Media Coverage

The current CO2 shortage is a perfect storm of stretched supply chains and high prices. The government could have been more prepared.[...[  Only a few details about the deal have been disclosed, though the government says the agreed sum is less than £50m and will cover production costs only.“There are reasonable questions asked about whether it’s good value for money,” says Lilah Howson-Smith at advisory firm Global Counsel.

Carbon dioxide crunch exposes fragility of food supply chain. [...] Global Counsel’s 2019 report proposed other measures to strengthen the supply chain. But little has changed, said Lilah Howson-Smith, senior associate at the group. “It has been crowded out quite a lot by other things like Brexit and now Covid. It’s just not been the priority,” she said. 

Political interest in private equity has ramped up over the last year.

After a string of high-profile political interventions on recent PE deals, from defence to retail, the Labour Party has made it their mission to scrap the carried interest tax rules that PE fund managers benefit from. Returns would no longer be booked as capital gains (taxed at 28 per cent) but as income (at 45 per cent).

The price of CO2 used to produce food and drink will be five times higher, under a deal to restart production. But there will be no "significant impact" on prices in supermarkets, the government says...

Food and Drink Federation boss warns that crippling staff shortages mean customers must get used to more limited options. Fellow panelist Elly Darkin, a trade policy adviser at advisory firm Global Counsel, warned the looming introduction of post-Brexit border checks would cause further disruption.

“Digital bank aspirants in Malaysia will also have to grapple with each other in an environment where incumbent banks already enjoy high penetration rates with a population that has only a modest gross domestic savings rate of about 26%, less than half that of neighbouring Singapore,” Andrew Yeo Asia practice lead for public policy advisory firm Global Counsel told The Ken.

Stephen Adams, a former advisor to the European Commission’s trade division and a director at the consultancy Global Counsel, said the new rules “will place some serious demands [on importers]”.

There is a truce in the British-EU sausage war. The extension of the grace period for chilled meats going from Britain to Northern Ireland has bought time to find solutions. It is unlikely to be used successfully. And it concerns a part of the world which lacks the luxury of using war as a metaphor for trade disputes.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s chief executive officer has said the regulator is still learning about how to deal with digital entrants to financial services but its work would be made easier by tighter legislation.

Speaking at Global Counsel’s event yesterday (July 14), Nikhil Rathi was asked if the FCA had the framework and firepower to properly regulate digital entrants to the market.

Evaluating the costs associated with the UK’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 deserves far greater attention. It suddenly entered the fray last week when Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was asked who would be expected to pay the touted £1 trillion cost — including £10,000 per home to replace gas boilers — in an interview with Andrew Neil.