Thursday 4 May 2023

LONDON’S BUSINESS NEWSPAPER

CAN AI SAVE THE DAY?

JIMMY

ON HOW NEW TECH CAN HELP, NOT HINDER P13

MCLOUGHLIN

POWELL PUMPS IT UP AGAIN

FEDERAL RESERVE BUMPS INTEREST RATES 25 BPS IN WHAT MAY BE ITS FINAL HIKE

THE US Federal Reserve last night hiked interest rates for the tenth time in a row in what may be the world’s most influential central bank’s final increase.

Chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the federal open market committee (FOMC) sent borrowing costs up 25 basis points to a range of five and 5.25 per cent.

The move was widely expected by markets, but speculation had grown recently over the Fed pausing its rate hike cycle at this meeting or the next to avoid igniting further banking failures by piling more pressure on the US financial system.

BEST OF THE BEST? SASCHA O’SULLIVAN ON GOVERNMENT’S PAY PROBLEM P18

TAKING ON THE CANDY SHOPS...

THE BOSS of Westminster City Council has called for “greater transparency” about who operates businesses in the city, as he looks to crack down on the illicit American Candy stores which have seen Oxford Street branded a “national embarrassment”.

In a council meeting last night, Cllr Adam Hug revealed that he was looking to ramp up engagement with HMRC and the National Crime Agency to bring a halt to 27 stores which operate on the West End and now account for £9m of unpaid business rates.

“Everyone [landlords and government forces] is letting the side down if you let a candy store into your property,” he said, describing their boom as a symptom of a “deeper problem” in the UK economy.

Westminster has long called for an end to trade for the candy stores which have become a brutal eyesore in the capital’s most popular shopping district since the pandemic when landlords needed to fill up vacant lots.

Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Machin last week slammed the “proliferation of tacky candy stores” which he said had turned Oxford Street into a “national embarrassment”.

Bank runs amplified by social media

CHRIS DORRELL

SOCIAL media and new technologies have the power to “turbocharge” bank runs, former Barclays boss Antony Jenkins (pictured) has said, commenting on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

Speaking to City A.M., Jenkins said “technology is a wonderful thing” that has drastically improved the experience for financial services customers in many different ways. But while these advances have been positive, Jenkins, who left the lender in 2015, noted they have also increased “the ability to move money at speed”.

The Fed seemed to justify those bets, opening the door to pausing interest rate rises at its next meeting by dropping wording in an older FOMC statement that signalled it anticipated further hikes would be needed to tackle inflation.

“In determining the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate to return inflation to two per cent over time, the Committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation,” yesterday’s statement read, a more dovish tone than its previous meeting statement.

At a press conference after the rate announcement, Powell described the language shift as a “meaningful change”.

“The Fed’s new policy statement provides the clearest hint yet that the 25 basis point rate hike today is likely to be the last,” Andrew Hunter, deputy chief US economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said.

Collectively, Powell and co have raised US borrowing costs 500 basis points in a little over a year, the quickest and steepest increase in rates since former Fed Chair Paul Volcker led the charge against inflation in the 1980s.

US inflation has been on a downward

trend since the summer, falling from a peak of just over nine per cent to five per cent.

The FOMC also moved to calm market fears about the strength of the US banking system, stressing it is “sound and resilient” despite the recent collapses of First Republic and Silicon Valley Bank.

The Fed’s move could set the tone for other central banks, with the Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank also thought to be nearing the end of their hiking cycles. BoE officials are tipped to raise rates 25 basis points next Thursday to 4.5 per cent, in what some economists reckon could be their final hike.

“When you put those things together, what we’ve seen is that the traditional bank run… just gets turbocharged,” he said.

His comments follow the collapse of SVB in March, when $42bn was pulled from the bank in a single day – the largest bank run in history.

Regulators are now considering how to adapt regulations to face the new reality.

CONTINUED ON P2

LAURA MCGUIRE

JACK BARNETT

STANDING UP FOR THE CITY

High pay for execs? Bring it on –London needs real advantages

OTHER than suggesting that Prince Andrew should bump Charles off the throne at the weekend, it’s hard to think of anything that would make you more unpopular in Britain at the minute than suggesting FTSE 100 bosses should be paid more.

When Julia Hoggett, the Stock Exchange’s boss, said just that yesterday she was met with a predictable response; the High Pay Centre, whose work appears

THE CITY VIEW

to consist of discovering large salaries in the private sector and demanding those who receive them wear a hairshirt, described the comments as “a bit deluded” and the general reaction on Twitter is perhaps best described as mimicking that of the world’s

tiniest violin. Saying unpopular things in public is always brave, but on this occasion Hoggett is both brave and correct. Salaries matter in attracting talent; at the top of businesses just as at the bottom. London needs to maintain its place at the top table of international finance; the country’s economy, and indeed the High Pay Centre’s PR operation, relies on it. A man or woman at the top of a business

being paid 30, or 40, or 60 times that of the lowest paid worker at a business is wildly irrelevant; decisions at the top can decide the futures of thousands if not tens of thousands of people. Whether they earn it is a matter for shareholders and the board; that is, after all, how private sector companies work.

Hoggett’s comments also point to the need for a wider, no holds barred discussion on London’s financial future.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT A night time rehearsal in central London for the coronation of King Charles III, which will take place this bank holiday weekend

Windfall tax will only serve to hinder UK’s climate ambitions, oil boss warns

NICHOLAS EARL

THE WINDFALL tax will gradually make the UK more reliant on carbon-intensive imports to meet its energy needs and put the country’s environmental goals at risk, the boss of a leading oil and gas producer has argued.

Gilad Myerson, executive chairman of Ithaca Energy, told City A.M. the Energy Profits Levy was not harming international oil majors,

which generate revenues across multiple continents, but was instead directly impacting independent UK domestic oil and gas operators.

“Because of the windfall tax, we’ve seen a significant reduction in investment in the UK North Sea and accelerated decline in production,” Myerson

Ithaca is currently looking to invest $8-10bn to develop new projects in the North Sea,

including its 20 per cent stake in Rosebank – the largest undeveloped North Sea field.

Rosebank has attracted criticism from green groups but Myerson argued there was a strong environmental case for developing Rosebank and other North Sea projects due to its lower carbon intensity compared to alternatives.

“It's better to develop our own energy rather than import energy and therefore it's important that any type of fiscal regime should be supportive of developing energy in our own in our own market,” he said.

The FCA’s listing reforms announced yesterday are about as good a starting place as any; the regulator, deliberately or not, has effectively issued a put-up-or-shutup notice to all of those who claimed that they’d be all-in on London if only the regulator made life simpler.

It’s time for the whole ecosystem to push forward as one to ratchet up London’s competitiveness; and yes, that may well include the City’s remuneration committees.

WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING

THE FINANCIAL TIMES

UK COMPETITION WATCHDOG LAUNCHES REVIEW OF AI MARKET

THE TIMES

NATO FEARS RUSSIA MINED EUROPEAN UNDERSEA PIPELINES AND CABLES, Nato suspects that Russia has planted explosives on critical European undersea infrastructure, based on intelligence from firms that run oil and gas rigs, pipelines and telecoms cables.

THE GUARDIAN

POLICE TO USE LIVE FACIAL RECOGNITION IN CROWDS AT KING CHARLES CORONATION

The force said it intended to use the technology, which scans faces and matches them against a list of wanted people, and could identify convicted terrorists mingling in the crowds.

Tech leaves regulators with tricky task on their hands

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

Proposals under consideration include raising the limit on insured deposits and boosting the amount of liquid cash banks must be available to meet withdrawal requests.  Jenkins, who is also an external member to the Prudential Regulation Committee, suggested that regulators have a difficult task. The collapse of SVB sparked panic amongst regional banks in the US, with First Republic becoming the third bank to fall since March.

Asked if this chapter was coming to a close, Jenkins said “we honestly just don’t know. I think it would be a brave person who said that was it”. Despite warning on the powers of new tech and social media, Jenkins said technologies could, and should, be used to improve customer experience.

Jenkins has gone on to set up London-listed fintech 10x Future Technologies. He hopes 10x will drive change in the sector, unlike legacy banks, which he said can be “museums of technology”.

The UK competition watchdog is launching a review of the artificial intelligence market, including the models behind popular chatbots such as ChatGPT.

Ithaca executive chairman Gilad Myerson

LSE boss: More needed to stop City’s decline

CHARLIE CONCHIE

NEW RULE changes designed to boost the appeal of UK capital markets are “just one element” of arresting the City’s decline, the chief of the London Stock Exchange warned yesterday.

London bourse chief Julia Hoggett said that a host of new rule changes revealed by the FCA this week, which include merging the standard and premium segments of the market, were a “meaningful step forward towards ensuring the UK remains a leading global capital market”. However, she warned that more needed to be done outside of regulatory tweaks to keep London competitive on the international stage.

“We believe this approach strikes the right balance in creating a simplified listing regime for companies whilst giving investors the information they need to make informed investment decisions and creates a level playing field for UK

companies competing with international peers,” she said.

“These proposed rule changes are just one element of the reforms needed to improve the competitiveness of the UK’s capital markets.”

Hoggett’s comments came as she called for bosses of listed firms to be paid more to tempt in more top talent and investment in the UK.

Hoggett said the UK should be “encouraging and supporting UK companies to compete for talent on a global basis” so it remains an “attractive place for companies to base themselves”.

The plans from the FCA mark an acceleration of efforts to stop a slump in the standing of the London Stock Exchange as firms including Arm and CRH snub the City in favour of New York.

AIM-listed renewables firm Solgenics yesterday also announced plans to ditch its quoted status in the City, citing the “regulatory burden”.

for 2023

ESTEE

Lauder shares fell 15 per cent yesterday after the cosmetics maker forecast weaker sales for 2023 than previously estimated. It blamed slow recovery in Asia.

Major disruption to hit Heathrow over the coronation weekend

LUCY KENNINGHAM

TRAVEL on the coronation weekend is set to be disrupted by fresh strikes announced last night.

The union Unite confirmed around 1,400 security officers would be taking part in industrial action walking out for eight days including 4 to 6 May.

The union claims staff at Heathrow

FCA probes fallout of Capita cyberattack

CITY A.M. REPORTER

CLIENTS of Capita have reportedly been contacted by the UK’s financial markets regulator looking to access the fallout of a recent cyberattack. The Financial Conduct Authority told the Financial Times that it was talking to Capita to understand the extent of the data breach.

The regulator has also written to Capita clients about the attack, warning them of their responsibility to notify regulators, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office, and affected consumers.

“There is no evidence currently to suggest that any of our customers’ data was accessed,” Aviva said. .

are paid £6,000 less than counterparts at other airports.

Meanwhile, Heathrow bosses say they offered a 10 per cent pay increase and lump sum of over £1,000 in January which was shrugged off by Unite.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We kept Heathrow running smoothly [during Easter’s walkout and] we will do so again this time.”

The news comes after the Pensions Regulator said it had contacted pension funds that employ Capita to run their payment systems, to determine if data had been affected.

A Capita spokesperson said: “Capita has already confirmed that it continues to comply with all relevant regulatory obligations; establishing and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with relevant regulatory bodies is therefore not at all unusual.”

WORSE FOR WEAR Shares in Estee Lauder plunge due to dismal forecast

FLU SEASON GIVES SHOT IN THE ARM TO GSK SPIN-OUT

A “strong” cold and flu season and the end of Chinese lockdowns contributed to a healthy revenue boost for Haleon, the spin-out of GSK’s consumer healthcare division. Organic revenues within the group were up 9.9 per cent, with operating profit hitting £627m – reflecting a large reduction in the costs of spinning out the business last year and the cost of admission to the Stock Exchange. Haleon saw 39 per cent growth in revenues around respiratory health, which it said was boosted by a “continued strong cold and flu season”. Pain relief growth was also driven by sales of Fenbid in China following the end of lockdowns at the end of last year – perhaps suggesting some celebrated their freedom a little too hard. Haleon’s share price is up 11 per cent since its spin-out, representing one of London’s more successful recent floats.

STRIKES SEE 650 RYANAIR FLIGHTS GROUNDED IN APRIL

Ryanair yesterday said over 650 flights were cancelled due to the French Air Traffic Controller strikes in April, meaning almost 120,000 passengers couldn’t fly. Flight traffic grew by 13 per cent year on year to 16mn guests overall, with the firm operating a total of 89,650 flights in April. The low-cost carrier saw load factor increase by three percentage points from April last year, rising to 94 per cent. However, the firm acknowledged that last year’s data was skewed by the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which hit traffic. Since the first four months of 2023, there have been over 50 days of French ATC strikes, resulting in more than 3,700 cancellations. Ryanair has been one of the worst affected by the ATC action and recently published a petition, calling on the EU to take action to “keep skies open” when the action takes place.

Addison Lee secures drivers to double profit

GUY TAYLOR

ADDISON Lee, the London-based taxi hire company, more than doubled its profits last year as passenger demand returned and driver shortages eased after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Adjusted pretax earnings climbed to £19.1m, up from £7.9m last year, while passenger revenue jumped 33 per cent on last year, the firm said announcing its annual results this week.

