trips to Vienna (Before Sunrise,
1995), Paris (Before Sunset, 2004) and
Sad, scuzzy and thoroughly appealing
TE L E V I S I O N
The Eddy
Netflix
aaaae
Suzi Feay
I would really, really like to go to The
Eddy. To be honest, I’d like to go
anywhere right now, but a gloomy
Parisian dive would be the perfect place
to sip a whisky and nod along to some
jazz noodlings.
The club is owned by lackadaisical
free spirit Farid (Tahar Rahim) and
sombre perfectionist Elliot (André Hol-
land), who seemingly has the weight of
half a dozen double basses on his back.
This unlikely duo have very different
ideas about how to make a music venue
profitable. “We can’t afford to be
empty,” says Farid.
“We can’t afford to be bad,” replies
Elliot, whose musical standards are
vastly more elevated.
This is not tourist Paris. The streets
are scuzzy and covered in graffiti, and
everyone looks careworn. There isn’t
even the cliché of performers who come
alive for a few moments on stage. When
fronted by its zaftig chanteuse Maja
(Joanna Kulig), the house band is decid-
edly middlebrow. As soon as she wan-
ders off, the music turns into something
much stranger and more exciting.
Farid is responsible for the accounting
(which turns out to be a mistake), while
Elliot is the bandleader and chief
Kardamyli (Before Midnight, 2013).
Their very form is deeply Rohmer-
esque and Linklater paid tribute to him
at the time of his death in 2010. “He was
a poet who just kept going,” he told the
Chicago Tribune, “he sort of won the
race didn’t he?”
Equally Rohmer’s influence can be
sensed in a variety of films today. The
perambulatory desire of José Luis
Guerín’s In the City of Sylvia (2007), the
strained relationship of Mia Hansen-
Løve’s Things to Come (2016), and the
crumbling partnership of Noah Baum-
bach’s Marriage Story (2019) are a mere
handful out of many that share
Rohmer’s sensibility.
Aside from their crystal-clear quality
songwriter. Despite being a piano virtu-
oso, he refuses to play. What’s the
French for mardy?
The arrival of Julie (Amandla Sten-
berg), Elliot’s disaffected 16-year-old
daughter from New York, only adds to
his problems. He isn’t on good terms
with her mother — in fact, he isn’t on
good terms with anyone, with a manage-
ment style more suited to a slave galley
than an entertainment venue. Julie is so
stroppily assertive, it comes as a sur-
prise when she deigns to put on a school
uniform and head to the lycée. Today’s
lesson is on Baudelaire and his poetic
concept of spleen, but she can get plenty
of that at The Eddy.
She soon homes in on a young bar-
man, Sim (a lovely performance by Adil
Dehbi). Sim has his own dreams, and his
André
Holland,
left, and
Tahar
Rahim in
‘The Eddy’
Wednesday 29 April 2020
and determined resistance towards the
overblown, Rohmer’s films have sur-
vived for their nuanced portrayal of
women and female friendships as much
as anything else. “He totally aces the
Bechdel test,” Elkin says, referring to
Alison Bechdel’s measure of whether a
film features at least two women who
talk to each other about something
other than a man. “Rohmer has actual
women who talk to each other at
length.” In 2020, Rohmer’s cinema feels
ahead of its time in putting female per-
spectives at its core. Misek echoes this:
“One thing that makes him interesting
now for reappraisal is that he’s a perfect
post-#MeToo film-maker,” he argues,
“Rohmer was far ahead of his peers in
his representation of gender relations
and gender in general really.”
Rohmer’s cinema stands out for its
affecting human drama, its restrained
portrayal of cosmopolitan life, and its
modern approach to social relations. In
hindsight, he is the quiet maverick of
the French New Wave. In an age of social
isolation, alienating digital communica-
tion and a dominance of hyperactive
screen media, the subtle dramas of this
modest and deceptively complex film-
maker are like a breath of fresh air on a
spring morning in Paris — and certainly
far from watching paint dry.
‘Éric Rohmer 100: Comedies and
Proverbs’ is available from Arrow Films
arrowfilms.com
Ethan Hawke
and Julie Delpy
in ‘Before
Sunrise’ (1995),
Michael
Linklater’s film
that was heavily
influenced by
Rohmer
own garage band in the banlieue, featur-
ing guttural French rap and Arabic wail-
ing. Caution: there will be beatboxing.
I predict a musical face-off.
Switching lyrically between French
and English, The Eddy is un peu triste,
which may not be what you’re looking
for right now, but it’s stylishly done.
Self-destructive Julie has a poignant
back-story that is meant to win our sym-
pathy but doesn’t quite, and Elliot
makes a hash of nearly every social
interaction as the club becomes popular
for all the wrong reasons. Its murky
funding means the action edges into
darker territory, though no one’s in any
rush about it. It’s mostly a mood piece.
What’s the French for ennui?
On Netflix from May 8

Wednesday 29 April 2020
Apple and Google say their pandemic-tracking technology will respect the privacy of smartphone users.
But governments might want to use new apps to collect more information about the spread of the virus.
W
hen Steve Jobs discov-
ered that Google was
developing a smart-
phone platform to rival
Apple’s iPhone, he
declared “thermonuclear war” on his
Silicon Valley neighbour.
Now more than a decade of hostilities
between two of the world’s most valua-
ble companies have been put on hold. In
a new “spirit of collaboration”, Apple and
Google are jointly developing a system
for tracking the spread of coronavirus.
“We view this an existential threat to
large swaths of humanity,” says one per-
son involved in the effort. “Rivalries
have been set aside for the greater good.”
The tech giants are building a contact
tracing system aiming to use wireless
signals to inform people if they encoun-
ter someone who has — or is later diag-
nosed — with Covid-19. Testing of its
first incarnation is set to begin this week
and within months the tool will be built
directly into two smartphone platforms
used by billions of people. Their aim is
to give authorities “track-and-trace
tools” that would help isolate infected
populations and reopen the economy.
But by putting forward their own idea
for a single, global system that empha-
sises privacy over centralised oversight,
Apple and Google have set up a new con-
frontation between Silicon Valley and
governments around the world.
‘In a time when people
are concerned about life
and death, people may be
more willing to give up
information’
Many nation states have their own
ideas of how best to harness technology
to stem the outbreak, including by
monitoring their population’s detailed
movements and building vast databases
of information about their citizens.
If governments do press to get access
to more data using these apps, they
could find public opinion on their side.
“[The extent to which] people are con-
cerned about privacy depends on what
the relative benefits are,” says Leslie
John, associate professor at Harvard
Business School, whose research
focuses on the psychology of privacy
decision-making. “In a time when peo-
ple are concerned about life and death,
people may be more willing to give up
information for greater health.”
The core issue with the new apps is
that there is a direct trade-off between
how effective they might be in helping
control new outbreaks and the potential
invasion of privacy.
Some activists worry that the apps
could start as a tool to help track the
contacts of newly infected patients but
end up as de facto “immunity pass-
ports”, with citizens required to show
their health status on their smart-
phones before they can use public trans-
port or attend a football match.
Even President Donald Trump has
outlined the debate ahead. Describing
the Apple-Google solution as “amaz-
ing”, he warned this month: “We have
more of a constitutional problem than a
mechanical problem . . . A lot of people
have a problem with it.”
Apple and Google have insisted that
their technology will be off-limits to
public health agencies that do not abide
by their privacy guidelines. The compa-
nies want individuals to be able to
choose whether to use the scheme. But
their tight control of the software gives
already powerful companies huge influ-
ence over the success or failure of any
public health app.
The outcome of this stand-off
between governments and Big Tech
could help determine how quickly the
world can lift its lockdowns before a vac-
cine for Covid-19 is ready.
“Everyone’s desperate. It’s technology
utopianism; we’re looking for technol-
ogy to save us,” says Ashkan Soltani, an
independent privacy researcher and
former chief technologist at the Federal
Trade Commission.
