Tuesday 4 April 2023

LONDON’S BUSINESS NEWSPAPER

IT’S FINALLY HERE OUR FIRST LOOK AT THE GRENADIER P17

OOPS!! PANIC!

_____________ AT WANDISCO

Tech talent visa set to continue

CHARLIE CONCHIE

A NEW BODY is set to take over management of the feted tech talent visa programme from Tech Nation after the start-up group closed its doors at the end of March, the Home Office has confirmed.

Start-up quango Tech Nation announced in January it would wind down after the department for Culture, Media and Sport controversially pulled its funding and handed it to Barclays.

The move had sparked fears over the future of the body’s Global Talent Visa, which it ran on behalf of the Home Office to ensure talent could flow into the sector from overseas.

3,872 (30,460)

CEO OUT AS FIRM LOOKS TO TURN PAGE AFTER SALES OF $115M DISAPPEAR

THE CHIEF executive and finance boss of troubled tech firm Wandisco have stepped down as the firm looks to move on from an accounting debacle.

The firm has seen its shares suspended for around a month after telling markets it had discovered “irregularities” in its accounts.

The tech darling told markets yesterday

that those irregularities included $115m (£93m) worth of sales bookings now written off as false, with an investigation by FRP advisory ongoing.

“The results of the independent investigation to date continue to support the initial view that the irregularities are as a result of the actions of one senior sales employee,” Wandisco said.

Wandisco said the pair’s exit is not related to FRP’s findings but the future of the business would best be pursued under “new leadership”.

Kenneth Lever will assume the role of executive chairman pending the conclusion of a formal process to appoint a new chief executive and Ijoma Maluza will take the role of interim chief

financial officer, effective from 11 April.

“Over the years David [Richards] (pictured) and Erik have contributed significant time and effort to establishing and developing Wandisco,” Lever said.

Richards was previously ousted as boss in 2016, before being returned by shareholders within a week.

In an interview earlier this year, he compared being booted from the top job as “the same mental process” as a death in the family.

However, in an update, ministers said that the scheme would continue under new stewardship.

The statement added that the Home Office would look to “minimise disruption to those applying for the visa while a new endorsing body takes over from Tech Nation” and a further update would be made “in the coming weeks”.

It is not yet clear what organisations will be in the running to take on the management of the visa programme.

Dom Hallas, boss of tech trade body Coadec, told City A.M. it was “great” news in the interim but start-ups need a long-term answer.

Another lesson for GoHenry users: When the offer’s good, make sure you take it

CHARLIE CONCHIE

BRITISH kids' finance firm GoHenry has been snapped up by US investing app Acorns in a deal that will see its financial education tools rolled out to millions of new customers on the other side of the Atlantic.

GoHenry, co-founded by City

A.M.’s entrepreneur of the year

Louise Hill (pictured) in 2012 and named after its first 11-year-old customer, has been touted as a positive force in UK fintech with a money management focus for 6-18 year olds.

The tie-up with California-based Acorns will now create a merged

customer base of some six million “kids, teens and adults”, the firms said in a joint statement.

Hill told City A.M. yesterday that there had never been a more “salient time to expand” as rising prices on both sides of the Atlantic squeeze spending power.

“Easy-to-use products that make

savings, learning about money and investment easy to access for everyday people –there really couldn't be a more timely moment,” she said.

Hill, who now serves as GoHenry’s chief operating officer, said it would be “business as usual” after

the merger and the firm’s top team will stay on. She declined to disclose the value of the deal.

A funding round last year valued Acorn, which made its first foray into kids’ finance in 2020, at a very healthy $1.9bn (£1.5bn).

GLOBAL VISA SCHEME

CHARLIE CONCHIE AND LAURA MCGUIRE

Housing ministers, like Chelsea managers, are failing to deliver

MISSED targets, a revolving door of characters and dramatic sackings: the manager’s job at Stamford Bridge or Britain’s housing minister? Since the coalition took power in 2010, there have been eleven in the hotseat at Chelsea, a place known for its lack of patience and shorttermist chopping and changing. There have been fifteen housing ministers in that time, and it’s fair to say that the performance

STANDING UP FOR THE CITY THE CITY VIEW

of one set of blues has been better than the other. Michael Gove –the current housing minister Rachel Maclean’s boss –said at the weekend that the housing market was broken –an answer that deserves plaudits for blunt honesty but maybe raises some

questions about what the government, of which he has been part, has been doing for thirteen years. Nowhere is this more true than London, a global city which is increasingly at risk of simply being too expensive to attract the next generation of global talent. Housing has always been dearer here; however, the disparity is growing. So is the size of a first-home-buyer’s deposit, which when average pay continues to lag house price

growth and inflation becomes an issue of generational fairness. The response, of course, has invariably been to pump up demand. A combination of cheap money and schemes like Help to Buy led to further upward pressure on scarce housing resources, with supply lagging badly. That scheme came to an end last week, and it will not be missed. Britain’s supply-side issues are well documented, but they are nowhere so obvious as in

COMING OUT OF THEIR SHELL Florist Alice McCabe puts the finishing touches to The Bug Station, a new display unveiled at London Blackfriars station by Govia Thameslink

UK economic outlook looks brighter but gaps still remain, warns Deutsche Bank

CHRIS DORRELL

THE UK’s economy will flatline rather than contract in 2023, according to analysts from Deutsche Bank, as last week’s upgrade to GDP for the final quarter of 2022 will likely have a positive knock-on effect for the remainder of this year.

The ONS revised its initial GDP reading for the fourth quarter of 2022 last week, upgrading it by 0.1pp on the back of strong private consumption.

Senior economist at Deutsche Bank Sanjay Raja said that this revision will have a “positive carry over” into 2023,

helping the economy to avoid contraction this year.

“In updating our GDP models, we now see 2023 GDP no longer contracting,” Raja wrote in a research note published yesterday.

This is the third upward growth revision Deutsche Bank has posted this year. The bank had previously expected the economy to contract 0.2 per cent over the course of the year.

Markets expect the UK’s economy to shrink 0.4 per cent in 2023, but Raja said markets are “slowly but surely catching up” with Deutsche Bank’s more positive predictions.

However, Raja said there are still “big gaps” if the UK wants to equal its pre-pandemic performance. In particular, household consumption and business investment are two per cent below levels in the final quarter of 2019.

Raja also highlighted UK export volumes, which are still around 1.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, as an area for improvement. However, he remained “cautious” around the UK outlook, “particularly with the effects of rate rises feeding through more fully into the economy”.

housing. We must sweat our assets –speeding up building on brownfield, for one thing –as well as building further out, tying in new developments with transport options. The risk is the capital simply cannot house the twenty-somethings who power the city’s future economic growth. If the housing market is broken, the answer is obvious. Whether anybody has the political will to do anything about it is a different question.

WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

BLOOMBERG

DOGECOIN RISES 30 PER CENT AFTER TWITTER BUTTON BECOMES DOGE MEME

Dogecoin rose as much as 30 per cent yesterday after Twitter users noticed their home buttons changed into the dog meme after which the cryptocurrency is named.

FINANCIAL TIMES ECB CALLS FOR CLAMPDOWN ON PROPERTY FUNDS

The European Central Bank (ECB) has called for a clampdown on commercial property funds to tackle the risk that a downturn in the €1 trillion value sector could trigger a liquidity crisis if investors rushed to withdraw their money.

THE GUARDIAN FINLAND TO JOIN NATO ON TUESDAY AS RUSSIA SOUNDS BORDER WARNING

Russia has said it will bolster its defences near its 1,300km border with Finland after the Nato secretary general announced that the Nordic country would formally join the alliance today.

Foreign investors pour £2bn into Britain’s services sector

CITY A.M. REPORTER

THE UK attracted foreign investment in 263 financial and professional services projects, valued at £2bn, in 2022 –the highest amount of overseas investment in the sector in four years, fresh figures from the City of London Corporation reveal.

It also found that London continues to hold the top spot in attracting foreign direct investment in financial and professional services, attracting 779 projects over the past five years.

This was well clear of Dubai (592 projects), Singapore (586 projects), New York (424 projects) and Paris (332 projects).

Lord Mayor of the City of London, Nicholas Lyons, said: “Despite the global challenges facing the economy, the UK’s financial and professional services sector has proven resilient.

“The UK’s offer to global investors continues to go from strength to strength due to its unique combination of time zone, language, legal system, global talent and financial services ecosystem.”