The announcement comes after a turbulent couple of years for taxi firms, where driver shortages have prevented the industry from fully bouncing back after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw more than 50 per cent of cabbies quit, according to estimates from the Licensed Private Hire Car Association at the time, due to work falling off a cliff edge due to lockdowns and the high cost of licensing fees.

Addison Lee’s chief executive Liam Griffin said that an important reason for Addison Lee’s recent growth

has been its ability to overcome this crucial shortage.

“When we went into Covid, there were 120,000 licensed private hire drivers.

“Coming out there were just under 90,000, so there’s a big drop off in supply of drivers for the market and therefore it became much more competitive,” Griffin told City A.M.

“We’ve had to reconfigure our driver deal.

“We’ve massively enhanced the driver deal to reflect cost of fuel, cost of living, and just the general competition in the market,” he added.

Addison Lee said its taxi operators now earn on average 30 per cent more than before the pandemic, with the firm describing its package as the “most competitive in the industry”.

“Our recruitment efforts have paid off and we’ve over-delivered on our target of recruiting 1,000 new drivers, adding over 1,500 more since the beginning of 2022,” Griffin said.

“With over 5,000 vehicles on our fleet, we’re in a good position to offer our customers the best service in the industry.”

COCA-COLA HBC’S SHARES FIZZING AFTER SALES BOOST

Coca-Cola HBC AG, the bottling company of the soft drink giant, yesterday reported strong revenue growth at 22.2 per cent, further boosting its share price. Net sales revenue were up 24.4 per cent, but the firm stated that foreign exchange movements, particularly currency devaluation in Nigeria and Egypt, had also negatively impacted growth. Coca Cola and its bottling business withdrew from Russia in March last year due to the invasion of Ukraine, leading to a drop in volume in the region. The company’s exit from Russia saw Coca-Cola HBC’s overall sales volumes fall 2.7 per cent, due to a four per cent drop in sales of Coca-Cola. Continuing inflation and soaring energy prices also continued to affect performance. Shares continued their year-long climb yesterday, having risen 54 per cent in the last 12 months.

INTO THE FUTURE Dyson announces new sites focusing on robotics and AI research

DYSON is pouring £100m into a tech centre in Bristol, as well as new sites in the Philippines (a robotics and AI research hub) and Singapore (its first battery plant). The £2.75bn five-year investment plan will “drive a major revolution” in Dyson machines, founder Sir James Dyson said yesterday.

A CORNER TURNED? Aston Martin sees boost in revenues as wealthy customers ride out recession fears in all-leather interiors

Barratt said that its end of year balance sheet remained strong, expected at £0.9bn

LUXURY carmaker Aston Martin saw a 27 per cent year-on-year jump in revenues in the first quarter of 2023. The firm reported an operating loss of £50.9m which it put down to amortisation and depreciation costs increasing, but upheld guidance for the year of a “significant growth in profitability”. It also highlighted a winning partnership with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One team.

Housebuilder Barratt says it is ‘on track’ despite slow forward sales

LAURA MCGUIRE

BARRATT Developments yesterday assured investors it was is “on track” for the year despite a decline in forward sales. Shares in the group closed down 1.5 per cent after the update, though they are still trading up on the year. In a trading update, the London-

listed housebuilder noted the economic outlook remained “difficult” as it posted total forward sales of £2.95bn in April 2023, down from £4.50bn for the period last year. Barratt also revealed it reduced the number of potential plots by 1,125 across six sites. Despite this, the group said its end of year balance sheet remained strong with the figure

expected to be around £0.9bn. Barratt also said a slower trading backdrop reduced the number of homes built per week by 50 this year. Nonetheless, it is on track to deliver around 16,750 homes this year. “We are pleased more positive sales rates have been maintained and are now fully forward sold for FY23,” David Thomas, head of Barratt said.

Flutter’s big bet on US gambling still paying off

ABBY WALLACE

GAMBLING giant Flutter Entertainment yesterday posted a boost in revenue for the first quarter of 2023 as a result of its continued expansion drive in the US.

The London-listed company, owner of Paddypower, Betfair and Fanduel, increased its average monthly players 30 per cent year on year to £12.3m, pushing revenues up 46 per cent to £2.4bn, it reported in results yesterday. Revenue in the US increased by 92 per cent to £908m, helped by record betting on the Super Bowl.

“In the US, the combination of the Fanduel Advantage and the Flutter Edge drove further market share gains. We added over 1.5m customers in the quarter and we remain the clear market leader. Our US sports betting handle of $10.9bn represented almost 60 per cent of the group’s total sportsbook stakes,” said chief Peter Jackson.

Flutter’s shares are up 81 per cent over the past 12 months.

Just days ago Flutter won shareholder approval to launch a secondary listing in the US, paving the way for it to switch its primary listing in the future. Around 99 per cent of shareholders voted in favour.

“The strategic and capital markets benefits this will bring to Flutter will position the group well for its next phase of growth,” Jackson said yesterday.

Meanwhile in the UK, the Londonlisted gambling company -- alongside its rivals -- will be subject to tighter regulations including a statutory levy and stricter checks on losses, the government announced last week in its longawaited gambling white paper.

Jackson said the group “strongly” supported the measures. In the UK and Ireland, revenue increased by 17per cent to £608m.

CV

PETER JACKSON

1995-1999

Cambridge, with an Engineering undergraduate and a Master’s in Manufacturing Engineering

1999-2002

Consultancy with McKinsey

2002-2008

Three ‘head of’ roles with HBOS

2009-2010

MD of consumer banking, Lloyds

Banking Group

2010-2015 CEO of Travelex

2016-2017

Head of innovation, Santander

2017-2018

UL CEO, Worldpay

2018-present CEO, Flutter

Entertainment

Soaring profits fail to impress Lloyds investors

CHRIS DORRELL

LLOYDS yesterday revealed first quarter profits had risen 46 per cent as the bank became the latest UK lender to see its bottom line boosted by a hike in interest rates.

The lender’s pretax profits came in at £2.3bn compared to £1.5bn the same quarter last year, while net interest margin widened to 3.2 per cent, helping net interest income swell 20 per cent to £3.5bn.

“Lloyds is a good barometer for the overall health of the UK consumer and its smaller businesses, and they’re proving remarkably resilient in the face of mounting cost pressures.” Hargreaves Lansdown’s Matt Britzman said.

However, looking forward, Lloyds chief exec Charlie Nunn cautioned that “the macroeconomic outlook remains uncertain”, with the lender maintaining its full year guidance for

NO THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC Climate choir interrupts Barclays AGM yesterday

US regional banks notch small gains

CHRIS DORRELL

REGIONAL banks in the US notched small gains yesterday as the sector seemed to calm down following Tuesday’s sell-off.

its net interest margin at around 305 basis points. This came despite the Bank of England hiking interest rates since the guidance was set, with Jefferies analysts suggesting there was scope for higher guidance.

The unchanged guidance seemed to leave investors underwhelmed, with shares finishing down 3.57 per cent.

The results – the last of the UK’s major banks – came at a time of stress for the global banking sector, with First Republic becoming the third bank felled in a little over a month this week.

Lloyds chief financial officer William Chalmers said the banking crisis has been a “significant event” in the US but said its impact on the UK had been “limited”.

“We have not really seen any particular impact on the UK sector. And we’ve certainly not seen any impact on Lloyds Banking Group,” he said.

NOT ALL ESCAPES NEED A PASSPORT

Pacwest was trading 0.3 per cent higher while the KBW Regional Bank index was up 0.6 per cent. However, Western Alliance was down 2.4 per cent yesterday afternoon.

Larger lenders were mixed. JP Morgan was down 1.7 per cent while Bank of America was 0.4 per cent down. Citi was up marginally.

The gains came after a steep selloff, which sparked concerns the crisis in the banking sector might not have reached its end.

On Tuesday, Pacwest closed down 30 per cent while Western Alliance fell 15 per cent. In the year-to-date the banks are down around 70 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.

Both banks have been under threat as they have similar business models to SVB and First Republic.

While turmoil in the banking sector is likely to tighten credit conditions, the US Federal Reserve did not ease off its rate hikes yesterday opting for a 25bp rise.

ENVIRONMENTAL protestors disrupted Barclay’s shareholder AGM, interrupting chair Nigel Higgins with a version of the Spice Girls’ Thank you Very Much: “Stop right now, no more oil and gas.” Higgins eventually suggested a discussion at a later date.

HALCYON’S BIG SELLERS

THE CORONATION AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY MUG

Artist Tug Rice captures the pomp and ceremony of the King’s arrival at Westminster Abbey –yours for £45.

THE CELEBRATION OF THE NATURAL WORLD PRESENTATION PLATE

Clocking in at £425, this fine bone china commemorative plate has been designed by Halcyon Days artisans and displays “flora and fauna inspired by the King’s love of nature”.

THE CORONATION EMBLEM ENAMEL BOX

Coronation to be Halcyon Days for ceramics giant

LAURA MCGUIRE

THE CHIEF executive of one of the UK’s biggest makers of luxury ceramics has said that Brits should not “underestimate” the value of the royal family, as it prepares to rack in a million pounds in sales from coronation-themed tea cups and plates.

Pamela Harper, head of the Halcyon Days, a pre-eminent supplier of

homewares and jewellery to royal households, told City A.M. they considered the monarchy an “enormous” and “very important draw” to London and the wider UK.

“You’ve only got to look at when you walk the streets and see the numbers of foreign tourists who are here to share in and enjoy the pageantry that we do so well,” Harper said speaking ahead of King Charles coronation this weekend,

which will welcome millions of visitors to the capital.

Halcyon has made an additional 150,000 products for the coronation and has increased its workforce by 20 per cent since January to supply the demand from royal fans.

Over the last three weeks, Harper said the business has seen a “big uplift” in sales of its collection of wares which range from £45 to £850.

The business is one of many across London benefitting from the historic event, with retailers and pubs across London’s West-End also expecting a much needed £50m boost in trade.

However, looking past the coronation Harper said that a return to VAT free shopping for international tourists, which was scrapped last year by the government, would “inevitably” get the economy on a roll again.

This “stunning handdecorated” affair comes with the official emblem of the celebrations, nodding again to the King’s environmental campaigning, setting you back £275.

MARCHING DOWN THE MALL BAUBLE

This £49 bauble can allow you to celebrate the coronation well into the winter, commemorating a “truly British spectacle” on the Mall.

Gridlock: Octopus calls for queue jumping to meet energy targets

NICHOLAS EARL

OCTOPUS Energy has unveiled a plan to speed up connections for new renewable projects to the grid. This includes ‘queue jumping’ for projects further along in the development process, and increasing competition for connections – ending National Grid’s status as a monopoly provider.

National Grid oversees the queue on a first-come first-serve basis.

Octopus’s new report, End the Gridlock, proposes projects further ahead in financing, planning and development be allowed to overtake projects struggling to take off.

It also argues third-party operators connecting projects to the grid would speed up transmissions.

Zoisa North-Bond, chief of Octopus,

said: “The single biggest blocker to renewables is waiting to connect to the grid.” As such the energy firm argues its changes could unlock new wind and solar farms with clean electricity for around 2.5m homes National Grid has previously told City A.M. it is bound by its licence to manage connections this way, with rules preventing it making anticipatory judgements on viability.

‘Urgent action’ needed to meet UK wind targets

NICHOLAS EARL

THE UK will fall short of the government’s offshore wind targets this decade, with renewable developers facing serious cost challenges for projects, the industry body Energy UK has warned.

Downing Street is aiming to ramp up offshore wind generation from 14GW to 50GW by the end of the decade, making the energy source the primary power supplier across the UK.

However, Energy UK has calculated the government is not on course to reach this target, with the potential shortfall enough to cost customers an extra £530m a year to make up with imported gas, along with an extra 6m tonnes of carbon emissions.

Energy UK would not say how much the government needs to invest to tackle these higher costs and prevent wind energy targets being missed.

It has called on the government to raise funding for the latest auction round for offshore wind and to take “urgent action” to attract “crucial international in-

vestment” to the UK.

Deputy director Adam Berman said:

“Developers are facing challenging investment conditions, but the government simply hasn’t gone far enough in recognising the effect of higher costs in the forthcoming round. The stark reality is that without rapid government intervention, the UK is set to fall short of our clean energy targets.”

According to Energy UK’s estimates, the UK will fall short of the 50GW target by 4.8GW –the equivalent of the energy needed to power 5.5m homes annually. Andrew Bowie, minister for nuclear and networks, told City A.M. he was confident the current auction round for offshore wind would be a success.

“The UK is a world leader in offshore wind, with the world’s four largest offshore wind farms and we are making great progress towards our 50GW by 2030 ambition,” he said.

ROCKY WATERS Second oil tanker in a week seized by Iran in Gulf waters, US confirms

Oil dips below $70 per barrel as US and China woes weigh down prices

NICHOLAS EARL

OIL PRICES continued to slide yesterday, falling below $70 (£56) per barrel, weighed down by concerns over the US and China’s economic health.

A looming interest rate hike last night from the US Federal Reserve saw both major benchmarks fall this week.