When combined with social distanc-
ing, widespread testing and isolation of
affected individuals, contact tracing
apps can help “break the chain” of infec-
tion. But, Mr Soltani adds, “the goal and
how they’re sold is that they are going to
be silver bullets — which they’re not.”
Measured intrusion
Even without conscripting the devices
that live in the pockets of half the
world’s population, contact tracing is an
inherently invasive practice. Tradi-
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★ FINANCIAL TIMES
FT BIG READ. CORONAVIRUS
By Patrick McGee, Hannah Murphy and Tim Bradshaw
Public health v privacy
Inset: Ashkan
Soltani, an
independent
tional techniques involve tracking down
every individual and location visited by
someone diagnosed with an infectious
privacy disease. According to the WHO, infected
researcher, says people are encouraged to “identify
‘we’re looking every listed contact and to inform them
for technology to of their contact status”.
save us’. Below: a Now, faced with the challenge of scal-
pedestrian uses ing that process up to entire popula-
a smartphone to
scan a QR code
tions, dozens of tech companies led by
Apple and Google hope to take this labo-
at a checkpoint rious process and turn it digital.
in Beijing But the effort faces an enormous ethi-
FT montage cal dilemma. Arguably, the most effec-
tive contact-tracing tools would ignore
privacy concerns altogether: apps
would be mandatory, every user would
be identified, and people would be
traced constantly wherever they go.
The system would rely on every
means possible to track a person’s loca-
tion, including credit card transactions
and surveillance cameras. One start-up
has even suggested using artificial intel-
ligence to monitor via CCTV whether
people are remaining a safe six-foot dis-
tance apart as they walk the streets.
China’s ability to dramatically flatten
the curve of Covid-19 infections is partly
testament to how an authoritarian gov-
ernment can deploy such technology to
contain the virus. The west is seeking to
replicate the success of these efforts —
but without turning into totalitarian
states. So when Apple and Google
unveiled their scheme, their emphasis
was placed squarely on privacy.
The proposed solution uses Bluetooth
to send and receive anonymous signals
that change every 15 minutes. If an
infected person informs the software
they tested positive, any other smart-
phone user that had a recent encounter
would be alerted and given information
about what steps to take. Most of the
data is kept on people’s phones, to mini-
mise the potential for “de-anonymisa-
tion” by either hackers or governments.
Users can just as easily opt out as opt
in, the companies say. And if any gov-
ernment tries to make participation
mandatory, collect the information in a
central database or overlay additional
trackers such as location, the tech
companies simply would not let them.
Even so, privacy activists and some
politicians have warned about over-
reach. Last week, Democratic senator
Edward Markey wrote to the US vice-
president, Mike Pence, urging strict lim-
its on data use.
However, some believe that an exten-
sive surveillance system is justified in
the current situation, as Covid-19 kills
hundreds of thousands of people and
paralyses the global economy. A survey
by pollster Ipsos Mori, commissioned
by the FT, found that two-thirds of Brit-
ons are in favour of government phone
tracking to help tackle the pandemic.
Chris Yiu, executive director of tech-
nology and public policy at the Tony
Blair Institute for Global Change, says
the severity of the situation justifies
measures that would normally be “out of
the question” for democratic societies.
“This is quite different from the tradi-
tional debate about whether confront-
ing security threats to our way of life
merits sacrificing the values of freedom
and privacy that define us,” he says.
‘Voluntariness is a feature
and not a bug. We don’t
need 100% participation
if the goal is simply to be
able to flatten the curve’
“Covid-19 is not an ideology, and rebal-
ancing the contract between citizens
and the state to take advantage of new
technologies is not capitulation.”
Anonymous and effective?
Apple and Google’s leverage stems from
their control over how any third-party
apps can access the sensors in their
smartphones. In their current configu-
ration, iOS and Android make it difficult
for developers constantly to access
Bluetooth when their apps are running
“in the background” — such as when a
device is locked or a different app is
being used for a long period of time.
Google and Apple have said they would
lift these restrictions for health authori-
ties to do contact tracing, using new
tools for developers that would allow
near-constant access to Bluetooth.
However, that also means any con-
tact-tracing app that is developed with-
out adhering to Apple and Google’s
guidelines would face severe technical
and practical limitations. To be effective
in tracking other nearby users, the
smartphone would have to be unlocked
with the screen left on for extended
periods — probably running down the
battery in a matter of hours.
An Australian contact-tracing app
that was launched without using Apple
and Google’s new tools tries to get
around these limitations by sending
users push notifications reminding
them to refresh the app. Despite these
issues, almost 2m people downloaded it
within just a few hours of its release.
The crux of the matter is whether con-
tact tracing in the digital era can truly be
anonymous and effective at the same
time. Unlike GPS, Bluetooth does not
track a person’s location, only the prox-
imity between users.
Moreover, Apple and Google have
been vague about what constitutes “an
encounter” with someone who is
infected in terms of the length of time
the two individuals are close together.
If the required duration of contact on
the app is set too narrowly — to just a few
seconds, say — users might be pinged
repeatedly. A grocery clerk or a public
transit rider might come within 10
metres of an infected person multiple
times in a single hour. Each alert is likely
to be read as a personal doomsday mes-
sage direct from the health authority.
The result could be numerous false
alerts that create havoc and paranoia —
or just lead to people opting out.
But set the parameters too wide — to
say, half an hour, as Singapore has done
for its app, TraceTogether — and the
tech giants risk lulling populations into
complacency. If people go several weeks
without their phone pinging them, they
could end up feeling safe and opt to
relax their social distancing.
Apple and Google have proposed that
smartphones could send and receive
Bluetooth signals every five minutes for
tracing purposes. Even that could be far
too long a time. Covid-19 can spread
from the briefest of encounters, inhaling
mist from a stranger’s cough at the
supermarket or touching surfaces that,
according to Harvard Health, can
remain infected for up to 72 hours.
“None of them has put a stake in the
ground in terms of how long the dura-
tion is going to be,” says Marc Rogers,
executive director of cyber security at
Okta, a software group. To be effective
the tools need to be refined to only short
distances and include interactions of
under 30 seconds, “because someone
just needs to cough, and you walk
through the mist, and you’re at risk”.
Fear of a centralised database
Apps are already being developed with
backing from governments and public
health authorities before the Google/
Apple platform is ready. NHSX, the
innovation arm of the UK’s National
Health Service, is trialling its country-
wide app. Europe has two competing
groups exploring what they call “prox-
imity tracing”, PEPP-PT and DP-3T.
In the US, a patchwork of different
apps are emerging, some of which plan
to dovetail with the Apple/Google pro-
posal, while others plan to remain inde-
pendent. Many have started to collabo-
rate to ensure they are interoperable.
But only one app is expected to be
selected per state. Among the frontrun-
15
2m
Estimated
ners for the most widespread adoption
is Safe Paths, a protocol and app from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
downloads of an ogy. Ramesh Raskar, an associate pro-
Australian fessor at MIT who leads the initiative,
contract-tracing says the group was “in conversations
app within hours
of its release with 40 different jurisdictions”. The
group is exploring the use of location
trackingviaWiFiandGPS, arguing Blue-
<300
Academics who
tooth alone is not scalable or reliable.
Mr Raskar also flagged data security
issues related to the use of Bluetooth. “A
endorsed Google
and Apple’s third party app can snoop on these
contact-tracing [Bluetooth] signals,” he said. “Why
approach in a letter. would you carry a phone that’s con-
They argued that stantly emitting a beacon?”
any central database France argues its system is more
risked ‘mission creep’
secure from hacking because it uses a
central server to maintain a list of
devices belonging to people exposed to
the virus (without identifying them by
name). That is in contrast to the “decen-
tralised” approach adopted by Apple
and Google, which primarily stores
those details on individual devices,
using a central server as a mere “relay”
to update the network of participants on
the latest infections.
