Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 935 i MoneyWeek

The global economy gives. The global economy takes away. So Germany is finding (see page 4) – its economy is stuttering as demand for its exports falls (manufacturing orders from foreign countries were down over 9% year-on-year in December). And so the UK is finding. Most commentators have been quick to at least partially blame Brexit for the miserable news about Honda (see page 10). But it’s a tough position to defend. If this was all about Brexit, Honda might have wanted to wait a mere six weeks to see what Brexit is actually going to mean. It might also not have announced the closure of its Turkish plant at the same time. And it might even have hinted that it would open a plant in a country rather more…

China’s BYD is one of Warren Buffett’s better bets outside the US. His stake in China’s biggest producer of alternative-energy (electric and hybrid) vehicles has risen in value by 500% since September 2008. But there should be further to go, says Der Aktionär, a German business weekly. Last year BYD cemented its position as the dominant producer of such vehicles, selling 248,000, while its January sales were up by 291% year-on-year. China is the world’s biggest market for alternative-energy cars, with 1.1 million sold last year, even as the overall car market shrank slightly. The group also has a promising battery unit, which supplies its own electric cars and buses. The stock looks “too cheap”.…

Earlier this week, Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, took “the unprecedented step” of banning short sales (that allow investors to profit from a falling share price) of shares in payment-processing specialist Wirecard, claiming that these pose “a serious threat to market trust in Germany”, reports Bloomberg. The move comes as prosecutors in Munich investigate a Financial Times journalist as part of a wider probe into “market manipulation”. The FT has published a series of articles “alleging fraud at the payment company’s Singapore unit”, which Wirecard has denied. In the past few weeks, however, the shares have lost nearly half their value. This is hardly Wirecard’s first brush with controversy, says German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle. It has been a “perennial target for speculative short-sellers who have questioned its accounting methods and…

The Munich Security Conference is where the Atlantic Alliance “likes to show its best face to the world”, says the Financial Times. So the “very public bust-up” between Donald Trump’s administration and European allies showed how badly bonds have “frayed”. A combative Angela Merkel was “blunt” about US unilateralism, Washington’s efforts to isolate Iran, the US withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan, and Trump’s protectionist policies. For his part, Vice-President Mike Pence didn’t “waver” from the America First policy, castigating Europeans for not withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and instructing them to bar China’s Huawei from the 5G market. The “most immediate danger” of this rift is that it is exploited by Russia and China, say Steven Erlanger and Katrin Bennhold in The New York Times. In a show of…

“For at least a year, bodies such as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and manufacturers’ association the EEF and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) have been telling ministers that the uncertainty caused by Brexit would have serious consequences,” says Larry Elliott in The Guardian. So the news that 3,500 jobs will be lost when Honda closes its Swindon plant by 2022 “will make the employers’ organisations even more insistent that a no-deal outcome should be ruled out”. Brexit isn’t the only factor, but it “played its part”, as shown by Japanese lobbying for a softer Brexit. Honda’s decision will “add to the already considerable pressure on Theresa May”. Those blaming Brexit “should listen to what the company has to say”, says Ross Clark in The Daily Telegraph. Not…

Here at MoneyWeek we’ve been pointing out for some time that the US stockmarket is rather expensive relative to its history. Our favourite measure is the cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio (Cape). This compares the current price of a market with its average earnings over ten years. Using the average means that you get a fuller picture (earnings obviously fluctuate with the economic cycle, so taking a single year can be misleading). Today the Cape on the US market is higher than at almost any time other than the peak of the tech bubble, which was one of the biggest stockmarket bubbles in history. Given that, we feel fairly comfortable describing the US market as expensive. Some people have objections to the Cape. These objections range from issues around changing accounting…

The new breakaway centrist grouping launched on Monday by a group of seven moderate, pro-EU Labour MPs – calling itself The Independent Group – probably doesn’t have a huge chance of success. But even if it doesn’t ever amount to very much in terms of votes or power, it could still perform a useful function. Not much brand recognition, a tired backward-looking message, not many customers and no real way of distributing the product to the customers. If it were a product launch at Unilever or Nestlé, no one would be feeling terribly optimistic about its prospects. The Ukip of the centre As Emmanuel Macron in France, the Five Star Movement in Italy, and Ukip and the Social Democratic Party in this country have all shown, new parties can find…

