French car giant Renault has confirmed it has held “friendly discussions” with China International Capital Corporation (CICC). Confirmation of the talks with the investment bank came during a briefing to Reuters in which a spokesperson for the automobile manufacturer said the talks were around China’s market. It is understood from earlier reporting in the Chinese…
The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to hold interest rates at 4%, ending a run of 10 consecutive rate hikes, writes Hannah Williford. The decision comes in the wake of struggling labour markets in Europe, along with mediocre results for household and corporate lending data. The ECB hinted when it last convened in September that…
The European Council (EC) continues to beat the drum for sustainable finance, even as the sector continues to sputter. Earlier this week, the EC announced it had adopted new regulation to promote sustainable finance The new regulation, it said, would create a new European green bond standard, laying down uniform requirements for issuers that wanted…
Capital Group has appointed Benno Klingenberg-Timm as its new head of institutional for Europe and Asia. He begins his role immediately and will fill the role left vacant by the passing of Stephen Gosztony last year. Writing on LinkedIn, the Singapore-based Klingenberg-Timm wrote: “I am excited to embark on this new journey, alongside my fellow…
Energy investment within Europe is set to decline, according to an ING report, as European utilities grow more selective In European Utilities Outlook: More Investment but More Selective in 2024, ING’s head of corporates sector strategy Nadège Tillier noted that investment grew by 10% a year between 2018 and 2022. Despite this, she contended 2024…
Green bonds are propelling the worldwide ESG debt market, according to analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence, writes Laura Miller. The resilience of the green bond market in the first nine months of the year saw issuance exceed $505bn – or 48% of total sustainable issuance – up 8% on the same period last year. Social bond…
France has been identified as the second-largest start-up “ecosystem” on the continent. The claim was made in an article on the site Maddyness, which also posited that Paris was set to become a ‘boomtown’ for investment in artificial intelligence (AI). Hugo Borensztein, co-founder and CEO of AI platform Omi, who was interviewed for the piece,…
Berlin-based firm Upvest has signed a partnership with BlackRock to open up Europe’s investment landscape to retail investors. Upvest said BlackRock had participated in its €30m 2023 funding round alongside existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, Earlybird, Notion Capital, ABN Amro Ventures and 10x Capital. The company added that its Investment API helps institutions…
Increasingly tight regulatory regimes around Europe are making the landscape around foreign direct investment (FDI) harder to navigate. That is the view posited by law firm Ashurst in its newly released Foreign Investment in Europe: A World of Opportunity report, looking at the new and various hurdles that have been put in place. “In recent…
Franklin Templeton has announced a raft of senior appointments across its global distribution network. Matt Harrison has been appointed head of Europe and UK distribution; Tariq Ahmad is to become head of APAC distribution; Sandeep Singh will be head of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) and India distribution; and Julian Ide…
The Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) has predicted Germany’s GDP will fall by 0.6 percentage points over 2023, a sharp revision to previous predictions. One of the most-prominent economic organisations on the continent, the IWH has called its new forecast a “strong downward revision” of 0.9 percentage points. It cited a slower recovery in…
Finnish firm Valmet has signed a €175m loan agreement with the EIB to support its efforts to finance technologies that replace fossil fuels with renewables. According to the company, the financing aims to enhance the resource and energy efficiency as well as the performance of Valmet’s technology, promote the use of recyclable raw materials and…