“Our scheme does not follow this prin-
ciple because we believe that sending
information about all infected users [to
everybody’s smartphones] reveals too
much information,” the researchers
developing France’s app, known as “Rob-
ert”, wrote in a recent paper. Europe’s
PEPP-PT follows a similar approach.
But many privacy activists, including
those belonging to PEPP-PT’s rival
DP-3T, disagree. Last week, nearly 300
academics endorsed Google and Apple’s
approach in a letter, saying that any cen-
tral database risked “mission creep”
and could “catastrophically hamper
trust in and acceptance of such an appli-
cation by society at large”.
The UK has been wary of the tech
giants’ approach, favouring a central-
ised database, whereas privacy-centric
Germany has come out in support of it.
Some privacy activists also fear that
the tech companies’ reassurances that
the apps will remain voluntary will be
hard to enforce in practice, if contact-
tracing apps evolve into “passports”
required to enter public places.
“We need to keep a really sharp eye as
a society to make sure that they don’t
become effectively mandatory,” says
Daniel Kahn Gillmor, senior staff tech-
nologist at the American Civil Liberties
Union. “Voluntariness is really a feature
and not a bug. We don’t need to get to
100 per cent participation if the goal is
simply to be able to flatten the curve
somewhat.”
The ACLU has also urged health
authorities to ensure contact tracing
apps do not slide into being a part of eve-
ryday life, even after the pandemic is
over. “If these systems turn out to not be
effective in helping to flatten the curve,
then we also want a commitment to shut
them down,” Mr Kahn Gillmor says.

16
WEDNESDAY 29 APRIL 2020
Corporate bailouts need
to come with strings
Business cannot expect emergency cash without sensible conditions
Bailouts are back. More than a decade
after the financial crisis, and the gov-
ernment rescues of banks that followed
it, the term has a wider resonance. Gov-
ernments are throwing vast sums of
money at companies and economies to
support them through the coronavirus
pandemic. The question for policy-
makers is whether the money should
be allocated only on the basis of eco-
nomic need, or on other criteria? Who,
in other words, deserves a bailout?
Britain’s church leaders have sug-
gested that the undeserving include
groups or business owners based in tax
havens. Taking a state handout while
avoiding taxes is wrong, they argued
this week. Richard Branson, billionaire
owner of Virgin Atlantic and resident
of his own Caribbean island (though he
denies he lives there for tax reasons),
has been criticised by some politicians
for asking the UK government for a
£500m package in commercial loans
and guarantees to save the airline.
For companies, in particular those
with strong balance sheets, there is no
straightforward answer: accepting
public funds to pay furloughed workers
is not only legal but, some would argue,
a director’s obvious fiduciary duty. But
unless other steps are taken as well,
such as cutting executive pay and
handouts to shareholders, the judg-
ment from the court of public opinion
may be harsh. After criticism, Shake
Shack, the US burger chain, is return-
ing the $10m it had received under the
government’s bailout for small busi-
ness. Disney has furloughed more than
100,000 workers yet continues to pay
top executives handsomely.
In many cases the conditions
attached to the bailouts of 2008 were
not meaningful — a lesson to heed
today. A handful of European govern-
ments, including Denmark and France,
have barred emergency cash for any
companies registered in countries on
The self-destruction of
the ‘Tropical Trump’
Brazil’s Bolsonaro is building the case for his own impeachment
All but one of Brazil’s presidents since
the return of democracy in 1985 have
ended their careers ignominiously.
Two were impeached, two tarnished
by corruption allegations, one jailed
and another triggered a financial crisis
in a subsequent role. Only Fernando
Henrique Cardoso, a centrist who
governed from 1995-2002, has his rep-
utation intact.
After forcing out the respected jus-
tice minister Sérgio Moro last Friday,
Jair Bolsonaro now appears hell-bent
on joining his predecessors in the presi-
dential hall of horrors. Mr Moro was
the second key minister to go in eight
days; Mr Bolsonaro had fired the pop-
ular health minister the previous week
for resisting presidential efforts to play
down the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Moro’s resignation is particularly
serious for two reasons. First, he was
a hero for Mr Bolsonaro’s conservative
backers. In his previous role as an anti-
corruption judge, he helped to jail left-
ist icon and ex-president Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva. Second, Mr Moro alleged
that he quit in protest at the president’s
decision to fire the national police chief
and replace him with a more pliant
individual willing to share intelligence
on current investigations. Brazilians
suspect that Mr Bolsonaro’s man-
oeuvres aimed to shield his powerful
sons from prosecution in investigations
covering illegal campaign financing
and links to paramilitaries.
If proven, Mr Moro’s explosive alle-
gations could constitute grounds for
impeachment. They have triggered
Brazil’s worst political crisis since
Dilma Rousseff was impeached in
2016. Dubbed the “Trump of the Trop-
ics” for his mastery of social media,
his ability to energise supporters and
his venomous attacks on opponents.
Mr Bolsonaro has upset Brazil’s elite by
disregarding the constitution, display-
ing bigotry towards gays, women and
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the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax
jurisdictions. The step may seem rad-
ical but the definition used is narrow.
It excludes EU tax havens such as Lux-
embourg. Companies also contribute
to the public purse through staff taxes
and VAT, so governments can lose out if
companies are not rescued.
Far better would be to tie a bailout to
a moratorium on dividend payments
and share buybacks. This should be for
a limited time only given the impact
the loss of dividends would have on the
pensions of individuals, most of whom
have already seen their retirement
income adversely affected by the col-
lapse in equities. Excessive executive
pay should also be curbed. Britain’s
Investment Association has said that
companies should consider reviewing
long-term incentive plans and bonuses.
Policymakers will need to examine
the merits of any bailout of private
equity-backed companies. Many were
loaded with extreme levels of debt to
fund the payment of large dividends to
owners. The industry is also sitting on
large cash piles. Yet simplistic demoni-
sation of private equity would be
wrong. Many such firms are efficient
business owners and also fund some of
the midsized companies that are bear-
ing the brunt of the crisis.
Some boards may bridle at condi-
tions being placed on bailouts. Compa-
nies cannot be blamed for coronavirus,
they may argue, so should be sup-
ported by governments through the
pandemic.
That view misses a bigger lesson of
the 2008 crisis. Banks’ apparent indif-
ference to public opinion even as they
were being saved by taxpayer money
led to their demonisation — the bash-a-
banker trope lives on today. Company
executives should agree to sensible
tests being attached to bailouts to avoid
reputational damage to the entire busi-
ness community.
black people and insouciance over the
burning of the Amazon rainforest. But
business and investors had tolerated
him as the best hope of reviving the
economy after a punishing recession
and years of leftist mismanagement
and corruption.
Paulo Guedes, the Friedmanite
finance minister, touted bold economic
reforms and last year pushed through a
landmark pension bill to relieve public
finances. That success led to investor
optimism that the “adults in the room”,
as the more moderate members of Mr
Bolsonaro’s government are known,
could advance reforms despite the
president’s dangerous antics — a sort of
Jekyll and Hyde administration.
Now, as in Stevenson’s gothic novella,
Mr Hyde has taken over. Any lingering
positive sentiment has evaporated
amid a triple crisis: a deepening public
health emergency, a deep economic
recession and political calamity.
Long a gambler, Mr Bolsonaro has
staked ever-higher bets on denying the
seriousness of coronavirus. Brazil has
tested so little that official figures are
unreliable, but even these show infec-
tions spreading rapidly. The peak is yet
to come and the public health system
is already struggling. The commodity-
dependent economy is equally vulner-
able; the IMF predicts that GDP will
shrink by 5.3 per cent this year, far
worse than sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Bolsonaro has so far proved resil-
ient. For now, his core supporters are
sticking by him. But former backers in
the military are growing uncomfort-
able. Congress is starting to flex its
muscles. Rumours are mounting of
fresh ministerial departures.