Blackstone close to taking over Industrials REIT

CHARLIE CONCHIE

US PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone is close to a £700m take-private deal with London-listed commercial landlord Industrials REIT as it ramps up its bargain hunt on UK property firms.

In a statement yesterday, Industrials REIT said that after a “period of extensive negotiations” it had struck an agreement on the key terms of an all-cash offer for the firm at 168p per share.

The terms of the deal mark a 42.4 per cent premium on Friday’s closing price and come at a value the firm has not traded at since September.

Shares in Industrials REIT tumbled through the autumn as fears of spiralling industrial property prices and interest rate hikes sparked a sell-off from investors.

The terms of the offer would value the firm at around £700m, according

to Bloomberg.

Bosses at Industrials REIT have told Blackstone that they would likely recommend the deal to their shareholders. The two companies are looking to give an update on the offer before 14 April.

Investment bankers at Rothschild are advising Blackstone on the deal.

The acquisition is the latest swoop from the New York private equity titan as it looks to capitalise on a slump in prices to buy up swathes of property at slashed prices.

Blackstone has also struck previous take-private deals on listed industrialfocused property vehicles, buying listed property firm St Modwen for £1.3bn in June 2021 and Hansteen for £500m in 2019.

Analysts at Peel Hunt said the deal looked to be a positive one for shareholders given a tricky backdrop for industrial assets.

Quantexa is the first new British firm this year to surpass the $1bn mark in its worth

UK AI firm Quantexa becomes

Britain’s first unicorn of 2023

CHARLIE CONCHIE

LONDON-BASED artificial intelligence

(AI) start-up Quantexa has become the first new British ‘unicorn’ of the year today after closing a $129m funding round at a valuation of $1.8bn. Quantexa, which uses AI to interpret data sets and help financial firms manage risk, said the fresh cash

Capita suffers IT outage due to cyber attack

LOUIS VAN BOXEL-WOOLF

OUTSOURCING giant Capita confirmed yesterday that a cyber attack was to blame for a major IT outage on Friday.

Capita said the IT failure primarily affected “access to internal Microsoft Office 365 applications”.

“The issue was limited to parts of the Capita network and there is no evidence of customer, supplier or colleague data having been compromised,” it added.

Capita, which has public sector contracts worth £6.5bn according to The Guardian, has not said exactly which clients were affected by it.

was now earmarked for a major growth push and would help fill a war chest for potential deals.

The investment is one of the largest of the year so far for a UK-based firm and marks the first British unicorn of 2023.

Quantexa boss Vishal Marria told City A.M. that the firm has seen “a surge in demand in recent months”.

Toby Lewis, global head of threat analysis at Darktrace, a cybersecurity company, told City A.M. that Capita had likely suffered an attempted ransomware attack.

“Whenever you talk about an incident involving Microsoft 365, 99.9999 per cent of the time it will be related to accounts becoming compromised. Unfortunately, in far, far too many cases, we see ransomware being the end stage of that,” he said.

Oil and gas firms call for price floor on windfall tax

NICHOLAS EARL

THE UK’s largest oil and gas firm, Harbour Energy, has ramped up industry calls for a price floor to be included as part of the windfall tax as oil and gas prices start to fall.

The industry was expecting the mechanism to be attached to the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), meaning the windfall tax would not be applicable if oil and gas prices receded to ‘normal’ levels. But the price floor was not included in either the latest budget or last week’s energy security plan.

The FTSE 250 company said the lack of a price floor could jeopardise both fossil fuel projects and future carbon capture and storage (CCS) developments.

“Industry has repeatedly asked government to introduce a floor price mechanism into the levy to ensure the tax is appropriately targeted at realised windfall profits and ceases to apply when oil and gas prices fall,” a spokesperson for Harbour told City A.M. “The current design of the EPL impacts long term decision-making and risks undermining the

Peel Hunt blames bank bailouts and inflation as it forecasts losses

CHRISTOPHER DORRELL

PEEL Hunt yesterday warned that the impact of recent bank bailouts might impact its pipeline as the City broker continues to struggle amid a dearth of deals.

However, it said “execution risk remains high in light of continuing negative macroeconomic news, most notably the recent bailout of a number of banking institutions on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Regulators were forced to step in to prop up a teetering financial system, but the effects are still likely to spill over into the real economy.

otherwise welcome news on advancing technologies like CCS.”

Harbour’s comments come after North Sea oil and gas firm Ithaca Energy warned that the lack of a price floor, as well as the UK’s unstable investment climate, could jeopardise its involvement in the massive Rosebank oil and gas field.

David Whitehouse, chief executive of industry body Offshore Energies UK, warned the windfall taxes were “driving investment out of the UK”.

“When prices fall, as is already happening, the windfalls will disappear – but the tax will remain because it is locked in place till at least 2028,” he added.

However, think tank Green Alliance said adding a price floor to the windfall tax would simply be another “loophole” for oil and gas companies, highlighting the tax investment relief already included in the scheme.

The Treasury said the windfall tax “strikes a balance” between using excess profits to fund efforts to tackle the cost of living crisis while the investment relief encourages further investment in the UK’s energy security.

GOLDEN CASKS Whisky investment returns set to beat the stock market in coming year

INVESTORS will be raising a dram to the whisky industry if a new report from Braeburn is to be believed. Their data-driven report suggests the average whisky cask will appreciate by just shy of 15 per cent his year –with Laphroig casks up as much as 18 per cent. The firm, which specialises in the sale of casks to investors, tracks the sales of more than 6,000 casks across 80 distilleries.

Numis maintains gloomy 2023 outlook as capital markets dry up

CHRISTOPHER DORRELL

CITY broker Numis yesterday said that its revenue has taken another hit from weak capital markets as it warned that things are unlikely to improve this year.

In a trading update, Numis said revenue in the first half of the 2023 financial year is expected to be about £64m, around 14 per cent lower than last year.

The London-based firm said the “continued scarcity” of transactions in

In a trading statement at the end of its financial year, the investment bank said it has seen a “gradual improvement” in its pipeline.

The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent jitters through the financial system, sending share prices tumbling and forcing investors to safe havens the world over.

Peel Hunt has been facing difficulties as a result of the market slowdown. In its half year results in December, the broker recorded a 99 per cent fall in profit. The firm now expects to be “marginally loss making” for the full year.

the UK equity capital market has dented revenue.

The firm, however, said the outlook for M&A remains encouraging, with a record first half for its advisory division.

Mid-cap brokers have struggled in recent months as macroeconomic volatility has put a halt on IPOs and equity raises. In its most recent full year results, released in December, profit at Numis fell 72 per cent after capital markets deals slumped to a ten year low.

Shares closed down 2.4 per cent.

CBI membership rocked by further allegations of sexual misconduct

CITY A.M. REPORTER

THE CBI, Britain’s trade body for big business, has been hit by a raft of further allegations of sexual misconduct at the organisation. The reports come only weeks after the body’s boss, Tony Danker, voluntarily stepped aside while an investigation into his own conduct is underway.

According to reports in the Guardian yesterday, more than a dozen women claim to have been victims of sexual misconduct by senior staff at the CBI.

The CBI said in an official statement on Monday that it “has treated and continues to treat all matters of workplace conduct with the utmost seriousness, which is why, earlier this month, we

PUSHING ON Aldi plans to continue rolling out new shops despite industry hindrances

commissioned a thorough investigation by an independent law firm into all recent allegations that have been put to us.

“It would undermine this important process and be damaging and prejudicial to all the individuals involved to comment on these allegations at this point. We will not hesitate to take any necessary action when the investigation concludes.”

UK Natwest share plan pushed back after volatility

CHRISTOPHER DORRELL

THE TREASURY has pushed back its deadline to sell a chunk of its remaining shares in Natwest by another two years after the lender’s share price slumped last month amid the recent turmoil in the banking sector.

The government will now have until 11 August 2025 to gradually sell up to 15 per cent of its holding in the bank. It was originally scheduled to offload the tranche of shares by August.

UK Government Investments (UKGI), the body that oversees the government’s stake, said the shares will only be sold at a price the Treasury decides “represents fair value and delivers value for money for taxpayers”.

UKGI also said it will keep other disposal options under active consideration, such as buybacks, but only if they achieve value for taxpayers.

The government owns around 3.98m shares in the company, about 41.5 per cent of total shareholding.