WTI Crude dropped 2.79 per cent to a new five-week low of $69.70 per barrel, while Brent Crude slipped 2.64 per cent to $73.33 per barrel. This put prices at

their lowest levels since March and marked the biggest one-day percentage declines since early January.

Meanwhile, Chinese manufacturing activity fell unexpectedly in April. China is the world’s largest energy consumer and top buyer of crude oil, and its slow recovery from the pandemic has prevented oil markets from rallying. However, OPEC is bullish over a demand resurgence later this year, with oil markets also being boosted by the cartel’s swingeing cuts.

A SECOND oil tanker in a week was yesterday seized by Iran in Gulf waters, the US Navy said, the latest escalation in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019 amid rising tensions between the US and Iran.

The UK is aiming to make offshore wind its primary energy source by 2030

Finance chief steps down after ‘personal’ workplace relationship

down from my role,” he added.

GUEST OPINION Andy Jones

THE CHIEF financial officer at FTSE 100 firm RS Group stepped down yesterday after notifying the company’s board about a relationship with another member of staff.

The company, which distributes industrial and electronics products, said that chief financial officer David Egan would leave the business immediately.

“Very recently I notified the board of a personal relationship with a colleague. Following a detailed review by the board, I recognise that there have been some shortcomings of judgement on my part and my actions have fallen short of the high standards expected of RS leadership,” David Egan, the firm’s chief financial officer, said in a statement.

“Therefore, it is right for me to step

“I would like to thank all the people at RS for their support and commitment during my tenure,” he said.

Jane Titchener will take over as interim chief financial officer until a permanent replacement CFO is appointed.

Chair Rona Fairhead said: “Following a thorough review, the board has accepted David’s resignation and in stepping down he recognises the importance of leaders setting and abiding by exemplary standards.

“I would like to acknowledge the significant contribution David has made in his seven years at RS, driving transformation both as CFO and on two occasions as Acting CEO. On behalf of the board, I thank him for his years of service and wish him the very best for the future.”

Dating colleagues. As someone who has had two dating columns around the world, you may very often be dating colleagues -- or, in the new, looser, work-from-home vernacular, you are now dating someone you have a ‘work relationship with’.

The key thing is honesty, not with everyone else, but with each other. Saying to them “Yes, I want to explore this; I want to see more of you”, but also being clear that maybe you don’t want to launch this as a public thing among colleagues because of the added hassle of that. Embrace it being a secret; it’s an exciting distraction from work. If it grows into something else, fantastic. If it doesn’t, at least you were able to keep the fallout only to yourselves. Honesty, clarity and privacy are the three things for a burgeoning office romance.

In 2019, the MD of McDonalds was sacked for a consensual affair with a colleague as well. Which, years ago, I doubt would’ve happened. Office time is

now dramatically reduced across many industries, but – on the flipside –companies are proactively arranging more socials to gather colleagues together. These then have greater significance. They often involve alcohol or evening entertainment which can be a spark for romance.

I think, particularly for new starters, many of them have never actually met their colleagues in the flesh and so a first meeting with a colleague who they quite fancied on Zoom or thought was very intriguing on email, can have a vivid excitement to it. Zoom can tell you a lot of things, but it can’t tell you how tall

someone is, or if they smell nice. Dress-down policies have also reduced flirtation. When I first worked in offices, looking smart was paramount and so –naturally – when everyone looks great, there is more spark and interest in each other. When everyone is make-up free, tousled hair, unshaven and wearing a tshirt scraped from the floor... do you want to date anybody?

With online dating being an almost impenetrable cattle market for many people (the same digital “Hey, what's up?” conversation again and again), office meetups are actually one of the only places they meet actual human beings.

City of London Mu London mile Major seum new or f one t s update

PMQs: A local election drinking game, by Messrs Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak

IN CELEBRATION of the impending coronation -- no, not of the King, but of 8,000 local councillors across the country -- Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer came up with a novel idea: a PMQs drinking game.

Of course, it’s slightly awkward as Sunak is teetotal, but it was fun for everyone else to take a sneaky shot every time they quoted one of their own campaign posters for the local elections.

From Keir, we had “economic vandalism”, “out-of-touch” Rishi, a bunch of anti-housing Nimby’s in government and a joke about the PM’s swimming pool.

From Rishi, we had “U-turns and broken promises”, we had Starmer “concreting over the greenbelt”, useless local mayors, and of course, it wouldn’t be a pre-

SKETCH Sascha O’Sullivan

election PMQs without a shout out to Greg Hands’s favourite Alistair Darling letter declaring there was “no money left”. In fact, we may as well have just put the two leaders in a green room so their various social media teams can clip up the lines they want, get images of the other looking sweaty or smug, depending on your taste, and post it all straight to Twitter. At least then they would’ve been saved the indignity of pretending either Sunak or Starmer would be able to care

onation Cor

about the coronation until after today’s ballots are done and dusted.

Starmer almost slipped up too. Opening up to his series of attacks on the cost of mortgage repayments, he almost took a bow as he said: “Across the house, we’re all looking forward to the celebrations this weekend”. He meant, of course, toasting to the new King, but for just a second there you could see the hazy images of thousands of Labour councillors floating lovingly in front of his eyes.

And then Sunak had to go and bring up Sadiq Khan: the Labour mayor can’t seem to stop banging on about this whole ‘ULEZ’ thing, which – let’s be honest –sounds dreadful, even if you do want clean air. Of course, Starmer definitely does want clean air, at least until he realises we can’t afford it.

THE LORD MAYOR TO ABSEIL DOWN THE LLOYD’S BUILDING FOR CHARITY

This summer City-based dare devils will join The Lord Mayor of the City of London Alderman Nicholas Lyons to abseil 230ft down The Lloyd’s Building to raise vital funds for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal. Taking place on Tuesday 4th July, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Abseil challenge will return to one of the City’s most famous landmarks, inviting City businesses and highflying individuals to fundraise while seeing London from a brand-new perspective. Having previously been undertaken by previous Lord Mayors of the City of London including Alderman Dr Andrew Parmley, Alderman Vincent Keaveny, Alderman Sir Chalres Bowman and Alderman Sir Peter Estlin plus Lawson Muncaster, Managing Director and Co-Founder of City A.M, Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and John McLean OBE, Chair Carers Trust and Chair IoD City of London those who descend the 230ft to complete the Abseil Challenge

will be in good company.

Previous Abseil Challenge participant and member of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Fundraising Board John McLean OBE says; “Come and join on us on 4th July to see the beautiful skyline of the City of London as you abseil down the iconic Lloyd's Building. Until 2019, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal organised the annual abseil which included the Cheesegrater, 22 Bishopsgate and Barclays Head Office at Canary Wharf, where the respective Lord Mayors and Sheriffs stepped into space to lead the abseil appeal. This year, our Lord Mayor, Alderman Nicholas Lyons will be donning his harness and rising to the abseil challenge and looks forward to many of you joining him on the first post-Covid challenge.”

“If you are daunted by heights, you should not be put off as the abseil team are professionals who will take you through all the safety procedures, so that your abseil is an exhilarating experience whilst taking in the sights of the City and of course

raising money for the Appeal. As you can see, I have joined many of the recent Mayoral teams and on every occasion, we have shared laughter, trepidation and the euphoria of success in taking the challenge together. Is it your turn this year?”

The annual event will return for the first time this year after the pan-

demic and is held in aid of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal. Expected to raise around £100,000, it will be used to support the work of its three charity partners National Numeracy, MQ Mental Health Research and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Aiming to create a Better City for All that is Inclusive, Healthy, Skilled and Fair, The Appeal’s thought leadership initiatives Power of Inclusion, This is Me, We Can Be and City Giving Day offer learning, development and engagement opportunities for employees across the Square Mile.

Open to anyone who is over 18 and reasonably fit and healthy and available for solo or tandem, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Abseil Challenge requires no previous experience, with a team of abseiling experts on hand

to show participants the ropes. The registration fee is £35 with a minimum sponsorship of £1000.

The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Abseil Challenge is part of a busy summer for the appeal, with a roster of events including the next Power of Inclusion Social Mobility Workshop on building effective networks on 5th July, the Sheriff’s Ball on 22nd September and City Giving Day on 26th September – the annual day when businesses from The City and beyond celebrate their philanthropic efforts.

To take part in The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Abseil Challenge or find out about other upcoming events please visit https://www.thelordmayorsappeal.org/ events or email events@thelordmayorsappeal.org

The annual event will return for the first time this year after the pandemic and is held in aid of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal

THE NOTE BOOK

Fears over AI might be best displaced with training

OVER one in four Britons already think that AI could do their job better than them. That is the remarkable statistic that we found undertaking some recent polling alongside leading research firm, Focaldata. Even more dramatically, the number increases to just under one in two who think AI can do their job better in the next decade. The rate and pace of AI is striking. In our first poll in January less than one in five had heard about ChatGPT. In the latest poll, it is over two thirds of the population. It is very difficult to think of another product launch that has had such a cut-through –the iPhone is probably the only thing that comes close to it.

Throughout human history there have been many predictions of the destruction of jobs, all the way back to spinning wheels coming in the late 18th century. Supposedly, Neil Ludd was an apprentice who destroyed one of the spinning wheels, although there is not really any evidence that Ludd existed –although like Robin Hood he supposedly resided in

SIDEMEN’S MAIN MAN

Sherwood Forest. The term Luddite, nonetheless, lives on.

Overall, 60 per cent of our respondents believed AI will lead to a reduction in jobs, and only 22 per cent believed that it would create jobs. Most believe that governments should intervene, but how that would work in practice would be the biggest public policy question of the age. One opportunity might be around trying to incentivise employers to provide training.

Two in every three respondents said they wanted training in AI, yet less than one in five had received any form of it this year. Although interestingly, that jumped to one in three for Londoners, demonstrating how the capital leads the way once again in the adoption and understanding of new technology. It could have the added incentive of finally cracking the productivity problem, although as the economist Robert Solow said in 1987, “I see computers everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. Could the same happen with AI?

This week the guest on Jimmy’s Jobs was Jordan Schwarzenberger. He is just 25 years old and manages the Sidemen (about whom more below) with his group Arcade Media. He offered an extraordinary insight into how Gen Z makes money through platforms like Youtube and Instagram. He has also launched a podcast called Unboxed which looks more into the creator economy.

£ Have you heard of the Sidemen? Don’t worry if not: six months ago I was the same. Yet they’re a phenomenon on a scale of One Direction, The Spice Girls or the Beatles. The origins of the group of seven are incredible: they started out just 10 years ago, streaming Grand Theft Auto on Youtube. In the last year, they have launched a chicken shop and a vodka brand, demonstrating how today’s youth are building market and distribution before product.

£ Could the fallout from the CBI’s current troubles be more business leaders out on the airwaves? Andy Wood from Adnams Brewery has been making waves, Matt Clifford of Entrepreneur First was on the Laura Kuenssberg show at the weekend and Ben Francis was chatting to Nick Ferrari on LBC last week about the six month anniversary of their shop on Regent Street. All are articulate and thoughtful on the future of our economy and hopefully can be encouraged to do more media.

Jimmy’s Jobs podcast

YOU SPOIL US, AMBASSADOR

CAN I QUOTE YOU ON THAT?

Have Chelsea perhaps considered getting Steven Gerrard to be the co-manager alongside Frank Lampard?

Gabriel Milland switches from head of research at Portland Comms to Fantasy Football.

Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ seems to have divided opinion on Twitter, but then again what doesn’t? I enjoyed it, yes the dialogue and good chunks of the plot do require you to suspend your disbelief at stages. They have some wonderful shots inside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the US Ambassador’s residence at Winfield House as well as my former workplace, the Institute of Directors, which over the years has also hosted Downton Abbey, as well as Batman. The overall theme of how domestic politics relate to geopolitics is interesting to see. I imagine a second series is nailed on.

LAST year was “one of those rare moments when everything comes together”, says the chief of Allica Bank, Richard Davies.

In a year defined by war, rapid interest rate hikes and soaring costs, it’s not perhaps a view shared by many business chiefs. But a look at the books of the London-based challenger bank and Davies’s rosy view of 2022 becomes more understandable.

Allica Bank reported what it called a “landmark year of progress” yesterday as it notched a near £800m jump in small business lending and a 500 per cent surge in revenues, alongside posting its first £3m profit in the second half of the year.

That came as the firm finalised the acquisition of a £600m small business lending portfolio from Allied Irish Bank and raised £100m-worth of cash from investors in December against a torrid backdrop for fundraising.

Key to shrugging off the wider downturn, says Davies, has been focusing on long-term value, not short-term fads.

“Chasing the latest kind of hype bubble is not a productive characteristic. It may be for a short-term valuation, but it'll come back to roost,” Davies tells City A.M. in an interview.

“We’ve been doing the same thing since I joined three years ago. If you have a genuine, substantial-sized customer problem you’re trying to solve, and you put together ingredients to execute against that, it will produce results,” he says.

ARE WE HUMAN OR ARE WE BANKER?

Allica was founded in 2011 but did not win its full licence from the regulator until 2019, just before Davies moved over from Revolut.

Unlike his alma mater, and a host of other challenger banks in the UK, the lender has carved out a core focus on the more established end of the small and medium-sized business market, firms with around 20 to 250 employees.