Long fond of conspiracy theories, Mr
Bolsonaro has repeatedly accused
opponents of plotting to overthrow
him. The reality is that Brazil’s pres-
ident is building the case for his
impeachment all by himself.
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
Letters
UN’s mixed performance on Covid-19 is fault of US and China
Gideon Rachman’s excellent article
(Opinion, April 28) identifies silver
linings from Covid-19 at the UN on
resolving conflicts. However, the UN’s
wider, geopolitical performance is
more mixed. The organisation has
shown itself unable to deliver a
co-ordinated global response to what
the UN secretary-general has termed
the biggest global crisis since 1945.
This is not the UN’s fault. Both the
Funding a vaccine will
require ingenuity
“Getting back to normal” means
rapidly producing billions of doses of
an effective Covid-19 vaccine available
to all. Companies and partners will
need to invest large sums in expanded
manufacturing capacity even before
confirmation their products will be
needed or used. As CEOs made clear in
Andrew Jack’s article (FT.com April
22) they do not intend to absorb that
risk alone.
As the G20 and other global forums
grapple with these challenges, existing
tools to develop and supply vaccines in
low-income countries offer important
lessons. The advanced market
commitment (AMC) for pneumococcal
vaccine, launched in 2009, created a
guaranteed market in lower income
countries to lock in significantly lower
prices and accelerate investments in
manufacturing capacity.
A similar coronavirus AMC must
reflect the enormous scale of the
problem and countries’ widely varying
abilities to pay. Donors are probably
unwilling to support massive subsidies
in poor countries. Several billion more
people live in middle-income
countries, which no longer qualify for
donor funding but cannot afford high-
income country prices.
We propose a value-driven AMC, by
which each country assesses the value
of a hypothetical vaccine (based on the
WHO’s target product profile) before it
comes to market. This would take into
account the product’s clinical
effectiveness and safety profile, the
practicality of roll out and other
characteristics related to the ability to
pay for the vaccine’s benefits. The
resulting national ceiling price and
aggregate market can then be
underwritten and guaranteed by
multilateral lenders, donors and
central banks, possibly through
collaborative initiatives like the
recently launched WHO accelerator.
Companies will still absorb a large
share of the commercial risk,
potentially mitigated by early push
funding from governments and donors.
Governments need not set aside funds
until a vaccine is developed and
licensed, after which they pay a value-
based price proportionate to wealth
level and the extent to which their
population would benefit from the
vaccine. Further downward price
negotiations would be possible to
reflect early push funding, regulatory
fast-track approval or public
investment in filling capacity.
There are many details to be worked
out, but unprecedented crises demand
unprecedented co-operation.
Amanda Glassman, Kalipso
Chalkidou, Hannah Kettler, Rachel
Silverman
Center for Global Development,
Washington, DC, US
Local stores
lobby to sell
lockdown
essentials
New Delhi
Notebook
by Amy Kazmin
status quo (US) and challenging
(China) Great Powers have shown an
unwillingness and inability to lead —
either jointly or independently — a
global response. Instead, with
nationalism prevalent, each have
sought to blame the other.
This is a shift. During the last global
crisis in 2008, Beijing and Washington
co-operated. Even during the cold war
the US and USSR worked together on
A face-saving EU rescue
plan already exists
The equity-based EU rescue fund
which Wolfgang Münchau (April 27)
recommends building on Sustainable
Architecture for Finance in Europe’s
recent policy letter already exists in the
EU in two forms: the European
Investment Bank’s venture debt or
quasi-equity programme which awards
several tens of millions of euros to
individual SME’s and mid-caps with
strategic innovations aligned with EU
policy priorities; and the European
Commission’s EIC Accelerator
modelled on the US Defence Advanced
Research Projects Agency’s programme
which awards blended grant (up to
€2.5m) and equity funding (up to
€15m) to SMEs with breakthrough
innovations. Both have a statistical
success rate averaging 2 per cent.
I have argued that the many flaws in
the latter’s operationalisation still need
to be addressed before it can deliver on
its ambition to become the investor of
choice for European visionary ideas.
Today’s publication by the EIC’s
advisory board of a vision statement
acknowledging that “long and
cumbersome application processes will
be reinvented with a focus on agile,
rapid, but thorough assessment of
applicants and their ideas and plans,
using online facilities, simple forms
and face-to-face interviews” is a
definite step in the right direction.
I would not underestimate the ECB’s
firepower beyond its first €750bn
Pandemic Emergency Purchase
Programme. Having European
solidarity expressed through a PEPP II
would enable the heads of state of
northern European countries to save
face in front of their electorates while
offering a legal mechanism to make
fiscal transfers directly to citizens,
which could prove a lifesaver for many
desperate Italian and Spanish families,
and maximising the chances to salvage
the European project.
Caroline Bergaud
Bergaud & Partners,
Brussels, Belgium
In the days before Indian prime
minister Narendra Modi’s coronavirus
lockdown, I started to sense that
things I might need could become
harder to come by. As Delhi markets
began shutting down, I rushed around
stocking up on items to keep my
eight-year-old engaged on long days
without school, friends or ballet.
I visited a toy store to buy board
games to play. At the stationers, I
bought a pack of 500 sheets of blank
A4 paper, canvases, acrylic paints and
watercolours, so she could explore her
artistic side. Once home, I went online
to order a book that had sustained me
as child: Little House on the Prairie,
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoir of her
childhood on the American frontier.
I was already reading the first book
in that series to my daughter. The
account of children who didn’t go to
school and relied mainly on their
hardworking parents for
companionship resonated as we
struggled with social distancing. I
hoped the book would help her realise
that many children have grown up
very differently from what she
considered normal, and help her to
come to terms with her own radically
and rapidly changing circumstances.
But alas! A day or so after I ordered,
Mr Modi imposed a strict, nationwide
curfew, with just four hours’ notice.
Amazon India, Walmart-owned
Flipkart and other ecommerce
companies were thrown into chaos,
their operations forced to a standstill
by local authorities amid confusion as
to what sorts of business, precisely,
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
smallpox. Washington’s stance is
particularly significant. Covid-19 is the
first major global crisis since 1945
where US leadership in New York has
been absent. The initiatives Mr
Rachman mentions were initiated by
others in this vacuum: the security
council resolution on conflict by the
UN secretary-general and the P5
leaders’ summit by French President
Emmanuel Macron.
War and peace for the
management classes
Andrew Hill brings to the reader’s
attention Ben Horowitz’s apparently
well-known 2011 musing on the
difference between wartime and
peacetime leadership (April 27).
Among the features of the wartime
leader: profanity, intolerance, and
indifference to consensus building.
Horowitz has obviously never served in
the military, nor do his bromides
suggest even a passing acquaintance
with Xenophon or Caesar. Whether
either used profanity, I cannot say.
Intolerance and indifference to
consensus, however, do not seem to
have been critical distinctive features
of their leadership.
CA Hoffman
Baltimore, MD, US
We knew ‘Star Trek’ was
a glimpse of the future
The still from the Star Trek episode
“Space Seed” that accompanies Pilita
Clark’s column (April 27), captioned
“‘Star Trek’ was ahead of the game on
video calls”, in fact depicts the
executive staff of the Starship
Enterprise examining an archival
record. The image on the screen is a
static photograph, not a video call.
While Star Trek characters often take
one-on-one video calls on terminals
that resemble our own computers, the
video calls more commonly seen on
Star Trek take place on the bridge of a
starship, and generally feature the
enormous head of a single interlocutor,
who in turn sees on their screen the
entire bridge of the protagonist’s vessel.
In this way the video calls of Star Trek
far more closely resemble a board
room videoconference or job interview
than the new multi-participant reality
in which so many of us find ourselves.
