The former business secretary Sir Vince Cable has attacked opponents of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s approach for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) as “bash the Chinese” enthusiasts, describing it as a “perfectly sensible proposition”. HKEX made a £32 billion unsolicited approach last week, sparking concerns about Chinese interference in critical market infrastructure and leading to comparisons with the controversy over Huaweii building 5G telecoms networks. Trillions of dollars’ worth of trades are made over LSE-owned exchanges. HKEX is 6% owned by the Hong Kong government, which appoints six of the 13 directors including the chairwoman. Don Robert, chairman of LSEG, said on Friday that HKEX’s “relationship with the Hong Kong government will complicate matters”. US regulators are watching closely because about 90 per cent of US interest rate swaps are cleared in London.
The price of oil surged to more than $70 a barrel last night after the attack on two oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Brent crude rose 18% to $70.97 and West Texas Intermediate jumped 12% to $61.50 in one of the biggest moves in oil markets in years. Analysts believe that the attack on two oilfields in Saudi Arabia may harm the flotation of Saudi Aramco, the state-controlled oil giant. They also predicted that oil could hit $100 a barrel, throwing world energy markets into disarray if supply is significantly reduced as a result of the attacks on Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil processing facility, and the Khurais oilfield. The damage, thought to have been caused by drones, cut production by half and disrupted the daily global oil supply by up to 5%.
A major IT upgrade to help National Grid (NG.) to keep the lights on and cut costs to consumers is running six years late and is still not working properly. The energy company has spent more than £100 million on the electricity balancing system (EBS) that was due to start up in 2013. The new system was supposed to automatically instruct power plants to fire up when needed, replacing the “essentially manual” 1980s system. However it is still not fully functioning, raising questions about how effectively National Grid is managing Britain’s energy security.
Michael Spencer, the City veteran and former Tory party treasurer, has put £5 million behind a disrupter wealth management business founded by Charlotte Ransom, a former Goldman Sachs banker. Riding the wave of companies such as Monzo and Pension Bee that are digitising how people bank, save and track their pensions, Netwealth, founded four years ago, is challenging older wealth managers such as Rathbone, a timber and cotton trader until 1912, and Cazenove, set up in 1823, by providing an online asset management tool that it claims boosts transparency in investing. Clients can log into Netwealth’s mobile app to track the performance of their individual holdings or meet an adviser. They can also club together in “networks” of up to eight friends or family members and pay lower collective fees; about 70% of Netwealth’s clients do so. Although the minimum investment is £50,000, Netwealth’s average asset size is £400,000.
