All posts tagged: markets

Report: VC in emerging markets plummeted by over 40% last year

Report: VC in emerging markets plummeted by over 40% last year

Published by skeptic

8th January at 9:30 am Dubai  VC investments in emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) plummeted by over 40% compared to 2023, according to a new report. The data mirrors the wider global trend of reduced VC funding in the last two years, especially for non-AI companies. The total raised across the markets surveyed was $9.1 billion in 2024, a 41% decline year-on-year (YoY). Furthermore, there was a 20% drop in deal activity YoY, with the number of deals falling to 1,527. However, there may soon be signs of recovery as interest rates decline globally, bringing with it lower inflation, while early-stage investing showed resilience. The trends are outlined in the 2024 Venture Investment Report from MENA-based research group MAGNiTT. The report covers Aggregate Emerging Venture Markets (EVMs), looking at VC investments in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Türkiye, and Pakistan. In the MENA region, startups raised $1.9 billion in 2024, a 29% decline annually, but this was a small decline when set against that seen in Southeast Asia …

Markets risk underestimating size of rate cuts, Bailey says

Markets risk underestimating size of rate cuts, Bailey says

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Thanks for joining us. The Bank of England will announce its next decision on interest rates at noon.  We will have live coverage of the build-up, the decision and what it means for you. We start with a look at income tax, which a leading think tank believes could rise by 3p regardless of who wins the next election. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said the promise to stick to the fiscal rules – which says debt will be falling within five years – means that the only wait to meet the pledge is to increase taxes. 5 things to start your day  1) Apple’s ‘destructive’ new iPad ad sparks backlash from artists and authors | Musical instruments and art supplies were squashed in Apple’s latest advert 2) Treasure hunter backed by Sir Paul Marshall loses legal battle over World War Two silver | Argentum fails to recoup costs of recovering 2,000 silver bars from 1942 shipwreck 3) P&O Ferries chief forced to ‘clarify’ evidence to MPs as he admits crew …

Azerbaijan’s climate charm offensive is backfiring – POLITICO

Azerbaijan’s climate charm offensive is backfiring – POLITICO

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When Egypt hosted in 2022, activists used the event to highlight the government’s crackdown on political opponents. Last year saw widespread criticism when COP28 host the United Arab Emirates appointed the man tasked with expanding the country’s oil and gas output to lead the talks. Likewise, the incoming president of COP29 is a former Azerbaijani oil and gas industry executive — though he was later tapped to lead the country’s ecology ministry. Still, Baku has been unapologetic about its intention to use the conference to promote its own economic interests. Aliyev used a speech as host of the talks to brand his country’s natural gas reserves “a gift of the gods” and to push for more investments in the fossil fuel industry, in addition to renewable projects — climate critics be damned. Europe has increasingly turned to Azerbaijan in recent years as a replacement for the Russian fossil fuel it shunned after Moscow invaded Ukraine. | Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images “As a head of the country, which is rich with fossil fuels, of course, we will defend …

Maltese central bank governor, deputy PM face charges in snowballing corruption case – POLITICO

Maltese central bank governor, deputy PM face charges in snowballing corruption case – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Allegations of corruption around the so-called Vitals deal figured prominently in the work of the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was assassinated in 2017. Caruana Galizia published extensive investigations into privatization deals brokered by the Muscat administration. Charges are also pending against Muscat, who was prime minister from 2013 to 2020, as first reported by the Times of Malta. Anticipating legal action against him, Muscat retorted on Facebook: “This is no longer just a political vendetta, but has transformed itself into a disgrace and abomination.” Scicluna was finance minister at the time of the Vitals deal, while Fearne — who was recently tipped by Prime Minister Robert Abela to form part of the next European Commission — was health minister from 2016. A Maltese court struck down the agreement between the government and Vitals Group Healthcare (VGH) last year in a scathing ruling that found VGH had failed in all its obligations, along with Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which bought the concession in 2018. Steward, which had continued to make payments to VGH’s …

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

Trump Media hires new auditor after accounting firm charged with fraud

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Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images Trump Media hired a new auditor over the weekend, after its previous public accounting firm was accused Friday of perpetrating a massive fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Truth Social owner fired BF Borgers CPA after the SEC accused the firm of failing to perform actual audits of its clients, before signing off on more than 1,500 regulatory filings for public companies. Trump Media said it had engaged Semple, Marchal & Cooper LLP on Saturday to replace BF Borgers. As part of its settlement with the regulator, BF Borgers and its owner agreed to a permanent ban from auditing public companies. The ban required Trump Media and other public companies that had used BF Borgers to find new auditors. “The decision to change independent registered public accounting firms was made with the recommendation and approval of the Audit Committee of the Company,” Trump Media said Monday in an 8-K filing to announce its new auditor. Former President Donald Trump owns 65% of Trump Media’s stock, which …

