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Brexit stalls investments by sovereign wealth funds in Britain

FILE PHOTO: People walk alongside the Thames as the sun sets behind The Shard in London
FILE PHOTO: People walk alongside the Thames as the sun sets behind The Shard in London, Britain, December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Tom Arnold

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has long been a favored playground for sovereign wealth funds from around the world to snap up glitzy skyscrapers, banking stakes and posh department stores.

However, uncertainty over Britain’s tortuous exit from the European Union has put many new investments on ice, say sources close to the funds.

Last year, there was a sharp drop in investments by wealth funds via private equity, with deals falling more than two-thirds from 2017 to $3.82 billion, according to PitchBook, a data and research firm.

“A lot of funds are simply not pursuing deals (due to Brexit), while they wait for certainty,” said Tihir Sarkar, London-based partner at Cleary Gottlieb, which counts several prominent sovereign funds as clients.

Brexit has now been postponed until Oct 31 so parliament can agree terms. While that prevents Britain from crashing out without a transition period in place, it also prolongs political and economic uncertainty.

At least Britain managed to draw a vote of confidence in February when Norway’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, said it planned to keep increasing UK investments.

Most large sovereign funds contacted by Reuters did not respond or declined to provide comment, but several said their commitment to Britain remained unchanged while a couple acknowledged a pause in investments.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment, which has its largest exposure to UK real estate and financial services and whose unit Masdar owns 20 percent of the London Array offshore wind farm, has not made any changes to its investment strategy or portfolio in anticipation of Brexit, spokesman Brian Lott said.

“Our long-term strategy is opportunistic, so we will weigh the investment climate either way,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which has investment portfolio assets estimated at $509.4 billion, said it was watching the Brexit situation and “keeps under constant review the need to adjust the Exchange Fund’s investment strategies accordingly.”

But sources close to two other funds, who requested anonymity, said they were freezing investments until there was greater clarity on Brexit.

British authorities may be getting concerned: two sources close to the sovereign fund industry said several funds had been asked by British officials, including ministers, for assurances they would remain committed to existing investments.

LONG FAVORED

There are some bright spots.

PitchBook data shows venture capital deal flow with sovereign fund participation in Britain rose 70 percent last year to $1.28 billion. And the pound’s drop in value against the dollar since June 2016 appeared to have boosted allocations to external fund managers based in London, Sarkar said.

“We’ve been really busy,” he added. “That’s not small amounts, so £500 million ($651 million) at a time, and those allocations have increased [since Brexit].”

Britain still ranks joint-third along with India, for investments by sovereign wealth funds in 2017 and 2018, behind the United States and China, according to a report by Spain’s IE University and ICEX. But it dropped out of the top five country destinations as a percentage of total deal volume in 2018, the report noted.

Examples abound of the kind of uncertainties Brexit has created for sovereign funds’ British holdings.

China Investment Corp’s 2017 acquisition of European warehouse firm Logicor was one such case, said Javier Capapé, director of sovereign wealth research at IE University.

“Most of the warehouses are not in the UK but in the EU, bringing potential issues in the case of a hard Brexit,” he said, noting also risks to businesses such as airports and financial services, where sovereign investors are heavily involved.

London’s Heathrow Airport is partly owned by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and China Investment Corp, while QIA and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings own stakes in Barclays and Standard Chartered, respectively.

Brexit has contributed to hastening a shift away from real estate, traditionally a favored choice for investment in Britain, to technology.

“I see a structural shift as with real estate you’re a little bit more exposed if you have a low-growth UK which is the expectation with Brexit scenarios,” said Elliot Hentov, head of policy and research at the official institutions group of State Street Global Advisors.

“But that won’t affect your high-value add technology and export sectors which will thrive regardless of Brexit, so you see a focus on sectors kind of independent of the uncertainty.”

QIA, one of the funds most active in Britain, particularly in real estate, is also diversifying its focus after amassing several London trophy assets, such as The Shard, Savoy and Connaught hotels and the high-end Harrods store. It agreed to buy another hotel, the Grosvenor House, Reuters reported in November.

“We’ve seen a decline (in British investment) in the past year or two. Real estate investment is definitely declining,” said a source familiar with QIA’s thinking, adding that it was looking more towards the Americas.

(Additional reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Tennessee officer wounded in welfare-check shootout dies

A Tennessee police officer shot over the weekend when a welfare check morphed into a shootout has died, officials said Tuesday.

Police said Sgt. Steve Hinkle, with the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, was shot by 44-year-old Jackie Scott Pendergrass on Saturday.