Its stake is a remnant from its £46bn

bailout of what was then the Royal Bank of Scotland in the financial crisis. Since 2015, it has been trying to reduce its stake by slowly selling its shares into the market.

Last year, Natwest became majority-privately owned again after Natwest bought back a bunch of shares in both 2021 and 2022. The government hopes to dispose of its stake entirely by 2026.

The government has re-

The government now has until August 2025 to sell its shares in the bank

couped £3.7bn so far from selling its shares, but taxpayers have faced a significant loss on the bailout with Natwest’s share price nearly halving since the bailout.

The shares were valued at 500p when UKGI bought shares in RBS. Shares in Natwest are now trading at around 266p per share.

While the government did not mention recent turmoil in the banking sector, Natwest’s share price slipped 9.3 per cent in March alone.

Ofcom cracks down on broadband firms over One Touch Switch delays

JOSIE CLARKE

OFCOM has opened an industry-wide enforcement programme over the delayed One Touch Switch broadband switching process, it has announced.

One Touch Switch – designed by the telecoms watchdog to make it easier for households to change to a cheaper service – has been missed just as millions are facing huge increases to their monthly internet bills.

The new process would also allow

seamless switching between physically separate networks, such as from Openreach to Virgin Media or Cityfibre.

The regulator said yesterday: “We have been closely monitoring industry’s progress in implementing the changes, and have been putting pressure on providers to meet their requirements by today’s deadline. Unfortunately, the new process has not been introduced on time. As a result, we have launched an industry-wide enforcement programme.”

ALDI will not stop the “relentless” rollout of its value supermarkets across the UK, despite attempts by rivals to scupper its growth with planning objections to new store openings, its chief exec has said. Giles Hurley told The Telegraph it would continue “no matter what”.

Oil prices surge after surprise supply cuts

NICHOLAS EARL

OIL PRICES surged in yesterday’s trading after OPEC and its allies including Russia, known as OPEC+, announced surprise cuts to output on Sunday.

Brent Crude had soared 5.41 per cent by late morning – to $84.21 a barrelwhile WTI Crude skyrocketed 5.59 per cent to $79.90 per barrel, with investors regaining confidence in the commodity amid growing expectations of tighter supply margins this year.

OPEC+ rattled markets by announcing further production cuts of about 1.16m barrels per day (bpd) on Sunday – which will kick in from next month.

The cuts are on top of the 2m barrel per day (bpd) reduction it agreed last November, which runs until the end of the year.

It had been expected that OPEC+ would only maintain the 2m cuts ahead of its meeting later yesterday.

TECK NO FOR AN ANSWER Canadian miner turns down takeover

The pledges bring the total volume of cuts by OPEC+ to 3.7 per cent of global demand, according to calculations from news agency Reuters.

Prior to the announcement, both benchmarks had been treading water after a severe downturn from last month’s banking crisis.

The upsurge in prices reflects a remarkable recovery for oil markets –with Brent Crude dipping last month towards $70 per barrel – a 15 month low – following the collapse of financial institutes Silicon Valley Bank and Signature, alongside the lastminute forced merger of UBS and Credit Suisse.

Jorge Leon, senior vice president at consultancy Rystad Energy, said: “From a supply side perspective, the cuts signal the group is willing to defend a price floor well above $80 per barrel and prioritise revenue versus market share.”

CANADA’s Teck Resources revealed yesterday that its board has rejected an unsolicited acquisition proposal from Swiss commodity firm Glencore. The offer would see Glencore acquiring Teck and subsequently creating two businesses which would expose Teck shareholders to thermal coal and oil trading, the Canadian copper miner said in a statement.

HSBC top brass warn Hong Kong against breakup

CHRISTOPHER DORRELL

HSBC’s top brass have hit back at shareholder proposals to spin off the bank’s Asian business and pay fixed dividends, as it sought to quieten shareholders’ discontent about the bank’s business model. At a meeting of investors in Hong Kong, Reuters reported that HSBC chair Mark Tucker warned a restructuring or spin-off of HSBC’s

Asia business would create major uncertainty. He told investors the bank’s board was unanimous in recommending shareholders vote against proposals to restructure the bank.

“There will be significant cost over a number of years with material execution risks. So it would not be in your interest to split the bank,” Tucker said, according to Reuters.

The comments came after a group of investors led by Ken Lui demanded that the bank table a shareholder vote on a demerger. HSBC bowed to the pressure last week.

The bank also dismissed proposals put forward by Lui to pay fixed dividends.

Chief executive Noel Quinn said the proposal was “not financially sensible or workable”.

THE NOTE BOOK

Tax rates still have very real-world consequences

JUST how important are tax rates for economic growth?

It’s obvious there would be somewhat different economic outcomes with rates of 0 per cent and 100 per cent, but more recently a mainstream consensus seems to view changes to rates within a ‘sensible’ range as not especially important.

It is said, for instance, that Rishi Sunak doesn’t buy into the idea that successive cuts to the headline rates of corporation tax since 2010 –down to 19 per cent until recently –were the main driver behind higher levels of investment and more revenues for Treasury coffers. Instead, so the argument goes, other measures such as capital allowances are more important.

But either way, incentives matter –including changes to the headline rate. And Rishi himself has set off a glut of activity thanks to a tax cut he made while Chancellor. That was cutting the rate of domestic air passenger duty in half, with flights within the UK now taxed at £6.50, down from £13.

It has seen a surge in new and

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SAVE TO SPEND?

restored domestic routes, with British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair all expecting increased demand.

Aer Lingus is expected to launch a flight from Belfast City to Newquay. Ryanair is also eyeing up the Cornish holiday hotspot with a flight from Stansted; the carrier is also opening routes such as Edinburgh to Bournemouth. There are likely other factors at play, but Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary couldn’t be clearer on the driving force behind the expanded services: “The halving of APD on domestic flights from April 2023 has allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes to our UK schedule.”

On a less positive note, Ithaca Energy is reluctant to dive headfirst into the Rosebank oil project, as reported in yesterday’s City A.M. Its executive chairman, Gilad Myerson, noted that when faced with the so-called windfall tax “a company faces excessive taxation, then ultimately it needs to review its investments”. So maybe tax rates do matter, after all.

LEGAL AND PUBLIC NOTICES

CITY of LONDON

undermentioned streets made several Orders on 30 March 2023

Bread Street (Watling Street to Cannon Street) --- Utility Works

Carthusian Street (Junction with Aldersgate Street) ---- Utility Works

Circus Place (Finsbury Circus to London Wall) ---- Mobile Crane

Cooper’s Row Mobile Crane

Goldsmith Street Mobile Crane

Finland’s “rock-star” Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has lost a tight election to the National Coalition Party. The victors’ ten-point programme is reassuringly sensible, for the most part. Point 4 of their plan: “If we add to expenses, we will save somewhere else”. Back in Blighty, we hear howls for more money for every problem, with no drive to find savings elsewhere. The only answer is dipping deeper into taxpayers’ pockets. Save to Spend –let’s hope it catches on.

£ Spurs will be enjoying their Easter eggs while in third, fourth or fifth place, depending on last night’s result at Everton. That doesn’t necessarily scream ‘club in crisis’, but the nearly-men are nearly always in calamity. Antonio Conte’s departure followed a very public and very wild rant about the club’s top brass and players. Not necessarily a management technique from the Business School manuals, but it did contain giant kernels of truth. A jealous look across North London perhaps teaches us something about patience and loyalty.

£ Love ‘em or hate ‘em, low traffic neighbourhoods is a policy in experimental mode, to put it mildly. Recent figures obtained by the Taxpayers’ Alliance showed that nearly 240 ambulances have been delayed reaching callouts since 2020. There were nearly 70 delays in Southwark, which topped the list, while an ambulance trying to reach a patient in East London who had collapsed from cardiac arrest was delayed for up to 15 minutes. A sober assessment of the costs and benefits of LTNs is urgently needed.

POCKETING A TOP-DRAWER SPORTING ATMOSPHERE

Limeburner Lane St George’s Court (Junction with Old Bailey) ---Carriageway Works

Threadneedle Street Drainage Works

Tudor Street (Junction with New Bridge Street) ---- Utility Works

4 April 2023

CAN I QUOTE

YOU ON THAT?

I won't be

visiting again

Twitter user @ft710pete shares his views on Manchester’s controversial City Visitor Charge. Is a tourist tax fair enough, or are we taxed enough?

