Harriet Agnew’s Post

It was the summer of 2022, and the London Stock Exchange was confronting a prolonged drought in listings, a domestic pension industry shunning UK equities and a morale-sapping anxiety that any homegrown company aiming for global success would choose to float in New York. Dame Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the bourse, decided to take matters into her own hands. She convened a group of City grandees, advisers and investors, among them Schroders chief executive Peter Harrison, Sir Jon Symonds, chair of FTSE 100 drugmaker GSK, and Sir Nicholas Lyons, chair of pensions group Phoenix Group. The idea was to drive a radical overhaul of the UK’s capital markets, win political backing for the changes and try to counter what the group saw as a corrosive negativity engulfing the London market. Here Michael O'Dwyer and I explore how two years on, the efforts of the group, which calls itself the CMIT - Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, and the fortunes of the market, are at a critical juncture. Mark Austin Matthew Scullion Katharine Braddick Andy Briggs MBE

WE'RE HIRING! We have an exciting new opportunity covering the global #pensions industry from London at the Financial Times. This is a beat that involves getting under the skin of some of the world’s largest investment institutions at a time of upheaval. Pension funds are facing a subdued outlook for investment returns and as average life expectancy increases, pensions have become a defining political issue across the world. We are looking for stories on how global pension funds are investing their money, how they interact with policymakers, and how they are responding to changing demographics. The UK’s own pension fund industry is still reeling from the fallout from the disastrous mini-Budget, while reforms are under way to improve investment returns and better support the country’s stock market.

How to reboot Britain's capital markets | FT Film A declining stock market and restrictive pension system rules have made the UK a less attractive place for new businesses to find the funding they need. The Financial Times looks at what is being done to improve the City's competitiveness as an international capital market. Featuring me, Michael O'Dwyer Katie Martin Jeremy Hunt Peter Harrison Matthew Scullion Charlie Walker Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Avion Gray and expertly masterminded by Tom Griggs and Petros Gioumpasis

The campaign against Edinburgh-based asset manager Baillie Gifford has left festivals struggling to adapt to a new age of protest. In this essay for Financial Times Weekend, Henry Mance and I explore the question: after Baillie Gifford, who is 'clean' enough to fund the arts?  "It's a heartbreaking spectacle in which there are only losers," says Sir Michael Moritz, the tech investor whose family foundation sponsors the Booker Prize Foundation. Moritz warns that the philanthropic support for the arts in Britain could soon be "frozen", unless "calm and resolute minds" prevail. "No worthy and well-meaning sponsor will want to run the risk of being publicly pilloried."

It’s not every day that Ashton Kutcher features in the Financial Times #AssetManagement newsletter. In this week’s edition I bring you a special dispatch from the Milken Institute Conference in Beverly Hills, featuring insights from Mathieu Chabran Tikehau Capital Connor Teskey Brookfield Asset Management Scott Chan, CFA CalSTRS Jonathan Hausman Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan There's plenty of scoops in there too: 🍿An interview with Citadel hedge fund billionaire and prominent Harvard University donor Ken Griffin, who said the turmoil sweeping across college campuses was the product of a “cultural revolution” in US education and called on Harvard to embrace “western values”  🍿Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS Group inflated the amount of money it won from clients by billions of euros through an accounting approach that it failed to disclose for years, and which fed into executive bonus calculations. With Olaf Storbeck 🍿Mubadala Capital’s $3bn bid for Fortress Investment Group, a powerhouse investor in credit markets, moved one step closer to completion after both parties agreed to important concessions, clearing a significant regulatory hurdle. With Antoine Gara, Arash Massoudi and Demetri S.  🍿Todd Boehly’s investment house Eldridge Industries is in final-stage negotiations to buy European private credit firm Hayfin Capital Management LLP Capital Management. With James Fontanella-Khan and William Louch  🍿Plus a gripping deep dive into the problems at St. James’s Place by Emma Dunkley and Sally Hickey…and the reopening of legendary Holland Park haunt Julie's Restaurant in Holland Park Katrina Kutchinsky

Great job and great team:

I went to Palm Beach for Lunch with the Smiling Crocodile aka Nelson Peltz — the activist investor who's on the warpath at The Walt Disney Company. We talked about "woke" superheroes, keeping politics out of business — and why he's backing Trump again. Oh and that topless tennis story...