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More than profitFriedman was wrong on corporate responsibility — MARTIN WOLF, PAGE 19

WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER 2020 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

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Nasdaq Composite 12528.75 12519.95 0.07

Dow Jones Ind 30166.44 30069.79 0.32

FTSEurofirst 300 1521.91 1519.27 0.17

Euro Stoxx 50 3528.80 3530.08 -0.04

FTSE 100 6558.82 6555.39 0.05

FTSE All-Share 3695.13 3695.80 -0.02

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Dec 8 prev

$ per € 1.211 1.213

$ per £ 1.336 1.332

£ per € 0.907 0.911

¥ per $ 104.125 104.040

¥ per £ 139.126 138.550

SFr per € 1.077 1.079

€ per $ 0.826 0.824

Dec 8 prev

£ per $ 0.748 0.751

€ per £ 1.103 1.098

¥ per € 126.131 126.238

£ index 77.550 78.480

SFr per £ 1.188 1.184

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Dec 8 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 45.67 45.76 -0.20

Oil Brent $ 48.88 48.79 0.18

Gold $ 1859.95 1843.00 0.92

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 105.58 0.91 -0.02

UK Gov 10 yr 0.26 -0.02

Ger Gov 10 yr -0.61 -0.02

Jpn Gov 10 yr 101.05 0.01 -0.01

US Gov 30 yr 116.93 1.66 -0.02

Ger Gov 2 yr 105.63 -0.78 -0.01

price prev chg

Fed Funds Eff 0.09 0.09 0.00

US 3m Bills 0.08 0.09 -0.01

Euro Libor 3m -0.56 -0.55 -0.01

UK 3m 0.03 0.04 -0.01Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

Anjli Raval and Leslie HookLondon

Royal Dutch Shell has been hit by a wave of executive departures within its clean energy business amid a split over how far and fast the oil company should shift towards greener fuels.

The resignations come just weeks before Shell is set to announce its energy transi-tion strategy. Some executives wanted a more aggressive move away from oil but top management wants to stick closer to Shell’s current path, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Marc van Gerven, who headed the solar, storage and onshore wind busi-nesses at Shell; Eric Bradley, who worked in Shell’s distributed energy division; and Katherine Dixon, a leader in its energy transition strategy team, have all left the company in recent

weeks. Dorine Bosman, Shell’s vice-president for offshore wind, is also due to leave. Several other executives in the clean energy part of the business also plan to quit in the coming months, two of the people said.

Not every move is known to be linked to frustration about the pace of change but people familiar with the internal debate said there were deep divisions over the timeframe for reducing the company’s dependence on oil and gas revenues, which had influenced at least some of the departing executives.

“People are really questioning if there will be any change at all,” said one per-son familiar with the tensions. “Part of the frustration is that you see the poten-tial, but the mindset isn’t there among senior leaders for anything radical.”

Ben van Beurden, chief executive,has said investment in lower-carbon

businesses such as biofuels and solar power “needs to accelerate”. However, he has also said that oil will continue to be a huge cash generator and the com-pany will expand its gas division. “There is going to be a place for our upstream business for many decades to come,” he recently told a conference.

European oil companies are under pressure from investors and environ-mentalists, forcing several — including Shell — to announce net-zero emissions pledges. That pressure is now mounting from the company’s own workforce.

Ms Dixon said she had joined the International Energy Agency because it had “incredible potential to lead the glo-bal energy transition”. Mr van Gerven, Mr Bradley and Ms Bosman did not respond to requests for comment.

Shell said it was “firmly focused on leading in the energy transition”.

Shell loses green leaders amid tension over slow pace of shift to clean energy

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2020 No: 40,578 ★

Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Dubai

Analysis i PAGE 4

Indian farmers’ protests cause road and rail chaos

Austria €3.90 Malta €3.70Bahrain Din1.8 Morocco Dh45Belgium €3.90 Netherlands €3.90Bulgaria Lev7.50 Norway NKr40Croatia Kn29 Oman OR1.60Cyprus €3.70 Pakistan Rupee350Czech Rep Kc105 Poland Zl 20Denmark DKr38 Portugal €3.70Egypt E£45 Qatar QR15Finland €4.70 Romania Ron17France €3.90 Russia €5.00Germany €3.90 Serbia NewD420Gibraltar £2.90 Slovak Rep €3.70Greece €3.70 Slovenia €3.70Hungary Ft1200 Spain €3.70India Rup220 Sweden SKr39Italy €3.70 Switzerland SFr6.20Lithuania €4.30 Tunisia Din7.50Luxembourg €3.90 Turkey TL19North Macedonia Den220 UAE Dh20.00

Briefing

i Europe banking union given fresh pushPaschal Donohoe, the president of the eurogroup of finance ministers, has said that Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have brought home the need to revive plans for an EU banking union.— PAGE 2

i Biden faces cabinet balancing actUS president-elect Joe Biden is under pressure from his party to select more people to his cabinet from the progressive wing and those who represent minorities.— PAGE 3; EDITORIAL COMMENT, PAGE 18

i Pope backs drive for fairer capitalismPope Francis has given his blessing to the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, a coalition of investors, unions, companies and foundations pledging to make capitalism more equitable.— PAGE 6

i Russia says economy recovered quicklyMoscow has claimed its targeted approach to economic support has driven a faster recovery than in much of the world, despite its cost being only 4 per cent of gross domestic product.— PAGE 2

i German banks funded Wirecard dealDeutsche Bank and Commerzbank provided most of the funding for and acquisition of two Indian companies by defunct German payments company Wirecard, papers seen by the FT reveal.— PAGE 6

i Ardern apologises for shooting failings Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has apologised to New Zealand’s Muslim community for failings by authorities before a racist 2019 shooting attack on two mosques that left 51 people dead.— PAGE 4

i Japan unveils third stimulus schemeYoshihide Suga, Japan’s prime minister, has announced a third fiscal stimulus scheme this year, with a $294bn package aimed at fighting Covid-19 and investing in green technologies.— PAGE 4

Datawatch

More than half of US adults say they personally know someone who has needed hospital treatment or has died from Covid-19. Some 71 per cent of black people fall into this category, far more than Americans from other ethnic groups.

Personally a�ected% who say they know someone who has either been treated in hospitalor died as a result of Covid-19

0 20 40 60 80

Black

Hispanic

White

Asian

US adults

Survey carried out in Nov 2020 Source: Pew Research Center

Checking Big TechBrussels takes on the digital gatekeepers — BIG READ, PAGE 17

China’s wolf warriorThe populist provocateur let loose on social media — PAGE 3

Helping handUK sets Covid vaccine rollingMargaret Keenan, 90, is applauded as she returns to her ward at Coventry Uni-versity Hospital in the UK yesterday after becoming the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine outside trials.

But as the rollout of inoculations picks up speed in the UK, big logistical chal-lenges remain over how to distribute the vaccine when it needs to be stored at ultra-low temperatures.

In the US regulators yesterday con-firmed that the vaccine has an average efficacy rate of 95 per cent, while show-ing that Covid-19 cases start to taper off among those vaccinated within about 10 days. Authorisation is expected to be granted in the US in the coming days.Reports page 3

Jacob King/Reuters

Jim Pickard and Peggy Hollinger — LondonKatrina Manson — Washington Sam Fleming — Brussels

The UK government has broken ranks with the EU by disclosing plans to end punitive tariffs against the US over air-craft subsidies, in an attempt to pave the way for a post-Brexit trade deal with Washington.

The EU last month hit $4bn of US products with tariffs of up to 25 per cent in retaliation for illegal state aid to Boe-ing. The move was the latest round in a 16-year battle over subsidies, one of the longest running trade disputes

It followed the imposition by Wash-ington last year of duties of up to 25 per cent on $7.5bn worth of European imports into the US, after the World

Trade Organization found Franco-German aircraft maker Airbus had also benefited from unlawful state aid.

The move by Liz Truss, the UK trade secretary, will be viewed as an attempt to win favour with incoming US presi-dent Joe Biden as Boris Johnson’s gov-ernment tries to reignite its effort to strike a separate trade deal with the US.

Ms Truss said the UK wanted to “come to a negotiated settlement so we can deepen our trading relationship with the US”.

Yet it has been unclear for weeks whether the UK could have unilaterally maintained the aviation-related tariffs after December 31, given its status as a departing member of the EU.

The Financial Times revealed in July that attempts to strike a US-UK trade

deal by the late summer had been aban-doned because of sticking points such as Britain’s reluctance to give untram-melled access to US agricultural prod-ucts.

Despite the new concession on tariffs, the UK is likely to face a struggle to get the Biden administration on board with any potential trade deal.

Mr Biden said last week that he was in no rush to strike new trade deals: “I’m not going to enter any new trade agree-ment with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers and in education,” he told the New York Times. “I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first.”

The UK government said the tariffs announcement was part of a strategy to

de-escalate trade tensions “so the US and UK can move forward to the next phase of their trading relationship” and ultimately draw a line under the damag-ing dispute.

A person close to the US side of talks to settle the dispute said the move “sig-nificantly alters the atmospherics” of the bitter transatlantic trade war.

Had the UK maintained tariffs after leaving the trading bloc on December 31, it would have been “a very aggressive gesture,” he said.

The UK could now seek a bilateral agreement with the US over what defined a “level playing field” for state aid to aerospace. “It offers the chance for the UK and US to say ‘here is the way forward’.”Johnson heads to Brussels page 4

UK will drop tariffs on US goods to pave way for post-Brexit trade deal3 London diverges with EU 3 Boeing-Airbus battle triggered penalties 3 Biden in ‘no rush’

The EU hit $4bn of US products with tariffs of up to 25 per cent in retaliation for illegal state aid to Boeing

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:FrontBack Time: 8/12/2020 - 19:06 User: andy.puttnam Page Name: 1FRONT USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 1, 1

2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

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INTERNATIONAL

Sam Fleming and Mehreen Khan Brussels

Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have reinforced the need to solidify the single currency’s foundations, said the president of the eurogroup of finance ministers who is aiming to revive the bloc’s long-stalled banking union project this week.

Paschal Donohoe, who is also the Irish finance minister, told the Financial Times he would seek to intensify work

in four key areas — including divisive plans to create a eurozone-wide bank deposit insurance (EDIS) — as he pre-pares for a summit of eurozone leaders on Friday.

The package would also include improving the region’s crisis manage-ment framework, cross-market integra-tion and tackling the link between banks and their country’s sovereign debt, said Mr Donohoe. He is aim-ing for a new detailed banking union work plan in the middle of next year.

“There is a renewed responsibility on those within the eurogroup to look at how we can deepen the foundations of the euro and deepen the economic architecture of the euro,” given the eco-

nomic toll from Covid-19, Mr Donohoe said in an interview. Brexit is a reminder that the euro area and EU need “resil-ient sources of employment and income growth”, he added.

Eurozone finance ministers last week reached a political agreement on a long-awaited reform to the bloc’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mecha-nism, removing a barrier that has held back work on the banking union project. An attempt late last year by German finance minister Olaf Scholz to end the “continuous gridlock” over the issue foundered after it was overtaken by the Covid-19 crisis.

Mr Scholz’s set of proposals opened the door to the creation of common

deposit insurance for eurozone banks — something that has long been resisted by richer northern eurozone countries who fear their taxpayers would be on the hook for bank failures in other parts of Europe. But sealing a banking union deal will require efforts by multiple gov-ernments across the euro area, includ-ing unpalatable reforms.

Mr Donohoe said the eurogroup had yet to reach an agreement on how to progress with EDIS, acknowledging “heightened concern” of some capitals about greater risk-sharing. But he said the task now was about “building momentum through constant political contact and dialogue”.

“There is a broad understanding in

the eurogroup that we need to have the strongest foundations possible for the euro in the coming years,” he said.

This will also entail work on tackling the nexus between banks and their country’s sovereign debt, a so-called doom loop that has long bedevilled the European banking system. The priori-ties also include examining how to han-dle the liquidity needs of a failing bank and improving co-ordination between home and host bank supervisors.

The onset of the pandemic has forced Brussels to suspend temporarily the bloc’s fiscal rules as governments turn to fiscal firepower to support companies and support employment. See Editorial Comment

Martin Arnold — Frankfurt

Eurozone governments’ borrowing has rocketed to fund their response to the coronavirus pandemic, reigniting long-standing calls for the European Central Bank to ease debt burdens by forgiving sovereign bonds it owns.

The proposal was floated by academic economists as an answer to the single currency area’s last debt crisis in 2012. Senior Italian officials have recently stirred up the idea once more, suggest-ing the ECB could forgive debt bought through its asset purchase programme or swap it for perpetual bonds, which are never repaid.

Governments’ responses to the pan-demic will rack up €1.5tn of extra debt, pushing the eurozone’s sovereign debt above the size of the bloc’s economy this year for the first time. Many countries are running budget deficits above 10 per cent of gross domestic product, includ-ing Italy, France and Spain. Italy’s gov-ernment debt is expected to rise from 135 per cent of GDP last year to almost 160 per cent in 2021.

While the EU’s fiscal rules — requiring governments to keep deficits below 3 per cent of GDP and overall debt under 60 per cent of GDP — have been sus-pended since the pandemic hit, they are likely to be reactivated in some form once the crisis is over, piling pressure on governments to deleverage.

David Sassoli, the Italian president of the European Parliament, told La Repubblica last month that debt forgiveness was “an interesting working hypothesis, to be reconciled with the cardinal principle of debt sustainability”.

Riccardo Fraccaro, a senior aide to Italian prime minister Guiseppe Conte, followed up by telling Bloomberg “mon-etary policy must support member states’ expansionary fiscal policies in every possible way”. That could include “cancelling sovereign bonds bought during the pandemic or perpetually extending their maturity”, he said.

So far, investors have not added to the clamour — the cost of new debt remains low as the ECB buys most of the extra bonds sold, so many countries are able to borrow for up to 10 years at yields of close to or below zero. That is set to con-tinue; at its latest policy meeting tomor-row the ECB is expected to extend bond-buying until mid-2022.

“There are so many reasons not to be concerned by rising debt levels at the moment, but in the future we will need to have this discussion at some point,” said Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING.

But central bankers have rejected the idea as “dangerous” and “destabilising”, while economists dismiss it as counter-productive and poorly timed.

“We have to distinguish the political position from the economic position,” said Lucrezia Reichlin, economics pro-fessor at London Business School.

“From the purely economic perspec-tive debt relief could make sense in some circumstances, but it depends on how you do it. From a political point of view it is extremely dangerous.”

Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, said it was “the worst idea of the year” as it “could backfire badly” by spooking investors, causing borrow-ing costs to rise.

Finance ministers

Eurogroup resets focus on banking unionCovid and UK split from EU offer chance to deepen currency ‘architecture’

Eurozone

Soaring bloc borrowing fuels calls for debt forgiveness

Mehreen Khan — Brussels

Brussels will introduce mandatory recycling targets for battery makers including electric car manufacturers from 2030, as the EU attempts to meet growing demand for vital raw materi-als without undermining its ambitious environmental goals.

Virginijus Sinkevicius, EU commis-sioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, told the Financial Times an update of the bloc’s battery directive would crack down on the use of hazard-ous materials and propose “ambitious but realistic” recycling targets for mate-rials used in batteries to help create a “sustainable batteries value chain”.

“Global exponential growth in demand for batteries will lead to an equivalent increase in demand for raw materials — notably cobalt, nickel and manganese. We have to strive for sus-tainable production and consumption and reduce batteries’ carbon footprint,” said Mr Sinkevicius.

The commission will tomorrow pro-pose an update of the EU’s batteries directive for the first time in more than a decade, revamping the legislation to

reflect vast improvements in a technol-ogy that is seen as a major driver in the transition to clean transport.

European electric carmakers and non-EU manufacturers who want to sell their batteries in the single market will have to abide by tougher environmental standards, said Mr Sinkevicius, adding Europe was on course to be the world’s second-largest market for electric vehi-cles over the next decade.

Under the updated regulation, elec-tric vehicle manufacturers would have to disclose the recycled content in their batteries in an attempt to then meet mandatory targets set in 2030 and 2035, said Mr Sinkevicius.

“This is a fundamental first step in closing the loop for valuable materials contained in batteries. We’re going to aim for ambitious yet realistic targets for collection, recycling efficiencies, and the recovery of materials from waste batteries.”

Before settling on the exact targets for 2030 and 2035, Brussels will need to carry out a thorough impact assessment and consult with sectors such as electric vehicle manufacturers and the chemi-cals industry.

In response to concerns the regulation would stifle the development of clean car technology in Europe, Mr Sinkevi-cius said the rules would provide “legal certainty” and “incentivise the invest-

ment and production capacity for sus-tainable batteries in Europe and beyond”.

The EU has committed itself to becoming the first continent to reach net zero emissions by 2050, a goal that will require a radical overhaul of Europe’s energy, transport, and manu-facturing sectors.

The commission estimates that lith-ium, one of the key components of bat-tery cells, has a recycling efficiency of only 50 per cent. Mr Sinkevicius said that rather than encouraging more min-ing of raw materials like lithium, Brus-sels wants to meet rising battery demand by creating a secondary market for recycled materials.

The regulation will also propose measures to extend the life cycle of bat-teries, by making recycling obligatory for collected waste batteries, and encouraging the repurposing of batter-ies for “second life”.

Brussels also wants to phase out grad-ually non-recyclable single life batteries — such as those used to power remote controls — but the commission will not impose a target date for their expiry, said the commissioner.

Environment

EU pledges to bring in recycling targets for battery makers

Battery demand is being powered by growth in electric vehicle production

Narendra Shrestha/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Mount Everest is higher than previously thought, Nepal and China said yesterday, settling a long-running conflict over the world’s tallest peak, which straddles their shared border.

The two countries had different figures for the exact height of the mountain, pictured, but after each sent an expedition of surveyors to the summit they agreed the official height is 8,848.86 metres, slightly more than previous calculations.

Mountaineers had suggested a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal, may have altered the height of Everest. Reuters, Kathmandu

Everest Dispute over height settled

package was small,” Vladimir Kolychev said in an interview with the Financial Times. “The economy doesn’t care how you paint your expenditure. The impor-tant thing is that it increased.”

The country was able to make a quick recovery because targeted spending made it more efficient in handling the coronavirus crisis, Mr Kolychev added.

He said Russia had boosted govern-ment spending in total by 27 per cent this year, a figure Moscow claims is higher than that of any EU country. “It’s obvious that Russia’s economy suffered less in the second quarter and recovered more quickly in the third quarter.

“That’s not just because of our sup-port measures but because the quaran-tine itself in Russia was structured dif-ferently than in Europe.”

Russia has recorded more Covid-19 cases than all but three countries world-wide, hitting a new daily record of 29,093 on Sunday. But Mr Putin chose not to impose a nationwide lockdown, instead delegating a patchwork of meas-ures to local authorities who largely left Russia’s industry alone while shutting the consumer sector almost entirely.

The recovery plan eschewed tapping

US election.” She said the country would have “one of the smallest contractions globally due to the arithmetic of keeping lockdowns limited to keep economic damage under control”. She added: “Unfortunately, it is not clear whether in Russia the healthcare system is capable of handling so many Covid cases.”

Mr Kolychev said Russia’s Rbs500bn in yearly payments to families with chil-dren — one of the few direct support measures in the coronavirus package — had helped consumer activity grow 3 to 5 per cent in the second quarter and continue to rise 1 to 2 per cent.

Moscow passed several tax breaks for small businesses and the petrochemi-cals industry. Mr Kolychev claimed the contraction in Russia’s GDP would have been negligible if not for the Opec+ deal of oil producers that limited production during the first wave of the pandemic.

“European countries haven’t grown their expenditure as quickly,” he said. “The US, Canada, and Australia might have but their programmes evidently were set up in a way that didn’t lead to quick growth in consumer spending. They recovered, but there hasn’t been a consumer boom.

“We wanted to use these temporary benefits to target growth in places where people had the most problems with their income. If you give everyone [money], including the rich, then the rich are hardly going to change their consumption habits.”

Mr Kolychev defended Russia’s deci-sion not to spend the $167bn national wealth fund, squirrelled away from sur-plus oil and gas revenue, on economic stimulus payments, saying it had to be saved to “spread natural resource reve-nue fairly among the generations over time” rather than used as a way out of the crisis. The finance ministry has used some of the fund to cover budget short-falls during the pandemic but has dou-bled its domestic borrowing to Rbs5tn to boost spending.

Russia raised €2bn in eurobonds last month for the first time this year, taking advantage of favourable market condi-tions at a time when the Kremlin fears US president-elect Joe Biden’s adminis-tration could ramp up sanctions on Moscow next year. Mr Kolychev said Russia had drawn up plans to ease the impact of any US sanctions that would bar foreigners from holding Russia debt.

Growth. Support measures

Russia claims it ‘recovered’ quicker than most in G20

Max Seddon — Moscow

Moscow’s targeted approach to support-ing Russia’s economy during the pan-demic has helped it bounce back from the crisis quicker than most of the industrialised world, says a deputy finance minister.

Although the Kremlin’s Rbs4tn ($54.5bn) Covid-19 support package amounted to a scant 4 per cent of gross domestic product, or less than a tenth of the assistance provided by Germany, Italy and the US, Russia estimates the contraction in its GDP has slowed from8 per cent year on year in the spring to 3.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2020, which places it in the top five of G20 nations.

Russia benefited from a stimulus ordered by President Vladimir Putin before the virus struck, of which Rbs1.75tn has been spent this year.

“It’s a myth that Russia’s anti-crisis

Targeted spending ensured

efficient handling of crisis,

says deputy finance minister

Russia’s $167bn savings from its oil and gas wealth to make direct payments to businesses and citizens in favour of tax holidays and loan guarantees.

Elina Ribakova, deputy chief econo-mist at the Institute of International Finance, said Russia’s “proactive fiscal support” in the wake of Covid-19 had been small. “Not surprising as Russia was facing a triple shock in 2021 from Covid, oil and risk of sanctions given the

Russia’s stimulus packageone of the smallest in the G20

Source: IMF

Value of fiscal stimulus as shareof GDP (%)

JapanCanada

USBrazil

GermanyChinaIndia

FranceItaly

RussiaSaudi Arabia

Mexico

0 5 10 15 20 25

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World Markets

STOCK MARKETS

Mar 30 prev %chg

S&P 500 2365.93 2361.13 0.20

Nasdaq Composite 5902.74 5897.55 0.09

Dow Jones Ind 20703.38 20659.32 0.21

FTSEuro�rst 300 1500.72 1493.75 0.47

Euro Stoxx 50 3481.67 3475.27 0.18

FTSE 100 7369.52 7373.72 -0.06

FTSE All-Share 4011.01 4011.80 -0.02

CAC 40 5089.64 5069.04 0.41

Xetra Dax 12256.43 12203.00 0.44

Nikkei 19063.22 19217.48 -0.80

Hang Seng 24301.09 24392.05 -0.37

FTSE All World $ 297.99 297.73 0.09

CURRENCIES

Mar 30 prev

$ per € 1.074 1.075

$ per £ 1.249 1.241

£ per € 0.859 0.866

¥ per $ 111.295 111.035

¥ per £ 139.035 137.822

€ index 89.046 89.372

SFr per € 1.069 1.072

Mar 30 prev

€ per $ 0.932 0.930

£ per $ 0.801 0.806

€ per £ 1.164 1.155

¥ per € 119.476 119.363

£ index 76.705 76.951

$ index 104.636 103.930

SFr per £ 1.244 1.238COMMODITIES

Mar 30 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 50.22 49.51 1.43

Oil Brent $ 52.98 52.54 0.84

Gold $ 1248.80 1251.10 -0.18

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 98.87 2.38 0.00

UK Gov 10 yr 100.46 1.21 -0.03

Ger Gov 10 yr 98.68 0.39 -0.01

Jpn Gov 10 yr 100.45 0.06 0.00

US Gov 30 yr 100.14 2.99 0.01

Ger Gov 2 yr 102.58 -0.75 0.00

price prev chg

Fed Funds E� 0.66 0.66 0.00

US 3m Bills 0.78 0.78 0.00

Euro Libor 3m -0.36 -0.36 0.00

UK 3m 0.34 0.34 0.00Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

LAURA NOONAN — DUBLINJENNIFER THOMPSON — LONDON

AboastfulWhatsAppmessagehas costa London investment banker his joband a £37,000 fine in the first case ofregulators cracking down on commu-nications over Facebook’s popularchatapp.

The fine by the Financial ConductAuthority highlights the increasingproblem new media pose for companiesthat need to monitor and archive theirstaff’scommunication.

Several large investment banks havebanned employees from sending clientinformation over messaging servicesincluding WhatsApp, which uses anencryption system that cannot beaccessed without permission from theuser. Deutsche Bank last year bannedWhatsApp from work-issued Black-

Berrys after discussions with regulators.Christopher Niehaus, a former Jeffer-

ies banker, passed confidential clientinformation to a “personal acquaint-ance and a friend” using WhatsApp,according to the FCA. The regulator saidMr Niehaus had turned over his devicetohisemployervoluntarily.

The FCA said Mr Niehaus had sharedconfidential informationonthemessag-ing system “on a number of occasions”lastyearto“impress”people.

Several banks have banned the use ofnew media from work-issued devices,but the situation has become trickier asbanks move towards a “bring your owndevice” policy. Goldman Sachs hasclamped down on its staff’s phone billsas iPhone-loving staff spurn their work-issuedBlackBerrys.

Bankers at two institutions said staffare typically trained in how to use new

media at work, but banks are unable toban people from installing apps on theirprivatephones.

Andrew Bodnar, a barrister at MatrixChambers, saidthecaseset“aprecedentin that it shows the FCA sees these mes-saging apps as the same as everythingelse”.

Information shared by Mr Niehausincluded the identity and details of aclient and information about a rival ofJefferies. In one instance the bankerboasted how he might be able to pay offhismortgage ifadealwassuccessful.

Mr Niehaus was suspended from Jef-feries and resigned before the comple-tionofadisciplinaryprocess.

Jefferies declined to comment whileFacebook did not respond to a requestforcomment.Additional reportingbyChloeCornishLombard page 20

Citywatchdog sends a clearmessage asbanker loses joboverWhatsAppboast

Congressional Republicans seeking toavert a US government shutdown afterApril 28 have resisted Donald Trump’sattempt to tack funds to pay for a wallon the US-Mexico border on tostopgap spending plans. They fearthat his planned $33bn increase indefence and border spending couldforce a federal shutdown for the firsttime since 2013, as Democrats refuseto accept the proposals.US budget Q&A andTrump attack over health bill i PAGE 8

Shutdown risk as borderwall bid goes over the top

FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017

Briefing

iUSbargain-hunters fuel EuropeM&AEurope has become the big target for cross-borderdealmaking, as US companies ride a Trump-fuelledequity market rally to hunt for bargains across theAtlantic.— PAGE 15; CHINA CURBS HIT DEALS, PAGE 17

iReport outlines longerNHSwaiting timesA report on how the health service can survivemore austerity has said patients will wait longer fornon-urgent operations and for A&E treatment whilesome surgical procedures will be scrapped.— PAGE 4

iEmerging nations in record debt salesDeveloping countries have sold record levels ofgovernment debt in the first quarter of this year,taking advantage of a surge in optimism towardemerging markets as trade booms.— PAGE 15

i London tower plans break recordsA survey has revealed that arecord 455 tall buildings areplanned or under constructionin London. Work began onalmost one tower a weekduring 2016.— PAGE 4

iTillerson fails to ease Turkey tensionsThe US secretary of state has failed to reconciletensions after talks in Ankara with President RecepTayyip Erdogan on issues including Syria and theextradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen.— PAGE 9

iToshiba investors doubt revival planIn a stormy three-hour meeting, investors accusedmanagers o�aving an entrenched secrecy cultureand cast doubt on a revival plan after Westinghousefiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.— PAGE 16

iHSBCwoos transgender customersThe bank has unveiled a range of gender-neutraltitles such as “Mx”, in addition to Mr, Mrs, Miss orMs, in a move to embrace diversity and cater to theneeds of transgender customers.— PAGE 20

Datawatch

UK £2.70 Channel Islands £3.00; Republic of Ireland €3.00

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Recent attacks —notably the 2011massacre byAnders Breivik inNorway, theattacks in Parisand Nice, and theBrussels suicidebombings — havebucked the trendof generally lowfatalities fromterror incidents inwestern Europe

Sources: Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre

Terror attacks in western Europe

Highlighted attack Others

NorwayParis Nice

Brussels

A Five Star plan?Italy’s populists are trying to woothe poor — BIG READ, PAGE 11

WORLDBUSINESSNEWSPAPER

Trump vs the ValleyTech titans need to minimisepolitical risk — GILLIAN TETT, PAGE 13

Dear Don...May’s first stab at the break-upletter — ROBERT SHRIMSLEY, PAGE 12

Lloyd’s of London chose Brus-sels over “five or six” othercities in its decision to set up anEU base to help deal with the expected loss of passportingrightsafterBrexit.

John Nelson, chairman of thecenturies-old insurance mar-ket, said he expected other

insurers to follow. Most of thebusiness written in Brusselswill be reinsured back to thesyndicates at its City of Londonheadquarters,picturedabove.

The Belgian capital had notbeen seen as the first choice forLondon’s specialist insurancegroups after the UK leaves the

EU, with Dublin and Luxem-bourg thought to be more likelyhomes for the industry. ButMr Nelson said the city won onits transport links, talent pooland “extremely good regula-toryreputation”.Lex page 14Insurers set to follow page 18

Lloyd’s of Brussels Insurancemarketto tapnew talent poolwithEUbase

AFP

JAMES BLITZ — WHITEHALL EDITOR

A computer system acquired to collectduties and clear imports into the UKmay not be able to handle the hugesurge inworkloadexpectedonceBritainleaves the EU, customs authorities haveadmittedtoMPs.

HM Revenue & Customs told a parlia-mentary inquiry that the new systemneeded urgent action to be ready byMarch 2019, when Brexit is due to becompleted, and the chair of the probesaid confidence it would be operationalintime“hascollapsed”.

Setting up a digital customs systemhas been at the heart of Whitehall’sBrexit planning because of the fivefoldincrease in declarations expected atBritishportswhentheUKleavestheEU.

About 53 per cent of British importscome from the EU, and do not requirechecks because they arrive through thesingle market and customs union. ButTheresa May announced in January thatBrexit would include departure fromboth trading blocs. HMRC handles 60mdeclarations a year but, once outside thecustoms union, the number is expectedtohit300m.

The revelations about the system,called Customs Declaration Service, arelikely to throw a sharper spotlight onwhether Whitehall can implement ahost of regulatory regimes — in areasranging from customs and immigrationto agriculture and fisheries — by thetimeBritain leavestheEU.

Problems with CDS and other projectsessential toBrexit could force London to

adjust its negotiation position with theEU, a Whitehall official said. “If runningour own customs system is provingmuch harder than we anticipated, thatought to have an impact on how wepress forcertainoptions inBrussels.”

In a letter to Andrew Tyrie, chairmanof the Commons treasury select com-mittee, HMRC said the timetable fordelivering CDS was “challenging butachievable”. But, it added, CDS was “acomplex programme” that needed to belinked to dozens of other computer sys-tems to work properly. In November,HMRC assigned a “green traffic light” toCDS, indicating it would be deliveredontime. But last month, it wrote to thecommittee saying the programme hadbeen relegated to “amber/red,” whichmeans there are “major risks or issuesapparent inanumbero£eyareas”.

HMRC said last night: “[CDS] is ontrack to be delivered by January 2019,and it will be able to support frictionlessinternational trade once the UK leavesthe EU . . . Internal ratings are designedto make sure that each project gets thefocus and resource it requires for suc-cessfuldelivery.”

HMRC’s letters to the select commit-tee, which will be published today, pro-vide no explanation for the ratingchange, but some MPs believe it wascaused by Mrs May’s unexpected deci-sionto leavetheEUcustomsunion.Timetable & Great Repeal Bill page 2Scheme to import EU laws page 3Editorial Comment & Notebook page 12Philip Stephens & Chris Giles page 13JPMorgan eye options page 18

HMRCwarnscustoms risksbeing swampedbyBrexit surge3Confidence in IT plans ‘has collapsed’3Fivefold rise in declarations expected

World Markets

STOCK MARKETS

Mar 31 prev %chg

S&P 500 2367.10 2368.06 -0.04

Nasdaq Composite 5918.69 5914.34 0.07

Dow Jones Ind 20689.64 20728.49 -0.19

FTSEuro�rst 300 1503.03 1500.72 0.15

Euro Stoxx 50 3495.59 3481.58 0.40

FTSE 100 7322.92 7369.52 -0.63

FTSE All-Share 3990.00 4011.01 -0.52

CAC 40 5122.51 5089.64 0.65

Xetra Dax 12312.87 12256.43 0.46

Nikkei 18909.26 19063.22 -0.81

Hang Seng 24111.59 24301.09 -0.78

FTSE All World $ 297.38 298.11 -0.24

CURRENCIES

Mar 31 prev

$ per € 1.070 1.074

$ per £ 1.251 1.249

£ per € 0.855 0.859

¥ per $ 111.430 111.295

¥ per £ 139.338 139.035

€ index 88.767 89.046

SFr per € 1.071 1.069

Mar 31 prev

€ per $ 0.935 0.932

£ per $ 0.800 0.801

€ per £ 1.169 1.164

¥ per € 119.180 119.476

£ index 77.226 76.705

$ index 104.536 104.636

SFr per £ 1.252 1.244COMMODITIES

Mar 31 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 50.46 50.35 0.22

Oil Brent $ 53.35 53.13 0.41

Gold $ 1244.85 1248.80 -0.32

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 98.63 2.41 -0.01

UK Gov 10 yr 100.35 1.22 0.02

Ger Gov 10 yr 99.27 0.33 -0.01

Jpn Gov 10 yr 100.36 0.07 0.00

US Gov 30 yr 99.27 3.04 0.01

Ger Gov 2 yr 102.57 -0.75 0.00

price prev chg

Fed Funds E� 0.66 0.66 0.00

US 3m Bills 0.78 0.78 0.00

Euro Libor 3m -0.36 -0.36 0.00

UK 3m 0.34 0.34 0.00Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

ALEX BARKER — BRUSSELSGEORGE PARKER — LONDONSTEFAN WAGSTYL — BERLIN

TheEUyesterdaytookatoughopeningstance in Brexit negotiations, rejectingBritain’s plea for early trade talks andexplicitly giving Spain a veto over anyarrangementsthatapplytoGibraltar.

European Council president DonaldTusk’s first draft of the guidelines,which are an important milestone onthe road to Brexit, sought to damp Brit-ain’s expectations by setting out a“phased approach” to the divorce proc-ess that prioritises progress on with-drawal terms.

The decision to add the clause givingSpain the right to veto any EU-UK tradedeals covering Gibraltar could make the300-year territorial dispute betweenMadrid and London an obstacle to

ambitioustradeandairlineaccessdeals.Gibraltar yesterday hit back at the

clause, saying the territory had “shame-fully been singled out for unfavourabletreatment by the council at the behest ofSpain”. Madrid defended the draftclause,pointingoutthat itonlyreflected“thetraditionalSpanishposition”.

Senior EU diplomats noted thatMr Tusk’s text left room for negotiatorsto work with in coming months. Primeminister Theresa May’s allies insistedthat the EU negotiating stance waslargely “constructive”, with one saying itwas “within the parameters of what wewere expecting, perhaps more on theupside”.

Britishofficialsadmittedthat theEU’sinsistence on a continuing role for theEuropean Court of Justice in any transi-tiondealcouldbeproblematic.

Brussels sees little room for compro-

mise. If Britain wants to prolong itsstatus within the single market afterBrexit, the guidelines state it wouldrequire “existing regulatory, budgetary,supervisory and enforcement instru-mentsandstructures toapply”.

Mr Tusk wants talks on future tradeto begin only once “sufficient progress”has been made on Britain’s exit bill andcitizen rights, which Whitehall officialsbelieve means simultaneous talks arepossible if certainconditionsaremet.

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary,reassured European colleagues at aNato summit in Brussels that Mrs Mayhad not intended to “threaten” the EUwhen she linked security co-operationafterBrexitwithatradedeal.Reports & analysis page 3Jonathan Powell, Tim Harford &Man in the News: David Davis page 11Henry Mance page 12

Brussels takes tough stance onBrexitwith Spainhandedveto overGibraltar

About 2.3m people will benefit fromtoday’s increase in the national livingwage to £7.50 per hour. But the risewill pile pressure on English councils,which will have to pay care workers alot more. Some 43 per cent of caresta� — amounting to 341,000 peopleaged 25 and over — earn less than thenew living wage and the increase isexpected to cost councils’ care services£360m in the coming financial year.Analysis i PAGE 4

Living wage rise to pilepressure on care services

SATURDAY 1 APRIL / SUNDAY 2 APRIL 2017UK £3.80; Channel Islands £3.80; Republic of Ireland €3.80

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Censors and sensitivityWarning: this article may be upsetting — LIFE & ARTS

HOW DRIVERLESS TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING AN AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE

THE END OF THE ROAD FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

Escape the taper trapHow high earners can evade a pension headache — FT MONEY

The lure of the exoticRobin Lane Fox on the flair of foreign flora — HOUSE & HOME

How To Spend It

Chic new lodgings in ScotlandMAGAZINE

Art of persuasionMystery deepensover disputed painting of JaneAusten

Austen’s descendants insist the Rice portrait depicts her as a girl — seemagazine Bridgeman Art Library

RALPH ATKINS — ZURICHDUNCAN ROBINSON — BRUSSELS

Credit Suisse has been targeted bysweeping tax investigations in the UK,France and the Netherlands, settingback Switzerland’s attempts to clean upits imageasataxhaven.

The Swiss bank said yesterday it wasco-operating with authorities after itsoffices inLondon,ParisandAmsterdamwere contacted by local officials“concerningclient taxmatters”.

Dutch authorities said their counter-parts in Germany were also involved,while Australia’s revenue departmentsaid itwas investigatingaSwissbank.

The inquiries threaten to undermineefforts by the country’s banking sectorto overhaul business models and ensurecustomers meet international taxrequirements following a US-led clamp-down on evaders, which resulted inbillionsofdollars infines.

The probes risk sparking an interna-tional dispute after the Swiss attorney-general’s office expressed “astonish-ment” that it had been left out of theactions co-ordinated by Eurojust, theEU’s judicial liaisonbody.

Credit Suisse, whose shares fell 1.2 percent yesterday, identified itself as thesubject ofinvestigations in the Nether-lands, France and the UK. The bank said

it followed “a strategy offull client taxcompliance” but was still trying togather informationabouttheprobes.

HM Revenue & Customs said it hadlaunched a criminal investigation intosuspected tax evasion and money laun-dering by “a global financial institutionand certain ofits employees”. The UKtax authority added: “The internationalreach of this investigation sends a clearmessage that there is no hiding place forthoseseekingtoevadetax.”

Dutch prosecutors, who initiated theaction, said they seized jewellery, paint-ings and gold ingots as part of theirprobe; while French officials said theirinvestigation had revealed “severalthousand” bank accounts opened inSwitzerland and not declared to Frenchtaxauthorities.

The Swiss attorney-general’s officesaid it was “astonished at the way thisoperation has been organised with thedeliberate exclusion of Switzerland”. Itdemanded a written explanation fromDutchauthorities.

In 2014, Credit Suisse pleaded guiltyin the US to an “extensive and wide-ranging conspiracy” to help clientsevadetax. Itagreedtofinesof$2.6bn.Additional reportingbyLauraNoonan inDublin, Caroline Binham and VanessaHoulder in London, andMichael StothardinParis

Credit Suisseengulfed infresh taxprobe3UK, France and Netherlands swoop3Blow for bid to clean up Swiss image

FEBR

UARY

4 2017

THE RISE OF ECO-GLAM

390_Cover_PRESS.indd 1 19/01/2017 13:57

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:World Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:07 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD1 USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 2, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3

Christian Shepherd — Beijing

Zhao Lijian thrives on controversy. Aggressive promotion of China’s inter-ests is expected for a foreign ministry spokesperson, but Mr Zhao has pio-neered an extreme approach by becom-ing a populist provocateur who owes his career to a willingness to shock, needle and troll Beijing’s critics on Twitter.

For Beijing, he has crystallised a model for diplomacy with a jagged edge and driven the shift away from an older generation of more conservative and restrained engagement, analysts say.

The diplomatic furore that Mr Zhao set off last week, when he tweeted a computer-generated image of an Aus-tralian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of an Afghan child, was the latest in a string of incendiary incidents that delight Chinese nationalists.

In a sign of acceptance of Mr Zhao’s tactics, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think-tank that reports to China’s State Council, in May released a series of strategy documents on the need to “strengthen China’s ability to fight for international public opinion”. It said China had to “counterattack” against critics on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, all of which are blocked in mainland China.

As China’s most high-profile official on Twitter, with nearly 860,000 follow-ers, Mr Zhao, 48, has built a personal brand that is rare for a foreign ministry spokesperson.

A position of middling power in the Chinese bureaucracy, spokespeople had typically confined themselves to scripted reiteration of Beijing’s stance and the occasional outburst over issues such as the South China Sea or Taiwan.

Flying the flag: Zhao Lijian has intensified China’s aggressive wolf warrior diplomacy, which takes its name from the nationalistic film series, below — Wu Hong/EPA/EFA

“Historically, there was quite a lot of criticism [within China] of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for being too willing to compromise or even lacking in back-bone,” Dali Yang, of the University of Chicago, said.

Mr Zhao’s eagerness to push bounda-ries has occasionally sparked resistance in China’s foreign policy establishment.

When he backed a conspiracy theory in March that the US army could have brought the coronavirus to Wuhan dur-ing last year’s Military World Games, it was followed by a flurry of statements from senior diplomats, including Fu Ying, deputy chairperson of the National People’s Congress Foreign Affairs Committee, calling for restraint in diplomacy.

But these differences probably reflect contrasting styles among diplomats rather than a substantive disagreement, said Mr Yang.

“Overall [the young generation’s] hardline stance and ability to have such influence on the global discourse means they clearly enjoy support within the Chinese leadership,” he said.

President Xi Jin-ping has done away with China’s policy to “bide its time a n d h i d e i t s strength”, instead calling for Beijing to be more assertive in spreading its mes-sage. In response, the foreign ministry has raised its profile, intensifying a no-h o l d s - b a r re d approach to fighting perceived slights,

which has been dubbed “wolf warrior” diplomacy after a series of jingoistic Chi-nese action films.

The tactics, however, risk a backlash. Surveys suggest perceptions of China are at an all-time low in western democ-racies, but the strategy is hugely popular at home, said Yun Jiang, a director at the China Policy Centre, a research institute in Canberra. “Everyone loves good old-fashioned nationalism,” she added.

Starting in 2015, Mr Zhao pioneered his aggressive Twitter use while rebuff-ing criticism of China’s investment in Pakistan as minister counsellor at the embassy in Islamabad. As his following grew, he began to post outside his brief, frequently accusing the US of hypocrisy and ulterior motives in sanctioning Chi-

nese telecoms company Hua-wei.

In July last year, Mr Zhao engaged in a sparring match with Susan Rice, former national security adviser to Barack Obama. He had defended China’s mass internments in Xinjiang by comparing tensions between the Han majority and mostly Muslim Uighur minority with race relations in the US.

In a now deleted tweet, he wrote: “If you’re in Wash-ington, D.C., you know the white never go to the SW

One fan praised his ‘persistence in fighting tirelessly [with] shameless western politicians’

Democratic lawmakers in a closely divided Senate.

“The progressives aren’t objecting, but they’re also not jumping up and down saying ‘yay’,” said Don Beyer, a Democratic congressman from Virginia.