• The chief executive of fund manager Ashmore Group will cut his stake by as much as £111m a year, in order to pacify shareholders accusing him of trying to take “creeping control” of the business, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. Mark Coombs, “one of the City’s most media-shy plutocrats”, plans to reduce his 39% stake to less than 30% by selling up to four percentage points of his holding per year “over the medium term”. Coombs has apparently grown “increasingly irritated” by criticism from proxy voting agencies, which have told clients to vote against resolutions that would allow him to be paid partly in new stock. As he owns more than 29.9% of Ashmore, he would normally be obliged to make a bid for the company when his…

The number of landlords found to have underpaid or under-declared tax on rental income rose by 51% last year, to 8,704, says Sam Barker in The Daily Telegraph. The rise has “sparked concern... that landlords who make honest mistakes are being punished alongside deliberate tax evaders”. The amount of tax income clawed back from landlords rose by 67% to £32.8m, while the value of fines more than doubled to £5.6m, according to HM Revenue & Customs. If HMRC catches landlords who have not paid the right amount, it can reclaim up to 20 years’ worth of these payments, and can fine the landlord up to 100% of the value of the unpaid tax – and bring criminal charges. If a landlord has made an honest mistake and admits it, the…

Expatriates looking for a mortgage on a property in the UK now have a wider choice of loans. Cambridge Building Society and Tipton & Coseley Building Society have both launched new ranges of buy-to-let mortgages aimed at British people living overseas. Both ranges include fixed and discount deals, available for both new purchases and remortgaging. About five million UK nationals live overseas, and many are keen to hold on to a home in the UK, or to invest in one to rent out. But the available mortgage options are quite restricted – and in most cases, you’ll need to get a specialist landlord mortgage. It is possible to secure a standard residential home loan as an expat, but it’s tricky to arrange, says Guy Stephenson, director of specialist expat mortgage…

After nearly a decade of strong growth, the housing market has definitely cooled over the past 18 months. In fact, according to the latest Nationwide House Price Index, house prices are now falling once you take inflation into account. Concerns about a potentially imminent Brexit and a slowing UK economy aside, some sort of correction was inevitable after one of the largest property booms in history. So it’s no surprise that most of the major UK house-building and construction companies now look cheap, especially in terms of price/earnings (p/e) ratios. For example, Bellway is trading at 6.4 times forward earnings, Redrow at 6.5, Crest Nicholson 7.5, Countryside Properties 7.7, Taylor Wimpey 7.7, Barratt Homes 8.2, and Persimmon at 8.8. Of course, some or all of these companies could end up…

DP Eurasia (LSE: DPEU) operates the Domino’s Pizza brand in Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, with more than 700 outlets, mostly in Turkey, but it is expanding rapidly in Russia. It was founded in 1996 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2017. Sales have been rising, but so have costs – mainly due to high borrowing costs in Turkey – and the group reported an increased loss in the first half of 2018. A trading update in January reported earnings were now in line with expectations, but that has not stopped the shares falling by more than 50% in the last year.…

Joining a group of like-minded walkers is a great way to explore new countryside routes, says Jody Woolcock in Countryfile magazine. It’s understandable if you’re nervous about a solo expedition. After all, “when you’re prone to getting lost, heading out for 16km on your own somewhere you’ve never been before can seem quite daunting”. Having spoken to former Countryfile television presenter Julia Bradbury about starting a walking group, Bradbury advised Woolcock to go home and do it. Since then, “Cornish Ramblings” has morphed into “a wonderful following of loyal and like-minded folk”, who regularly enjoy getting lost across Cornwall. It is a good way to stay physically active, says Woolcock, and walking in groups is also good for your emotional and mental health. On one particular Saturday outing, a total…

I always endeavour to taste wine with an open mind. “Taste the wine, not the label” is advice I give to every young member of the wine trade I meet, having been told it myself 32 years ago when I started working in this fascinating business. It has served me well. I find gems all over the place and they often have dreary labels or come from unlikely wineries. Of course, I have to taste thousands of bottles to find wines worthy of comment, but that’s the job and I love the challenge. If you have lazily relied simply on labels alone to guide you, you will undoubtedly have a narrow palate and even narrower chances of success. Here is a wine that proves one should keep an open mind…