Conversely, Davies says a central part of providing a good digital product for that market is making sure the human side of banking remains key.

“These business owners don’t want app only. You’re running a 50-person business, it’s complex and they value that they can speak to someone.

“It’s not a branch. It’s not in person.

ALLIC-IT A LOT

Form over fashion has seen challenger bank Allica overtake flashier peers, says Richard Davies

It’s remote. But I think the pandemic completely adjusted people to that being the norm,” he reckons. This approach helped swell Allica’s deposits by 78 per cent to £1.5bn last year, up from £846m in 2021, while its loan book has surged 139 per cent to £1.35bn.

UNFOUNDED FEARS

The speed of its lending has been a key selling point to customers to tempt them over from high street lenders. But Davies admits that has been a cause of some sleepless nights over the past 12 months.

As businesses felt the squeeze of soaring costs and rate hikes at the end of last year, the prospect of a wave of defaults and a “nasty recession” were “very high on my mind”, he says. And those fears morphed into even greater concerns as what looked to be a fullscale banking crisis emerged this year.

However, on both counts, those fears have not materialised. While the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank triggered fears that customers would rush to withdraw their cash from smaller banks, he points to a live graph showing the bank’s deposits and a smoothlooking line upwards. “You can’t spot any banking crisis on that, right?”

REGULATORY CREDIT

The credit should go to the regulators, he says. UK banks have avoided the worst impacts of the recent banking turmoil by a more sensible approach to capital buffers ushered in after the 2008 financial crash.

A rules overhaul in the wake of that crisis heralded the creation of challenger banks like Allica, and they have largely created an environment in which those upstart lenders can flourish over the past 15 years. However, that standing is now in

doubt, Davies warns. Regulators are looking to tweak rules governing how much cash banks have to hold on their balance sheet to shore themselves up against losses. While the plans tabled by the PRA and Treasury make sense for most of the banking sector, Davies says, he claims it could now scupper a major chunk of small business lending.

“There’s up to £44bn pounds of SME lending at risk under the current PRA proposals. And some nonsensical stuff comes out of it.”

He points mainly to the fact that secured loans will be deemed more risky than unsecured loans under the plans. Allica is loudly lobbying for changes to the rules and has been meeting with MPs and industry movers and shakers to try and affect change.

HOME GROWTH

But even with those gripes in the background and wider fears of an

exodus of innovative firms from the UK, Davies says Allica is now doubling down on growth at home.

“My personal ambition is to be 10 percent of [the small business lending] market over the coming years – to truly make people sit up, take notice and invest in that segment in a way that perhaps Revolut and Monzo did in consumer in years gone by.”

While he is coy over a shift onto the public markets and talk of grand growth plans, he says Allica is off the “capital-raising treadmill” and will now ramp up building products for the market it serves.

A raft of new initiatives are already in the works, including a new growth finance product, and new capabilities around its current accounts and payments.

Rolling those out is the priority, Davies says. “Then the other stuff almost takes care of itself.”

MARK KLEINMAN

Della Valle faces instant challenges at Vodafone

Talk about not ringing the changes.

Vodafone’s decision to appoint its former finance chief and long-time company veteran Margherita della Valle as its new chief executive was arguably the least likely outcome when its search kicked off formally five months ago.

Institutional shareholders had been clamouring for fresh blood as they fumed at Vodafone’s performance under Nick Read, CEO since 2018. Only an outsider could override the telecoms giant’s oft-derided bureaucracy and inject its dealmaking with vigour, the theory went.

Opting for della Valle is a gamble for chair Jean-Francois van Boxmeer.

Chief among shareholder complaints has been a lack of decisiveness from its executive team. Merger talks with Three UK have been dragging on for many months, typifying the cumbersome way in which Vodafone has been run for many years. Given the inevitability of a probe into a tie-up, the companies should have pressed the button on an outline agreement long ago.

Similarly, the FTSE-100 group is said to be exploring ways to consolidate its position in della Valle’s native Italy, where telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel –himself now a Vodafone shareholder – is a key player.

Beware the taxman. Nasmyth Group saw a mechanism called a restructuring plan that would have involved ‘cramming down’ creditors blocked by a court after HMRC objected to the proposals. The company has been owned for just over a year by Rcapital, the private equity firm which specialises in trying to turn around troubled companies.

Stuck, it has now filed a notice of intention to

appoint administrators to Nasmyth Group Limited, an intermediate holding company. People close to the situation say it will have a chilling effect on the ability of small and medium-sized companies to implement formal financial restructurings.

Elsewhere, Fitness First, the gym

Offloading or reducing its stakes in key European markets may feel like an ongoing admission of defeat for some at Vodafone, which grew into a sprawling behemoth promising a unified and high-quality performance from anywhere in the world.

In reality, the last decade has given the lie to that promise, with weak returns and a confused web of international operations sending telecoms investors elsewhere.

Yet Vodafone’s share register now looks very different. E& owns a big stake; Niel holds a smaller position; and Liberty Global – a move described in February by the buyer’s chief executive, Mike Fries, as “an opportunistic and financial investment”.

It seems logical that van Boxmeer will at least have attempted to sound out his strategic investors before appointing della Valle last week. She is said to have impressed Vodafone’s board and shareholders with a hithertoabsent sense of urgency. Nevertheless, with full-year results less than a fortnight away, she will know there is little chance of a honeymoon period in one of corporate Britain’s top jobs.

chain, and Prezzo, the casual dining group, are also turning to restructuring plans to force through overhauls involving site closures, rent cuts and job losses. A trio of these processes arriving simultaneously looks like more than a coincidence - a deluge of painful restructurings is on the way.

FRC reform: Will the saga of ARGA be overlooked?

1596: that’s the number of days since Sir John Kingman, the former Treasury mandarin, published his independent review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Britain’s audit watchdog.

Given how long ago that is, it’s worth refreshing your memory that Kingman recommended scrapping the FRC and replacing it with a statutory regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA).

But for ARGA, read saga, as the new body makes – at best – painstaking progress towards its apotheosis.

This week, the government will begin advertising for a new chief executive for the FRC as it then transitions into its successor organisation.

The chosen candidate will replace Sir Jon Thompson, who is stepping down after a transition period to become the new chair of HS2. Thompson, the former boss of HM Revenue & Customs, is regarded to have done a capable job paving the way for the swathe of reforms which is heading the way of the big four

accountancy firms and the rest of corporate Britain.

Yet the legislative timetable for creating ARGA remains mired in uncertainty, and with a general election probably just 18 months away, there seems no guarantee that a 2024 target for having it up and running is That’s unacceptable for a government which talked about audit reform being an economic priority after the collapses of

Carillion and BHS, both of which had questionable accounting practises at the heart of their demise.

It’s also unhelpful in terms of attracting a high-calibre successor to Thompson, with or without a £330,000 salary.

Labour’s front bench team has been asking a conspicuous number of questions on this issue in parliament in recent times.

Don’t be surprised if Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, swoops in to take the credit for implementing a longpromised overhaul of audit regulation if her party forms a government next year.

Restructuring plans are having a chilling effect on smaller firms

THE SQUARE MILE AND ME

FIRST JOB IN THE CITY?

I managed to get a summer job in the City in 1990 at Hambros Bank, writing reports on Russia and the potential economic opportunity post-Gorbachev. I was doing my A Levels at the City of London School, one of which was Russian which was a little unusual in 1990. UK banks were keen to build their knowledge of eastern Europe, and they were looking for someone who had a strong interest in eastern Europe and was willing to research in a dingy backroom for a couple of months, and at that time it’s fair to say the competition for places was not particularly strong.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB IN FINANCIAL SERVICES?

I’ve never had a job in traditional financial services, other than my summer job. My first full time role post-university was with Bain and Company, initially in Moscow and then in Sydney. It was a great learning experience, but I realised soon enough that corporate life was not going to be the long-term career for me.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU WERE IN THE RIGHT JOB?

When we started Flutter.com in 1999 (with three former colleagues from Bain), I realised then that building businesses with talented people was going to be the future career direction for me. Being an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs, but you can’t beat the highs when things go right. I have always been a fiercely independent person and to this day feel an enormous personal responsibility to do everything I can to help a business succeed. It doesn’t always go to plan, but there is no better job working with dynamic founders who want to drive truly disruptive change in financial services.

WHO IS THE CITY OF LONDON FIGURE YOU MOST ADMIRE?

I’ve been lucky enough to have had some fantastic mentors over the years, from my father, Peter Levene, to Michael Marks of New Smith Court legend. However, I am forever grateful to Jacob Rothschild who despite declining to invest in Flutter.com in 2000 when I butchered the pitch, did keep an eye on what we were building. I met him many years later, and when I suggested to him that technology was going to finally disrupt financial services after the 2008 financial crisis, he challenged me to do something about it and, ultimately with his encouragement, RIT Capital backed me to launch my first VC fund in 2010.

WHAT’S ONE THING YOU LOVE ABOUT THE CITY OF LONDON...?

The City of London is an incredible square mile with a rich history, diverse culture, abundant energy and a

London-listed fintech fund Augmentum’s Tim Levene tells us about Moscow vodka, founding Flutter.com and why he’s fed up of watching Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this year

AND DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE POST-WORK WATERING HOLE?

I don’t think any major city has the history and character of City of London pubs. I would give The Ship in Talbot Court (off Eastcheap) a try. 17th century, and a decent selection of craft beers and gins (my choices) -- but get there early if you want a seat!

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC FOR THE REST OF 2023?

I am a venture capital investor, I am always inherently optimistic with a glass half full attitude.

I think the second half of 2023 can’t be any worse than the first half, but it’s fair to say that we’ve not yet seen the full impact of the fallout from the asset bubble post-Covid and the consumer impact as a result of inflation/high interest rates. Nevertheless, the harder it gets to pick winners, the more excited I become as an investor, as the next five years will be a truer test of identifying real outliers rather than piggybacking on hype.

GIVE US ONE BOLD PREDICTION FOR THE FINTECH SECTOR THIS YEAR?

You will see more large incumbent financial institutions acquire or attempt to acquire some “best in class fintechs”. Their balance sheets have swelled, and their digital transformation strategies have become mired with challenges. With valuations moderating, it becomes an imperative for the incumbents to look beyond their own attempts to disrupt from within.

WHERE’S HOME DURING THE WEEK?

wealth of talent. It continues to evolve, and I believe it is going through a significant transformation that will last for many years.

... AND ONE THING YOU’D CHANGE?

I would like to see a busier City on Fridays. The post-Covid “work from home” malaise continues to prevail, affecting small businesses that make up over 95 per cent of City businesses. They need strong footfall to sustain their business, which is why the Destination City initiative driven by the City of London Corporation is crucial in getting more people into the City seven days a week.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT?

Besides my family, I am hugely proud to have launched the only listed fintech venture fund in the UK and one of the only globally. It has not been a straightforward journey but we have had some great successes to date and I am excited about many of the fintechs we have in our portfolio.

I am confident that the next couple of years will see our patient investors rewarded.

QUICKFIRE ROUND

FAVOURITE...

FILM: LOST IN TRANSLATION

BOOK: SHOE DOG – PHIL KNIGHT

BAND: OASIS

DRINK: TEA OR COFFEE? DOUBLE MACCHIATO BEFORE 12PM AND PEPPERMINT TEA ANY TIME AFTER

WHAT’S YOUR MOST MEMORABLE LUNCH?

When I lived in Moscow in 1993, I was working for Bain who were advising the Russian government at the time on small business privatisation strategy. There were a handful of rather conservative but experienced US consultants who had been flown into Russia to lead the team. As a country coming out of communism, there had been little to no exposure as to how

“business” was done in the US. Putting the Russians and Americans together in a meeting room was a cultural challenge, so the only way of getting cut-through was to meet over lunch or dinner. This usually involved a great deal of bad food and a lot of very good vodka.

As the young Englishman in the team, the US team decided I would be the designated drinker and spare their blushes by leading the toasts in Russian. It’s fair to say I learnt how to drink vodka like a Russian but struggled to add any value in the office after lunch.

WE’RE GOING FOR LUNCH AND YOU’RE PICKING –WHERE ARE WE GOING?

I rarely go out for lunch so sadly can recite the full Itsu or Pret menu on demand. However, if I get my priorities right then I’ll take you to Coya City if you fancy Peruvian or across the road to Entrecote for a decent steak and a bottle of red.

I live near Hampstead Heath and am a proud Londoner and always will be. Despite living all over the world, I have never lived anywhere in London that doesn’t have an NW at the start of the postcode.

AND WHERE WOULD WE FIND YOU ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON?

My great grandfather opened a shop on the Fulham Road in the 1880s so as a family we’ve been afflicted Chelsea fans since the first season in 1905. I still go with my father, sister and my three children, although this season I would rather be anywhere else than Stamford Bridge. They have been truly atrocious, arguably the worst in history considering their individual talent. I have seen some poor teams since my first season in 1978 so that is saying something!

YOU’VE A WELL-DESERVED TWO WEEKS OFF –WHERE ARE YOU GOING, AND WHO WITH?