The nomination of Mr Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, came after intense pressure from Latino groups for greater representation in Mr Biden’s administration.

Civil rights groups including the NAACP have also been calling on Mr Biden to appoint more black nominees to cabinet roles, beyond the selection of Cecilia Rouse as chair of the White House council of economic advisers and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as US ambas-sador to the UN.

Retired General Lloyd Austin, who is African-American, has recently emerged as a top contender to lead the Pentagon, according to multiple US media reports.

Pete D’Alessandro, a longtime Iowa political operative and former adviser to Mr Sanders, said there was growing frustration in the progressive commu-nity that Mr Biden and his team were more concerned about making their appointments palatable to Republicans.

“[If you’re Biden] you want to be an inclusive president,” said Mr D’Alessan-dro. “That’s probably a noble goal. But

Courtney Weaver — Washington

President-elect Joe Biden is facing a tough balancing act in his final cabinet appointments, as leftwing Democrats and civil rights groups clamour for more progressives and minority-group mem-bers in his administration.

While progressives cheered the nomi-nation of Xavier Becerra, the California attorney-general and former congress-man, as Mr Biden’s health and human services secretary on Monday, they have been pushing the president-elect to go further as he fills out his team.

The pressure from the left comes ahead of senior appointments expected this week, including the next defence secretary and other members of Mr Biden’s “economic and domestic cabi-net”, according to the transition.

So far, progressives have had to con-tend with a list of mainly left-of-centre nominees. Progressive rivals of Mr Biden, such as Senator Elizabeth War-ren or Senator Bernie Sanders, are no longer being considered for cabinet roles, a decision the president-elect has justified by saying he needs all current

Civil rights groups push for

greater representation of

minorities among top jobs

at the end of the day, you know, how about reaching out and give us a little something, too?”

Waleed Shahid, communications director for the progressive group Jus-tice Democrats, said there was some relief that Mr Biden had chosen former Fed chair Janet Yellen for Treasury sec-retary over Lael Brainard, a Fed gover-nor who has been painted as more of a ­centrist.

He said there was a similar reaction to Mr Biden’s selection of Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress think-tank as budget director over Bruce Reed, the president-elect’s former chief of staff who has been criticised by pro-gressive lawmakers as a deficit hawk.

“It’s not the progressive choice, but it’s better than the other option,” Mr Shahid said.

As Mr Biden prepares to announce the rest of his cabinet, progressives see their best hopes in his choices to head the departments of education, interior, labour, transportation and housing and urban development (HUD).

Xavier Becerra:the California attorney-general has been picked as health and human services secretary

area because it’s an area for the black & Latin. There’s a saying ‘black in & white out’.” Ms Rice called him “a racist dis-grace”. A month later, he was promoted to foreign ministry spokesman.

Mr Zhao is a relative outsider of the diplomatic establishment, having gone to Central South University instead of a usual feeder university for the foreign ministry. His career has instead been propelled by his loyal following on Chi-nese social media, where he is known as an “internet celebrity diplomat”.

Many of his fans are young, tech savvy and openly nationalist. Hua Zhong, a student in her early 20s, said she liked Mr Zhao because of his sharp tone and his “persistence in fighting tirelessly [with] shameless western politicians”.

Despite Twitter having been blocked in China since 2009, Chinese diplomats have opened dozens of accounts in the past two years. Posts from Chinese offi-cials are often translated and shared widely on social media.

Mr Yang said China’s foreign ministry had an advantage because it had ready access to international social media platforms, while accounts of foreign leaders and diplomats were regularly censored in China.

WeChat, one of China’s largest social media platforms, last week removed a post by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison about Mr Zhao’s tweet directed at Chinese Australians.

“I don’t think the west has fully appre-ciated that China can create a bubble of its own [at home],” said Mr Yang, “and at the same time interact with the rest of the world in this new way [on western social media].”Additional reporting by Emma Zhou in ­Beijing

INTERNATIONAL

Top wolf warrior unleashed to maul Beijing’s western criticsPopulist provocateur Zhao at forefront of aggressive social media campaign

Hannah Kuchler — New YorkKiran Stacey — Washington

Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine starts to work within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents released yesterday by the US regulator ahead of an advisory meeting this week to discuss emergency approval.

Data from the Food and Drug Adminis-tration confirmed the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 95 per cent on average, with 93.8 per cent in participants over 55. It also showed Covid-19 cases began to taper off among those who had been vaccinated after just over a week, rais-ing hopes the inoculation could help ease pressures on overwhelmed hospi-tals soon after it is rolled out.

The data were released two days before a committee of scientific experts review the case for authorising Pfizer’s vaccine and make a recommendation to the FDA.

The regulator is asking the advisers to consider whether it is reasonable to believe the vaccine prevents Covid-19 in people aged 16 and over, and if the bene-fits outweigh the risks. The FDA is not bound by adviser decisions.

FDA officials will then make a final decision on whether to grant authorisa-tion in the coming days.

Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, said he believed it was likely to do so. He said the regulator sending it to the advisory group was “kind of an endorsement”.

“I don’t think they would set it up to fail,” he added.

Dr Hotez said it was “important” that participants began to see a benefit after the first of the vaccine’s two doses, but warned it was still essential to ensure everyone received both jabs.

British regulators have already approved the Pfizer vaccine, and doc-tors there began administering doses yesterday.

The UK’s decision to approve it so quickly attracted some criticism in the US, with Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infec-tious Diseases, saying the British proc-ess had been “rushed”, although he later apologised for any “misunderstanding” his comments had caused.

In the US, the process has proved politically divisive, and President Don-ald Trump has criticised Pfizer and the FDA for not moving faster.

Mr Trump was set to host a vaccine summit in the White House yesterday, attended by Peter Marks, the FDA’s chief

vaccine regulator, though not by Pfizer itself.

The FDA documents provide the most detailed data yet on participants in the Pfizer vaccine trial, showing that it had worked well whatever their race, age or weight.

The regulator’s scientists did not raise any significant concerns about safety, although yesterday’s report said there was not enough evidence about how safe it is in children, pregnant and breast-feeding women, and people with com-promised immune systems, such as those with HIV. The most common side-effects are pain at the injection site, fatigue and headache.

There were more cases of Bell’s palsy, a muscular weakness in the face, and appendicitis in the group of people who received the vaccine than the group that received the placebo.

But the FDA said the incidence was not higher than in the general popula-tion of the same ages.

There were four deaths in the placebo group and two in the vaccine group, at a similar rate to the general population.

With a trial of about 44,000, it is usual to see some death and serious illness.

Scientists said the vaccine would con-tinue to be studied after emergency approval as it is rolled out in a broader population.

As well as monitoring for side-effects that may show up only in a larger group, the FDA suggested there should be fur-ther evaluations to see whether the vac-cine could prevent asymptomatic Cov-id-19 infection. A significant number of people can spread the virus without suf-fering from symptoms.

The documents said Pfizer would like to “unblind the trial”, giving the trial participants who received a placebo the opportunity to receive the vaccine.

But the FDA warned that doing so immediately after authorisation was granted could interfere with the ability to collect follow-up data. It said strate-gies should be considered to balance the need for this data with ethical obliga-tions to placebo recipients.

Pfizer’s shares rose 2.4 per cent yes-terday morning to $42.23, while the S&P 500 share index was largely flat.

US regulator data

Pfizer jab starts to work 10 days after first dose

Sarah Neville, Anna Gross, Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe and Sarah Provan — London

Thousands of Britons received the world’s first approved coronavirus vac-cine yesterday as the UK embarked on a mass immunisation campaign with-out parallel in the country’s history.

But even as a 90-year-old grandmother and an 81-year-old named William Shakespeare became the inaugural recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech vac-cine outside clinical trials, the practical-ities of rolling it out to some 25m people judged at highest risk from the disease raised questions about how quickly the nation’s at-risk population can be protected.

Matt Hancock, health secretary, told lawmakers the arrival of the vaccine meant the end was in sight “not just of this terrible pandemic but of the oner-ous restrictions that have made this year so hard for so many”.

But he warned that parts of the coun-try, including areas of Essex, London and Kent, were experiencing an increase in coronavirus infections, with the system of tiered constraints in Eng-land set to be reviewed by December 16. “Let’s not blow it now,” he told parlia-mentarians.

Mr Hancock outlined plans to increase in the coming days the number of hospitals joining the immunisation programme from 50. He added that starting from next week, vaccines would also be distributed to GPs, while care homes would receive doses by Christ-mas. New vaccination centres in venues such as sports stadiums and conference halls will also open from next year.

But huge logistical hurdles remain as the vaccine, which needs to be stored at minus 70C and can only be moved four times within that cold chain before being used, is distributed across the country.

At King’s College Hospital in south London, where vaccinations were administered from 1.30pm, staff explained that supplies were kept in piz-

za-style boxes that held 195 vials, each of which contained five doses. The entire box must be defrosted at the same time, meaning all 975 doses must be used in one go.

Once defrosted, the vials must be used within five days and they cannot easily be transported. “It’s a motion-sensitive vaccine, that’s the challenge, it’s a molecule that should not ideally be moved,” said Roger Fernandes, chief pharmacist and clinical director at King’s. “The idea is that the patient goes to the vaccine, not the vaccine goes to the patient,” he said, alluding to the dif-ficulty of getting it into care homes.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, an industry body representing care homes, said the demanding storage requirements and the need to use sup-

plies rapidly once they had been opened would require “a very big group of peo-ple” to carry out vaccinations on loca-tion. Some homes had already secured consent from residents, or those with power of attorney for them, to receive the vaccine so they could proceed quickly when it became available.

However, Mr Green added: “I don’t want to put a damper on what the secre-tary of state says, I do think the vaccine is good news, but it will not be delivered before Christmas and it’s not helpful to raise expectations that will not be ful-filled.”

One hospital procurement leader said there were still questions over whether the national supply chain would be able to provide sufficient supplies of the basic “consumables” needed to admin-ister the vaccine, such as wipes and plas-ters. “We still bear the scars of national PPE supplies in the first wave,” added the individual, who asked not to be identified.

World-first

UK launches mass virus vaccination operation

FDA documents show Pfizer vaccine workedwell whatever someone’s race, age or weight

Two progressive African-American women who serve in the House of Rep-resentatives are high on their wish list. Marcia Fudge of Ohio has been under consideration for agriculture and HUD. Karen Bass of California — who was also considered as a potential vice-presiden-tial running mate for Mr Biden — is up for the HUD position.

The debate over Mr Biden’s cabinet picks comes as Democratic leaders in Congress deal with accusations over who is to blame for last month’s down-ballot races, where Democrats lost more than half a dozen House seats they had flipped in 2018, and failed to retake the Senate.

Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic con-gressman from New Jersey and member of the bipartisan “problem solvers” cau-cus, said Mr Biden was contending with the reality that in order to pass legisla-tion, “we’re going to have to bring both sides — Republican and Democratic — together”. At the same time, he added: “Working across the aisle starts within your own party.”

A potential blueprint for how a Demo-cratic House and Republican Senate might work together under the next administration has been seen in recent days as a bipartisan group of legislators has tried to craft a $908bn stimulus package. See Editorial Comment and Opinion

Washington. Cabinet picks

President-elect urged to appoint more progressives

Front of the queue: 81-year-old William Shakespeare was one of the first in Britain to be given the Covid jab

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:World Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:35 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 3, 1

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

crops to licensed middlemen at govern-ment regulated market yards. Mr Modi insisted the system would “liberate” farmers, enabling them to deal with more buyers and earn higher prices.

But farmers fear the liberalisation presages the eventual demise of state-run mandi — which are now used to determine the fair value of crops — leav-ing them at the mercy of powerful cor-porate interests.

Although state-run markets are not being abolished, farmers will be able to sell their crops to anyone who wants to buy them.

“It’s a dramatic act of deregulation,” Mekhala Krishnamurthy, an Ashoka University anthropologist who studies agricultural markets, said. “People who believe that the current system protects them are scared.”

Farmers are also anxious that author-ities are debating reforms of India’s inef-ficient public food procurement pro-gramme. The programme entails the

state-owned Food Corporation of India buying tonnes of wheat and rice at fixed prices to distribute to the poor as subsi-dised food aid.

“There is the sense that procurement reform is imminent and this is the beginning of that,” Ms Krishnamurthy said.

In an effort to assuage farmers’ fears and encourage them to return home, government ministers last week engaged in several days of negotiations, offering to amend the contentious bills. But farmers’ unions are demanding their full repeal and have dug in for the long haul.

“It’s genuinely very difficult to see how this is going to get resolved without a significant show by the government that they are willing to step down,” said Ms Krishnamurthy. “I don’t know whether face-saving of some kind is pos-sible. It’s a very tough one.”Additional reporting by Jyotsna Singh in New Delhi

Deregulation. Agricultural reforms

India farmers’ strike hits transport network

Amy Kazmin — New Delhi

India has been hit by severe road and rail traffic disruptions as farmers and opposition activists intensified their campaign against new laws intended to pave the way for the reform of agricul-tural markets.

The nationwide strike, in support of thousands of protesting farmers who have massed at New Delhi’s state border for the past 12 days, presents an awk-ward political challenge to Narendra Modi. The Indian prime minister revels in his image as a strongman able to impose his will on an unruly nation but his Bharatiya Janata party has been try-ing to woo farmers.

Analysts said pushing big agricultural commodity market reforms, which affect millions of people, without any serious public consultation was a recipe for unrest.

“The new law is a death warrant for farmers like me and even for the general public,” said Rasam Singh, 55, who was helping to blockade a highway in Punjab yesterday. “But this government has made it an ego issue. They don’t want to listen to us.”

The trio of contentious farm bills was rammed through a truncated parlia-mentary session in a chaotic voice vote in September, despite serious doubts about the government’s majority. Sev-eral BJP allies, mindful of farmers’ anxi-ety, wanted more time to scrutinise the bills’ implications but the requests were not granted.

“He’s [Mr Modi] caught himself in a bind,” said Yamini Aiyar, president of the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think-tank. “This whole thing was political mismanagement, just thinking you could bulldoze your way through. The result is a complete breakdown in trust.

“This is a very major reform, but get-ting reform right requires deep consen-sus building, negotiating and engage-ment.”

Ajay Jakhar, chairman of the Bharat Krishak Samaj, or Indian Farmers

Government accused over

level of public consultation

before laws were enacted

‘People who believe that the current system protects them are scared’

James Shotter — Warsaw

Poland’s state-controlled refiner PKN Orlen is buying local media group ­Polska Press from Germany’s Verlags-gruppe Passau, it said on Monday, stok-ing a debate on press freedom in the central European nation.

The deal has long been mooted and fol-lows years of calls from politicians from the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) for a “repolonisation” of Poland’s pri-vate media, in which they claim foreign groups have too much sway.

The transaction will bring 20 of Poland’s 24 regional newspapers and almost 120 local weeklies under the ownership of the state-controlled refiner. Terms were not disclosed.

Orlen said the purchase was part of its plan to “strengthen its retail sales, including non-fuel sales”, and that access to Polska Press’s 17.4m users would allow it to improve its big data tools and to win clients.

However, opposition politicians said the deal boded ill for independent jour-nalism, pointing out that Law and Jus-tice had already reduced the state-owned media to a claque.

“They have destroyed the public

media. There is no longer any informa-tion in them, there is blunt propaganda.

“Now, when they have bought the company Polska Press, we will have the same in many regional media,” Malgor-zata Kidawa-Blonska, from the main opposition group, Civic Coalition, wrote on Twitter.

“Step by step, they are destroying plu-ralism and independence.”

Since coming to power in 2015, Law and Justice has frequently raised the prospect of passing legislation either to “repolonise” or to “deconcentrate” the Polish private media landscape.

However, no bill has been forthcom-ing, amid divisions in the ruling camp over how to proceed. One problem is that legislation on repolonisation would be hard to square with EU law.

Another is that the US — one of PiS’s most important allies — has made clear it will fiercely oppose any changes that damage the interests of US investors. The main independent broadcaster in Poland, TVN, is owned by US group ­Discovery.

Instead, in recent months there has been mounting speculation that PiS could seek to repolonise the media through transactions involving state-

owned companies. Asked in October about the possibility of PKN Orlen buy-ing Polska Press, Piotr Glinski, the cul-ture minister, said it was “not a normal situation that practically the entire local press was in the hands of, first of all, a single corporation and, sec-ondly, of a Germany corporation in Poland”.

“This is not a situation that is in line with European standards, because the media market is particularly sensitive, as a result of its influence on the functioning of democracy, and there-fore we must change this situation in Poland,” he told radio station RMF FM, adding that state-controlled groups “should” buy up private media.

In its statement, Orlen said compa-nies creating their own “communica-tion platforms as a support for their business activities and for reaching new clients” was a “global trend”.

Daniel Obajtek, the company’s chief executive, added that access to the “17.4m users of the portals managed by Polska Press will effectively strengthen the sales of the entire Orlen Group”.

Orlen had revenues of 111bn zloty ($30bn) last year. Polska Press had rev-enues of 398m zloty.

‘Repolinisation’ debate

Polish media deal stirs fears for press freedom

INTERNATIONAL

George Parker — London Jim Brunsden and Sam Fleming Brussels

Boris Johnson will head to Brussels for crucial Brexit talks today in the hope the two sides can use positive momentum generated by a deal on Northern Ireland to salvage trade negotiations.

The British prime minister will have talks over dinner with Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission presi-dent, giving the two sides the opportu-nity to hold negotiations ahead of a summit of EU leaders starting in Brus-sels tomorrow.

The meeting is seen as a last-ditch

attempt to overcome an impasse in the talks over three longstanding sticking points: how to ensure fair competition through a “level playing field” for busi-nesses, dispute settlement arrange-ments and EU access to UK fishing waters.

The announcement of the meeting comes after Mr Johnson yesterday announced the scrapping of all “law-breaking” clauses from controversial Brexit legislation, in a boost to relations between London and Brussels.

The EU and UK agreed a deal on the detailed implementation of the North-ern Ireland protocol, part of the with-drawal agreement signed last year, to govern future trade between mainland Britain and the region.

The diplomatic breakthrough allowed Mr Johnson to announce he was

deleting clauses from legislation allow-ing British ministers to breach the treaty, which would have broken inter-national law.

Although the Northern Ireland deal is

not directly linked to separate stalled talks on a UK-EU trade agreement, it will markedly improve the atmosphere around those negotiations and build confidence between the two sides.

Downing Street said the agreement, brokered by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and commission vice-

president Maros Sefcovic, was “very good”. But Downing Street added it did not “signify anything for the wider nego-tiation”. In Brussels, officials were equally cautious, although they hoped the step could create positive momen-tum in the trade negotiations.

Diplomats said EU chief Brexit negoti-ator Michel Barnier was “gloomy” about the trade talks during a video meeting with Europe ministers yesterday. At one point, he quoted French Fourth Repub-lic politician Pierre Mendès-France, saying the EU “must not sacrifice the future for the present”.

One diplomat said Mr Barnier’s mes-sage to ministers was the prospects for a deal that could take effect at the end of the year were “rather minimal at this point”. Mr Barnier and David Frost, his British counterpart, yesterday began

drawing up a dossier on the remaining sticking points before handing negotia-tions over to their political bosses.

The agreement announced by the UK government and Brussels yesterday covers issues relating to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland such as border checks on animals and plants, export declarations, the supply of medi-cines and the supply of food products including chilled meat to supermarkets. Under the protocol, Northern Ireland will remain subject to the EU customs code after Brexit.

Mr Johnson told the BBC during a visit to a hospital: “We will see where we get to in the course of the next two days, but I think the UK government’s position is that we are willing to engage at any level, political or otherwise, we are willing to try anything.”

Robin Harding — Tokyo

Japan has launched a third fiscal stimu-lus of the year with a ¥30.6tn ($294bn) package aimed at speeding up the nation’s recovery from Covid-19.

The supplementary budget, which amounts to about 6 per cent of gross domestic product, follows earlier rounds of stimulus in April and May.

In a significant expansion to the scope of Japan’s spending, Yoshihide Suga, prime minister, announced a package that includes not just money to fight Covid-19 but trillions of yen aimed at investment in new digital and green technologies.

It reflects concerns about the risk of a prolonged economic downturn as Japan heads into winter with a rising number of coronavirus cases.

The total package includes a further ¥1.7tn in local government spending, ¥7.7tn in borrowing for infrastructure investment and ¥33.6tn in loans and guarantees for a total of ¥73.6tn.

“This economic package will protect the lives and livelihood of the people,” Mr Suga told a meeting of his ruling coa-lition. “It will maintain employment,

support businesses, drive the economic recovery and open the way to break-throughs in growth areas of green and digital technology.”

About half the spending will go towards “post-corona” investments, including billions of dollars to promote the rollout of hydrogen for shipping, fuel cell vehicles and power storage.

Mr Suga has committed Japan to be carbon neutral by 2050 and the bureaucracy is racing to find ways to meet that goal.

About one-third of the money will go directly to fighting Covid-19, with cash set aside for a nationwide programme of vaccinations, and the remainder will go towards projects to increase resilience against natural disasters.

“From this point, the whole govern-ment will work together to put this new strategy into effect,” said Mr Suga.

The first two supplementary budgets of the year amounted to ¥25.7tn and ¥31.9tn, taking the total stimulus for this year to almost 17 per cent of GDP. However, some of the spending will take years to disburse.

Whereas the earlier packages concen-trated on direct support for business and household incomes, the new stimu-lus is mainly investment, reflecting a hope that Japan will not need further business closures or furloughs to make it through the winter.

Kiichi Murashima, an economist at Citi in Tokyo, said the resurgence of new Covid-19 cases had contributed to the size of the stimulus. There have been about 2,500 new cases diagnosed every day in recent weeks. “As usual, the size of the economic package or the supple-mentary budget has ended up consider-ably larger than the level discussed in the early stages,” he said.

Brexit

Johnson heads to Brussels for crunch talks British prime minister in last-ditch attempt to break impasse over trade

Supplementary budget

Japan unveils third stimulus of the year to bounce back from Covid

‘I think the UK government’s position is that we are willing to engage at any level’

‘From this point, the whole government will work together to put this new strategy into effect’

Jamie Smyth — Sydney

Jacinda Ardern has apologised to New Zealand’s Muslim community for fail-ings by authorities in the lead-up to a white supremacist’s attack on two mosques in Christchurch last year that killed 51 worshippers.

The prime minister’s apology follows the publication of a 792-page public report yesterday after a public inquiry. The report found that the security serv-ices did not pay enough attention to the threat posed by rightwing terror while placing an “inappropriate” focus on Islamist extremism. It also identified shortcomings in gun control laws and made a series of recommendations aimed at preventing massacres.

But the report concluded New Zea-land’s authorities could not have pre-vented the attack perpetrated by Bren-ton Tarrant, a 30-year-old Australian citizen, except “by chance”, as they had only fragmentary information about the “lone wolf” attacker before the shootings.

“On the matters of how the attack occurred and what could have been done to stop it, the commission found no failures within any government

agencies that would have allowed the terrorist’s planning and preparation to be detected,” said Ms Ardern.

“But they did identify many lessons to be learned and significant areas needing change . . . While the commission made no findings that these issues would have stopped the attack, these were failings nonetheless, and for that, on behalf of the government, I apologise.”

The Labour-led coalition has appointed a minister to oversee imple-mentation of the recommendations, which include reforms to hate speech, changes to firearms licensing laws and the creation of a national security and intelligence agency.

Tarrant shot dead 51 worshippers on March 15, 2019 and injured a further 49 at the Masjid Al Noor and Linwood Islamic Centre mosques, in the worst mass shooting in the Pacific nation’s his-tory.

The former gym instructor used auto-matic weapons during the attacks, which were streamed live online.

Tarrant posted a 74-page racist “man-ifesto” ahead of the assault, which ana-lysts said was intended to gain as much attention as possible. He was jailed for life without the prospect of parole in August.

The inquiry was headed by William Young, a Supreme Court judge, and former diplomat Jacqui Caine. It inter-viewed more than 400 people and received 1,100 submissions during its 18-month investigation.

The report details how Tarrant arrived in New Zealand from Australia in August 2017 and within days began planning the attack. His application for a firearms licence was approved within three months of his arrival.

New Zealand’s Muslim community has called for the implementation of the report’s recommendations.

“We’ve known for a long time that the Muslim community has been targeted with hate speech and hate crimes — this report shows that we are right,” the Muslim Association of Canterbury said. “It’s time for change and the time is ripe to make those changes.”

New Zealand

Ardern apologises over mosque attack failings

Jacinda Ardern: the report found ‘many lessons to be learned and significant areas needing change’

Forum, called the laws “a perfect exam-ple of a government policy made by the bureaucracy without consulting the supposed beneficiaries. They were fix-ated on the outcome of passing the bill, and they just ran roughshod over the process.”

The new rules in effect end a socialist-era requirement that farmers sell their

Farmers protest in Amritsar yesterday. Below, a poster of the PM about to be set alight in Kolkata Raminder Pal Singh/Epa-Efe; Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty

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6 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

Peter Campbell — LONDON

Tesla plans to raise up to $5bn by sell-ing stock, as the US electric car pioneer takes advantage of a rally that will pro-pel it into the S&P 500 this month.

The company said in a filing yesterday that it would sell new shares from time to time on the open market, handing it more flexibility over the pricing than if it held a formal secondary offering of stock.

The announcement comes just weeks before Tesla is due to enter the S&P 500, a move that is expected to fuel further demand for the stock as passive inves-tors who track the US benchmark index are compelled to buy.

Tesla has hired 10 banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Barclays, to help it sell the shares.

Despite a six-fold rally in its shares catapulting its market capitalisation above $500bn this year, Tesla became eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500 only after recording a fourth straight quarter of profits over the summer.

Long dogged by problems over meet-ing its delivery targets, an improvement in its underlying performance has bur-nished its credentials among investors.

However, the challenges facing Tesla are growing. Despite a lead in battery car technology, Tesla is confronting renewed competition from incumbent players such as Volkswagen, which has pledged to spend €35bn to achieve its electric vehicle ambitions.

VW, the world’s largest carmaker by volume, aims to have 20 per cent of glo-bal electric car sales by 2025, and pro-duce 26m fully electric vehicles by the end of the decade.

By contrast, Tesla has laid out plans to set a record by producing more than 500,000 cars this year — but still a frac-tion of the 10m units turned out annu-ally by VW and Toyota. The US com-pany, which recorded its fifth straight quarterly profit in October, is building a plant in Germany and ramping up pro-duction at its new Chinese facility.

In July the group overtook Toyota when its market value topped $200bn. Since then, Tesla’s value has more than doubled.

The rally has raised concerns over the group’s valuation, with sceptics pointing out that its profits have been helped by the sale of regulatory credits — in which the carmaker sells zero-emission cred-its to rivals who need them. See Lex

Tesla plans to sell $5bn of stock after six-fold rally

According to documents seen by the FT, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank provided loans of €125m each to Wire-card for the purchase. The loans under-line the backing Wirecard enjoyed from some of Germany’s biggest financial institutions during its meteoric rise.

By the end of 2015, Wirecard’s market capitalisation had climbed to €5.7bn, and it went on to peak at more than €24bn in 2018. Hailed for years as a rare German tech success, it collapsed in June after disclosing that large parts of its operations in Asia were a sham.

People familiar with the transaction told the FT that the two €125m loans were bridge loans, which had a duration of about a year. The loans were repaid by Wirecard long before the company went bust, the people added.

Prior to Wirecard’s insolvency, both German lenders were part of a consor-tium that provided a €1.75bn revolving credit facility to the payments group, which was 90 per cent drawn. While Deutsche Bank’s exposure stood at €80m, Commerzbank’s was €200m. Wirecard in 2019 had also raised €1.4bn via bonds after receiving an investment-grade rating from Moody’s.

A person familiar with Deutsche Bank’s decision in 2015 to finance the Wirecard deal in India said that, at the time, Germany’s largest lender was not aware that the target was acquired from a middleman that had paid just a frac-tion of the purchase price weeks earlier.

The first public report about the deal’s unusual circumstances was published by the Foundation for Financial Journal-ism in early 2018, some two years after the deal was announced.

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment on their lending relationship with Wirecard, citing client confidentiality rules.

Two German banks funded Wirecard deal in India3 Deutsche and Commerzbank loans3 Query over stark purchase price rise

Olaf Storbeck — Frankfurt

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank pro-vided the bulk of the funding for Wire-card’s acquisition of a pair of Indian companies referred to in the fraud alle-gations against the defunct German payments group, documents seen by the Financial Times reveal.

In 2015, Wirecard turned to the Ger-man banks when it agreed to pay up to €340m to a Mauritius-based fund for two India-based sister companies, Hermes i Tickets and GI Technology. The seller, dubbed Emerging Markets Investment Funds 1A, had acquired the targets weeks earlier from their original owners for less than €40m.

Wirecard said that it never checked

who was the ultimate beneficial owner of EMIF 1A, and forensic investigations by Big Four accounting firms EY and KPMG later failed to uncover this.

The unusual sequence of events, the stark increase in purchase price and the unclear ownership of the seller led to allegations of potential money launder-ing and embezzlement.

An Indian Wirecard employee in 2016 told EY auditors that “senior manage-ment” of the German group was behind EMIF, and EY fraud investigators later referred to “hints” that Wirecard’s then-chief operating officer Jan Marsalek was behind EMIF, according to documents seen by the FT. Mr Marsalek, who is a fugitive and on Interpol’s most-wanted list, always denied those allegations.

The sequence of eventsled to allegations of potential embezzlement and money laundering

Michael Stott Brazil’s coronavirus-related spending spree has helped avert a deep recession. But at what price? y MARKETS INSIGHT

Andrew Edgecliffe-JohnsonNew York

Pope Francis is giving his blessing to a coalition of large investors, compa-nies, unions and foundations thatare pledging to make capitalism less socially and environmentally ­damaging.

The Vatican yesterday lent its name to the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, whose members must commit to measurable action to create a more equitable and trusted economic sys-tem, including adherence to the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The alliance marks an embrace of big business and finance by a head of the Roman Catholic Church who has warned of the idolatry of making profit one’s only purpose and called unfettered free markets the “dung of the devil”.

Pope Francis said that a fair, trust-worthy economic system that could

address humanity’s biggest chal-lenges was “urgently needed”. The group’s leaders had taken up the chal-lenge of making capitalism a “more inclusive instrument for integral human wellbeing”, he said.

The council’s founding members, who will hold annual meetings with the Pope, include the managers of $10.5tn of assets, companies with a combined market capitalisation of more than $2tn and groups represent-ing more than 200m workers.

They include heads of companies including Bank of America, BP, EY, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce and Visa. The investment groups Calpers, State Street and TIAA are also mem-bers, alongside the Ford and Rockefel-ler Foundations, OECD secretary-gen-eral Angel Gurría and Mark Carney, UN special envoy for climate finance.

“We need action and we need to reform capital markets,” Lynn For-ester de Rothschild, the council’s

founder, told the Financial Times. The Pope’s support was significant, she said, because “it’s a positive embrace of doing the right thing for capitalism, but it’s also a challenge.”

Members of the council have made commitments specific to their opera-tions, and have agreed to a shared set of guiding principles, pledging to cre-ate equality of opportunity and long-term value for all stakeholders.

Marcie Frost, chief executive of Calpers, said she was optimistic that the initiative would prompt meaning-ful change, in addition to environ-mental, social and governance pledges which companies have made in response to public pressure — and growing sums invested in ESG funds.

The California pension fund would look to persuade companies in which it invests to sign up, she said, adding that the council’s founders would serve as “influencers” to get others to make similar commitments.

True believers Pope Francis joins businesses and investors in mission to redeem capitalism

I n China, if you owe your creditors a few hundred million dollars you had better pay them back or face the wrath of vice-premier Liu He.

But if you owe them $1.9bn and control strategic natural resource assets, well, that is a rather more com-plicated situation.

When a Chinese coal company and automotive group recently defaulted on four bonds totalling Rmb4bn ($612m), sending tremors through the country’s $15tn bond market, a regulatory body headed by Mr Liu threatened “zero tol-erance” for any business caught trying to evade debt repayments.

By contrast, Tianqi Lithium, one of the world’s biggest producers of the ele-ment used in electric batteries, faced an end of November deadline to pay back creditors led by China Citic Bank almost $1.9bn. It borrowed the money two years ago to fund its $4bn purchase of a 23 per cent stake in Chilean rival Socie-dad Química y Minera.

China Citic Bank gave Tianqi Lithium, based in southwestern Sichuan prov-ince, a month-long reprieve as they try to sort out a new repayment schedule by December 28.

Tianqi Lithium is a private sector company, listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The fact that it was able to borrow so much money from state banks for the SQM stake purchase, com-

Reprieve for lithium producer shines light on Beijing’s priorities

thanks to a global supply glut, putting the Chinese company in a precarious financial position.

Tianqi Lithium and its creditors face a challenge as they try to avoid triggering a formal default at the end of the month: how to balance the Chinese state’s inter-est in getting its money back with its interest in securing lithium supplies around the world.

Tianqi Lithium could, for example, raise money by selling down its 51 per cent stake in its Greenbushes open-pit lithium mine in southwestern Australia. Greenbushes is 49 per cent held by Albemarle Corp of the US.

But given Washington’s determina-tion to challenge Beijing’s grip on strate-gic commodities such as lithium, Presi-dent Xi Jinping would probably not be happy about yielding control of Green-bushes to an American rival.

Selling a stake in the huge Green-bushes pit to an Australian miner would be more palatable, although also a bit humbling for China in light of the14-point memo its Canberra embassy released last month blaming Australia for this year’s rapid deterioration in bilateral relations.

For Beijing, the ideal outcome would be figuring out a way to keep Tianqi Lithium afloat with its assets intact until global lithium prices recover. On Mon-day, Reuters reported that a deal that might accomplish exactly that was nearing completion, with Australian miner IGO poised to take a minority position in a vehicle holding Tianqi Lith-ium’s Greenbushes stake for $1.5bn.

That should allow Tianqi Lithium to retain control of Greenbushes while helping China Citic Bank get its money back. If so, China might consider thank-ing Australia for the favour.

tom.mitchell@ft.com

inside business

asia

TomMitchell

pleted in May 2018, says a lot about the unique role it has carved out for itself as a national champion operating in a stra-tegic industrial sector.

At the time, Mr Liu was overseeing a clampdown on an overseas buying binge by large private groups including Anbang, Fosun, HNA and Wanda. Many of their acquisitions in the entertain-ment, insurance and tourism sectors, such as Anbang’s purchase of the Wal-dorf Astoria hotel in New York, were viewed by Chinese regulators as over-priced trophy assets.

Tianqi Lithium’s desire to purchase a stake in SQM, however, dovetailed with a core interest of the state — the creation of leading, if not monopoly positions, in the production of commodities such as lithium. What oil and copper were to the transport and communication revolu-tions of the mid-20th century, lith-ium is to their early 21st century equiv-alents, as it is used in the batteries that power products from iPhones to Tesla cars.

In addition to billions of dollars of credit from China Citic and other state-owned banks, Tianqi Lithium could count on Beijing’s open and vocal sup-port as it pursued the SQM stake. When Chilean opponents complained the deal would give China too much sway over the global lithium industry, Beijing’s man in Santiago waded in. Any move to block the deal, ambassador Xu Bin told local media at the time, would “nega-tively” affect Sino-Chilean relations.

The sale went through, although Tianqi Lithium now wishes it hadn’t. It was closed as lithium carbonate prices were peaking at $17,000 per tonne. They have since plunged about 70 per cent

Selling a stake in the huge Greenbushes pit to an Australian miner would be more palatable, though a bit humbling for China

Thou shalt not: Pope Francis, at a mass for the poor, has warned against the idolatry of profit — Remo Casilli/Reuters

Legal Notices

Contracts & Tenders

FinancialPublic Notice

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Ortenca Aliaj — New York Kadhim Shubber — Washington

BlueCrest Capital, the investment firm led by billionaire trader Mike Platt, will return $170m to its former investors after the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it prioritised an inter-nal hedge fund over the flagship fund they had invested in.

The London-based firm had transferred top traders from the flagship fund to an internal entity that managed only the personal fortunes of its founders, leav-ing outside investors reliant on an underperforming algorithm, the SEC said.

The settlement announced yesterday, in which BlueCrest neither admitted nor denied the SEC claims, highlighted con-flicts of interest that can arise when investment firms have separate funds for employees and external investors

“BlueCrest repeatedly failed to act in the best interests of its investors, includ-

ing by not disclosing that it was transfer-ring its highest-performing traders to a fund that benefited its own personnel to the detriment of its fund investors,” said Stephanie Avakian, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement.

BlueCrest managed $36bn at its peak but stopped managing outside money in 2015. The misleading disclosures at issue in the SEC case occurred between 2011, when BlueCrest created its inter-nal fund, and the end of 2015.

“We are pleased to have resolved this matter which primarily involved disclo-sures that were made more than five years ago,” said BlueCrest.

“Today’s order does not relate in any way to our current business operations,” it added.

The internal fund at issue, called BSMA, was set up in 2011 to manage money for BlueCrest employees and to serve as an incentive for its staff to remain. The SEC said BlueCrest moved its best traders to BSMA and away from

the firm’s BCI flagship outside fund.At the same time, BlueCrest began

managing significant chunks of the BCI portfolio through an algorithm that rep-licated live trades on a one-day delay. The “Rates Management Trading”, or RMT, algorithm allowed BlueCrest to make bigger profits because it did not have to pay traders performance fees on money managed that way.

The SEC said RMT’s next-day trading caused it to “perform especially poorly in volatile markets because RMT waited too long to respond to sudden market moves”, such as the 2013 taper tantrum.

Despite these changes, BlueCrest made only vague disclosures to inves-tors about its BSMA fund before 2014, when it was discovered by an outside due-diligence consultant, said the SEC.

BlueCrest also allegedly failed to tell its independent directors until 2015 about the amount of capital managed through its RMT system, which at times was as high as half the money in BCI.

Financials

BlueCrest to return $170m after settlementNeil HumeNatural Resources Editor

The vehicle bidding for Kaz Minerals, the Kazak copper producer, has flipped its £3bn buyout proposal to a straight takeover offer after minority share-holders opposed the deal.

Oleg Novachuk, Kaz chairman, and Vladimir Kim, the Kazakh metals tycoon, had offered, via their Nova Resources vehicle, 640p a share in cash for the 60 per cent of the London-listed miner they do not already own.

That was rebuffed by CFC Manage-ment and RWC Partners, two of Kaz’s biggest minority shareholders, who said it materially undervalued the com-pany’s assets and projects.

Because of the way the deal was origi-nally structured — through a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement — it would have taken only a small group of investors with a collective holding of about 12 per cent to scupper the deal.

decarbonisation, we still believe that the offer price materially undervalues the company’s existing and future assets,” said James Johnstone, co-head of RWC’s emerging and frontier markets team.

Kaz said yesterday it expected full-year copper and gold production to be 2-3 per cent higher than earlier guid-ance of 280,000-300,000 tonnes and 180,000-200,000 ounces respectively. Shares in the company fell but were still trading above the offer price at 650p.

The switch to a takeover offer also means shareholders will not get the opportunity to voice concerns about the deal to London’s Companies Court.

Under the previous deal structure, Kaz asked a judge to rule on whether Mr Abramovich and his business associates had the same status as other investors and would be able to vote on the deal.

The Abramovich group stands to receive $225m in cash if the company is delisted. See Lex

Mining

Kaz suitors switch to straight takeover offer

penalties available under UK competi-tion law, said Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the Competition and Mar-kets Authority.

“For the system to be enforceable . . . you need a carrot and a stick and the stick needs to be serious penalties that make it into the boardroom of large companies,” said Mr Coscelli.

He spoke as the CMA made recom-mendations for a UK Digital Markets Unit, a task force the government hopes to create next year to tackle the market power of Big Tech. The business depart-ment will now consider the proposals.

Under the plans, the UK will decide on a case-by-case basis to class some tech companies as having “strategic market status” if they have “substantial, entrenched market power in at least one digital activity” or if they serve as an online “gateway” for other businesses.

Businesses could qualify as “strate-gic” on a range of metrics including rev-enues, market capitalisation, user num-bers or time spent using a given product or service, the CMA said, giving the new regulator wide-ranging powers to con-strain existing companies and entrants. A new designation would take up to a year to determine then last for five years, the CMA said.

Strategic companies would be held to specific, individual rules as well as a broader merger regime designed for the tech sector. They will be subject to “pro competitive interventions” to address the root of their market dominance, such as orders to share their data with third parties.

The CMA’s proposals would give the new regulator significant flexibility in responding to changes in the market. “The concept of future proofing is very

important,” said Mr Coscelli, pointing to the potential growth of large Chinese internet companies that are not yet a significant presence in the UK.

The CMA said Google and Facebook would probably have to adhere to codes of conduct governing search and social media respectively, following on from a study it has already done on competi-tion in digital advertising.

Mr Coscelli said Amazon and Apple could be designated as strategic but only if the CMA’s research threw up issues in the markets in which they operate.

The UK is taking a different approach to the EU, with individual rules rather than a broader set of rules for all “gate-keeper” companies to follow.

The CMA recommended that even acquisitions of digital companies that fall below the usual threshold of at least £70m in UK revenues should be investi-

Kate Beioley and Tim BradshawLondon

Technology companies that abuse a new code of conduct intentionally will beliable for fines of up to 10 per cent of their global revenue under competi-tion plans proposed by the UK yester-day, raising the prospect of billions of dollars of potential penalties.

The head of the UK’s competition authority suggested specific rules for the biggest tech companies, potentially starting with Facebook and Google before moving on to Apple and Amazon.

Deliberate breaches would make companies liable for the full extent of

Competition regulator prepares the ground for digital markets enforcer

Joe Miller — Frankfurt

British tycoon and Brexiter Jim Rat-cliffe’s Ineos is to produce its first flag-ship off-road vehicle in France in a blow to the UK car industry.

The company signed a deal yesterday to buy a Mercedes plant in Hambach, near the German border, for an undisclosed sum. Ineos had planned to build the Grenadier off-roader in Bridgend, South Wales, and create 500 jobs in the area.

The model, billed as a “spiritual suc-cessor” to the Land Rover Defender, is one of a family the industrial group intends to build as it attempts to gain a foothold in the car industry.

Daimler, the German owner of Mer-cedes, said Ineos would take over the plant, which produces Smart cars, in the coming weeks, and all parties had agreed to safeguard about 1,300 jobs at the site in the Moselle department.

Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, had hailed plans to build the car in Wales as “a vote of confidence in UK expertise”.

Sir Jim, chairman of Ineos and one of Britain’s richest men, said: “Hambach presented us with a unique opportunity that we simply could not ignore.”

In a tweet, Ineos’ car unit said it had always intended to build its first vehicle in Britain, and the plan to do so “was fully costed and deliverable”.

“Of course, we understand there will be disappointment in the UK,” the com-pany added, “but the business case for Hambach was overwhelming.”

Ineos said it would start building the Grenadier at the site from late 2021, and that it intends to start delivering the vehicle in early 2022.

It said Hambach, close to Baden-Württemberg, a carmaking heartland, would give it access to “supply chains, automotive talent and target markets”.

Daimler, which is undergoing a pain-ful restructuring as it pivots to electric vehicles, has promised to cut a fifth of its fixed costs over the next four years.

The Stuttgart-based company said it had already booked impairments from the sale of Hambach, amounting to sev-eral hundred million euros, in its second and third quarters. It said the deal was a step towards slimming down to focus on fewer, more profitable models.

