News & Insight • Weekly Newsletters

03 March 2022 | William Buckhurst

That Was The Week That Was

MACRO

• China unveiled a GDP target of about 5.5%, its lowest in three decades
• Wheat prices hit record highs on intensifying concerns of a supply shortage because of the war in Ukraine, raising the spectre of soaring global food inflation
• US jobs growth accelerated sharply last month as employers in the world’s largest economy added 678,000 jobs in February, the most since July

A WEEK IN FUNDS

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund released a statement suggesting a prolonged war which would be inflationary and will dampen growth, pointing towards elevated commodity prices. It said that it would sell its Russian assets with a total value of just under $56.39m in 22 companies, including energy firms Gazprom, Lukoil and Rosneft and banks VTB and Sberbank

THE ART OF INVESTMENT - Vermeer Podcast

With Europe’s over-reliance on Russian energy coming under scrutiny is the answer green hydrogen using renewable power? Paul sits down with Graham Cooley, CEO of ITM Power, discussing his views of the future energy mix

COMPANY NEWS

• ITV closed down 27.5% in a day after reporting full year results. Revenue was slightly above consensus estimates but they said that the second quarter would be impacted by tough comps and stated that the launch of its ITVX streaming platform would lead to significant investment and impact short term profitability
• Darktrace closed up sharply after reporting first half results. Management commented that EBITDA and margins had been better than expected due to continuing pandemic related suppression of key costs, but that these were expected to return over the intermediate term whilst scale efficiencies would continue to support long term steady margins
• GlaxoSmithKline held a capital markets day for its Consumer Health division, now named Haleon. Haleon stated that it aimed to deliver organic 4-6% sales growth over the medium term, whilst guiding to sustainable margin expansion along with an initial dividend at the low end of the targeted 30-50% pay-out ratio

SMALL-CAP NEWS

Obviously, all eyes were on Ukraine, but M&C Saatchi announced a second delay to the “put up or shut up” takeover deadline by Vin Murria’s AdvancedAdvT this week.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

• 1933: Despite pressure, the Federal Reserve refuses to recommend a guarantee on banking deposits, setting up the most significant banking crisis in American history
• 1991: Iraq accepts a ceasefire to end the Gulf War. World stock markets rose by over 200% over the next decade

IN OTHER NEWS

Netflix has acquired Next Games, the makers of mobile games based on several TV shows, for $72m. It signifies a big push into gaming by Big Tech (triggered by Microsoft’s $75bn purchase of Activision Blizzard), but also shows how Netflix is building a further ecosystem around their content, much like Disney’s approach

MARKET DATA

 As at 4^th March 2022. Source: Financial Express

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