Sea Island, Georgia, USA. I’ve been going there since I was a child, and it is a truly special place that stays lost in time.

My kids love it there, despite the fact they are now all teenagers, they never stop asking when we are going back.

CITY DASHBOARD

London claws back losses ahead of US rates decision

LONDON’s FTSE 100 regained ground yesterday after nursing sharp losses yesterday driven by fears over the global banking system flaring up again.

The capital’s premier index jumped 0.2 per cent to 7,788.38 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, climbed 0.27 per cent to 19,365.60 points.

On Monday, traders ditched London shares rapidly in the final hours of exchanges after Wall Street opened sharply lower due to concerns about further banking collapses rolling on.

Regional US lenders are being seen as fragile as a result of the US Federal Reserve’s series of aggressive interest rate rises.

Authorities passed through a fire sale of First Republic – which suffered $100bn (£80bn) of deposit outflows due to its rich clients piling into assets offering better returns – to JP Morgan at the beginning of the week, though that seems to have done little to cushion concerns.

Fed officials this evening UK time are poised to hike interest rates for the ninth time in a row -- probably by 25 basis points to a range of five and

YOUR ONE-STOP SHOP FOR BROKER VIEWS AND MARKET REPORTS

RATE DECISIONS

5.25 per cent.

“The recent banking crisis may see the Fed look to be more cautious, whilst there has been evidence of disinflation, albeit core readings for price growth remain stubbornly high. Hard to see the Fed be too hawkish until that is resolved, but at the same time it has to keep tight with its inflation message,” Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Finalto, said.

On the FTSE 100 yesterday, textbook maker Pearson clawed back some of its steep losses registered yesterday, soaring over nine per cent and to the top of the index.

There is a growing consensus among investors that AI tools like ChatGPT could reduce demand for physical and traditional educational resources, pushing Pearson down as much as 15 per cent in London on Monday.

House builder Barratt Developments traded near the bottom of the FTSE 100 after signalling to investors in results this morning its new business pipeline has slimmed as a result of weaker demand in the property market. Its shares dropped around 1.2 per cent. The pound strengthened about 0.6 per cent against the US dollar.

Property company Barratt Developments assured investors that it is on target for the year, despite a drop in sales caused by lack of confidence in the housing market. The group posted total forward sales of £2.95bn in April, down from £4.50bn last year. Peel Hunt said that the firm had produced an “in-line” trading statement.

Gambling giant Flutter saw its continued US expansion drive pay off this quarter, with revenue growth of 46 per cent year on year. Peel Hunt analysts said the US business is “on track” for profitability in 2023. Its share price is up 40 per cent to date, the third-best performer in the FTSE 100.

Ryanair posted “robust” traffic statistics for April with 16m passengers flying, despite the cancellation of over 650 flights due to strike action in France. The lowcost carrier isn’t expecting any significant impact to its performance this month.Peel Hunt reiterated its buy rating on its shares, with a target price of €20.

SETTING THE TONE “European markets have undergone a modest rebound after Monday’s negative start to the week, with the focus very much on last night’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision, as well as today’s ECB meeting... How they manage the messaging around these decisions is likely to dictate how much volatility we can expect to see between now and the end of the week.”

MICHAEL HEWSON, CMC MARKETS

OPINION

EDITED BY SASCHA O’SULLIVAN

I’m a celebrity, get me to City Hall! Our stars should take a pop at local politics

John Oxley

WHILE much of the country goes to the polls today, Londoners will have to wait another year to have their say. The ebb and flow of electoral cycles leaves London without local elections, looking on as the city counts down until next year's GLA and Mayoral poll.

The latter already feels like a foregone conclusion. While nearly half of Londoners think Sadiq Khan is faring badly in the role, the Tory brand has plummeted in the capital with a recent poll putting them on just 18 per cent. If the Conservatives are to stand a chance in the capital, they’ll need a candidate whose personal popularity can overcome this. It’s hardly surprising that rumours are circulating that they are on the search for a celebrity.

As they look to add some sparkle to the campaign, names like barristerturned presenter Rob Rinder or West Ham Vice Chair and Tory peer Karen Brady have been thrown in the mix. It remains to be seen if any big names are interested, or if they have the skills to deliver an effective campaign and a competent mayoralty beyond that – but it does highlight the opportunities that can come from looking beyond politics for a candidate.

The London mayoralty offers a unique

opportunity for the politically curious outsider. It has the biggest popular mandate of any role in British politics, and comes with a high profile, arguably global, presence that would take years of greasy pole climbing to reach in parliament. Equally, it is perhaps easier to win from the outside than many races due to the constant news coverage the race will get. Yet, despite that the race has not appealed to any dark horses so far.

Each of the three London Mayors so far have been lifelong politicos. All have served in the House of Commons before coming to City Hall – though Living-

stone did win his first campaign as an independent. So far, the declared Tory candidates largely fit this mould too with backgrounds as GLA members, government advisors and councillors. The mayoralty has served to boost the brands of the incumbents, rather than pulling outsiders into public service. There’s no good reason for this. In the United States, mayoral contests are known for the variety of people they pull in, often with great success. Mayors from outside of politics have proven popular and effective, from figure skater and business owner Hillary Schieve in Reno to soft drinks magnate

Gregory Fischer, who drove a data-led approach to policy in his tenure in Louisville. Perhaps most famous of all is Mike Bloomberg, the multi-billionaire who served two terms as mayor of New York.

Closer to home, Andy Street stands out as an example, leaving his role as MD of John Lewis to become Mayor of the West Midlands. He is now in his second term and is widely recognised as one of the success stories of the past few years for the Tory Party. Clearly, finding the right candidate from outside of the usual sources can pay dividends for parties.

It seems unlikely the party’s celebrity flirtation will amount to much. In 2016 footballer Sol Campbell’s bid to be Tory candidate petered out and it is unlikely many outsiders would like to saddle themselves with the party’s London reputation now. The mayoralty may, however, remain tempting for someone with the cash and the brand, yet little political experience, to target.

Instead of trying his hand at embarrassing travel documentaries, Danny Dyer, the Eastenders star, could be travelling around the capital. He has both the story of being a working class Londoner, and the star power. He could even take a leaf out of Rory Stewart’s book and offer to sleep on people’s sofa, who would say no to that?

Whether endorsed by a major party, or running their own campaign, there are famous names and business leaders who might fancy a tilt at mayor sometime. With Sadiq Khan struggling, and the Tory brand rubbished, 2024 might not be the worst year to try it.

£ John Oxley is a political commentator

LAST month, the Treasury published an ad for a senior role, the Head of Cyber Security. If you’re in charge of a small company’s finances, it’s an important job. If you’re in charge of the country’s, it’s a question of national security.

It was a fairly stock standard job description looking for a “highly motivated individual” keen to work at the “heart of government in a time of momentous change.” What was unusual was the salary: £57,000 per annum. The national average for a head of cyber security is exactly double that at £114,000. If you were to look at companies like Google, Meta or some of the big banks, you can only expect to be able to double it again, at the very least.

Many of the tech companies have a handy trick of hiring people straight out of regulators, places like Ofcom in the UK or the Federal Trade Commission in the US. To do the opposite, and get governments to poach from these companies is nigh on impossible because of the salary differentials.

Thanks to inflationary pressures, tech companies across the world have bled staff like a haemophiliac with an open wound. Over the weekend, one of the top artificial intelligence pioneers, Geoffrey Hinton, quit Google over fears of the speed of the development of the new technology.

“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr. Hinton told the New York Times.

But clearly, Dr Hinton is hoping he can have some influence in mitigating the worst possible consequences of artificial intelligence. Instead of being inside pissing out, he wants to be outside pissing in, and whoever hires him next will benefit from his years of experience as the “godfather of AI”.

After OpenAI, one of the leaders in the artificial intelligence space and owner of ChatGPT, released an up-

dated version of its chatbot in March, more than 1,000 tech leaders and researchers signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on any new systems because of the “profound risks to society and humanity”. Only days later, 19 current and former leaders of one of the top academic institutions of artificial intelligence, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, wrote their own public letter about the risks of AI. One of the signatories was Eric Horowitz, the chief scientific officer at Microsoft, which has integrated OpenAI into its products.

In the UK, there have been some vague noises from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology about how we go about regulating artificial intelligence. It includes plans to send out “practical guidance” to organisations and businesses, while also developing “pro-innovation” regulation.

Legislation to that effect will be introduced, if there is parliamentary time (hint, there probably isn’t).

A report by the think tank Onward has suggested we should even build our very own “Great Britain GPT” to give us control over the technology.

Previous attempts for the government to be up with the latest thing have varied from clunky to cringe. Britcoin is evidence of both. The name undeniably ticks the cringe box, while the consultation, set to go until 2025, might just outlast the rise and fall of five new types of digital currency. We certainly have no hope of doing any better with an AI equivalent unless we have people who actually know what they’re doing.

This isn’t just to give the government a hard time. It’s a difficult task, which requires an incredibly high degree of technical expertise. The good news is that there is a list of a thousand or so

people worried about AI, with that level of experience, officials could go through and try and hire. They could sit down tomorrow and work their way through the list until they find someone willing to take it on, for the right reasons and the right price. We routinely talk about how broke we are in the UK, but we’re not completely skint. There is money going around and at least some of that should be put towards hiring the best people. Many will point to the highly restrictive Whitehall pay bands as the problem, and the lack of public popularity for highly paid bureaucrats and political staff. These are thorny, but not insurmountable roadblocks. It shouldn’t take a genius at the top of politics to explain that with very technical roles, it requires salaries to match. Just look at the more than 400 managers across the NHS earning above £150,000.

With the current state of the tech market, the public sector has the chance to bring some of the top minds on board to work on any forthcoming legislation.

In March, the tech community knew just six months could be enough to change the face of AI a few times over. If we’re hoping to understand it and bring it under some control with salaries the equivalent of £57,000, we hardly stand a chance.

Britain badly needs a godfather of AI regulation, but we’ll never be able to afford him (or her)

Boris Johnson used the London Mayoralty to build up his profile

Sascha O’Sullivan

Comment and features editor at City AM

If the Tories are to stand a chance in London, they need a candidate with personal popularity

WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR VIEWS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR London losing its tech shine

[Re: London listings: Watchdog proposes doing away with ‘standard’ and ‘premium’ segments]

The loss of Tech Nation, the reduced R&D tax credit support, a lack of funding - particularly for scale ups, widespread layoffs, a banking crisis which spooked markets and falling behind on the IPO front have caused some to question the future of tech in the UK.

For entrepreneurs across Europe, like myself, the UK has always stood out as a positive example of a progressive tech hub that champions innovation and balanced risk-taking.

The UK is still the number one tech hub

in Europe by some margin, and number three in the world. It boasts a tech sector with a combined market value of $1 tn. But other cities in Europe and beyond are moving ahead with positive developments such as new investment schemes aimed at enticing startups, making them an attractive alternative. Hubs like Berlin and Paris are rapidly building talent and streams of investment all the time, closing the gap. Decisive public and private sector support for Silicon Valley Bank deposit holders was welcomed.

In fact, the UK acted much faster than the US during this crisis. This type of positive, decisive and supportive action is exactly what’s needed to keep London ahead of its plucky competitors.

Yoko Spirig Ledgy

A ROOM WITH A VIEW Airbnb to focus on 1m single rooms listings

Let’s be honest, we can’t keep blaming supermarkets for the sky-high food prices

Matthew Lesh

ASUPERMARKET visit may very well have changed the course of human history. In 1989, Russian President Boris Yeltsin went to Randall’s in Texas. He was shocked by the packed shelves and the diversity of choices, from fresh meat and fish to frozen puddings. Yeltsin remarked that “there would be a revolution” if the Soviet people, who had to line up for meagre supplies, saw an American supermarket. He wrote in his biography that the experience shattered his belief in communism, contributing to reforms that turned the tide of the Cold War. Supermarkets are nothing short of a modern miracle. Our forefathers were forced to survive on a small array of local produce and often suffered from malnourishment and regular famines. Today we can pick from thousands of goods from across the planet just down the street.

But as households struggle with the cost of living crisis, with wages failing

EXPLAINER-IN-BRIEF: RISHI SUNAK’S FIGHT AGAINST THE FRAUDSTERS ROBBING BRITAIN

Fraud is now the most common crime in Britain: it constitutes 41 per cent of all offences committed. Rishi Sunak has decided to take the fight to the fraudsters, with a new strategy that should, we are told, ensure we are better equipped to recognise a scam when we see one. The prime minister is banning so-called “SIM farms”, devices used by fraudsters to send innumerable scam messages in a second. He’s also investing more energy into stopping “spoof calls”

and launching a National Fraud Squad of specialised investigators. But what’s even more interesting is what Sunak says - or doesn’t say - about online platforms. Ministers were considering, for a while, making social media giants responsible for compensating victims of fraud. Then the plans got diluted and the government now seems to have chosen the framework of a “voluntary agreement” with social media giants.

ELENA SINISCALCO

to keep up with rising costs, anger is increasingly directed at supermarkets. It’s easy to understand why. Food inflation is at a 45-year high, up an astonishing 19 per cent year-on-year to March 2023. According to the Office for National Statistics, almost half (48 per cent) of Brits are buying fewer groceries.