Ineos to build off-roader in France rather than Wales

Automobiles

UK plans global penalties for Big Tech

COMPANIES & MARKETS

gated if they allow tech companies to take substantial market power.

The CMA felt the risk of a “chilling effect” on M&A — an important concern among tech investors — was “limited” and “in any event does not outweigh the potential risk of harm”.

In response to the plans, Google said the rules should apply only to specific markets where a company has demon-strable market power. It pointed out that Big Tech platforms may be domi-nant in some sectors, but marginal in others.

Facebook said some of the options under discussion would “significantly rewrite the regulatory framework” and encouraged the UK “to carefully weigh the potential trade-offs of intervention and ensure that the value created by Facebook is not destroyed, to the detri-ment of users and innovation”.

Thomas Hale — Hong Kong

Goldman Sachs is set to take full owner-ship of its securities joint venture in China, as western investment banks seek to expand across the country’s booming financial industry.

The US bank has signed a definitive agreement and initiated regulatory processes to acquire all of the outstand-ing shares in Goldman Sachs Gao Hua from Beijing Gao Hua Securities, its local partner, according to an internal memo seen by the Financial Times. It currently holds 51 per cent.

Wall Street’s biggest firms have rushed to boost their presence in China as the country opens up its financial sys-tem to foreign investment. That long-term shift has gathered pace this year despite escalating geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington.

“100 per cent ownership of our fran-chise on the mainland represents a sig-nificant commitment to and investment in China,” Goldman Sachs said in the memo, which was signed by David Solo-mon, chief executive, and other senior leaders. It pointed to “ongoing reforms under way in China’s capital markets, continued robust economic growth and the expanding needs of increasingly sophisticated clients”.

Foreign firms have been able to apply

for full ownership in China as of April this year, following a decades-long push to increase their presence. Goldman Sachs set up its joint venture, the first of its kind in the country, in 2004.

In 2018, UBS became the first foreign bank to increase its stake in a securities joint venture to 51 per cent. In March this year, both Goldman Sachs and Mor-gan Stanley received approval to acquire majority stakes in their securi-ties joint ventures. Goldman Sachs said at the time it planned to move to full ownership at the “earliest opportunity”.

JPMorgan in October took its stake in its securities joint venture to 71 per cent after it last year became the first US bank to obtain approval for majority ownership. Jamie Dimon, chief execu-tive, has said that China is “a critical market for many of the company’s domestic and global clients”.

This year Beijing has unveiled govern-ment reforms that encourage financial liberalisation, including expanding for-eign access to futures markets.

The Chinese government has also taken steps to open up the country’s mutual fund industry. JPMorgan this year became the first foreign firm to reach an agreement to take full owner-ship of its mutual fund joint venture, which is pending regulatory approval.

“I think the view of most Wall Street firms is China is a large market, it’s going to continue to get bigger, the opportuni-ties for foreign firms will be larger, and therefore they want to have a footprint in that market,” said Fraser Howie, an independent analyst and expert on the country’s financial system.

“There’s clearly a lot of deals to be done in China, so even if foreigners only ever get crumbs off the table, that’s still a big table.”Additional reporting by Wang Xueqiao in Shanghai

Goldman on course to take full control of joint venture in China

‘There’s a lot of deals to be done, so even if foreigners only get crumbs off the table, that’s still a big table’

Technology Banks

The price of insuring against a debt default by US airlines has plunged as investors anticipate a round of bailout funding to see the sector through to a coronavirus vaccine next year.

Even as the main carriers burn through tens of millions of dollars a day, and the pandemic rages across the US, prices for airline credit default swaps have fallen to levels unseen since March or, in some cases, February.

Share prices for American Airlines, Delta, United and Southwest, have also risen, outpacing the broader stock market since the first vaccine trial results were published a month ago.

“The immediate existential threat has receded,” said Adrian Yanoshik, Berenberg analyst. “And the very obvious second act of this is a lot of people feel like vaccines are coming, the world will open up and we’ll travel again next year.”

The cost of the swaps, which pay out when a company defaults on its debts, is now a fraction of the peak in May, as airlines have tapped government and private market funds to improve their liquidity positions. CDS prices act as a proxy for the market’s view of a company’s creditworthiness.

They have tumbled again in recent

weeks, by between 38 per cent and67 per cent for the four big carriers.

The market on Monday priced Delta CDS at 368 basis points — meaning a buyer would pay $368,000 a year to insure $10m of Delta debt against a default for the next five years — with United at 559bp and Southwest at 74bp, according to IHS Markit.

The market continues to treat American, which has a heavier debt load than its peers, as a distressed entity. As well as $500,000 annually, buyers of CDS protection on $10m of its debt must also pay $2.5m upfront.

There is bipartisan support for another $17bn for the industry in a stimulus package under discussion on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers last week signalled renewed progress towards a deal, although unrelated areas of disagreement have dashed previous hopes for a stimulus package.

Airlines received $50bn in funds from the US Cares Act in March in exchange employing workers through the summer. More than 350 airlines took the funds. Tens of thousands of employees have been furloughed since the programme expired on October 1.

The collapse in demand for air travel since the spring has crushed revenues

and profits at US airlines, and they are still burning cash faster than they forecast.

Ed Bastian, Delta chief executive, told staff last week the carrier was burning $12m to $14m a day as virus cases hit new records. Delta had earlier forecast that cash burn would be $10m a day by December, from $24m in the third quarter.

American put its cash burn at the high end of the predicted $25m to $30m a day for the fourth quarter.

As well as taking a government bailout, airlines have been able to replace cash with fundraising in the public markets. United and American have raised equity capital, while all the big four carriers have raised debt, using assets such as planes, landing slots and frequent flyer programmes as collateral.

“The investment community is looking through near-term negatives,” Helane Becker, a Cowen analyst, told clients.

“The value trade theme . . . has clearly attracted incremental capital . . . given [year-to-date] performances, but at some point fundamentals will take over, or at least matter.”

Skies brighten Investors see lower risk of airline defaults

Break in the clouds: a pilot at New York’s LaGuardia. Prices for airline credit default swaps have fallen to levels unseen since March — Spencer Platt/Getty

A straight takeover offer lowers the main acceptance threshold so Kaz can be delisted if 75 per cent of its share-holder base tender their stock in favour.

As things stand Nova Resources has almost 50 per cent of the company’s shareholders backing its offer, including

shares held by Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, and some of his business associates.

But securing the rest of the shares Nova needs to push the deal through could still be difficult because of soaring gold and copper prices, say traders.

“With copper prices up over 10 per cent this quarter and the growing acceptance of copper’s role in global

Oleg Novachuk, Kaz chairman, is behind the £3bn buyout proposal along with tycoon Vladimir Kim

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Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 9

Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at Jef-feries. Mr Nagle will then have another decision to make: when to increase pro-duction of the metals — mainly copper and nickel — that will be needed for the energy transition.

Deciding when to pull the trigger on mine expansions will be crucial. If Mr Nagle moves too early he risks adding too much supply to the market and depressing prices.

Analysts are not expecting big changes to Glencore’s hard-charging business culture under Mr Nagle, who is seen as “incredibly commercial”.

“We expect a seamless transition from Ivan to Gary,” said Mr LaFemina.

The new chief executive will alsowant to improve Glencore’s safety record — it has suffered eight fatalities this year — and must decide whether to prune a tail of marginal assets including Glencore’s oil exploration businessand its Zambia copper unit. Glencore has a sprawling base of more than 150 industrial assets, according to Deutsche Bank.

Mr Nagle, who comes from the asset side of the business, will also have to get up to speed with its trading, or “market-ing”, arm.

One issue over which Mr Nagle has lit-tle power are the various regulatory

Copper is crucial to Glencore’s future along with cobalt, nickel and zinc, but Gary Nagle, below, needs to improve the safety record as he decides when to expand mines

‘It is clear we are fast approaching a moment where a standard on what is sufficiently ambitious will be decided’

accord. It has also been tagged as a key factor in curbing emissions from com-panies in “hard-to-abate” sectors such as shipping, where there are presently few viable alternatives to fossil fuels.

“When you feed that magic number of $2 per kilo into the economic models, then [green hydrogen] starts displacing diesel,” said Marco Alverà, chief execu-tive of Snam, the Italian energy infra-structure company.

As it stands, green hydrogen typically costs anywhere between $3.50 and $8 per kilogramme. An analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance earlier this year forecast the price would fall below $2 a kg by 2030, but the energy groups “coalition” would seek to shave four years off that timeline.

“Phase 1 of the tipping point is to start competing with diesel for all the trans-port sector — which costs a bit more than crude oil,” said Mr Alverà. For green hydrogen to compete with natural gas and coal, it will need to fall even fur-ther to $1 a kg.

Sceptics argue that both big fossil fuel consumers and energy groups are keen to promote hydrogen because it allows

Daniel Thomas — London

City broker Numis may be forced to open a new European office or buy a rival on the continent to service its cli-ents in the region, if the UK leaves the EU without an agreement on financial services.

With talks still ongoing and just three weeks until the end of the Brexit transi-tion period, City firms are preparing for the worst-case scenario that would leave them without EU market access.

Brussels has not yet said whether the UK will be allowed access based on “equivalence” — mutual recognition of regulatory standards. Without this, UK businesses such as Numis will in effect be unable to sell services such as research and market dealing in many parts of the EU.

Ross Mitchinson, co-chief executive of Numis, said the business had applied for licences in some EU countries but still lacked access to several larger coun-tries including France.

Numis would consider opening an EU

Financials

Numis plans for EU office in case of no-deal Brexit

to go from seeing [memorandums of understanding] in place to seeing actual offtake contracts,” he said. “Seeing the supply side commitment to scale and cost makes ambition less risky.”

Snam is betting on hydrogen in an effort to curb its own emissions. It com-mitted last month to a plan to invest €7bn over the next four years. Orsted, a leader in offshore wind power, also recently announced a new green hydro-gen project in conjunction with BP.

Mr Alverà sees the collaboration among the energy companies as a sort of “Airbus for hydrogen”, referring to the European alliance to create a world class aircraft manufacturer, with hopes that scaling production would not only make hydrogen more affordable as a fuel but might also preserve some manufactur-ing in Europe. The companies have committed to share expertise and work together to develop technology and large manufacturing capabilities.

“We have to avoid doing what we did with solar and wind subsidies in Europe, where a few countries paid all the subsi-dies and then all the manufacturing went offshore,” he said.

Energy. Renewable generation

‘Airbus for hydrogen’ seeks to cut low-carbon costs

Billy Nauman

A consortium of energy companies has joined forces to drive the cost of green hydrogen below $2 per kilogramme — the price at which they estimate the eco-friendly inert gas will become an attrac-tive alternative to fossil fuels.

The group, which includes Denmark’s Orsted, Italy’s Snam, Spain’s Iberdrola, the Saudi-based ACWA Power, the Aus-tralian CWP Renewables, China’s Envi-sion and the Norwegian chemical’s com-pany Yara, is aiming to lower prices by boosting their combined output of green hydrogen to 25 gigawatts by 2026, a 50-fold increase over present minimal levels.

Green hydrogen, which is produced through the electrolysis of water using renewable power, is a big part of the EU and UK plans to achieve the reductions in emissions set out in the Paris climate

Orsted and peers team up to

boost output of sustainable

fuel and help it replace diesel

managed decline in which reserves are not replaced as they run down.

By setting out a credible pathway to net zero, Mr Glasenberg believes Glen-core will be able to hang on to a business it can milk for cash and not be penalised by investors.

Coal accounts for about 10 per cent of earnings before interest, tax, deprecia-tion and amortisation, and 5 per cent of revenue, so it is not a huge part of its business.

The move has met a positive response. While Glencore’s commit-ments require careful consideration, they are “significant”, accordingto Adam Matthews, director of ethics and engagement at the Church of Eng-land Pensions Board and co-chair of the Transition Pathway Initiative.

“It is clear we are fast approaching a moment where a standard on what is sufficiently ambitious and what is not will be determined. Such a standard will clearly include scope 3 emissions,” he said.

Ultimately it will be up to Mr Nagle to decide whether Glencore can remain in coal or has to demerge the business.

“We believe a coal demerger will eventually happen after Gary Nagle takes over as CEO and Glencore will then be the green wave miner,” said

Neil HumeNatural Resources Editor

Glencore has had only three chief execu-tives since it was founded in 1974. Next year it will get a fourth when 45-year-old South African Gary Nagle takes the reins.

He has a formidable predecessor to live up to — over 19 years outgoing CEO Ivan Glasenberg built Glencore into a $42.5bn commodity trading and mining powerhouse that spans the globe, employing 160,000 staff and contrac-tors in 35 countries.

Mr Nagle also faces immediate chal-lenges. The company has come under heavy regulatory scrutiny in recent years including a US probe into possible corruption in developing countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It must decide on whether to remain in coal mining, a sector out of favour with investors focused on environmen-tal, social and governance criteria — and a division at Glencore currently run by Mr Nagle.

And it needs to give a jolt to a share price that despite doubling since a March low still languishes far below its 2011 flotation price.

“Glencore needs to decide what it wants to be in the post-Ivan, ESG world,” said Paul Gait, a mining expert at Azvalor Asset Management. “My gut feeling is that coal will be separated eventually.”

Now based in Australia, where he runs Glencore’s coal assets, Mr Nagle will move to Switzerland next year. He will spend six months working along-side Mr Glasenberg as he gets to know the company’s most important part-ners, including Felix Tshisekedi, presi-dent of the DRC, and the banks that finance its vast trading operations.

Mr Nagle was in Sydney when Mr Glasenberg anointed him as his succes-sor last week towards the end of an investor presentation in which Glencore announced its ambition to be the first big miner fully aligned with the goals of the Paris agreement on climate change.

Mr Glasenberg did not want Mr Nagle’s appointment to detract from his vision of a new, green-tinged Glencore that will attract climate-conscious investors, according to people familiar with his thinking.

The leadership transition comes as Glencore, which has missed out on the bull market in iron ore, enjoys a tailwind from rising industrial metals prices. If current prices persist, the group could generate $5.6bn of excess cash next year, allowing it to pay down debt and resume dividend payments that were suspended this year.

From there, Mr Nagle can get to grips with the two big decisions that reflect Glencore’s unique position as a com-pany at both ends of carbon spectrum. It is the world’s biggest exporter of ther-mal coal but also a big producer of metals crucial to the energy transi-tion — copper, cobalt, nickel and zinc.

At Friday’s event Glencore pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions — including “scope 3” cre-ated when customers burn raw materials — to net zero by 2050.

It plans to do this mainly by placing its coal business into

Glencore’s new chief faces tough choices in push to ride green wave Nagle will aim to decide fate of coal assets and how best to supply metals for energy transition

Mercedes Ruehl — Singapore

Booming sales of used cars in south-east Asia and India are fuelling a burst of fundraising by online platforms seiz-ing the pandemic-driven opportunity to sell to the region’s growing middle class.

A pick-up in consumer appetite for making bigger-ticket purchases online has helped create India’s newest uni-corn, a used car platform, while in south-east Asia these companies are raising fresh capital and plotting US list-ings.

The change in attitude mirrors a glo-bal trend. In the US, share prices of online used-car dealers have surged, with New York-listed Carvana rising more than 180 per cent this year. The valuation of privately held Cazoo, a UK-based start-up, has doubled to $2.5bn.

The $321m raised across south-east Asia and India this year by online play-ers selling used cars is comparatively small but a bright spot in a patchy fund-raising environment during the public health crisis.

Overall fundraising by start-ups dropped nearly 30 per cent in India in the first half of 2020 compared with 2019, to $4.2bn, according to Tracxn, a data provider. In south-east Asia over the same period it fell 18 per cent to $6.3bn, according to data from Google, Temasek and Bain & Co.

Car sales per capita in south and south-east Asia are low, helping fuel the rise of ride-hailing companies such as Gojek and Grab, south-east Asia’s big-gest start-ups, and Ola, which competes with Uber across India.

The number of cars in circulation equates to 22 per 1,000 people in India and 86 in south-east Asia, accordingto data from Momentum Works,a research firm. That compares with138 in China, 480 in Japan and 618 inthe US.

“Markets in south-east Asia have one of the lowest vehicle ownerships in the world, which also previously paved the way for ride-sharing platforms taking off,” said Oliver Rippel, co-founder of private equity firm Asia Partners and a former executive at Naspers, the South African internet giant.

Now, with ride-hailing and public transport being abandoned as unsafe across the coronavirus-ravaged region, people are snapping up used cars.

Monthly sales on Carsome, a Malay-sia-based used car platform that also has operations in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, have jumped to 6,000 cars, from 2,000 to 3,000 pre-Covid. The company this week raised $30m from investors including Asia Partners, and is planning an initial public offering in the US as soon as 2022.

“The pandemic has definitely acceler-ated our business. We expect to be prof-itable across the group next year,” said Eric Cheng, Carsome chief executive. “Then we want to list on a major exchange like the Nasdaq.”

Last month CARS24 became India’s first online used-car sales unicorn — a start-up valued at more than $1bn — after raising $200m from investors including Russian billionaire Yuri Mil-ner’s DST Global. CARS24, which sells more than 2m vehicles on its platform annually, plans to use the funds to expand new business lines including financing.

Automobiles

Asia’s online used car sellers tap investors after sales leap

probes the company faces. In 2018 it was ordered by the US Department of Justice to hand over documents and records relating to possible corruption and money laundering in Nigeria, Vene-zuela and the DRC over more than a dec-ade.

DoJ investigations usually take at least three years, although the depar-ture of Mr Glasenberg and other senior executives caught up in the inquiries could speed up the process. The com-pany has said it is co-operating with the investigations.

Another challenge for Mr Nagle will be maintaining a good relationship with Mr Glasenberg, whose presence will loom over the business even after his retirement.

Mr Glasenberg has said he has no intention of becoming the company’s next chairman — Tony Hayward cannot continue in the role much longer under the UK corporate governance code. But the outgoing chief will remain a big shareholder, with a 9.1 per cent stake worth almost $4bn.

“If Gary wants to defer to me for help, I will be there to help him if need be, but I definitely do not intend interfering with him,” Mr Glasenberg said. “He must run the company as he deems fit and create value for shareholders.”

GlencorePerformance and key moments since flotation (share price, pence)

Sources: Refinitiv; Glencore; WoodMac

The copper pipeline is dwindlingIndex of highly probable and probablecopper projects, 2001=100

0

50

100

150

200

250

05 10 15 192001

Cash flow projection for 2021 ($bn)

Copper5.6

Zinc3

Nickel 0.8Coal 1.6

Other 0.1

Industrialebitda11.1

Marketingebitda

3 Cash,tax,

interestand

capex-8.5

Freecashflow5.60

200

400

600

2011 15 20

IPO in London

CompletesXstrata deal Rio Tinto rebu�s

merger proposal

Commodity marketcrash/debt crisis.

Senior executivesstump up $500m

in cash call

DOJ launches investigation intoalleged bribery and corruption

Ivan Glasenbergsays he doesn’twant to be the

‘old guy’ runningthe company

Gary Naglenamednew CEO

COMPANIES & MARKETS

continued use of existing infrastructure, and express doubts that it will be any more than a “niche” energy solution.

Various countries have already set targets that encourage the development of green hydrogen. The EU in July said it wanted to install at least 40GW of green hydrogen capacity by 2030, and the UK has pledged to support the development of 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen produc-tion and to develop the first town heated

entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.

Nigel Topping, appointed by the UK government as the high-level champion for global climate action ahead of the UN climate summit next year, said the coalition was a demonstration of a com-mitment to build the infrastructure needed.

“In the next year, I think we’re going

Green hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water using renewable power

office or buying a company that had the necessary licences as an alternative, he said.

While EU clients are only a small share of company revenues at less than 2 per cent, Mr Mitchinson said it was important for client relationships and an area that he wanted to expand. “Eve-ryone wants a bit of certainty,” he said.

Numis is also in talks with regulators about how to improve the UK’s stock market listing process after Brexit, including how to adapt rules to attract fast growing companies.

While there were few initial public offerings during the pandemic, Alex Ham, co-chief executive of Numis, said that the pipeline for 2021 looked healthy, with companies that had done well during the pandemic accelerating plans and delayed flotations restarting.

He said that Numis had talked to the Treasury and other regulators about what could be done to attract compa-nies based in Europe to list in London and to retain those that are already listed in the UK.

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10 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Eva Szalay — London

Traders are bracing for big swings in the value of the pound as UK-EU trade talks go down to the wire with a key measure predicting the highest volatil-ity since the coronavirus crisis tore through markets earlier this year.

Sterling’s implied volatility over the next four weeks has reached a mark not seen since the aftermath of the March sell-off — having risen by nearly a third over the past week for both the dollar and euro exchange rates.

“Volatility going higher makes sense as negotiations sit on a knife edge,” said Ian Tew, a sterling trader at Barclays.

The next few days will be critical, he added, with markets sensitive to head-lines and set up for a “a decent-sized move for sterling”.

That marks a sharp turnround from last week when the pound hit itsstrongest level since May 2018 against the dollar after weeks of growingoptimism that a deal could be struck.

But a lack of progress over the week-end and tough words from both sides has sent the pound down about 0.7 per cent in just two days to trade a bit above

$1.33 from above $1.35 at the end of last week. The pound is also down 0.8 per cent against the euro by yesterday after-noon, which would mark its worst weekly performance since September if it does not improve in the coming days.

In recent weeks, investors upped their bets on a positive outcome to the talks but the lack of progress has punctured some of the optimism and forced inves-tors into buying contracts that protect them from large exchange rate shifts — driving up the implied volatility

That marked a quintupling from the Spac’s listing price.

Although the shares have dipped after that frenzy, the newly combinedcompany still boasts an overall market value of roughly $16bn. Mr Grantham holds about 4.8m shares in the com-pany, which at their $44.17 closing level on Monday would be worth over $210m.

But he pointed out that the company itself estimates that commercialproduction of its batteries for electric cars is years away and compared the current Spac frenzy to some of the wilder schemes launched in the 18th century South Sea Bubble.

Spacs have taken Wall Street by storm in 2020, generating lucrative returns for their backers as well as large fees for the underwriters and law firms that have helped usher them to market.

More than 200 blank cheque compa-nies have listed so far this year, raising a record $66.3bn, according to dataproviderRefinitiv.

This September, United Wholesale Mortgage agreed to go public by merg-ing with a blank-cheque company in a transaction that valued United at $16bn: the largest deal ever struck by a Spac.

measure. Bets that pay out if sterlingdepreciates have also increased.

Options markets indicate that buying protection against a weaker pound has become about 50 per cent moreexpensive than those that pay out if sterling rises.

Kamakshya Trivedi, co-head of global FX, rates and EM strategy at Goldman Sachs, said rising volatility and increased caution about further sterling gains reflect rising nervousness about the outcome, especially because many investors had expected an agreement to be struck ahead of the EU summit tomorrow.

“A deal could still come together in the coming days if political interven-tions are successful but it might take a little more brinkmanship to makecompromises palatable on all sides — something that is likely to keep[sterling] markets on edge,” he said.

Traders have also built up record positions in futures contracts to bet on or hedge against moves in UK interest rates as tension rises that Britain may leave the Brexit transition periodwithout a trade deal.Additional reporting by Philip Stafford

Currencies

Sterling traders poised for volatility as EU-UK negotiations hang in balance

Robin Wigglesworth — OsloEric Platt — New York

Investor Jeremy Grantham has “by accident” made about $200m from a personal investment in battery maker QuantumScape after it merged witha listed blank-cheque company — despite deriding the US craze forso-called Spacs as “reprehensible”.

Mr Grantham, the co-founder ofBoston-based GMO, is now semi-retired and works primarily in environmental philanthropy. But seven years ago, his personal foundation invested $12.5m in QuantumScape, a Stanford University spinout, as part of a series of bets onearly-stage “green” technology.

Mr Grantham stressed that he is a big believer in QuantumScape. But he was taken aback by his gains from investing in the company, which were super-charged since it announced in Septem-ber that it would secure a slot on the New York Stock Exchange by merging with a special purpose acquisitioncompany set up by Kensington CapitalPartners, a Canadian investment group.

“This is unlike anything else in my career. This was by accident the single

Equities

Grantham stumbles on $200m profit after Spac swoop on battery maker

biggest investment I have ever made,” he told the Financial Times. “It gets around the idea of listing requirements, so it is not a useful tool for a lot ofsuccessful companies. But I think it is a reprehensible instrument and very, very speculative by definition.”

Ironically for an investor mostly known for contrarian bets on underval-ued, unfashionable companies and

industries, the bet on QuantumScape is on track to be one of the most lucrative investments of Mr Grantham’s six-decade career.

The combination with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp valued Quan-tumScape at $3.3bn but the vehicle’s stock price more than doubled after the deal was announced on September 2 and spiked to a peak of $52.80 after the merger was formally approved and completed on November 30.

‘This is unlike anything else in my career. This was by accident the biggest investment I have made’

The pound last week hit its strongest level against the dollar since 2018

fall in the currency since the end of 2019. The scheme was the centrepiece of

the turbulent tenure of Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who ran the country’s economy until his surprise resignation last month.

His successor, former bureaucrat Lutfi Elvan, and a new central bankgovernor, Naci Agbal, have been left to pick up the pieces.

Their task is a daunting one but they have a chance to turn the tide, said Hakan Kara, a former Turkish central bank chief economist.

“There is an opportunity here,” he said. “With more credible people who are saying exactly what the market expects, that will attract some inflows [of foreign capital].”

Dwindling reserves contributed to downgrades by international rating agencies and alarmed foreign investors, who pulled roughly $13bn from Turkish stocks and bonds in the first 10 months of 2020, central bank data show.

The shake-up in the country’s eco-nomic management has lured some for-eign fund flows with $1.9bn shifting back into Turkish assets in the three weeks after Mr Albayrak’s departure.

A decision last month to raise thecentral bank’s main interest rate sharply to 15 per cent, plus the lifting of other measures that had put pressure on commercial banks to lend, is expected to help slow the credit-fuelled, consumption-driven growth that was stoking a large current account deficit and contributing to the drain on reserves.

But the pandemic provides a chal-lenging backdrop for correcting the trade imbalance. Meanwhile, Turkish companies continue to create demand for FX as they pay down foreign debts.

Such factors mean it is likely to be a “relatively slow process to rebuild reserves”, said Paul Gamble, a senior director at rating agency Fitch.

If the country can attract large enough inflows of foreign money, the central bank could begin building its coffers by starting FX purchase auctions for the first time since 2011.

Some analysts warned that the time was not yet right. “It’s too early,” said Haluk Burumcekci, an Istanbul-basedeconomist and consultant, pointing to the relatively small size of recent foreign inflows and the fact that sceptical local investors have continued to buy dollars.

“If there is no de-dollarisation and the central bank starts buying foreigncurrency, the dollar will rise again [against the lira],” he said.

Mr Kara said further rate rises would be “very important” for creating the right environment for reserve-building.

Raising the main rate to 17 per cent and keeping it there for six months would create a “virtuous circle” that he estimated could help the central bank to add $15-20bn to its war chest.

The question is whether Mr Erdogan, a staunch opponent of high interest rates, is willing to tolerate further rate rises. “That’s the biggest risk ahead,” he added.

Steps by the central bank to reduce its reliance on swaps, and the lifting of measures that prevented Turkish banks from performing similar transactions with foreign counterparts, would help restore the normal functioning ofTurkey’s financial markets, analysts said.

But bankers expect the arrangement to be dismantled gradually to avoid an abrupt decline in the central bank’s reported reserves.

“I think public banks will continue to roll over swaps for a long time,” said one Istanbul banker.

The central bank nodded to a desireto increase reserves in the statement that accompanied last month’s interest rate rise.

Bulent Gultekin, a former Turkish central bank governor who is now aprofessor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylva-nia, said a comprehensive plan and good communication would be critical to “create an environment of confidence to reverse the capital flows”.

Prof Gultekin added: “It was never clear where they were going [with the previous policies] — that was the reason why they got into that mess.”

Laura Pitel — Ankara

Foreign investors have snapped up Turkish assets in recent weeks, opening the window for the country to rebuild its stores of foreign currency that were severely depleted in an ill-fated attempt to prop up the lira.

Analysts have warned, however, that Turkey’s newly installed financeminister and central bank chief have their work cut out, given the scale of the rebuild needed and the damage that the pandemic is inflicting on one of the biggest emerging markets.

The draining of Turkey’s FX coffers has been one of the overarching worries of foreign investors over the past two years since reserves are considered a crucial insurance policy against the country’s large import bill and heftyforeign debt obligations.

Gross reserves, excluding gold, have hovered around a 15-year low in recent months, according to data from the Turkish central bank.

The picture is even more bleak once an adjustment is made for a contentious accounting method adopted by thecentral bank last year.

When tens of billions of dollarsborrowed through short-term swap arrangements with commercial banks are excluded from the bank’s balance sheet, net foreign assets — a proxy for net reserves — stood at a deficit of $52bn at the end of October, according to Financial Times calculations.

A key cause of the decline was an intervention aimed at halting a freefall in the lira. The central bank spent tens of billions of dollars, according to ana-lysts, but has failed to stem a 24 per cent

The country burnt through

billions of dollars this year in

an effort to prop up the lira

‘It was never clear where they were going. That was why they got into that mess’

Investor flight: some foreign fund flows have come back to Turkey after an exodus over the past two years Murad Sezer/Reuters

Currencies. Dwindling reserves

Investment inflows pave way for Turkey to rebuild forex coffers

Turkey’s foreign currency war chest is severely depleted$bn

Net foreign assets are considered a key proxy for foreign currency reserves Sources: CBRT; FT calculations

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

Jan 2019 2020 Oct

Net foreign assests

NFA excluding short-term borrowing

Christian Shepherd — Beijing Thomas Hale — Hong Kong

Shares in JD Health surged 75 per cent on their trading debut after the unit of JD.com, the Chinese ecommerce group, raised $3.5bn in Hong Kong’s biggestinitial public offering of 2020.

JD Health, which sells pharmaceuti-cals and health services online, trimmed those gains to end trading56 per cent higher yesterday.

Demand heavily outstripped supply. The company sold 339.9m shares at HK$70.58 ($9.11) each, or slightly more than 12 per cent of its share capital, according to a term sheet, giving it a market capitalisation of about $44bn.

If bankers exercise a so-calledoverallotment option, which would boost the offering by 15 per cent, the IPO could surpass $3.9bn.

JD Health is Hong Kong’s first bigtech listing since Chinese regulators in November stepped in at the last minute to suspend payments business Ant Group’s proposed $37bn IPO, which would have been the world’s biggest.

Andy Maynard, managing director at China Renaissance Securities, hailed a “landmark transaction” and said the shares could rally further: “We’ve still got a lot of institutional buyers because it was so heavily oversubscribed.”

JD Health and other Chinese online

healthcare platforms including Ping An Good Doctor and Alibaba’s AliHealth have reported surging revenue and user activity this year. Wariness of hospital visits in the pandemic fuelled a jump in online consultations in early 2020.

Online consultations and pharmacies also offer a way to plug gaps in China’s healthcare coverage where the bestprovision is in top-tier city hospitals.

Xin Lijun, chief executive, said the platform was hosting more than 100,000 online consultations a day — a number that peaked at 150,000 during the height of China’s Covid-19 outbreak.

New government policies allowing insurance claims for online care and hospitals distributing medicines via the internet were other lasting changes that benefited JD Health, he said.

“This was not only a single incident,” said Mr Xin, referring to the pandemic. “It raised the overall standard of China’s online healthcare.”

JD Health’s internet pharmacybusiness had 72.5m annual users last year and its healthcare platform, which links patients and medical profession-als, has more than 65,000 doctors.

For the six months to June, JD Health reported a Rmb5.4bn ($820m) loss on Rmb8.8bn in revenue with the latter growing 76 per cent year on year. Under-writers on the deal included BofASecurities, UBS and Haitong Securities.Additional reporting by Wang Xueqiao in ShanghaiSee Lex

Equities

JD Health shares jump 75% on debut in Hong Kong

‘This was not only a single incident. It raised the overall standard ofChina’s online healthcare’

Our globalteam gives you market-moving news and views, 24 hours a dayft.com/markets

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Markets Time: 8/12/2020 - 17:45 User: stephen.smith Page Name: MARKETS1, Part,Page,Edition: ASI, 10, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 11

COMPANIES & MARKETS

Tesla fell after a filing revealed that the electric-car maker planned to raise up to $5bn by selling stock.

The shares would be sold “from time to time, through an ‘at-the-market’ offering programme”, stated the Californian company. The news comes just weeks before Tesla is due to enter the S&P 500, a move that is expected to fuel demand for the stock as passive investments that track the benchmark buy the stock.

A target price boost from UBS helped Arista Networks climb.

Analyst David Vogt raised the computer networking company’s target price to $308 a share from $260 on confidence over its introduction of 400G, the next generation of cloud infrastructure that promises substantially higher transfer speeds.

“Following the Q4 guide and commentary, favourable channel checks and bullish conference remarks on maintaining share in 400G, we now model Arista maintaining its 100G share in the 400G data centre market going forward,” said Mr Vogt.

Uber slid after the ride-hailing group announced that it was abandoning its efforts to develop self-driving cars.

Uber will instead transfer its 1,200-employee self-driving unit to Aurora, a driverless vehicle start-up backed by Amazon and Sequoia. Ray Douglas

Wall Street LondonEurozone

Beijer Ref climbed after announcing that EQT was buying Carrier’s entire stake in the Swedish cooling technology group.

The Stockholm-based private equity company would then become the principal shareholder and control 29.6 per cent of the capital in Beijer.

“The ambition is to support Beijer Ref’s continued growth journey, both through acquisitions and organically,” said Albert Gustafsson, a partner at EQT.

A better than expected earnings outlook helped to lift Hella. In a trading update, the German automotive part supplier said it expected group currency and portfolio-adjusted sales in the range of €6.1bn to €6.6bn for the full year 2020-21, from a previous estimate of €5.6bn to €6.1bn.

“Production trends have remained resilient with strong momentum in China continuing and a more limited than expected impact from European government shutdowns on volumes in November,” said Citi analyst Gabriel Adler, who gave Hella a “buy” rating.

Qiagen rose after the German diagnostics company improved its earnings outlook, stating that net sales were expected to grow approximately 22 per cent in 2020 and 18 per cent to 20 per cent for 2021.

Covid-19 tests are among the products that Qiagen makes. Ray Douglas

Ashtead climbed after the construction and industrial equipment rental group lifted its full-year guidance.

Its performance was boosted by supplying equipment and services to first responders, hospitals and food services companies during the pandemic.

“We continue to like the story in terms of . . . increased ownership to rental penetration but are cognisant that medium-term GDP and construction growth is likely to be lower than pre-Covid levels and the size and shape of a recovery is uncertain,” said RBC Europe analyst Andrew Brooke, who gave Ashtead a “sector perform” rating and target price of £27 a share.

An upbeat trading update helped to lift plumbing and heating group Ferguson.

Underlying trading profit rose to $486m for the quarter ending October 31 from $433m a year earlier, representing a 12.2 per cent rise.

“Since the start of the second quarter, Ferguson has continued to generate low single-digit revenue growth in broadly flat markets, although we remaincautious on the outlook for the year as a whole, considering current pandemic trends,” said Kevin Murphy, group chief executive.

Virgin Money rose after Liberum initiated a “buy” rating for the UK’s sixth-largest bank. Ray Douglas

3 One-month implied volatility for sterling hits April high3 Wall Street’s S&P 500 breaks 3,700 mark for the first time3 Gold up more the 5% this month after climbing five out of the past six sessions

The pound was volatile yesterday as investors weighed Britain’s chances of striking a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU in make-or-break talks this week.

The currency weakened to $1.3288 after British officials reported “no tangible progress” in UK-EU trade talks but regained some ground when the UK said it would ditch parts of a controversial bill that breached Britain’s withdrawal treaty. By the evening, the pound was flat for the day at $1.3363, putting its losses for the week at 0.5 per cent.

This week, one-month implied volatility for sterling — a measure of expected price swings over the period — hit its highest level since the first days of April, following a coronavirus-induced sell-off of global assets in March.

“This doesn’t tell you markets are pricing in no deal,” said Trevor Greetham, investment strategist at Royal London Asset Management. “But it tells you market participants are anxious.”

The FTSE 100 benchmark edged up 0.1 per cent while the more domestic-focused FTSE 250 index slid 0.3 per cent.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent by lunchtime in New York to break the 3,700 mark for the first time.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also hit a record high after rising 0.2 per cent while the pan-regional Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2 per cent.

“Markets are consolidating,” said Ben Laidler, chief executive of Tower Hudson Research — after global stocks as measured by the FTSE All-World index climbed more than 12 per cent in November and continued rallying in the first few days of this month.

“You’ve had two big themes: coronavirus vaccines and the possibility of US [economic] stimulus,” he added. “But investors are concerned about markets getting too far ahead of the current macroeconomic situation.”

The oil price, which was buoyed last week by the Opec+ group agreeing to

impossible to resist — particularlyafter his candidates fared poorly in November’s municipal elections.

Marcelo Castro, a portfolio manager at Brazilian hedge fund SPX Capital, said a slow deterioration in Brazil was more likely than a sudden crisis. “It’s bubbling and frothing but not exploding.”

Mr Castro expected a rebound in growth next year to drive higher infla-tion, forcing rates up to 4 per cent by June. But he conceded that “there are lots of risk scenarios around this”.

Ilan Goldfajn, chairman of Credit Suisse Brazil and a former central bank head, believes nothing will happen on extending coronavirus spending or pro-gressing reforms until February. “If that’s the case, Brazil can surf the risks for a couple of months,” he said.

But if next year brought extra spend-ing without reforms, Mr Goldfajn said the risk of a market crisis would rise.

Marcos Casarín, Latin America chief economist at Oxford Economics, agreed that the real test would come next year with short-term debt equal to about 6 per cent of GDP needing to be rolled over by April. “Brazil is on a tightrope,” he said.

The scenario of a markets crisis in Latin America’s biggest economy is not one many Brazil watchers want tocontemplate. But Mr Casarín said: “It’s increasingly likely that it will become the baseline scenario unless we see a U-turn from Bolsonaro.”

However, Mr Guedes ridiculed the idea that his plans lack credibility in his riposte to the central bank governor, saying: “The day that the stock market is falling 50 per cent and the dollar exploding, then I will say that credibility is lacking.”

michael.stott@ft.com

curtail planned increases in production, drifted higher. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.1 per cent to $48.86 a barrel.

A modest rally in haven assets continued. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury, which had been approaching the 1 per cent milestone late last week, slipped a further 1 basis point yesterday to 0.91 per cent.

Gold, meanwhile, has risen five out the past six sessions, taking the precious metal up more than 5 per cent since the start of the month to $1,870 an ounce.Naomi Rovnick and Eva Szalay

What you need to know

Pound bu�eted by Brexit drama

Source: Refinitiv

Against the dollar ($ per £)

1.320

1.325

1.330

1.335

1.340

1.345

1.350

1.355

1 8Dec 2020

The day in the markets

Markets update

US Eurozone Japan UK China BrazilStocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp BovespaLevel 3697.49 1521.91 26467.08 6558.82 3410.18 113778.06% change on day 0.15 0.17 -0.30 0.05 -0.19 0.17Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $Level 90.807 1.211 104.125 1.336 6.532 5.065% change on day 0.017 -0.165 0.082 0.300 -0.095 -0.107Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bondYield 0.910 -0.607 0.015 0.256 3.269 6.855Basis point change on day -1.660 -2.400 -0.580 -2.400 -2.600 -0.900World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX)Level 417.22 48.88 45.67 1859.95 23.75 3404.70% change on day 0.07 0.37 -0.04 0.92 -1.96 -0.49Yesterday'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

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Oct 2020 Dec3200

3360

3520

3680

3840

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Oct 2020 Dec1280

1360

1440

1520

1600

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Oct 2020 Dec5120

5760

6400

7040

Biggest movers% US Eurozone UK

Ups

Equifax 9.59Arconic 5.31Marathon Oil 4.82Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd 3.98Arista Networks 3.57

Coloplast 2.95Novozymes 1.91Siemens 1.76Santander 1.67Dsm 1.60

Smith (ds) 3.84Experian 3.36Intertek 3.263i 2.93Sse 2.90

%

Dow

ns

H&r Block -7.46Alliance Data Systems -5.12Autozone -4.72Coty -4.50Newell Brands -3.91

Prices taken at 17:00 GMT

Klepierre -3.78Amadeus It -2.70Credit Agricole -2.66Inditex -2.61Man -2.53Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone

Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -3.62Intercontinental Hotels -3.57Rolls-royce Holdings -3.52Hsbc Holdings -2.71Berkeley Holdings (the) -2.62

All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.

Michael Stott

Markets Insight

I t’s not unusual to hear an emerging market government be told toproduce a credible plan showing public finances are sustainable. But when the person demanding it is

the government-appointed head of the central bank, there may be greaterreason for investor concern.

Paolo Guedes, Brazil’s economyminister, certainly didn’t appreciate the wake-up call late last month, swiftly challenging Roberto Campos Neto, the central bank chief: “If he has a better plan, then ask him what his plan is.”

Mr Campos Neto, however, had a point. Mr Guedes is an acolyte of the free market principles of Milton Friedman and a believer in smaller government.

But he has gone on one of the emerg-ing market world’s biggest coronavirus-related spending sprees, using a meta-phorical credit card that was already maxed out before the pandemic. The spending has helped Brazil avoid a deep recession this year but at what price?

“I’m seriously concerned about the medium-term and the short-term fiscal picture,” said Alberto Ramos, Latin America chief economist at Goldman Sachs, noting that Brazil has one of the highest levels of public debt to GDP of any emerging market — and predicting it will hit 94 per cent this year.

More than 90 per cent of Brazil’s gov-ernment debt is issued in local currency, according to national treasury figures and the stress is starting to show in domestic markets.

The yield curve for Brazilian debt has steepened sharply this year with the10-year bond now yielding 7.4 per cent compared with today’s central bank benchmark Selic rate of 2 per cent.

Luis Oganes, global head of emerging markets at JPMorgan, said it was

Bolsonaro borrowing binge gives investors in Brazil the jitters

“among the steepest yield curves on the planet” with long-term rates rising sharply from shorter-term ones. Inves-tors are pricing in a rate rise of up to300 basis points starting in January, he said, and “the government is issuing massively at the short end because it doesn’t want to validate this curve”.

Average maturities on domesticfederal public debt are down to 3.57 years at the end of October from 3.83 years at the end of last year, according to Brazil’s national treasury.

Behind the jitters lies the fear that Brazil’s much-vaunted reform pro-gramme to cut high budget deficits —

the main reason why investors feted Jair Bolsonaro’s election as president — has stalled. “The problem is essentially political,” said Zeina Latif, an economic consultant in São Paulo. “The economy ministry knows what needs to be done but we are seeing an economy minister who has been greatly weakened and who now doesn’t convince.”

Mr Bolsonaro, meanwhile, has discov-ered the electoral joys of welfare spend-ing. His opinion poll ratings jumped after he launched a $110 a monthly sub-sidy for nearly a third of the population at a cost of more than $9bn a month.

