Category: Articles

In total there were 12,089 deals worth a combined USD 764,172 million announced during the second half of 2015, according to Zephyr, the M&A database published by Bureau van Dijk. In terms of value this represents a xxx per cent increase on H1 2015, when USD 714,182 million was invested in industrials companies.

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate GmbH (Warburg-HIH Invest) has opened dedicated offices in France (Paris) and Spain (Madrid) and hired two real estate experts who bring local expertise of the French and Spanish property market to the team.

Having female managers on the board improves a company’s share price, according to new research from Skema business school.

Alliance Trust Savings warns that pension savings could miss out on substantial tax relief due to confusion around the new annual allowance taper rules which come into force this month.

I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment manager focusing on energy, utilities, and transport in North America, Europe, and select high growth economies.

ETF Securities, one of the world’s leading, independent providers of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs),believes the US Federal Reserve (Fed) has made a policy mistake. After raising rates for the first time in nine years, the Fed has held back from further hikes in 2016, bowing to market tantrums.

According to a new study by leading specialist lender, Amicus Finance Plc (“Amicus”), more than half (53%) of small business owners expect demand for alternative finance – including forms such as property finance, crowdsourcing, invoice finance and asset finance, to increase over the next two years while just 6% think it will decline.

The Capital Partnership, a private investment office and independent asset manager, today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the ownership of Northgate Capital, the California-based venture capital and private equity investment firm, from Religare and certain members of Northgate’s management team.

Following today’s announcement that the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to maintain Bank rate at 0.5%, Calum Bennie, savings expert at Scottish Friendly said, “the days of the Bank of England threatening an imminent rise in interest rates seem to be fading into the distance

It’s been a bumpy first quarter to say the least. We expected bouts of ‘violent volatility,’ but we were surprised by the extent of the weakness up to mid-February. Although markets in a low growth environment are very vulnerable to shocks, the declines seemed severe and overdone. So what is the picture for the rest of the year and how are markets looking for investors asks Nigel Cumming, chief investment officer of Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management.

A “decade of change” is predicted for cash use across Europe by G4S, one of the largest cash solutions business on the continent.

Over recent years it has become more common to start a new family after getting divorced or separating from a long-term partner. However, having children in later in life is impacting the amount of debt people have as they get older, according to research by Saga Personal Finance.

In a nutshell, Allied Wallet’s astounding Next Gen Payment Gateway allows for simpler integrations for merchants and payment processors.

Exception Capital is a boutique investment firm based in London and Los Angeles. We spoke to Adrian Fairbourn about the firm and their innovative flagship fund, The Family Fund.

Bel Brands USA is the U.S. subsidiary of Bel Group, a family owned company (based in Paris, France) and the world’s third largest manufacturer of branded cheese with a portfolio of 30 international and local brands distributed in 130 countries worldwide. We got in touch with their Didier Aziza, Chief Financial Officer of Bel Brands USA, to find out more about their company and his financial initiatives reaped tremendous rewards for the company.

Fidelis Capital Management’s mission is to consistently achieve superior, risk-adjusted returns for investors. We got in touch with Andrew Sandoe, Chief Investment Officer at Fidelis, to find out how they achieve this, and learn about how his military background has helped him thrive in the hedge fund industry.

The new ATED legislation came into force on 1st April and will now apply to UK residential properties that are completely or part owned by a company, partnership, or collective investment scheme which are worth between £500,000 and £1 million.

Auscap is a value-based long short manager, looking to invest in quality companies that generate substantial cash flows and have a sustainable comparative advantage when they are trading at attractive prices.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Business Plan published today outlines seven priority themes which will guide how the they will use its flexible resources and provide additional focus for the core activities of the organisation.

Leading P2P investment platform Abundance (www.AbundanceInvestment.com) confirms that its ‘Innovative Finance ISA’ (IFISA) will be open for investment from April 6th - the first date that this new kind of ISA can be offered to the public.

Managed Funds Association and the Alternative Investment Management Association today submitted a joint comment letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the Commission’s proposed rule on the use of derivatives by mutual funds and other registered investment companies.

Companies in the financial services sector are increasingly investing in specialists to help them drive cultural change in their organisations. Leading talent mapping and pipelining specialist Armstrong Craven is working with a number of clients in the sector which are keen to widen their focus beyond gender diversity targets.

Scottish laws on insolvency have been brought together into one piece of legislation for the first time in a generation yesterday as the new Bankruptcy (Scotland) Bill 2016 was passed by the Scottish Parliament.

Investor confidence in private equity investment is high, with 63% intending to invest in SMEs in the next five years and over half of UK investors looking to EIS for 2016.

Leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, has released research into the Waitrose effect on house prices surrounding each of the supermarket’s 300+ UK stores. eMoov’s research found property surrounding Waitrose stores costs £456,000 on average, more than double that of the UK overall (£221,254), having increased 7% over the last year.

WisdomTree Europe, an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) and exchange-traded product (“ETP”) sponsor announces that it has listed three new ETPs on Borsa Italiana.

As has been well reported, yesterday’s annual Budget established that all corporate investors and individual buy to let landlords will now face a 3% Stamp Duty increase on additional properties purchased from April.

John Spiers, Chief Executive Officer of EQ Investors, the boutique wealth manager, provides his thoughts in response to the Chancellor’s Budget announced today.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is boosting support to private entrepreneurs in Serbia by increasing access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Scottish Friendly, the savings and ISA provider, has called for the Help to Save Scheme, announced today by the Government, to include access to stocks and shares investments and not just cash.

Defaqto, a provider of independent financial products and fund information and ratings, today published its latest case study ’The case for hybrid‘ which examines the role of hybrid solutions in planning for retirement.

Nigel Keohane, Research Director, Social Market Foundation co-author of the report, Locked Out: How property crowdfunding explains how this could help the next generation of homeowners.

Aioi Nissay Dowa Europe is the automotive arm of MS&AD Group (Mitsui Sumitomo Aioi Dowa - Japans largest insurance group) and operates Toyota Insurance Management Ltd. We got in touch with their COO, Michael Kainzbauer, to find out more about the company and how they continue to succeed in the highly competitive automotive market.

A new report by the International Longevity Centre – UK (ILC-UK) supported by Age UK, calls on the Government to avoid damaging confidence in our pensions system at the forthcoming Budget, and to act to foster a ‘savings culture’.

Kepner-Tregoe, Inc. (KT or the Company) is a world renowned multinational management consulting and capability development company. Founded in 1958, the Company is a leader in helping organizations improve and leverage the critical thinking skills of their people to drive operational improvement. We spoke to William B. Baldwin, CFO of KT, to learn more about the financial aspects of their company and how they have adapted to the many challenges faced by their business.

Founded in 2005, Deutsche Finance Group is based in Munich with offices in Zurich and Paris.We spoke to Symon Hardy Godl, Manging Director of the firm, to find out more about their practice and how their fund of funds consistently achieves results.