In response, the Liberal Democrats are calling for a competition investigation into “supermarket profiteering” and rules against raising the price of essentials. There is concern that supermarkets are making “eye-watering” profits while households struggle. These claims, however, should be taken with a large pinch of pink Himalayan rock salt (£4.50 in Waitrose).

British supermarkets did not sud-

denly become greedy and monopolistic in the last twelve months. In fact, they have made immense efforts to keep prices as low as possible, given free or discounted meals to children, and provided discounts to vulnerable groups. But they have faced higher wholesale costs following disruptions to global supply chains after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There is also the general inflationary pressure from loose monetary policy from central banks during the pandemic. The alternative to price rises would have been food shortages even worse than the empty tomatoes crate in the local Sainsbury’s.

Some have pointed out that prices remain high despite wholesale food costs falling in recent months. But we should be careful in jumping to conclusions. There is often a delay between retail prices reflecting changes in wholesale conditions. Supermarkets are stuck with longer-term contracts, signed when prices were higher. According to the industry, this leads to a three to nine-month lag in retail

prices. There are also other production costs, such as electricity and labour, that have pushed up prices and remain elevated.

It’s notable that the latest financial results from supermarkets show precisely the opposite of profiteering. Sainsbury’s operating profits before tax were down 7 per cent in the final quarter of last year. Tesco has faced a fall of 6.3 per cent, Asda reported a 24 per cent fall, and Morrisons is down 15 per cent.

The complaint then appears to be that supermarkets are making any profit whatsoever. This is obviously absurd. Profit is the reward for providing a product to consumers that fulfils their needs; it’s a key motivator of investment, job creation and innovation. The alternative to profitable supermarkets is something closer to what Boris Yeltsin experienced back in the Soviet Union.

£ Matthew Lesh is the Director of Public Policy and Communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs

The chief complaint seems to be that supermarkets are making any profit whatsoever

Sainsbury’s operating profts were down 7 per cent in the last quarter of 2022

Airbnb is going back to basics: it will make it easier to rent a room in someone’s home, rather than an entire apartment, to ensure it still offers affordable options as people’s savings are eaten away by the cost-of-living crisis. Hosts will be invited to share more information for safety reasons.

Biden’s crypto mining tax plans simply wouldn’t work in the UK

US PRESIDENTJoe Biden has unveiled plans for a proposed massive tax levy on electricity used by cryptocurrency miners. The proposal, which would see crypto mining operations face a 30 per cent tax on energy, could be implemented by next year if it is approved by the US government.

The Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise, according to a White House document, has been designed to tackle “negative spill-overs on the environment” and ensure mining operations pay for the “full cost they impose on others”.

It comes only weeks after a heavilycriticised New York Times article pointed an incriminating finger of blame at the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency industry. It appears the same sentiment from the NYT report is being reflected by the Biden administration.

However, UK crypto and blockchain expert Jason Deane has scoffed at Washington’s proposals, and reassured tech industry leaders that a similar taxation could not be implemented by the British government.

“Here in the UK, Bitcoin mining is next to non-existent in terms of drawing form the gird because power costs are such that it is simply not economical,” explained the experienced Bitcoin miner.

“While the UK government may well consider the same idea, the reality is that the impact would be zero.”

Deane also said the tax proposals revealed a profound lack of understand-

ing within the White House, explaining the ethos of the levy used “biased and oversimplified headline data from parties with a vested interest”.

“Consider, for example, the New York Times article on Bitcoin mining last month which has since been widely dismissed and largely disproved for poor, one-sided research,” he added.

“Statements made by the White

House are embarrassingly inaccurate and include wild claims that appear to be designed to appeal to a voter base. In my view, this is a purely political manoeuvre rather than being environmentally or economically led.”

He did, however, warn the bill has a reasonable chance of becoming law due to the current mood of the House and Senate towards digital assets.

CRYPTO NEWS IN BRIEF

FINEQIA TO LAUNCH CRYPTO CAPITAL FUND

LONDON-based Fineqia is set to start a new venture capital fund that will invest in innovative companies in the digital asset industry. The company will transfer a selection of its investments to a new entity called Fineqia Glass Slipper Ventures (FGSV), which will form part of FGSV’s portfolio. In lieu, Fineqia will receive a proportionate equity interest in the fund. FGSV will leverage Fineqia’s expertise in digital assets and its focus on investing in early and growth-stage technology companies to identify emerging organisations and protocols across the digital asset economy. Previously, Fineqia has invested in digital asset manager Wave Digital Assets LLC, the Wave NFT Fund, blockchain gaming platform company Forte Labs, Inc and the IDEO CoLab Fund 1.

SWEDEN APPROVES ITS FIRST MULTI-ASSET ETP

VIRTUNE – Sweden’s regulated digital asset manager - has announced it will be listing the first physically-backed multiasset crypto ETP on Nasdaq Stockholm. The ETP tracks Virtune Vinter Crypto Top 10 Index (VTOP10) built by the nation’s BMR index provider Vinter. Being physically backed means all constituents in the ETP are fully collateralised with the underlying crypto assets. The VTOP10 Index provides exposure to 85% of the crypto market by investing in the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalisation.

“The likely effect of it passing would be capital flight from the country as miners relocate elsewhere, something it is relatively easy for them to do,” he said.

“This means income from the bill would likely be close to zero, but the cost to the US economy in terms of job losses, investment losses at retail and institutional level would be significant.”

Is Bitcoin picking up the pieces of broken banks?

ITWAS a concerning week for the US banking system, but are people looking to Bitcoin to fix things?

Regulators stepped in over the weekend as another US bank collapsed, with commentators pointing primarily at pressures related to high interest rates. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced it was coughing up $13 billion to cover the bank’s losses, while JPMorgan purchased First Republic’s assets.  The deal comes less than two months

after the failure of Silicon Valley (SVB) and Signature Bank, which many analysts believe was a major driver of the rally that sees the leading crypto up by roughly 40 per cent since the SVB collapse.

The collapse of First Republic doesn’t seem to have caused any particular spike in performance though, with the crypto markets mostly flat or down over the past seven days. The price of Bitcoin is down around three per cent to $28,500 since this time last week, while others such as Ethereum are down by slightly more.

The technicals are looking a bit more positive though. The Bitcoin network recorded 568,300 transactions on Sunday last week - nearly 78,000 more than its previous peak during the top of the 2017 bull run. Half of these transactions were from ordinals, or Bitcoin NFTs as they have become known.

An ordinal is essentially a transaction with extra data attached to it. This data can represent text, music or art, but, eventually, also other types of cryptocurrencies. It means that the

BHUTAN EYEING UP HUGE CRYPTO MINING PLANS

BHUTAN is understood to be looking at raising $500 million to plough into crypto mining. The nation’s investment armNasdaq-listed Bitdeer Technologies – hopes to use the funds to develop sustainable crypto mining. Although one of the world’s smallest economies, the landlocked SouthAsian kingdom has abundant opportunities for investment in hydroelectric power. Fundraising will begin later this month, with a goal to establish environmentallyfriendly digital mining by 2025.

BUYING VOLUME, AND ALL THAT JASMY

Bitcoin network may one day be able to host a stablecoin or other cryptocurrencies.

There was also potentially positive news for adoption, with a number of outlets reporting that payments giant Visa is hiring backend developers with experience in public blockchains.

AS most digital assets settled into a sideways motion in a relatively flat week, the most noticeable crypto on the markets has been Japan’s JASMY. The token behind ‘Internet of Things’ developer Jasmy, it has seen a solid and progressive lift of five per cent over seven days, underlining a monthon-month increase of almost 35 per cent.

Yesterday alone, the $319m market cap asset’s 24-hour buying volume had doubled to an impressive $73m.

However, JASMY’s current price of $0.0067 is some distance from its all-time high of $4.99 set shortly after its launch in February 2021.

FOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS, VIEWS AND ANALYSIS HEAD OVER TO

GOING OUT

EDITED BY STEVE DINNEEN @steve_dinneen

THE FINAL GUARDIANS IS FUN BUT OVER-STUFFED

MOVIES

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

DIR.

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

Guardians of The Galaxy was seen as a massive gamble for Marvel. It made some risky decisions, namely focussing more on lesser known characters, and bringing in a more unknown director, but the decisions paid off, as three movies and a Christmas special can attest to.

Nine years later, those unknown heroes are household names, and director James Gunn is saying goodbye as he leaves the franchise behind to take over as head of DC’s new universe. Can the best possibly be the last?

We find The Guardians in their new home of Nowhere, and at a low ebb as

Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) mourns the loss of Gamora (Zoe Saldana). That malaise is halted, however, when Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) invades their home on the orders of his creator, The High Priestess (Elizabeth Debicki). The attack seriously wounds Rocket, meaning the Guardians must travel to seek help from his ‘creator’, High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).

Having written and directed every Guardians entry, the affection Gunn feels for the world is present in every frame. Much more of an isolated adventure than most Marvel movies are allowed to be, the wackiness and humour that has become the director’s signature is present and correct. It also showcases his ability to drop devastating moments out of nowhere. This third film lets Rocket break your heart, particularly in the flashbacks involving other augmented animals. Most Marvel stories end with sadness, but Gunn’s talent is reminding you why you care on a deeper level.

On the downside, Gunn also strug-

gles to fit many separate ideas together. While it’s not the narrative pile-up that Eternals was, several characters seem stuck for something to do, while constant steering between comedy and tragedy is a thrill ride that can cause motion sickness.

Nevertheless, his cast of regulars just about pull it off. Chris Pratt seems relieved to be in less of a central role and there’s excellent work by Bradley Cooper (and motion capture performer Sean Gunn) as Rocket. Newer characters arrive with a bang but struggle for purpose. Poulter is impressive, as is Debicki, but both feel like new arrivals to a party that’s just winding down. Iwuji is a delight, swinging for the fences in the knowledge that dour Marvel villains are rarely remembered. The closing chapter of Guardians groans under the burden of having to be both a story for now and a trailer for what’s to come. However, Gunn leaves the MCU teaching it a valuable lesson for its future: making the stakes personal keeps the audience invested.

KUNG FU MOVIE ABOUT BRUCE LEE’S MENTOR MISFIRES

RECOMMENDED IP MAN: THE AWAKENING

BY VICTORIA LUXFORD

This historical origin story is the latest to dramatize the life of Wing Chun master Ip Man. Over the years, the man who mentored Bruce Lee has been portrayed many times, most notably in Donnie Yen’s hit Ip Man franchise (2008-2019) and Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster.

This seems unlikely to be as well regarded, as Li Xi Jie and Zhang Zhulin’s movie falls far short of that standard.

Miu Tse is charismatic as the young Ip Man, shown during his early days in Hong Kong where he crosses paths with evil British human trafficker Mr Stark (Sergio De Ieso). Plot-wise, it’s very much like every low budget action

movie you’ve ever seen as the righteous good guys take on the mean-spirited, cackling (and often cigar smoking) foreign villains.

Those hoping for some insight into the iconic title character will leave disappointed, as the script takes a back seat to ornate fighting scenes which are entertaining, albeit a bit empty without a worthwhile story to drive them.

Tse does his best with what he has, having enough presence to overcome the flaky dialogue and a film that doesn’t always focus on the smaller details (there’s more than one plot point that seems to be resolved offscreen with no warning.)

Still, it’s a good audition for future interpretations of the man. De Ieso’s over-the-top performance can be a blessed relief. Although there’s no hint of subtlety, he at least looks like he’s having fun.

LUXFORD

The lives of writers don’t always make interesting viewing, but the private side of our favourite authors always seem to find their way to the big screen. The Laureate centres on poet Robert Graves (Tom Hughes), famous for his writing about his experiences during World War I. The film sees him in the throws of PTSD and unable to work, until he finds kinship with writer Laura Riding (Dianna Agron). Riding moves in with Graves

and wife Nancy (Laura Haddock), leading to an unusual living arrangement that inspires and derails all involved.

Director William Nunez films and paces the movie like a haunted house mystery. Bathed in candlelight, the ghosts that haunt this idyllic country pile symbolise the trauma that follows Graves nightly.

The plot becomes focused on the domestic situation, with plenty of lingering looks of desire between the cast as they exchange loaded lines of poetry. This provides some frisson of tension for audiences, but the chance to look at the effect war can have on a creative mind is not taken.

Agron has the most interesting per-

formance, floating between saviour and manipulator. She has great chemistry with Haddock’s Nancy, who plays a woman awoken to a different way of living after years of being a support system. Hughes doesn’t have as much room to develop, looking stricken as he has flashbacks to his past that sadly aren’t elaborated on. There are plenty of handsomely mounted dramas about troubled writers, and The Laureate sits comfortably among them without doing anything vastly different.

If you miss the Sunday night melodrama of Downton, it’s a racy tale of entanglement that will occupy the void.