If you love the roar of the crowd at Twickenham, or the drama of the Globe Theatre, then you’ll love the tension of live snooker. Honestly, you will! It may seem strange to say it, but the hushed silence that descends on the arena as a top player leans down to take a crucial shot is as tense as it gets in live entertainment. The World Championships kick off in Sheffield this month, but closer to home, punters should look for spare seats at next January’s Masters at the iconic Alexandra Palace. It’s a while off yet, but once you’re there you’ll appreciate what a great job the game’s done in generating an electric atmosphere and a cracking day out.

Cineworld shares plunge as sale process dropped

LAURA MCGUIRE

SHARES in Cineworld plunged more than 30 per cent yesterday after the beleaguered entertainment chain was forced to drop the sale process in its US, UK and Ireland businesses after it failed to find a buyer.

The cinema operator, which was hit hard by the fallout from Covid-19, revealed it will be taken over by its creditors in a bid to restructure its debts and keep the struggling company afloat.

The deal includes providing $1.46bn (£1.2bn) in new debt

financing and a new share offering of $800m – which will give its creditors a 100 per cent stake in the company.

Cineworld said the move will help cut its debts by $4.53bn.

Cineworld chief exec Mooky Greidinger said the deal represented a “vote of confidence” in the firm.

However, investors disagreed, with shares closing down 32 per cent.

CMC analyst Michael Hewson said the plan to finance new debt came across “as ambitious in the current environment”, putting off investors.

“While CEO Mooky Greidinger hailed the deal as a ‘vote of

confidence’ as the business comes out of bankruptcy some might suggest its akin to putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department,” he added.

Cineworld, which has 127 branches in the UK and also owns the Picturehouse chain, has been struggling since the pandemic to draw customers back to screens.

The London-listed group was forced into Chapter 11 US bankruptcy in September and had been previously rumoured to be in talks to sell off some of its assets to Odeonowner AMC.

The beleaguered cinema chain has been struggling to lure back customers since the pandemic

Where interesting people say interesting things. Today, it’s John O’Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance

Getting a train this spring?

SERVICE CHANGES:

7 to 10 April and 28 April to 1 May

Some train services will be affected as we make improvements to the railway. So, be in the know before you go.

CHECK BEFORE YOU TRAVEL nationalrail.co.uk/spring

INFLATION is a pernicious beast that is plainly bad for people and businesses. It can ease governments’ debt burdens by (artificially) boosting tax revenues, but that can lead to severe bouts of price rises that, often, lead to societal decay.

So it’s easy to see why policymakers in the UK are sweating over the rate of price increases staying in the double digits since September; it unexpectedly hopped to 10.4 per cent in February, catching the City and Bank of England off guard.

Identifying what exactly is pushing inflation upwards is crucial to ensure people in charge of monetary and fiscal decisions don’t make mistakes that ultimately leave people poorer.

Doubtless Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents the fattest wedge of the inflation surge over the last year.

But Bank governor Andrew Bailey and, to a lesser extent, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have pinpointed another factor that risks keeping inflation higher for longer: wages, or, specifically, wage rises that aren’t matched with productivity growth.

This is how the typical economics textbook will break down how wage increases fuel inflation.

When prices begin rising quickly, workers raise their expectations for how high inflation will be in the future. That strengthens incentives for them to demand above-inflation pay rises to protect their living standards.

Businesses respond by lifting prices to offset higher staffing costs, prompting staff to demand pay increases again.

A feedback loop, known as the wage/price spiral, then grips an economy.

It’s important to stress that it is inflation expectations, not real-time inflation, that can engineer that dynamic.

Current data from pollster YouGov and investment bank Citi shows Brits reckon inflation will be just under four per cent over the long run, a definite uptick from its recent trend.

Perhaps workers recognise firms will eventually pass on wage increases –running at a historic high of around seven per cent in the private sector –via higher prices.

Examining more timely data, however, indicates the role of wage increases in feeding the inflation beast has been thinning since before Christmas.

The media regularly reports on the percentage change between the most recent level of pay compared to the same time last year. While that stat captures changes in an economy over a year –and shows a huge uptick in private sector pay –it doesn’t measure what’s happening right now.

Actually, as pointed out by the economic

LET’S FACE IT: PROFITEERING IS FEEDING THE INFLATION BEAST, NOT JUST PAY RISES

WHAT I’M READING

Stephen King’s (not the novelist, the former chief economist at HSBC) new book traces inflation’s journey through centuries of data, drawing lessons from how not to and how to respond to price pressures. We Need To Talk About Inflation, out later this month, is a decent economic tapestry.

While monthly pay growth has stalled, monthly inflation has been creeping higher, hitting 1.1 per cent in February, clearly incompatible with the Bank of England’s two per cent annual target.

SO WHAT ELSE COULD BE DRIVING INFLATION OUTSIDE OF WAGE INCREASES?

there are still a lot of people out there who are willing to pay higher prices, and firms are willing to set their prices high,” Catherine Mann, a member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, said last month.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, highlighted in a research note recently that “supermarkets appear to have widened their margins”. Data from the ONS and British Retail Consortium show food prices are rising faster than ever recorded.

European Central Bank officials have said they are weeding out companies who commit price gouging.

And even Bank governor Bailey in an interview with the BBC after last month’s rate decision pleaded with firms to “understand” hiking prices steeply will hurt families.

There is evidence that companies are slipping through unfair price rises through the back door.

But it’s vital to remember that inflation is never black and white and is driven by many things.

Solely blaming steep pay increases, companies profiteering or Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is lazy.

think tank the Resolution Foundation, since November, the level of pay has stagnated (see graph).

“People doing PR for recruitment agencies have kept repeating that the labour market is

hugely tight (and that firms need to employ their services). But signs of a cooling have actually been there for all to see,” the organisation said in a research note last month.

A growing batch of economists have blamed certain sectors for taking advantage of the price surge by fattening up their margins above and beyond necessary.

“Even in the face of the cost of living crisis,

One thing is for sure: the long living standards squeeze that has wiped £11,000 of annual real income increases from families since the financial crisis isn’t poised to let up over the coming decade.

THERE’S YOU YOU , THEN THERE’S

City A.M.’s economics editor Jack Barnett takes a deep dive into the state of the economy in his weekly column

RED CARD EY banned by German watchdog APAS over Wirecard auditing scandal

GERMANY’s accounting watchdog has handed the 20162018 auditor of Wirecard, named in its annual reports as EY, a €500,000 fine and banned it from taking on new audits for companies of public interest for two years.

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Housing model ‘broken’, says Michael Gove

DOMINIC MCGRATH

THE UK’s housing model is “broken”, housing secretary Michael Gove has said.

The comments by the senior cabinet minister come in a foreword to a collection of essays by liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue.

First reported by the Times newspaper, Gove writes: “We desperately need more homes to bring ownership within reach of many more people.”

Feeney, who led Quilter for a decade, will join Skerritts as chief exec in May

Former Quilter boss tapped by Skerritts to lead growth push

CHARLIE CONCHIE

FORMER Quilter boss Paul Feeney has been appointed chief executive of Brighton-based wealth manager Skerritts as it looks to propel growth.

Feeney, who led £100bn FTSE 250 investor Quilter for a decade before stepping down in October, will take on the role of Skerritts chief exec in May, as founder Richard Skerritt shifts into a non-executive role.

In a statement yesterday, the Skerritts non-executive chairman

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Andrew Fisher said Feeney would now look to take Skerritts to its “next stage of development”. It comes as Skerritts eyes another period of growth following a cash injection from private equity house Sovereign Capital Partners and a flurry of acquisitions in the past two years. The firm has struck nine separate deals since the investment from Sovereign and bosses said they were now eyeing an “acceleration of this successful ‘buy and build’ strategy” under Feeney’s leadership.

The essays, written by Tory MPs as well as commentators and experts, discuss a thorny issue for the government.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last year caved in to pressure to make the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England advisory rather than mandatory.

Gove wrote: “That the current housing model — from supply to standards and the mortgage market — is broken, we can all agree. That change is necessary is undeniable.”

Ryan Shorthouse, Bright Blue chief executive, said the government needed to make “genuinely affordable and appropriate housing… accessible to a much wider proportion of the population, especially younger generations and those on modest incomes”.

But he admitted: “There is no silver bullet to fix the housing crisis… we need new, radical solutions now.”