American comics tend to be grouped into “ages” by collectors, beginning with the Victorian and Platinum ages. But it wasn’t until the dawn of the Golden Age, roughly 1938 to the period just after World War II, that the first American comic books were first published. This is the era of the caped-crusader, battling evil, while real-life American soldiers trooped off to Europe to do the same. Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel (initially called Shazam), Captain America and Wonder Woman all made their  debuts. Faced with accusations that comic books were glorifying violence, publishers focused more on justice from 1956 onwards. During this Silver Age, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men made their appearance. During the Bronze Age, from the early 1970s to the mid-80s, writers began to weave in…

“She has her own small fortune. She is an heiress,” Karl Lagerfeld (pictured) told a French TV programme in 2015. “If something happens to me, the person who looks after her will not live in poverty. Choupette is a rich girl!” On Tuesday, the fashion designer died aged 85, unmarried and without children. Choupette (also pictured) was his cat. So, will she get her paws on his fortune? It’s tricky, says Le Monde. Lagerfeld was German, but resident in France. French law doesn’t allow legacies to be left to pets. However, he could have left the money to a trusted person, or an animal charity that will look after her. Either way, she doesn’t need the money – she already has thousands of social-media fans and a bank account with…

The oil price (as measured by the Brent crude benchmark) has risen by nearly 25% so far in 2019, well in advance of any developed-world stockmarket, as oil producers slash production in a “shock and awe strategy”, said Goldman Sachs analysts. So far oil cartel Opec and the other big producer, Russia, have reduced output from 31.6 million barrels a day in December to 30.8 million in January. Meanwhile, Venezuela, another big producer, is in meltdown. But the surge may not get a lot higher from here. Output cuts could be offset by rising US shale production. Last year, US oil producers experienced pipeline bottlenecks (with oil supplies outstripping the capacity to get it to market), but those should ease by the end of 2019. US output is already expected…

The price of palladium has hit a new record of $1,495 per ounce. Over the past six months, the price has risen by 70%. Last year it overtook the gold price, and it is also more highly valued than its sister metal, platinum. But this is “unlikely to last”, says Ross Strachan of Capital Economics. Palladium is used in catalytic converters for petrol vehicles, and in batteries for hybrid cars. Supply rose sharply in 2018, while the current slowdown in car sales will hit demand and “should cause prices to come off the boil”. The biggest risk is the transition to electric vehicles, which do not produce emissions or need converters, says John Gapper in the Financial Times. If governments incentivise consumers to go electric, the metal could slide.…

US exercise-bike brand Peloton, founded in 2012, has been interviewing banks for a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of this year, say Maureen Farrell and Dana Mattioli in The Wall Street Journal. The stationary bikes, which cost from $2,245 each, come with a mounted screen on which users can stream live classes led by Peloton’s fitness instructors for around $39 a month. A fundraising round last year valued Peloton in the region of $4bn. The start-up would seek a valuation above that, unnamed sources told the newspaper. Should the IPO go ahead, it will be an early test of investors’ appetite for the burgeoning high-end fitness sector.…

We’ve seen some massive changes in politics over the past week, with both Labour and Conservative MPs quitting their respective parties to join The Independent Group (see page 8). Surprisingly, none of the major bookies have launched any betting markets on it (with the exception of a short-lived bet about who will win Chuka Umunna’s seat at the next election). The fact that it is a still a loose grouping, rather than a formal party, means that they would have to word any bet precisely to avoid any messy disputes. Smarkets has tried to step into the breach by launching markets on the number of additional MPs who will defect to the group. However, the defection of the trio of Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston means the odds…

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) is a way of measuring profit that can make it easier to compare the valuation of two companies. Ebitda may be helpful when it is difficult to compare firms using other profit measures – such as earnings per share (EPS) – because they have very different levels of debt, tax rates, or different accounting policies on, for example, the depreciation of fixed assets. Ebitda measures a firm’s profitability before these factors are taken into account. The two businesses can then be compared on a like-for-like basis by taking their enterprise values (EV – the market value of all their shares in issue, plus net borrowing or less net cash) and comparing this with Ebitda. The lower the EV/Ebitda ratio, the cheaper the…