Futures, Global Markets Rise On Rising Fed Cut Bets

Futures, Global Markets Rise On Rising Fed Cut Bets

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Global stocks and US equity futures jumped to start the new week, with the S&P 500 poised to extend last week’s rally as traders grew increasingly confident in the likelihood that the Fed will cut interest rates this year. As of 7:40am, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.3%, tracking gains in European and Asian markets although trading volumes were lower than average as UK and Japanese markets are shut for a holiday. Apple slid in pre-market trading after Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its stake for a second consecutive quarter. German 10-year yields fell and the yen weakened. Oil advanced after Saudi Arabia raised prices for customers in Asia. On today’s calendar we get the latest Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) which will signal whether demand for tight credit remains dismal. In premarket trading, Apple dropped 1.2% after rising strongly over the past two sessions and as Berkshire Hathaway reported it had trimmed its stake in the company. Shares in cryptocurrency-linked companies rally as Bitcoin nears $65,000 level after adding around 10% in the last four …

Legal advice, speeches and Covid cures – POLITICO

Legal advice, speeches and Covid cures – POLITICO

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Not all MEPs have participated equally in the potential bonanza. Transparency International found that MEPs on the political right and center were more likely to take cash, and earn more, than those on the left. (Top outside earner Uspaskich isn’t aligned with any political group — since being kicked out of Renew in 2021 for making comments the liberal group deemed homophobic.) MEPs raking in the cash include Geoffroy Didier, a French MEP with the conservative European People’s Party. He makes €115,200 a year working for a law firm, CARLARA, which boasts offices in Paris and Brussels. The firm’s specialties, according to its website, include the life sciences and chemicals sectors, litigation related to EU regulation and assistance to “EU public authorities before and after regulations.” Didier did not respond to questions about how he avoids conflicts related to his legislative duties, which includes membership on the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute membership of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. Socialist and Democrat MEP Marek Belka, a former prime …

Has the EU really just found €400B it could spend on defense? – POLITICO

Has the EU really just found €400B it could spend on defense? – POLITICO

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As governments increasingly see the need to put the continent on a war footing, the plan would offer a way out for Europe’s policymakers who are desperately trying to find cash down the back of the sofa. They know they have to pay for it; they just don’t want to. Other options could see the ESM shift to respond to Russia’s aggression more broadly, four of the people said, such as by helping to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine or by providing cheap loans to countries like the Baltic states which may find their borrowing costs rising. Russia’s war in Ukraine — a country harboring EU membership ambitions — is grinding into a third year and Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House risks leaving Europe in the lurch, as he demands all NATO countries to hit the target of 2 percent of gross domestic product spent on defense. But soaring debts in the bloc’s most powerful capitals, messy domestic politics, and tight spending rules enforced by the European Commission are limiting the …

Two emperors on the edge of two wars  – POLITICO

Two emperors on the edge of two wars  – POLITICO

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Xi has repeatedly called Putin his best friend. He has also repeatedly refused to do anything to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and supplied dual-use military technologies, weapon-building components and satellite imagery, warns the U.S., to Russia.  In a recent interview with POLITICO, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith highlighted Beijing’s support for Moscow, saying that China could not proclaim to be neutral in the conflict any more. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also described Chinese assistance as “[helping] Moscow to inflict more death and destruction on Ukraine.” Talking, not talking In Paris, Macron will provide Xi with his “analysis of developments in the conflict, and [will] convey Ukrainian positions,” the same Elysée official said. The French president “will also raise concerns about the activities of certain Chinese companies that could be directly involved in or contribute significantly to the Russian war effort.” There’s plenty of room for the two leaders to talk past each other.  “It’s going to be a mismatch of expectations,” said Abigaël Vasselier, head of foreign relations at MERICS, a …

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

Trump Media auditor charged by SEC with ‘massive fraud,’ permanently barred from public company audits

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Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, with admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said. The agency, calling BF Borgers a “sham audit mill,” said the company and its owner engaged in “deliberate and systemic failures to comply with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board … standards in its audits and reviews incorporated in more than 1,500 SEC filings from January 2021 through June 2023,” according to a press release. The respondents also were charged with falsely telling clients that the auditor’s work would comply with PCAOB standards, fabricating audit documents to make it seem that the work did comply with those standards, and “falsely …