Joseph A Howley
Associate Professor, Department of
Classics Columbia University,
New York, NY, US
Lockdown leaves 20 to
30-year-olds short-changed
The much-quoted Imperial paper
suggests an infection fatality rate for
the 20-29 age group of 0.03 per cent if
no precautions are taken, while a
Warwick paper suggests there are 2.6m
20 to 30-year-olds not living with their
parents, who work in the private sector
and could work without unduly risking
infecting others; public sector
employees are assumed to continue
working.
The average life expectancy of a 25-
year-old is 86 and 89, male and female
respectively, and using the UK
standard evaluation for healthcare
interventions, Nice’s quality adjusted
life years methodology, each QALY is
worth £25,000, valuing an individual’s
they were permitted to continue.
New Delhi has always had fraught
relationships with ecommerce, though
these companies are among India’s
biggest foreign investors. These
companies have built much-needed
modern supply-chain infrastructure.
And, in a lockdown intended to keep
people home and stop an infectious
disease, they clearly had a vital role to
play. Yet ecommerce has also been
viewed as a threat to India’s millions
of independent mom-and-pop-store
owners, a powerful lobby that Mr
Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party
has counted as core constituents.
As the lockdown began, New Delhi
decided to restrict ecommerce firms
to delivering “essential items” such as
food, personal hygiene products,
cleaning supplies and medical
products. My unfulfilled book order
was formally cancelled.
Although disappointed, I
understood the official priorities,
given how many people had been
caught off guard by the lockdown and
were anxious to stock up on staple
foods and other basics. But as urban
Indians now endure a sixth straight
week confined to their homes, with
the prospect of more to come, many
middle-class consumers are frustrated
at the government’s narrow
description of what constitutes an
“essential item”, and angry at the tight
restrictions on their online purchases.
There is now a mounting clamour
for ecommerce companies to be
permitted to deliver mobile phone
handsets, laptops, power chargers and
Wednesday 29 April 2020
Email: letters.editor@ft.com
Include daytime telephone number and full address
Corrections: corrections@ft.com
The positions of the US and China at
the UN on Covid-19 are consistent with
their evolving multilateral postures
over the past few years. So far the main
impact of Covid-19 has been to
accelerate existing geopolitical trend
lines, rather than create new ones.
David Whineray
Senior Visiting Fellow,
United Nations University,
New York, US
life from this cohort at just under
£1.6m. Thus, the “value” of lives saved
by the lockdown on these 2.6m 20 to
30-year-olds, the avoidance of 780
deaths, is £1.25bn.
Assuming these 2.6m employees
earn the 21-year-old’s minimum wage
and work a 35-hour week, the cost to
government of furloughing them is not
only the furlough payment (£230 per
person per week) but also lost income
tax (£9 pppw), employers (£40 pppw)
and employees (£13 pppw) national
insurance, a total cost of £759m per
week. Furloughing this cohort for more
than two weeks implies a life lost
through Covid-19 is more valuable than
one lost from any other illness.
A continuation of the Covid-19 lock
down on 20 to 30-year-olds in the UK
demonstrates that either government
has lost the ability for simple cost
benefit calculations or to operate
consistently and rationally.
Bevis Comer
Bath, UK
Correctly pricing capital is
key to investment
You report (April 27) that the
Prudential Regulation Authority has
“given guidance on accounting to make
sure banks don’t take a mechanical
approach that would gobble up all the
capital that’s been freed up before it
can be used”.
The PRA (a division of the Bank of
England) is responsible for capital
adequacy only, and has no business
interfering with the reporting of the
statutory balance sheet. Statutory
reporting is governed by the True and
Fair requirement set out in the
Companies Act, and it is the
responsibility of company directors
and auditors, not the bank, to provide
assurance the financial statements
meet that requirement, and taken as a
whole, are free from material
misstatement.
In any case, such a misstatement
could defeat the bank’s primary
objective of financial stability, which
depends crucially on the loss-absorbing
capital provided by shareholders. If
shareholders lack confidence that
capital has been correctly priced, they
will take their funds elsewhere.
This report should be profoundly
disturbing to shareholders.
Mark Cardale
Chairman, UK Shareholders Association
Dr Dean Buckner
Policy Director, UK Shareholders
Association
Correction
c The Pakistan government is paying
Rs12,000, or about $75, to each
household, rather than $75,000 as
incorrectly stated due to an editing
error in a letter on April 28.
other essentials needed to cope with
the challenges of lockdown life,
including working from home, online
schooling, breakages and boredom.
The government is aware of the
rising angst. In mid-April, when the
21-day lockdown was extended for
another three weeks, it said that
ecommerce firms could start selling
all manner of goods from April 20.
Amazon and Flipkart geared up to
meet a surge of pent-up demand,
especially for phones and electronics.
(I kept checking to see when I could
reorder my Little House book.)
But the powerful lobby of traders
and small shop owners was anxious
that their rivals might gain an unfair
advantage. Under intense pressure,
the decision to loosen the rules was
reversed a few days later, with a fresh
edict barring ecommerce sales of
anything but groceries.
The Confederation of All India
Traders was exultant at its win. But
New Delhi’s bigger gift to its favoured
constituents was yet to come. Last
weekend, it was announced that
stores selling non-essential items
could start to reopen across much of
the country, if their state governments
also approve the decision.
Yet, even now, companies including
Amazon and Flipkart, which could
safely deliver a wide range of items to
people inside their homes, are barred
from selling anything but groceries.
For my daughter, reading Little House
on the Prairie will just have to wait.
amy.kazmin@ft.com

Wednesday 29 April 2020
Jon
Gray
I
t’s easy to get discouraged by
the headlines. The effects of the
coronavirus outbreak and an
unprecedented shutdown of the
global economy are being felt by
markets, businesses, and individuals
alike.
A record 26m Americans have filed
for unemployment in the last month
alone. The IMF now predicts a possible
loss of $9tn in global gross domestic
product, more than the economies
of Japan and Germany combined. Vix,
the index which measures market
volatility, surged to a record high in
March, breaking a mark set in Nov-
ember 2008. And of course, equity mar-
kets fell sharply, more than 30 per cent,
The crisis lays
bare the risks
of leverage
Martin Wolf Economics
Only this time it is capital markets,
rather than banks, that lie at
the heart of the story
C
rises reveal fragility. This
one is no exception. Among
other things, coronavirus
has revealed fragilities in the
financial system. This is
unsurprising. As before, reliance on
high leverage as a magical route to ele-
vated profits has led to private profits
and public bailouts. The state, in the
form of central banks and governments,
has come to the rescue of finance on a
gigantic scale. It had to do so. But we
must learn from this event. Last time, it
was the banks. This time we must look
at capital markets, too.
The IMF’s latest Global Financial Sta-
bility Report details the shocks: falling
equity prices, soaring risk spreads on
loans and plummeting oil prices. As
usual, there was a flight to quality. But
liquidity dried up even in traditionally
deep markets. Highly-leveraged inves-
tors came under severe stress. The pres-
sures on the financing of emerging econ-
omies have been particularly fierce.
The scale of the financial disarray
reflects in part the size of the economic
shock. It is also a reminder of what the
late Hyman Minsky taught us: debt
causes fragility. Since the global finan-
cial crisis, indebtedness has continued
to rise. In particular, the indebtedness of
non-financial companies rose by 13 per-
centage points between September
2008 and December 2019, relative to
global output. The indebtedness of gov-
ernments, which assumed much of the
post-financial crisis burden, rose by 30
percentage points. This shift on to the
SOCIETY
Izabella
Kaminska
I
n countries where coronavirus
lockdowns have been extended
into May, controversy is rising over
the use of green spaces and parks.
Lockdown absolutists see no jus-
tification for dawdling, sunbathing or
picnicking of any sort. They perceive
green spaces as suitable for exercise and
transit only. As the UK health secretary
Matt Hancock put it, in early April, any-
thing else puts lives at risk.