CITY of LONDON

The PLANNING ACTS and the Orders and Regulations made thereunder This notice gives details of applications registered by the Department of The Built Environment Code: FULL/FULMAJ/FULEIA/FULLR3 – Planning Permission; LBC – Listed Building Consent; TPO – Tree Preservation Order; OUTL – Outline Planning Permission 15/17 Black Friars Lane, London, EC4V 6ER 23/00222/FULL

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Shell and BP lift FTSE 100 higher as OPEC cuts boost oil giants

LONDON’s FTSE 100 was dragged up by its oil giants yesterday, as OPEC’s cut to production saw BP and Shell climb to the top of the index.

The capital’s premier index closed up 0.54 per cent at 7,673.00 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, ended 0.26 per cent higher at 18,879.41 points.

The FTSE 100’s top climbers were BP and Shell, which finished 4.3 per cent and 4.2 per cent higher, respectively.

The oil firms benefitted after OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, announced voluntary cuts to their production on Sunday, amounting to around 1.15m barrels per day. This announcement comes on top of

the 2m barrels per day cuts agreed last November, which will kick in from next month.

The reduction in production saw the price of a barrel of Brent shoot up to its highest level since January.

Higher oil prices will put renewed pressure on inflation, which had been coming down in most Western countries, potentially forcing central banks to extend their monetary tightening campaigns. Elsewhere banks were in the green as investors hope that April will be kinder to the sector than March.

HSBC finished 1.2 per cent higher, while Barclays, Lloyds and Natwest ended 1.7 per cent up, 1.5 per cent, and 0.5 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, Glencore and M&G and sunk to the bottom of the FTSE 100. The pound rose 0.5 per cent against the dollar having started the day lower.

A potential swoop from Blackstone for commercial landlord Industrials REIT “looks very good” according to analysts at Peel Hunt. Under the terms, shareholders are set to receive 168p per share in cash, a 42 per cent premium on Friday’s closing price. Peel Hunt analysts said it was a juicy deal for shareholders given that industrial asset values have fallen by 22 per cent since. They say hold the stock at a target of 135p.

Low-cost airline Ryanair topped forecasts in March as the firm recorded some 12.6m passengers, up 12.5 per cent on last year. Analysts at Peel Hunt have reiterated their buy rating and said that the number was a “positive” and achieved despite air-traffic control strikes in France during March and with Easter falling in April. The figures “bode very well for yields during the period,” they added.

LONDON’S PREMIER INDEX RE-ENERGISED

“The heavy exposure of the FTSE 100 to energy and resources stocks is looking like an attribute again as index heavyweights BP and Shell help lift the index. It is telling that the more domestic focused and diversified FTSE 250 was down a smidge.”

DANNI HEWSON, AJ BELL

OPINION

EDITED BY SASCHA O’SULLIVAN

If 15 minute cities can start a wave of conspiracies, almost anything can

Elena Siniscalco

WE won’t be caged, we are not animals”. “Ghettos are not about climate, it’s tyrannical control!” This was the style of the placards carried by people protesting against the 15-minute city in Oxford this February. Thousands marched on the streets to oppose a planning idea that, in their mind, would have taken their autonomy away.

The idea of 15-minute cities was first launched by Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno. It means planning neighbourhoods where you can reach local amenities like the doctor or a school within a 15-minute cycle or walk. It’s meant to improve the residents’ wellbeing and sense of community, and reduce the use of cars.

In Oxford, the idea was conflated with the local council’s plans for lowtraffic neighbourhoods. People claimed the plans would mean they’d get locked up in their neighbourhood, with government-controlled cameras spying on each and every move they made. The narrative blew out of proportion and even reached mainstream political corners - with Conservative MP Nick Fletcher labelling 15-minute cities a “socialist concept” in Parliament.

How did an innocuous, if not boring

for most, planning concept find itself at the centre of a conspiracy theory? Ideas about our cities and how to shape them to make them more sustainable are all about change - and most people hate change. People don’t like being told when and how often they can use their car, for instance. Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, many have manifested concerns about the green transition and its costs on lowerincome households. These concerns are fair; but when they mesh with lies and conspiracies, it can easily spin into far-flung hyperbole.

Many of the protesters identified at the 15-minute city march were the same people protesting against Covid-

19 vaccines just months ago. Many weren’t even from Oxford. “That’s the case because of the structure of conspiracy theories: they pit ingroups against subgroups on the backdrop of a cabal of global elites”, says Stefan Rollnick, head of misinformation at strategic communications firm Lynn.

According to Rollnick, once you’ve fallen for one conspiracy theory, you’re vulnerable to all, as they become a way of filtering information.

“With the 15-minute city, the outgroup is climate change activists and left-wing politicians, and the cabal is the World Economic Forum”, says Rollnick. No wonder even culture warrior Jordan Peterson felt compelled to give

his opinion.

The Oxford protest is only the craziest tip of an iceberg of disinformation and misinformation when it comes to discussions of housing and planning. You only have to think about how politicised any debate on where to build new homes has become. Just as some in Oxford were convinced a 15minute city would have been an infringement on their liberties, others see planners and local authorities as evil plotters trying to choke their communities with concrete monsters. “Social media does exaggerate these polarising tendencies, and it’s kind of toxic”, says Simon Wicks, deputy editor of the Planner Magazine.

Musk’s paid for verification is a joke fit for April Fool’s day as it commoditizes security

WILLIAM Shatner and Monica Lewinsky are not two people you would automatically place together, but surprisingly Twitter’s new approach to verification has united the two on a single cause.

On April 1 Twitter tweaked its verification system - a fitting date for all the hoaxes and practical jokes that many believe this move will unearth. Twitter has combined legacy verification with its Twitter Blue subscription model, with the platform hoping users will be unable to tell the difference. Will this open up a Pandora’s Box of fake accounts, fake posts, and fake news? Twitter certainly hopes not. The platform has introduced eligibility criteria for its Twitter Blue programme, which include adhering to non-deceptive behaviours, for example your account must display “no signs of being misleading or deceptive”.

This probably won’t offer respite, despite Twitter’s best efforts.

Already, in recent months, many users have found Twitter’s ability to

tackle trolling and abusive behaviour - hardly in sparkling form before - has deteriorated. Some have linked this to the mass lay-offs at the social media giant. Without the resources to deal with this, how on earth would they screen Twitter Blue users for deceptive accounts?

Users concerns over Twitter Blue were heightened by Musk making SMS two-factor authentication only available to those paying for the service. In other words, if you pay, you can keep your account secure.

This only adds an extra layer of fear. Not only will those who are at risk of being mimicked by others be more vulnerable - for example, when it was

first launched, fake Tony Blair and George Bush accounts, both with blue ticks, were joking about war in Iraqbut they may also be prevented from protecting their real account.

The gold checkmark programme, a verification process specifically for businesses and organisations like news outlets, was only made necessary by the “democratisation” of Twitter Musk has billed the subscription service as. There is currently a waitlist for the programme, and with a reported price tag of $1,000 per month, it’s a hefty investment. But not all companies will have the desire, or the funds, to spend thousands of dollars a year on simply verifying their status. Especially when other platforms offer it for free.

The commercialisation of social media verification is not unique to Twitter. Meta recently launched its Meta Verified programme, a paid-for subscription service allowing Facebook and Instagram users to pay for blue checkmarks. The monthly bundle includes proactive account monitoring to guard against impersonators, as well as

increased reach in search, comments, and the Explore Page. Unlike Twitter Blue, it requires checks against a government issued form of identification. Its purpose is not about taking away the “status” of a blue tick, as Musk has made his about, but about preventing impersonation and abuse.

In Musk’s case, the “deceptive behaviour” rule is a corollary, rather than a driving force.

Social media companies have had their revenues dented by a fall in ad spend, and the paid-for subscription services are an attempt to diversify income streams. It’s a symptom of the woes in Silicon Valley.

In the scale of social media scandals, paid-for verification will likely amount to no more than an amusing anecdote; certainly, since Twitter Blue’s launch, those paying for the service have been victims of ridicule.

Twitter is on a journey to redefine itself, and we’re all along for the ride.

£ Asad Moghal is a senior digital consultant at Portland

The Planner ran a survey of private and public planners, and many claimed they’re often victims of harassment and bullying by online trolls - especially if they work in the public sector. Eighty-seven per cent of respondents said they felt social media regularly contributes to misinformation about local planning. “There’s a minority of people who are noisy in their communities, and it’s their message people get away with because that’s the message they get first”, added Wicks.

