Tom Burnet

Whoever wins the General Election, capital markets and investment are going to be key to delivering their priorities given little capacity in the public purse. Investment companies are the proven bridge between investors and assets such as infrastructure and renewable energy and they can play a critical role in helping the next government achieve its ambitions for economic growth. Beyond that, as a nation, we need to save and invest more, drive better returns in our pension funds and direct more of that capital towards our domestic markets (the UK ISA was one such initiative). Investment companies are a ready made, proven (over 150 years!) solution to these challenges.

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A regressive decision by The Scottish Government to reintroduce peak time fares and increase those fares at the same time. ScotRail A short term, non-strategic, anti-competitive, anti-productivity and anti-climate move that will make it harder to do business and much harder for people on low wages to take a job where they have to commute between the two big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. To put this move into context, the equivalent return journey over 50 miles in Ireland costs just €19.50 or £16.65. In certain states in Australia public transport is free. Do our government leaders really think that such moves are strategic and set our country up for success?

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The big barrier is the LTI flow limit... which is not in the hands of the government to change. The industry can talk to the government about lifting the LTI restriction, but the limit is implemented by the PRA and FCA on the recommendation of the independent Bank of England. Perenna has been talking directly to the Bank of England, the rather scripted response was basically all leverage is bad referring to rather simple and analysis that is getting dated. We fully acknowledge the risk of leverage, on the economy and borrowers, and the financial crisis has shown the impact. This said, long term fixed rate mortgages protect borrowers and have proven to reduce the impact on demand in a downturn. We believe ling term fixed rate mortgages should be excluded. Let's see what will happen... will the pressure on the government result in pressure on the Bank of England? Change is needed because there will not be functioning housing market for a while with the LTI flow limit in place. Modern Lender Bank of England Perenna #longtermfixedratemortgages The Labour Party The Conservative Party #housingaffordability #housing #firsttimebuyers IMLA - The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association Kate Davies

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Not long after the D-Day Commemorations, it was an honour to meet Admiral Sir Philip Jones GCB, ADC, DL, former First Sea Lord (2016-19), and to hear his perspectives on the current global geopolitical situation, on the widely held view of us being ‘in a pre-war state’…and the impact on the UK’s growing defence industry.   As a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security, world military spending has reached $2.4 trillion, the 9th year of consecutive increases.   The Prime Minister recently talked of The West being in the most dangerous situation it has been since the end of the Cold War and announced the biggest rise in defence spending in a generation, which will rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2030 - reaching £87bn – making us by far, the largest defence power in Europe.   On the other hand, we only have 138k people across the Regular Forces (with 10k as yet untrained) augmented by 33k Volunteer Reservists. This total is down a third since 2000 and continues to shrink. The combined EU forces are c1.8m, led by Italy (330k), France (300k) and Germany (180k), again down from 3.5m in 1995. Russia currently has 850k active military personnel, and the US and China 2m.   A very sobering reflection. #CityofLondon #Livery #Defence #Forces #RoyalNavy

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ICG’s acquisition of the UK’s letting and estates agent platform, Lomond Group, was supported by £300 million in financing by a club of lenders. https://lnkd.in/d34Wt-Nk

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In our latest blog we take a look at the UK defence sector, which is seeing record levels of Government spend, and analyse whether it is worth retail investors following suit. https://buff.ly/43QDa3z

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I had an exciting early morning appearance on BBC News yesterday where I had the opportunity to discuss: → The latest findings from South Pole’s Net Zero Report → The trend of #Greenhushing → What companies, policy makers, and consumers need to do to stand firm on their climate commitments. After the golden years of #climateaction and ambitious climate commitments, we are now entering the period of hard execution. This is the time to double down, not step away. When you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, the direction of travel is clear: the energy transition will transform the global economy for decades to come. New business models will emerge, new industry leaders will be crowned. #netzero

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Ongoing industry consolidation can have a big impact on your business. Partner with someone who will be there for the long term. https://lnkd.in/e89yEqr6