The snag is that the “coronavoucher” payments are due to end on December 31. As his re-election campaign cranks up, Mr Bolsonaro may find the attrac-tions of literally buying popularity

‘We are seeing an economy minister who has been greatly weakened and who now doesn’t convince’

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Markets Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:58 User: stephen.smith Page Name: MARKETS2, Part,Page,Edition: ASI, 11, 1

12 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

WORLD MARKETS AT A GLANCE FT.COM/MARKETSDATA

Change during previous day’s trading (%)S&P 500

0.15%

Nasdaq Composite

0.07%

Dow Jones Ind

0.32%

FTSE 100

0.05%

FTSE Eurofirst 300

0.17%

Nikkei

-0.30%

Hang Seng

-0.76%

FTSE All World $

0.07%

$ per €

-0.165%

$ per £

0.300%

¥ per $

0.082%

£ per €

-0.439%

Oil Brent $ Sep

-0.57%

Gold $

0.92%

Stock Market movements over last 30 days, with the FTSE All-World in the same currency as a comparisonAMERICAS EUROPE ASIANov 09 - - Index All World Nov 09 - Dec 08 Index All World Nov 09 - Dec 08 Index All World Nov 09 - Dec 08 Index All World Nov 09 - Dec 08 Index All World Nov 09 - Dec 08 Index All World

S&P 500 New York

3,550.50

3,697.51

Day 0.15% Month 5.35% Year 17.53%

Nasdaq Composite New York

11,895.23

12,528.75

Day 0.07% Month 5.31% Year 44.71%

Dow Jones Industrial New York

28,323.40

30,166.44

Day 0.32% Month 6.49% Year 7.67%

S&P/TSX COMP Toronto

16,475.86

17,606.21

Day 0.14% Month 8.15% Year 3.60%

IPC Mexico City

38,530.50

43,200.77

Day -0.13% Month 12.13% Year 3.01%

Bovespa São Paulo

103,515.16

113,778.06

Day 0.17% Month 12.67% Year 2.33%

FTSE 100 London

6,186.29

6,558.82

Day 0.05% Month 11.06% Year -9.34%

FTSE Eurofirst 300 Europe

1,473.39

1,521.91

Day 0.17% Month 7.38% Year -4.30%

CAC 40 Paris

5,336.32

5,560.67

Day -0.23% Month 12.09% Year -5.30%

Xetra Dax Frankfurt

13,095.9713,278.49

Day 0.06% Month 6.40% Year 0.85%

Ibex 35 Madrid

7,459.40

8,227.60

Day -0.58% Month 19.75% Year -12.31%

FTSE MIB Milan

20,750.18

22,053.42

Day -0.24% Month 12.17% Year -4.77%

Nikkei 225 Tokyo

24,325.23

26,467.08

Day -0.30% Month 8.81% Year 13.33%

Hang Seng Hong Kong

26,016.1726,304.56

Day -0.76% Month 2.31% Year -0.73%

Shanghai Composite Shanghai

3,373.73 3,410.18

Day -0.19% Month 2.96% Year 17.11%

Kospi Seoul

2,447.20

2,700.93

Day -1.62% Month 11.77% Year 29.74%

FTSE Straits Times Singapore

2,609.36

2,825.63

Day 0.00% Month 9.51% Year -11.61%

BSE Sensex Mumbai

41,893.06

45,608.51

Day 0.40% Month 8.87% Year 12.77%

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 54730.38 55152.30Australia All Ordinaries 6922.20 6908.90

S&P/ASX 200 6687.70 6675.00S&P/ASX 200 Res 5123.00 5128.50

Austria ATX 2635.41 2642.65Belgium BEL 20 3692.34 3697.56

BEL Mid 8298.72 8277.70Brazil IBovespa 113778.06 113589.77Canada S&P/TSX 60 1048.63 1046.74

S&P/TSX Comp 17606.21 17582.35S&P/TSX Div Met & Min 687.77 710.22

Chile S&P/CLX IGPA Gen 20656.26 20933.36China FTSE A200 13273.69 13315.22

FTSE B35 9000.71 8988.96Shanghai A 3574.52 3581.22Shanghai B 240.04 242.05Shanghai Comp 3410.18 3416.60Shenzhen A 2400.63 2401.61Shenzhen B 1046.25 1042.80

Colombia COLCAP 1363.74 1341.23Croatia CROBEX 2013.05 2011.29

Cyprus CSE M&P Gen 68.46 68.68Czech Republic PX 977.10 973.13Denmark OMXC Copenahgen 20 1393.51 1380.43Egypt EGX 30 11019.08 10995.13Estonia OMX Tallinn 1320.89 1323.76Finland OMX Helsinki General 10815.48 10749.36France CAC 40 5560.67 5573.38

SBF 120 4400.87 4409.77Germany M-DAX 29653.86 29474.44

TecDAX 3139.42 3123.55XETRA Dax 13278.49 13271.00

Greece Athens Gen 791.17 786.85FTSE/ASE 20 1894.67 1884.06

Hong Kong Hang Seng 26304.56 26506.85HS China Enterprise 10409.59 10473.32HSCC Red Chip 3667.20 3709.27

Hungary Bux 39655.97 39198.31India BSE Sensex 45608.51 45426.97

Nifty 500 11088.65 11070.25Indonesia Jakarta Comp 5944.41 5930.76Ireland ISEQ Overall 7476.45 7471.53Israel Tel Aviv 125 1514.43 1522.30

Italy FTSE Italia All-Share 23980.85 24016.89FTSE Italia Mid Cap 37464.65 37235.42FTSE MIB 22053.42 22107.18

Japan 2nd Section 6689.56 6630.74Nikkei 225 26467.08 26547.44S&P Topix 150 1481.30 1485.52Topix 1758.81 1760.75

Jordan Amman SE 1580.01 1582.72Kenya NSE 20 1782.78 1786.42Kuwait KSX Market Index 6633.44 6603.51Latvia OMX Riga 1122.30 1125.73Lithuania OMX Vilnius 794.27 793.67Luxembourg LuxX 1307.39 1310.34Malaysia FTSE Bursa KLCI 1631.70 1622.89Mexico IPC 43200.77 43255.25Morocco MASI 11011.15 10977.68Netherlands AEX 616.59 616.20

AEX All Share 894.04 895.12New Zealand NZX 50 12719.59 12656.02Nigeria SE All Share 35064.36 35137.99Norway Oslo All Share 1017.37 1006.88Pakistan KSE 100 42101.78 42115.31

Philippines Manila Comp 7203.67 7134.56Poland Wig 56011.89 55567.38Portugal PSI 20 4759.11 4703.77

PSI General 3536.37 3482.83Romania BET Index 9469.56 9493.39Russia Micex Index 3179.61 3195.08

RTX 1364.66 1368.86Saudi-Arabia TADAWUL All Share Index 8612.13 8633.38Singapore FTSE Straits Times 2825.63 2825.51Slovakia SAX 347.95 347.95Slovenia SBI TOP - -South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share 59159.36 59527.70

FTSE/JSE Res 20 56971.50 57494.49FTSE/JSE Top 40 54262.51 54646.92

South Korea Kospi 2700.93 2745.44Kospi 200 363.45 369.86

Spain IBEX 35 8227.60 8275.60Sri Lanka CSE All Share 6564.00 6473.76Sweden OMX Stockholm 30 1925.50 1907.61

OMX Stockholm AS 764.42 756.75Switzerland SMI Index 10394.10 10375.38

Taiwan Weighted Pr 14360.40 14256.60Thailand Bangkok SET 1478.92 1449.83Turkey BIST 100 1339.89 1329.90UAE Abu Dhabi General Index 5062.38 5042.43UK FT 30 2485.40 2403.80

FTSE 100 6558.82 6555.39FTSE 4Good UK 6129.90 6128.86FTSE All Share 3695.13 3695.80FTSE techMARK 100 6129.91 6179.83

USA DJ Composite 10070.51 10041.50DJ Industrial 30166.44 30069.79DJ Transport 12769.71 12725.21DJ Utilities 860.20 859.85Nasdaq 100 12584.51 12596.47Nasdaq Cmp 12528.75 12519.95NYSE Comp 14395.18 14417.33S&P 500 3697.49 3691.96Wilshire 5000 38781.49 38704.22

Venezuela IBC 1344245.50 1376478.10Vietnam VNI 1029.26 1029.98

Cross-Border DJ Global Titans ($) 430.29 429.88Euro Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3525.87 3530.08Euronext 100 ID 1102.62 1104.38FTSE 4Good Global ($) 9081.66 9069.13FTSE All World ($) 417.22 416.92FTSE E300 1521.91 1519.27FTSE Eurotop 100 2870.39 2869.69FTSE Global 100 ($) 2426.30 2424.65FTSE Gold Min ($) 2395.46 2329.85FTSE Latibex Top (Eur) 4440.00 4432.20FTSE Multinationals ($) 2644.36 2643.81FTSE World ($) 741.34 740.79FTSEurofirst 100 (Eur) 3921.56 3920.64FTSEurofirst 80 (Eur) 4827.91 4831.34MSCI ACWI Fr ($) 632.46 633.09MSCI All World ($) 2635.88 2639.66MSCI Europe (Eur) 1599.10 1601.39MSCI Pacific ($) 3004.75 3015.65S&P Euro (Eur) 1635.98 1636.67S&P Europe 350 (Eur) 1569.71 1567.08S&P Global 1200 ($) 2916.74 2915.09Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3091.83 3087.99

(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 LOSERSAMERICA LONDON EURO MARKETS TOKYOACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's

traded m's price changeAmazon.com 43.4 3145.00 -13.00Apple 42.5 123.89 0.14Boeing 25.7 236.51 -1.66Microsoft 19.7 215.96 1.67Advanced Micro Devices 18.0 92.32 -1.75Pfizer 16.1 42.40 1.15Nvidia 15.3 535.35 -8.92Facebook 13.2 284.45 -1.13Salesforce.com 12.4 227.88 0.18Netflix 9.8 508.00 -7.78

BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day'sprice change chng%

UpsEquifax 187.21 16.38 9.59Arconic 30.34 1.53 5.31Marathon Oil 7.01 0.32 4.82Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd 27.56 1.06 3.98Arista Networks 285.45 9.84 3.57

DownsH&r Block 16.38 -1.32 -7.46Alliance Data Systems 76.91 -4.15 -5.12Autozone 1102.60 -54.58 -4.72Coty 7.12 -0.34 -4.50Newell Brands 20.75 -0.85 -3.91

ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day'straded m's price change

Unilever 247.6 4354.00 19.00Rio Tinto 200.3 5444.00 -17.00Astrazeneca 140.8 8134.00 63.00Flutter Entertainment 129.4 14730.00 -270.00British American Tobacco 111.4 2902.00 53.00Hsbc Holdings 104.0 400.40 -11.15Anglo American 100.9 2531.50 -30.00Bp 98.4 272.60 -1.20Vodafone 87.5 130.76 -1.46Glaxosmithkline 87.5 1405.00 7.20

BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day'sprice change chng%

UpsSirius Real Estate Ld 95.50 4.10 4.49Virgin Money Uk 135.40 5.45 4.19Tp Icap 235.00 9.00 3.98Smith (ds) 362.00 13.40 3.84Oxford Biomedica 848.00 28.00 3.41

DownsEnergean 705.40 -79.70 -10.15C&c 228.50 -14.50 -5.97Greencore 116.50 -7.10 -5.74Easyjet 855.00 -42.20 -4.70Babcock Int 314.50 -15.50 -4.70

ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day'straded m's price change

Asml Holding 291.5 384.75 -2.05Sap Se O.n. 231.9 102.08 0.36Unilever 230.6 52.96 0.39Total 191.9 36.95 -0.21Unicredit 180.7 7.92 -0.11Basf Se Na O.n. 175.6 61.62 0.87Santander 167.0 2.77 0.05Royal Dutch Shella 164.8 15.53 -0.06Bayer Ag Na O.n. 161.3 47.19 0.03Lvmh 159.9 494.45 0.75

BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day'sprice change chng%

UpsColoplast B A/s 122.77 3.52 2.95Assa Abloy Ab Ser. B 19.93 0.46 2.35Atlas Copco Ab Ser. B 37.73 0.76 2.05Atlas Copco Ab Ser. A 43.34 0.84 1.97Novozymes B A/s 46.49 0.87 1.91

DownsKlepierre 19.10 -0.75 -3.78Amadeus It 62.74 -1.74 -2.70Credit Agricole 10.45 -0.29 -2.66Inditex 26.88 -0.72 -2.61Man Se St O.n. 42.35 -1.10 -2.53

ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day'straded m's price change

Softbank . 570.7 7094.00 -29.00M3,. 489.1 8852.00 402.00Fast Retailing Co., 378.1 85400.00 130.00Sony 341.1 9704.00 29.00Recruit Hldgs Co Ltd 331.5 4105.00 49.00Toyota Motor 297.6 7199.00 -5.00Ana Holdings 285.9 2310.50 -46.50Tokyo Electron 284.4 37350.00 460.00Fanuc 210.3 25295.00 -570.00Sumco 185.4 2349.00 27.00

BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day'sprice change chng%

UpsM3,. 8852.00 402.00 4.76Sekisui House, 2042.00 83.50 4.26Cyberagent,. 7100.00 280.00 4.11Oji Holdings 533.00 20.00 3.90Hino Motors, 955.00 34.00 3.69

DownsMitsubishi Chemical Holdings 623.90 -21.40 -3.32Olympus 2168.00 -74.00 -3.30Daiichi Sankyo , 3373.00 -111.00 -3.19Suzuki Motor 5339.00 -172.00 -3.12Mitsui Chemicals,. 2844.00 -88.00 -3.00

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

Dec 08 %Chg %ChgFTSE 100 price(p) week ytdWinnersRolls-royce Holdings 126.25 12.6 -46.0Imperial Brands 1534.00 11.3 -18.2Bhp 1926.20 9.6 7.6London Stock Exchange 8722.00 9.2 13.3British American Tobacco 2902.00 9.1 -11.1Bt 134.10 9.0 -31.6Rio Tinto 5444.00 8.9 20.3Flutter Entertainment 14730.00 8.8 58.5Antofagasta 1426.50 8.8 51.0Anglo American 2531.50 8.7 15.0Glencore 237.50 8.0 -1.5Bp 272.60 6.9 -43.3

LosersBerkeley Holdings (the) 4305.00 -11.9 -13.0Kingfisher 263.50 -6.5 19.1Just Eat Takeaway.com N.v. 7532.00 -6.2 -Taylor Wimpey 157.35 -5.2 -20.1Dcc 5436.00 -5.1 -17.7Persimmon 2701.00 -4.9 -1.1Barratt Developments 626.00 -4.5 -16.8Legal & General 254.10 -4.4 -18.3Sage 564.40 -4.0 -24.5Morrison (wm) Supermarkets 176.45 -3.5 -12.8Rightmove 626.80 -2.9 -2.2Lloyds Banking 37.20 -2.8 -41.6

Dec 08 %Chg %ChgFTSE 250 price(p) week ytdWinnersMicro Focus Int 470.90 32.1 -57.6Ferrexpo 262.20 16.3 63.0G4s 255.30 11.5 18.6Bmo Commercial Property Trust 83.00 11.4 -28.4Network Int Holdings 308.60 10.8 -51.4Calisen 209.30 9.9 -Carnival 1503.50 9.8 -58.8Firstgroup 67.35 8.9 -47.1Petrofac 175.75 8.9 -54.1Workspace 789.00 8.7 -34.1Airtel Africa 93.90 8.2 19.2Ti Fluid Systems 240.70 8.2 -9.0

LosersAvon Rubber 3780.00 -18.3 81.7Hochschild Mining 195.20 -15.1 10.7Tui Ag 451.80 -11.7 -54.4Pets At Home 370.80 -11.5 29.2Babcock Int 314.50 -10.1 -50.2Cmc Markets 361.00 -9.3 144.6Grafton 830.50 -7.7 -7.6Iwg 326.00 -7.3 -25.8Hiscox Ltd 1022.00 -6.9 -28.6Dunelm 1159.00 -6.8 0.0Liontrust Asset Management 1315.00 -6.7 17.4Trainline 450.00 -6.4 -10.7

Dec 08 %Chg %ChgFTSE SmallCap price(p) week ytdWinnersCountrywide 314.00 38.6 7.4Menzies(john) 238.00 24.2 -49.4Hyve 119.60 22.0 -58.5Stagecoach 73.95 18.4 -54.0Go-ahead 978.50 17.2 -55.7Rm 239.00 15.5 -14.0Senior 90.00 14.0 -51.6Clipper Logistics 558.00 13.9 91.1Newriver Reit 86.80 13.6 -56.8Studio Retail 276.00 13.6 16.5Keystone Investment Trust 328.00 13.1 -7.3Tullow Oil 32.21 11.5 -46.0

LosersAvon Rubber 3780.00 -18.3 81.7Ted Baker 121.00 -14.2 -65.7Gulf Marine Services 7.09 -9.8 -3.5Cmc Markets 361.00 -9.3 144.6Tt Electronics 202.00 -8.2 -16.2Lsl Property Services 237.00 -7.8 -12.2Reach 131.00 -7.1 -1.2Allied Minds 36.25 -7.1 -28.4Liontrust Asset Management 1315.00 -6.7 17.4Motorpoint 285.00 -6.6 -1.4Galliford Try Holdings 103.76 -6.2 -88.3Kkv Secured Loan Fund 18.70 -6.0 -77.3

Dec 08 %Chg %ChgIndustry Sectors price(p) week ytdWinnersTobacco 30447.18 9.6 -11.6Industrial Metals 4462.09 8.8 18.2Mining 21898.89 8.5 15.0Automobiles & Parts 3903.93 8.3 -Fixed Line Telecommunication 1629.18 7.6 -Oil & Gas Producers 4832.10 6.6 -Oil Equipment & Services 5965.44 4.5 -Mobile Telecommunications 2990.28 4.4 -Chemicals 13027.72 3.7 -2.1General Financial 11787.02 3.3 -8.4Electronic & Electrical Equip. 9658.33 3.2 11.6Pharmaceuticals & Biotech. 16948.09 3.0 -4.9

LosersNonlife Insurance 3208.30 -2.9 -0.9General Retailers 2399.77 -2.7 -4.2Household Goods 17074.75 -2.2 -4.8Personal Goods 36904.56 -1.8 -3.3Banks 2583.27 -0.8 -Real Estate & Investment Servic 2585.20 -0.7 -14.4Food & Drug Retailers 4198.91 -0.5 0.4Real Estate Investment Trusts 2715.70 -0.2 -Beverages 23092.50 0.6 -9.1Index - Technology Hardware & Equipment 2046.73 0.8 3.4Health Care Equip.& Services 6622.76 0.9 -Equity Investment Instruments 12401.62 1.0 13.2

Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension.

CURRENCIES

DOLLAR EURO POUNDClosing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's

Dec 8 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change

DOLLAR EURO POUNDClosing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's

Dec 8 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change

DOLLAR EURO POUNDClosing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's

Dec 8 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change

DOLLAR EURO POUNDClosing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's

Dec 8 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid ChangeArgentina Argentine Peso 81.5889 0.1038 98.8321 -0.0383 109.0149 0.5012Australia Australian Dollar 1.3489 0.0055 1.6340 0.0040 1.8023 0.0134Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3771 - 0.4567 -0.0008 0.5038 0.0017Bolivia Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.3704 -0.0139 9.2328 0.0307Brazil Brazilian Real 5.0654 -0.0055 6.1359 -0.0168 6.7681 0.0153Canada Canadian Dollar 1.2792 -0.0020 1.5495 -0.0051 1.7091 0.0030Chile Chilean Peso 744.1050 2.6150 901.3664 1.6746 994.2345 6.7924China Chinese Yuan 6.5320 -0.0062 7.9125 -0.0207 8.7277 0.0208Colombia Colombian Peso 3492.1300 3.7300 4230.1685 -2.5049 4666.0050 20.5033Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 601.7300 1.3750 728.9014 0.4567 804.0004 4.5078Czech Republic Czech Koruna 21.7675 -0.0655 26.3678 -0.1233 29.0845 0.0096Denmark Danish Krone 6.1445 0.0095 7.4431 -0.0008 8.2100 0.0401Egypt Egyptian Pound 15.6797 0.0247 18.9935 -0.0016 20.9504 0.1026Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.7510 0.0004 9.3891 -0.0151 10.3564 0.0350Hungary Hungarian Forint 296.8053 0.1183 359.5330 -0.4541 396.5758 1.4779India Indian Rupee 73.5575 -0.3450 89.1034 -0.5667 98.2837 -0.1322

Indonesia Indonesian Rupiah 14110.0000 5.0000 17092.0595 -22.3486 18853.0555 69.4093Israel Israeli Shekel 3.2598 0.0048 3.9487 -0.0008 4.3555 0.0208Japan Japanese Yen 104.1250 0.0850 126.1311 -0.1065 139.1264 0.5764..One Month 104.1249 0.0848 126.1311 -0.1065 139.1264 0.5763..Three Month 104.1248 0.0847 126.1312 -0.1063 139.1263 0.5762..One Year 104.1244 0.0839 126.1315 -0.1057 139.1264 0.5759Kenya Kenyan Shilling 111.4500 0.2500 135.0042 0.0789 148.9137 0.8287Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar 0.3045 - 0.3689 -0.0006 0.4069 0.0014Malaysia Malaysian Ringgit 4.0720 - 4.9326 -0.0082 5.4408 0.0181Mexico Mexican Peso 19.7575 -0.0675 23.9331 -0.1217 26.3989 -0.0020New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.4197 0.0028 1.7197 0.0006 1.8969 0.0101Nigeria Nigerian Naira 383.5000 - 464.5501 -0.7722 512.4128 1.7060Norway Norwegian Krone 8.7663 0.0380 10.6189 0.0285 11.7130 0.0896Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 160.2000 0.0500 194.0572 -0.2619 214.0509 0.7792Peru Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.6025 -0.0006 4.3639 -0.0080 4.8135 0.0152Philippines Philippine Peso 48.0825 - 58.2444 -0.0968 64.2453 0.2139

Poland Polish Zloty 3.6777 -0.0061 4.4549 -0.0149 4.9139 0.0082Romania Romanian Leu 4.0216 0.0050 4.8715 -0.0021 5.3734 0.0245Russia Russian Ruble 73.3007 -0.1763 88.7922 -0.3615 97.9405 0.0914Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 3.7514 -0.0001 4.5442 -0.0077 5.0124 0.0166Singapore Singapore Dollar 1.3375 0.0017 1.6201 -0.0006 1.7870 0.0082South Africa South African Rand 15.0025 -0.1275 18.1732 -0.1849 20.0456 -0.1031South Korea South Korean Won 1085.4000 3.3000 1314.7918 1.8185 1450.2552 9.2228Sweden Swedish Krona 8.4754 0.0863 10.2667 0.0876 11.3245 0.1526Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.8888 -0.0001 1.0766 -0.0020 1.1875 0.0038Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 28.2300 -0.0205 34.1962 -0.0817 37.7195 0.0983Thailand Thai Baht 30.0250 -0.1300 36.3706 -0.2182 40.1178 -0.0396Tunisia Tunisian Dinar 2.7115 0.0097 3.2845 0.0062 3.6229 0.0249Turkey Turkish Lira 7.8052 -0.0200 9.4548 -0.0400 10.4290 0.0081United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6732 - 4.4494 -0.0074 4.9079 0.0163United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7484 -0.0025 0.9066 -0.0045 - -..One Month 0.7485 -0.0025 0.9065 -0.0045 - -

..Three Month 0.7486 -0.0025 0.9065 -0.0045 - -

..One Year 0.7487 -0.0025 0.9060 -0.0045 - -United States United States Dollar - - 1.2113 -0.0020 1.3361 0.0044..One Month - - 1.2112 -0.1204 1.3363 0.0045..Three Month - - 1.2110 -0.1204 1.3363 0.0045..One Year - - 1.2103 -0.1204 1.3365 0.0045Venezuela Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte - - - - - -Vietnam Vietnamese Dong 23128.5000 1.0000 28016.6195 -45.3639 30903.1126 104.2201European Union Euro 0.8255 0.0014 - - 1.1030 0.0055..One Month 0.8254 0.0014 - - 1.1030 0.0055..Three Month 0.8252 0.0014 - - 1.1029 0.0055..One Year 0.8244 0.0013 - - 1.1024 0.0055

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

FTSE ACTUARIES SHARE INDICES UK SERIESwww.ft.com/equities

Produced in conjunction with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries£ Strlg Day's Euro £ Strlg £ Strlg Year Div P/E X/D TotalDec 08 chge% Index Dec 07 Dec 04 ago yield% Cover ratio adj Return

FTSE 100 (100) 6555.39 0.08 5621.78 6550.23 6490.27 7239.66 3.63 1.53 18.05 198.21 6255.60FTSE 250 (250) 19929.73 -1.25 17091.34 20182.69 20132.44 20933.03 2.38 1.48 28.42 331.74 15807.59FTSE 250 ex Inv Co (181) 20342.84 -1.66 17445.61 20685.80 20639.85 22267.33 2.39 1.55 26.87 294.95 16457.05FTSE 350 (350) 3724.04 -0.16 3193.66 3729.83 3700.05 4076.53 3.41 1.52 19.27 103.50 7083.19FTSE 350 ex Investment Trusts (280) 3630.30 -0.17 3113.27 3636.66 3606.54 4025.13 3.49 1.43 20.05 102.47 3563.13FTSE 350 Higher Yield (145) 2954.19 -0.32 2533.45 2963.75 2937.89 3501.25 4.88 1.44 14.19 114.31 6171.50FTSE 350 Lower Yield (205) 4265.07 0.01 3657.64 4264.66 4233.72 4332.81 1.97 1.71 29.71 74.35 5045.92FTSE SmallCap (256) 6059.95 -0.75 5196.89 6105.50 6064.99 5612.29 3.04 -1.41 -23.43 126.29 9625.06FTSE SmallCap ex Inv Co (142) 4771.40 -1.73 4091.86 4855.52 4798.45 4557.88 2.99 -1.29 -26.05 72.61 7924.75FTSE All-Share (606) 3695.80 -0.17 3169.44 3702.27 3672.88 4023.21 3.40 1.43 20.50 101.76 7101.13FTSE All-Share ex Inv Co (422) 3566.90 -0.20 3058.91 3574.20 3544.37 3944.09 3.48 1.39 20.73 99.73 3555.71FTSE All-Share ex Multinationals (537) 1167.27 -1.14 829.67 1180.76 1180.83 1221.21 2.78 1.36 26.53 22.68 2333.98FTSE Fledgling (91) 10169.31 1.05 8721.00 10063.77 10019.82 9502.81 2.58 0.23 170.67 208.86 20907.52FTSE Fledgling ex Inv Co (43) 12323.78 1.84 10568.63 12101.27 12106.30 11283.61 2.61 4.30 8.90 177.30 24759.39FTSE All-Small (347) 4201.81 -0.65 3603.39 4229.31 4201.76 3893.56 3.01 -1.33 -24.97 87.55 8562.00FTSE All-Small ex Inv Co (185) 3567.86 -1.60 3059.73 3625.79 3584.84 3400.75 2.97 -1.09 -30.77 54.14 7506.31FTSE AIM All-Share (713) 1073.82 0.46 920.89 1068.88 1066.21 908.39 0.87 0.34 342.55 7.22 1232.82

FTSE Sector IndicesOil & Gas (12) 5054.29 -0.26 4334.46 5067.62 4894.87 8221.13 6.12 1.19 13.69 308.86 5685.91Oil & Gas Producers (9) 4887.89 -0.28 4191.75 4901.82 4734.68 7981.26 6.22 1.19 13.56 303.82 5701.75Oil Equipment Services & Distribution (3) 5972.24 0.95 5121.68 5915.94 5716.90 7579.31 0.19 17.16 30.89 11.22 5148.44Basic Materials (22) 7197.68 0.43 6172.59 7166.97 7044.42 5996.49 3.48 2.71 10.58 251.27 8646.70Chemicals (7) 14150.69 -0.75 12135.35 14258.13 13936.02 13414.47 1.65 2.24 27.17 222.25 13603.87Forestry & Paper (1) 20944.22 1.31 17961.34 20673.97 20692.40 20434.43 2.58 3.27 11.88 540.55 25513.94Industrial Metals & Mining (2) 4780.68 -0.32 4099.82 4796.07 4613.62 3598.21 9.37 1.60 6.67 453.68 6431.49Mining (12) 21053.09 0.52 18054.71 20944.46 20588.19 17197.58 3.60 2.77 10.04 759.99 13355.14Industrials (101) 5847.41 -0.64 5014.62 5884.92 5890.99 5812.32 1.73 0.78 73.92 81.78 6504.48Construction & Materials (14) 7138.71 -1.77 6122.02 7267.66 7167.19 7086.46 1.91 0.12 421.01 131.95 8247.39Aerospace & Defense (9) 4093.06 -0.65 3510.13 4120.00 4207.48 5188.64 2.83 -2.01 -17.59 99.51 4776.41General Industrials (8) 5144.29 0.48 4411.64 5119.96 5118.97 4851.15 1.93 0.83 62.65 79.14 6444.04Electronic & Electrical Equipment (10)11195.75 -0.45 9601.25 11246.43 11185.90 10080.98 1.04 2.13 45.09 79.53 10736.69Industrial Engineering (12) 15354.02 -0.82 13167.30 15480.77 15352.54 14285.79 1.33 2.48 30.39 175.84 20071.74Industrial Transportation (6) 3680.33 -1.08 3156.17 3720.51 3739.95 3851.14 4.02 0.67 37.21 12.73 3738.53Support Services (42) 9189.82 -0.62 7881.00 9247.13 9263.87 8811.68 1.32 2.40 31.46 102.98 10214.58Consumer Goods (42) 18358.46 0.63 15743.84 18243.97 18098.91 19383.73 3.93 1.48 17.20 630.46 15547.94Automobiles & Parts (2) 4017.19 0.51 3445.06 3996.93 3842.38 5399.57 0.55 1.78 101.28 0.00 4110.46Beverages (6) 23447.73 1.29 20108.30 23149.93 22878.69 24669.06 2.36 1.64 25.79 528.83 18002.83Food Producers (10) 7070.36 -2.29 6063.40 7236.19 7110.64 7828.83 2.58 1.80 21.57 97.72 6572.17Household Goods & Home Construction (14)14245.22 -2.42 12216.42 14599.23 14523.53 14254.97 2.86 1.99 17.56 324.68 11479.44Leisure Goods (2) 25340.74 1.09 21731.71 25068.00 25420.38 15562.26 1.53 1.39 47.03 303.75 26485.57Personal Goods (6) 31843.34 0.15 27308.21 31794.29 31511.38 34101.16 3.27 1.38 22.24 917.13 23851.87Tobacco (2) 29932.11 4.47 25669.18 28650.16 28530.19 31919.80 7.92 1.29 9.78 1936.14 24207.95Health Care (15) 11985.68 1.01 10278.68 11866.15 11648.39 12388.30 3.52 1.12 25.39 419.30 10431.79Health Care Equipment & Services (6) 6740.64 0.30 5780.64 6720.47 6635.24 8142.36 2.00 0.96 51.89 120.44 6211.14Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology (9) 16779.64 1.08 14389.88 16599.67 16284.82 17028.22 3.68 1.13 24.07 617.91 13121.93Consumer Services (82) 5013.86 -0.44 4299.79 5035.80 5036.24 5382.20 2.13 1.33 35.19 69.21 5129.69Food & Drug Retailers (5) 4323.21 -0.88 3707.50 4361.50 4408.30 4062.57 3.04 1.33 24.61 133.29 5502.36General Retailers (27) 2276.25 -1.87 1952.07 2319.72 2343.66 2279.89 1.79 1.51 36.96 10.71 2847.19Media (15) 8021.88 0.12 6879.40 8012.11 7992.47 8798.32 1.59 3.05 20.58 125.77 5406.51Travel & Leisure (35) 8223.93 0.06 7052.68 8218.84 8156.44 9644.48 2.32 0.40 108.92 82.90 8440.21Telecommunications (6) 1917.85 0.64 1644.71 1905.64 1871.56 2234.49 7.03 0.58 24.37 44.59 2595.08Fixed Line Telecommunications (3) 1678.23 -1.29 1439.21 1700.13 1694.37 2327.50 10.60 1.04 9.05 5.68 1841.49Mobile Telecommunications (3) 3017.63 1.34 2587.86 2977.67 2908.74 3275.43 5.76 0.29 60.80 91.62 3680.55Utilities (8) 6943.09 0.06 5954.25 6939.14 6984.91 7160.95 5.20 1.15 16.73 350.90 9689.72Electricity (3) 8010.04 -1.73 6869.25 8150.96 8024.31 7722.54 5.80 1.04 16.58 464.92 14693.69Gas Water & Multiutilities (5) 6294.15 0.65 5397.74 6253.34 6340.75 6629.33 5.01 1.19 16.77 302.68 8687.30Financials (304) 4418.97 -1.09 3789.62 4467.80 4457.88 4883.32 3.10 1.63 19.83 84.54 4607.51Banks (11) 2587.92 -2.68 2219.35 2659.15 2654.27 3566.03 3.66 2.20 12.44 0.99 2132.55Nonlife Insurance (7) 3672.49 -1.25 3149.45 3718.99 3722.55 3535.94 3.00 1.86 17.91 107.44 7283.80Life Insurance/Assurance (7) 7043.29 -0.27 6040.18 7062.43 6991.55 7626.31 3.41 2.15 13.66 230.43 7976.70Real Estate Investment & Services (17) 2491.55 -2.69 2136.70 2560.38 2537.96 2751.68 1.79 2.16 25.82 27.41 7147.16Real Estate Investment Trusts (39) 2424.97 -1.70 2079.61 2466.87 2453.28 2934.37 3.18 -2.06 -15.27 64.23 3449.70General Financial (39) 9988.90 -0.45 8566.28 10034.01 10082.33 10149.65 3.28 1.09 27.84 313.24 12921.82Equity Investment Instruments (184) 12519.11 0.23 10736.14 12489.86 12461.90 10736.98 2.28 2.47 17.75 272.72 7489.90Non Financials (302) 4428.62 0.14 3797.90 4422.33 4378.49 4794.85 3.50 1.38 20.74 135.24 7479.37Technology (14) 1958.55 0.33 1679.61 1952.02 1947.94 2193.83 1.99 0.07 737.91 33.33 2733.15Software & Computer Services (12) 2099.05 0.60 1800.10 2086.46 2085.88 2416.34 2.04 -0.14 -339.94 36.15 3099.17Technology Hardware & Equipment (2) 4872.53 -2.52 4178.58 4998.30 4891.81 3834.32 1.43 3.38 20.67 69.78 6048.46

Hourly movements 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 High/day Low/dayFTSE 100 6564.10 6541.72 6571.36 6556.38 6595.16 6576.78 6551.00 6561.43 6556.44 6600.76 6520.38FTSE 250 20157.73 19910.39 20054.16 19984.91 20053.97 20034.97 19959.12 19982.76 19981.77 20195.45 19845.87FTSE SmallCap 6121.74 6091.32 6101.08 6101.77 6102.69 6098.70 6080.31 6067.14 6068.29 6121.74 6059.95FTSE All-Share 3708.06 3689.66 3707.69 3698.80 3718.44 3709.49 3695.14 3700.27 3698.05 3720.84 3678.08Time of FTSE 100 Day's high:11:57:00 Day's Low08:45:00 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 7674.56(17/01/2020) Low: 4993.89(23/03/2020)Time of FTSE All-Share Day's high:11:57:00 Day's Low08:45:00 FTSE 100 2010/11 High: 4257.93(17/01/2020) Low: 2727.86(23/03/2020)Further information is available on http://www.ftse.com © FTSE International Limited. 2013. All Rights reserved. ”FTSE®” is a trade mark of theLondon 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.

FT 30 INDEX

Dec 01 Nov 30 Nov 27 Nov 26 Nov 25 Yr Ago High LowFT 30 2485.40 2403.80 2439.40 2451.70 2479.90 0.00 3314.70 1337.80FT 30 Div Yield - - - - - 0.00 3.93 2.74P/E Ratio net - - - - - 0.00 19.44 14.26FT 30 since compilation: 4198.4 high: 19/07/1999; low49.4 18/02/1900Base Date: 1/7/35FT 30 hourly changes

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 High Low2403.8 2450.5 2453.2 2164.9 2399.1 2395.8 2394.3 2414 2426.7 2439.2 2366.1

FT30 constituents and recent additions/deletions can be found at www.ft.com/ft30

FX: EFFECTIVE INDICES

Dec 07 Dec 04 Mnth Ago Dec 08 Dec 07 Mnth Ago

Australia - - -Canada - - -Denmark - - -Japan - - -New Zealand - - -Norway - - -

Sweden - - -Switzerland - - -UK 77.55 78.48 77.90USA - - -Euro - - -

Source: Bank of England. New Sterling ERI base Jan 2005 = 100. Other indices base average 1990 = 100.Index rebased 1/2/95. for further information about ERIs see www.bankofengland.co.uk

FTSE SECTORS: LEADERS & LAGGARDS

Year to date percentage changesLeisure Goods 46.40Tech Hardware & Eq 14.41Equity Invest Instr 9.12Electronic & Elec Eq 7.00Industrial Metals & 4.84Mining 4.10Basic Materials 3.05Industrial Eng 2.78Personal Goods 1.02Food & Drug Retailer 0.75Nonlife Insurance 0.25FTSE SmallCap Index -0.64Support Services -1.87Chemicals -2.93Electricity -3.10Household Goods & Ho -4.30Construct & Material -4.34

Forestry & Paper -4.68Industrials -5.25General Retailers -5.64Pharmace & Biotech -7.36Consumer Goods -8.88Utilities -8.93Health Care -9.08Beverages -9.30Gas Water & Multi -10.68FTSE 250 Index -11.06Industrial Transport -11.28Technology -12.41Financial Services -12.91NON FINANCIALS Index -13.66Consumer Services -13.73Software & Comp Serv -14.33FTSE All{HY-}Share Index -14.36Mobile Telecomms -14.52

FTSE 100 Index -15.58Life Insurance -16.18Media -16.24Food Producers -16.24Financials -16.25Real Est Invest & Se -16.93Tobacco -18.58Telecommunications -20.83Real Est Invest & Tr -21.74Travel & Leisure -22.18Health Care Eq & Srv -22.51Aerospace & Defense -26.21Automobiles & Parts -31.73Banks -32.19Fixed Line Telecomms -34.60Oil Equipment & Serv -37.81Oil & Gas -42.07Oil & Gas Producers -42.13

FTSE GLOBAL EQUITY INDEX SERIES

Dec 8 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total YTD Gr DivRegions & countries stocks indices % % % retn % Yield

Dec 8 No of US $ Day Mth YTD Total YTD Gr DivSectors stocks indices % % % retn % Yield

FTSE Global All Cap 9014 711.15 -0.1 7.3 11.7 1094.98 14.0 1.9FTSE Global All Cap 9014 702.09 1.1 13.8 10.3 1080.78 12.5 1.9FTSE Global Large Cap 1739 637.59 -0.1 6.3 12.4 1011.15 14.7 1.9FTSE Global Mid Cap 2234 897.69 -0.4 9.2 8.2 1300.22 10.2 1.9FTSE Global Small Cap 5041 968.12 -0.3 11.1 11.9 1348.18 13.7 1.6FTSE All-World 3973 416.92 -0.1 6.8 11.7 679.39 14.0 1.9FTSE World 2563 740.79 -0.1 7.3 11.5 1620.22 13.8 1.9FTSE Global All Cap ex UNITED KINGDOM In 8724 751.94 -0.1 7.0 13.0 1136.97 15.3 1.8FTSE Global All Cap ex USA 7266 549.07 -0.2 8.4 5.9 922.53 8.5 2.4FTSE Global All Cap ex JAPAN 7619 734.63 -0.1 7.4 12.1 1141.74 14.3 1.9FTSE Global All Cap ex Eurozone 8374 748.44 -0.1 6.8 12.4 1128.64 14.7 1.9FTSE Developed 2135 678.00 -0.1 7.0 12.0 1052.59 14.2 1.9FTSE Developed All Cap 5619 709.74 -0.2 7.5 12.0 1086.33 14.2 1.8FTSE Developed Large Cap 832 635.05 -0.1 6.6 12.6 1003.41 15.0 1.9FTSE Developed Europe Large Cap 225 385.62 -0.3 9.7 0.4 720.51 3.1 2.6FTSE Developed Europe Mid Cap 344 670.75 -0.6 10.7 6.1 1096.56 8.2 2.1FTSE Dev Europe Small Cap 690 919.64 -0.9 13.6 2.4 1448.00 4.3 1.9FTSE North America Large Cap 224 815.86 0.0 5.1 17.0 1190.05 19.1 1.6FTSE North America Mid Cap 411 1045.64 -0.4 9.0 10.5 1406.16 12.3 1.7FTSE North America Small Cap 1293 1100.73 -0.2 11.9 15.3 1428.22 16.8 1.4FTSE North America 635 532.22 -0.1 5.9 16.0 793.22 18.0 1.6FTSE Developed ex North America 1500 285.06 -0.3 9.4 4.8 515.92 7.4 2.4FTSE Japan Large Cap 179 437.17 -0.6 6.4 10.2 613.31 12.8 2.1FTSE Japan Mid Cap 335 632.18 -0.8 4.4 0.6 840.60 2.6 2.0FTSE Global wi JAPAN Small Cap 881 690.56 -1.2 1.3 -0.8 951.28 1.4 2.1FTSE Japan 514 180.96 -0.6 6.0 8.3 284.16 10.7 2.1FTSE Asia Pacific Large Cap ex Japan 936 848.28 0.1 6.1 16.7 1466.73 19.4 2.2FTSE Asia Pacific Mid Cap ex Japan 900 997.82 0.2 10.2 15.2 1655.02 17.8 2.6FTSE Asia Pacific Small Cap ex Japan 1884 630.14 0.2 8.3 16.0 1022.29 18.6 2.4FTSE Asia Pacific Ex Japan 1836 662.68 0.1 6.4 16.6 1217.14 19.3 2.2FTSE Emerging All Cap 3395 866.00 0.1 5.5 9.6 1423.45 12.3 2.3FTSE Emerging Large Cap 907 835.81 0.0 4.5 10.3 1382.54 13.0 2.2FTSE Emerging Mid Cap 931 1012.89 0.4 10.8 4.1 1664.31 6.9 2.9FTSE Emerging Small Cap 1557 827.49 0.2 9.3 9.4 1304.79 12.3 2.5FTSE Emerging Europe 76 354.68 0.7 19.8 -19.4 670.62 -15.2 5.6FTSE Latin America All Cap 239 802.34 0.9 19.0 -18.6 1370.83 -16.6 2.6FTSE Middle East and Africa All Cap 322 641.31 0.8 6.0 -7.0 1107.99 -4.3 3.2FTSE Global wi UNITED KINGDOM All Cap In 290 311.70 -1.3 12.8 -12.8 594.72 -10.3 3.5FTSE Global wi USA All Cap 1748 920.20 -0.1 6.4 16.6 1295.40 18.5 1.5FTSE Europe All Cap 1410 459.24 -0.4 10.4 1.0 824.97 3.6 2.5FTSE Eurozone All Cap 640 454.25 -0.4 12.8 4.4 812.87 6.8 2.1FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient All-World 3973 461.19 -0.3 7.9 6.6 694.06 8.8 2.1FTSE EDHEC-Risk Efficient Developed Europe 569 360.03 -0.5 9.4 6.5 600.35 8.7 2.2Oil & Gas 128 261.18 -1.1 27.7 -28.2 487.65 -24.6 5.0Oil & Gas Producers 93 245.17 -1.3 29.3 -30.6 467.95 -27.0 5.2

Oil Equipment & Services 24 199.49 -1.0 -1.0 -25.5 336.73 -21.5 5.5Basic Materials 356 592.98 0.1 0.1 15.4 1006.18 18.8 2.7Chemicals 163 845.32 -0.7 -0.7 12.7 1420.29 15.7 2.4Forestry & Paper 21 297.46 1.1 1.1 7.0 565.15 10.3 2.5Industrial Metals & Mining 93 448.49 0.4 0.4 18.6 767.89 22.5 3.1Mining 79 868.76 1.2 1.2 19.2 1507.01 23.3 3.0Industrials 746 512.45 -0.3 -0.3 14.2 789.07 16.2 1.6Construction & Materials 147 607.80 -0.4 -0.4 9.6 982.55 11.8 1.8Aerospace & Defense 36 756.53 -0.6 -0.6 -15.5 1147.78 -14.2 1.9General Industrials 70 246.78 -0.5 -0.5 8.3 416.80 11.0 2.3Electronic & Electrical Equipment 140 637.44 -0.5 -0.5 25.2 890.48 27.2 1.4Industrial Engineering 148 994.79 -0.5 -0.5 20.0 1524.14 22.3 1.5Industrial Transportation 122 913.32 -0.1 -0.1 20.6 1414.99 22.7 1.7Support Services 83 621.11 -0.1 -0.1 23.1 901.96 24.6 1.1Consumer Goods 531 589.09 0.4 0.4 15.4 950.19 18.0 2.1Automobiles & Parts 128 579.35 1.9 1.9 52.1 910.50 55.1 1.5Beverages 67 721.52 -0.5 -0.5 1.9 1174.69 4.2 2.3Food Producers 132 696.80 -0.4 -0.4 2.2 1147.10 4.6 2.4Household Goods & Home Construction 62 565.29 -0.1 -0.1 11.6 906.93 14.1 2.1Leisure Goods 43 308.53 0.4 0.4 27.4 425.54 29.0 1.1Personal Goods 86 1014.89 0.0 0.0 12.6 1513.09 14.3 1.4Tobacco 13 911.76 1.5 1.5 -8.5 2279.87 -3.3 6.8Health Care 306 673.59 -0.3 -0.3 10.3 1037.16 12.3 1.7Health Care Equipment & Services 111 1354.94 -0.8 -0.8 15.6 1632.12 16.5 0.7Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 195 438.71 0.0 0.0 6.9 718.00 9.5 2.4Consumer Services 440 677.56 -0.3 -0.3 21.5 948.99 22.7 1.0Food & Drug Retailers 68 296.85 -0.6 -0.6 0.7 450.19 3.3 2.5General Retailers 145 1251.30 -0.5 -0.5 38.2 1684.46 39.1 0.6Media 87 449.43 0.8 0.8 17.0 633.49 18.1 1.0Travel & Leisure 140 490.13 -0.6 -0.6 -5.4 702.06 -4.1 1.7Telecommunication 96 154.83 -0.2 -0.2 -3.5 336.92 0.7 4.6Fixed Line Telecommuniations 42 119.34 -0.3 -0.3 -11.9 291.79 -7.4 5.6Mobile Telecommunications 54 180.81 -0.2 -0.2 8.4 343.83 12.0 3.3Utilities 191 313.66 0.1 0.1 -1.3 687.40 1.9 3.3Electricity 131 353.01 0.2 0.2 -0.9 762.63 2.4 3.3Gas Water & Multiutilities 60 313.75 -0.1 -0.1 -2.3 709.77 0.8 3.2Financials 867 247.77 -0.7 -0.7 -6.3 449.44 -3.7 2.8Banks 272 181.92 -0.7 -0.7 -14.9 362.24 -12.0 3.5Nonlife Insurance 74 293.49 -1.0 -1.0 -4.9 460.66 -2.7 2.2Life Insurance 54 227.12 -1.1 -1.1 -5.9 407.28 -2.3 3.3Financial Services 209 408.24 -0.3 -0.3 10.3 600.58 12.4 1.8Technology 312 507.57 0.5 0.5 41.2 650.77 42.6 0.9Software & Computer Services 164 828.12 0.2 0.2 36.2 991.40 37.0 0.5Technology Hardware & Equipment 148 410.98 0.8 0.8 47.8 562.12 50.1 1.3Alternative Energy 11 225.47 1.7 1.7 78.2 320.46 80.8 0.7Real Estate Investment & Services 161 353.72 0.0 0.0 -4.2 651.88 -1.1 2.8Real Estate Investment Trusts 97 451.88 -0.9 -0.9 -8.9 990.65 -6.0 3.6FTSE Global Large Cap 1739 630.41 1.1 1.1 11.1 999.50 13.4 1.9

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(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,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 seewww.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 ExchangeGroup companies and is used by FTSE International Limited under licence.