“Sergeant Hinkle proudly served Sullivan County with honor and distinction for over 27 years as a full-time employee,” the sheriff’s office said via Facebook. “He also served as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for five years prior to his full-time employment.”

According to the Tennessee Bureaus of Investigation (TBI),  deputies were dispatched to Pendergrass' home after a welfare check was requested.

The suspect opened fire on police and then barricaded himself in the home, prompting an hours-long standoff in which police returned fire.

TENNESSEE SHOOTER DEAD, OFFICER IN ‘SERIOUS CONDITION’ AFTER WELFARE CHECK TURNS DEADLY, OFFICIALS SAY

Hinkle was struck at one point and was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Police eventually entered the home to find Pendergrass dead.

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The TBI issued a statement Tuesday confirming Hinkle's death. It said an investigation is ongoing.

Source: Fox News National

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Trump threatens to close southern border amid 'breaking point' warning

President Trump threatened to close the southern border on Thursday, accusing Mexico and Central American nations of doing “nothing” as illegal immigration surges.

“Mexico is doing NOTHING to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our Country. They are all talk and no action. Likewise, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have taken our money for years, and do Nothing. The Dems don’t care, such BAD laws. May close the Southern Border!” Trump tweeted early Thursday.

The president’s tweets come after U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the border was at its “breaking point,” noting there are not enough agents to respond to the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

BORDER HITS 'BREAKING POINT' IN EL PASO, CBP COMMISSIONER SAYS

“That breaking point has arrived this week at our border,” McAleenan said during a visit to the border in El Paso, Texas. “CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border.”

His agency also tweeted that they saw the highest number of "apprehensions and encounters" in over a decade this week -- over 4,000 in one day: "#CBP saw the highest total of apprehensions and encounters in over a decade on Monday, with 4,000 migrants either apprehended or encountered at ports of entry in a single day. Yesterday, that record was broken again—4,117 in a single day."

Last month, more than 76,000 migrants were detained, marking the highest number of apprehensions in 12 years. That figure includes more than 7,000 unaccompanied children. More than 36,000 migrant families have arrived in the El Paso region in fiscal 2019 with about 2,000 at the same time last year, according to CBP data. The influx has prompted new challenges for Border Patrol agents.

HOUSE DEMS FAIL TO OVERRIDE TRUMP VETO IN FIGHT OVER BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARATION

Meanwhile, the president, whose paramount 2016 campaign promise was to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, declared a national emergency in a bid to free up funding for the barrier along the border. This month, the president issued his first veto on a Democrat-backed measure to cancel the emergency.

On Tuesday, House Democrats failed to override Trump’s veto, allowing Trump to move forward with the issue.

Trump had declared the border emergency under a law that lets him shift budget funds to address dire situations. His plan is to shift an additional $3.6 billion from military construction projects to work on border barriers. Congress voted this year to limit spending on such barriers to less than $1.4 billion, and Democrats accused Trump of ignoring lawmakers' constitutional control over spending.

Fox News' Louis Casiano, Andrew O'Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News Politics

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24 Chinese firefighters killed while battling blaze in mountains, military says

The Chinese military says 24 firefighters have been killed while battling a forest fire high in the mountains of western Sichuan province.

The People's Liberation Army's Western Theater Command said the deaths occurred after a change of wind Sunday as the firefighters were battling the blaze in a rugged area at an altitude of 12,500 feet.

A total of 689 firefighters were battling the blaze that erupted on Saturday, but contact was lost Sunday with 30. Two helicopters carrying medical staff were dispatched and two of the missing firefighters were found and confirmed the deaths of the others.

Source: Fox News World

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ECB attacks EU goverments for denying it oversight of euro clearing

Sign of the European central Bank (ECB) is seen ahead of the news conference on the outcome of the Governing Council meeting, outside the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: Sign of the European central Bank (ECB) is seen ahead of the news conference on the outcome of the Governing Council meeting, outside the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

March 21, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank has launched a rare attack on EU governments for failing to give it ultimate oversight of clearing houses processing trillions of euros worth of securities.

Dominated by the London Stock Exchange, the clearing of financial contracts denominated in euros has become a political battleground since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, with the bloc’s authorities vying to gain oversight of this key market on both sides of the Channel.

Under a provisional deal struck this month, EU governments and lawmakers gave the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and national supervisors the final word in supervising central clearing counterparties (CCPs) based in the EU.

But the ECB said in a letter published late on Wednesday this undermined its ability to “monitor and assess risks posed by CCPs” and sought to block a change to its own rules that would force it to follow ESMA’s decisions on the matter.

“Under these amendments, the ECB would not enjoy regulatory powers in respect of CCPs established within the European Union,” ECB President Mario Draghi said in the letter to George Ciamba, chair of the EU’s General Affairs Council.