DIR. LI XI JIE AND ZHANG ZHULIN

JAMES GUNN

THE LAUREATE

DIR. WILLIAM NUNEZ BY VICTORIA

GATISS’ POIGNANT TRIBUTE THEATRE

RECOMMENDED

THE MOTIVE AND THE CUE NATIONAL THEATRE

BY ADAM BLOODWORTH

If the London theatre scene has an A-List, a good chunk of that list are involed with The Motive and The Cue. Written by Harry Potter & The Cursed Child’s Jack Thorne, directed by the titan that is Sam Mendes, and starring indie pin-up Johnny Flynn alongside Mark Gatiss, this new piece of writing is made even starrier by its subject matter, the fraught relationship between Sir John Gielgud and Richard Burton during rehearsals for a prolific 1960s version of Hamlet. It’s got tremendous performances, but like those Hamlet rehearsals over half a century ago, it doesn’t all come together. Gatiss, of course, is superb as Gielgud. He ends up stealing the show, and is well worth the cost of a ticket alone. He spins Thorne’s catty Gielgud lines with an addictive waspishness; it’s the sort of studied performance that could only come from Gatiss. Flynn, too, is superb. He puts on an impressively nasal Burton-esque Welsh accent that drifts close to caricature at times, but is commanding; as entertaining and

charismatic as you’d assume Burton was when on his best behaviour and as curt and vile as when he was at his drunken worst.

But it all feels a little meek. We see these icons be frothy at parties and sharp-tongued at rehearsals; in particular Gatiss is poignant as the ageing, self-doubting Gielgud, but there’s not a whole load more to stick around for.

The staging of the final scene, in which Burton steps out to perform his

Hamlet for the first time in a role that would go on to define him, is majestic and will be remembered for decades. But overall The Motive and The Cue gets a little too carried away with celebrating these two men without delving into detail enough to find a story to keep us in our seats. I dare say it feels a tad self-interested, which feels awkwardly ironic given how the overarching idea is how Burton’s ego affected his work.

SEE STREETCAR

WHILE YOU CAN

The West End’s most lauded play is about to come to an end: A

Streetcar Named

Desire, starring Normal People’s Paul Mescal, plays its last performance this Saturday 6 May.

Tickets are hard to come by, but there are still some left and daily seats are released at the theatre. Mescal, and his co-star Patsy Ferran, are splendidso it’s well worth treating yourself.

Streetcarwestend.com

HEAD TO A NEW ROOFTOP

You might have seen that fancy new hightech light experience on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street? Well, the new Cova rooftop bar is opposite that, in the trendy Now Building, which has views over that radically changing part of the capital. See Covent Garden and Soho and eat Mediterranean dishes like carpaccio of octopus or Spanish mackerel. Why not try the tasting menu with paired wines?

cavorestaurant.com

LAY ON A FAKE BEACH

If you can’t get away properly this weekend then there’s a beach in west London that’s waiting for you. The Neverland bar in Fulham has a beachy bar out front, sponsored by Pimms. There are privately bookable cabanas and table service, with a food menu too, including tacos, homemade pizzas and beach cocktails. DJs will be spinning tracks, too.

Neverlandlondon.com

PLAN A LASTMINUTE GETAWAY

Throw forward to late May and you could be in Lisbon, far away from the British royal family, if that’s your thing. British Airways has a lastminute deal at the four-star Villa Gale Cascais hotel in the city with return flights and luggage for £289 per person. There’s loads to do in Lisbon in the spring, from rooftop sundowners to beaches a stone’s throw from the capital.

Book and find more last minute deals in May at britishairways.com

Anti Coronation Guide

Avoid

PAINT NAKED NEON PEOPLE

Tried regular life drawing and ready to up the ante by painting naked neon people rather than just naked people? We’ve got just the event for you. The Neon Naked Life Drawing class this weekend sees models painted in UV-reactive paint in fluorescent colours. Described as an “exploratory” life drawing class, models take the chance to wear really outlandish face paints, a real difference from the classic life drawing classes which try to keep things as naturalistic as possible. 6 May in Hackney; 8 May in Angel.

neonnaked.com

VISIT SOHO’S COOLEST NEW SHOP

The Aries streetwear brand has opened a store in Soho. It’s a huge space, with an attractive concerete interior look, and their clothes range pops with colour. We particularly love their No Problemo tees, coming in a range of vibrant colours, which are perfect for summer. There’s also a coffee shop from PaperBoy, and space for pop-ups and exhibitions. The initial one features work by photographer David Sims.

ariesarise.com; 31 Great Pulteney Street London W1F 9NN

SEE SOME AMAZING NEW ART

Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and Dutch painter Piet Mondrian never met but their abstract approaches and interest in understanding the natural world and the forces behind it aligned. Both artists shared an interest in creating work using vibrant colours and shapes, meaning their pieces lend well to curation. Rarely seen works from these modern artists are on display. tate.org.uk

GO BIRD WATCHING

The new King isn’t the only living thing worth standing out in the unpredictable weather for this weekend. Why not go bird watching instead? A new app called Birda helps get people out into nature with a new purpose: getting to know the wildlife around us that we typically take for granted. Not only is it a novel thing to do, all that nature is good for your mental health too.

birda.org

the Coronation with this guide to things to do this weekend that promise no regal flavour, by Adam Bloodworth

THE PUNTER HONG KONG SHOWS THE WORLD HOW IT’S DONE

Ben Cleminson reports from FWD Champions Day in Hong Kong

HORSE racing in Hong Kong is more than a sport. It’s a passion, a way of life.

The eye-watering figures that are bet into the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s pools each week illustrate just how popular it is amongst the locals.

And they were out in force at Sha Tin last Sunday on FWD Champions Day to witness a clean sweep of the three Group One prizes by local stars Golden Sixty, Lucky Sweynesse and Romantic Warrior.

The meeting was declared a triumph for Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s CEO Winfried EngelbrechtBresges.

“It was a day that showed Hong Kong racing has fully come back to the world stage with the atmosphere and the performances of these champion horses,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges.

“This is really a global event and one which has improved the reputation of Hong Kong racing, especially after Covid.”

There were no British runners at the Hong Kong International Races in December but, with restrictions lifted, Dubai Honour and Flaming Rib made the trip, with the former claiming an honourable third in the FWD QEII Cup and over £260,000 in prize money.

“If you look at Hong Kong racing, it is always about racing as a global sport,” Engelbrecht-Bresges continued.

“To create these two meetings, the Longines Hong Kong International Races and FWD Champions Day, is to showcase to the world how good Hong Kong racing is.

“And for me, for the globalisation of racing, it is important you create these global events where the best horses come along to meet

It has been just over a decade since the last British winner in Hong Kong, but EngelbrechtBresges hopes more runners from these shores will take up the challenge in December.

“I know that sprint races aren’t easy to win, but if I had a very good 1600 or 2000 metre horse, I would be planning to have the

meeting in December as one of the key anchor points,” he said.

“You cannot dance at every party, but if you want to come here you have to come with a horse specifically targeted for it and it cannot be an afterthought.”

Undoubtedly one of the biggest examples of Hong Kong’s global outlook was the introduction of World Pool in 2019.

World Pool combines the finest racing from around the world with the HKJC’s vast pools, and now with customers from 25 countries betting into it, there is unprecedented liquidity and value for punters globally.

Saturday’s QIPCO 2000 Guineas day at Newmarket kicks off the World Pool season in Britain and Sam Nati, Head of Commingling at the HKJC, explained how pleased the organisation has been with its development.

“For the HKJC, World Pool has many objectives and for every measure it has

been successful,” said Nati.

“Whether it’s from the perspective of promoting the benefits of pari-mutuel wagering, or international cooperation, or increasing the returns to the global racing industry, it has definitely been a huge positive.

“And the best part is there is still much more we can do with the brand in the future.”

New major fixtures have already been added to World Pool in 2023 with Lightning Stakes Day in Australia, The Saudi Cup and this summer’s Irish Derby, but Nati expects its wings to spread even further in future.

“We want it to be a truly global brand, and that will mean slightly different things in different markets,” said Nati.

“I can see an opportunity to expand in Australia, but we are also working with PMU France and the Breeders’ Cup to create synergies with World Pool.

“We also plan to take the German Derby and Gran Premio Latinoamericano from Argentina as part of our World Pool expansion in 2023.”

There is no bigger name in horse racing than Frankie Dettori and the legendary jockey, who rides Chaldean in the big race on Saturday, signed up as a World Pool ambassador earlier this year as he continues his farewell global tour.

“For us it is clear what World Pool can achieve, but it still needs a voice to ensure the messages are heard within

the news cycle,” said Nati. “Having Frankie assist with that is important particularly in Great Britain where World Pool has become very important for the sustainability of the industry.”

A big part of all World Pool fixtures now is the World Pool Moment of the Day which rewards each winning groom with £4,000 and the chance to be named World Pool Moment of the Year and win a VIP trip for four to Hong Kong next year.

“Our key partners in the UK, such as UK Tote Group, Racecourse Media Group and Ascot Racecourse have been very helpful in supporting our vision for World Pool and part of that was launching the Moment of the Day in 2022 across the British venues,” said Nati.

“But as World Pool is growing in numbers and in jurisdictions, we were delighted to extend that to all meetings in 2023 to reward the stable staff who play such an important role in our sport.”

The UK horse racing and betting industries are currently facing numerous challenges with issues like prize money and affordability checks, but World Pool certainly isn’t one of them.

In fact, some might say it is the single most positive development British racing has seen in years.

Let’s hope it continues to flourish and who knows, we might even be celebrating a British winner in Hong Kong in December.

World Pool has many objectives and for every measure it has been successful.

Frankie Dettori is a World Pool ambassador

Golden Sixty winning Sunday’s FWD Champions Mile at Sha Tin

Ed Warner

ENGLAND gave cricket to the world. It followed up with the generous present of T20. The Hundred, though, remains a gift unwrapped and a spurned England and Wales Cricket Board is now scrambling to secure its place in the crowded T20 world market.

It’s not too melodramatic to say that the future of first class cricket in England and Wales hangs in the balance.

It was only a matter of time before The Hundred collapsed. Reports are that the new leadership of English cricket recognises that the rest of the world is not going to adopt a format that does little more than shave a bit of time off the 20-over competition that has proved so successful, and hence lucrative.

Talk is of a replacement T20 tournament revolving round the 18 first class counties, each possibly branded as cities to play to a stronger sense of local identities.

While it is clearly too late to scrap

The Hundred for this year – tickets have been sold and TV schedules fixed – the ECB simply must accelerate discussions with the counties and broadcasters to ensure it is killed off at the end of August and a replacement agreed for 2024.

The whole exercise was a folly that, according to some, has lost money and alienated English cricket’s core fan base. And all apparently to pander to broadcasters’ desire for shorter matches as a condition for prime time coverage.

STOLEN A MARCH

The trouble is that the world has stolen a march on the ECB. There are T20 franchise leagues in almost all of the Test playing nations, offering the best players the chance to roll around the globe bowling dibbers and switchhitting sixes. Even the US has got in on the act with the launch of Major League Cricket.

MLC’s inaugural player draft took place a few weeks back, foreign investment has washed in – the owners of the Mumbai Indians’ tie-up with New York catching the eye – and the first ball is due to be bowled

CRICKET

GAME’S UP FOR THE HUNDRED

on 13 July.

The 18-day US tournament takes place in a single venue in Dallas. Simultaneously, the final two Ashes Tests of the summer will be played, ensuring MLC gets little or no coverage in England.

The 38-year-old Liam Plunkett, a World Cup winner in 2019, is the one notable English player, but he’s already been in the US for the past couple of years. The ECB has been

unwilling to grant releases for cricketers to head west, fearful of the knock-on effect on The Hundred which starts two days after the MLC final.

The American upstart is a direct threat to any new T20 initiative in England and Wales by virtue of being in the northern hemisphere, and hence sharing our summer. Each of the other T20 leagues falls outside prime English cricket weeks.

THIRD PARTY INVESTMENT

Any success for the Stateside enterprise will suck dollars – and players – from the pot potentially available to the England and Wales Cricket Board, and in turn the counties.

As a matter of urgency, England’s governing body must ask itself – honestly – what it can bring to the global T20 party. It saw The Hundred as, in part, a means of shoring up distressed counties’ finances.

Embedding these same counties in a new competition may be the right thing to do, but naming Yorkshire as Leeds, Essex as Chelmsford or Glamorgan as Cardiff will not in itself transform its commercial appeal.

To do that, those 18 city teams simply must be opened up to third party investment.

The franchise model pioneered by the Indian Premier League, in turn inspired by the operation of American sports, has apparently been considered repugnant by those at the heart of English cricket who have cleaved to the traditional county structures.

The best opportunity to embrace franchise investors may have already passed, but the ECB won’t know for sure until it has tested the market. Too late to shuck off resistance to outside investment? Let’s find out.

MI LONDON?

I have long argued that franchises for teams in The Hundred should have been given, with the appropriate strings attached, to the counties to be monetised. They are, after all, the ECB’s members.

Instead the counties were bought off with relatively modest cash payments, the ECB retaining direct control of the tournament, its rewards and, more pertinently, risks.

Brave leadership, which now thankfully seems to be in place at cricket’s HQ, would trust the counties to do right by the sport if opened up to third party money as the enabler of a new T20 contender.

MI New York is the fifth T20 franchise owned by a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Industries.

