China has halted listings on a recent landmark scheme between the Shanghai and London stock exchanges amid signs of increasing political tensions and the fallout from protests in Hong Kong. The Shanghai-London Stock Connect has been promoted as a significant deepening of economic ties between the China and UK. It was launched last June at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) by senior political figures, including Philip Hammond, the former chancellor, and Hu Chunhua, vice premier of China’s state council. The scheme was initially announced in 2015 as part of a “golden era” when David Cameron’s government was seeking to develop relations with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
Germany’s farming lobby has urged the European Union to strike a soft trade deal with Britain to stave off losses that could run to billions of euros in the event of a hard Brexit. The UK is one of the German agricultural industry’s most lucrative customers, importing €4.5 billion of goods a year while sending only €1.3 billion in the other direction. No other country furnishes Germany with such a big surplus in food and drink. The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) is worried that its profits could be deeply harmed by the tariffs, customs checks and regulatory niggles that could spring up between the two states if talks break down this year. It fears that its agri-food trade balance with the UK could halve if Britain emerges from the Brexit transition period at the end of 2020 without a viable agreement.
Footfall across Britain’s shopping destinations fell over the crucial post-Christmas trading period even as retailers slashed prices to lure customers. Total customer visits declined by an average of 4% year-on-year for the period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, according to Springboard, the retail analyst. The figures point to a painful start to 2020 for bricks-and-mortar retailers, which had been hoping for an improvement in footfall after a lacklustre two weeks in the lead-up to Christmas. The results of the December trading period will determine whether ailing stores will survive this year. It comes after a miserable year for the retail sector. More than 140,000 retail jobs were cut in 2019 and about 16,000 shops were shut permanently, according to the Centre for Retail Research.
Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) has signed a contract with Apple, three years after the iPhone maker cut the company adrift, forcing it to seek a buyer. Imagination Technologies, which designs graphics processors for smartphones and tablet computers, yesterday unveiled a licensing agreement with the Silicon Valley giant. The multi-year arrangement will allow Apple to use a wider range of Imagination’s patents and designs in its mobile devices than under a deal from 2014. The contract will give a significant lift to the Hertfordshire-based company and marks a dramatic turnaround in its relationship with the world’s largest technology company.
Another disappointing drilling result off Guyana helped to send Tullow Oil (TLW) shares tumbling by as much as a fifth. The oil explorer said that the Carapa exploration well had encountered less oil than had been estimated before drilling began. The result comes after a disastrous end to 2019 for Tullow, which lost 70% of its value in two months after it admitted that previous discoveries off Guyana might not be viable, slashed its production forecasts for its African fields and ousted its chief executive.
Investors in the frozen £2.5 billion M&G property fund will remain trapped indefinitely after the fund manager said the suspension would continue. M&G PLC (MNG), which is required to update investors every 28 days, said yesterday that the fund would reopen “once cash levels have been sufficiently restored”, but put no date on when that would be. M&G was forced to gate the fund last month because of a wave of redemption requests that could otherwise have pushed it into fire sales of assets and so disadvantage investors sticking with the fund. The fund manager said that it was working hard to improve its cash position. Since the end of November it had exchanged contracts on or completed on £70.4 million of assets. Another £67.2 million of property sales were under offer or in solicitors’ hands.