FTSE 100 SUMMARY

Closing Day'sFTSE 100 Price Change

Closing Day'sFTSE 100 Price Change

3I Group PLC 1160.5 33.00Admiral Group PLC 2824 26.00Anglo American PLC 2531.5 -30.00Antofagasta PLC 1426.5 1.00Ashtead Group PLC 3300 71.00Associated British Foods PLC 2293 -11.00Astrazeneca PLC 8134 63.00Auto Trader Group PLC 556.40 2.60Avast PLC 480.60 3.00Aveva Group PLC 3249 -14.00Aviva PLC 330.00 -3.10B&M European Value Retail S.A. 479.80 10.00Bae Systems PLC 512.80 -3.80Barclays PLC 146.36 0.10Barratt Developments PLC 626.00 -5.00Berkeley Group Holdings (The) PLC 4305 -116.00Bhp Group PLC 1926.2 -7.60BP PLC 272.60 -1.20British American Tobacco PLC 2902 53.00British Land Company PLC 494.10 -2.50Bt Group PLC 134.10 1.00Bunzl PLC 2416 68.00Burberry Group PLC 1783 -17.00Coca-Cola Hbc AG 2282 -43.00Compass Group PLC 1451.5 -35.00Crh PLC 3094 24.00Croda International PLC 6244 154.00Dcc PLC 5436 -28.00Diageo PLC 2942.5 -33.00Evraz PLC 428.20 3.10Experian PLC 2772 90.00Ferguson PLC 8506 26.00Flutter Entertainment PLC 14730 -270.00Fresnillo PLC 1156 11.00Glaxosmithkline PLC 1405 7.20Glencore PLC 237.50 -1.80Gvc Holdings PLC 1033 -2.00Halma PLC 2344 65.00Hargreaves Lansdown PLC 1457 6.00Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC 2525 3.00Homeserve PLC 1097 18.00HSBC Holdings PLC 400.40 -11.15Imperial Brands PLC 1534 16.50Informa PLC 564.40 -7.40Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC 4776 -177.00Intermediate Capital Group PLC 1655 -25.00International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. 161.20 -6.05Intertek Group PLC 5886 186.00Jd Sports Fashion PLC 788.00 -1.20Johnson Matthey PLC 2386 61.00Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. 7532 -112.00

Kingfisher PLC 263.50 -2.00Land Securities Group PLC 703.50 -2.30Legal & General Group PLC 254.10 -0.80Lloyds Banking Group PLC 37.20 -0.14London Stock Exchange Group PLC 8722 6.00M&G PLC 190.25 -3.10Melrose Industries PLC 162.10 -0.40Mondi PLC 1730 25.00Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets PLC 176.45 2.90National Grid PLC 872.20 12.20Natwest Group PLC 166.90 0.25Next PLC 6694 48.00Ocado Group PLC 2250 58.00Pearson PLC 678.60 8.60Pennon Group PLC 955.60 -3.40Persimmon PLC 2701 -15.00Phoenix Group Holdings PLC 721.00 -1.20Polymetal International PLC 1700 28.00Prudential PLC 1283 18.50Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC 6496 106.00Relx PLC 1796 8.50Rentokil Initial PLC 502.40 4.10Rightmove PLC 626.80 5.60Rio Tinto PLC 5444 -17.00Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC 126.25 -4.60Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1346.4 -11.20Royal Dutch Shell PLC 1392.6 -8.60Rsa Insurance Group PLC 676.00 -0.20Sage Group PLC 564.40 -7.20Sainsbury (J) PLC 216.20 4.50Schroders PLC 3257 2.00Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC 1122 1.00Segro PLC 903.00 4.40Severn Trent PLC 2317 9.00Smith & Nephew PLC 1526 -7.00Smith (Ds) PLC 362.00 13.40Smiths Group PLC 1542.5 -5.50Smurfit Kappa Group PLC 3450 92.00Spirax-Sarco Engineering PLC 11160 190.00Sse PLC 1403 39.50St. James's Place PLC 1080.5 -3.00Standard Chartered PLC 474.30 -5.70Standard Life Aberdeen PLC 282.70 -2.40Taylor Wimpey PLC 157.35 -0.50Tesco PLC 224.50 -0.30Unilever PLC 4354 19.00United Utilities Group PLC 936.60 11.80Vodafone Group PLC 130.76 -1.46Whitbread PLC 3140 -31.00Wpp PLC 767.20 -3.60

UK STOCK MARKET TRADING DATA

Dec 08 Dec 07 Dec 04 Dec 03 Dec 02 Yr Ago- - - - - -

Order Book Turnover (m) 85.19 102.29 102.29 102.29 70.79 46.06Order Book Bargains 943328.00 1148913.00 1148913.00 1148913.00 1100041.00 1155405.00Order Book Shares Traded (m) 1491.00 2062.00 2062.00 2062.00 1771.00 1739.00Total Equity Turnover (£m) 4177.17 6330.27 6330.27 6330.27 5731.32 5149.07Total Mkt Bargains 1162369.00 1384914.00 1384914.00 1384914.00 1318241.00 1409151.00Total Shares Traded (m) 7932.00 8095.00 8095.00 8095.00 10956.00 7814.00† Excluding intra-market and overseas turnover. *UK only total at 6pm. ‡ UK plus intra-market turnover. (u) Unavaliable.(c) Market closed.

All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. All elements listed are indicative and believedaccurate at the time of publication. No offer is made by Morningstar or the FT. The FT does not warrant norguarantee that the information is reliable or complete. The FT does not accept responsibility and will not beliable for any loss arising from the reliance on or use of the listed information.For all queries e-mail ft.reader.enquiries@morningstar.com

Data provided by Morningstar | www.morningstar.co.uk

UK RIGHTS OFFERS

Amount LatestIssue paid renun. closingprice up date High Low Stock Price p +or-There are currently no rights offers by any companies listed on the LSE.

UK COMPANY RESULTS

Company Turnover Pre-tax EPS(p) Div(p) Pay day TotalAshtead Group Int 2297.300 2446.900 506.200 660.200 83.600 107.000 7.15000 7.15000 Feb 3 40.466 40.650Begbies Traynor Group Int 37.493 33.779 0.451 1.880 0.300L 1.100 0.00000 0.90000 - 1.890 2.700Coral Products Pre 22.321 24.733 0.821L 0.041 0.990L 0.100 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.250Fidelity China Special Situations Int 621.557 82.549L 118.750 15.120L 0.00000 0.00000 - 4.227 3.850GB Group Int 103.545 94.338 14.860 8.486 6.100 2.900 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 2.990Lowland Investment Co Pre 90.895L 37.289L 336.900L 138.700L 0.00000 15.00000 - 15.000 30.000Nu-Oil and Gas Pre 0.000 0.000 1.038L 2.229L 0.030L 0.200L 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000Numis Corp Pre 154.899 111.610 37.063 12.436 29.900 8.800 6.50000 6.50000 Feb 12 12.000 12.000Phimedix Int 0.000 0.000 0.036L 0.042L 4.000L 0.000 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000Redde Northgate Int 556.008 357.786 25.853 24.785 8.600 16.100 3.40000 6.30000 Jan 29 10.163 18.400Renew Holdings Pre 620.375 599.922 32.101 26.962 26.780 29.550 0.00000 7.67000 - 0.000 11.500SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust Int 17.171 2.300 4.600 1.400 1.37500 2.50000 Dec 18 3.861 2.500Solid State Int 33.073 33.587 2.373 2.325 24.300 25.000 5.25000 5.25000 Feb 19 12.460 13.550Studio Retail Group Int 268.031 228.704 14.954 4.995 13.810 4.570 0.00000 0.00000 - 0.000 0.000

Figures in £m. Earnings shown basic. Figures in light text are for corresponding period year earlier.For more information on dividend payments visit www.ft.com/marketsdata

UK RECENT EQUITY ISSUES

Issue Issue Stock Close Mktdate price(p) Sector code Stock price(p) +/- High Low Cap (£m)12/04 2.84 AIM HE1 Helium One Global Ltd 7.00 2.42 7.25 3.75 3478.311/03 20.00 AIM VRCI Verici Dx PLC 49.50 -1.50 56.00 29.97 7016.510/29 162.00 AIM SBI SourceBio International PLC 170.00 0.00 193.20 160.00 12611.1

§Placing price. *Intoduction. ‡When issued. Annual report/prospectus available at www.ft.com/irFor a full explanation of all the other symbols please refer to London Share Service notes.

MARKET DATA

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Stats Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:25 User: gerry.white Page Name: MARKET DATA 1, Part,Page,Edition: ASI, 12, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 13

MARKET DATA

FT500: THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMPANIES52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m52 Week

Stock Price Day Chg High Low Yld P/E MCap m

Australia (A$)ANZ♦ 23.40 0.06 27.29 14.10 6.08 16.51 49273.61BHPBilltn 42.25 -0.14 42.78 24.05 4.87 18.45 92270.1CmwBkAu 81.81 1.07 91.05 53.44 5.29 20.12 107598.72CSL 297.59 2.59 342.75 242.67 0.99 44.07 100375.73NatAusBk♦ 23.31 0.06 27.49 13.20 6.34 23.45 56858.89Telstra 3.04 -0.02 3.94 2.66 3.30 19.79 26803.93Wesfarmers 49.47 0.06 50.67 29.75 3.11 34.38 41583.14Westpc♦ 20.14 -0.13 25.96 13.47 3.97 31.64 53925.31Woolworths 39.46 1.01 43.96 32.12 2.62 42.62 37016.48Belgium (€)AnBshInBv 58.01 0.08 75.26 29.03 2.22-118.15 118984.14KBC Grp 59.42 -1.20 73.56 33.44 1.69 16.78 29971.25Brazil (R$)Ambev 15.10 0.13 19.58 10.36 3.24 26.95 46906.54Bradesco♦ 22.89 -0.14 32.45 14.05 1.02 7.96 20041.76Cielo 3.77 -0.01 9.07 3.23 0.74 24.72 2022.04ItauHldFin♦ 26.97 -0.05 32.79 19.46 2.99 13.94 26399.72Petrobras♦ 27.45 -0.02 33.23 10.50 1.78 -8.19 40331.55Vale 82.32 -0.63 83.30 32.45 4.95 31.45 85880.27Canada (C$)BCE 57.77 0.23 65.28 46.03 5.64 23.16 40841.97BkMontrl 97.23 -0.16 104.75 55.76 4.21 14.37 49143.9BkNvaS 68.13 0.91 75.26 46.38 5.14 12.47 64524.7Brookfield 53.60 0.02 60.48 31.35 1.17-392.75 65997.13CanadPcR 430.23 1.84 444.49 252.00 0.79 25.78 45174.44CanImp 111.49 -0.39 111.92 67.52 5.06 13.34 38954.85CanNatRs 31.15 -0.61 42.57 9.80 5.221022.19 28761.26CanNatRy♦ 139.25 -0.02 149.11 92.01 1.61 29.50 77461.56Enbridge 43.03 0.43 57.32 33.06 7.31 45.07 68119.5GtWesLif 29.35 -0.38 35.60 18.88 5.82 10.81 21286.62ImpOil♦ 24.39 0.11 35.80 10.27 3.57 -41.07 13996.9Manulife 23.05 -0.01 27.78 12.58 4.67 11.58 34955.29Nutrien 63.97 -0.12 64.98 34.80 3.72 284.63 28462.86RylBkC 105.75 0.02 109.42 72.00 3.92 13.98 117713.59Suncor En 23.20 0.32 45.12 14.02 5.57 -5.58 27661.72ThmReut 102.96 -0.48 115.66 75.91 1.99 23.78 40001.41TntoDom 71.13 0.09 76.10 49.01 4.18 14.18 100988.75TrnCan 58.12 -0.07 76.58 47.05 5.42 12.42 42708.99ValeantPh 30.80 -1.06 36.02 14.01 - -4.20 8158.48China (HK$)AgricBkCh 2.86 -0.03 3.50 2.38 7.49 4.59 11342.32Bk China 2.65 -0.05 3.39 2.33 8.50 4.10 28589.62BkofComm 4.14 -0.04 5.68 3.66 8.97 4.00 18700.89BOE Tech 0.60 0.01 0.80 0.47 - -4.02 15.40Ch Coms Cons 3.86 -0.09 6.63 3.85 7.10 3.45 2200.4Ch Evrbrght 2.94 -0.03 3.97 2.40 8.54 4.31 4809.17Ch Rail Cons 4.89 -0.09 9.99 4.89 5.00 3.17 1309.91Ch Rail Gp 3.59 -0.05 5.05 3.45 5.49 2.97 1948.74ChConstBk 5.85 -0.12 6.85 4.93 6.43 5.13 181454.97China Vanke 26.40 -0.60 34.75 21.65 4.51 6.27 6449.44ChinaCitic 3.29 -0.08 4.78 2.93 8.60 3.45 6316.88ChinaLife 17.38 -0.22 22.90 11.64 4.99 8.15 16685.42ChinaMBank 47.65 -0.80 53.25 29.80 2.96 11.28 28223.16ChinaMob 45.45 -0.90 70.00 45.20 7.77 7.43 120064.14ChinaPcIns 29.35 -0.30 32.50 17.90 4.85 9.42 10509.03ChMinsheng 4.31 -0.04 6.06 3.85 10.11 3.78 4626.58ChMrchSecs 23.10 0.18 26.04 13.10 - 21.10 26247.48Chna Utd Coms 4.79 0.01 6.24 4.66 1.25 27.46 22393.28ChShenEgy 14.30 0.02 16.88 11.94 10.45 6.09 6270.18ChShpbldng 4.23 -0.06 5.60 3.98 - -112.19 11840.29ChStConEng 5.17 -0.04 6.20 4.76 3.55 5.16 32651.81ChUncHK 4.47 -0.07 7.37 3.84 3.93 9.44 17645.94CNNC Intl 4.74 - 5.19 4.02 2.55 14.23 11295.23CSR 3.00 -0.07 6.10 2.95 5.89 7.50 1691.82Daqin 6.77 0.03 8.26 6.32 7.03 9.62 15408.54Gree Elec Apl 0.10 - 0.26 0.07 - -0.04 4.58GuosenSec 13.63 - 16.14 10.38 1.45 18.58 17110.53HaitongSecs 6.72 -0.02 9.58 5.79 - 6.21 2956.06Hngzh HikVDT 44.28 -0.52 50.07 27.00 1.57 32.09 54878.1Hunng Pwr 2.86 -0.04 4.15 2.24 5.71 21.95 1734.39IM Baotou Stl 1.18 -0.01 1.39 1.04 - -114.58 5722.49In&CmBkCh 4.77 -0.10 6.11 3.96 6.49 5.13 53413.92IndstrlBk 20.26 -0.24 22.07 14.93 3.73 7.05 60839.64Kweichow 1850 37.60 1875 960.10 0.91 52.59 355781.74Midea 0.82 0.04 1.17 0.58 - -2.11 22.75New Ch Life Ins 32.30 -0.15 37.30 20.45 5.09 6.76 4309.36PetroChina 2.36 -0.04 4.23 2.16 6.42 19.87 6424.19PingAnIns 93.25 -3.30 101.00 69.00 2.65 11.47 89600.16PngAnBnk 18.71 -0.20 20.88 11.91 - 15.22 55585.06Pwr Cons Corp 4.02 -0.03 4.88 3.40 0.98 8.80 6858.6SaicMtr 24.36 0.02 28.80 16.90 3.58 13.38 43571.48ShenwanHong 0.07 - 0.10 0.03 - -0.24 76.82ShgPdgBk 9.98 -0.01 12.69 9.22 5.96 6.18 44845.95Sinopec Corp 3.40 -0.17 4.85 2.95 6.63 9.12 11191.73Sinopec Oil 2.13 0.03 2.59 1.67 - 97.62 3926.99Denmark (kr)DanskeBk 102.50 -0.90 123.60 68.04 - 10.78 14382.61MollerMrsk 12860 155.00 12970 4976 1.14 37.22 19741.65NovoB 421.55 2.55 467.90 331.70 2.04 23.81 124352.89

Finland (€)Nokia 3.44 0.10 4.35 2.08 - 25.94 23546.17SampoA 35.36 0.02 42.46 21.34 4.24 16.29 23736.04France (€)Airbus Grpe 94.73 -0.48 139.40 48.12 - -16.46 89981.54AirLiquide 135.10 -1.10 144.45 94.86 2.00 28.25 77504.72AXA 19.65 -0.10 25.62 11.84 3.72 16.92 57718.86BNP Parib 44.29 -0.22 54.22 24.51 - 7.96 67044.61ChristianDior 441.00 -1.20 479.80 252.40 1.09 43.55 96427.52Cred Agr 10.45 -0.29 13.80 5.70 - 7.65 36498.47Danone 52.20 0.38 75.16 46.03 - 17.89 43417.04EDF 12.72 -0.17 13.61 5.98 1.18 23.93 47745.74Engie SA 12.38 -0.17 16.80 8.63 - -27.43 36505.82EssilorLuxottica 127.35 -0.20 145.00 86.76 - -4233.76 67662.17Hermes Intl 829.80 -2.00 865.00 516.00 0.55 78.37 106115.46LOreal 304.80 0.80 321.40 196.00 1.27 52.59 206708.76LVMH 494.45 0.75 500.50 278.70 0.97 56.10 302323.68Orange 10.25 0.05 13.59 8.63 4.89 10.43 33011.86PernodRic 156.90 -0.50 171.10 112.25 1.99 124.20 49772.19Renault 35.18 -0.50 43.99 12.77 - -1.13 12600.43Safran 122.00 -0.25 152.30 51.10 - 78.00 63138.57Sanofi 82.38 -0.44 95.82 67.65 3.83 9.28 125632.64Sant Gbn 39.23 -0.29 40.80 16.41 3.17 16.27 25456.22Schneider 115.10 0.70 121.80 61.72 2.22 29.06 79063.86SFR Group 34.50 - 34.56 21.87 - -23.02 17905.81SocGen 17.52 -0.27 32.23 10.77 - -21.36 18112.94Total 36.95 -0.21 50.93 21.12 6.99 -19.25 118751.5UnibailR 190.00 0.35 236.45 177.35 2.94 -7.05 22215.04Vinci 85.92 -0.94 107.35 54.76 2.38 29.96 63854.22Vivendi 25.14 0.24 26.65 16.60 2.39 16.51 36115.57Germany (€)Allianz 195.22 -1.54 232.60 117.10 4.93 12.15 98652.36BASF 61.62 0.87 69.80 37.36 5.36 -28.65 68557.97Bayer 47.19 0.03 78.34 39.91 5.95 -6.34 56158.58BMW 73.01 -0.69 77.31 36.60 3.43 13.77 53240.55Continental 114.05 -0.55 122.90 51.45 - -8.32 27631.56Daimler 57.50 -0.20 58.21 21.02 - -204.81 74516.55Deut Bank 9.46 -0.12 10.37 4.45 - -12.77 23671.27Deut Tlkm 15.11 -0.07 16.75 10.41 3.98 19.32 87150.83DeutsPost 39.44 0.09 43.50 19.11 - 21.98 59074.57E.ON 9.04 0.07 11.56 7.60 5.10 29.08 28923.87Fresenius Med 68.32 -0.12 81.10 53.50 1.76 15.21 25194.88Fresenius SE 37.54 -0.04 51.54 24.25 2.24 11.54 20558.31HenkelKgaA 78.15 0.05 87.75 54.65 2.35 19.15 24593.96Linde 205.20 -3.00 226.40 130.45 1.57 57.54 130462.36MuenchRkv 238.20 -1.20 284.20 141.10 4.12 27.30 40424.41SAP 102.08 0.36 143.32 82.13 1.55 24.95 151909.34Siemens 114.40 1.98 119.30 53.02 3.42 20.16 117790.99Volkswgn 158.90 -0.30 185.00 99.16 - 15.14 56799.6Hong Kong (HK$)AIA 87.05 -0.90 90.90 60.05 1.57 23.04 135824.74BOC Hold 24.45 -0.15 28.90 20.05 6.80 7.93 33351.31Ch OSLnd&Inv 17.80 -0.74 31.00 17.56 6.19 4.04 25158.24ChngKng 42.05 -0.30 57.20 33.40 5.40 7.06 20037.22Citic Ltd 5.68 0.08 10.60 5.51 8.85 3.22 21317.64Citic Secs 17.18 -0.28 21.45 12.60 3.43 12.93 5049.91CK Hutchison 55.95 -0.05 76.00 45.05 6.13 5.78 27836.16CNOOC 6.89 -0.28 14.04 6.24 12.29 6.32 39688.02HangSeng 136.50 -0.60 173.80 110.00 6.26 12.10 33668.97HK Exc&Clr 384.00 -0.40 398.40 206.00 1.89 47.60 62811.57MTR 42.20 -0.05 47.80 36.20 3.15 39.42 33649.95SandsCh 34.25 -0.45 45.45 25.15 3.12 132.23 35747.68SHK Props 103.00 -0.50 124.00 87.60 5.20 11.73 38507.7Tencent 583.00 -0.50 633.00 325.20 0.22 45.90 720930.48India (Rs)Bhartiartl 503.60 -5.35 612.00 361.75 0.41 -11.92 37350.6HDFC Bk 1376.3 4.05 1464.4 738.75 - 26.00 103031.49Hind Unilevr 2260 3.85 2614.3 1757.3 1.17 69.18 72188.38HsngDevFin 2309.75 5.95 2499.9 1473.45 0.94 24.26 56505.24ICICI Bk 508.40 -2.05 552.20 268.30 - 23.48 47690.65Infosys 1153.35 9.85 1186 509.25 1.57 26.16 66787.11ITC 202.45 -0.70 247.90 134.60 5.28 16.33 33866.78L&T 1171.4 1.70 1383.7 661.00 1.58 55.21 22361.1OilNatGas 90.75 -0.80 133.40 50.00 6.67 25.41 15520.67RelianceIn 1993.75 35.55 2369.35 867.40 0.34 30.77 183283.48SBI NewA 271.90 2.30 339.85 149.45 - 10.04 32989.2SunPhrmInds 568.70 -13.60 591.50 312.00 0.72 89.89 18550.15Tata Cons 2797.3 59.60 2885 1506.05 1.22 33.23 142698.5Indonesia (Rp)Bk Cent Asia 22300 200.00 24700 16800 - - 38879.26Israel (ILS)TevaPha 33.14 -0.26 46.45 24.30 - -2.69 11158.37Italy (€)Enel 8.16 -0.02 8.61 5.15 3.69 45.21 100493.16ENI 8.79 0.02 14.42 5.73 6.26 -3.23 38391.33Generali 14.36 -0.14 19.00 10.20 3.49 12.35 27415.25IntSPaolo 1.97 0.00 2.63 1.31 - 10.36 46344.18Unicred 7.92 -0.11 14.44 6.01 - -7.00 21426.66

Japan (¥)AstellasPh 1477.5 -30.00 1987 0.00 2.83 14.13 26418.16Bridgestne 3686 -25.00 4365 2861.5 3.68 14.77 25264.75Canon 1983.5 21.00 3117 0.00 6.31 27.91 25407.15CntJpRwy 14325 25.00 22570 0.00 1.09 13.89 28340.46Denso 5713 -82.00 5919 0.00 2.56 -53.61 43231.98EastJpRwy 6922 11.00 10065 0.00 2.49 -51.91 25124.11Fanuc 25295 -570.00 26420 0.00 0.95 78.55 49052.77FastRetail 85400 130.00 88630 0.00 0.59 88.42 86998.23Fuji Hvy Ind 2111.5 -10.50 2945 1671.5 4.94 19.78 15597.74Hitachi 4038 -27.00 4693 0.00 2.46 19.46 37534.89HondaMtr 3083 -35.00 3259 0.00 3.22 25.60 53633.93JapanTob 2153.5 13.50 2555 0.00 7.29 12.92 41363.74KDDI 2969 - 3451 2604 4.12 10.08 65700.94Keyence 52930 1080 54160 28905 0.39 68.47 123630.09MitsbCp 2495.5 -20.50 2960.5 0.00 5.52 8.83 35607.43MitsubEst 1750.5 -27.50 2283 0.00 1.97 15.05 23390.34MitsubishiEle 1513 -20.00 1658 0.00 2.76 15.79 31200.15MitsuiFud 2221.5 -18.50 3035 1538 2.07 12.63 20594.22MitUFJFin 444.30 -4.20 603.00 380.00 5.85 18.21 57954.24Mizuho Fin 1315.5 -17.00 1716 1084 5.95 29.04 32080.5Murata Mfg 8895 47.00 9293 0.00 1.14 31.02 57730.22NipponTT 2550 16.50 2908 2127 3.89 10.57 95529.54Nissan Mt 537.70 5.10 688.00 311.20 1.94 -2.09 21795.73Nomura 547.10 -5.50 586.40 367.40 4.66 7.09 16989.98Nppn Stl 1335 3.00 1786.5 0.00 5.97 4.37 12184.19NTTDCMo 3880 - 3928 2678 3.22 20.15 120308.13Panasonic 1141 -2.00 1264 691.70 2.74 15.36 26886.1Seven & I 3441 -62.00 4419 2937.5 2.80 17.22 29294.09ShnEtsuCh 17150 -150.00 18025 8751 1.34 22.83 68626.81Softbank 7094 -29.00 7412 2609.5 0.65 -8.72 142378.32Sony 9704 29.00 9925 0.00 0.53 12.72 117525.23SumitomoF 3081 -1.00 4145 2507.5 6.41 19.20 40657.08Takeda Ph 3857 -13.00 4526 2894.5 4.87 48.34 58392.59TokioMarine 5224 -49.00 6317 4167 3.80 14.22 35219.67Toyota 7199 -5.00 8026 0.00 3.19 12.10 225597.32Mexico (Mex$)AmerMvl 14.25 -0.27 16.82 12.33 2.34 14.42 33073.34FEMSA UBD 150.67 0.15 185.00 112.72 1.84 316.73 16481.06WalMrtMex 54.48 0.40 62.71 47.76 0.93 32.19 48148.6Netherlands (€)Altice 4.46 - 6.86 2.26 - -4.02 5787.53ASML Hld 384.75 -2.05 389.45 177.52 0.62 48.37 198384.76Heineken 89.96 -1.06 105.00 68.82 1.87 55.73 62768.4ING 8.27 0.04 11.26 4.23 2.91 11.62 39094.81Unilever 48.02 0.36 55.39 38.42 - - 168679.53Norway (Kr)DNB 163.55 1.05 178.10 94.26 - 13.60 28732.42Equinor 146.85 3.10 187.20 95.20 5.47 -15.96 54024.17Telenor 153.40 1.55 171.90 130.75 5.33 20.23 24326.12Qatar (QR)QatarNtBk 18.40 -0.13 21.25 15.71 3.37 14.02 46676.85Russia (RUB)Gzprm neft 185.71 -3.02 272.68 158.17 9.34 10.45 58976.64Lukoil 4745.5 -157.00 6810 3663 7.64 12.47 44107.51MmcNrlskNckl 20150 -66.00 23656 13352 11.57 14.96 42774.79Novatek 973.20 -3.20 1382.2 682.80 3.05 46.54 39639.58Rosneft 324.00 -11.00 489.90 229.80 10.77 12.36 46063.6Sberbank 188.91 -2.03 270.80 172.15 9.07 5.92 54705Surgutneftegas 35.13 -0.76 54.89 24.06 1.93 2.10 16833.73Saudi Arabia (SR)AlRajhiBnk 73.60 -0.60 74.80 51.00 2.11 18.21 49048.35Natnlcombnk 42.70 -0.15 50.70 30.50 2.90 11.23 34147.26SaudiBasic 96.50 -0.20 100.00 61.90 3.96-102.59 77171.19SaudiTelec 106.00 -0.80 109.40 72.30 3.90 19.13 56512.24Singapore (S$)DBS♦ 25.01 -0.25 26.47 16.65 4.62 13.42 47522.12JardnMt US$ 55.08 0.52 58.95 37.37 3.38 -97.95 39957.46JardnStr US$ 26.38 1.10 33.50 17.81 1.46 -30.88 29239.81OCBC 9.99 0.01 11.23 7.80 4.45 14.09 33408.91SingTel 2.42 0.01 3.45 2.00 7.32 36.44 29546.14UOB 22.53 -0.14 27.00 17.28 5.06 12.42 28179.38South Africa (R)Firstrand 49.50 1.00 66.19 31.13 5.62 17.47 18508.23MTN Grp 70.39 -1.61 89.78 26.25 7.30 8.27 8840.77Naspers N 3135.57 -41.43 3499.45 1843.8 0.24 27.75 91023.19South Korea (KRW)HyundMobis 242000 -500.00 268500 126000 1.21 13.35 21193.33KoreaElePwr 21500 -400.00 29300 15550 - -15.35 12716.26SK Hynix 115000-3000.00 120000 65800 0.85 35.28 77133.1SmsungEl 71700-1200.00 73500 42300 1.93 22.99 394355.48Spain (€)BBVA 4.16 -0.05 5.34 2.13 6.26 -46.14 33560.34BcoSantdr 2.77 0.05 3.96 1.50 3.62 -5.65 55791CaixaBnk 2.25 0.01 2.94 1.50 3.11 13.27 16324.3Iberdrola 11.23 0.02 11.57 7.76 3.56 20.31 86382.29Inditex 26.88 -0.72 32.28 18.51 0.81 46.27 101480.99Repsol 8.60 0.12 14.67 5.04 10.65 -1.69 15915.42Telefonica 3.76 -0.08 6.87 2.71 10.45 75.19 24275.62

Sweden (SKr)AtlasCpcoB 387.40 7.80 393.30 223.20 1.68 32.31 17836.32Ericsson 106.00 1.20 110.15 59.54 1.39 24.95 38425.56H & M 187.00 -1.50 214.35 98.13 2.54 106.54 32227.87Investor 597.80 7.00 604.60 370.10 2.13 5.93 32126.73Nordea Bk 73.50 -0.14 86.73 48.00 - 12.78 35121.63SEB 90.30 -0.02 104.90 59.80 - 12.20 23120.04SvnskaHn 86.56 -0.66 113.80 71.70 - 11.22 19862.07Swedbank 157.32 0.44 162.70 99.14 - 14.05 21012.12Telia Co 35.44 0.68 42.41 30.29 5.74 48.28 17100.75Volvo 194.30 1.15 207.90 95.00 - 24.06 36275.4Switzerland (SFr)ABB 24.03 0.01 25.50 14.11 3.19 113.74 58622.33CredSuisse 11.59 -0.16 13.80 6.18 1.20 7.58 31920.56Nestle 99.39 0.25 112.62 83.37 2.76 20.98 322185.74Novartis 81.20 -0.10 96.38 65.09 3.44 28.61 225401.24Richemont 74.48 0.04 78.86 14.88 2.60 43.06 43745.21Roche 304.50 0.05 357.85 265.75 3.00 20.08 240709.24Swiss Re 81.74 -0.82 117.05 52.68 7.12 -18.29 29200.82Swisscom 473.30 0.10 577.80 446.70 4.65 14.79 27586.9Syngent 453.40 0.90 471.20 402.50 - 28.99 43035.76UBS 12.87 -0.07 13.50 7.00 2.58 9.22 55883.02Zurich Fin 360.40 -1.40 439.90 248.70 5.56 17.11 61013.61Taiwan (NT$)Chunghwa Telecom 109.50 1.00 120.00 103.00 8.23 25.02 30089.97Formosa PetChem 92.90 0.40 104.50 66.10 3.14 205.41 31348.31HonHaiPrc 87.60 -0.80 101.50 65.70 4.72 11.46 43017.97MediaTek 730.00 28.00 763.00 273.00 2.76 42.71 41118.43TaiwanSem 524.00 10.00 525.00 235.50 1.88 28.32 481314.81Thailand (THB)PTT Explor 43.25 0.25 47.75 23.60 4.86 24.95 41144.14United Arab Emirates (Dhs)Emirtestele 17.08 - 17.32 11.04 4.84 16.04 40439.56United Kingdom (p)AscBrFd 2293 -11.00 2730 1554 1.50 39.81 24255.22AstraZen 8134 63.00 10120 5871 2.67 55.35 137640.56Aviva 330.00 -3.10 430.20 205.70 2.88 6.01 17695.54Barclays 146.36 0.10 192.99 73.04 - 12.74 33369.73BP 272.60 -1.20 508.43 188.52 10.31 -3.29 72594.23BrAmTob 2902 53.00 3507 2362.5 5.31 10.48 72294.1BSkyB 1727.5 1.50 1740 893.50 0.76 36.60 38843.72BT 134.10 1.00 209.20 1.02 3.45 8.82 17777.76Compass 1451.5 -35.00 1995.5 865.80 2.76 22.37 31895.49Diageo 2942.5 -33.00 3297 2050.6 2.37 49.12 98976.29GlaxoSmh♦ 1405 7.20 1857 1284 5.69 11.12 92322.32Glencore 237.50 -1.80 258.30 109.76 3.36 -11.74 45774.75HSBC 400.40 -11.15 602.90 281.50 1.94 -47.06 107267.01Imperial Brands 1534 16.50 2072 1142 13.47 16.99 19548.28LlydsBkg 37.20 -0.14 73.66 23.59 - 21.88 35817.45Natl Grid 872.20 12.20 1073.8 789.13 5.48 23.83 39117.04Natwest Group 166.90 0.25 265.00 90.54 - 26.08 26684.52Prudential 1283 18.50 1509 682.80 2.89 31.58 44353.24ReckittB 6496 106.00 8191.3 5130 2.69 -16.80 61122.3RELX 1796 8.50 1613685 1382.86 2.54 27.38 46365.19RioTinto 5444 -17.00 5519 2954 5.62 15.26 97560.02RollsRoyce 126.25 -4.60 249.14 0.54 1.25 -1.22 3137.35RylDShlA 1392.6 -8.60 2338.59 878.10 6.92 -8.37 85539.83Shire# 4690 111.00 4780 2944 0.58 11.63 56567.13StandCh 474.30 -5.70 739.40 334.25 - 23.67 20892.86Tesco 224.50 -0.30 260.40 202.00 4.08 21.22 24560.29Vodafone 130.76 -1.46 158.50 92.76 5.86 -47.21 46603.14WPP 767.20 -3.60 1085.5 450.00 2.96 -4.12 12978.82United States of America ($)21stC Fox A 29.52 -0.16 39.74 19.81 1.61 10.78 10000.933M 171.82 1.67 182.55 114.04 3.52 19.49 99109.54AbbottLb 106.96 -0.22 115.14 61.61 1.35 55.05 189571.79Abbvie 107.92 2.08 108.35 62.55 4.41 22.50 190529.95Accenture 249.80 0.50 253.93 137.15 1.28 31.73 164588.98Adobe 492.01 -0.25 536.88 255.13 - 62.10 236024.14AEP♦ 83.67 -0.17 104.97 65.14 3.46 20.97 41532.73Aetna - - - - - - -Aflac 45.40 0.23 54.04 23.07 2.53 6.90 31891.01AirProd 269.07 -0.12 327.89 167.43 2.01 28.87 59470.52Alexion 119.20 0.37 128.57 72.67 - 26.95 26086.38Allergan 193.02 0.03 202.22 114.27 1.54 -25.19 63659.11Allstate 104.39 0.98 125.92 64.13 2.10 7.12 31741.66Alphabet 1811.49 -5.54 1843.83 1008.87 - 33.90 544613.29Altria 42.00 0.31 51.78 30.95 8.32 104.20 78053.6Amazon 3145 -13.00 3552.25 1626.03 - 88.981578007.47AmerAir 17.38 0.17 30.78 8.25 1.19 -1.22 10516.63AmerExpr 124.34 0.40 138.13 67.00 1.07 29.78 100118.81AmerIntGrp 39.55 -0.24 56.42 16.07 3.50 -6.76 34073.34AmerTower 224.53 0.26 272.20 174.32 1.99 51.36 99739.23Amgen 228.65 2.20 264.97 177.05 2.83 17.83 133109.94Anadarko 72.77 0.56 76.23 40.40 1.50 -63.37 36563.54Anthem♦ 319.28 0.04 338.20 171.03 1.18 15.93 79405.07Aon Cp 209.06 1.86 238.19 143.93 0.87 26.07 47794.53Apple 123.89 0.14 137.98 53.15 0.66 36.552106353.25ArcherDan♦ 50.43 0.39 52.05 28.92 2.93 17.30 28058.7