But what about those who live in
cramped conditions without access to
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Do not handcuff private capital investment
although they have begun to recover.
This mix of rapid dislocation and
extreme uncertainty causes markets to
seize up and stems the flow of capital to
businesses. Banks and public market
participants hesitate to invest or lend,
except when it involves the largest
investment grade companies.
Even the most deserving companies
may not have access to capital when
they need it most for survival, job pres-
ervation and growth. The ensuing dom-
ino effect creates an environment that
perpetuates market difficulties, hinders
recovery and punishes workers. And
governments can only do so much to
shore things up.
Into the vacuum, well before the “all-
clear” sign has been called on this down-
turn, must flow private capital.
I know from experience that this will
inevitably be met with cries that private
equity, real estate funds and private
lenders are vultures swooping in to
profit from economic suffering. There
shoulders of governments will now
happen again, on a huge scale.
The IMF report gives a clear overview
of the fragilities. Significant risks arise
from asset managers as forced sellers of
assets, leveraged parts of the non-finan-
cial corporate sector, some emerging
countries, and even some banks. While
the latter are not the centre of this story,
reasons for concern remain, despite
past strengthening. This shock, the
report states, is likely to be even more
severe than envisaged in the IMF’s stress
tests. Banks remain highly-leveraged
institutions, especially if we use market
valuations of assets. As the report notes:
“Median market-adjusted capitalisation
is now higher than in 2008 only in the
US.” The chances that banks will need
more capital is not small.
Yet it is capital markets that lie at the
heart of this saga. Specific stories are
revealing. The Bank for International
Settlements has studied one weird epi-
sode in mid-March when markets for
benchmark government bonds experi-
enced extraordinary turbulence. This
happened because of the forced selling
of Treasury securities by investors seek-
ing “to exploit small yield differences
through the use of leverage”. This is the
type of “long-short strategy” made infa-
mous by the failure of Long Term Capi-
tal Management in 1998. It is also a strat-
egy vulnerable to rising volatility and
declining market liquidity. These cause
mark-to-market losses. Then, as margin
is called in, investors are forced to sell
assets to redeem loans.
Rationing access to open space may be on the cards
private garden space? Advocates con-
tend that for families living in flats with
small children, unrestricted access to
open park space is as essential as food.
As long as families keep their distance,
they argue, why should outdoor activ-
ities be banned? The same applies to
those living in cramped conditions
or in shared accommodation with no
communal spaces.
Governments must come up with a
reasonable compromise that openly
addresses the real challenge at hand,
which has little to do with the risk of
catching Covid-19 from a family playing
ball games metres away. The real prob-
lem is about crowd management and
the fear of inadvertently sparking public
gatherings that eviscerate social dis-
tancing efforts due to the numbers and
close contact among people involved.
One sensible solution could involve
★ FINANCIAL TIMES
Opinion
will also be dire warnings about the
expansion of shadow banking.
And yet the potential consequences
are clear. Without private capital,
more companies will fail. Even with
private participation, there will not be
enough cash to save every company
and worker. But at least there exists
FT series: the world
after the pandemic
What to expect when
the lockdowns end
ft.com/aftermath
a $1.45tn potential lifeline of capital
from non-bank lenders and private
equity firms, funded mostly by public
pension plans.
We have seen this dynamic before,
during the global financial crisis. To take
one example, consider the way Black-
stone dealt with Hilton, the hotel chain
we had acquired for $26bn in 2007.
Government debt had already
been rising before the crisis
Global debt as a % of global GDP, by sector
Households Non-financial companies
Financial companies Government
1999 2005 10
Source: Institute of International Finance
Another story elucidated by the BIS
tells of emerging economies. An impor-
tant recent development has been the
rising use of local currency bonds to
finance government spending. But
when the prices of these bonds fell in the
crisis, so did exchange rates, increasing
the losses borne by foreign investors.
These exchange-rate collapses worsen
the solvency of domestic borrowers
(notably businesses) with debts denom-
inated in foreign currency. The inability
to borrow in domestic currency used to
High-debt strategies are
almost perfectly designed
to reduce resilience in
periods of financial stress
granting those most in need of open
space an exception to the general ban on
loitering in parks. But evaluating such
requests and policing the exceptions is
likely to be prohibitively costly.
In Britain, the shape and structure of
One golf course, with
local mayoral approval,
allows families to book
walking time slots
open spaces complicates the issue.
Unrestricted access to national parks,
public commons and beaches is woven
into the fabric of UK society. It is
deemed a right and many of the open
spaces lack fences and gates. Unlike
shops and commercial businesses,
During the crisis, the value of our invest-
ment declined by more than 70 per cent
as markets dropped.
But we maintained our conviction
and injected $800m of additional cap-
ital. This vital step gave the company
the time and resources to expand
globally and eventually hire thousands
of new employees. We stayed invested
until 2018.
In the current crisis, we have already
seen private debt and equity capital
at work in some of the industries most
affected by the economy grinding to
a halt. Private capital is stepping in to
give companies including Airbnb,
United Airlines and Expedia a fighting
chance.
However, rescue capital is only the
beginning. As volatile prices make
it harder for companies to tap public
markets, we are likely to see a wave
of private investment into new, fast-
growing sectors which are needed
to help make the economy more
Pre-Covid-19, hedge funds took
increasingly leveraged positions
Leveraged fund futures positions (net, $bn)
2-5 years maturity >= 10 years maturity
300
250
200
150
100
50
0 2016 17 18
15 19
Sources: Schrimpf, Shin & Sushko (BIS, 2020);
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
be called “original sin”. This has not
gone, argue the BIS’s Augustin Carstens
and Hyun Song Shin. It has just “shifted
from borrowers to lenders”.
Yet another significant capital-mar-
ket issue is the role of private equity and
other high-leverage strategies in
increasing expected returns, but also
the risks, in corporate finance. Such
approaches are almost perfectly
designed to reduce resilience in periods
of economic and financial stress. Gov-
ernments and central banks have now
been forced to bail them out, just as they
were forced to bail out banks in the
financial crisis. This will reinforce
“heads, I win; tails, you lose” strategies.
So vast is the size of central bank and
government rescues that moral hazard
must be pervasive.
The crisis has revealed much fragility.
which can restrict access to their
premises in a bid to manage crowds,
many British common lands cannot.
The administrative and structural chal-
lenges are too enormous.
This is where the private sector can
help. Owners of large private open
spaces, including golf courses and
farms, are experimenting with allowing
families to enjoy them responsibly
without fear of overcrowding. As
private entities, they can ration
and control access and make it cond-
itional on following specific rules and
regulations.
One such initiative, coVValk, in New-
port, Shropshire, is already, with local
mayoral approval, allowing families to
pre-book walking time slots within their
privately owned golf course. Richard
Maryniak, the scheme’s co-initiator,
says he wants corporate brands and
resilient to future public health and
economic shocks.
Companies and governments every-
where are going to have to focus
intensely on logistics and supply chain
resilience. During this pandemic, logis-
tics workers have made heroic efforts to
ensure delivery of emergency supplies,
food and everyday goods, while many
parts of our world have been shut down.
But private capital will be critical
in the future to help companies meet the
growing demand for ecommerce. There
will be a need to build large-scale logis-
tics technologies and develop state of
the art, last-mile warehouses. This
will enable us to be better prepared for
the future.
Private capital will also be called upon
to accelerate the testing, therapies
and vaccines needed to respond to our
new healthcare challenges. We must
ensure there is sufficient funding for
scientific research and product develop-
ment as well as for the physical labs
The ‘original sin’ of foreign currency debt
has returned in foreign-exchange markets
Emerging market exchange rate and bond spreads
Dollar exchange rate*
0 (Feb 20 =100)
108
-100
106
-200
104
102
-300
100
-400
98
-500 96
-600 02 Jan
19 20 * Simple average of EM economies excluding China. An increase indicates
dollar appreciation ** GBI-EM Broad index excluding China, 7–10 years,
over benchmark US Treasury
Sources: Hofmann, Shim & Shin (BIS 2020); Bloomberg
It has also demonstrated yet again the
uncomfortably symbiotic relationship
between the financial sector and the
state. In the short run, we must try to get
through this crisis with as little damage
as possible. But we must also learn from
it for the future.
