MoneyWeek

Australia will spend A$50m (£26.4m) on trying to preserve its koala population, after the iconic creature joined the list of endangered species following a sharp population decline, says The Sydney Morning Herald. The koala population on the east coa

Olympic skier Eileen Gu (pictured), who won the big air event last week, earned at least ¥200m (£23m) from brand endorsements in 2021, says Yahoo News. Gu, who was born in the US but competes for China, has become the face of at least 23 Chinese bran

Chitra Ramkrishna, the former head of India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) has been fined 30 million rupees (£295,000) for disclosing confidential information to a spiritual guru, says BBC News. Ramkrishna, who left the NSE in 2016, consulted the un

“Hong Kong’s draconian pursuit of Covid-19 elimination… has left the city cut off from the rest of the world… [and] led to real concerns about the city’s survival as a financial centre. But… the future of the Chinese territory… is more secure than an

“Corporate America is flush with cash,” says Bob Pisani on CNBC. Most American firms have now reported their fourth-quarter earnings results, and profits are strong. Total sales could be on course to hit $3.5trn for the quarter for the first time. Pr

Two years after the pandemic began, consumer spending patterns remain far from normal. The first Covid-19 wave in March 2020 initially saw US consumer spending on goods and services plummet. Demand for goods quickly rebounded as households spent heav

Homeware retailer Dunelm thrived in the pandemic and the boom has continued. The firm’s market share has grown thanks to the collapse of “indebted high-street rivals” such as Debenhams, and it has “far outstripped the overall market”. Management is n

Food prices are a “decisive factor for the emergence of inflation”, says WirtschaftWoche. Central banks can’t control the price of wheat and corn through monetary policy – these are “largely determined by crop yields, inventories and transport costs”

India’s initial public offerings (IPO) boom risks petering out as several of its highest-profile start-ups postpone listings, says Bloomberg. OYO Hotels, which provides booking and support services for the hospitality sector, and logistics firm Delhi

• ”A minor miracle is about to happen,” says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. After 14 years, the state’s stake in the former RBS (now NatWest) will soon fall below 50%. The public purse is never going to recoup the full £46bn that the UK pumped into RB

After a “bruising few weeks” Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope (pictured) attempted to placate shareholders last week with a series of “red meat” offerings, says Oscar Williams-Grut in the Evening Standard. These include a new €3bn share buyback, a 3% increas

London was dealt a “huge blow” after Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank “quashed hopes” that one of Britain’s most successful technology firms would return to its home market, say Louisa Clarence-Smith and Patrick Hosking in The Times. SoftBank’s CE

Facing pressure from the “Freedom Convoy” protests against Covid-19 restrictions that have spread across Canada in recent weeks, and that continue to grip the nation’s capital, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has invoked emergency powers, sa

Chinese president Xi Jinping has told Hong Kong to “take all necessary steps” to contain the city’s fifth and biggest Covid-19 wave, “sparking fears of more stringent measures”, say Chan Ho-him and Primrose Riordan in the Financial Times. In a “rare

US president Joe Biden has set off a “firestorm of controversy” for his decision to seize $7bn in Afghanistan’s US foreign-currency reserves, says Jack Detsch in Foreign Policy. The idea is to evenly split the money, which has been frozen since the T

Joe Biden may have only been in office as US president for just over one year, but already the betting markets are heavily discounting his chances of being re-elected. With £794,668 matched on Betfair, Donald Trump (pictured) is currently the favouri

• Lyssa McGowan (pictured) is set to join FTSE 250 retailer Pets at Home as chief executive on 25 April, ending a period of uncertainty over who would replace Peter Pritchard, says The Times. Her annual salary of £580,000 will be a 5.5% increase on P

The Commons gravy train never stops rolling, says the Daily Mail. A decade on from the expenses scandal, one in seven MPs still has a spouse or child on the public payroll. Relatives of 88 politicians, including cabinet ministers, help to run offices

As MoneyWeek goes to press it looks as though concerns about an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russia are dimming (see page 8). But at the end of last week, when the US warned that Russia might be just days from acting, markets unsurprisingly took t