This matters, because people are leaving the profession in flocks. Part of it is about low pay and long hours, and part of it is to avoid the abuse. The aggressiveness of the discourse has become a problem - we risk a scenario where 15-minute neighbourhoods pilots don’t get launched for fear of further protests, and planners can take on fewer projects because the local lack of consent is based on misinformation about what regeneration means.

Misinformation has always been a problem with urban policy, according to Sue Bridge, the president of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Planning exhibitions - events where locals are invited to hear about a new development and air their concerns - used to be the forum for discussion, and handling misunderstandings and fights was easier. Social media is the antithesis of this.

Downplaying all this hysteria as a bunch of trolls arguing for arguement’s sake is naive. There is a shared responsibility to take back the narrative - because if conspiracy theories have reached even planning policy, who knows where they’ll go next.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Nadine

Dorries has been cleared by Ofcom for giving Boris Johnson, her former boss and long-time friend, an easy time in an interview on TalkTV last year. The watchdog investigated the episode, watched by just over 50,000 people after dozens of complaints

The idea of ‘15 minute cities’ have been confused with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Pay

now as you mean to go on

[Re: Treasury hunts for a new cybersecurity boss – guess how little they are paying? March 30]

There is no doubt the advertised salary for the Treasury’s new Head of Cybersecurity is far too low. It is the equivalent to that of a Level 1 SOC Analyst.

The Head of Cybersecurity takes on a huge personal responsibility and they are also taking a risk in doing so, too.

Since Uber’s former security chief was found guilty of concealing data breach, CISOs across the board have realised they carry risk on their shoulders and are often not renumerated adequately. Lower salaries attract less experienced individuals. A Head of Cybersecurity is expected to make serious decisions on

protecting the critical assets at the heart of their business, while clearly articulating strategies to the Board who often lack of knowledge in this area and rely on experts. Such a specialised position requires a combination of high technical knowledge, expert understanding of risk, and sound business experience. Without these, there is huge risk.

Cybersecurity is a major component of The Treasury’s operation, with huge potential consequences. It requires a well-rounded individual with leadership skills honed over many years. What concerns me is if The Treasury pays its new Head of Cybersecurity less, or even the same, as its Head of (Physical) security. If this is the case, in this increasingly digital age with evergrowing cyber threats, it has its priorities badly wrong.

Guy Golan, Performanta

GOOGLE IT Tech giant faces union protests after mass redundancies

Britain and Japan are both islands holding on to legacy, not building for the future

Leon Emirali

LOOKING out of my window onto the bustling metropolis that is Japan’s capital, it’s hard to see anything other than a distinctly foreign world. The gabled temple roofs, dazzling neon lights, trains that run on time – all things seldom witnessed on British soil. Yet, scratch beneath the superficial, and uncanny similarities between the UK and the “land of the rising sun” begin to emerge.

Of course, there is the geographic. Both Japan and the UK are monarchist island nations with a historic record of punching above their weight. Both are surrounded by neighbours with whom relations can hardly be described as perfect. There are particular similarities between the UK’s agitated relationship with France and Japan’s with South Korea. Historic rivals with an uneasy partnership, brought closer by shared enemies rather than shared values.

Then there are the economic similarities. Our two economies are roughly the same size. Japan ranked third by

EXPLAINER-IN-BRIEF: PORT OF DOVER’S BREXIT(ISH) QUEUES

If you’ve been to a European airport this year, chances are, at some point, you’ve been in the “arrivals from all other countries” passport queue.

After leaving the EU, Brits need to have their passports glanced at by an official and stamped.

Many smaller European airports especially were so used to the majority of travellers coming from within the trading bloc, they simply didn’t have the infrastructure or staff to deal with an influx of people from the UK needing their passports stamped.

This same requirement is what’s also behind the snarl up at the port of Dover, with as many as 20,000 people waiting up to 15 hours over the weekend.

To the bemusement of pretty much everyone, Suella Braverman came out to declare this had nothing to do with Brexit.

She told Sky News it was not fair to call the delays an “adverse effect of Brexit.”

Later this year, a new Entry/Exit System (EES), will add even more bureaucracy for people from outside the European Union.

measure of global GDPs, and the UK trailed two places behind them. In this case, similar economic size also means similar economic problems. Japan’s ageing population and declining workforce has been a fixture of global economic commentary for a number of years now, whereas it’s become a recent cause for concern in the UK. This is not least punctuated by the recent Budget delivered by Jeremy Hunt (who is incidentally a Japanophile, having lived in the country for 18 months).

The Chancellor's ‘back to work Budget’ was designed specifically to combat the potential perils of an ageing, inactive workforce and to stop the UK sliding towards the economic stagnation that has plagued Japan’s “lost decades” since the 1990s.

Beyond the similarities that can be measured in numbers and percentages, there are also intangible comparisons between the two nations on opposite sides of the world. The Japanese are famed for their ‘shimaguni konjo’ (island mentality). There is a perception that both countries possess a sense of uniqueness - dare I say exceptionalism - compared to their neighbours, and perhaps Brexit has highlighted the UK’s own determination to go it alone.

Exploring Tokyo’s sprawling electronics markets, it is clear that the East Asian country is struggling to come to terms with the new world of technology we embrace. The universal adoption of smartphones has meant the world has graduated from owning a separate camera, calculator and music player. But in Japan it seems there is still a nostalgic attachment to the consumer devices that their economy became famed for in the 80s. The same is happening in the Japanese auto industry, with Japanese automakers holding back from the global rush towards electric vehicles – instead hedging their bets for a future that includes hy-

brid vehicles and those run on more environmentally-friendly synthetic fuels.

Can the same be said for Britain’s approach to its own legacy industries? Are we clinging onto what remains of our industrial greatness, whilst refusing to accept the world has moved on?

Maybe.

Both Japan and the United Kingdom are incredible countries that have given so much. From culture and cuisine to innovation and discovery, Japan and the UK have undoubtedly left their mark on the world – but that world is changing around them. And fast.

The announcement last week of the UK’s inclusion in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership - or CPTPP – will see the UK’s already close trading ties with Japan intensify. Through likeminded partnership, perhaps Britain and Japan will become the perfect bedfellows as both nations seek to come to terms with their new roles in a revised global order.

£ Leon Emirali is a communications adviser and Senior Political Counsellor at PLM

In Japan, there is a nostalgic attachment to the industries which built its economy

Japan has struggled with a similar ageing population as the UK

Google’s London HQ will be faced with a demonstration from sacked staff after being accused of ‘appalling treatment’ and ignoring the concerns of Unite, the biggest union of the firm’s employees, when dealing with lay offs.

MOTORING

CLIMB ANY MOUNTAIN

Tim Pitt drives the long-awaited Ineos Grenadier, a modern 4x4 inspired by the classic Land Rover Defender

Some of us have our best ideas after a couple of pints, or think we do. For Sir Jim Ratcliffe – Britain’s richest man, with an estimated net worth of £13.3bn – his light-bulb moment happened at The Grenadier pub in Belgravia, back in 2017.

Disillusioned by the direction Land Rover was taking with his beloved Defender, Ratcliffe resolved to build his own vision of what the iconic 4x4 should have become. And he named it after The Grenadier (which, inevitably, he also now owns).

In case there was any doubt, this isn’t a typical school-run SUV. The Grenadier uses an old-school ladder frame chassis with beam axles, a lowrange gearbox and a locking centre differential. Target customers include farmers, aid organisations and people with a penchant for extreme sports. No doubt you’ll see a few with oversized al-

loys around Belgravia, too.

Power comes courtesy of two 3.0litre straight-six BMW engines, either 286hp petrol or 249hp diesel. They drive all four wheels via an eight-speed ZF auto ’box and will canter to 62mph in 8.6 seconds or 9.9 seconds respectively. I sampled the Station Wagon, which is priced from £58,000 – or £69,000 for one of the swankier Belstaff editions, a tie-up with the British outdoor clothing brand (another business owned by Ratcliffe).

The resemblance to a Defender 110 is obvious, but the Grenadier doesn’t look ‘styled’ as such. Its boxy shape maximises interior space and helps you position it more easily off-road. Protruding parts, such as the unpainted plastic door mirrors, are designed to be easily and cheaply replaced.