A systematic evaluation of the frail-
ties of capital markets, comparable to
what was done with banks after the
financial crisis, is now essential. One
issue is how emerging economies reduce
the impact of the new version of “origi-
nal sin”. Another is what to do about pri-
vate sector leverage and the way in
which risk ends up on governments’ bal-
ance sheets. I think of this as trying to
run capitalism with the least possible
risk-bearing capital. It makes little
sense. This creates a microeconomic
task — eliminating incentives for the
sponsors to get involved to keep the
access free of charge and available to the
lowest income households.
If such schemes were to gain formal
government blessing, they would help
increase the tolerability and thus effec-
tiveness of urban lockdowns. They
would also shift the cost of policing and
administering access to open spaces to
the private sector, thus lowering the
burden on the public purse.
As we gradually exit the lockdowns,
we could consider allowing privately
owned open spaces to be booked
for longer stays, allowing picnicking,
sunbathing and even responsible camp-
ing. Such schemes could become a
modern day equivalent of the country-
side retreat policy, or dacha system,
organised by the former Soviet Union.
There, urban workers were apportioned
access to outdoor space for recreation
17
needed to conduct vital experiments.
Both established life sciences compa-
nies and new entrants need this support
to innovate and, ultimately, to save
lives. One recent example: Blackstone
has announced a $2bn royalty, debt and
equity collaboration with Alnylam, a
leading biopharmaceutical company
focused on medicines that use RNA
to interfere with gene expression to
treat diseases.
Some critics are already using the cur-
rent crisis to renew their calls to ban or
severely restrict private equity invest-
ment, and overseas investment more
broadly. This would be deeply damaging
to the economy in normal times. It is
especially so during a crisis. We need all
hands on deck — including a big push
from private capital — to restart job
growth and make our economy better
able to withstand future shocks.
The writer is president and chief operating
officer of Blackstone
Bond yield spread**
(basis points)
550
500
450
400
350
Feb Mar 25
private sector to fund itself so heavily
via debt; and a macroeconomic one —
reducing reliance on debt to generate
aggregate demand.
The big question now is whether the
essential systems that keep our societies
running are adequately resilient. The
answer is no. This is the sort of question
the OECD’s New Approaches to Eco-
nomic Challenges Unit has dared to
address. Inevitably, it has created much
controversy. Yet it is admirable that an
international organisation is daring to
do so at all. The crisis has shown us why.
We cannot afford complacency. We
need to reassess the resilience of our
economic, social and health arrange-
ments. A focus on finance must be an
important part of this effort.
martin.wolf@ft.com
and agricultural support reasons, espe-
cially when national food supplies were
running low.
This might come in handy if agricul-
tural supplies continue to be threatened
by a lack of migrant workers. Pick-your-
own farms and orchards are already
common. Gathering industrial quanti-
ties of strawberries is unlikely to be
considered a leisure activity in and of
itself. But imagine if it was combined
with the right to an extended family stay
at a well-managed campsite on a nearby
fallow field. Suddenly that might
become more appealing.
Either way it’s time to be innovative.
Denying urban residents the opport-
unity to hang-out in open space will only
become more problematic as summer
approaches.
izabella.kaminska@ft.com
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18 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 29 April 2020

Covid-19/bankruptcy: stagnation not annihilation

Lex assessed the financial resilience of non-financial FTSE 350 companies according to factors such as
leverage, interest cover and asset strength. A hit to earnings from coronavirus leaves many more of them
looking weak or vulnerable. But financings have so far been available to bolster balance sheets.

Twitter: @FTLex The shift to risk Smaller stocks more volatile

HSBC/Noel Quinn:
baptism of fire
Shareholders like chief executives with
strategic vision and cost-cutting
prowess. A period of severe economic
shock requires a different approach.
That meant some adjustments by
HSBC’s Noel Quinn, as he presented
quarterly earnings for the first time
since his appointment as permanent
chief executive. It has become
impossible for him to implement
smoothly a restructuring plan
trumpeted in February before
coronavirus started doing its worst.
A fall in profits at the Asia-focused
bank of almost a half to $3.2bn
announced that we are living in
different times. So did a quintupling in
loan loss provisions to $3bn, a fifth of
that owing to the woes of Singapore oil
trader Hin Leong. The return on
tangible equity was 4.2 per cent, down
from 10.6 per cent last year.
All three core business segments
were hit. Retail banking and wealth
management earnings plunged 84 per
cent, global banking and markets
almost halved, while commercial
banking fell more than two-thirds. The
outlook is worrying. HSBC has plenty of
exposure to riskier small and medium-
sized enterprises in Asia, the region
generating half its revenues. It provides
financing support via local government
schemes. Expect Asian banks to
register $100bn in loan provisions by
the end of this year, says S&P Global.
Shares that have fallen nearly 40 per
cent in the past year should fall further.
Hefty SME credit exposure is not yet
fully recognised, though at a price to
tangible book value of 0.5 times,
according to S&P Global, much of the
historical premium over Standard
Chartered has gone. Citi trades at 0.7
times by virtue of its US exposure.
HSBC’s operating expenses remain
high, at $7.9bn. In its biggest units,
retail and commercial banking,
overheads rose year on year. Mr Quinn
has scaled back his shake-up plans,
delaying 35,000 job cuts, given the
difficulty staff would have in finding
new jobs. Yet, planned asset reductions
of more than $100bn should be
brought forward from the 2022
schedule — even if valuations are lower.
When he was appointed interim
chief, Mr Quinn claimed he did not see
himself as a caretaker. Instead of that,
he must now take infinite care to
balance the bank’s risks. Rising credit
costs and the unpopular decision to
scrap the dividend mean that the
HSBC investment case is becoming
unpalatable to many Asian investors.
Diageo/corporate bonds:
making the grade
What price bonds? While the likes of
hard-pressed cruise line operator
Carnival and carmaker Ford grab
headlines with throat-catching
coupons, blue-chip borrowers are
paying much the same as they did in
pre-coronavirus times.
Underlining the divide, UK-listed
distiller Diageo yesterday issued $2.5bn
of bonds in three tranches with
coupons from a very modest 1.375 to
2.125 per cent.
Crises often widen pre-existing gaps.
So it is in the bond markets.
Investment-grade issuers tend to
have more cash flow levers at their
disposal: they can cancel buybacks,
dividends and capex plans. Their credit
worthiness remains intact.
When blue-chip groups do issue debt
they can count on a slew of new buyers,
courtesy of economic support plans
launched by central banks and
governments.
On one count, 40 per cent of last
month’s issuance in the region was
vacuumed up by the ECB. Interest
rates, again thanks to accommodative
central banks responding to the
economic fallout from the pandemic,
are on the floor.
Thus even with a widening of yield
spreads, underlying borrowing costs
can still be lower. And bond markets
are open for business.
Last year, a record, left corporate
balance sheets with $13.5tn of
outstanding bonds; the first quarter of
2020 was also buoyant.
Things are more dire at the other end
of the spectrum, where a pile of groups
have had their ratings cut.
Nearly three-quarters of the
companies that Moody’s and S&P have
acted on in the past few months are
speculative grade. A few “fallen
angels”, including Marks and Spencer
and Lufthansa, have crossed the
investment-grade divide.
Inevitably, more companies will
follow. The number depends on the
Number of non-financial businesses in the FTSE 350, by composite
financial strength score
Historic
Forecast
<1 <2
(Robust) (Strong)
FT graphic Source: FT analysis
No cash equals corporate crash. That
is the fear that coronavirus instils.
