Posts by Gus Lovatt

In comments made at The Paris Finance Summit on 10-11 February, the French Economy & Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire expressed his continued desire for reform of the EU’s fiscal rules, echoing President Emmanuel Macron’s comments two months prior. The EU’s fiscal rules, known as The European Union Stability and Growth Pact, are a set…

Unilever is a multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in the UK. Through its subsidiaries, the company has made a name for itself by manufacturing and selling beauty products, foods, refreshments, and a range of home care products. The multinational company has grown because it acquired well-known brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Vaseline and…

As Storm Eunice ravages Great Britain, American investors are paradoxically finding shelter in the calmer British stock market. The UK stock market is not usually a cause for excitement; however, it is this very feature that is attracting foreign investors. The global stock markets, especially American in this case, are particularly volatile with inflation scares.…

BlockFi Lending LLC (BlockFi) is a centralized crypto lending platform whereby assets are held on the BlockFi platform as opposed to any DeFi (decentralized finance) protocol. Crypto lending platforms operate via the protocol that users receive loans in FIAT currency using their cryptocurrency as collateral, paying the lender crypto dividends. BlockFi interest accounts (BIA’s) have…

The significant economic repercussions of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict on the global economy are undisputed. The numerous threats of sanctions would cripple Russia’s economy by targeting the nation’s financial and energy sectors and yet, by extension, would also severely impact the rest of the world. This includes the proposed sanction of expelling the nation from…

A Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) is a credit facility that offers companies a discounted rate if they can meet the Sustainability Performance Targets (SPT) detailed within their issuance. The terms of these loans are not tied to the use of proceeds, nor the projects funded, they are exclusively concerned with the borrower’s ESG related performance,…

The Chinese electric vehicle (EV) market has seen contrasting fortunes recently. NIO, a Chinese company specialized in the production and development of EVs saw its US-listed share price rise by over 1100% in the year 2020 with the pandemic and yet the share price performance of it and several other EV manufacturers slumped in the…

Informa PLC (Informa) has recently announced the sale of Pharma Intelligence to Warburg Pincus, the US private equity group, in a deal worth 1.9 billion GBP. This deal is part of a trend in which more technology and data analytics are being used to reduce the time to market for drugs, which is being driven…

Waves of price rallies and record low stockpiles in numerous commodity markets mark the start of a possible commodity crunch in 2022. The combinatory effects of bad weather, lack of investment, supply chain constraints and increasing geopolitical tensions have resulted in diminished supply and waning stockpiles across multiple sectors including agricultural products, industrial metals, and…

Germany has updated their ambitions for a renewable energy transition – aiming to fulfil all electricity needs from renewable sources by 2035. This contrasts against their previously rather vague target of being fossil fuel-free “well before 2040”. There has been increasing pressure for European countries to move away from Russia supplied gas specifically, which has…