Reshuffling Residencies at Informa PLC

Falkirk-born Lord Stephen Carter (founding CEO of media watchdog Ofcom in 2003), Group Chief Executive of Informa, a FTSE100 company, has shifted his residency to the UAE.  The Group's COO, Patrick Martell, has moved to Informa's New York office. Just 5% of Informa's revenue is domestic 40% US and 36% Middle East and Asia. The Board signed off the mass relocation plan following executives spending increasingly less time in the UK.

Nvidia Makes Sales in South Korea

US chip maker Nvidia has struck a deal to supply its chips to the South Korean government, and local behemoths like Samsung, LG and Hyundai. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said this will allow Korea to produce "intelligence as a new export".

US sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft

This includes secondary sanctions on companies that service them, including banks. Note that neither have significant assets in the US. 

Citadel Bought Morgan Stanley's Options Market Making Unit in July

In July, Citadel bought Morgan Stanley's equity options market making team, and took on their positions.

Morgan Stanley was the last major bank in the market making business now occupied by HFT firms. 

Jim Esposito, President of Citadel Securities, said "we are maniacally focused on being the best market maker" and also identified what Citadel is not - "we are not a bank".

Perplexity to Give Browser Away Free

The move will make it more competitive with the likes of Edge and Google Chrome. The company said it also reflects the company's "broader mission to democratize AI tools".

ICE Invests $2bn in Polymarkets

ICE, which owns the NYSE, has invested $2bn in prediction markets firm, Polymarkets, valuing the company at $8bn.  Polymarkets works on USDC deposits (USDC = "the world's largest digital dollar") on the Polygon blockchain network. ICE will become a distributor of Polymarkets data to institutional investors globally.

Tech Acquirer Bending Spoons Pursuing More M&A

Milan-based firm Bending Spoons is said to be pursuing application developers Elysium Digital and Typeform to add to their roster of companies, according to Italian media. Investors include Andre Agassi, Bradley Cooper and Eric Schmidt.

Jefferies Declares Exposure to First Brands

Jefferies Financial (JEF) disclosed its Point Bonita investment fund (which has mainly outside investors) had about $715 million exposure (through receivables) to auto-parts supplier First Brands. 

Jefferies said its own exposure was about $45m. 

Morgan Stanley, Blackrock  and Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust, are looking to redeem cash from their investments in Point Bonita.

SMBC, a shareholder of Jefferies, has agreed to increase its stake in Jefferies and extend up to $2.5bn in new credit.

SJP announces lower cost funds after fee restructure

SJP (Saint James' Place), one of the UK's largest wealth managers, managing over £198.5 billion in client assets, has expanded its investment range with new multi-index range funds priced at 20bps. Funds developed by State Street will form the building blocks of these new funds. SJP stated the new funds will "help change the perception" that its products are too expensive.

Peter Hargreaves Steps Down from Hargreaves Lansdown

Peter Hargreaves, billionaire and co-founder of the semi-eponymous firm, is stepping down from the Board.

Hargreaves Lansdown Privatised with CVC Backing

Hargreaves Lansdown has begun life as a private company this year, 2025.  

The UK's largest direct-to-consumer investment platform agreed to be sold to a private equity consortium in August last year (following an initial approach in April) comprised of CVC Advisers, Nordic Capital and Platinum Ivy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

The offer of 1,140 pence per share was a premium of 54% of the share price prior to the April approach and valued the firm at £5.44 billion pounds.

Richard Flint (ex Head of Sky Betting and Gaming, which he led through a period of growth), fulfils the role of Interim CEO, with Darren Worth as Interim CFO. The management are investing in a technology-led transformation to improve HL's propositioning.

Hargreaves Lansdown PLC was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on the 25 March 2025 and initially owned by Harp Bidco Limited, which was renamed in September 2025 to Hargreaves Lansdown Group Limited.

Musk Hires Ex-Morgan Stanley banker as CFO of xAI

Anthony Armstrong has been hired as CFO of xAI, purveyors of Grok, signalling commitment to scaling operations and financial strategy during a critical growth period for the company.

Hybrid Battery Hydrogen Systems Proposed by Startup

A Swiss startup, Plan B Net Zero (founded 2023), has created a concept for BESS (battery energy storage systems) and stored hydrogen as a hybrid solution for grid balancing ("complementary building blocks"). 

This approach was outlined in the DACH Hydrogen symposium in Wiener Neustadt.

PBNZ said BESS could respond "within milliseconds" to imbalances, whereas hydrogen could inject energy (through fuel cells and turbines) over longer durations. 

Tjark Connor, battery systems expert at the startup, commented: "Our goal is an energy system that stabilises itself, digital, decentralized and decarbonized".

First Brands Collapse Rattles Debt Investors

The auto parts supplier First Brands, known through its brands like STP oil (whose name stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum), Prestone antifreeze and Simoniz car waxes, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, disclosing liabilities on 29 Sept 2025 exceeding $10 billion.  

This has come in the wake of creditors concern on the use of opaque off-balance-sheet financing (by keeping certain assets and liabilities off balance sheet, healthier financial metrics can be obtained).

First Brands are likely to disclose an issue with its factoring arrangements, factoring being a financing method tied to the future revenue of the company. The companies Board and creditors are investigating the issue.

Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), an asset-rich American asset management firm, due to publish Q3 results on November 4th, had a 1 year CDS on the debt of First Brands, paying out in the event of failure to make payments. This is a credit play, not an equity short per se, and only pays if First Brands suffers on its debt payments. The fact APO has maintained that position has been a signal to the market.

Greek-American investment manager Jim Chanos (short-seller of Enron - made money, short seller of Tesla - lost money) has slammed the "magical machine" of private credit in response.

CRISIL acquires McKinsey's PriceMetrix

PriceMetrix, which does benchmarking for wealth managers, has been acquired by S&P majority owned CRISIL for $38m.