• US airline Delta paid out £1.3bn in profit sharing to its 80,000 employees last week, a bonus of 14% of annual pay for every worker. The amount is based on pre-tax income of $5.2bn and is the second largest payout in the company’s history, after the $1.5bn paid in 2015. It is the fifth year in a row the firm has handed more than $1bn back to its workers. • Football manager José Mourinho and his backroom team received a severance payment of £19.6m after they were sacked by Manchester United in December last year, reports The Daily Telegraph. The payment was shared between Mourinho (pictured) and three coaches, the scout and an “analyst”, though most went to Mourinho. The previous manager, Louis Van Gaal, received £8.4m when he…

Japanese embark on a new era Nobuko Kobayashi Nikkei Asian Review The imminent abdication of Japan’s Emperor Akihito marks the end of the 30-year Heisei Era, says Nobuko Kobayashi. On the surface, despite the financial bubble, nothing significant happened in this time. Real GDP in dollar terms grew by 59% during 1989-2017; China’s grew by 3,419%. Despite a property crash early on, consumer prices have risen by a “scant” 0.5% annually and the population, which is now the “oldest” globally, has risen by just 3%. Scratch the surface, however, and there is significant change, namely the “crumbling of a rigid socio-economic system” dominated by the state and large corporations. In 1989, there were 32 Japanese firms in the top 50 by market capitalisation. Today there is just one. This apparent…

Income is a key consideration for many investors. Talk to an income investor and most are targeting a return of between 4% and 6%. Yet at the same time, investors want protection from the downside. This all implies that the underlying asset classes should be relatively secure, be backed by real assets, boast lower volatility, and be diversified across different sectors and businesses. One way to achieve this diversification is to invest in a fund of funds, where an active manager pulls together a range of income investments – two such suggestions follow. Steady and not too flashy The BMO Managed Portfolio Trust (LSE: BMPI) is an investment trust that owns a portfolio of other trusts. It has, in effect, been split into two portions – one with its own…

In turbulent political and economic times, many investors are attracted to physical, tangible assets that promise some sort of protection against inflation, upheaval in the financial system, or political change (or often, all three at once). Gold is one such “real asset”; property is another. But while most of us probably have some exposure to property, and many MoneyWeek readers will already own gold, there’s one “real” asset you perhaps haven’t considered – forestry. Investing in woodland might sound like a hassle (it can be), or only for those who are aiming to pass their wealth to the next generation (it certainly has its uses on that front). But if you are looking to diversify your portfolio and plan to invest for the long run, it’s an asset class that…

Oxford-educated economist Bernard Connolly made headlines when he lost his job at the European Commission in 1995, after writing The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War for Europe’s Money.The book (reissued in 2013 by Faber & Faber) attacked the European Exchange-Rate Mechanism (the euro’s precursor), arguing it was part of a plan to force a greater degree of political integration than voters would support.TheTimes’s Anatole Kaletsky called the book “the most intellectually persuasive, economically coherent and politically prescient account yet published of the development of European institutions in the 1990s”. In 2001, Connolly received the Frode Jakobsen prize, awarded in Denmark for “outstanding moral courage in public affairs”. He is the founder and CEO of a macroeconomic research boutique, with asset manager clients in NewYork, and is now writing…

Huge pension payments to executives could trigger a wave of shareholder protests at some of Britain’s biggest companies this year, amid mounting anger over the generosity of contributions made on behalf of directors. The Investment Association, which represents many of Britain’s biggest institutional investors, has written to the 350 largest publicly owned companies in the UK warning that its members are keeping a close eye on pension awards made to executives. It warned that many companies could face revolts unless they can demonstrate a sensible alignment between the pension awards made to senior directors and their performance. The warning follows changes to the UK’s corporate governance code, which now insists that pension contribution rates for executives should be in line with those that apply to the wider workforce. Investors –…

Jeffrey Katzenberg, founder of the DreamWorks film studio, sold his ski chalet in Utah’s Deer Valley resort last year. As befits a movie mogul it was a unique home created by a “dream team of world-class architects and designers”, notes Paul Benson of selling agent Engel & Volkers. The chalet has floor-to-ceiling windows, and was nicknamed the “family trap” by the Katzenbergs as they always found it so hard to tear themselves away from a stay there. It was the highest-priced property sold in Utah in 2018. Can you guess how much it fetched? (Answer on the right).…