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Today I was pleased to publish the latest annual figures on the UK investment management industry and report a growth in assets under management to £9.1 trillion.   Looking under the bonnet of this figure, we can see an industry that is powering growth in UK plc and helping people live more prosperous lives into retirement.  Last year, investment managers invested £1.18 trillion in UK companies through debt and equities, supporting UK growth. Our members are keen to invest further in UK infrastructure and the net zero transition, calling on the government to bring forward a pipeline of investable projects.  With 84% of UK households holding a private pension, investment managers are a critical part of the pensions ecosystem. Today’s figures show our industry is responsible for managing £2.9 trillion of assets on behalf of UK and overseas pension funds and a further £1.1 trillion for insurance clients, which includes the pensions-related assets of insurance companies. The upcoming Pensions Review will provide a valuable opportunity to understand what more can be done to improve retirement outcomes.  On a global stage, the UK's investment management industry is truly a success story. Our latest figures show that almost half of assets - £4.5 trillion - are managed for overseas clients. We're proud that people from around the world choose the UK to help them to achieve their financial goals. We will be working with the government as it builds and deepens trade relations, as part of the new trade strategy announced earlier this week. Finally, global competitiveness is key to our industry’s success and ensuring this must remain a priority for the government and regulators. We want to see a focus on competitiveness embedded across the regulatory system, so that we can continue to offer a world-class service to our clients.  

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#AVCT Christina Coughlin who was appointed only 2 months ago as Avacta CEO, is certainly wasting no time. Today announcing a series of key management changes, alongside a positive trading update. In terms of personnel, a new Scientific Advisory Board has been created in order to guide AVA6000, the preCISION platform and #AVCT’s overall drug development strategy. Additionally Darlene Deptula-Hicks, an “entrepreneurial financial leader” has joined as a non-exec, whilst long term CFO Tony Gardiner steps down from the Board. With regards to the clinic, the fortnightly dosing regime (Arm 2) for Cohort 2 of the AVA6000 Phase 1 trial has now been successfully completed. 2 patients have also begun cohort 3, without any dose limiting toxicities being observed. Here Avacta importantly remains on track to achieve its stated objectives for H2’24 including the initiation of the expansion cohorts and providing an update of the clinical data. Arm 2 of the trial is designed to help determine an optimum dosing regime for a future Phase 2 study. Elsewhere, the Board continues to assess various strategic options for its diagnostics division, which may include a sale. The idea being to not only focus more on its Precision platform, and in particular taking its lead candidate AVA6000 through to commercialisation. But also create a pure-play oncology biopharma firm that will be more attractive to specialist biotech investors. Nonetheless, the diagnostics division is increasing revenues, further expanding in Germany and is on track to become EBITDA positive in H2’24. Coris’ products are being X-sold through Launch Diagnostics, whilst the Affimer screening technology has been transferred to Belgium. In turn, enabling #AVCT's laboratory in Wetherby to be closed, whilst equally realising operational cost savings. Lastly YTD trading is said to be “in-line with market forecasts" with gross cash ending May’24 at around £35m. Providing sufficient funds to progress AVA6000 into Phase 2 clinical trials and develop Avacta’s wider pipeline of innovative new medicines. Christina Coughlin commenting: "The ongoing trial of AVA6000 is progressing well and remains on track to achieve our stated goals of initiating the expansion cohorts, updating the clinical data for AVA6000 and detailing our pipeline of innovative new medicines. We are also continuing to strengthen the Board with a new Chair and the appointment of a Non-Exec. These combined changes support our growing confidence that we have the right team and plan in place for this extraordinary science."   Chair Shaun Chilton adding: "I'd also like to thank Tony Gardiner for his commitment and service as CFO of Avacta. We're grateful that Tony will remain on an interim basis." Disclosure: Avacta are a Vox Markets client.

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We definitely need to move to making our pensions funded, and recycle these funds into the local economy to drive growth and invest in the services we need. We also agree that we need many more suitable financial products for pensioners to supplement their incomes, equity release is one but there are others such as retirement interest only mortgages, and hybrid variants. These need to be funded by the pension savings, and Solvency UK should be a good step forward to make this happen. Other countries already connect the pension savings with the mortgage market, Perenna will be the enabler in the UK. #mortgages #laterlifelending #equityrelease