AT&T 30.22 0.58 39.55 26.08 7.11 19.36 215312.09AutomData 174.57 - 182.32 103.11 2.16 29.32 74858.06Avago Tech 422.48 1.59 422.84 155.67 2.99 77.86 170893.72BakerHu 22.08 0.09 31.26 20.09 3.24 -1.40 11412.93BankAm♦ 28.84 -0.25 35.72 17.95 2.58 13.81 249488.77Baxter 77.80 0.03 95.19 69.10 1.24 42.53 39741.67BectonDick 239.08 2.63 286.72 197.75 1.42 78.12 69340.7BerkshHat 341647.2-1891.80 352500 239440 - 23.40 221791.9Biogen 245.44 1.76 374.99 223.25 - 7.83 37768.7BkNYMeln 40.51 0.17 51.60 26.40 3.16 8.63 35897.36BlackRock 716.28 6.79 721.82 323.98 2.05 23.02 109240.37Boeing 236.51 -1.66 353.60 89.00 1.80 -29.04 133516.35Booking Holdings 2099.63 -29.15 2138.97 1107.29 - 33.15 85990.16BrisMySq 61.49 0.29 68.34 45.76 3.03-198.32 139128.95CapOne 92.17 -0.81 107.59 38.00 1.46 43.29 42156CardinalHlth 56.16 0.76 60.69 39.05 3.71 -4.12 16478.5Carnival 23.66 0.46 51.94 7.80 4.22 -2.27 17045.05Caterpillar 179.39 0.68 183.81 87.50 2.37 28.74 97456.08Celgene 108.24 0.11 110.70 58.59 - 12.71 77035.98CharlesSch 50.59 -0.18 51.81 28.00 1.50 19.57 90911.98Charter Comms 667.53 -13.23 681.71 345.67 - 51.38 133422.64Chevron Corp♦ 91.79 1.03 122.72 51.60 5.70 -14.46 171392.28Chubb 152.65 0.31 167.74 87.35 2.07 29.31 68901.71Cigna 217.40 -1.19 224.96 118.50 0.02 14.74 78539.51Cisco 44.31 -0.05 50.28 32.40 3.26 16.49 187211.42Citigroup 57.96 -0.18 83.11 32.00 3.64 10.95 120659.97CME Grp 183.57 0.39 225.36 131.80 1.86 29.60 65899.33Coca-Cola♦ 53.30 0.31 60.13 36.27 3.16 26.72 229053.26Cognizant 80.26 -0.28 81.11 40.01 1.11 28.76 42907.62ColgtPlm 85.18 -0.22 86.41 58.49 2.11 26.33 73009.36Comcast 51.63 -0.30 52.49 31.71 1.80 22.40 235736.32ConocPhil 42.56 -0.26 67.13 20.84 4.08 -37.10 45655.88Corning♦ 37.82 0.24 37.95 17.44 2.35 140.73 28891.04Costco 378.03 4.70 393.15 271.28 0.71 42.00 166796.95CrownCstl 162.17 -0.28 180.00 114.18 3.06 98.07 69943.57CSX♦ 91.72 -0.32 93.71 46.81 1.15 24.65 70141.34CVS 73.42 -0.21 76.44 52.04 2.82 11.74 96100.43Danaher 225.85 -0.30 248.32 119.60 0.32 51.06 160438.75Deere 253.68 1.67 265.87 106.14 1.22 29.04 79495.34Delphi 17.02 0.31 18.51 5.39 - -7.42 1469.67Delta 42.44 0.09 62.48 17.51 1.96 -2.47 27062.26Devon Energy 16.09 0.14 26.98 4.70 2.57 -2.37 6154.88DiscFinServ 81.90 -0.55 87.43 23.25 2.22 24.31 25102.05Disney 154.50 0.82 154.88 79.07 0.62-164.22 279719.94DominRes♦ 75.23 -0.91 90.89 57.79 5.34 107.03 61374.07DowDupont♦ 30.52 -0.65 48.38 30.06 3.83 -7.69 68559.76DukeEner♦ 91.80 -0.07 103.79 62.13 4.28 32.42 67561Eaton 118.02 0.62 123.67 56.42 2.54 33.59 47042.77eBay♦ 49.55 -0.49 61.06 26.02 1.29 14.40 34153.28Ecolab 223.60 0.86 231.36 124.60 0.87 52.77 63826.94Emerson♦ 80.79 1.62 81.15 37.75 2.66 23.35 48276.7EOG Res 51.45 -0.12 89.54 27.00 2.66 -93.93 30014.82EquityResTP 62.61 -0.10 87.53 45.43 3.92 23.76 23306.78Exelon♦ 41.20 - 50.54 29.28 3.79 16.40 40188.71ExpScripts 92.33 -3.47 101.73 66.93 - 11.10 52061.19ExxonMb♦ 42.21 1.31 71.37 30.11 8.52 52.36 178484.33Facebook 284.45 -1.13 304.67 137.10 - 31.35 683819.07Fedex 301.00 3.96 303.65 88.69 0.93 56.84 79040.19FordMtr 9.30 0.08 9.58 3.96 3.34-224.84 36320.91Franklin 23.95 0.38 27.60 14.91 3.61 10.80 12084.97GenDyn 153.15 0.15 190.08 100.55 2.86 13.43 43949.78GenElectric 10.99 0.13 13.26 5.48 0.38 27.25 96227.2GenMills 60.14 0.40 66.14 46.59 3.25 16.11 36765.62GenMotors 43.86 -0.45 46.71 14.33 2.81 38.63 62777.15GileadSci 61.05 0.22 85.97 57.04 4.52 60.28 76527.89GoldmSchs 237.47 -0.98 250.46 130.85 2.18 13.24 81705.78Halliburton♦ 19.20 0.23 25.47 4.25 2.42 -3.74 16968.52HCA Hold 158.16 2.79 158.35 58.38 0.54 15.49 53517.34Hew-Pack 23.66 0.17 23.93 12.54 2.96 13.06 32496.93HiltonWwde 109.98 0.15 116.73 44.30 0.28 -92.53 30513.55HomeDep 261.94 -0.70 292.95 140.63 2.22 23.54 282004.81Honywell 211.98 0.88 213.06 101.08 1.76 29.43 148743.35HumanaInc 405.34 1.60 474.70 208.25 0.62 12.56 53643.28IBM♦ 125.81 1.11 158.75 90.56 5.34 13.79 112103.9IllinoisTool 206.00 3.27 224.69 115.94 2.18 30.25 65203.17Illumina 342.15 -0.67 404.20 196.78 - 76.81 49953.9Intcntl Exch 110.16 -0.12 110.61 63.51 1.10 29.36 61831.02Intel 50.16 -0.05 69.29 43.61 2.69 9.53 205535.19Intuit 377.28 5.09 380.50 187.68 0.57 53.56 99128.74John&John 151.37 2.40 157.00 109.16 2.68 23.03 398487.98JohnsonCn 45.34 0.09 47.58 22.78 2.48 43.22 32818.36JPMrgnCh 121.77 -0.11 141.10 76.91 3.06 15.38 371179.69Kimb-Clark 137.43 0.51 160.16 110.66 3.19 19.30 46744.99KinderM 14.81 0.01 22.58 9.42 7.15 286.65 33537.65Kraft Heinz♦ 34.16 0.56 36.37 19.99 4.84 -82.62 41758.77Kroger 30.98 0.03 37.22 26.72 2.10 9.28 23988.58L Brands 40.83 0.59 40.97 8.00 2.24 -14.02 11355.17LasVegasSd 58.62 -0.32 74.29 33.30 2.75 -57.29 44775.6LibertyGbl 24.28 -0.15 25.17 15.24 - -7.94 4402.27Lilly (E)♦ 149.20 1.78 170.75 117.06 1.98 23.67 142721.97Lockheed♦ 361.02 -1.11 442.53 266.11 2.75 14.92 101007.53

Lowes 151.78 -0.21 180.67 60.00 1.48 19.75 111212.68Lyondell 88.04 0.93 95.82 33.71 4.93 24.00 29398.23Marathon Ptl♦ 42.73 0.52 62.14 15.26 5.62 -3.33 27799.05Marsh&M 116.21 0.15 120.97 74.34 1.63 28.25 58938.08MasterCard 341.17 0.21 367.25 199.99 0.46 49.56 337231.52McDonald's♦ 208.51 -0.38 231.91 124.23 2.55 30.56 155363.09McKesson♦ 178.90 0.64 187.67 112.60 0.95 13.45 28724.98Medtronic 110.51 -2.11 122.15 72.13 2.03 33.30 148741.93Merck 83.45 0.94 92.64 65.25 3.02 17.82 211131.37Metlife♦ 47.41 -0.17 53.28 22.85 4.06 5.67 42666.56Microsoft♦ 215.96 1.67 232.86 132.52 0.98 33.701632764.71Mnstr Bvrg 88.41 1.24 88.50 50.06 - 38.56 46673.12MondelezInt 58.37 -0.04 59.96 41.19 2.07 26.64 83478.6Monsanto - - - - - - -MorganStly 63.84 -0.43 65.19 27.20 2.27 10.43 115490.17MylanNV 15.86 0.31 23.11 12.75 - 29.73 8586.21Netflix 508.00 -7.78 575.37 290.25 - 79.41 224431.86NextEraE♦ 73.71 0.44 83.34 43.70 1.91 36.02 36098.39Nike 140.06 1.31 140.44 60.00 0.70 83.05 175748.59NorfolkS♦ 238.93 -0.13 247.98 112.62 1.63 29.79 65539.96Northrop 301.97 0.97 385.01 263.31 1.90 19.92 50343.23NXP 165.59 0.50 167.27 58.41 0.94-308.11 46323.74Occid Pet 18.77 0.58 47.58 8.52 13.71 -1.34 17478.8Oracle 59.30 -0.51 62.60 39.71 1.62 18.74 178530.61Pepsico 145.78 0.41 147.20 101.42 2.80 27.93 201461.62Perrigo♦ 48.85 0.11 63.86 40.01 1.87-945.20 6667.6Pfizer 42.40 1.15 42.40 26.41 3.66 26.47 235674.9Phillips66 68.18 1.13 114.95 40.04 5.46 -10.66 29781.04PhilMorris 82.48 0.80 90.17 56.01 5.90 16.15 128441.19PNCFin 141.01 -0.80 161.79 79.41 3.37 18.51 59746.08PPG Inds♦ 145.10 0.20 149.88 69.77 1.47 30.92 34272.08Praxair♦ 164.50 -0.99 169.75 140.00 2.29 39.25 47306.22ProctGmbl 138.22 0.54 146.92 94.34 2.30 25.57 342731.13Prudntl 79.94 -0.05 97.24 38.62 5.56-257.81 31654.26PublStor 224.49 -0.20 240.75 155.37 3.68 33.47 39244.95Qualcomm♦ 157.96 -0.07 158.97 58.00 1.66 33.81 178647.11Raytheon 116.96 -5.47 233.48 103.00 2.98 10.60 32566.46Regen Pharm 488.98 -6.43 664.64 328.13 - 17.34 51272.9S&P Global♦ 335.25 -0.99 379.87 186.06 0.80 32.50 80661.15Salesforce 227.88 0.18 284.50 115.29 - 89.54 208510.2Schlmbrg♦ 23.03 0.20 41.14 11.87 5.61 -2.93 32051.49Sempra Energy 129.30 1.07 161.87 88.00 3.37 16.47 37299.2Shrwin-Will 716.13 6.05 758.00 325.43 0.74 33.68 65041.7SimonProp 91.11 1.74 150.12 42.25 7.48 14.81 29895.73SouthCpr 60.48 1.22 61.34 23.43 2.39 35.25 46755.47Starbucks 101.23 -0.18 102.94 50.02 1.70 83.58 118337.87StateSt 76.03 0.07 85.89 42.10 2.83 11.71 26823.21Stryker 235.20 -1.60 242.51 124.54 1.01 49.36 88385.96Sychrony Fin 32.12 -0.45 38.18 12.15 2.83 14.13 18751.41T-MobileUS 132.36 -0.61 134.24 63.50 - 48.33 164277.28Target♦ 173.17 0.26 181.17 90.17 1.55 24.62 86718.88TE Connect 118.95 0.30 120.18 48.62 1.69-323.53 39341.83Tesla Mtrs 628.81 -12.95 648.79 67.02 - 1156.67 596049.46TexasInstr 166.55 0.26 166.61 93.09 2.23 30.46 152883.26TheTrvelers 135.41 1.51 141.87 76.99 2.55 14.99 34300.54ThrmoFshr 477.36 4.47 532.57 250.21 0.18 37.86 189194.57TimeWrnr 98.77 0.82 103.89 85.88 1.54 15.09 77269.69TJX Cos 65.44 -0.44 66.76 32.72 1.07 114.79 78569.3Truist Financial Corp 47.53 -0.33 56.92 24.01 3.91 15.91 64076.06UnionPac♦ 205.62 0.63 211.14 105.08 1.95 25.34 138560.92UPS B 166.15 -1.32 178.01 82.00 2.56 30.55 118833.22USBancorp 44.66 -0.15 61.11 28.36 3.89 14.31 67270UtdHlthcre♦ 347.31 -0.55 367.95 187.72 1.39 19.30 329534.92UtdTech♦ 86.01 -5.36 158.44 69.02 2.69 144.88 74498.84ValeroEngy♦ 58.89 -0.58 98.03 31.00 6.74-949.60 24012.67Verizon 61.16 -0.19 62.22 48.84 4.18 13.39 253085.85VertexPharm 227.10 0.04 306.08 197.47 - 21.52 59054.61VF Cp 88.76 0.46 100.25 45.07 2.24-357.84 34616.77ViacomCBS 36.79 -0.04 43.04 10.10 2.65 15.68 20782.77Visa Inc 212.75 0.10 217.65 133.93 0.58 37.40 360755.23Walgreen♦ 41.97 -0.46 59.78 33.36 4.37 80.88 36342.48WalMartSto 149.34 1.23 153.66 102.00 1.46 23.40 423182.18WellsFargo 29.06 -0.28 54.56 20.76 5.80 72.10 120148.27Williams Cos 22.21 0.61 24.17 8.41 7.35 113.10 26953.74Yum!Brnds 104.97 -0.27 107.70 54.95 1.80 29.61 31666.1Venezuela (VEF)Bco de Vnzla 59000 -990.00 59990 1000.00 379.24 - 209.38Bco Provncl 1000000 - 1000000 94000 - -9.83 104.91Mrcntl Srvcs 2000000 - 2000000 99999.93 0.02 13.22 118.47

Closing prices and highs & lows are in traded currency (with variations for thatcountry indicated by stock), market capitalisation is in USD. Highs & lows arebased on intraday trading over a rolling 52 week period.♦ ex-dividend■ ex-capital redistribution# price at time of suspension

FT 500: TOP 20

Close Prev Day Week Monthprice price change change % change change % change %

Occid Pet 18.77 18.19 0.58 3.19 3.64 24.1 87.61AmerAir 17.38 17.21 0.17 1.00 3.11 21.8 51.89SK Hynix 115000.00 118000.00 -3000.00 -2.54 17500.00 17.9 33.26Carnival 23.66 23.20 0.46 1.96 3.51 17.4 71.64Denso 5713.00 5795.00 -82.00 -1.42 784.00 15.9 17.12Devon Energy 16.09 15.95 0.14 0.88 2.09 14.9 64.71ShenwanHong 0.07 0.07 0.00 0.00 0.01 13.3 15.79RollsRoyce 126.25 130.85 -4.60 -3.52 14.15 12.6 -98.19Suncor En 23.20 22.88 0.32 1.40 2.56 12.4 51.90Halliburton 19.20 18.97 0.23 1.19 2.12 12.4 56.27Imperial Brands 1534.00 1517.50 16.50 1.09 156.00 11.3 -98.76OilNatGas 90.75 91.55 -0.80 -0.87 9.20 11.3 33.46Boeing 236.51 238.17 -1.66 -0.70 23.50 11.0 50.05BHPBilltn 42.25 42.39 -0.14 -0.33 4.18 11.0 21.86EOG Res 51.45 51.57 -0.12 -0.23 4.92 10.6 48.86JardnStr US$ 26.38 25.28 1.10 4.35 2.49 10.4 20.24Phillips66 68.18 67.05 1.13 1.69 6.30 10.2 46.04Sinopec Oil 2.13 2.10 0.03 1.43 0.19 9.8 19.66ExxonMb 42.21 40.90 1.31 3.21 3.71 9.6 28.74SBI NewA 271.90 269.60 2.30 0.85 23.85 9.6 24.04Based on the FT Global 500 companies in local currency

FT 500: BOTTOM 20

Close Prev Day Week Monthprice price change change % change change % change %

CNOOC 6.89 7.17 -0.28 -3.91 -1.24 -15.3 -5.75BOE Tech 0.60 0.59 0.01 1.69 -0.07 -10.4 -3.23China Vanke 26.40 27.00 -0.60 -2.22 -3.05 -10.4 -3.83SaicMtr 24.36 24.34 0.02 0.08 -2.15 -8.1 -12.12Citic Ltd 5.68 5.60 0.08 1.43 -0.38 -6.3 -6.91Ch Rail Gp 3.59 3.64 -0.05 -1.37 -0.24 -6.3 -7.27DominRes 75.23 76.14 -0.91 -1.20 -4.93 -6.2 -10.12Kroger 30.98 30.95 0.03 0.10 -2.03 -6.1 -6.59Hunng Pwr 2.86 2.90 -0.04 -1.38 -0.18 -5.9 -4.98Ch OSLnd&Inv 17.80 18.54 -0.74 -3.99 -1.06 -5.6 -11.70Salesforce 227.88 227.70 0.18 0.08 -13.47 -5.6 -12.49HomeDep 261.94 262.64 -0.70 -0.27 -14.66 -5.3 -7.87PngAnBnk 18.71 18.91 -0.20 -1.06 -1.03 -5.2 6.07CrownCstl 162.17 162.45 -0.28 -0.17 -8.63 -5.1 -1.22AirProd 269.07 269.18 -0.12 -0.04 -14.12 -5.0 -12.26Regen Pharm 488.98 495.41 -6.43 -1.30 -25.09 -4.9 -15.60AmerTower 224.53 224.27 0.26 0.12 -11.30 -4.8 -7.34ChStConEng 5.17 5.21 -0.04 -0.77 -0.26 -4.8 -3.72Pwr Cons Corp 4.02 4.05 -0.03 -0.74 -0.20 -4.7 3.08ChShenEgy 14.30 14.28 0.02 0.14 -0.68 -4.5 2.14Based on the FT Global 500 companies in local currency

BONDS: HIGH YIELD & EMERGING MARKET

Day's Mth's SpreadRed Ratings Bid Bid chge chge vs

Dec 08 date Coupon S* M* F* price yield yield yield USHigh Yield US$HCA Inc. 04/24 8.36 BB- Ba2 BB 113.75 4.24 0.00 0.12 -

High Yield EuroAldesa Financial Services S.A. 04/21 7.25 - - B 71.10 28.23 0.00 0.64 25.98

Emerging US$Peru 03/19 7.13 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 104.40 2.60 - - 0.34Colombia 01/26 4.50 - Baa2 BBB- 112.25 1.87 0.00 -0.11 1.54Brazil 04/26 6.00 - Ba2 BB- 118.75 2.25 0.05 -0.02 1.92Poland 04/26 3.25 - A2 A- 112.74 0.80 -0.01 -0.01 0.47Mexico 05/26 11.50 - Baa1 BBB- 148.50 2.03 -0.08 -0.10 1.70Turkey 10/26 4.88 - B2 BB- 98.84 5.11 0.08 -0.25 4.78Turkey 03/27 6.00 - Ba2 BB+ 101.26 5.82 0.00 0.17 3.07Peru 08/27 4.13 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 103.50 3.66 0.01 -0.02 0.80Russia 06/28 12.75 - Ba1 BBB 171.13 2.39 -0.01 -0.02 -Brazil 02/47 5.63 - Ba2 BB- 117.75 4.47 0.01 0.01 -

Emerging EuroBrazil 04/21 2.88 BB- Ba2 BB- 103.09 0.05 0.01 -0.09 -1.19Mexico 04/23 2.75 BBB+ A3 BBB+ 107.76 0.76 0.00 -0.07 -1.56Mexico 04/23 2.75 - Baa1 BBB- 106.00 0.21 0.00 -0.02 0.09Bulgaria 03/28 3.00 BBB- Baa2 BBB 117.04 1.00 0.02 -0.15 -1.42Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company. US $ denominated bonds NY close; allother London close. *S - Standard & Poor’s, M - Moody’s, F - Fitch.

BONDS: GLOBAL INVESTMENT GRADE

Day's Mth's SpreadRed Ratings Bid Bid chge chge vs

Dec 08 date Coupon S* M* F* price yield yield yield USUS$FleetBoston Financial Corp. 01/28 6.88 BBB+ Baa1 A- 129.00 2.54 -0.01 -0.05 -The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/28 5.00 BBB+ A3 A 117.21 2.47 0.00 0.32 -NationsBank Corp. 03/28 6.80 BBB+ Baa1 A- 127.69 2.72 -0.01 0.06 -GTE LLC 04/28 6.94 BBB+ Baa2 A- 128.27 2.80 0.00 -0.11 -United Utilities PLC 08/28 6.88 BBB Baa1 A- 130.43 2.62 -0.07 -0.22 -Barclays Bank plc 01/29 4.50 A A1 A+ 96.46 5.02 0.00 0.02 -EuroElectricite de France (EDF) 04/30 4.63 A- A3 A- 137.45 0.82 -0.01 0.10 -The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/31 3.00 BBB+ A3 A 124.42 0.68 0.00 -0.11 -The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 02/31 3.00 BBB+ A3 A 121.70 0.93 0.00 0.02 -Finland 04/31 0.75 AA+ Aa1 AA+ 111.08 -0.27 0.00 -0.05 -0.87YenMexico 06/26 1.09 - Baa1 BBB- 96.78 1.70 0.01 0.01 1.38£ Sterlinginnogy Fin B.V. 06/30 6.25 BBB Baa2 A- 137.45 2.19 -0.03 0.02 -innogy Fin B.V. 06/30 6.25 BBB Baa2 A- 128.68 3.20 0.00 -0.01 0.40Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company. US $ denominated bonds NY close; all other Londonclose. *S - Standard & Poor’s, M - Moody’s, F - Fitch.

INTEREST RATES: OFFICIAL

Dec 08 Rate Current Since Last Mnth Ago Year AgoUS Fed Funds 0.00-0.25 15-03-2020 1.00-1.25 1.50-1.75 1.25-1.50US Prime 4.75 30-10-2019 5.25 5.25 4.25US Discount 2.65 30-09-2019 2.75 2.75 1.75Euro Repo 0.00 16-03-2016 0.00 0.00 0.00UK Repo 0.10 19-03-2020 0.25 0.75 0.25Japan O'night Call 0.00-0.10 01-02-2016 0.00 0.00--0.10 0.00--0.10Switzerland Libor Target -1.25-0.25 15-01-2015 -0.75--0.25 -1.25--0.25 -1.25--0.25

INTEREST RATES: MARKET

Over Change One Three Six OneDec 08 (Libor: Dec 07) night Day Week Month month month month yearUS$ Libor 0.08288 0.000 0.003 -0.006 0.14575 0.23038 0.25313 0.33825Euro Libor -0.58229 0.002 0.008 -0.006 -0.59543 -0.55614 -0.52514 -0.48700£ Libor 0.03900 -0.006 -0.006 -0.003 0.03100 0.03238 0.04425 0.11338Swiss Fr Libor -0.006 -0.84400 -0.78160 -0.73400 -0.61640Yen Libor 0.009 -0.09950 -0.09850 -0.05883 0.05733Euro Euribor -0.005 -0.55000 -0.53400 -0.51300 -0.49900Sterling CDs - - - -US$ CDs - - - -Euro CDs - - - -

Short 7 Days One Three Six OneDec 08 term notice month month month yearEuro -0.74 -0.44 -0.70 -0.40 -0.83 -0.53 -0.70 -0.40 -0.67 -0.37 -0.67 -0.37Sterling 0.45 0.55 0.70 0.80 0.78 0.88 0.82 0.97 0.89 1.04Swiss Franc - - - - - - - - - - - -Canadian Dollar - - - - - - - - - - - -US Dollar 0.07 0.37 -0.02 0.28 0.01 0.31 0.09 0.39 0.12 0.42 0.19 0.49Japanese Yen -0.15 0.00 -0.15 0.00 -0.60 -0.10 -0.30 0.00 -0.25 0.05 -0.20 0.10Libor rates come from ICE (see www.theice.com) and are fixed at 11am UK time. Other data sources: US $, Euro & CDs:Tullett Prebon; SDR, US Discount: IMF; EONIA: ECB; Swiss Libor: SNB; EURONIA, RONIA & SONIA: WMBA.

BOND INDICES

Day's Month's Year Return ReturnIndex change change change 1 month 1 year

Markit IBoxxABF Pan-Asia unhedged 225.19 -0.04 0.73 8.49 1.47 10.35Corporates( £) 404.29 0.56 0.55 7.42 2.15 7.86Corporates($) 338.65 -0.37 -0.38 8.69 -0.38 8.69Corporates(€) 244.31 0.18 0.22 2.79 0.84 2.83Eurozone Sov(€) 263.34 0.28 0.08 4.95 0.04 4.52Gilts( £) 374.11 0.93 0.18 7.37 0.20 6.68Global Inflation-Lkd 308.36 -0.21 0.10 10.30 1.68 10.95Markit iBoxx £ Non-Gilts 390.99 0.55 0.49 6.72 1.73 6.99Overall ($) 282.79 -0.33 -0.63 7.93 -0.63 7.93Overall( £) 374.81 0.83 0.27 6.93 0.62 6.54Overall(€) 253.88 0.23 0.10 4.04 0.21 3.69Treasuries ($) 260.87 -0.34 -0.87 7.71 -0.87 7.71

FTSESterling Corporate (£) - - - - - -Euro Corporate (€) 104.47 -0.05 - - 0.54 -1.73Euro Emerging Mkts (€) 629.67 4.88 - - 4.65 20.92Eurozone Govt Bond 110.04 -0.19 - - -0.34 -0.64

CREDIT INDICES Day's Week's Month's Series SeriesIndex change change change high low

Markit iTraxxCrossover 5Y 240.63 -2.67 -10.69 -72.94 377.90 234.36Europe 5Y 47.42 -0.01 1.20 -5.12 66.97 45.31Japan 5Y 53.50 0.17 -2.40 -9.71 70.43 53.06Senior Financials 5Y 57.40 -1.21 0.21 -11.25 86.20 54.75

Markit CDXEmerging Markets 5Y 162.60 4.27 -2.12 -9.13 245.71 158.33Nth Amer High Yld 5Y 292.64 2.03 -10.28 -43.37 421.26 290.61Nth Amer Inv Grade 5Y 50.85 0.97 0.82 -1.35 65.62 49.63Websites: markit.com, ftse.com. All indices shown are unhedged. Currencies are shown in brackets after the index names.

COMMODITIES www.ft.com/commodities

Energy Price* ChangeCrude Oil† Dec 45.43 -0.26Brent Crude Oil‡ 48.88 0.18RBOB Gasoline† Dec 1.26 0.00Heating Oil† - -Natural Gas† Dec 2.42 -0.01Ethanol♦ - -Uranium† - -Carbon Emissions‡ - -Diesel† - -Base Metals (♠ LME 3 Months)Aluminium 1997.50 -15.50Aluminium Alloy 1800.00 0.00Copper 7706.00 -13.50Lead 2096.50 7.50Nickel 16425.00 90.00Tin 19145.00 30.00Zinc 2806.50 6.50Precious Metals (PM London Fix)Gold 1859.95 16.95Silver (US cents) 2375.00 -47.50Platinum 1023.00 -37.00Palladium 2336.00 -14.00Bulk CommoditiesIron Ore 149.95 2.40GlobalCOAL RB Index 81.00 -1.00Baltic Dry Index 1121.00 -41.00

Agricultural & Cattle Futures Price* ChangeCorn♦ Mar 421.50 -1.25Wheat♦ Mar 575.00 -0.75Soybeans♦ Jan 1147.75 -9.00Soybeans Meal♦ Jan 378.20 -4.10Cocoa (ICE Liffe)X Mar 1749.00 -28.00Cocoa (ICE US)♥ Mar 2583.00 -287.00Coffee(Robusta)X Jan 1325.00 1.00Coffee (Arabica)♥ Dec 114.75 0.00White SugarX 396.70 0.00Sugar 11♥ 14.38 -0.08Cotton♥ Mar 72.06 -0.44Orange Juice♥ Jan 122.85 0.65Palm Oil♣ - -Live Cattle♣ Dec 107.80 -0.78Feeder Cattle♣ Jan 134.88 -Lean Hogs♣ Feb 64.95 -0.85

% Chg % ChgDec 07 Month Year

S&P GSCI Spt 385.57 10.26 -8.81DJ UBS Spot 73.78 1.25 -5.76TR/CC CRB TR 168.33 7.23 -12.16M Lynch MLCX Ex. Rtn 231.14 -9.84 -33.05UBS Bberg CMCI TR 13.20 4.85 -4.74LEBA EUA Carbon 29.76 12.81 19.18LEBA CER Carbon 0.29 3.57 52.63LEBA UK Power 680.00 25.93 -76.44

Sources: † NYMEX, ‡ ECX/ICE, ♦ CBOT, X ICE Liffe, ♥ ICE Futures, ♣ CME, ♠ LME/London Metal Exchange.* Latest prices, $unless otherwise stated.

BONDS: INDEX-LINKED

Price Yield Month Value No ofDec 07 Dec 07 Prev return stock Market stocks

Can 4.25%' 21 105.04 -0.867 -0.829 0.15 5.18 89388.58 8Fr 0.10%' 21 105.46 -1.152 -1.113 0.60 11.35 250934.08 15Swe 0.25%' 22 109.57 -0.520 -0.483 0.01 26.51 200439.84 7UK 1.875%' 22 110.40 -3.233 -3.073 0.40 15.74 804708.60 28UK 2.5%' 24 361.12 -3.139 -2.984 0.76 6.82 804708.60 28UK 2%' 35 305.67 -2.772 -2.657 1.29 9.08 804708.60 28US 0.625%' 21 - - - - - - -US 3.625%' 28 136.61 -1.086 -1.097 0.37 16.78 1647813.15 43Representative stocks from each major market Source: Merill Lynch Global Bond Indices † Local currencies. ‡ Total marketvalue. In line with market convention, for UK Gilts inflation factor is applied to price, for other markets it is applied to paramount.

BONDS: TEN YEAR GOVT SPREADS

Spread SpreadBid vs vs

Yield Bund T-Bonds

Spread SpreadBid vs vs

Yield Bund T-Bonds

Australia 1.16 - 0.29Austria - - -Canada 0.76 - -0.11Denmark -1.42 - -2.29Finland -0.39 - -1.26Germany - - -Ireland -0.33 - -1.20Italy -0.18 - -1.05Japan -0.02 - -0.89

Netherlands -0.69 - -New Zealand 0.96 - 0.09Norway 0.88 - 0.01Portugal -0.36 - -Spain -0.94 - -1.81Sweden -1.43 - -2.30Switzerland -0.52 - -1.39United Kingdom - - -United States 0.87 - 0.00

Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company.

VOLATILITY INDICES

Dec 08 Day Chng Prev 52 wk high 52 wk lowVIX 21.11 -0.19 21.30 85.42 11.71VXD 21.61 -0.33 21.94 71.05 2.47VXN 26.74 -0.46 27.20 84.67 13.58VDAX 22.47 -0.92 23.39 93.30 -† CBOE. VIX: S&P 500 index Options Volatility, VXD: DJIA Index Options Volatility, VXN: NASDAQ Index Options Volatility.‡ Deutsche Borse. VDAX: DAX Index Options Volatility.

BONDS: BENCHMARK GOVERNMENT

Red Bid Bid Day chg Wk chg Month YearDate Coupon Price Yield yield yield chg yld chg yld

Australia 11/22 2.25 104.18 0.10 0.00 0.01 0.01 -0.6005/32 1.25 100.94 1.16 0.05 0.15 0.15 -

Austria - - - - - - -02/47 1.50 138.36 0.03 -0.04 0.00 0.00 -0.49

Belgium 09/22 1.00 102.92 -0.67 -0.02 -0.03 -0.03 -0.13Canada 11/22 2.00 103.44 0.22 0.00 0.00 0.00 -1.50

06/30 1.25 104.44 0.76 -0.03 0.07 0.07 -0.83Denmark 11/22 0.25 101.71 -0.63 -0.02 0.00 0.00 0.02

11/30 0.10 116.34 -1.42 -0.04 -0.05 -0.05 -0.03Finland 04/23 1.50 105.32 -0.74 -0.01 -0.01 -0.01 -0.19

04/31 0.75 112.10 -0.39 -0.04 -0.01 -0.01 -0.46France 05/23 1.75 106.18 -0.73 -0.03 -0.03 -0.03 -0.19

11/26 0.25 105.17 -0.60 -0.02 -0.01 -0.01 -0.38Germany - - - - - - -

05/23 1.50 105.63 -0.79 -0.02 -0.02 -0.02 -0.1602/26 0.50 106.81 -0.78 -0.03 -0.02 -0.02 -0.2808/50 0.00 104.88 -0.16 -0.04 0.01 0.01 -0.39

Greece 02/26 3.65 118.96 0.57 -0.01 0.02 0.02 -0.99Ireland 10/22 0.00 101.26 -0.67 0.00 -0.02 -0.02 -0.21

05/30 2.40 126.15 -0.33 -0.03 -0.02 -0.02 -0.4605/30 2.40 126.15 -0.33 -0.03 -0.02 -0.02 -0.46

Italy 08/22 0.90 102.24 -0.46 -0.01 -0.02 -0.02 -0.6402/25 0.35 102.00 -0.13 -0.02 0.00 0.00 -0.9105/30 0.40 105.55 -0.18 0.00 -0.06 -0.06 -0.8903/48 3.45 145.91 1.41 -0.02 -0.01 -0.01 -0.99

Japan 04/23 0.05 99.97 0.06 0.00 0.00 0.00 -04/25 0.05 100.02 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.00 -12/29 0.10 101.05 -0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 -12/49 0.40 93.95 0.63 0.00 0.00 0.00 -

Netherlands 07/22 2.25 104.81 -0.73 -0.01 -0.02 -0.02 -0.1207/26 0.50 106.81 -0.69 -0.03 -0.02 -0.02 -0.32

New Zealand 04/25 2.75 110.32 0.36 0.02 0.06 0.06 -0.9005/31 1.50 105.34 0.96 0.05 0.10 0.10 -0.6705/31 1.50 105.34 0.96 0.05 0.10 0.10 -0.67

Norway 08/30 1.38 104.53 0.88 0.00 0.05 0.05 -08/30 1.38 104.53 0.88 0.00 0.05 0.05 -

Portugal 10/22 2.20 105.43 -0.70 -0.01 -0.03 -0.03 -0.3702/26 3.30 119.31 -0.36 -0.02 0.00 0.00 -0.54

Spain 10/22 0.45 101.92 -0.56 -0.01 0.03 0.03 -0.2811/30 1.00 120.40 -0.94 -0.01 -0.07 -0.07 -0.46

Sweden 06/22 0.25 109.57 -0.52 -0.01 -0.03 -0.03 1.3706/26 0.13 116.71 -1.37 -0.04 -0.05 -0.05 0.4606/30 0.13 116.19 -1.43 -0.04 0.02 0.02 -

Switzerland 05/22 2.00 104.13 -0.80 -0.01 -0.02 -0.02 -0.0405/30 0.50 109.97 -0.52 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.03

United Kingdom - - - - - - -07/22 0.50 100.93 -0.07 -0.04 -0.05 -0.05 -0.6207/26 1.50 108.44 0.00 -0.06 -0.04 -0.04 -0.5707/47 1.50 115.55 0.85 -0.07 0.00 0.00 -0.43

United States 03/22 0.38 100.33 0.12 -0.02 -0.01 -0.01 -03/25 0.50 100.74 0.33 -0.02 0.03 0.03 -02/30 1.50 105.58 0.87 -0.04 0.09 0.09 -02/50 0.25 116.93 - - - - -

Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data LLC, an ICE Data Services company.

GILTS: UK CASH MARKET

Red Change in Yield 52 Week AmntDec 08 Price £ Yield Day Week Month Year High Low £m

- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -

Tr 1.5pc '21 100.21 -0.04 -20.00 -20.00 33.33 -105.97 101.22 100.21 32.84Tr 4pc '22 105.06 0.00 -100.00 -100.00 -100.00 -100.00 107.91 105.06 38.77Tr 5pc '25 121.22 0.02 -300.00 -300.00 -128.57 -96.00 124.55 121.22 35.84Tr 1.25pc '27 107.17 0.16 33.33 23.08 166.67 -70.37 109.23 103.96 39.34Tr 4.25pc '32 142.32 0.47 11.90 6.82 27.03 -43.37 148.26 137.84 38.71Tr 4.25pc '36 151.90 0.67 9.84 4.69 17.54 -33.66 160.46 145.12 30.41Tr 4.5pc '42 173.01 0.85 6.25 2.41 11.84 -26.72 186.37 162.55 27.21Tr 3.75pc '52 178.71 0.89 7.23 2.30 12.66 -22.61 198.36 164.59 24.10Tr 4pc '60 204.17 0.86 8.86 3.61 14.67 -21.82 231.12 186.33 24.12Gilts benchmarks & non-rump undated stocks. Closing mid-price in pounds per £100 nominal of stock.

GILTS: UK FTSE ACTUARIES INDICES

Price Indices Day's Total Return ReturnFixed Coupon Dec 02 chg % Return 1 month 1 year Yield1 Up to 5 Years 89.25 -0.07 2484.34 -0.27 1.22 0.022 5 - 10 Years 185.43 -0.31 3792.84 -0.94 3.03 0.233 10 - 15 Years 222.57 -0.52 4858.64 -1.26 4.69 0.504 5 - 15 Years 193.61 -0.38 4052.52 -1.05 3.58 0.355 Over 15 Years 388.05 -1.35 6380.02 -2.63 7.74 0.867 All stocks 190.38 -0.73 4080.99 -1.56 4.92 0.72

Day's Month Year's Total Return ReturnIndex Linked Dec 02 chg % chg % chg % Return 1 month 1 year1 Up to 5 Years 303.75 -0.01 -0.34 -1.03 2509.37 -0.04 0.542 Over 5 years 834.57 -0.87 -1.43 8.42 6310.31 -1.35 8.813 5-15 years 515.09 -0.20 -1.26 2.32 4102.97 -1.13 3.034 Over 15 years 1102.60 -1.13 -1.50 10.61 8117.51 -1.43 10.885 All stocks 741.58 -0.80 -1.34 7.32 5710.52 -1.23 7.85

Yield Indices Dec 02 Dec 07 Yr ago Dec 02 Dec 07 Yr ago5 Yrs 0.04 0.00 0.44 20 Yrs 0.88 0.82 1.2210 Yrs 0.41 0.36 0.75 45 Yrs 0.83 0.76 1.1415 Yrs 0.73 0.67 1.07

inflation 0% inflation 5%Real yield Dec 02 Dur yrs Previous Yr ago Dec 02 Dur yrs Previous Yr agoUp to 5 yrs -2.74 2.88 -2.74 -2.20 -3.14 2.88 -3.15 -2.71Over 5 yrs -2.28 24.08 -2.32 -1.90 -2.30 24.13 -2.34 -1.935-15 yrs -2.75 9.53 -2.77 -2.37 -2.85 9.53 -2.87 -2.44Over 15 yrs -2.23 29.19 -2.26 -1.86 -2.24 29.21 -2.28 -1.87All stocks -2.29 22.26 -2.32 -1.91 -2.31 22.33 -2.35 -1.94See FTSE website for more details www.ftse.com/products/indices/gilts©2018 Tradeweb Markets LLC. All rights reserved. The Tradeweb FTSEGilt Closing Prices information contained herein is proprietary toTradeweb; may not be copied or re-distributed; is not warranted to beaccurate, complete or timely; and does not constitute investment advice.Tradeweb is not responsible for any loss or damage that might result from the use of this information.