Sockets hidden in the roof rails can be used for exterior lights or provid-

INEOS GRENADIER

PRICE: FROM £58,000

POWER: 286HP

0-62MPH: 8.6SECS

TOP SPEED: 99MPH

FUEL ECONOMY: 18.9-19.6MPG

CO2 EMISSIONS: 325-336G/KM

ing power to a roof tent, while the optional ‘utility belt’ along the doors offers mounting points for jerry cans, a GoPro camera, a picnic table and various other accessories.

The no-nonsense approach continues inside, where the Grenadier fits five and a whopping 1,152 litres of luggage. Its floor is covered in rubber mats and the chunky switchgear can be operated by gloved hands, although there’s still infotainment – a 12.3-inch touchscreen running a reskinned

version of BMW iDrive – along with Apple and Android phone connectivity. Perhaps the one stylistic flourish is the aircraft-inspired roof console, which contains most of the buttons for going off-road.

My drive started on the road, where the Grenadier felt far more at home than an old Defender. Its petrol engine pulls calmly and confidently from low revs, despite battling a kerb weight of 2.7 tonnes. Ride quality is very good and the handling is less roly-poly than you might expect.

It’s certainly not perfect, though: the transmission tunnel obstructs your left foot, the wipers miss a large area of the windscreen and the steering – a recirculating ball system, designed for durability rather than precision – simply refuses to be rushed. A ‘sports’ utility vehicle this is not.

We then attempted some off-roading on the Goodwood estate (in the woods

beyond the top of the famous hillclimb). Now, this wasn’t exactly the Rubicon Trail, but nor was it terrain a Nissan Qashqai could have tackled, particularly in the aftermath of heavy rain. The Grenadier made it feel effortless. With hill-descent control, optional locking front and rear diffs and rugged BF Goodrich tyres, it ploughed along muddy ruts, clambered over tree stumps and clawed through deep ditches. Granted, the upmarket new Defender could do this, but would you really want to?

Ratcliffe has delivered on his dream, but this remains a niche vehicle with a particular set of priorities. His next 4x4, we’re told, will be smaller, cheaper and have an electric powertrain. The Ineos Red Lion, perhaps, or Dog and Duck? It all hangs on which pub Sir Jim visits next.

Tim Pitt writes for motoringresearch.com

LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO: 1,015HP HYBRID SUPERCAR REVEALED

Say buongiorno to the Lamborghini Revuelto: a radical plug-in hybrid supercar to replace the long-serving Aventador. With a naturally aspirated V12, three electric motors and a dual-clutch gearbox, it brings Lamborghini's flagship firmly into the modern era.

The Revuelto is built almost entirely from carbon fibre, with wedgy, angular styling and its exposed engine very much centrestage. A total of 1,015hp goes to all four wheels, and 0-62mph takes a scant 2.5 seconds. Top speed is 217mph.

That 6.5-litre V12 is supplemented by two electric motors at the front and one inside the transmission.

The engine itself develops 825hp close to a dizzying 9,500rpm redline.

Factor in the electrics and the numbers accelerate into hypercar territory, including a mighty 1,162lb ft of torque.

With two 110kW front motors, the Revuelto is actually front-wheel drive when in electric mode. Its lithium-ion battery is slotted inside what used to be the transmission tunnel. A full charge takes 30 minutes at up to 7kW – or just six minutes using the V12 engine.

The Achilles' heel of the Aventador was always its clunky automated manual gearbox. The new eight-speed dual-clutch ’box should be a vast improvement.

It incorporates a 'continuous downshifting' function, which drops down multiple gears under

braking if you hold the left paddle.

In addition to the familiar Strada, Sport and Corsa modes, the Revuelto offers Città (City), Recharge, Hybrid and Performance settings. In EVfocused Città, output is limited to just 180hp. Only combining Corsa and Performance unleashes the powertrain's full 1,015hp potential.

Under the aggressive skin, a new carbon fibre 'Monofuselage' chassis is 10 percent lighter and 25 percent stiffer than the Aventador's structure. Every body panel, apart from the bumpers and aluminium doors, is also made from carbon composites. There's no word on Revuelto prices yet, but don't expect much change from £350,000. We'll bring you our first drive verdict soon.

Bruno says he’s partly to blame for Chelsea sacking Potter

FRANK DALLERES

CHELSEA caretaker manager Bruno Saltor admits he and the players must take their share of the blame for the club’s decision to sack Graham Potter.

Potter was dismissed by the Blues on Sunday night, just seven months after arriving from Brighton and Hove Albion with Spaniard Bruno among his backroom staff.

The former defender has a chance to make some reparations when Chelsea host Liverpool in the Premier League on Tuesday evening.

“If I am here right now, it’s because Graham and the club thought it was the right step and I’m here just trying to help the club and trying to be the most professional I can,” he said.

“I think Graham did an amazing job. Football is a really complex business and we have to keep going.

“The responsibility is all of us. We are responsible and we have to keep it positive, try to focus on the next game and that’s the energy we’re working with.

“How I see it is, I have to be the most professional I can. Try to help the players, guide the players to prepare the game the best we can.”

Potter was sacked in the wake of Saturday’s home defeat by Aston Villa, which left Chelsea 12 points below Champions League qualification – and the same distance above the relegation zone. Former Brighton fan favourite

Bruno, who went into coaching after retiring from playing in 2019, concedes he faces an uphill battle to inject fresh momentum into the west London side’s flagging season.

“Obviously it is a massive challenge. I have been just four years coaching but I have been 20 years involved in football,” he said.

“I start really early and I have a lot of experience in changing rooms. What I will try to do is help the players, guide the players because I have been in those situation before.

“Then I think I have got that feeling that I can help, especially young players that have never

Bruno says he is trying to help Chelsea after they sacked Potter

been in this situation before.

“It is an opportunity for the players. We are representing Chelsea, a club with an amazing history. It is about winning, it is about dominating and we need to prepare for the game.”

Former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann has emerged as the early favourite to succeed Potter.

Tonight’s opponents Liverpool are on a run of three losses –1-0 to Bournemouth, 1-0 to Real Madrid in the second leg of their Round of 16 Champions League tie and 4-1 to Manchester City –since they beat Manchester United 7-0 at Anfield last month.

BRING THE URN HOME County captains back England in Ashes

A survey of all 18 County Championship captains has revealed that an overwhelming number – 83 per cent – of firstclass leaders back England to win the men’s Ashes at home this summer. Just two of the 18 captains backed the Green and Golds to triumph in the five-Test series while one backed a draw –and therefore an Australian win by proxy given this summer’s tourists currently hold the urn. The same question surrounding the women’s Ashes drew a closer result with 10 captains backing the hosts and eight backing the away side.

Surrey coach: ‘Rest our England stars but let the others play more county cricket –not less’

MATT HARDY

SURREY head coach Gareth Batty insists that a packed schedule is pivotal for the development of future England stars, despite a review conducted by Andrew Strauss recommending fewer games in the County Championship.

Batty now heads up the defending champions in Division One and while he’s happy for the club’s England stars to have their cricket restricted, he has encouraged the game’s chiefs to let others play as often as possible.

“Take [cricket] away from the best and the big boys but let everybody

else play because we need to keep providing players [to international cricket],” Batty said.

“I think there was a huge amount right with the Strauss Review. If they [the big players] don’t play county cricket, that’s cool, there’s no dramas with that. We’re not asking those guys to have a workload that’s unprecedented around the world; we want them to be fit and ready for England.

“But I think to upskill our young players, and I use [Harry, a player who has taken the Test world by storm in the last six months] Brook as an example, having those 10 or 11 games to get the runs to finish his

skills [is helpful]. There is a reason why so many Indian players want to come and play in county cricket, because they want the volume that they are not getting everywhere else.”

The County Championship begins on Thursday amid a turbulent time for English cricket.

While the men’s Test team are flying, having won 10 out of their 12 matches under captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, the England and Wales Cricket Board have faced widespread criticism surrounding their reaction to allegations of racism and discrimination.

Koepka underlines his Masters credentials with victory at LIV Golf Orlando

FRANK DALLERES

FORMER world No1 Brooks Koepka has welcomed his return to form ahead of this week’s Masters after becoming the first player to win two individual LIV Golf titles.

Koepka beat Sebastian Munoz by one shot at Orange County National, Orlando, on Sunday night to boost his hopes of winning a fourth major at Augusta National this week.

