News

The UK has fallen from seventh to 12th in a global capitalism index since 2009, with researchers pointing to modest declines in labour market openness, market competition and the free flow of goods and capital. Researchers at the University of Virginia spent three years developing the first Global C

JPMorgan Global Growth & Income has attributed its underperformance over the year to June 2026 to “unfavourable stock selection”, with its net asset value (NAV) total return trailing its benchmark by 11 percentage points. The trust delivered a NAV total return of 16.7%, compared with

Seraphim Space Investment Trust (SSIT) has invested a further $15m in Xona Space Systems, with the US satellite navigation company’s latest financing round increasing the fair value of SSIT’s existing holding by £52.2m. The investment was made through SSIT’s C share portfolio

Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust chair Tom Burnet has written to the Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander and Economic Secretary Lucy Rigby urging the Government to help protect the UK investment trust industry from activist hedge funds. Burnet has been calling on retail investors to vot

Gillespie Macandrew has appointed three new senior appointments to strengthen its planning, corporate and finance teams. Nikki Robertson joins the firm as head of finance. She brings expertise in financial planning and analysis, business partnering, governance, regulatory processes and Board-level r

FinTech platform Wise is negotiating a settlement with HM Revenue & Customs after errors in its software led to around 4,000 of its investment customers paying the wrong amount of tax. Around 4,000 users of its Wise Assets service were notified that they had been provided with incorrect tax stat

Partners Group Private Equity has entered a managed wind-down after 99.9% of shareholders voted in favour of realising all the assets of the £457m investment company at an extraordinary general meeting yesterday. Just over 62% of shareholders turned out to vote on the resolution to wind down t

Saba Capital has agreed to a one-year standstill with JPMorgan as it backs the rollover of Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies. The New York-based activist investor informed the company that it would vote in favour of the proposal to roll over the assets of Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies into J

Aberdeen Group has sold part of its stake in Standard Life to institutional investors and is reinvesting the proceeds in strengthening its balance sheet.

Maven Capital Partners has launched a new joint share offers to raise up to £20 million across its four Maven Income and Growth Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). It means that advisers and their clients will be able to access VCTs with a 6% annual dividend target, with each of the four VCTs made

Edinburgh fund manager Walter Scott & Partners has reported a 17% drop in turnover for the 2025 financial year, reflecting a 19% fall in assets under management from £72bn to £58bn. Chair Richard Watt noted that performance “was materially below benchmark levels” and said

Early-career accountants  and finance professionals believe they will depend on AI for future career success, according to a new survey. Findings from accountancy and book keeping platform Intuit QuickBooks, revealed that around 90% said they will be better equipped to use AI compared to future

HSBC is axing jobs at its UK wealth division following a push to reduce costs through the use of artificial intelligence. The lender is currently consulting to changes it wealth management operations as part of the shake-up, which would impact the hundreds of relationship managers and financial advi

Aegon Asset Management has appointed Iain McGowan as its new partnership director. In a new role for the business, McGowan will strengthen and grow relationships across some of Aegon AM’s key UK-based institutional partners. Based in Edinburgh, he will report into Aegon AM’s head of UK c

Aberdein Considine has promoted eleven colleagues Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Newcastle, with its lender, banking and private client teams among those strengthened. Alison Forbes, who has more than 18 years with the firm as lender services UK quality assurance manager has been made an associate director