Most trading systems rely on only one or two signals. However, the CAN SLIM system, developed by William O’Neil, and detailed in his book How to Make Money in Stocks, relies on ranking stocks using no fewer than seven different indicators. The factors highlighted by O’Neil are: an increase in current quarterly earnings; significant annual earnings increases over several years; new products (or other catalysts); high demand (as shown by share buybacks and trading volume); high relative strength; and high levels of institutional ownership. O’Neil also advocates only buying shares when the major market indices are rising, and avoiding investing during bear markets. O’Neil used the system to generate recommendations for his newspaper Investor’s Business Daily, which he founded in 1984. In 2003 he set up the IBD 50 Index,…

Global stockmarkets began 2019 on a high note, driven by optimism that the US-China trade negotiations would end well and hopes for a prolonged pause in US interest-rate hikes. Emerging-market equities benefited from domestic currency strength and robust portfolio inflows to finish January ahead of their developed-market counterparts. The fact that Chinese GDP growth has eased attracted media attention, but its economy has nevertheless continued to grow at a robust rate of more than 6% a year, making the country one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world. Meanwhile, a shift towards innovation, technology and consumption as the country’s primary drivers of growth could make that growth more sustainable over the long term. A market leader in semiconductors “China is still one of the fastest-growing major economies in the…

When asked recently to describe what guides his vision, the Japanese founder and CEO of Uniqlo, Tadashi Yanai, produced an unusual historical artefact – a 1987 catalogue from the mass-market British retailer, Next. “All the clothes are so classic that they could be worn today,” he observed approvingly. An 1980s high-street catalogue is hardly everyone’s idea of a fashion bible, but Yanai is an Anglophile who found early inspiration in the way Next, and another of his early favourites, M&S, sold “timeless basics” to virtually everyone. Uniqlo clothes, he says, are similarly “geared to all types of people”: from billionaires like himself – he often sports a polo shirt – to “the lower end”. A long shot to the top Fortunately for shareholders of Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, the…

Once the preserve of torch-wielding teenagers beneath the bed covers, American comic books today are seen in a whole new light. They can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction (the market is still mainly confined to the US). As a result, Texas-based Heritage Auctions (HA) enjoyed a bumper 2018. Sales in its comic-book department soared to a record $58,544,323 – a 32% increase on the year before. “Our results in 2018 exceeded our loftiest expectations,” says Jim Halperin, co-founder of the auction house that specialises in sport and popular culture memorabilia. The one sale that really blew everybody away, however, took place with HA in Chicago in May. That month, Death Dealer 6  (pictured), by the legendary comic-book artist, Frank Frazetta, sold for a staggering $1,792,500 – almost…

Our letter box is groaning with missives from our American readers. They have taken offence. They accuse us of having a “liberal bias”. We thought we had a traditional conservative bias. So what are they seeing? If we criticise Trump as a failure and fraud, we are clearly not biased towards him. So… we must be biased against him. And who is biased against Trump? Liberals! Therefore, we must have a “liberal bias”. There is more proof. Our dear readers say we didn’t criticise Obama so harshly. And yes, it is true. We didn’t. We saw nothing in Obama to criticise. He never pretended he would buck the system or turn things around. Trump, on the other hand, was supposed to be the Great Disrupter. He seemed to understand how…

“The once seemingly unstoppable German economy had the slowest growth of any eurozone country except Italy at the end of 2018,” says Jack Ewing in The New York Times. Last year, Europe’s largest economy only narrowly avoided a recession. Its GDP growth was below the eurozone’s average at just 1.4% in 2018, down from 2.2% in 2017. The slowdown has resulted from Germany’s reliance on what was once its biggest strength: its exports. “Germany is more deeply entwined with the global economy than perhaps any other country,” as Olaf Scholz, Germany’s finance minister, told the Financial Times. Exports account for 47% of German GDP, according to World Bank data. This compares with 31% in the UK and the US’s 12%. As The Economist notes, Germany’s talent for producing goods that…

“Gold keeps some strange company. Ardent gold bugs seem to know a lot about firearms… and the best ways to preserve food… Consider the alternatives, though. The euro is flawed. It has no unique sovereign issuer to stand behind it. And the yuan is not a currency you can trade easily. As for the yen and the Swiss franc, past form suggests both countries are likely to cap a rise in their currencies by printing more of them… short-term interest rates have been negative for years… “By contrast gold’s yield – zero – seems almost racy… the dollar still accounts for the bulk of official reserves but tellingly, the managers of those rainy-day funds seem a mite concerned that they are crammed into the same spot. The share of dollars…