Put simply, liquidity refers to how easy it is to buy or sell an asset without moving the price against you. For example, property – both residential and commercial – is an illiquid asset. It takes a long time to buy or sell, trading costs (from stam

Emerging-market stocks are “highly out of favour, misunderstood, and mispriced”, Rupal Bhansali of Ariel Investments – “a committed contrarian” – tells Barron’s. Most emerging markets have been hard-hit by Covid-19 while political risks have made the

Rising inflation and interest rates have resulted in “big losses” in government bond markets, says Jeremy Warner. This greatly increases both the costs of financing the deficit and the losses sustained on the Bank of England’s £895bn stockpile of gov

“I’m nearly 50, I want to have good times, not s*** times. I’d love to get off my t*ts all the time, but I can’t handle it. And bills have to be paid.” Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher (pictured) on why he’s had to give up wild parties, quoted i

London-based hedge fund Bluebell Capital is pressuring mining company Glencore to spin-off its coal-mining business, says the Financial Times. Bluebell’s plan would demerge Glencore’s coal arm into a separate business and have the new company adopt a

■ Savers have £45bn invested in funds that have failed consistently to beat their benchmarks, says The Daily Telegraph. The number of funds that have underperformed every year for the last three years – and by at least 5% in total – had risen from 77

The bigger players dominate luxury-goods sales. Revenue at LVMH (Paris: MC) rose by 44% year-on-year to €64.2bn in 2021, and by 20% compared to 2019, before the pandemic (excluding the impact of its acquisition of Tiffany, sales were up 36%). LVMH ha

• The standard advice to savers with lots of small pension plans is that consolidating them with one provider is often a good idea. However, financial advisers are concerned that many savers don’t realise that older pensions often come with perks no

• Savers got a small boost this week with the news that National Savings & Investments (NS&I) was increasing the interest rate on two of its most popular accounts. The rate on its Direct Saver and Income Bonds has risen from 0.35% to 0.5%. It is a st

Private pensions are unique among government-backed tax efficient savings vehicles in imposing a cap on how much people can build up in their pots and not just how much they can pay in each year. The lifetime allowance imposes stiff tax charges on pe

Innovation is not necessarily dependent on the latest tech. Rather, an innovative business is one that creates genuine value for customers by delivering a product at a lower price or a higher quality-to-price ratio than what was available before. In

Adobe’s results for the year ending 3 December 2021 show revenue up 23% to $15.8bn and operating profit up 37% to $5.8bn. The Americas provided 57% of revenue with Europe,the Middle East and Africa at 27% and Asia 16%. Over 92% of revenue is from sub

Joules (LSE: JOUL) is a mid-market clothing retailer. Shares in the company fell by 40% at the beginning of February after a second profit warning in two months. Forecast pre-tax profits for this financial year are expected to be “not less than” £5m,

Shares in aviation services firm John Menzies (LSE: MNZS) soared after a takeover bid from Kuwait’s National Aviation Services (NAS) last Wednesday, says The Independent. NAS’s offer of 510p per share, which values the company at £469m, was 52% highe

Charles II was born in 1630 to King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria, and he went on to fight in the Civil War before spending several years in exile. He was crowned king in 1660 when Oliver Cromwell’s commonwealth collapsed, leading to the res

£59.10, hedonism.co.uk; £49, vintagewineand port.co.uk I enjoyed an epiphanic tasting the other day at the brilliant Corrigan’s Mayfair. The restaurant formed a perfect backdrop for a simply spectacular line-up of Casa Ferreirinha wines. The Vinha

Nigel Farage is arguably “one of the most significant figures in modern British politics”, says Robert Shrimsley in the Financial Times. He forced David Cameron to grant a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, ultimately leading to Britain’s

• This Morning TV presenter Holly Willoughby (pictured) has unveiled The Wild, her new £41 bespoke perfume for her lifestyle brand Wylde Moon, says Amanda Platell in the Daily Mail. Willoughby launched Wylde Moon last October, selling a range of jewe

€253.3m The cost to British taxpayers in the form of non-refundable payments made to French vaccine-maker Valneva after the government pulled out of a €1.4bn deal to buy 100 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in September last year. £20m The amou

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