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I’m so pleased to see that Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds MP, and the Department for Business and Trade are backing the creation of a new ‘Mid-Market Council’ to represent the interests of UK mid-sized companies - https://lnkd.in/eGMxzE_i This is very much reiterating the recommendation that OakNorth and the Social Market Foundation made just over a year ago about how to unleash the huge potential of our scale-ups. In our Full Scale report we called for the creation of a DBT-led "Scale-Ups Unit" that could facilitate support for scale-ups, with a realistic goal to create £50bn in public market cap value within 5 years. Full report 👉 https://lnkd.in/ex6R5zrv   The report identified that this kind of coordinated support needed to address a range of barriers including regulatory and planning challenges, tax incentives and access to international talent. Today we see all these same challenges and opportunities being referred to again, and I hope the government is committed to addressing them with the sector. As the bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, OakNorth will lend this initiative its full support.

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🎬 Great webinar yesterday on The Rebirth of Industrial Policy (I'll post the link to the recording in the comments when it's available). Oliver Jones and Megan Glover did a superb job discussing a hugely important theme. 💲💲💲 New industrial policies are directing trillions of dollars of capital. That presents opportunities and risks that investors like us must stay on top of developments. 👁 Industrial policy's failings and successes are often misrepresented so it’s important to apply a critical eye, learning from a rich history. 🌎 Alexander Hamilton, of catchy musical fame, wrote an 80-plus page dossier on industrial policy in 1791. 233 years of scholarship since his paper was published has, remarkably, confirmed his early observations: that policy that supports dominant players in already established industries is a zero-sum gain at best (probably much worse) particularly if it involves protectionism. 📈 But policies that help new industries evolve, particularly if they subsidise productive research and development, can be a positive-sum game. ↪ When we select companies for your portfolios we’re looking for firms with a track record of making highly productive investments, improving their earnings resilience by developing new ways of working or the products of tomorrow. The rebirth of #industrialpolicy is a crucial theme in this analysis.  🔔 It's not too late to sign up to today's economic and market outlook webinar, or Thursday's webinar on how investors should think about the US election. On Wednesday and Friday there are webinars on wealth planning. Link in comments. #macroeconomics #fiscalpolicy #assetallocation #thematicinvesting #investmentmanagement

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Interesting article. In our 2022 whitepaper - 'Getting value from your platform: Thinking outside the tick box', we explored the evolving and increasing importance of #platform due diligence. #ConsumerDuty now adds another layer for advisers to factor in. Getting value from your platform whitepaper - https://lnkd.in/efHsc8iK https://lnkd.in/ePTJvD9X

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📢 Strengthening UK’s Access to Critical Minerals for Industrial Growth & Net Zero Transition Today, the Chancellor announced a significant boost for UK industries with new export credit financing aimed at securing critical minerals, essential for long-term growth and innovation. Through UK Export Finance (UKEF), the government will offer credit guarantees to overseas projects, helping British industries like automotive, aerospace, and defense secure stable, diversified access to vital materials like lithium, graphite, and cobalt. As global demand for these minerals rises, this initiative empowers UK manufacturers to forge resilient supply chains and build partnerships in resource-rich countries, including Australia. By supporting emerging and sustainable technologies—such as EVs, solar panels, and wind turbines—the UK strengthens its industrial base and drives progress toward net zero. Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, underscored this move as essential to maintaining the UK's competitive edge in the race for critical resources. Kirsty Benham, CEO of the Critical Minerals Association, welcomed the offering, emphasizing the UK’s role as a strong partner in the international critical minerals market. Sean Sargent, CEO of Green Lithium, noted this support as transformative for the UK’s industrial future, including Green Lithium’s Teesside refinery, set to become a key player in the battery chemicals supply chain. As a founding member of the Minerals Security Partnership, the UK is committed to building resilient, responsible supply routes. Today’s announcement marks a vital step in ensuring UK industries are prepared for a sustainable, globally connected future. 🌍 #CriticalMinerals #UKIndustry #NetZero #ExportFinance #IndustrialGrowth Learn more about Critical Minerals Supply Finance: https://lnkd.in/eKS9ZFgR

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My latest piece for the #BennettInstitute on what the next UK government needs to do to boost productivity across manufacturing (through regulatory alignment) and knowledge intensive services (via large scale urban extensions). The definition of PSND used for the UK's fiscal rules penalises investment supported by market revenues which is an unnecessary and economically damaging divergence from EU rules https://lnkd.in/gz72BXUz

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