This body, which prepares the meetings of the European Council of EU government leaders, was expected to decide on the proposed changes next week.

If the ECB is successful in blocking the amendments to its statute, ESMA would still likely gain oversight of clearing houses but its decisions would not be binding on the ECB.

This would limit the ECB’s responsibility and possibly also leave the burden of providing liquidity to clearing houses in times of stress to the euro zone’s national central banks.

In the letter, also sent to the head of the EU’s parliament and other authorities, the ECB’s Governing Council withdrew its 2017 recommendation to change its statute with respect to clearing.

“One of the overarching objectives of the Recommendation cannot be fulfilled, namely, to ensure that the Eurosystem would have binding powers to monitor and assess risks posed by CCPs,” Draghi said in the letter.

The head of the European Parliament’s economic committee, Roberto Gualtieri, struck a sympathetic tone at a hearing on Thursday, blaming the European Council and Commission for failing to take on board the ECB’s concerns.

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: OANN

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Frustration mounts in Mozambique’s Beira over food, water shortages after cyclone

Survivors of Cyclone Idai, arrive to an evacuation centre in Beira
Survivors of Cyclone Idai, listen to a volunteer from Mozambique Red Cross, after arriving to an evacuation centre in Beira, Mozambique, March 21, 2019. Denis Onyodi/Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre/Handout via REUTERS

March 22, 2019

BEIRA, Mozambique (Reuters) – The situation in the port city of Beira in Mozambique was “boiling” as residents suffered shortages of food, water and other essentials one week after a devastating cyclone, the head of a South African rescue operation said on Friday.

Cyclone Idai battered Beira, a low-lying city of 500,000 residents, with strong winds and torrential rains last week, before moving inland to neighboring Zimbabwe and Malawi.

In Mozambique, 242 were killed in the storm and resulting floods, according to the official death toll, although this is expected to rise. In Malawi, around 56 were killed while Zimbabwe has recorded 142 deaths.

Around 15,000 people were still missing in Mozambique, Land and Environment Minister Celso Correia said late on Thursday. The government is expected to give a briefing on Friday morning to update the number of people missing and dead.

Briefing his team late on Thursday night, Connor Hartnady, rescue operations task force leader for Rescue South Africa, said Beira residents were becoming fed up with shortages.

“There have been three security incidents today, all food related,” he told his team, without giving further details.

Cartnady also said a group of 60 people had been discovered trapped by flood water in an area north of Beira during a reconnaissance flight. Rescue teams and the government were deciding how best to help them, he said, either by airlifting them to safety or dropping supplies.

The storm’s torrential rains caused the Buzi and Pungwe rivers, whose mouths are in the Beira area, to burst their banks.

Roads into Beira were cut off by the storm, and most of the city remains without power. The Red Cross has estimated 90 percent of the city was damaged or destroyed in the storm.

Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Information said at least 30 students, two headmasters and a teacher from three schools were missing in the eastern region of the country.

In the capital Harare there were shortages of diesel, leading to long queues following reports earlier this week that a control room for the pipeline in Beira that transports fuel to Zimbabwe had been damaged.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe in Harare; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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Stock futures subdued after weak manufacturing data from Europe

Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 18, 2019

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were muted on Thursday, as weak manufacturing data out of Europe underscored concerns of a global slowdown, while investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of a long-awaited Mueller report.

French and German surveys of purchasing managers for April showed that manufacturing activity in euro zone’s two biggest economies continued to contract.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election will be released on Thursday, providing the first public look at the findings of an inquiry that has cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s presidency.

Attorney General William Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the report, ahead of the release.

At 6:59 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 27 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.06%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.25 points, or 0.06%.

On trade, Washington and Beijing set a tentative timeline for a fresh round of face-to-face meetings ahead of a possible signing ceremony in late May or early June, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Honeywell International Inc shares rose 1.9% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raising its full-year financial forecast.

Of the 54 S&P 500 companies that have posted earnings so far, 79.6% have beaten consensus, according to Refinitiv data.

Analysts now expect first-quarter profits for S&P 500 companies to have dropped 1.8% year-on-year, an improvement from recent estimates, but would still be the first earnings decline since 2016.

Honeywell International Inc shares rose 1.9% after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raising its full-year financial forecast.

Kinder Morgan Inc rose 1.3 percent after Chief Executive Steven Kean said the company has begun internal discussions about building a third natural gas pipeline in the Permian Basin.

Investors are also awaiting the hotly-anticipated debut of online scrapbook company Pinterest Inc, the first high-profile initial public offering of a “tech unicorn” after Lyft Inc’s struggles.