What price MI London (South), London (North), Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds or Brighton to sit alongside Mumbai Indians (men and women), MI Cape Town and MI Emirates?

Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes at sportinc.substack.com

Bowled over: Lord’s dishes up culinary treat

SPORTS stadiums can gather dust for much of the year.

Whether to do with the length of the offseason, the time between home matches or the circumstances surrounding a given season, venues often need to be used for non-sporting purposes to ensure they turn a profit throughout the calendar.

Some turn into conference facilities, others host different sports.

But at Lord’s, the home of cricket?

Well, they’re looking at food.

The Home of Food festival will hit the creases in September with an

Home of Cricket to become the Home of Food as MCC aims to get more use from iconic venue, hears Matt Hardy

aim of bringing together Michelin star chefs and punters at reasonable prices.

The gathering will see affordable food and luxury experiences in the grounds of the north London cricket ground as Lord’s looks to build on its outof-season offering.

“It’s part of our longer term strategy to open Lord’s up,” Andy Muggleton, commercial director at Lord’s owners the MCC, told City A.M.

“We’re an amazing

facility in central London and we’re geared up to host major cricket events but we know that we’ve got a great opportunity to deliver new and exciting events that engage with different audiences.

“And through some of our collaborations, with the likes of [chef] Tommy Banks over the last few years, this was a really exciting opportunity for us to showcase and engage with new audiences around our food credentials, create something really wonderful at the home of cricket and naturally a cheeky play on the home of cricket becoming The Home of Food.”

Lord’s will this year stage an Ashes Test, a five-day match against Ireland and a number of other high-profile contests, including a one-day match in

the Women’s Ashes. But sports grounds are desperate to maximise income amid the cost of living crisis and worries about reserves in the bank.

“We’ve got an asset here that’s busy for 60 days of the year, or thereabouts,” Muggleton added. “And whilst we have a thriving events and experiences business, we also want to be making sure that we’re delivering to the local community.

“[Hosting] a concert is a long way off, frankly. We need to be very careful around how we manage and deliver. This [the food festival] is the first step in demonstrating that we can deliver non-intrusive events that add value to the local economy and the local community.

“You’ve got Abbey Road, you’ve got

London Zoo [in the area] but I think from a location perspective we’re able to do more. I don’t see us staging loud, amplified concerts in the short term, maybe one day in the future, but we’ve got to be cognisant of the fact that we have residents in close proximity.”

On the food festival coming to Lord’s on 9 and 10 September, Banks said: “I have been mad about cricket from a young age and always dreamed of one day becoming a professional cricketer.

“In recent years we’ve run some fantastic events together but the launch of The Home of Food gives me the chance to bring some of my favourite peers from the hospitality industry to Lord’s, to showcase their amazing food and drink.

“In the same way that cricket crosses borders, food is a theme celebrated so widely across the world, and we’ve got some fantastic chefs coming for the weekend to showcase their culinary talent.”

Chef Banks is bringing haute cuisine to Lord’s

England chiefs should accept that T20 has won the battle in short-form cricket and follow franchise model

The American upstart is a direct threat to any T20 initiative in England and Wales

Gloucester can’t blame injuries, they’ve been shocking in 2023

ALONGSIDE the coaches, players, fans and pundits, I have no idea how Gloucester have fallen so fast and hard in the Premiership table. And I am not having injuries as an excuse.

Third after five games, seventh after eight and 10th after 19; the fall from grace has been pretty dramatic. And it’s not the first time the phrase “same old Gloucester” has cropped up. Are they serial bottle jobs?

Well, firstly, the players need to take some accountability. No level of injuries can excuse how the side performed against Newcastle and Bath in recent months when the same side came closer than Exeter Chiefs and Saracens did to beating La Rochelle.

Every team has injuries and though Gloucester’s list is pretty extensive, their line out has functioned with their fourth choice hooker and their scrum has been stable despite losing a plethora of props throughout the year.

They also replaced an Atkinson with an Atkinson – Mark with Seb – and the young gun, formerly of Worcester, has been a standout.

So I am not having injuries as an excuse.

RUGBY COMMENT

Ollie Phillips

fell out of the play-offs at the business end of the season and the club have blown their top four hopes way earlier than that this year.

So what happens if the same thing occurs three years in a row? The chopping block?

But before then Gloucester conclude their season away to Bristol Bears in a crunch match on Saturday.

The Cherry and Whites need to beat their West Country rivals and hope Bath lose to secure Champions Cup rugby next year, and that’s important.

Players want to play in the big games, in the big stadiums, making a name for themselves.

And there are far too many stars in the Gloucester squad for that not to happen, and that’s before you mention the arrival of reigning Top14 player of the year Zach Mercer who joins in the summer.

Gloucester have a record of one Premiership win in eight, and have won just twice in the domestic league in 2023. It is not good enough.

fans

The side have parted ways with former attack coach Alex King and, while their game never really managed to develop and blossom under the nowWales assistant, he at least added a senior coaching voice into the changing room – something they have been missing.

Tim Taylor is taking charge of the attack at the moment but Gloucester desperately need a good attack coach to help the Cherry and Whites make the most of their electric backs.

Their maul has been found out and they’re constantly failing to ship the ball wide to utilise the likes of Ollie Thorley and Louis Rees-Zammit.

Head coach George Skivington is a shrewd operator. He is brilliant, but he needs help in running the club.

Last year the side

Skivington is in his second full season

2023 RUGBY WORLD CUP BAROMETER

In association with

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 32, ex-New Zealand and current La Rochelle scrum-half

Rugby’s hot new trend is the exploitation of residency rules by top tier nations originally designed to help smaller countries reclaim players who ditched them early in their careers. For La Rochelle scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow, that could mean a chance of adding to his 29 New Zealand caps with a couple from Australia. Born in Melbourne, the 32-year-old has been lighting up the French Top14 and Champions Cup. With a good boot, ample distribution skills and an ability to control a game, he could be on Eddie Jones’s radar for a call-up in the twilight of his career.

WHO’S HOT WHO’S NOT

I used to play there and know how much it means to the fans. They’ll return again and again in hope of seeing their team succeed. But the club needs to deliver and repay that loyalty.

Elsewhere in the Premiership this weekend, I back all home wins bar one.

Bath could do it over Saracens. The Londoners are top of the table and uncatchable, and I have a feeling they will rotate heavily and ensure their big lads are rested for their semi-final against Northampton.

Leicester should wrap up a successful campaign under Richard Wigglesworth with a win against Harlequins, who have nothing to play for, while Sale should topple Newcastle in the so-called battle of the north. I would have backed London Irish to beat Exeter Chiefs this weekend but given the unrest at the London club over wages and their future, it might just be enough to put them off.

Former England

Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance, experts in leadership development and behavioural change. Follow Ollie on Twitter and on LinkedIn

Former France captain Charles Ollivon was shown a red card at the weekend for Toulon. It was overturned but referees will now be looking out for high shots from the flanker.

Henry Thomas is 31, playing in Montpellier and without an England cap since 2014. Yet the prop is in the provisional Rugby World Cup squad for Wales thanks to residency rules.

England wing Jack Nowell has confirmed his departure from Exeter but it remains unknown whether he will be eligible for Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad if he moves to France.

I used to play there and know how much it means to the

While Worcester’s future remains uncertain, their former centre Ollie Lawrence has thrived at new club Bath, picking up the supporters’ player of the season award.

BOWLED OVER

SPORT

Sixways here we come: Wasps step up plans for Worcester move

EXCLUSIVE MATT HARDY

FORMER Premiership club Wasps have applied to the Rugby Football Union to play at Worcester Warriors’ Sixways Stadium should they take their position in the Championship next season. The development was confirmed by the governing body of English rugby to City A.M. after the sale of Worcester to the Atlas consortium was finally rubber-stamped.

Wasps, who lost their Premiership place after falling into administration late last year, have formally requested permission from RFU chiefs, who will discuss the plan later this month.

The Rugby Football Union said: “Wasps have applied to use Sixways Stadium, the RFU will consult with local stakeholders before the request is considered by the RFU board towards the end of May.”

In a short statement to City A.M., the face of the Atlas Consortium, Jim O’Toole, had earlier said he would “not confirm” the move by Wasps.

Atlas and Worcester’s administrators Begbies Traynor yesterday announced a deal – one day after a 90-day completion deadline elapsed – finalising the transfer of the Warriors to their new owners.

The consortium, which also includes former rugby player James Sandford,

was originally planning to merge with Stourbridge RFC, soon to be in the fifth tier of the English rugby pyramid, and work their way up to the Championship. But English rugby’s governing body, which would need to approve any such merger, recently stated that any such proposal would not be allowed if it meant an organisation “buying” their place in the league.

Wasps received permission from the RFU in December to prepare for life in the English second tier after passing the board’s fit and proper tests, despite not confirming a stadium.

Former Worcester head coach Steve Diamond was waiting in the sidelines to rescue Worcester

FORMULA 1

Hamilton is far from done in F1, insists Button

should the Atlas deal have fallen through while Wasps’ head coach Lee Blackett yesterday confirmed a move to Bath Rugby as an assistant coach.

In a statement following the confirmation of their purchase, Atlas said:

“Atlas acknowledge they have been quiet in the media until today, having been focused on the complexities of the deal and the various elements required to regenerate a sustainable business for the community of Worcester.

“They will announce the next fans forum date soon as they push forward to ensure a bright future for all at Sixways.”

MATT HARDY

JENSON Button has backed former McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to stay in Formula 1 and win more world titles. Hamilton has reportedly pondered his future since coming within less than a lap of winning a record eighth crown in 2021, only to have the Drivers’ Championship controversially snatched away from him by Red Bull rival Max Verstappen. Mercedes have been off the pace since but, speaking ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand prix, 2009 world champion Button has backed the Brit to stick around.

“I don’t think Lewis is going to walk away from the sport,” Button said. “As a racing driver there are two things: if you’re winning a lot then suddenly not, you want to fight back to win so you’re not going to retire. And if you’ve been in a bad car you want to retire because it gets you down.

“Lewis is not in a bad car, he’s in a car that’s not as good as he is used to. I get that. But he knows the strengths of the team, he knows how quick he still is, so I think he’s going to work with his team to get back to fighting with Red Bull.

“And I think they will. It probably won’t be this year but in 2024 we

FOOTBALL CRICKET

Ballance one of six handed punishment for racial slurs

MATT HARDY

THE England and Wales Cricket Board has recommended a number of bans and fines for six former cricketers, including ex-England international Gary Ballance, over their involvement in the racism scandal at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

The six players were found to have used racial slurs at a disciplinary commission hearing in March.

Former England batter Gary Ballance has been recommended a fine of £8,000 and a ban of eight weeks –the 33-year-old announced his retirement from all forms of

cricket last month.

The England and Wales Cricket Board also recommended a variation of fines, suspensions, education courses and reprimands for Tim Bresnan, Matthew Hoggard, John Blain, Richard Pyrah and former Yorkshire captain and coach Andrew Gale.

ECB lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC said:

“We understand there has been a significant impact on Mr Ballance’s mental health.

“So the ECB therefore suggests there be a reprimand, and Mr Ballance be fined £8,000, reduced from £12,500 to take in effect his admissions.

will see Lewis Hamilton on the grid and he’s still hungry to win another world championship.”

Red Bull have again been the pacesetters this season and, amid very little competition for race wins from other teams, Button backs Sergio Perez to rival Verstappen for the title.

“I have been really impressed with Sergio. Max has to be the toughest team-mate,” added Button, who is set to race a Nascar around Le Mans later this year. “Consistency is where Sergio has been lacking but if he can do it in Miami then he has the chance to fight for the championship.”

Allardyce: I’m up there with Guardiola, Klopp and Arteta

FRANK DALLERES

LEEDS United manager Sam Allardyce insists he has the football chops to match anyone in the Premier League after signing a four-match deal at Elland Road.

Turnaround specialist Allardyce has come out of semi-retirement in a bid to save Leeds from the drop in the last few games of the season.

“I might be 68 and look old but there is nobody ahead of me in football terms, not Pep, not Klopp, not Arteta,” he said.

“It’s only four games. I’d have liked it to be longer but here I am. It’s a hard challenge but somebody had to do it. I

hope that we can find six points in four games because I think that would be a really good achievement.”

Allardyce becomes the club’s third manager this season and replaces Javi Gracia, who has been sacked after winning just three times in his 12 games.

He has earned a reputation as a survival specialist, notably rescuing Everton, Crystal Palace and Sunderland from seemingly certain relegation.

He has been out of work since 2021, however, after failing to steer West Bromwich Albion to Premier League safety in another short spell.

Leeds currently sit 17th in the Premier League, just goal difference above the relegation zone.

Wasps have applied to play at Worcester’s Sixways Stadium

British No1 tennis player Emma Raducanu will miss Wimbledon and the French Open this year after having procedures on both wrists and an ankle. The former US Open winner has been struggling for form lately and the surgery confirms that she will be unavailable for the next two Grand Slams. In a statement, Raducanu said: “It is safe to say the last 10 months have been difficult.”

DOUBLE FAULT Raducanu to miss Wimbledon and French Open after having surgery on both wrists, and confirms ankle op