Three to buy OnTheMarket The Sunday Times This “upstart rival” to online property groups Rightmove and Zoopla listed on Aim last year, promising to slash the listing fees charged to estate agents. Chief executive Ian Springett claims that, “in some cases, agents are paying Rightmove more than they are paying in rent for their office”. His low-fee strategy has seen phone and email leads grow more than sevenfold over the past year. The business remains loss making, but “if it can prove it can turn a profit, there should be value ahead. Buy”. 106.5p Hunting The Mail on Sunday Hunting makes specialist components for the oil and gas industry. Lower oil prices and softening global growth have hit the share price. Yet the US shale business is maturing and is…

• With Rakesh Kapoor due to step down as Reckitt Benckiser’s CEO by the end of 2019, the conglomerate is heading for a “time-delayed breakup”, says the Financial Times – made much easier by the decision to split the group into two units: one dealing with minor ailments and the other with products “supposed to stop customers getting ill in the first place”. Yet the latest full-year figures show that the firm still “turns sales into profits at a rate that leaves rivals in the dust”. A rise in the share price means its market valuation is within “spitting distance” of the expected combined value of the two individual business. • Danone’s latest results show it “inching towards its 2020 revenue growth target”, notes Dasha Afanasieva for Reuters. Yet growth…

Was it right to bail out the banks using quantitative easing (QE – money printing) following the 2008 financial crisis? Many people argue that today’s political turmoil is a direct result of the decision by central banks (led by the Federal Reserve in the US, under Ben Bernanke – pictured below) to take monetary policy to extremes. Yet Charlie Munger, the long-term, slightly less famous business partner of Warren Buffett, is in no doubt. “I think it was absolutely required,” he tells Becky Quick of CNBC in a recent interview. “The danger they were avoiding was worth some of the troubles they caused.” Munger, 95, acknowledges that “it did have the accidental effect of bailing out the rich in order to help the poor”. However, “nobody was doing that because…

The final cost of London’s fanciful “Garden Bridge” across the River Thames – a “gift to the people of London” proposed by Joanna Lumley and Boris Johnson and now scrapped – has been revealed to be £53m, of which £43m is to come from public coffers. The designer, Thomas Heatherwick, whose behind-the-scenes role at the Garden Bridge Trust has been called into question, was handed £2.76m; £12.7m went to engineers Arup; £2.3m to lawyers; and £1.7m to executives who, says The Guardian, “didn’t in the end execute the project”. Around £161,000 went on building a website and £417,000 was splashed on a gala fundraising party. But the biggest slice of the pie went to construction groups Bouygues Travaux Publics and Cimolai SpA, whose joint venture picked up £21.4m, despite no…

“I had a lifelong passion to be an actor and made shoe-box theatres with scenery and cut-out figures attached to lollipop sticks. I progressed to glove puppets and then marionettes. My parents gave me Pelham Puppets for every birthday and Christmas, which proved lucrative, as I did shows in the school holidays at kids’ birthday parties and in a full-sized puppet theatre in our garage.” Oscar-nominated actor Richard E Grant, quoted in The Big Issue “My job is to write the exact same thing between 50 and 100 times a year in such a way that neither my editors nor my readers will ever think I am repeating myself.” Financial journalist Jason Zweig, quoted on Abnormal Returns “Some leftists believe that the socialist world would work well if the ‘good…

US hedge fund Tiger Global’s decision to sell its £600m stake in Barclays has dealt a blow to boss Jes Staley, (pictured)says James Burton in This is Money. Tiger Global’s 2.5% stake had made it one of Barclays’ largest shareholders. Its exit removes what could have been a “valuable ally” in the battle against activist investor Edward Bramson, who has been “deeply critical” of the bank’s investment-banking operation, and is thought to want radical cutbacks. Meanwhile, shareholders are calling for Bramson to lay out his strategy in detail. The activist’s fund has persuaded the bank to hold a vote at its AGM in May over whether he should join the board.…

If you decide to take the plunge and invest in forestry in the UK, there are a few ways to do so. You can take the most direct route, and buy your own plot of land. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) lists qualified chartered surveyors who can assist you with this. As noted above, you’ll need to invest a significant amount of money to render any individual forestry investment viable on a commercial basis. Alternatively, you could go to specialist asset manager Forestry Investment Management (FIM), which will help you to select the land and then manage it on your behalf, taking an agreed percentage of the net proceeds of timber sold. The minimum investment is generally from £3m upwards, so you do need to have a significant…

