Ok, so there’s a fine line between being proud of your country and being xenophobic , this blog is being proud of living and working in Britain and being British, so if you want to hear more about our economic and cultural decline, go and sit on someone else’s timeline!
Today there’s going to be an international trade fair in Hampton Court where the best of British will be selling their equity to international investors from around the globe. Super Aware were on the radio this morning explaining that they are here with £81bn in their pension fund , “doing the due diligence on the ground.”
Despite being Luba Nikulina telling the FT last week that IFM would like to invest in the UK but…
“we need to find financially attractive opportunities, but at the moment, there aren’t many”
Jo Cumbo reports from Australia this morning
IFM will today sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)with the UK government, announcing its intention to invest £10 billion in the UK by 2027.
IFM said the aim of the MoU was to “drive IFM’s investment across large-scale infrastructure and energy transition projects.
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) November 27, 2023
The bad news stories are about the UK struggling to attract necessary private investment due to uncertainty over the direction of policy, high costs and labour shortages after Brexit.
The evidence is that we are putting Brexit behind us. I was pleased to see Nissan rejecting Brexit as an excuse not to and getting on to putting money into Sunderland
Nissan to invest £1.12bn to make two new electric vehicles in Sunderland. Related investment in infrastructure and supply chains, including new gigafactory, will bring total to £2bn for the region, safeguard 7,000 jobs at Nissan + secure Sunderland’s future as UK’s Silicon Valley…
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) November 24, 2023
The good news story is that at Hampton Court today will be the weight of the world capital markets looking for opportunities to invest in companies not accessible through quoted markets, not through debt but through equity.
And it’s nice to see that the message of this blog is being picked up by those with the clout to make these deals happen
Looking forward to seeing UK pension funds doing the same: agree with @henryhtapper https://t.co/xPLsL3IlMo
— Guy Opperman (@GuyOpperman) November 27, 2023
According to the Government £29.5bn will be unveiled as raised at today’s conference – triple the amount of money “raised” from the last summit in 2021. It’s expected that the investments will create thousands of jobs.
Among the projects being highlighted are a £7bn boost to the amount Spain’s Iberdrola is investing in UK electricity transmission and distribution; a £5bn investment from Australia’s Aware Super in a range of businesses including the energy transition and affordable housing; and a £2.5bn from Microsoft in AI infrastructure.
While overseas investors just get on with it, UK pension plans plead for indemnities against losses, reluctant to take risk onto their balance sheet and put at risk the pensions and pots we have built up.
IFM said it would work with the UK government to identify commercially viable opportunities for investment.
The UK government is under pressure from domestic pension funds to provide more incentives, including first loss provisions, to encourage investment in long-term projects.
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) November 27, 2023
I appreciate the caution of trustees, it has been nurtured for quarter of a century by risk-based regulators who consider opportunity a threat. But the companies on which Britain’s economic success and pension schemes were built did not do so without identifying and taking risks. As the Regulator points out – we need a new mindset.
There have of course been failures, but the momentum of gross domestic product over decades has been relentless, born on the entrepreneurial zeal and the elevated governance of our mixed economy.
We have quite enough incentives and safety nets (such as first loss provisions) to make investing in growth stocks extremely well handicapped. The chance of backing winners in the UK is high because we have a new found zeal for growth (or rather a recognition that economic stagnation represents a bigger threat than “not going for it”).
At 62, I am not pulling up the drawbridge. At 5am on a cold November Monday morning, I have the fire in my belly, to call on my readers to use this week, next month and 2024 to get stuck in to achieving real growth. Rather than putting ten men behind the ball , we should go out 2-0 up at half-time and score two more.
There are two way at looking at the country I live in , just as there are two ways of looking at the football team I support. Guess which way I prefer!
