Successful case

04/27/2022

German investor confidence nosedives after VW emissions scandal.
The revelation that millions of Volkswagen diesel cars had been polluting the air far more than had been claimed has helped send German investor confidence plunging.
Weakness in emerging markets is also blamed for the fall.
The monthly survey by the ZEW Centre for European Economic Research showed economic sentiment slid to 1.9 in October from 12.1 last month – far below what was forecast and the seventh consecutive decline.
A separate index tracking current conditions also dropped more than expected.
VW’s admission that it fixed emissions tests in 11 million of its diesel-engine cars wiped tens of billions of the company’s market value.
https://www.euronews.com/2015/10/13/german-investor-confidence-takes-a-dive-after-vw-emissions-scandal

The revelation that millions of Volkswagen diesel cars had been polluting the air far more than had been claimed has helped send German investor

04/26/2022

World's largest mobile operator Vodafone hails European recovery in latest results.
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The word’s largest mobile operator, Britain’s Vodafone, has reported a better-than-expected increase in revenue growth in the second quarter.
Its organic service revenue growth – based on its own resources – was 1.2 percent, up from 0.8 percent in the first quarter and well above the 0.9 percent that analysts were expecting.
Core earnings also rose more than expected, by 1.9 percent to 5.79 billion pounds (8.17 billion euros) in the six months to the end of September, as investment in Vodafone’s networks began to pay off.
“We have reached an important turning point for the group with a return to organic growth in service revenue and EBITDA (core earnings) in the first half of the financial year,” Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said on Tuesday.
The company says it has benefited from a steady improvement in Europe’s economy – particularly in southern countries – enabling it to offer 4G services to 80 per cent of its customers.
https://www.euronews.com/2015/11/10/world-s-largest-mobile-operator-vodafone-hails-european-recovery-in-latest

04/25/2022

Going through the roof: what does 2022 have in store for global property prices?
The pandemic has transformed the global property market. In this episode of the Exchange, industry leaders offer their predictions for the $10 trillion sector in 2022.

Raising the roof

Lockdown, work-from-home, staycation - these are pandemic-era words we’ve all had to get used to. They’ve defined the way we live, work and travel, and have changed the dynamics of the real estate sector - one of the world’s biggest drivers of economic growth.

The global pandemic rebound is fuelling recovery in many segments of real estate. But uncertainty is still a big theme, as rising cases and new COVID variants threaten the return of movement restrictions.
Despite the uneven recovery, investments in real estate reached an all-time high in the third quarter, topping $755 billion, (670 euros), up 50 percent year-on-year.
And investors are keeping their portfolios diversified, with the residential sector now the most active segment ahead of offices, and driving 29 percent of transactional activity.
The post-COVID home
Behind the statistics and commercial figures the property market has always been profoundly affected by how people think and feel about design.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/12/22/going-through-the-roof-what-does-2022-have-in-store-for-global-property-prices

The pandemic has transformed the global property market. In this episode of the Exchange, industry leaders offer their predictions for the $10 trillion sector in 2022.

04/24/2022

Green pensions could be the ‘most powerful weapon’ we have to protect the planet.
Switching to a sustainable pension could be 21 times more powerful in the fight against climate change than giving up flying, becoming vegetarian and choosing a renewable energy supplier combined.

According to research from the Make My Money Matter campaign, greening your pension might be the single most effective action an individual can take to reduce their carbon footprint.
For those with an average size pension pot (£30,000 in the UK) transitioning to a sustainable option could save as much as 19 tonnes of carbon a year, the study found. If you have more saved, at least £100,000, a greener pension might cut as much as 64 tonnes of emissions every year - that’s nine years worth of the average UK citizen’s carbon footprint.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/15/green-pensions-could-be-the-most-powerful-weapon-we-have-to-protect-the-planet

Switching to a sustainable pension may be a more effective way of cutting your carbon footprint than not flying.

04/23/2022

'We bought an island': How investors took over a plot in the Caribbean to create a micronation.
Coffee Caye is a slender island in the Caribbean, half-covered in mangroves, fringed by coconut trees and cooled by an ocean breeze.

It’s exactly what its new owners had in mind, says Marshall Mayer, co-founder of 2018 crowdfunding campaign, Let’s Buy an Island. Mayer and Gareth Johnson did just that, with more than 100 investors (and counting) having paid for a slice of the half hectare plot, each purchasing a stake in the “micronation.”
The core investors list Robinson Crusoe, Lord of the Flies and Pl***oy among their reading interests on the project website. They described their goal as a tropical paradise, no matter how small.
And the island they ended up buying happens to be 15 minutes off the coast of Belize, a Caribbean country that only got its independence back from the UK in 1981, nearly 500 years after Christopher Columbus first sailed past.
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/03/14/we-bought-an-island-how-investors-took-over-a-plot-in-the-caribbean-to-create-a-micronatio

The purchase of Coffee Caye in Belize was born out of years of eccentric and extreme travel by a group of global travellers.

04/22/2022

Revealed: Europe’s 100 most promising start-ups tipped to be the next unicorns by VivaTech.
Viva Technology has unveiled Europe’s "Top 100 Next Unicorns," its annual list of the most promising scale-ups with the potential to be worth $1 billion (€900 million) or more in the near future.
The organisers of France’s biggest tech conference have strong flair and influence in the sector, as more than 40 per cent of the companies, they have nominated since 2019 have since become unicorns.
The 2022 list, compiled in partnership with tech investment firm GP Bullhound, spans 12 European countries as well as the UK and Israel.
The three regions with the most potential unicorns are the UK, with 24 scale-ups shortlisted, followed by France and Germany with 17 scale-ups each.
So far, the companies have raised on average €112 million each, for a total of more than €10 billion.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/03/16/revealed-vivatech-shortlists-europe-s-100-most-promising-unicorns-for-2022

Most of the European start-ups aiming to be valued at more than $1 billion are in the UK, France and Germany, according to the list.

04/21/2022

Bitcoin ETFs signal another step forward for digital currencies.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
History was made recently with the launch of the first ever Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) authorised to begin trading on US exchanges. As the buzz and excitement around this potential (and now verified) approval grew, the price of Bitcoin and other crypto assets closely followed.
Subsequent to the banning – yet again – of Bitcoin and other crypto mining and trading activity in China by the People’s Bank of Chain (PBoC), this rebound has been particularly bullish.
Bitcoin, almost immediately following the launch of this ETF product, hit all-time-highs and continues to drive institutional interest and investment both in the US and internationally.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/10/27/bitcoin-etfs-signal-another-step-forward-for-digital-currencies

The Central Bank Digital Currency Think Tank explains the financial structure and implications of the newly launched ETF.

04/20/2022

COP26: Climate finance has to overcome many hurdles to be effective, the UN's eco finance chief says.
Meeting the COP26 pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions will require a lot of money and support from the private sector.
The United Nations’ climate envoy Mark Carney said last week it would cost $100 trillion (​​€87 trillion euros) over the next three decades, adding that the finance industry should find ways to raise private money.
"The money is here - but that money needs net zero-aligned projects and (then) there's a way to turn this into a very, very powerful virtuous circle - and that's the challenge," the former Bank of England governor told attendees of the summit in Glasgow.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/11/11/climate-finance-is-a-dance-between-the-private-and-public-sectors-unep-fi-chief-says

The pressure for businesses to act is rising along with global temperatures. We ask the UN’s environment finance arm if climate finance is working.