Savers whose retirement funds are invested only in “conventional” assets could be missing out, according to a new study by pension specialist JLT Employee Benefits. The research suggests that allocating 20% of portfolios to illiquid alternative investments could boost the value at retirement of the typical fund by up to 12%. Investments in this category include private equity, private debt, infrastructure and real estate. Many occupational pension funds routinely ignore these asset classes, notes JLT, focusing instead on listed equities and bonds. Savers with private pensions also rarely invest in alternative assets. The argument for investing more in alternatives lies in the diversification benefits they provide – in other words, history suggests they do not move in the same direction as more traditional assets. So by adding these assets to…

New laws aimed at cracking down on pension fraud have prompted scammers to move online, warns the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The City regulator said that 54% of the savers using its investment-scam checker tool to investigate a pension firm in 2018 had been contacted online, up from 45% in 2017. The shift may reflect the ban on cold calling – last month it became illegal for pension firms and financial advisers to make unsolicited calls to investors. The ban also covers unsolicited emails and text messages, but scammers are using a range of online activities, including social-media activity and online advertising, in order to target investors. As the FCA points out, you should reject any unsolicited contact, whatever the source, and don’t touch schemes that offer returns or benefits…

A Belgian castle used as a hideout for a Jewish couple on the run from Nazis is on the market for $15.3m, says J S Marcus in The Wall Street Journal. Chateau de Haltinne is a moated castle in Namur, a province in French-speaking Wallonia. The 33,000-sq-ft property dates from the 1630s. It has 40 rooms, including 16 bedrooms and eight bathrooms. During World War II, the current owner’s father sheltered a Jewish couple from Antwerp, saving them from deportation by the occupying Germans. During a German search of the castle, one of the pair escaped arrest by posing as a gardener. The 600-acre estate includes a working farm and more than 170 acres of forest.…

With both the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 indices moving upwards, this has been a good fortnight for my long positions and a bad one for my short positions. Greene King rose from 599p to 625p, John Laing Group climbed from 354p to 371p, JD Sports rose from 450p to 467p, and Safestore also went up from 567p to 588p. Meanwhile, the share price of Hays rose above the 160p level at which I recommended you buy it, although it has since slipped back slightly. Cineworld’s share price also remained at 260p. Overall, my six current long positions are making a combined profit of £1,235. The bad news is that six of my seven short positions also rose in price (whereas we want them to fall). Bitcoin rose from…

SDL (LSE: SDL) provides services and software for corporations to create multilingual content. It was founded in 1992 in Maidenhead and now employs 4,400 staff in 59 offices in 39 countries. The year 2017 was a troublesome one for SDL, with profit warnings and rising costs leading to a slide in the share price. In the last year, however, the firm has turned things around. A trading update in January confirmed profit was expected to be in line with expectations, and at least £6.5m higher than last year’s figure of £22m. The share price has risen by almost 40% in the last 12 months.…

Enron was an energy company formed as part of a merger between two gas companies, InterNorth and HNG, in 1985. From 1987 onward it began aggressively expanding into newly deregulated energy markets across the US and the world, through both new ventures and mergers. It also became involved in energy futures markets (which allow firms and investors to both hedge against and speculate on movements in energy prices) and attempted to become an important player in the telecommunications market. How did this work out? Although legitimate, Enron’s businesses were unprofitable. To hide this, the management fiddled the finances. It treated the total amount of money traded on its energy exchanges as revenue, for example (the standard practice is to count only profits and trading commissions). It counted expected future profits…

• Anne Robinson isn’t impressed by fellow TV presenter Clare Balding’s complaint that the BBC rewards those who shout the loudest, says Adam Helliker in the Sunday Express. In her heyday, Robinson (pictured) was paid £4m a year to be the host of TV quiz show The Weakest Link by executives at the Beeb who were “terrified of her”. Balding, on the other hand, found it “soul-destroying” when she found out that she was paid less than her fellow hosts Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker. The famously spiky Robinson is unapologetic. “Yes, I’m a tough negotiator,” she says. But she despairs that so many women have such low expectations and put up with what they are given. The trick is to be polite while remaining firm, she says. “Never be…