“I’ve been playing good for a few weeks,” said Koepka, whose Smash outfit were edged into second in the team competition by Joaquin Niemann’s Torque.

“It just hasn’t really shown on the scorecard, making dumb mistakes. It was nice to come out this week

and play mistake-free pretty much.

“I’m very happy to get the win. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the team win, which is a little bittersweet. But look, I’m happy the way I’m playing going into Augusta.”

Koepka shot a final round of 68 to finish on 15 under par for the three rounds, just enough to beat Munoz, who piled on the pressure with a 66.

While it wasn’t enough to force a play-off for the individual crown, Munoz’s five-under-par last 18 holes did swing the team battle in the favour of Torque, who also include Mito Pereira and David Puig.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said skipper Niemann. “The chemistry between the four of us is pretty

good since day one. All the practice rounds, the games we do, it’s pretty easy for the four of us to hang out together.

“I think we knew we could win since the first week. It just came a little bit later than we thought, actually.”

Koepka’s victory in the third event of the new LIV Golf League format was his second overall in the bigmoney breakaway circuit, having also won in Bangkok during the Invitational Series last

Koepka became the first LIV Golf player to win two individual titles

year. Charles Howell III won the opening individual event of the season in Mayakoba, Mexico, while the Crushers GC took the first team title of the 2023 season.

In the second event of the year, in Tucson, United States, Danny Lee won his first LIV Golf title while the Fireballs GC claimed the team crown. The LIV Golf League continues on 23 April when the players head to Australia for the first time. Brisbane’s Cameron Smith will be aiming to impress in Adelaide.

SOLO AND TEAM LEADERBOARDS

SOLO LEADERBOARD

1. Brooks Koepka -15

2. Sebastian Munoz -14

3. Patrick Reed -12

3. Dean Burmester -12

5. Mito Pereira -11

5. Matthew Wolff -11

TEAM LEADERBOARD

1. Torque GC -36

2. Smash GC -35

3. 4Aces GC -34

4. Stinger GC -26

5. Cleeks GC -25

GOLF

Potter’s tenure at Chelsea taught us nothing

AND SO Graham Potter joins the graveyard of former Chelsea managers. At the current rate, it will soon be rivalling Brompton Cemetery, next to Stamford Bridge, for inhabitants. His main legacy: bringing the term “glow-up” to a wider audience.

As for his epitaph, it’s unlikely to be complimentary. To some, the former Brighton, Swansea and Ostersunds manager was out of his depth. He might argue that he was submerged by the chaos unfolding under new owners. The truth is that it’s hard to tell precisely where it went wrong.

On arrival, Potter was heralded as a promising and much-admired English coach who had earned his crack at the big time. Has that reputation been

IT IS a question playing on the minds of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and Manchester United’s other suitors.

The Glazers have already come up with their own answer, while Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital had to grapple with it before buying Chelsea last year. How exactly do you value a football club?

Most businesses are evaluated on their profit generating potential, but football clubs are not like most businesses. Few turn a significant profit due to the unpredictability of results, which drive revenues, and the imperative to reinvest in the team to chase success. United, Chelsea and other top sides belong to an asset class with its own rules.

There are models and formulae of varying sophistication for crunching the numbers. United, to use the most topical example, are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, so it is easy to calculate their market capitalisation ($3.53bn/£2.85bn at time of writing) or enterprise value ($4.08bn/£3.29bn).

Buyers may use a multiple of income – Premier League clubs typically go for 1.5-2.0 x revenue – while some employ a formula that uses a revenue multiple minus the enterprise value and divided by EBITDA. Others also factor in how big matchday crowds are and how much wages eat into revenue.

LUXURY BRANDS

But it is not an exact science, as the negotiations for United neatly illustrate. While Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim’s latest bids are believed to value the club at around £5bn, the Glazers are said to

completely torched in seven months at Chelsea? In short, what – if anything –have we learned about him?

What isn’t in question is that, after a flurry of wins that followed his appointment, results were dreadful.

Champions League qualification – the bare minimum – vanished long ago. And there was no consolation to be taken from the underlying performances, which were equally dire.

Whatever Chelsea were trying to do – and it wasn’t always obvious – wasn’t working. Did players not understand their roles? Was the system just

flawed? Or did the squad not buy into Potter’s ideas – or the man himself?

Potter can point to some major mitigating factors: more than a dozen new signings to integrate, half of whom only joined in January; a bloated squad in which there were bound to be unhappy players; a new sporting director, who did not choose him, appointed above him. More seasoned managers would struggle to achieve success in those circumstances. But he has now been discarded; the latest upwardly mobile British coach consigned to the dustbin by a Big Six

club, perhaps never to get another shot. Frank Lampard, David Moyes, Brandan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson know the feeling.

Perhaps it is a question of personality. Top jobs like Chelsea require a thick skin and unshakeable belief; characters like Rodgers have fared better than some of their more low-key peers, such as Hodgson and Moyes. Potter seems

THE £6bn QUESTION

to be in the latter bracket. Potter, however, still has the skills that brought him success in Sweden and were honed on the south coast. Hopefully his Chelsea experience will leave more lessons than scars and he will thrive elsewhere in the Pre-

Maybe he will go on to lift silverware elsewhere, like Rodgers at Celtic and Leicester. Or maybe, like Hodgson and Moyes, he will find his niche at mid-tobottom-half Premier League teams. But one difficult spell in unique circumstances shouldn’t kill off his reputation in one fell swoop.

Red Bull, can drive cost savings and therefore profitability.

Moreover, as the biggest teams become affordable only to the super rich, sovereign wealth funds and private equity, valuation estimates must also consider whether the asset will be part of a wider business portfolio. Some empires – such as Ratcliffe’s Ineos, which includes his chemicals

put that number at £6bn or even £6.5bn. Even allowing for a scarcity premium, and the likelihood that parties on both sides of the talks have adopted exaggerated negotiating positions, that is a significant gap. The £2.5bn that Boehly’s consortium paid for Chelsea, meanwhile, far exceeded initial forecasts.

It could pay to think of leading football clubs like luxury brands, putting United and Chelsea in the same

bracket as Hermes and LVMH, says Nick Barlow, a director in PwC’s Sports Practice. Investors pay high multiples of revenue for top-end fashion and cosmetic brands, despite the companies often needing further expenditure to expand and reach their full potential.

“The current profitability – or lack of – doesn’t tell the full story of the ‘po-

tential’ value in the business,” says Barlow. “There are parallels here to successful sports teams.”

MULTI-CLUB OWNERSHIP

There is more common ground in the way that football clubs and luxury brands interact with consumers. “Ultimately, both types of business under-

stand that their ‘customers’ have a deep emotional connection to the ‘product’ and brand,” Barlow adds. “Investors know that this gives them significant opportunities to create value.”

Increasingly, it is not enough simply to assess at the club in isolation. Multiclub ownership models, like those popularised by City Football Group and

business, cars, clothing and sporting investments from French football to Formula 1, cycling, sailing and rugby union – can generate additional value for multiple companies, for instance through marketing initiatives.

POST-PANDEMIC BOOM

“I believe that we are seeing new types of investors entering sports and these investors are thinking more broadly about the opportunities in the sector,” says Clive Reeves, PwC’s Global Sports Leader.

“We are increasingly seeing sports investment groups buying multiple assets across the sports ecosystem – for example RedBird Capital [investors in AC Milan and Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group], HBSE [Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, part owners of Crystal Palace] – with the view to creating incremental value through synergies and leveraging capabilities developed at the holding group level.

“When investors look at sports properties they are now considering how value can be unlocked through acquisition of complementary assets.

“Therefore when valuing a sports asset we must keep in mind that value could be created beyond the single asset itself.”

Valuations continue to rise as the market for teams enjoys a post-pandemic boom. Just weeks after the Chelsea sale recalibrated expectations in football boardrooms, the NFL’s Denver Broncos set a new benchmark for a sports franchise purchase when it changed hands for $4.65bn (£3.86bn).

It seems certain that, should it go through, United’s sale will smash that record, even if debate about the price tag – and how best to calculate it – is destined to rage on.

Investors are now considering how to unlock value by acquiring complementary assets

He was heralded as a promising English manager but left with more questions than answers, argues Frank Dalleres

you value a football club, asks Frank Dalleres

Both football clubs and luxury brands understand their ‘customers’ have a deep emotional connection

Potter took the job in difficult circumstances