Commerce Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is likely to show U.S. retail sales rebounded 0.9 percent in March after a 0.2 percent decline in February.

(Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

April 26, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – Shareholders approved Credit Suisse’s 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted.

Three shareholder advisers had recommended investors vote against Switzerland’s second-biggest bank’s remuneration report, while a fourth backed the report but expressed reservations about whether management pay matched performance.

The approval marked a slight increase over the 80.8 percent support garnered for the bank’s 2017 compensation report.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London, Britain December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Simon Jessop and Sinead Cruise

LONDON (Reuters) – Activist investor Edward Bramson is likely to fail in his attempt to get a board seat at Barclays’ annual meeting next week, even though shareholders are dissatisfied with performance of the group’s investment bank.

New York-based Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and the board of the British bank have been sparring for months over Barclays’ strategy.

Bramson wants to scale back Barclays’ investment bank to reduce risk and boost shareholder returns. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley remains staunchly committed to growing the business out of trouble.

After failing to persuade Staley to change course since he began building a 5.5 percent stake in the bank in March last year, Bramson hopes a board seat will rachet up the pressure.

Both sides have written to shareholders pitching their case and Bramson has courted investors in one-on-one meetings, although none have publicly backed him yet.

Interviews by Reuters with five institutional investors in Barclays suggest Bramson has failed to persuade them.

Sherborne declined to comment.

Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at top-40 shareholder Aviva Investors, said Bramson was welcome on the bank’s register but the boardroom was a step too far.

“He has created a lot of value at other businesses, but, generally, when he has come in as executive chair and taken full control. This would be a different case where he would just be one lone voice on the board,” he said.

A second Barclays shareholder said he backed Bramson’s goal of improving returns but via an “evolutionary” approach.

“If you look at banks that have tried to restructure their operations in investment banking – you look at Natwest Markets, Deutsche Bank – I struggle to think of an example where a roughshod restructuring has been accretive to shareholder value.”

A third, top-30 investor said he had been impressed by incoming Chairman Nigel Higgins’ grasp of the challenge in hand, and felt investors would give him time.

“Management know they have to execute and deliver improved returns… [Higgins] will continue to re-shape the board but obviously he didn’t feel that having someone with a diametrically opposed view on it would be helpful.”

A fourth, top-30 investor agreed: “We voted for the chairman to come in and it would be crazy to allow an activist to join the board (at this time).”

Jupiter Fund Management, the 24th largest investor, said it also planned to vote against Bramson.

Barclays has nearly 500 institutional shareholders, Refinitiv data showed.

Since Staley joined Barclays in 2015, the investment bank returns relative to capital invested have increased but are still underperforming the overall business.

Barclays’ first-quarter figures showed the investment bank posted a 6 percent drop in income from its markets business and a 17 percent fall in banking advisory fees.

Returns in the investment bank fell to 9.5 percent from 13.2 percent a year ago.

Famed for successful campaigns against smaller British companies in sectors from chemicals to advertising, Bramson’s board seat pitch has been rebuffed by shareholder advisory firms.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s biggest, said Bramson’s proposal “falls short of what can reasonably be expected from a shareholder trying to address issues at a 28 billion pounds, systemically important bank”.

Glass Lewis also flagged concern about Bramson’s lack of banking experience and “questionable” shareholding structure, referring to Sherborne’s use of derivative contracts to hedge losses should its strategy fail.

Critics said the arrangement meant his interests are not truly aligned with those of other long-term shareholders.

British advisory firm Pirc, however, said it recommended that investors abstain in the vote on Bramson’s proposal as a challenge to the board to do better in the year ahead – or face a similar contest in 2020.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

After an over 15-month pregnancy, “Akuti,” a 7-year-old Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros, gave birth as a result of induced ovulation and artificial insemination at Zoo Miami, April 23, 2019.

Ron Magill/Zoo Miami

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: File photo of a Chevron gas station sign in Del Mar, California
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, in this April 25, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp reported a 27 percent fall in quarterly earnings on Friday, hit by lower crude prices and weaker margins in its refining and chemicals businesses.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $2.65 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $3.64 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.

Earlier in the day, larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp reported earnings well below analysts’ estimates, as margins in its refining business were hurt by higher Canadian prices and heavy scheduled maintenance.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan
FILE PHOTO: The Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Friday the U.S. Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the automaker’s emissions certification process in the United States.

The potential concern does not involve the use of defeat devices, the company said in a regulatory filing. (https://bit.ly/2VqjHpl)

Ford had voluntarily disclosed the matter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board in February.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)

Source: OANN

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