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Today's business and finance round up 4th November 2021

🌎Finance goes green

November 04, 2021

4th November 2021

Good morning Today all eyes will be on the Bank of England as it announces whether it will raise interest rates for the first time since 2018 - odds are 50:50.Overnight the US central bank took their first major step towards withdrawing economic support post the pandemic, as they set out their plan to ease off their asset buying program that kept the cost of borrowing low in America.

Today's stories

  • Finance goes green

  • Daily Mail ÂŁ850m family buyout

ECONOMYFinance goes green

What’s going on?Yesterday attention at the UN environmental summit aka COP26 turned to finance with the government revealing plans to force British companies to transition to net zero carbon emissions.

Why is this important?

In his speech the chancellor Rishi Sunak announced plans to make the UK the world’s first “net-zero financial centre”. As part of this UK financial institutions including asset managers and pension funds, and companies listed on the London Stock Exchange will have until 2023 to publish how they will become net-zero by 2050.A new taskforce will be formed in the financial regulator to set the rules and make sure companies don’t “greenwash” i.e. make out to be more environmentally sound than they actually are. On the same day around 450 financial institutions, representing 40% of the world’s financial assets or $130tn, have signed up to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (Gfanz).The group, led by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, are aligned with the climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C and using its funds to move the global economy to net zero.TakeawayThe support of the financial sector will be crucial to creating a low carbon economy. The government wants to "rewire the entire global financial system for net zero".But critics have called out the lack of detail and legal framework in the chancellor’s plans raising concerns that companies could still find loopholes to avoid compliance. 

MEDIADaily Mail ÂŁ850m family buyout

DMGT, the listed company that owns the Daily Mail, Metro and I newspapers is to be taken private by the Rothermere family in a deal worth £850m.The Rothermeres own 36% of DMGT and announced their plan to buy out other shareholders in July, but only if it sold the company's insurance business, and listed online car seller Cazoo, which it partly owns.Both conditions have now been fulfilled.The family founded the Daily Mail in 1896 and in 1932 the parent company DMGT floated on the London Stock Exchange.Over the years it’s bought stakes in a number of companies including property site Zoopla, the education business Hobsons and the energy data firm Genscape. All of which has since been offloading for a total of £1.2bn leaving just the three newspaper titles and the New Scientist magazine in the group.

Stat of the day

An average UK home costs more than ÂŁ250,000 for the first time after prices rose by 9.9% in the last year, according to Nationwide

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