Author: Lucas

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Billionaire Andrea Pignataro’s heavily indebted fintech empire is under increasing pressure in credit markets, as concerns over AI’s impact on software companies hit one of Europe’s largest sellers of junk bonds.The sell-off in bonds issued by Ion Group, a debt-fuelled roll-up of financial data companies including Mergermarket, Fidessa and Dealogic, has accelerated in the past week, wiping hundreds of millions of dollars from the market value of a more than $10bn debt stack. Ion’s holding company has another $2.5bn of private debt.Some…

The country’s largest pension scheme has set up the investment vehicle in partnership with Fiera Real Estate with the aim of allocating to “prime small-to-mid-box industrial properties in strategically located urban locations across the UK”, according to a press release from the asset manager. It will be led by Chris Button, head of investment management for Europe at Fiera Real Estate, and will target “brownfield and established employment sites”. The arrangement will last five years initially, and will target acquisitions worth up to £50m each. Neither party has revealed how much has been invested overall into the joint venture. Fiera…

Key PointsUpwork is working to make artificial intelligence (AI) a tailwind, rather than a crisis.Management expects growth to reaccelerate in 2026.Shares of Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) sank on Tuesday after the freelancer marketplace reported a decline in active clients.By the close of trading, Upwork’s stock price was down more than 19%.Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »A person is pointing to a declining stock chart. Image source: Getty Images.Navigating AI trendsUpwork’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 4%…

Social media users are fixated on the viral ‘Pinay gold medalist’ scandal, which has been trending online. As millions of digital sleuths attempt to uncover the mystery behind the issue, a number of names resurface—chief among them Zyan Cabrera, also known as Jerriel Cry4zee.Some claim that the young woman in the video is Cabrera. A quick online search turns up a Facebook account with the same handle and photos of Cabrera on its profile. However, separating fact from fiction has proved difficult in a scandal built on deception.Who Is Jerriel Cry4zee?Memes featuring a woman in a purple running tank top…

A chartered legal executive with more than 20 years of experience has taken on a senior role in Kendal.Stephen Greenwood has been appointed Head of Residential Property in the Kendal branch of Milne Moser Solicitors, where he will lead the firm’s growing property team.Mr Greenwood said: “I am delighted to be joining Milne Moser Solicitors and to take on the role of Head of Residential Property.”Milne Moser has been serving the local community for over 200 years and has built an outstanding reputation during that time, while continuing to look forward and invest in the future.”I am particularly pleased to…

Premium Bonds holders have been warned the savings scheme may not be right for them (Image: Getty) This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more Premium Bonds savers may be tempted to cash in their holdings if they haven’t won anything in a while. Finance experts have weighed up the pros and cons of the NS&I scheme to help people work out if their Bonds are still right for them.The prize fund rate for Premium Bonds stands at 3.6 percent, with each £1 Bond having an equal chance of…

Key PointsStocks can rise and fall to levels beyond your imagination.A lower stock price doesn’t always mean a better value.Don’t forget to include the cons when building an investment thesis.The sell-off in software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks has evolved from a pullback to a downturn, and now to a full-throttle crash. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that closely tracks the sector — The iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF (NYSEMKT: IGV) — is down 24.6% year to date at the time of this writing, while the broader tech sector has fallen 5.8%.Last week, Anthropic announced a new plugin for legal applications on its…

Stock image. A slower-than-expected rollout of electric vehicles will help keep platinum-group metals in supply shortfalls over the coming years, according to the chief executive officer of major miner Valterra Platinum Ltd. The EV boom had long weighed on platinum and sister metal palladium, as a large chunk of production is used in catalytic converters to curb pollution from internal combustion engine vehicles. Still, a slower-than-expected adoption of EVs in some markets has helped boost sentiment around the metals In December, the European Union in December eased requirements that would have halted sales of new gasoline and diesel-fueled cars starting…

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that residential property prices increased by 7.3% in the 12 months to October, easing from the 7.5% rate of growth seen in September. Property prices in Dublin rose by 5.4% and prices outside Dublin were up by 8.9% compared with October last year. The median price for a home in October was €381,000, the CSO said. The CSO today reported monthly house price growth for October of 0.6%. It also said the annual growth rate for September was revised down to 7.5% from 7.6% and the monthly growth rate for September was…

While development aid is falling globally, many megadiverse countries are juggling debt stress that pushes conservation to the margins.Numerous financial instruments have arisen to fund conservation, with an equally diverse set of outcomes and an array of opaque metrics. Meanwhile, biodiversity bonds are clear about what success looks like, and how it will be proven.“Done right, these instruments can fund conservation at meaningful scale; done wrong, they financialize nature and entrench inequity,” a new op-ed argues.This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.See All Key Ideas The interlinked crises…