All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. All elements listed are indicative and believed accurateat the time of publication. No offer is made by Morningstar, its suppliers, or the FT. Neither the FT, norMorningstar’s suppliers, warrant or guarantee that the information is reliable or complete. Neither the FT norMorningstar’s suppliers accept responsibility and will not be liable for any loss arising from the reliance on theuse of the listed information. For all queries e-mail ft.reader.enquiries@morningstar.com

Data provided by Morningstar | www.morningstar.co.uk

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Stats Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:25 User: gerry.white Page Name: MARKET DATA 2, Part,Page,Edition: ASI, 13, 1

14 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Aberdeen Standard Capital (JER)PO Box 189, St Helier, Jersey, JE4 9RU 01534 709130FCA Recognised

Aberdeen Standard Capital Offshore Strategy Fund Limited

Bridge Fund £ 2.2040 - -0.0081 1.71

Global Equity Fund £ 3.1156 - -0.0179 1.05

Global Fixed Interest Fund £ 0.9939 - 0.0006 4.16

Income Fund £ 0.6396 - -0.0029 2.46

Sterling Fixed Interest Fund £ 0.9240 - 0.0021 2.89

UK Equity Fund £ 1.9639 - -0.0121 2.79

Aegon Asset Management UK ICVC (UK)3 Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9SA0800 358 3009 www.aegonam.comAuthorised FundsGlobal Equity GBP B Acc £ 3.13 - 0.03 0.00

Aegon Asset Management Investment Company (Ireland) (IRL)1 North Wall Quay Dublin 1, Ireland +35 3162 24493FCA RecognisedAbsolute Return Bond B GBP Acc 1154.47 - 0.08 1.61

High Yield Global Bond A GBP Inc 512.14 - 0.36 4.49

High Yield Global Bond B GBP Inc 1096.27 - 0.77 5.23

Global Equity Income B GBP Acc 2084.74 - -13.79 0.00

Global Equity Income B GBP Inc 1455.44 - -8.32 3.19

lobal Equity Market Neutral Fund - B Acc GBP £ 12.29 - 0.07 0.00

Global Sustainable Equity B Acc GBP £ 27.59 - 0.18 0.00

Global Sustainable Equity C Acc GBP £ 27.98 - 0.18 -

Inv Grd Gbl Bond A Inc GBH 628.67 - 0.04 1.81

Short Dated High Yld Bd B Acc GBP £ 11.03 - 0.00 0.00

Short Dated High Yld Bd C Acc GBP (Hdg) £ 11.14 - 0.01 0.00

Strategic Global Bond A GBP Inc 1318.94 - 0.07 2.70

Strategic Global Bond B GBP Inc 748.50 - 0.05 3.45

Algebris Investments (IRL)RegulatedAlgebris Financial Credit I EUR € 187.49 - 0.39 0.00

Algebris Financial Credit R EUR € 163.18 - 0.33 0.00

Algebris Financial Credit Rd EUR € 109.85 - 0.23 4.74

Algebris Financial Income I EUR € 154.36 - -1.71 0.00

Algebris Financial Income R EUR € 143.00 - -1.60 0.00

Algebris Financial Income Rd EUR € 94.47 - -1.06 3.61

Algebris Financial Equity B EUR € 111.80 - -2.17 0.00

Algebris IG Financial Credit B EUR € 110.73 - 0.17 0.00

Algebris IG Financial Credit R EUR € 109.92 - 0.16 0.00

Algebris Global Credit Opportunities I EUR € 129.44 - 0.17 0.00

Algebris Global Credit Opportunities R EUR € 127.33 - 0.16 0.00

Algebris Global Credit Opportunities Rd EUR € 127.33 - 0.16 0.00

Algebris Core Italy I EUR € 117.60 - 0.28 0.00

Algebris Core Italy R EUR € 110.05 - 0.26 0.00

Algebris Allocation I EUR € 103.65 - 0.33 0.00

The Antares European Fund LimitedOther International

AEF Ltd Usd (Est) $ 556.29 - 5.15 0.00

AEF Ltd Eur (Est) € 520.67 - 4.76 0.00

Arisaig PartnersOther International Funds

Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Class A (Ex-Alcohol) shares $ 123.72 - 1.62 0.00

Arisaig Asia Consumer Fund Limited $ 123.10 - 1.80 0.00

Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer Fund $ 16.39 - -0.03 0.00

Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS € 12.85 - -0.01 -

Arisaig Global Emerging Markets Consumer UCITS STG £ 14.50 - -0.10 -

Arisaig Latin America Consumer Fund $ 25.67 - 0.01 0.00

Artemis Fund Managers Ltd (1200)F (UK)57 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1LD 0800 092 2051Authorised Inv FundsArtemis Corporate Bond I Acc £ 1.13 - 0.00 1.68

Artemis Target Return Bond I Acc £ 1.06 - 0.00 -

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Ashmore Investment Management Limited (LUX)2 rue Albert Borschette L-1246 LuxembourgFCA RecognisedAshmore SICAV Emerging Market Debt Fund $ 92.49 - -0.07 4.86

Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Frontier Equity Fund $ 162.79 - 0.09 1.49

Ashmore SICAV Emerging Market Total Return Fund $ 81.94 - 0.04 4.15

Ashmore SICAV Global Small Cap Equity Fund $ 201.94 - -0.83 0.02

EM Active Equity Fund Acc USD $ 157.90 - -0.65 0.00

EM Equity Fund Acc USD $ 142.09 - -0.32 0.00

EM Mkts Corp.Debt USD F $ 91.03 - 0.16 5.64

EM Mkts Loc.Ccy Bd USD F $ 79.34 - 0.20 4.55

EM Short Duration Fund Acc USD $ 118.74 - 0.07 0.00

Atlantas Sicav (LUX)RegulatedAmerican Dynamic $ 6530.53 6530.53 154.76 0.00

American One $ 6346.25 6346.25 85.33 0.00

Bond Global € 1500.92 1500.92 -9.12 0.00

Eurocroissance € 1209.26 1209.26 -8.91 0.00

Far East $ 1199.00 - -7.13 0.00

Barclays Investment Funds (CI) Ltd (JER)39/41 Broad Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 3RR Channel Islands 01534 812800FCA Recognised

Bond Funds

Sterling Bond F £ 0.50 - 0.00 2.17

Brooks Macdonald International Fund Managers Limited (JER)5 Anley Street, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 3QE+44 (0) 1534 700 104 (Int.) +44 (0) 800 735 8000 (UK)

Brooks Macdonald International Investment Funds Limited

Euro High Income € 1.5620 - 0.0010 2.50

High Income £ 0.8827 - 0.0015 3.77

Sterling Bond £ 1.6300 - 0.0040 2.06

Brooks Macdonald International Multi Strategy Fund Limited

Cautious Balanced Strategy £ 1.3340 - 0.0010 0.00

Growth Strategy £ 1.9180 - 0.0020 0.00

High Growth Strategy £ 2.6270 - 0.0060 0.00

US$ Growth Strategy $ 1.8620 - 0.0030 0.00Dealing Daily. Initial charge up to 2%

CCLA Investment Management Ltd (UK)Senator House 85 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4ETAuthorised Inv FundsDiversified Income 1 Units GBP Inc £ 1.56 1.56 0.00 0.03

Diversified Income 2 Units GBP Inc £ 1.50 1.50 0.00 0.03

Diversified Income 3 Units GBP Inc £ 1.51 1.51 0.00 0.03

CG Asset Management Limited (IRL)25 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AYDealing: Tel. +353 1434 5098 Fax. +353 1542 2859FCA Recognised

CG Portfolio Fund Plc

Absolute Return Cls M Inc £ 131.75 131.75 0.64 1.35

Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP P £ 36028.29 36028.29 202.04 -

Capital Gearing Portfolio GBP V £ 175.22 175.22 0.98 -

Dollar Fund Cls D Inc £ 170.49 170.49 2.49 1.43

Dollar Hedged GBP Inc £ 106.35 106.35 0.38 1.31

Real Return Cls A Inc £ 208.63 208.63 3.04 1.61

Chartered Asset Management Pte LtdOther International Funds

CAM-GTF Limited $ 317343.01 317343.01 4402.86 0.00

CAM GTi Limited $ 846.51 - -8.59 0.00

Raffles-Asia Investment Company $ 1.53 1.53 0.08 1.96

Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds (IRL)6 Duke Street,St.James,London SW1Y 6BNwww.dodgeandcox.worldwide.com 020 3713 7664FCA Recognised

Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc - Global Bond Fund

EUR Accumulating Class € 14.96 - 0.02 0.00

EUR Accumulating Class (H) € 11.63 - 0.00 0.00

EUR Distributing Class € 11.75 - 0.02 3.74

EUR Distributing Class (H) € 9.10 - 0.01 3.77

GBP Distributing Class £ 12.98 - 0.06 3.85

GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 9.58 - 0.00 4.09

USD Accumulating Class $ 13.07 - 0.00 0.00

Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-Global Stock Fund

USD Accumulating Share Class $ 24.98 - -0.19 0.00

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 30.71 - -0.10 0.00

GBP Distributing Share class £ 21.20 - -0.07 1.23

EUR Accumulating Share Class € 30.98 - -0.18 0.00

GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 12.16 - -0.09 0.98

Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc-U.S. Stock Fund

USD Accumulating Share Class $ 30.92 - -0.19 0.00

GBP Accumulating Share Class £ 35.95 - -0.07 0.00

GBP Distributing Share Class £ 21.95 - -0.04 0.95

EUR Accumulating Share Class € 33.11 - -0.16 0.00

GBP Distributing Class (H) £ 12.81 - -0.08 0.97

Dragon Capitalwww.dragoncapital.comFund information:info@dragoncapital.com

Other International Funds

Vietnam Equity (UCITS) Fund A USD $ 24.33 - 0.10 -

Ennismore Smaller Cos Plc (IRL)5 Kensington Church St, London W8 4LD 020 7368 4220FCA RecognisedEnnismore European Smlr Cos NAV £ 134.06 - 1.15 0.00

Ennismore European Smlr Cos NAV € 147.14 - -0.35 0.00

Ennismore European Smlr Cos Hedge FdOther International Funds

NAV € 518.47 - 9.18 0.00

Equinox Fund Mgmt (Guernsey) Limited (GSY)RegulatedEquinox Russian Opportunities Fund Limited $ 184.85 - 11.87 0.00

Euronova Asset Management UK LLP (CYM)RegulatedSmaller Cos Cls One Shares € 52.44 - 0.86 0.00

Smaller Cos Cls Two Shares € 34.41 - 0.50 0.00

Smaller Cos Cls Three Shares € 17.34 - 0.26 0.00

Smaller Cos Cls Four Shares € 22.29 - 0.33 0.00

FIL Investment Services (UK) Limited (1200)F (UK)130, Tonbridge Rd, Tonbridge TN11 9DZCallfree: Private Clients 0800 414161Broker Dealings: 0800 414 181

OEIC Funds

Fidelity American Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 53.82 - -0.60 0.31

Fidelity Cash Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 1.02 - 0.00 0.66

FID Emerg Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 2.34 - 0.01 4.21

Fidelity Global Enhanced Income Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 2.05 - -0.02 3.68

Fidelity Global Focus Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 33.38 - -0.25 0.20

Fidelity Global High Yield Fund Y-ACC-GBP £ 15.56 - 0.05 3.65

Fidelity Japan Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 4.99 - -0.01 0.58

Fidelity Japan Smaller Companies Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 4.31 - -0.01 0.35

Fidelity Select 50 Balanced Fund PI-ACC-GBP £ 1.15 - 0.01 0.83

Fidelity Special Situations Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 33.44 - -0.47 3.43

Short Dated Corporate Bond Fund Y ACC GBP £ 11.07 - 0.00 3.86

Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Acc £ 1.10 - -0.02 -

Fidelity Sustainable Water & Waste W Inc £ 1.10 - -0.01 -

Fidelity UK Growth Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.34 - -0.05 1.14

Fidelity UK Select Fund W-ACC-GBP £ 3.14 - -0.01 2.36

Institutional OEIC Funds

Europe (ex-UK) Fund ACC-GBP £ 7.01 - -0.04 0.55

Findlay Park Funds Plc (IRL)30 Herbert Street, Dublin 2, Ireland Tel: 020 7968 4900FCA RecognisedAmerican EUR Unhedged Class € 129.29 - 0.05 -

American Fund USD Class $ 156.86 - -0.05 0.00

American Fund GBP Hedged £ 79.07 - -0.01 0.00

American Fund GBP Unhedged £ 117.78 - 1.33 0.00

Foord Asset ManagementWebsite: www.foord.com - Email: info@foord.com

FCA Recognised - Luxembourg UCITS

Foord International Fund | R $ 45.56 - -0.12 -

Foord Global Equity Fund (Lux) | R $ 17.02 - -0.06 -

Regulated

Foord Global Equity Fund (Sing) | B $ 20.85 - -0.06 -

Foord International Trust (Gsy) $ 45.35 - -0.11 0.00

Franklin Templeton International Services Sarl (IRL)JPMorgan House - International Financial Services Centre,Dublin 1, IrelandOther International Funds

Franklin Emerging Market Debt Opportunities Fund Plc

Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp CHFSFr 14.19 - 0.00 9.35

Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp GBP £ 9.30 - 0.01 6.20

Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp SGD S$ 20.41 - 0.01 4.49

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Franklin Emg Mkts Debt Opp USD $ 16.24 - 0.00 6.42

GAMfunds@gam.com, www.funds.gam.comRegulatedLAPIS GBL TOP 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 100.78 - 0.50 3.25

LAPIS GBL F OWD 50 DIV.YLD-Na-D £ 100.80 - 0.85 0.70

Genesis Investment Management LLPOther International Funds

Emerging Mkts NAV £ 7.21 - -0.16 0.00

HPB Assurance LtdAnglo Intl House, Bank Hill, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 4LN 01638 563490

International Insurances

Holiday Property Bond Ser 1 £ 0.49 - 0.00 0.00

Holiday Property Bond Ser 2 £ 0.62 - 0.00 0.00

Intrinsic Value Investors (IVI) LLP (IRL)1 Hat & Mitre Court, 88 St John Street, London EC1M 4EL +44 (0)20 7566 1210FCA RecognisedIVI European Fund EUR € 23.56 - -0.11 0.00

IVI European Fund GBP £ 28.58 - 0.18 0.33

Janus Henderson Investors (UK)PO Box 9023, Chelmsford, CM99 2WB Enquiries: 0800 832 832www.janushenderson.comAuthorised Inv FundsJanus Henderson Instl UK Idx Opps A Acc £ 0.95 - -0.01 -

M & G Securities (1200)F (UK)PO Box 9038, Chelmsford, CM99 2XFwww.mandg.co.uk/charities Enq./Dealing: 0800 917 4472Authorised Inv FundsM&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Inc £ 1.25 - 0.00 2.24

M&G Charibond Charities Fixed Interest Fund (Charibond) Acc £ 42.86 - 0.01 2.20

M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Inc £ 0.83 - -0.01 4.28

M&G Charity Multi Asset Fund Acc £ 91.99 - -0.75 4.11

MMIP Investment Management Limited (GSY)Regulated

Multi-Manager Investment Programmes PCC Limited

UK Equity Fd Cl A Series 01 £ 2121.55 2155.20 31.89 0.00

Diversified Absolute Rtn Fd USD Cl AF2 $ 1560.95 - -30.80 0.00

Diversified Absolute Return Stlg Cell AF2 £ 1471.35 - -29.07 0.00

Global Equity Fund A Lead Series £ 1484.91 1489.79 -23.47 -

Marwyn Asset Management Limited (CYM)RegulatedMarwyn Value Investors £ 340.40 - -14.66 0.00

Milltrust International Managed Investments ICAV (IRL)mimi@milltrust.com, +44(0)20 8123 8316 www.milltrust.comRegulatedBritish Innovation Fund £ 121.92 - 2.89 0.00

MAI - Buy & Lease (Australia) A$ 102.95 - -0.80 0.00

MAI - Buy & Lease (New Zealand)NZ$ 97.26 - -0.02 0.00

Milltrust Global Emerging Markets Fund - Class A $ 112.54 - 1.00 0.00

The Climate Impact Asia Fund (Class A) $ 112.68 - 5.26 -

Milltrust International Managed Investments SPCem@milltrust.com, +44(0)20 8123 8316, www.milltrust.comRegulatedMilltrust Alaska Brazil SP A $ 76.90 - 0.63 -

Milltrust Laurium Africa SP A $ 94.69 - 0.36 -

Milltrust Marcellus India Fund $ 114.25 - -0.13 -

Milltrust Singular ASEAN SP Founders $ 150.24 - 0.91 -

Milltrust SPARX Korea Equity SP A $ 157.66 - 0.75 -

Milltrust VTB Russia Fund SP $ 118.61 - 0.82 -

Milltrust Xingtai China SP A $ 136.57 - -3.25 -

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

New Capital UCITS Fund PLC (IRL)Leconfield House, Curzon Street, London, W1J 5JBwww.newcapitalfunds.comFCA Recognised

New Capital UCITS Funds

New Capital China Equity Fund $ 268.47 - -0.50 -

New Capital Dynamic European Equity Fund € 129.54 - -0.27 0.00

New Capital Dynamic UK Equity Fund £ 114.94 - -0.50 -

New Capital Global Alpha Fund £ 117.24 - 0.29 0.00

New Capital Global Equity Conviction Fund $ 199.36 - -0.06 -

New Capital Global Value Credit Fund $ 161.07 - 0.08 0.00

New Capital Japan Equity Fund ¥ 1595.74 - -19.05 0.00

New Capital US Growth Fund $ 437.26 - 2.50 0.00

New Capital US Small Cap Growth Fund $ 216.28 - 2.69 0.00

New Capital Wealthy Nations Bond Fund $ 155.83 - 0.18 0.00

Oasis Crescent Management Company LtdOther International Funds

Oasis Crescent Equity Fund R 11.05 - -0.10 0.21

Oasis Global Mgmt Co (Ireland) Ltd (IRL)Regulated

Oasis Crescent Global Investment Fund (Ireland) plc

Oasis Crescent Global Short Term Income Fund I - Class A Dist $ 0.99 - 0.00 2.00

Oasis Crescent Global Equity Fund $ 35.01 - -0.15 0.25

Oasis Crescent Variable Balanced Fund £ 9.52 - -0.02 0.00

OasisCresGl Income Class A $ 11.10 - 0.01 -

OasisCresGl LowBal D ($) Dist $ 12.66 - -0.04 0.81

OasisCresGl Med Eq Bal A ($) Dist $ 13.78 - -0.03 0.32

Oasis Crescent Gbl Property Eqty $ 8.00 - -0.08 -

Omnia Fund LtdOther International Funds

Estimated NAV $ 561.34 - -23.75 0.00

Oryx International Growth Fund LtdOther International Funds

NAV (Fully Diluted) £ 9.10 - -0.52 0.00

Orbis Investments (U.K.) Limited (GBR)28 Dorset Square, London, NW1 6QGwww.orbis.com 0800 358 2030RegulatedOrbis OEIC Global Cautious Standard £ 10.41 - 0.04 0.03

Orbis OEIC Global Balanced Standard £ 15.53 - 0.06 0.00

Orbis OEIC Global Equity Standard £ 19.66 - 0.13 0.00

Orbis OEIC UK Equity Standard £ 8.02 - -0.10 0.00

Platinum Capital Management LtdOther International Funds

Platinum All Star Fund - A $ 132.45 - - -

Platinum Global Growth UCITS Fund $ 13.34 - 0.14 0.00

Platinum Essential Resources UCITS Fund SICAV USD Class E $ 7.94 - 0.19 0.00

Platinum Global Dividend UCITS Fund $ 55.56 - 0.54 0.00

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Polar Capital Funds Plc (IRL)RegulatedAutomation & Artificial Intelligence CL I USD Acc $ 17.33 17.33 0.03 0.00

Asian Financials I USD $ 442.73 442.73 -0.97 0.00

Biotechnology I USD $ 37.35 37.35 0.07 0.00

Emerging Market Stars I USD Acc $ 14.73 - 0.02 0.00

European Ex UK Inc EUR Acc € 11.51 11.51 -0.02 0.00

Financial Opps I USD $ 13.35 - -0.10 2.05

GEM Income I USD $ 12.88 - 0.05 0.00

Global Convertible I USD $ 16.91 16.91 -0.01 0.00

Global Insurance I GBP £ 7.13 - -0.05 0.00

Global Technology I USD $ 85.64 - 0.40 0.00

Healthcare Blue Chip Fund I USD Acc $ 15.64 15.64 -0.10 0.00

Healthcare Opps I USD $ 62.95 - -0.51 0.00

Income Opportunities B2 I GBP Acc £ 2.34 2.34 0.00 -

Japan Value I JPY ¥ 108.93 108.93 -0.03 0.00

North American I USD $ 30.61 30.61 -0.10 0.00

UK Val Opp I GBP Acc £ 11.69 11.69 -0.08 0.00

Polar Capital LLP (CYM)RegulatedEuropean Forager A EUR € 185.24 - 17.13 0.00

Private Fund Mgrs (Guernsey) Ltd (GSY)RegulatedMonument Growth 01/12/2020 £ 502.96 507.83 2.23 -

Prusik Investment Management LLP (IRL)Enquiries - 0207 493 1331RegulatedPrusik Asian Equity Income B Dist $ 180.17 - -0.64 -

Prusik Asia Emerging Opportunities Fund A Acc $ 183.29 - 0.00 -

Prusik Asia Fund U Dist. £ 229.89 - -2.05 0.00

Purisima Investment Fds (CI) Ltd (JER)RegulatedPCG B 291.57 - 7.59 0.00

PCG C 284.88 - 7.42 0.00

Ram Active Investments SAwww.ram-ai.comOther International FundsRAM Systematic Emerg Markets Eq $ 207.22 207.22 -0.34 -

RAM Systematic European Eq € 456.47 456.47 -1.19 -

RAM Systematic Funds Global Sustainable Income Eq $ 128.65 128.65 -0.80 0.00

RAM Systematic Long/Short Emerg Markets Eq $ 100.85 100.85 -1.33 -

RAM Systematic Long/Short European Eq € 127.54 127.54 -0.13 -

RAM Systematic North American Eq $ 348.41 348.41 -0.08 -

RAM Tactical Global Bond Total Return € 156.18 156.18 0.12 -

RAM Tactical II Asia Bond Total Return $ 156.10 156.10 0.11 -

Ruffer LLP (1000)F (UK)65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQOrder Desk and Enquiries: 0345 601 9610Authorised Inv Funds

Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions

LF Ruffer European C Acc 779.91 - 2.64 0.05

LF Ruffer European C Inc 142.32 - 0.48 0.09

LF Ruffer European O Acc 760.66 - 2.55 0.00

LF Ruffer Equity & General C Acc 486.29 - 1.96 0.18

LF Ruffer Equity & General C Inc 444.74 - 1.79 0.19

LF Ruffer Equity & General O Acc 474.32 - 1.90 0.00

LF Ruffer Equity & General O Inc 439.15 - 1.76 0.00

LF Ruffer Gold C Acc 293.73 - 14.26 0.00

LF Ruffer Gold C Inc 177.77 - 8.63 0.00

LF Ruffer Gold O Acc 286.39 - 13.89 0.00

LF Ruffer Japanese C Inc 168.42 - 0.01 0.08

LF Ruffer Japanese C Acc 361.91 - 0.02 0.08

LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Acc 388.62 - 5.16 0.80

LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets C Inc 105.91 - 1.41 0.82

LF Ruffer Pacific & Emerging Markets O Acc 378.69 - 5.02 0.51

LF Ruffer Total Return C Acc 498.75 - 1.89 0.84

LF Ruffer Total Return C Inc 322.76 - 1.22 0.85

LF Ruffer Total Return O Acc 486.43 - 1.83 0.85

LF Ruffer Total Return O Inc 314.61 - 1.19 0.85

Rubrics Global UCITS Funds Plc (IRL)www.rubricsam.comRegulatedRubrics Emerging Markets Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 142.83 - 0.29 0.00

Rubrics Global Credit UCITS Fund $ 17.73 - 0.01 0.00

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Rubrics Global Fixed Income UCITS Fund $ 182.34 - 0.34 0.00

SlaterInvestments

Slater Investments Ltd (UK)www.slaterinvestments.com; Tel: 0207 220 9460FCA RecognisedSlater Growth 638.41 638.41 -2.41 0.00

Slater Income A Inc 126.82 126.82 -0.93 5.22

Slater Recovery 298.61 298.61 -1.92 0.00

Slater Artorius 265.93 265.93 4.02 0.00

Stonehage Fleming Investment Management Ltd (IRL)www.stonehagefleming.com/gbienquiries@stonehagefleming.comRegulatedSF Global Best Ideas Eq B USD ACC $ 238.55 - -0.72 -

SF Global Best Ideas Eq D GBP INC £ 271.77 - 2.34 -

Toscafund Asset Management LLP (UK)www.toscafund.comAuthorised FundsAptus Global Financials B Acc £ 3.76 - -0.03 4.35

Aptus Global Financials B Inc £ 2.62 - -0.02 5.58

Toscafund Asset Management LLPwww.toscafund.comTosca A USD $ 306.77 - -23.55 -

Tosca Mid Cap GBP £ 180.86 - 27.47 -

Tosca Opportunity B USD $ 274.77 - 41.76 -

Pegasus Fund Ltd A-1 GBP £ 36.61 - 3.62 0.00

Troy Asset Mgt (1200) (UK)65 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NQOrder Desk and Enquiries: 0345 608 0950Authorised Inv Funds

Authorised Corporate Director - Link Fund Solutions

Trojan Investment Funds

Trojan Ethical O Acc 118.87 - -0.32 0.10

Trojan Ethical O Inc 118.64 - -0.32 0.09

WA Fixed Income Fund Plc (IRL)RegulatedEuropean Multi-Sector € 126.97 - 0.42 3.16

Zadig Gestion (Memnon Fund) (LUX)FCA RecognisedMemnon European Fund - Class U2 GBP £ 197.79 - 0.67 0.00

Fund Bid Offer D+/- Yield

Data Provided by

www.morningstar.co.ukData as shown is for information purposes only. Nooffer is made by Morningstar or this publication.

Guide to Data

The fund prices quoted on these pages are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund. Details of funds published on these pages, including prices, are for the purpose of information only and should only be used as a guide. The Financial Times Limited makes no representation as to their accuracy or completeness and they should not be relied upon when making an investment decision. The sale of interests in the funds listed on these pages may, in certain jurisdictions, be restricted by law and the funds will not necessarily be available to persons in all jurisdictions in which the publication circulates. Persons in any doubt should take appropriate professional advice. Data collated by Morningstar. For other queries contact reader.enquiries@ft.com +44 (0)207 873 4211. The fund prices published in this edition along with additional information are also available on the Financial Times website, www.ft.com/funds. The funds published on these pages are grouped together by fund management company. Prices are in pence unless otherwise indicated. The change, if shown, is the change on the previously quoted figure (not all funds update prices daily). Those designated $ with no prefix refer to US dollars. Yield percentage figures (in Tuesday to Saturday papers) allow for buying expenses. Prices of certain older insurance linked plans might be subject to capital gains tax on sales. Guide to pricing of Authorised Investment Funds: (compiled with the assistance of the IMA. The Investment Management Association, 65 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TD. Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 0898.) OEIC: Open-Ended Investment Company. Similar to a unit trust but using a company rather than a trust structure. Different share classes are issued to reflect a different currency, charging structure or type of holder. Selling price: Also called bid price. The price at which units in a unit trust are sold by investors. Buying price: Also called offer price. The price at which units in a unit trust are bought by investors. Includes manager’s initial charge. Single price: Based on a mid-market valuation of the underlying investments. The buying and selling price for shares of an OEIC and units of a single priced unit trust are the same. Treatment of manager’s periodic capital charge: The letter C denotes that the trust deducts all or part of the manager’s/operator’s periodic charge from capital, contact the manager/operator for full details of the effect of this course of action. Exit Charges: The letter E denotes that an exit charge may be made when you sell units, contact the manager/operator for full details. Time: Some funds give information about the timing of price quotes. The time shown alongside the fund manager’s/operator’s name is the valuation point for their unit trusts/OEICs, unless another time is indicated by the symbol alongside the individual unit trust/OEIC name. The symbols are as follows: ✠ 0001 to 1100 hours; ♦ 1101 to 1400 hours; ▲1401 to 1700 hours; # 1701 to midnight. Daily dealing prices are set on the basis of the valuation point, a short period of time may elapse before prices become available. Historic pricing: The letter H denotes that the managers/operators will normally deal on the price set at the most recent valuation. The prices shown are the latest available before publication and may not be the current dealing levels because of an intervening portfolio revaluation or a switch to a forward pricing basis. The managers/operators must deal at a forward price on request, and may move to forward pricing at any time. Forward pricing: The letter F denotes that that managers/operators deal at the price to be set at the next valuation. Investors can be given no definite price in advance of the purchase or sale being carried out. The prices appearing in the newspaper are the most recent provided by the managers/operators. Scheme particulars, prospectus, key features and reports: The most recent particulars and documents may be obtained free of charge from fund managers/operators. * Indicates funds which do not price on Fridays. Charges for this advertising service are based on the number of lines published and the classification of the fund. Please contact data@ft.com or call +44 (0)20 7873 3132 for further information.

MANAGED FUNDS SERVICE

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Stats Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:51 User: gerry.white Page Name: MANAGED FUNDS 4, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 14, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ 15

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Ad Page Time: 8/12/2020 - 11:03 User: william.baxter Page Name: FPA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 15, 1

16 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

Above: Cristofano Allori, ‘Judith with the Head of Holofernes’ (1613)Below: Rembrandt’s ‘Portrait of Agatha Bas’ (1641) Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

and his Wife” (1633), she bursting in on her irritated husband — a daylight-flooded naturalistic comedy of weather-beaten skin, tobacco-stained hair and domestic equality. Jan Steen’s stockingless “A Womanat her Toilet” (1663) seen through a mock altar-surround; de Hooch’s immersive light in “Cardplayers in a sunlit Room” (1658); Gerrit Dou’s paint-ing as a storefront, “The Grocer’s Shop” (1672), all engross as games of realism and artifice.

But in Rembrandt’s “Agathe Bas” (1641), posed with ringlets and pearls — miracles of feathered touch, encrusted paint — within an ebony frame eliding boundaries between imaginary and real space, we respond to the person not the formal play. A close up of Bas’s clear, bright eyes introduces Masterpieces on the Royal Collection Trust’s website. In this radical psychological portrayal, an energetic, independent middle-class woman fixes us with a direct, intelligent gaze, and looks confidently to the future — a much-needed optimistic imagefor now.

To January 31, rct.uk

D ouble-stacked so that half the paintings are too high to be seen, Britain’s greatest private Old Master collec-tion hangs in the Picture

Gallery at Buckingham Palace to “make a grand splendid ornamental impact”, according to Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the Queen’s pictures.

Now the pictures are coming down so we can all survey them, in an exhibition in the modern Queen’s Gallery. Although some are familiar — Her Maj-esty lends generously — Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace is a rare chance to examine at eye-level a collection, honed by the refinement and wealth of monarchs, where every work is the best of its kind.

It began with Charles I, incompetent king, impassioned art lover. He lost most of his paintings along with his head, but some returned at the Restora-tion, and they show a fantasist’s appetite for Italian Baroque flamboyance. A tro-phy purchase from the sophisticated Gonzaga collection was Cristofano Allori’s opulent gold/crimson “Judith with the Head of Holofernes” (1613), the decapitated head thrust forward into the viewer’s space, dangled by the coldly beautiful biblical heroine — pre-scient of the king’s own fate.

Charles II maintained the Italianate flavour. What seems to pulse as aportrait of thought, Titian’s “Portrait” of a humanist writer, probably JacopoSannazaro of the pastoral “Arcadia” —

influence on Titian and Giorgione as well as Shakespeare and Spenser — com-petes with Lorenzo Lotto’s dynamic, idi-osyncratic civil servant collector, “And-rea Odoni” (1527), moodily absorbed in his antique statuary. Parmigianino’s swan-necked fashionable figure “Pallas Athene” (c1539) in emerald satin is based on a classical bust but brilliantly distorted. This trio is a masterclass in figure painting from the Italian Renais-sance to Mannerism.

A curious inverse relationship between statesmanship and collecting flair runs through the history of royal collecting. Queen Victoria, a stable, revered ruler, gave her name to notori-ously sentimental, awful taste. George II’s obstreperous Rococo-loving playboy son, Frederick, the Prince of Wales who never became king, was an individualist collector — Filippo Lauri’s softly bal-anced caravan of figures in landscape “Jacob Fleeing from Laban” (1686), Guido Reni’s putrid-fleshed “Cleopatra with the Asp” (c1628).

Stolid George III is an under-recognised patron. His purchase of a job lot of Venetian consul Joseph Smith’s paintings yielded riches including Canaletto’s festive fluttering “The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day” (c1733-34), according with Georgian love of spectacle, and Vermeer’s interior “The Music Lesson” (early 1660s): enigma of erotic tension and of appear-ances — mirrors, shadows, jutting angles — and, in the half-illuminated white jug on the patterned rug, Dutch still life mastery in miniature.

Misattributed until 1876, this was an accidental acquisition. It was extrava-gant, feckless sensualist George IV who was responsible for the Dutch Golden Age holdings which are a glory here. Among five Rembrandts, he purchased for 5,000 guineas “The Shipbuilder

evil Iago delivering his “Credo” in front of a White House in flames.

As opera galas go, this one enjoyed a high hit rate. Juan Diego Flórez showed he can still sing Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore as well as anybody and Camilla Nylund impressed as a well-schooled Sieg-linde. Marianne Crebassa gave Carmen an inimitably Gallic sen-suality and Rosa Feola was capti-vating as Donizetti’s Norina, sing-ing from a car flying in mid-air. In Giordano’s high-octane Andrea Chénier, Sonya Yoncheva and Plác-ido Domingo, baritone, showed off their prowess. The dance inter-ludes included a remarkable pas de deux between Roberto Bolle and a laser beam in choreographer Massimiliano Volpini’s Waves.

With music director Riccardo Chailly, duly masked, in charge, the high-quality orchestra was always more than a mere accom-paniment. Teatro alla Scala has set a new standard for opera galas. The three-hour programme is available on demand on Medici TV (though not in all countries). AAAAA

On a more modest note, it is worth catching the Philharmonia Orchestra’s realisation of Beethoven’s allegorical ballet, Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. There is no dancing here, but the musical numbers have been filled out with a connecting commentary cour-tesy of Stephen Fry and jokey ani-mation by Hillary Leben. It is doubtful Beethoven would have been amused, when his music seeks to portray the creation of humanity on the loftiest of terms, but it is not often that this work gets played and Esa-Pekka Salo-nen and the Philharmonia do it proud. The performance is free to view on the Philharmonia’s YouTube channel. AAAEE

medici.tv; philharmonia.co.uk

Richard Fairman

This year in the arts has been about making the best of whatever opportunities present themselves. The opening of the opera season at La Scala, Milan, the biggest event in the Italian musical calendar, takes place every year on Decem-ber 7, the day that Milan celebrates its patron saint, Sant’Ambrogio — but not in 2020. The resurgence of the pandemic in Italy meant the shuttering of La Scala’s doors and the cancellation of the opera.

In its place came a gala with no audience, on TV and online only, and it is hard to imagine triumph being more comprehensively snatched from the jaws of defeat. This was thanks not only to a glit-tering line-up of stars, but also a dazzling visual presentation, in which every new image was strik-ing in its own right, even when it bore little relation to the music being performed.

Here was a gala that went the extra step — music, dance, words and art, all combined. A magnifi-cent period train in a snowstorm would have made the perfect set-ting for Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, less obviously so for Verdi’s Don Carlo, and yet it evoked a frosty grandeur around Ildar Abdrazakov’s inwardly sung Philip II and Elina Garanca’s luxu-riously lyrical Eboli. Similarly, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is usually found in gloomy Scot-land, not paddling on a sun-soaked beach, but the brilliant-voiced Lisette Oropesa thrived there any-way. Most eye-catching of all was Verdi’s Otello, with Carlos Alvarez’s

OPERA/CLASSICAL

La Scala opening gala; Philharmonia OrchestraStreamed online

arts

Eye to eye with Old Masters

ON SHOW

Jackie Wullschläger

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is set in the fictional Californian Night City

N aming a game after an entire genre of fiction is an ambitious gambit. Get it right, and you have created a defining document of a

movement. Get it wrong, and you will attract disappointment and enraged fans like a magnet. This is the unenvi-able position of Cyberpunk 2077, out on Friday, which takes its name from a sub-stantial sub-genre of science fiction. When cyberpunk works first emerged in the early 1980s, they offered a white-hot critique of contemporary politics and a terrifying vision of the future. Yet their blend of gritty corporate futurism and frightening new technology has now been invoked by so many books, films and games that cyberpunk has started to feel stale. Now that we live in 2020, a year after the 2019 setting of Blade Runner, is there anything to learn from yesterday’s vision of tomorrow?

The term “cyberpunk” was coined in a 1983 short story by author Bruce Bethke, and defined by writer Bruce Sterling as a “combination of low-life and high tech”. It opposes the utopian ideals of early 20th-century sci-fi: here technology is not a great democratiser improving human lives, but instead a new line separating the haves and have-nots. The genre’s ur-text is William Gib-son’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, which borrows liberally from hard-boiled noir and postmodern literature to conjure a future where technology threatens to erode our very humanity.

Befitting the individualism of the 1980s, cyberpunk protagonists are not world-saving scientists but drug-addled misfits who hack corporate technology to their own ends — in Gibson’s phrase, “The street finds its own use for things.” Cyberpunk obsesses over the human body, with characters enhancing their abilities with cybernetic augmentations and jacking into cyberspace through sockets in the back of the neck. The human self becomes mutable and detachable. The body can be stripped for parts.

The quintessential visual document of cyberpunk is Ridley Scott’s 1982 film

Blade Runner, introducing the gun-metal skies and rain-lashed neon streets later referenced in Ready Player One and The Matrix trilogy. These cities are often marked by glowing Japanese and Chi-nese characters and antiheroes slurping noodles at streetside restaurants. This aesthetic is rooted in the perceived eco-nomic threat of Japan in the 1980s, yet critics question whether such vaguely Asian imagery should still be used as ominous window dressing today, after Covid-19 has sparked a new wave of real-world Sinophobia. We should not forget that Japan created its own potent strain of cyberpunk in the 1980s and ’90s, including the influential animated films Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

The genre provides fertile territory for game developers, who capitalise on ideas such as body augmentation as a mechanism to allow players to custom-ise combat styles and improve abilities. Final Fantasy VII introduced the cyber-punk city of Midgar, Deus Ex explored cybernetic implants, and Hideo Kojima borrowed from the genre for Snatcher and Metal Gear Solid.

Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a tabletop role-playing game set in the fictional Californian Night City, where rival gangs vie for dominance under the gaze of the Arasaka Corporation. It stars cyber-punk old hand Keanu Reeves, who starred in The Matrix and the film adap-tation of Gibson’s story Johnny Mne-monic. Game developer CD Projekt Red

has a fine storytelling pedigree, but it remains to be seen whether the game will meaningfully explore the genre’s philosophical questions. When Gibson saw the game’s trailer in June 2018, he was unconvinced, tweeting: “The trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 strikes me as GTA skinned-over with a generic 80s retro-future, but hey, that’s just me.”

As a genre, cyberpunk has been ham-strung by its few source texts. Most iter-ations are derived from Blade Runner and Neuromancer, imitating but rarely evolving their ideas. By 1993, Wired mag-azine was already running the headline “Cyberpunk R.I.P”. Where cyberpunk once provoked compelling questions, it has today been mostly reduced to a handful of empty aesthetic signifiers. Meanwhile, for a genre nominally about the lives of marginalised people, there are very few black, brown or queer char-acters, or even believable women.

So why hasn’t our image of the future changed in 40 years? It is telling that the best recent stories that grappled with cyberpunk’s concerns of identity, humanity, memory and freedom — such as Her, Black Mirror and Westworld — steer clear of the genre’s visual hall-marks. Perhaps the problem is that the cyberpunk future partially came true. We now live in a world where corporate power threatens local government, where those who control the flow of information hold all the power. In Gib-son’s phrase, “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”

Yet these questions, about the unchecked power of corporations, the technologically mediated human, the location of the soul, matter today more than ever. Cyberpunk 2077 will answer whether the genre is finally able to evolve or whether it is doomed, like so much technology, to become obsolete.

A vision of the future stuck in the past

GAMING

Tom Faber

There are very few black, brown or queer characters, or even believable women

Marianne Crebassa sings Carmen Brescia e Amisano

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Features Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:02 User: david.cheal Page Name: ARTS LON, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 16, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 17

FT BIG READ. EU BUSINESS

European regulators are set to unveil bills to curb the power of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Do they have any chance of succeeding in limiting the range and reach of the Big Tech platform companies?

By Javier Espinoza

emerging ones with the possibility of breaking them up in the event of contin-ued breach of the rules.

EU officials have dusted off old tools at their disposal to trigger more rapid action. In October last year, Brussels ordered US chipmaker Broadcom to suspend exclusive deals with six televi-sion and modem makers while it inves-tigated if the contracts constituted anti-competitive behaviour. This was the first time in nearly two decades that the EU applied so-called interim measures, which have the power to stop alleged anti-competitive behaviour before it is too late. Roughly a year later the EU and the company settled.

The efforts to use antitrust powers have not always gone this smoothly, however. Google, for instance, is still contesting three separate fines in cases that have been running for years. Its rivals claim this is not acceptable and that Google is running the clock down while it gets away with what they see as unfair behaviour.

Regulators want the new powers to bring antitrust charges in a matter of months, not years. “You’ll be able to count the number of months it takes to carry out a probe with one single hand,” says an EU official with direct knowl-edge of the discussions.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s execu-tive vice-president for competition and digital policy, has warned about the length of time the antitrust process takes. “The harm that can be done in that marketplace can happen very fast but the recovery of that marketplace can be very, very difficult,” she recently told the FT. “It is important to call in reg-ulation that will help with saying: ‘these are the things that you can do and these are the things that you cannot do.’”

Tech pushback

Despite growing momentum behind the push to regulate Big Tech, several chal-lenges may hinder the efforts.

First, the industry will put up a big fight. Last October a leaked internal document revealed that Google was planning an aggressive campaign

Although some of the new members of the Biden team will be keen to keep up the pressure on the tech sector, the new rules could prompt opposition in Washington if they are seen to be an effort to weaken US industry at the expense of European companies.

The US tech companies are likely to lobby hard against the European pro-posals — both in Brussels and Washing-ton. Earlier this year, Dot Europe, a lob-bying firm representing the likes of Google, Amazon and Apple, urged the EU not to hold its members legally liable for all the content on their platforms.

For some observers, the new EU rules are important because they will estab-lish a framework for regulating the tech sector that does not depend on time-consuming legal cases.

“This is a very big deal because com-panies that fall within the definition of a gatekeeper will not be able to come up with arguments to justify their behav-iour during a lengthy antitrust investi-gation,” says Alec Burnside, a partner with law firm Dechert in Brussels. “Instead, certain behaviour will be banned in the law from the start.”

Chasing momentum

There is momentum behind the EU plans from several corners. A string of studies by leading figures have called for regulators to be tougher on Big Tech, arguing that new rules are needed to

T hree years ago, the EU launched what seemed at the time to be a bold anti-trust move against Google. The company was

fined €2.42bn after the European Com-mission claimed it had “abused its mar-ket dominance” by giving an advantage to its own comparison shopping plat-form on its search engine. Google was also obliged to change its practices to give equal treatment to rival services.

For many in the European technology industry, however, the impact of these changes has been minimal.

Philipp Peitsch, chief executive of Germany-based shopping websiteIdealo, says it did little to change what he views as Google’s anti-competitive conduct. Other sources of traffic to Ide-alo have increased “fivefold” compared with that from Google search, he says.

He says that for some periods this year “search traffic from Google has been below last year — in a time where internet and ecommerce demand is higher than ever. It was a bogus solution. Antitrust enforcement is not working.”

Google denies such claims, insisting that traffic to other such services has increased significantly, while EU offi-cials say the search giant has made “good” progress. The company is also contesting the fine before the EU courts.

Mr Peitsch is not alone in his frustra-tion, however. The EU is about to launch a new push against the largest US tech companies — one that will have global implications. Startled by the growing

economic power of the tech sector, EU regulators are rushing to act against the “gatekeepers” — the businesses such as Google, Apple and Amazon that run online marketplaces other companies must use and compete against to trade.

Within the next fortnight, EU regula-tors are expected to come up with two major proposals.

The digital services act will look to clarify the responsibilities that internet companies have for taking down illegal content or counterfeit goods, with the large players facing more onerous requirements. It will also set out clear rules on ad transparency and disinfor-mation. At the moment, the big plat-forms can remove non-compliant prod-ucts or content on a voluntary basis, with little legal downside if they refuse to do so or fail to act in a timely manner.

The second, called the digital markets act, will seek to place new restraints on the gatekeeper platforms. Regulators believe these companies are using the control they have of marketplaces where they also sell their own products and services to potentially disadvantage smaller competitors.

It will set out a list of rules for plat-forms so it is clear which activities are illegal without regulators having to launch lengthy antitrust investigations to prove damage to consumers. It will also seek the power to launch market investigations in different sectors of the economy where new gatekeeper plat-forms could potentially emerge.

The rules are deliberately asymmet-ric in that they are aimed at the larger groups. Those companies deemed as too powerful will have to comply with more onerous regulations, including potential bans on treating their services better than their competitors — as in the Google shopping case — and forcing platforms such as Amazon to share commercial data with smaller rivals.

Given their size and reach, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are very likely to be affected by the new rules, which are still being discussed within the European Commission, say multiple people with knowledge of the plans.

“There is a feeling in Brussels that online platforms have become ‘too big to care’,” says Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market. He has even raised the idea that some Big Tech companies might need to be split up if they continually violate the new rules.

The EU initiative comes at a delicate time in Europe’s relations with the US. On the one hand, there is also growing appetite on the other side of the Atlantic for tougher regulation of the tech sector. Last October, the US Department of Jus-tice accused Google of being a “monop-oly gatekeeper for the internet” and of crushing competitors by excluding them from the lucrative search business.

However, Brussels will be wary of antagonising the US when it is hoping that the start of the Biden administra-tion will provide an opportunity to boost the transatlantic alliance after the angst of the Trump years.

‘This is a very big deal for companies that fall within the definition of a gatekeeper . . . Certain behaviour will be banned’

supplement antitrust enforcement. A 2019 report for the European Com-

mission suggested large online plat-forms could be held to higher standards of proof. “In the context of highly con-centrated markets characterised by strong network effects . . . one may want to err on the side of disallowing potentially anti-competitive conducts, and impose on the incumbent the bur-den of proof for showing the pro-com-petitiveness of its conduct,” it said.

In the UK, a report commissioned by the government and prepared by Jason Furman, chief economic adviser to former US president Barack Obama, accused the large tech companies of

using their dominant positions to undermine competition and unfairly boost profits. The country’s Competi-tion and Markets Authority wants tech giants with “strategic market status” to adhere to tailored codes of conduct relating to sectors in which they are dominant as well as “adjacent markets”.

There is also pressure from within the EU to act. In November, the European Court of Auditors said Brussels lacked the legal muscle to restrain the likes of Facebook and Google from destroying competitors given that the sort of probes it typically conducts take too long before any meaningful action is taken. The auditor said the EU needed to overhaul its rules to make them fit for the digital era.

Prominent member states, including France and the Netherlands, have already come out in favour of the EU’s push to restrain the large platforms. In a joint position paper published in Octo-ber, the countries called on regulators in Brussels to move quickly against exist-ing “gatekeeper” platforms and even

‘Some small businesses are very grateful to get on to Apple and Amazon because they get a halo effect, and global reach’

Brussels takes on the digital gatekeepers

€2.4bn Size of 2017 European Commission fine for Google after it had ‘abused its market dominance’

6Exclusive deals with television and modem makers that US chipmaker Broadcom had to suspend while the EU investigated if the contracts constituted anti-competitive practices

20Companies including Airbnb and Booking.com that may be hit by the new rules under wider criteria recommended by some EU officials

against Mr Breton, who had earlier said he would support breaking up compa-nies in extreme circumstances.

In the internal document, Google out-lined plans to “increase pushback” on Mr Breton by mobilising the US govern-ment against him as the search giant sought to “reset the narrative” around the upcoming regulations.

Eventually Sundar Pichai, the Google chief executive, apologised to Mr Breton and said the tactics were not sanctioned by him and did not represent Google. Still, the document offered a glimpse into the approach some tech groups are prepared to take to oppose the EU’s efforts to regulate them, say lobbying experts.

The tech industry is likely to argue that the EU is trying to do too much with the new regulations. Thomas Boué, who runs Europe, Middle East and Africa policy for the BSA, a large software lob-bying body that represents firms such as IBM, Microsoft and Adobe, says: “Ensuring fair competition makes a lot of sense. But what are the rules? It seems all quite broad and unattainable.”

He adds that new onerous rules risk strangling small players. “The more rules you have, the more complicated it gets, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises.”

Second, the EU itself risks being its own enemy as divisions over the scope

of the new legislation grow. Some want the criteria — which is both qualitative and quantitative — to capture only the biggest platforms, meaning Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, while others want looser criteria that would also affect up to 20 companies, includ-ing Airbnb and Booking.com.

Inside Brussels there are also tensions between Ms Vestager, the incumbent in digital technology, and Mr Breton, who was appointed to the European Com-mission last December. Nominally, Ms Vestager is two levels up in the hierar-chy but Mr Breton has been grabbing the spotlight on the digital agenda, lead-ing to tensions over who leads the initia-tive against Big Tech.

“There is a risk that all of this gets bogged down because of a multiplicity of objectives and a turf battle over who gets jurisdiction of a particular policy tool,” says Nicholas Levy, a competition partner at Cleary Gottlieb, whose firm has represented Google and other Big Tech players.