The proportion of UK-listed
companies that appear financially
weak or vulnerable in a screening
created by Lex jumps from 13 per
cent to 26 per cent when an earnings
hit is taken into account.
Some spectacular corporate
collapses will happen around the
world. But will a self-reinforcing
wave of them follow? Unlikely.
Credit was elastic in the last crisis
and is stretchier now. A lost decade of
profits stagnation may be the price.
Coronavirus has upended equity
analysis. Earnings matter for
resilience more than as a pointer to
dividends. Fancy credit-scoring
systems abound. Lex kept it simple.
length of the crisis and the constancy of
state support. Those who can raise debt
now are wise to do so.
UBS:
altitude fitness
Mountain living is healthy, providing
you keep your footing. The air is clean
and thin and you can see trouble
coming. It works for UBS, which dwells
atop $2.3tn in invested assets, most of
it belonging to the world’s wealthy.
That alp of affluence slipped over a
tenth in the first quarter as markets
recoiled from coronavirus. The division
still increased operating profits by
one-third year on year to $1.2bn, more
than half the group total. Investment
Rebased FTSE 250
110
100
FTSE 100
60
50 Q2 2018 Q2 19 Q4 19 Q2 20
Source: Refinitiv
40
Finance is still flowing
30 Recent financings by UK companies (£bn)
20 Diageo
Tui
EasyJet
10 Aston Martin
Asos
0 SSP
Hays
<3 <4 4+ WHSmith
(Middling) (Weak) (Vulnerable) DFS
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Source: FT research
Excluding financial and property quick ratio one notch. The categories
groups, we gave stocks in the FTSE 350 “vulnerable” and “weak” doubled to
index a rating of 0-5. This reflected a quarter of the total. Companies
four metrics, such as net debt to ebitda typically have big liabilities but say
and the quick ratio — cash and the like they are manageable, often for highly
divided by current liabilities. specific reasons.
High scorers graded as “vulnerable” Groups such as Aston Martin, Tui,
included pubs group JD Wetherspoon, and Intercontinental have attracted
Cineworld and InterContinental Hotels. financings and debt extensions. Jim
Retailers were represented, for Reid of Deutsche Bank forecasts that
example by Dixons Carphone. Their EU high-yield bond defaults will rise
earnings, and shares, are taking big to just 7 per cent from low levels.
hits. Fashion group Burberry, The probability of corporate mass
metrology specialist Renishaw and extinction looks modest. That
housebuilder Persimmon all got low assumes infection rates continue to
scores and a “robust” rating. They flatten and investors stay confident
should cope better with lower profits. in state bailouts. Precautionary
We crudely stress-tested UK stocks, preservation is forestalling
discounting ebitda for the past 12 destruction, creative or otherwise. A
months by a quarter and raising the long, global debt workout lies ahead.
banking raised its own contribution by A stampede into Asian wealth
a stonking 240 per cent to $709m. management by European and US
But that is not easily repeatable rivals has made it a crowded trade. On
business. Moreover, the volatility that the modest evidence of the past two
has shed rare radiance on bond, credit quarters, divisional bosses are tending
and equity traders merely reflects the UBS’s most formidable franchise well.
disaster befalling the world economy as UBS’s core tier one equity is 12.8 per
profits collapse and debts balloon. cent of risk-weighted assets. That looks
This was why UBS booked a $260m comfortable in the wake of a
loan loss provision. Credit Suisse countercyclical buffer release that
chalked up $584m in extra rainy-day trimmed the regulatory requirement to
cover last week, but under tougher US 9.7 per cent.
GAAP rules. UBS’s figure would be The price to book value of the bank
marked up on the same standard. recently fell to its lowest level in 22
Shareholders in the Swiss bank are years, according to S&P Global data.
still getting off lightly compared with Having bounced back to 0.8 times, it is
investors in US peers; JPMorgan has pricey by the depressed standards of
taken $6.8bn in new provisions. US European banks.
banks typically have much bigger loan Lex is bearish on this fragmented
books with higher exposure to risky and heavily regulated bunch. Within it,
consumer borrowings. UBS is a least worst option.
90 Plus500:
80
70
jumping at the chance
60
Gamblers are used to playing against
the odds. Those making leveraged bets
with London-listed Plus500 are warned
that more than three-quarters of
accounts lose money. That has not put
off droves of housebound punters
trying their luck in the market turmoil.
The result is exceptional returns for
the online trading group. Yesterday it
put out its third update in just over six
weeks saying that revenue and
profitability should be “substantially
ahead” of market consensus. Its shares
rose 5 per cent, pushing up gains to
over 75 per cent since mid-March.
Unless markets remain volatile, its
outperformance could prove
shortlived. In early 2018, Plus500
profits surged amid investor frenzy
over cryptocurrencies. Revenue fell
43 per cent in the second quarter,
compared with the first, and more
thereafter. Its shares peaked in August
2018 and then lost three-quarters of
their value in eight months.
An EU regulatory crackdown helped
deflate the last bubble. This year
Australia introduced similar measures.
That country accounted for 14 per cent
of last year’s $354.5m revenues. But
new regulations should wipe off most
of that, about $37m, says Liberum.
Though the group has obtained a
licence in the Seychelles, how that cuts
its regulatory risk is unclear.
Plus500 also has yet to explain last
week’s abrupt departure of chief
executive Asaf Elimelech, beyond
denying any bust-ups. The group, and
its valuation, would benefit from more
openness. Priced at seven times
expected earnings over the next year,
its multiple trails the 14 times for IG
Group and nearly 10 times for another
London-listed rival, CMC Markets.
Plus500 has appeal for income-
starved investors. It pays out at least 50
per cent of profits as dividends. That
for the first half alone will mean a yield
of 6 per cent, Canaccord Genuity says.
But its trading performance may well
have peaked in the first quarter.
Investors in its shares, like its products,
should be prepared for losses.
Lex on the web
For notes on today’s breaking
stories go to www.ft.com/lex

CROSSWORD An anniversary puzzle

ACROSS
3 Height at which club members
need to score (4)
No. 16,463 Set by GAFF 1 Oil man – look out! (6) 5 Wealth but no money around
4 Declining to have hot stuffed mid-July (8)
        herb (8) 6 Dream of arming the criminal

10 Bugs depicted in Cyrillic (9)
abbreviations from the East (7) 7 For travellers to get around in?
  11 Press civic leader in state of (3)
emergency (7) 8 Maybe ducks for cover (6)
12 Drop sound level (4) 9 Exaltation perhaps from offers
13 She plugs electrical radio that are about right (5)
  
telephone leads into monitor 14 Problem with public address
(10) speakers (5,6)
15 Coarse fish nets in 16 Well-known for number of
   Grangemouth first (6) rubbish raised notes (9)
17 Pain overwhelms a mid-rank 18 15 device that makes perfect
 
ancient Greek (7) soldiers’ companion (3,5)
  20 Order to rig vote to create sense 19 Main savers’ vehicle (8)
of instability (7) 22 Crazy for tipsy chocolate filling
  21 Arab soldiers between you and (6)
me (6) 23 Gem of a high note at last (5)
 
24 Allotment after half a day’s 26 See 25
 soaking (10) 28 Stop hold-up (3)
25, 26 Loyal to the legitimate navy
   (4-4)
27 Match against schoolchildren Solution 16,462
(7)
& 5 , & . ( 7 2 & ( $ 1 , $
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is in chaos (7) 0 $ 6 2 1 $ 5 $ % ( 6 4 8 (
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models (8) 6 ( 5 $ (
JOTTER PAD 31 Knowing offensive group of 7 , 0 ( 6 6 ( 0 , 7 2 1 ( 6
musicians (6) $ ( ( 2 ( (
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of shoe (8) 0 7 * 9 5 + 5 $
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