Author: Press Room

Two scoops to start: Billionaire “vaccine prince” Adar Poonawalla has reached a deal for London’s most expensive home sale of the year, agreeing to pay about £138mn for a 25,000 square foot Mayfair mansion.And: One of Europe’s largest activist investors Cevian Capital has made gains of almost 20 per cent this year, helped by the strong share price performance of building materials group CRH, which this year switched its primary listing to New York.Welcome to Due Diligence, your briefing on dealmaking, private equity and corporate finance. This article is an on-site version of the newsletter. Sign up here to get…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A worker repairs a bicycle in the Toga Bike Shop in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo By Amina Niasse NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. small business sentiment edged down in November to the lowest level in six months, stoked by continued difficulties in hiring skilled labor and concerns about inflation. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said its small business optimism index fell to 90.6 last month from 90.7 in October. The index remained below its 50-year average of 98 for a 23rd straight month. Optimism has fallen since…

© Reuters. Citi says bullish flow support is returning to markets Citigroup strategists observe a resurgence of bullish momentum in both U.S. and European stocks after two weeks of slowing futures flows. The team notes that current flow momentum is strongly bullish as the year approaches its end, coinciding with significant economic releases and central bank meetings. “Momentum in futures flows is back, especially in the latter part of last week. This follows on from weeks of limited momentum and leaves S&P net positioning neutral while Nasdaq is slightly bullish,” analysts said. Eurostoxx futures positioning has become more net bullish…

Jarmo Piironen/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is acquiring privately held Fenix Group to strengthen wireless offerings in the defense segment. Chantilly, Va.-based Fenix — which is a portfolio company of Enlightenment Capital — specializes in tactical 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, communications solutions for the defense sector. Its communications products, include the Banshee product family. Nokia said that Fenix’s systems are designed to provide high-speed, low latency data connections to many devices and users simultaneously, making them ideal for supporting a range of military applications. “The acquisition of Fenix Group is an important milestone in our strategy…

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A police officer walks past the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) logo inside its headquarters in Mumbai, India, April 6, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo/File Photo By Nimesh Vora MUMBAI (Reuters) – The Indian central bank’s simultaneous purchase and sale of U.S. dollars in recent weeks has puzzled bankers, who speculate there may be multiple objectives behind the operations. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been buying dollars amid hefty foreign inflows, and has, at the same time, been selling them to prevent the rupee breaching its record low, several traders said. Overseas investors have pumped…

The Air Force has disciplined 15 military personnel for dereliction of duties after an inquiry into Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman who was accused this year of posting classified documents online.An Air Force inspector general investigation concluded that people in Airman Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base on Joint Base Cape Cod, in eastern Massachusetts, failed to take proper action after becoming aware of the airman’s intelligence-seeking activities.But the inquiry, which was made public on Monday, found no evidence that members of Airman Teixeira’s chain of command had been aware of his activities.As…

For six years of my early life, I had the fortune of partaking in a unique educational journey that spanned two countries, giving me a bicultural perspective of public school systems in Japan and the United States.From the age of six through 12, I lived with my grandparents in Okinawa, Japan, for two months every year, attending the local elementary school. The rest of the year, I was in California, USA, attending school there.This experience showed me first hand the differences between the two education systems straddling the Pacific Ocean, and I’ve come to believe that the Japanese public school…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK competition regulator is investigating whether Unilever has overstated how “green” some of its products are, as scrutiny of environmental claims in the consumer goods sector intensifies. The Competition and Markets Authority said on Tuesday that it was looking at some of the environmental claims made by the maker of Dove and Lynx in relation to a range of household essentials such as cleaning products and toiletries. The regulator said it was concerned that some of Unilever’s claims about how “natural”…

© Reuters. People walk over London Bridge looking at a view of Tower Bridge in the City of London financial district in London, Britain, October 25, 2023. REUTERS/ Susannah Ireland/file photo By William Schomberg and David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) -British wage growth slowed by the most in almost two years, official data showed on Tuesday, but pay is probably still rising too fast for the Bank of England to relax its tough stance against cutting interest rates. Along with other signs of a cooling of the inflationary heat in the labour market, earnings excluding bonuses were 7.3% higher in the…

© Reuters. JPMorgan says Apple told suppliers to build fewer iPhone 15s over the coming months JPMorgan (JPM) supply chain analysts report that the lead time for all iPhone 15 models has decreased to below 2 weeks since early November. Accordingly, this is suggesting a potential order cut from Apple (NASDAQ:) for the iPhone 15 series in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. More precisely, analysts cut their iPhone 15 series estimate by 2 million to 89 million for the second half of this year. Despite this, the impact of the order cut is expected…