But even if the EU reaches internal consensus on the draft legislation, it needs to take the plans to the Council of Ministers and the parliament for debate. Critics say legislation risks getting watered down and that it will ultimately lack the bite it needs to be effective.

Eva Maydell, a centre-right Bulgarian MEP who will be directly involved in the discussions once the draft legislation reaches the European parliament, says political bickering could lead to “bad” new rules.

“Consensus is never easy,” she says. “Having in mind how Big Tech was used to sway elections and how Brexit hap-pened, you may think this comes way too late and some MEPs will want to leg-islate as fast as possible. But the risk is to put bad legislation in place.”

She says that despite the need for reg-ulation, attempts to restrain the power of the large tech groups with new legisla-tion “will not automatically give birth” to a European alternative to the likes of Google. “That is a dangerous illusion.”

Philip Marsden, a professor at the Col-lege of Europe in Bruges, also warns that going after the big players can have unintended consequences for the small players in digital markets. The new rules may “handcuff” big platforms’ ability to innovate, which in turn might hurt those looking to be on those plat-forms, he says.

“Some small businesses are very grateful to get on to Apple and Amazon because they get a halo effect, they get global reach,” says Mr Marsden, who was co-author of the UK’s Furman report. “They just have to be careful who they choose as their saviour though — how much control over their business opportunities they cede to the tech giants.”

Despite all the challenges and the frustration that cases move too slowly, Idealo’s Mr Peitsch is still hopeful that regulation can begin to level the playing field.

“There is no real competitor that can step up to Big Tech,” he says, in refer-ence to the need to have regulation that would continue to enable innovation.

And he adds: “The EU consumer is still here, Europe is still an important market. I don’t think it’s too late.”

Philipp Peitsch, chief executive of Idealo, says the EU’s 2017 fine for Google ‘was a bogus solution’

Bottom: internal markets commissioner Thierry Breton has been taking the spotlight on the digital agenda away from European Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, belowFT montage

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Features Time: 8/12/2020 - 17:58 User: alida.smith Page Name: BIGPAGE, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 17, 1

18 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER 2020

Poland and Hungary have dug in. Their protest against new rule of law safe-guards — in effect blocking the EU’s new seven-year budget and coronavi-rus recovery fund worth a combined €1.8tn — is set to overshadow this week’s EU summit in Brussels as much as the Brexit talks. The impasse has ensnared other important pieces of business, including a decision on 2030 targets for carbon emissions reduc-tions. It has also widened cracks over the bloc’s collective commitment to fundamental values into a gulf.

Warsaw and Budapest are enjoying the illusion of strength in their stran-glehold over EU decision-making. In fact, their position is weak and self-defeating. The losers will be the very people these two nationalist govern-ments pretend to defend against a sup-posedly overbearing liberal EU elite.

Poland and Hungary are huge benefi-ciaries of EU funding. Net EU transfers amounted to 3.4 per cent and 5 per cent of gross domestic product respectively in 2018. If the stand-off continues, the EU will revert to a pared-back emer-gency budget in which some spending programmes are frozen. In theory, Poland and Hungary should gain hand-somely from the EU recovery fund — by €30bn and €8bn respectively — cash that is also now in jeopardy.

To circumvent the Polish and Hun-garian vetoes, the other 25 member states can opt to set up their coronavi-rus recovery fund in an EU subgroup using so-called enhanced co-operation procedures, as the European Commis-sion has suggested. The process could prove legally challenging and time-consuming. It may require the member states to provide upfront capital to back commonly issued debt, as they would not have a revenue stream from a new EU budget. But preparations should proceed to show the EU cannot be held to ransom by member states

that disrespect the bloc’s treaty-bound commitments to democratic stand-ards. If the route around recalcitrant members proves viable, it could be deployed on other policies. Poland and Hungary could soon find themselves in a second tier of membership.

To underscore their resolve, the EU 25 should also pass the separate regula-tion that ensures compliance with the rule of law in return for EU financial payments. Warsaw and Budapest claim they will be singled out for punish-ment. Since national vetoes do not apply on this issue, however, they can-not block it. In their fury they have invented ever more outlandish argu-ments, saying they are victims of “LGBTQ ideology” or a Brussels plot to bring 35m migrants into Europe.

Some ultra-conservative voices in Poland have begun to debate whether the country might be better off outside the EU. Hungarian premier Viktor Orban has lauded Britain’s coronavirus vaccine deployment as an advantage of Brexit. But the benefits of EU member-ship for these former Soviet-bloc coun-tries are unarguable. They depend hugely on exports to the rest of the EU and are closely integrated into German supply chains. Their populations strongly support membership. Govern-ment scaremongering relayed by slav-ish media could over time turn them against Europe. Brexit was slow-burn. But the leaders of Poland and Hungary have built their authoritarian turns on economic success flowing from EU money and market integration.

Exit talk may be meant for Ger-many’s Angela Merkel, who has lent such primacy to EU unity that she has turned a blind eye to the abuses of power in Warsaw and Budapest. Con-stant accommodation of these two countries has only let the cracks grow. The EU has to take a firm stand, and the chancellor has to choose sides.

Merkel should take a firm stand on behalf of EU in battle over values

Poland and Hungary will lose from a budget veto

Lloyd Austin, the retired US general who Joe Biden has nominated to be his defence secretary, is by all accounts a fine soldier. As the first African-Ameri-can to head US Central Command — the most important of the Pentagon’s regional satrapies — Mr Austin has been a role model to America’s ethnic minorities. But Mr Biden has erred in picking him for a job that is reserved under US law for civilians.

There are good reasons why the US Congress drew this “civ-mil” dividing line when the job was created in 1947. Only twice since then has the ban been waived. The first, for George C Mar-shall in 1950, ended a year later. Though Marshall had been a distin-guished secretary of state, he identified too readily with his uniformed former comrades. He initially resisted Presi-dent Harry Truman’s move to fire Douglas MacArthur, the US general who came dangerously close to diso-beying White House orders (over the Korean war).

The second waiver was given in 2017 to Jim Mattis, Donald Trump’s secre-tary of defence, in the belief that he would be one of the “adults in the room” restraining a capricious new president. Mr Mattis had only limited success. He was unable to stop Mr Trump from diverting military resources to the US-Mexico border, for example, or from precipitously pulling US troops out of Syria.

Either way, no such extenuating cir-cumstances exist today. As a highly experienced Washington figure, Mr Biden needs no restraining adult in the Pentagon. Moreover, there are plenty of highly qualified civilians from whom he could have chosen. Of these, Michèle Flournoy, a former under-sec-retary of defence, was widely tipped to get the job. It is unclear why Mr Biden discarded Ms Flournoy, who would have been the first female secretary of

defence. It is possible that they clashed early in Barack Obama’s administra-tion over his troop surge to Afghani-stan; Mr Biden was a lonely voice in opposition to that. Mr Biden has also been under pressure to appoint the first African-American to head the Pentagon. But he could far more plausi-bly have selected Jeh Johnson, the former secretary of homeland security and Pentagon counsel. Other than per-sonal chemistry, it is unclear why Mr Biden would be risking a congressional backlash on Mr Austin’s behalf.

Given Mr Trump’s seeming indiffer-ence to the principle, it is especially important that Mr Biden reinforces it. Last summer Mr Trump cajoled a uni-formed Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, to accom-pany him across the square in front of the White House after it was forcibly cleared of Black Lives Matter protest-ers. Gen Milley quickly apologised for the transgression but Mr Trump kept pushing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which enables the president to deploy armed soldiers on the streets.

In that instance, both active duty and retired US military leaders were admi-rably clear in stating that their duty was to uphold the US constitution rather than to serve a president’s politi-cal needs. Mr Trump backed down. In taking their stand, all the military fig-ures reiterated America’s cardinal rule that soldiers should not get involved in politics. That applies to retired ones, too. Mr Austin took off his uniform in 2016. The ban applies for seven years.

Nobody expects Mr Biden to be a wayward president. But as a former senator and vice-president, he, of all people, should know that a soldier is ill-equipped to manage politics — a key feature of the job. It is not too late for Mr Biden to withdraw Mr Austin’s nomination and select a qualified civilian instead.

Lloyd Austin is a fine soldier, but defence secretary must be a civilian

Biden should rethink his pick for the Pentagon

strive to be high growth. There are over 60 EU-headquartered “scale-ups” with a unicorn valuation of €1bn, including Booking.com, Delivery Hero, Ayden and Hello Fresh and a further 200 or so start-ups with a valuation over €500m.

Any plans to place growth firms under general suspicion, not just those with a dominant position, will punish success. This will stand in direct conflict with the EU’s own ambition to support European start-ups.Benedikt BlomeyerEU Policy Director, Allied for StartupsBrussels, Belgium

Reasons to be cheerful about ageing in JapanLeo Lewis laments the ageing of the populations of Japan and China (Notebook, FT.com, December 7), but there is a positive side to this phenomenon that should not be overlooked. If Japan’s economic policy objective is the wellbeing of individuals and families rather than maximising gross domestic product, then a smaller Japanese population will make it easier to achieve. While the number of elderly is rising now, it will start falling in another decade or two. It is easy to imagine social changes that lead to more women wanting to have more children, which would stabilise the population at a lower level.

In the battle to mitigate climate change, we should keep reminding ourselves that a smaller number of people on the planet to feed and clothe and house will help to ensure a better life for future generations around the world.Lex RieffelNon-resident Fellow, The Stimson CenterWashington, DC, US

Why Ethiopia’s rivers offer the best hope for peace The ethno-nationalism that threatens to tear Ethiopia apart and destabilise the Horn of Africa (the Big Read, November 19; FT View, November 20; Rachman Review, November 26 and Opinion, FT.com, November 26) is a relatively recent phenomenon having grown out of the anti-imperial student movements of the 1960s, multiplied with the coming of the military dictatorship in the 1970s and given legitimacy in the 1995 federal constitution.

According to Professor Kjetil Tronvoll of Oslo university “geographical community is [still] a much more salient source of identity and object of loyalty for the highlanders than an ethnic or clan affiliation”. The rallying cry and slogan for the first Tigrayan uprising in 1941, adopted decades later by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, expresses this geographical source of identity: arriena gereb — “we have united around our rivers”.

With political solutions receding and military options unsustainable, prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s best hope for uniting Ethiopians around his vision of medemer, which means among other things “coming together”, is to regenerate Ethiopia’s geographical communities as “sources of identity and objects of loyalty”. Rivers and river basins are good places to start.

In defining Mr Abiy’s vision, Ethiopian writer Linda Yohannes says medemer “is about creating something greater than the sum of its parts”. More than ever, this is what Ethiopia needs.Michael StreetNoto, Sicily, Italy

Obama wielded ‘a pen and a phone’ tooWith reference to Edward Luce’s comment (Global Insight, December 4) that executive action by Donald Trump was decried by the Democrats as abuse of presidential powers and would be a bad precedent for president-elect Joe Biden to follow, Mr Luce I’m sure recalls that Barack Obama by early 2014 was confirming he had a pen (“I have a pen and a phone”) to counterbalance the inaction of Congress.

The genie was already out of the bottle long before Mr Trump arrived and it will be impossible to put it back, while there is unfortunately no consensus in the country.Robert CoxPleasant Mount, PA, US

Sally Hewson, from the English seaside town of Boston, has received a state pension for more than a decade. The money that she gets has risen gradually and she enjoys a comfortable, if frugal, life. Every week, about £175 lands in her bank account, and this money provides the bulk of her income. “People like me really don’t have anything else,” she says.

Ms Hewson is a fairly typical pensioner: rightwing in her world view, a Brexiter and also a longstanding Conservative voter. Yet she depends almost entirely on the state. She is also a beneficiary of the UK’s long war on pensioner poverty. While 41 per cent of single female pensioners were in poverty in 1996, today that figure has plummeted to 22 per cent.

Much of that is due to the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which pumped vast sums into means-tested benefits. More recent Tory administrations then shored up these gains with the so-called pensions “triple lock”. Introduced in 2010, it ensures that state pensions rise by whichever is higher: wages, inflation or 2.5 per cent. But today, the future of that policy is in doubt due to Covid-19.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak must find around £40bn next year to cover the pandemic’s extra spending. Scrapping the expensive triple lock, often judged either a policy that protects the most vulnerable or an unfair bribe to Tory voters, is a prime candidate. That

Boris Johnson’s government is considering breaching a core manifesto commitment is a sign of the UK’s dire fiscal situation. As one official says: “It’s an itch the Treasury has wanted to scratch for some time, but the politics of it are so dangerous.”

Pausing or replacing the state pension triple lock is far from cost-free. Daniela Silcock, head of policy at the Pensions Policy Institute at King’s College London, argues “it would save the government money in the short term but push pensioners into poverty in the long term . . . cutting it would be levelling down, not levelling up the country.”

Faced with the binary choice of raising taxes or slashing spending to find the funds he needs, Mr Sunak also has to think beyond economics. Among traditional Tory voters, trimming public services would top the menu. Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, set out this argument on Monday. “At the point at which an economy is coming out of an extraordinarily deep slump, that is not the time when you want to slap the economy down with higher taxes.”

But Mr Johnson’s government is based on a fragile coalition of former Labour supporters, who flocked to his party over Brexit, and more traditional richer Conservative voters in the south of England. While they were united this time last year around his clarion call to “get Brexit done”, they are not united on taxes, spending or the economy.

Furthermore, Mr Johnson was

elected with a thumping majority in part as a reaction against the austerity agenda of his predecessor David Cameron. Pursuing a similar strategy now is risky: ending the pension triple lock, for example, might not be felt acutely in prosperous Surrey, but the impact in post-industrial Scunthorpe would be drastic. It is hard to think of a policy that would alienate first-time Tory voters more.

A recent poll of northern voters in “red wall” areas — seats the Tory party won from opposition Labour for the first time — suggest 47 per cent are willing to pay more taxes to fund public services, whereas just 24 per cent prefer tax cuts. In other words, the opposite of what Mr Rees-Mogg and traditional Tories want.

Ms Hewson is hopeful Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak will not make her poorer, saying, “Boris is an optimist, I am confident he can fix this and get us through.” The chancellor has pledged to repair public finances without a “horror show of tax rises with no end”, she adds. Yet he could still deliver a time-limited horror show to some traditional Tories.

Politically, the prime minister has shown he can win both the north and south. Continuing to do so, however, will take an economic strategy that appeals across England. Finding it, while paying for coronavirus, is a critical test of what exactly “Johnsonism” and this government are about.

sebastian.payne@ft.com

Tough pension call will define Johnson’s premiership

LettersEmail: letters.editor@ft.com

Include daytime telephone number and full addressCorrections: corrections@ft.com

If you are not satisfied with the FT’s response to your complaint, you can appealto the FT Editorial Complaints Commissioner: complaints.commissioner@ft.com

The Roaring Twenties didn’t end so well either I was interested to note the FT’s evocation of the 1920s in the context of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic (FT View, December 3). However your warning about how the Roaring Twenties ended might be more prescient than the optimistic scenarios the editorial also outlined.

First, the Roaring Twenties label is more appropriate for the American experience than the British or European one. For the latter, the decade is notable more for chronic economic problems and political instability. British gross domestic product is estimated to have contracted by around 18 per cent in 1920-21, and shrank again in 1926, the year of the general strike. The latter episode provides an indication as to how poor conditions were in certain industries and regions at that time: the Great Depression had arrived early and with sufficient severity to render the experience of the 1929-32 period mild by comparison.

Second, the Roaring Twenties have already arrived in today’s financial markets. The conclusion that “financial markets have already recovered” ignores the fact that risk asset prices were high before the pandemic and are now higher still. A benign interpretation is that low inflation and low interest rates have given rise to a logical repricing via the discount rate effect. A less benign gloss is that governments have succeeded in generating the greatest financial bubble in history, including one in the price of their own debt.

Cryptocurrencies and anything that smells of lithium are among the more obvious manifestations of a bubble. The less obvious ones include markets that are far larger and more dangerous. The spectre of Wall Street in 1929 and indeed Japan in 1989 might well be found to have been looming large.Deri Hughes London E15, UK

Vestager risks punishing Europe’s tech champions In a recent article (Report, December 1) Margrethe Vestager, European commissioner in charge of the EU’s digital policy, previewed upcoming EU proposals on the market dominance of Big Tech. Remarkably, she said the rules would not only target dominant platforms, but all those with “strong growth potential”.

That is troubling for the 10,000 start-up platforms in Europe. Most, if not all,

PM might do well to recall Churchill adage Prime Minister Boris Johnson will shortly be travelling to Brussels in a last-ditch attempt to rescue the future trade relationship between the UK and the EU (Report, December 8).

It is well-known that a previous incumbent of his present office, Winston Churchill, is one of Mr Johnson’s historical heroes. I would offer this thought: when debating internally whether to stand immovable or to compromise, remember Churchill’s well-worn but well-thought- out line: “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” Mr Johnson should be under no illusion that to return with no deal will have consequences akin to a war — the victims will be those particularly vulnerable to closed borders: the farmers, the SMEs, the NHS and all the employees of companies no longer able to trade as before and who will, euphemistically, be “let go”. They will join the huge numbers of unemployed caused by the ending of Covid-19 support.

That may not matter to those who can simply move to other jurisdictions, but it should matter to Mr Johnson, because it would have mattered to Churchill.Fergus Randolph QCLondon EC4, UK

Tips to put the greenrecovery plan into effect Boris Johnson says that now is the time to plan our green recovery (Opinion, November 18). I suggest that there are some actions he could usefully take immediately. Large housebuilders, near where I live, are continuing to build new houses that, they tell me, do not have even one electric car charging point fitted as standard.

Retrofitting these (as people will want to do if petrol and diesel cars may not be sold after 2030) will be more expensive in terms of both money and additional unnecessary damage to the climate.

The prime minister could act now to require all houses, where work has not reached a specified stage by a specified date, to have electric car charging points fitted. That might also help convince people that his 10-point plan is not just another world beating aspiration. If he were inclined to take action, he could also consider that none of these houses has solar panels fitted as standard on south facing roofs — that would help with point seven of his plan.Deborah CrossSudbury, Suffolk, UK

Brexit wine prices should be a sobering prospect Regarding the costs of Brexit (Report, FT.com, December 2) I have been informed by my wine merchant that leaving the EU will add an extra 10p a bottle due to increases in customs charges on both importing and exporting between the EU and the UK. By my back-of-the-envelope calculation three bottles a week will cost me £15.60 a year.

However, assuming that there are probably 5m people like me that is an additional £80m a year roughly. Over 10 years, nearly £1bn. Putting that on the side of a bus might have been sobering. Alternatively, it might drive you to drink.Jonathan OsborneStanford University, CA, US

In your editorial “Fisheries should not block a Brexit deal” (FT View, December 2) you make reference to the fact that many Brexiters see a need for “retaking control of UK territorial waters”. No, “retaking control” is hardly the correct way of looking at things.

In 1973, when the UK entered the EU (then the EEC), its territorial waters, fisheries jurisdiction included, extended to only three nautical miles. At that time Britain did not want large territorial waters. As a maritime power it had for centuries been in favour of maximising its own global freedom of activities, fishing included. Coastal

states should, in the British view, stick to a three-mile limit — anything broader would be a threat to the holy principle of the freedom of the high seas.

Nevertheless some flexibility had been shown. Norway’s 12-mile fishery zone had been accepted. But when Iceland extended its fishery zone to 50 miles, that was too much. The “cod war” followed.

Over the next few decades, however, a majority of the world’s coastal states established “exclusive economic zones”, with “sovereign rights” over all natural resources out to 200 miles. A situation where fish stocks faced

increasing threats — combined with paralysis in the international organisations set up to deal with this issue — had made it necessary to act. The speed with which it all happened however could have resulted in serious international conflict if the UN had not, through its Law of the Sea conference (1973-1982), been able to come up with a negotiated regime for the new zones, acceptable also to the US and the Soviet Union as well as the other maritime powers of the day, the UK included.

All this was new. Nothing to do with “retaking” anything.Helge VindenesPadstow, Cornwall, UK

Fisheries stance ignores UK maritime history

UK Notebook

by Sebastian Payne

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Features Time: 8/12/2020 - 19:03 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: LEADER USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 18, 1

Wednesday 9 December 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 19

T he ghost of Christmas present has collided with that of Christmas past this season. Just as non-essen-tial stores were set to reo-

pen in the UK, clothes retailer Deben-hams went down forever and Philip Green’s Arcadia Group went into admin-istration. Meanwhile revenues at French Connection have plunged while Gap’s losses keep coming.

Few in Britain will mourn Deben-hams, or Arcadia’s Dorothy Perkins for that matter. But many lament the demise of Topshop — the jewel inArcadia’s crown. Once an unassailable high street leader, it is now a cautionary

T he paranoid mind, wrote Richard Hofstadter — one of America’s great 20th-century thinkers — sees the world as a battle between

good and evil. Anything less than total victory will only deepen the paranoia. “Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began,” Hofstadter wrote. “This is in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes.”

In today’s US case, the enemy is the deep state allied with globalist forces, whom conspiracy theorists believe

former actors. House of Vans has indoor skate parks, while Universal Standard has a clubhouse in its New York flagship store. In Amsterdam, car brand Lynk & Co has opened a co-working space instead of a car dealership.

These retailers straddle both digital and physical retail. One is not exclusive to the other. I suspect they are also led by people who allow the numbers peo-ple to work with the creatives, not stifle them. Creativity comes in many forms. It just needs corporate cultural oxygen to flourish.

So don’t fall for the line that digital was Topshop’s enemy. The pandemic didn’t kill the brand either; it just struck the final blow. Mr Green’s fatal error was that he didn’t understand how critical creativity is. He thought it could be bought. It can’t. Creativity creates cul-tural relevance and that’s something you instinctively feel. It was true of J Crew, until Jenna Lyons left in 2017.

achieved unicorn status by creating a two-way dialogue with its community. Patagonia’s clothes aren’t worn just because of how they look, but also because of the environmental and social commitments they embody. Ikea has straddled physical and digital retail by challenging itself to innovate while remaining razor focused on its core ideal — great design at affordable prices. Primark’s success is nothing to do with digital but with understanding custom-ers’ needs — price, breadth of offer, availability — and then serving them. The list goes on.

Creativity isn’t about apparitions from above. It’s about your thinking, your strategy and your willingness to innovate. Today’s market leaders know that they must offer something that can-not be captured in system-driven online shopping.

US toy retailer Camp has in-store playgrounds and many staff who are

When she left, the numbers and systems people got over-involved, and the crea-tive voices were stifled and sidelined. Topshop became a cookie cutter volume store, sticking to the formula that once made it great but didn’t evolve to meet the changing demands of younger shop-pers. It was a copy-and-paste approach,

not a creative vision, and look where that took it.

The retailers who are winning today have vision. They create brands that people feel a part of — buying into, rather than mindlessly buying from. Millennial beauty giant Glossier

tale in how to squander brand equity.There has been much discussion

about the death of physical retail, the rise of digital — in which Topshop did invest significantly — and how much money was drained out of the business. But the core reason why Topshop failed is simple: it forgot that creativity is the ultimate economic resource.

In its heyday, Topshop wasn’t just a “shop”. It was a destination where you could tap into the zeitgeist. Its finger was not simply on the pulse — it gener-ated the pulse. The key to that was the creative vision of brand director Jane Shepherdson and her team. She fos-tered a culture of experimentation, pas-sion and ambition. Who before her dared to put high street designs on the catwalk during London Fashion Week?

Her departure in 2006 was a blow from which Topshop never really recov-ered. She understood that how we live is also how we buy, which is how to sell.

Covid didn’t kill Topshop — a lack of creativity did

Retailers who are winning today have vision.

They create brands that people feel a part of

(a tenth of those surveyed) were willing to admit publicly that Mr Biden won the election. Almost all of the others refused to identify a winner. Mr Trump tweeted: “Please send me a list of the 25 RINOs”, an acronym that stands for Republicans in name only.

It is entirely possible Mr Trump’s con-spiracy theory will start to pall. It is also possible that his hold over the Republi-can party will solidify. One recent poll showed that Mr Trump was the party’s overwhelming favourite to be the 2024 nominee. Third place, behind vice-pres-ident Mike Pence, was Donald Trump Jr.

There is one simple test of whether Mr Trump’s grip on the GOP will loosen. The outgoing president looks set to boy-cott Mr Biden’s inauguration next month. If senior Republicans follow his lead, the party will remain his. If they ignore him and show up, his spell will have broken.

edward.luce@ft.com

MaryPortas

(without evidence) rigged the presiden-tial election for Joe Biden. The question is whether that kind of paranoiac, which, polls suggest, describes the over-whelming majority of Republican vot-ers, will drift into atomised resentment or be a political wrecking force?

The answer will shape the direction of American politics in the years ahead. Hofstadter’s observations point us in both reassuring and worrying direc-tions. He developed his theory of “the paranoid style in American politics” having watched Joe McCarthy’s red scare, which convulsed US politics, media, academia and the entertainment industry for several years in the 1950s.

Much like today’s Republican politi-cians, who are mostly playing along with Donald Trump’s claim of a stolen elec-tion, McCarthy’s fellow Republicans kept their misgivings about his commu-nist witch hunt to themselves. This included president Dwight Eisenhower who was unwilling to pit his office and

bouts of paranoia do subside. From the scare over the Illuminati in the 1790s, to the Free Masons in the 19th century, to the resistance to Catholic immigration in the late 19th century, each wave crashes. But they are followed by more. Sometimes, as with McCarthyism, they evolve. The year after McCarthy’s death, Robert Welch, a wealthy candy manu-facturer, founded the John Birch society, which seeded today’s US conservatism. Welch was an ardent fan of McCarthy. He believed Eisenhower was a “dedi-cated, conscious agent of the commu-nist conspiracy”.

Claims that Mr Biden stole the elec-tion demand an equally giant leap of faith about the existence of a vast con-spiracy to cancel Mr Trump. Just as McCarthy’s supporters believed in an elite cabal that worked for Moscow, today’s ring allegedly includes George Soros, Venezuelan socialists, Chinese communists and numerous Republican judges and election officials in Georgia

and Pennsylvania. Lack of evidence has been cited as proof of the conspiracy’s veracity. Even Fox News and Republi-can state governors are now part of the plot, which is endless in its sophistica-tion and bottomless in its evil. The para-noiac, in Hofstadter’s words, is up against “a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman — sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving”.

Today’s conspiracy theory is super-charged by being led by the US presi-dent. To be sure, Mr Trump will have to move out of the White House on January 20. But he is giving clear hints he plans to run again in 2024. Even if he does not, it will be in his interests to keep every-one guessing. That will maximise his leverage over the Republican party and his ability to add to the more than $200m he has raised for himself and the party since November 3.

Last week, the Washington Post found that only 25 Republicans on Capitol Hill

towering second world war record against a booze-addled senator from Wisconsin.

Eventually McCarthy went too far. His balloon burst in 1954 after Joseph Welch, a Pentagon lawyer, who was rebutting McCarthy’s wild claims that senior army figures were in league with the Soviet Union, retorted: “Have you

no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” McCarthy died three years later in obscurity from hepatitis linked to alco-holism. Mores have coarsened since then. It is hard to imagine anyone who could similarly shame Mr Trump.

McCarthy’s fall shows that America’s

Claims that Biden stole the election demand a giant leap of faith about the existence

of a vast conspiracy

No easy cure for Trump’s ‘paranoid style’

Opinion

obligations. Among other things, people are rarely held criminally liable for cor-porate crimes. Purdue Pharma, now in bankruptcy, pleaded guilty to criminal charges for its handling of the painkiller OxyContin, which addicted vast num-bers of people. Individuals are routinely imprisoned for dealing illegal drugs, but as she points out “no individual within Purdue want to jail”.

Not least, unbridled corporate power has been a factor behind the rise of pop-ulism, especially rightwing populism. Consider how one goes about persuad-ing people to accept Friedman’s liber-tarian economic ideas. In a universal-suffrage democracy, it is really difficult. To win, libertarians have had to ally themselves with ancillary causes —culture wars, racism, misogyny, nativ-ism, xenophobia and nationalism. Much of this has of course been sotto voce and so plausibly deniable.

The 2008 financial crisis, and the sub-sequent bailout of those whose behav-

adverse social consequences of precari-ous work; and so on and so forth.”

It is true, as many authors in this com-pendium argue, that the limited liability business corporation was (and is) a bril-liant institutional innovation. It is true, too, that making corporate objectives more complex is likely to be problem-atic. So when Steve Kaplan of the Booth School asks how corporations should trade off many different goals, I have sympathy. Similarly, when business leaders tell us they are now going to serve the wider needs of society, I ask: first, do I believe they will do so; second, do I believe they know how to do so; and, last, who elected them to do so?

Yet the problems with the grossly unbalanced economic, social and politi-cal power inherent in the current situa-tion are vast. On this, the contribution of Anat Admati of Stanford University is compelling. She notes that corporations have obtained a host of political and civil rights but lack corresponding

promote junk science on climate and the environment; it is one in which com-panies would not kill hundreds of thou-sands of people, by promoting addiction to opiates; it is one in which companies would not lobby for tax systems that let them park vast proportions of their profits in tax havens; it is one in which the financial sector would not lobby for the inadequate capitalisation that causes huge crises; it is one in which copyright would not be extended and extended and extended; it is one in which companies would not seek to neuter an effective competition policy; it is one in which companies would not lobby hard against efforts to limit the

analysis is devastating. He asks a simple question: “Under what conditions is it socially efficient for managers to focus only on maximising shareholder value?”

His answer is threefold: “First, com-panies should operate in a competitive environment, which I will define as firms being both price- and rule-takers. Second, there should not be externali-ties (or the government should be able to address perfectly these externalities through regulation and taxation). Third, contracts are complete, in the sense that we can specify in a contract all relevant contingencies at no cost.”

Needless to say, none of these condi-tions holds. Indeed, the existence of the corporation shows that they do not hold. The invention of the corporation allowed the creation of huge entities, in order to exploit economies of scale. Given their scale, the notion of busi-nesses as price-takers is absurd. Exter-nalities, some of them global, are evi-dently pervasive. Corporations also exist because contracts are incomplete. If it were possible to write contracts that specified every eventuality, the ability of management to respond to the unex-pected would be redundant. Above all, corporations are not rule-takers but rather rule-makers. They play games whose rules they have a big role in creat-ing, via politics.

My contribution to the ebook empha-sises this last point by asking what a good “game” would look like. “It is one”, I argue, “in which companies would not

W hat should be the goal of the business corpora-tion? For a long time, the prevailing view in English-speaking coun-

tries and, increasingly, elsewhere was that advanced by the economist Milton Friedman in a New York Times article, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits”, published in Sep-tember 1970. I used to believe this, too. I was wrong.

The article deserves to be read in full. But its kernel is in its conclusion: “there is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” The impli-cations of this position are simple and clear. That is its principal virtue. But, as H L Mencken is supposed to have said (though may not have done), “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong”. This is a powerful example of that truth.

After 50 years, the doctrine needs re-evaluation. Suitably, given Fried-man’s connection with the University of Chicago, the Stigler Center at its Booth School of Business has just published an ebook, Milton Friedman 50 Years Later, containing diverse views. In an excellent concluding article, Luigi Zingales, who promoted the debate, tries to give a bal-anced assessment. Yet, in my view, his

Friedman was wrong on the corporation

The unbridled power of business has been a factor driving the rise of rightwing populism

iour caused it, made selling a deregu-lated free-market even harder. So, it became politically essential for libertar-ians to double down on those ancillary causes. Mr Trump was not the person they wanted: he was erratic and unprin-cipled, but he was the political entrepre-neur best suited to winning the presi-dency. He has given them what they most wanted: tax cuts and deregulation.

There are many arguments to be had over how corporations should change. But the biggest issue by far is how to create good rules of the game on compe-tition, labour, the environment, taxa-tion and so forth. Friedman assumed either that none of this mattered or that a working democracy would survive prolonged attack by people who thought as he did. Neither assumption proved correct. The challenge is to create good rules of the game, via politics. Today, we cannot.

martin.wolf@ft.com

Martin Wolf Economics

The free market doctrine that has guided us for 50 years now needs re-evaluation

As important as the bottom line is, creativity in all its confounding, unquantifiable glory is also what will pull businesses through this pandemic. For that to happen, the person at the top must embody creative qualities, or rec-ognise others that do and enable them.

Of course there is a central need for data and numbers. But for 30 years, that’s been the driving force in retail, and now we see that it isn’t enough. Companies succeeding now are disrup-tors and visionaries — not those that put creatives in charge but then crush them.

The demise of Debenhams and Arca-dia is wretched because of the many jobs that will go with them, and the empty shop fronts they leave behind. But there is little else to miss. If only the people at the top had realised that great retail isn’t just a numbers game.

The writer, founder of Portas Agency, is the author of ‘The Kindness Economy’

AMERICA

Edward Luce

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:Features Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:06 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: COMMENT USA, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 19, 1

20 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Wednesday 9 December 2020

CROSSWORDNo 16,655 Set by GOZO

JOTTER PAD

Across answers have a common theme and are undefined in the clues

ACROSS 1 First of customers returns bottle of milk

(6) 4 Greetings! It has left the digestives, say

(8) 9 Oddly, they answer to Liberal leader (6)10 Dancing girl at Le Lido line in Sussex (8)12 Lodging in hotel in Gretna (4)13 Southern border (5)14 See 2417 Bill coming after dessert (5,7)20 Served dab and red salmon (3,4,5)23 Bit of a looker! (4)24, 14 Dry seed we scattered (5,4)25, 27 Funny Girl – Adele’s leading first

(4,4)28 Nehru takes nap – out of sorts (8)29 Farrow drinks some of the German wine

(6)30 Spoke of rooms with endless ringing

(5,3)31 Attempt to cut tree back (6)DOWN 1 Refined accent of Under Milk Wood’s

Lord (3,5) 2 Coaches and French model railway (5,3) 3 Goat from central Tibet – spot marked

thus (4) 5 False registration made by a burglar

(7,5) 6 Confectionery from unjust magistrates

(4) 7 Basket holding women’s yarn (6) 8 Food, alas, upset diners – no stomach

for it (6)11 Cavalier villain could be a nurse (5-3-4)15 No wind yet (5)16 Former PM extremely believable?

Possibly (5)18 Inside truck is your broken implement

(5,3)19 Water, alas, made impure (5,3)21 With which Leo’s composed polonaises?

(6)22 He’s promised work in cafe (6)26 Quarrel – it is bath time (4)27 See 25

Solution 16,654

Tesla is following advice from an earlier era of metal-bashing: strike while the iron is hot. The US electric-car maker plans to tap the equity market yet again. It intends to sell up to $5bn in new shares, its third capital raise in 10 months.

For Tesla boss Elon Musk, the lure is clear. The company’s share price defies gravity, surging almost 650 per cent from a low in March to a new high this week. Its market capitalisation exceeds $600bn. That is six times greater than General Motors and Ford Motor combined, even though Tesla’s production is just a fraction of theirs. It also explains why Mr Musk can raise $5bn while diluting shareholders by just 0.8 per cent.

Newbie investors cannot get enough of a stock emblematic of the new corporate world order. Tesla is one of the most traded US shares according to Refinitiv. Demand has been fuelled by a stock split and upcoming admission to the S&P 500 index.

Like the previous capital raise in September, the share sale is an “at-the-market” offering, or ATM. The structure allows companies to raise cash bit by bit, over the course of months or years in the open market. The advantage is flexibility and instant access to capital. Fees are lower.

Public investors usually dislike ATMs because they have limited say in how proceeds are spent. That hardly applies to Mr Musk, a formidable entrepreneur whose fans think he can do no wrong.

Tesla has delivered five straight quarterly profits helped by sales of carbon credits. The new share sale could take cash and equivalents to $20bn.

Old-school analysis finds nothing in Tesla’s fundamentals to justify a valuation of 141 times forward earnings. The stock even looks expensive if you believe the group could monopolistically supersede the world’s traditional carmakers. Tesla continues to produce more irrational exuberance than vehicles.

Tesla: more funding secured

reasonable returns from them. Ofgem tries to limit unnecessary investment. Had it done nothing, energy bills would have risen by an average of £18 a year.

That looks like small change compared with what households might pay in other areas. Renewable energy costs have fallen. These trends will reduce the impact on consumers, says the CCC. But it is pie in the sky for the CCC to expect every household boiler to be “hydrogen ready” when there is no wholesale gas making or distribution system.

The bigger challenge is to persuade consumers that short-term investment will have long-term environmental payback. Not all of the bill can be covered by better technology and economies of scale. The easy part of the green revolution has already passed.

failing to do so would be steeper. Think of parched farmland, freak weather events and surging immigration. That message is unpopular with voters. Politicians and regulators are in a bind.

Official timidity was apparent in guidelines from UK electricity and gas regulator Ofgem yesterday. It reduced significantly — for the coming five years — what electricity and gas networks can earn on their regulated assets. Ofgem’s efforts will not add up to much. Consumers will pay £10 less annually for essential investments to the electricity and gas networks.

This reduction in charges seems curious when the UK government is promising to speed up energy transition. Transmission groups such as National Grid and SSE need more renewable assets and should make

days, the deal could be sealed before full-year results are released on the 25th. Patently one to reject.

A new type of British hobbyist may appear, if politicians and climate activists have their way: gas boiler collectors. To achieve decarbonisation targets by 2050, the government plans to electrify homes and businesses. Green groups such as the Climate Change Committee want all gas boilers replaced by 2033, potentially costing each household £10,000.

Individuals will ultimately have to pay for energy transition. The cost of

Renewables/Ofgem: power deficit

Miners from locations as far afield as Kazakhstan and Indonesia flocked to London’s stock exchange on the back of the commodity boom in the mid-noughties. Most have since exited, leaving disenchanted investors in their wake. Kaz Minerals, worth about £3.1bn, is still trying to wangle its way out — like its predecessors, via a lowball buyout. Investors, having been short-changed before, should dig their heels in.

Of the many reasons to stand firm against the 640p a share offer, now being made by way of a takeover, two stand out. One is the soaring copper price. Copper prices have jumped 18 per cent since the board greenlighted the bid from chairman Oleg Novachuk and Kazakh metals tycoon Vladimir Kim in early October for shares they do not already own.

Using Kaz’s own figures, every 10 per cent increase in the copper price adds $182m of ebitda. That should juice up profits by $360m or 75 cents a share. Add that to the pre-offer share price of £5.70 and you are already within reach of the current bid. Production, according to an update put out after the takeover bid was announced, will meet or exceed guidance.

The second spur is Baimskaya, a vast undeveloped copper mine in a forsaken part of Russia. Purchase of this mine, for $900m in 2018, relieved oligarch Roman Abramovich of a cash-guzzling asset and torpedoed Kaz’s share price.

No wonder. Kaz reckoned on eight years to develop the mine at a cost of $5.5bn; that figure has since swollen to $8bn. More than two years later, shareholders are still waiting for a feasibility study to get a true sense of its potential. They have already spent the best part of $300m on the elusive document and “pioneer works”.

Timing is everything for would-be acquirers. Offer documents will be sent out “on or before” February 4. If completed within the minimum 21

Kaz Minerals bid: just say no

Waiting to consult doctors at their surgeries is becoming old-fashioned among China’s early adopters. Remote medical consultations via platforms such as JD Health have surged during the pandemic. JD Health’s Hong Kong listing, in which it sold $3.5bn of shares, is well timed.

The stock rose 56 per cent yesterday, valuing the JD.com offshoot at more than $40bn. Hot money stacked up for the postponed Ant Group listing was one reason for the jump. The industry’s potential was the other. China is a perfect test bed for digital medicine. Public healthcare is under-resourced. The private sphere lacks a US-style oligopoly. The large, ageing population is prepared to pay for the best doctors.

The group’s healthcare revenues grew more than three-quarters in the first half to $1.3bn. It is already profitable.

There is room for more. JD Health launched online consultations less than three years ago. The sessions work well for conditions not requiring physical examinations. They are mostly free.

Drug sales are the main revenue source, making JD Health’s the largest online retail pharmaceuticals platform in China. That creates conflicts of interest for online physicians as big as those that conventional practitioners wrestle with.

Charging for consultations would resolve these. Public national medical insurance cannot be used to cover fees from online consultations, absent regulatory reform. But China’s growing middle classes can be persuaded to stump up.

JD Health’s parent is a bigger concern for investors. JD.com will be hit by Beijing’s new antitrust regulations. JD Health’s main competitors are healthcare units of Alibaba, Ping An and Tencent, tech giants equally exposed to official disapproval ofcross-selling and cross subsidies.

It helps that the online healthcare sector is worth just $4bn within a $1tn local healthcare market, too small to inspire direct attacks. The need for medical resources during the pandemic has kept regulators friendly, for now. Companies such as JD Health can curry further official favour by helping with a push to digitise medical records.

Telemedicine/JD Health: what the doctor ordered

JD Health’s enterprise value of 14 times trailing sales is high. But smaller rival Alibaba Health Information Technology trades at 20 times. Medium-term prospects are good — a picture of health, even.

Lex on the webFor notes on today’s breaking stories go to www.ft.com/lex

Twitter: @FTLex

Who said Europe can’t build tech unicorns? London-based venture capital firm Atomico has impressive statistics to sway the doubters. In 2020, 18 homegrown businesses swelled to more than $1bn each in market value. Two exceeded $10bn. Two more — Spotify and Adyen — topped $50bn. European tech start-ups are set to raise more than $40bn this year, a record.

The problem with UK unicorns is they like to migrate. The pull of the US has been displayed yet again by the New York listing plans of Paysafe, a digital payments specialist. It will seek a $9bn valuation via a merger with a blank-cheque company. Electric vehicle group Arrival will also list in the US through a $5.4bn

takeover by another special acquisition company.

The US, with its deep capital markets and love of innovation, accounts for just over half of the exits of $1bn-plus venture capital-backed European companies. Most are via listings. Financial data group Markit was born in London, floated in New York and is being bought by S&P for $44bn.

There are fears foreign takeovers threaten national expertise and trade, reflected in the row over Nvidia’s purchase of UK chip group Arm. A US float is less controversial but still makes a difference to who captures future value.

Rishi Sunak is the latest UK chancellor to review listing rules in a bid to attract more fast-growing

companies. There is pressure to relax governance rules in favour of founders. The Hut Group was ineligible for the FTSE 100 index because of the golden share held by boss Matthew Moulding.

The reality is that critical mass — in capital markets and potential customers — is the main reason unicorns such as Paysafe and Arrival list in the US. Tweaking UK rules cannot fix that.

Moreover, gloom is often overdone. The value of recently founded European tech companies is growing fast. After suffering a lost decade in the 1990s, there is more confidence and cash in European tech than ever. For Europe, New York listings represent an export success.

FT graphic Source: Atomico Note: S&P Capital IQ Platform, as of Oct 31 2020

IPO in Europe (36%)UK

Sweden

Germany

Netherlands

Denmark

FinlandLuxembourg

Others

IPO in the US (38%)

Acquired byUS buyers (14%)

Acquired by Chinesebuyers (8%)

Acquired by Europeanbuyers (4%)

The US exerts a big pull on Europe’s unicornsValue flow by country of headquarters and exit route

European venture capital-backed companies that exit with a valuation of more than $1bn

European tech: why unicorns migrateUS acquisitions or listings account for just over half of the exit value of Europe’s biggest venture capital-backed businesses. Large German companies are the most likely to choose local exchanges for initial public offerings, followed by those from the UK and Sweden.

DECEMBER 9 2020 Section:FrontBack Time: 8/12/2020 - 18:47 User: alistair.fraser Page Name: 1BACK, Part,Page,Edition: EUR, 20, 1