Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A recurring theme in 2025 in the world of private equity is “keeping the wolf from the door”. For companies on the brink of running out of money, that manifests through the increasing popularity of so-called “liability management” exercises, where zombie companies are temporarily kept upright by tapping bountiful debt markets and strong-arming investors.
For companies in private equity portfolios that are not quite hobbled but not exactly thriving either, there are continuation vehicles. These are new funds created by the same private equity sponsor that can purchase a business when the original fund is at its contractual end. A way, in effect, of keeping a promising company in the fold.
A general rule in finance is that where there’s innovation there’s litigation. Liability management has produced a glut of US court cases; now continuation vehicles look likely to follow. A Middle Eastern wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, has sued a private equity firm, Energy & Minerals Group, which wants to shift a natural gas driller it owns from one pocket to another.
The problem, ADIC says, is that the deal is great for the private equity firm, but not for the investors in the original fund. It contends the company in question, Ascent Resources, could be worth more than $7bn in a regular sale or an initial public offering, yet in fact the stake being transferred by EMG suggests a valuation of just $5.5bn.
Such blow-ups are inevitable when a buyout firm is on both sides of the deal, as is the case where continuation vehicles are involved. There are certain safeguards, to be sure: transparency, independent advisers, “fairness opinions” and fiduciary duty. Some claims of wrongdoing might be meritorious and others not. Where the original investors don’t get a windfall, disappointment will often ensue.
ADIC describes being forced into a “Hobson’s choice”. It could put in new cash, or roll over its investment on terms it described as “materially worse than the status quo”. It also said in its lawsuit that EMG had not tried hard enough for third party, arms-length deals — though the Financial Times has reported other buyers passed on Ascent, believing the price too rich.
Private equity groups need to worry not just about selling assets to continuation funds, but the deals that come after. Where a continuation vehicle later makes a big profit by exiting its investment, it will spur claims — sincere or otherwise — that the limited partners in the first fund were taken for a ride. Some sponsors, including Clayton Dubilier & Rice, have netted sizeable profits through a second deal.
There are also examples that work the other way around. Clearlake Capital’s Wheels Pro went bankrupt in a successor fund. More recently, portable toilet company ISS, in a continuation vehicle backed by Fortress, Blackstone and Ares, is expected to be a wipeout, Bloomberg has reported.
Continuation vehicles, like liability management exercises, address real problems over timing and liquidity. Secondary funds, which buy whole slices of private equity portfolios, are another example.
But while the Masters of the Universe are good at navigating deadlines and cash crunches, they’re not always as deft at placating investors who feel they’ve got the rough end of the stick. For those people, litigation may continue to feel like the best medicine.
SCOTUSblog founder faces January tax evasion trial
Appeal hinges on $2.65 million home financed by litigation funder
Goldstein says he needs real estate proceeds to pay for defense
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – (Billable Hours is Reuters’ weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com, opens new tab.)
The prosecution of prominent Washington lawyer Tom Goldstein has veered into an unusual appellate showdown involving pricey D.C. real estate, the constitutional right to counsel and a high-powered litigation funding firm that is set to be a witness in the case.
Sign up here.
Goldstein, formerly a leading member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar and a founder of SCOTUSblog, is facing trial next month in Greenbelt, Maryland on 22 counts of tax evasion and other financial criminal charges allegedly connected to his side career as a big-money poker player.
Since August, he has been seeking court permission to sell his nearly 5,000 square-foot home in Washington’s tony Wesley Heights neighborhood to help fund his defense. That request is now before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, after a judge in Maryland agreed with the government, opens new tab that the house is wrapped up in the allegations against Goldstein and cannot be sold.
Goldstein, who has pleaded not guilty, has had a string of defense lawyers at the trial court but is representing himself in his appeal. He told the 4th Circuit, opens new tab he has incurred millions of dollars in legal fees and expenses, and that barring him from selling the home, which he purchased for $2.65 million in 2021, violates his rights under the Constitution.
“As a criminal defendant, I have a Sixth Amendment right to use ‘untainted’ assets that are necessary to pay the costs of my defense. The home itself is not ‘tainted,’” Goldstein said in his Nov. 26 appellate brief.
The government opposes Goldstein’s bid to sell the house, now valued at more than $3 million by real estate listing platforms Redfin and Zillow. In a brief filed Wednesday, opens new tab, prosecutors said the property is indeed tainted because Goldstein made false statements on a loan application related to its purchase.
In any case, the government told the 4th Circuit, the home is being held as collateral for an appearance bond for Goldstein, who was deemed a flight risk by U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby.
Attorneys for Goldstein at Munger, Tolles & Olson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government alleges that Goldstein falsely omitted information on two loan applications by not disclosing more than $15 million in unpaid personal debts and federal taxes. Federal prosecutors have said Goldstein won and lost millions of dollars in individual poker matches and made improper payments through his law firm to cover debts.
After getting turned down for one loan application in March 2021, Goldstein allegedly borrowed more than $5.6 million from a company that invests in litigation and used the funds to buy the Washington home. Goldstein never disclosed his personal debts to the funder, prosecutors said.
Goldstein revealed in his 4th Circuit brief last week that the funder is Parabellum Capital, a top litigation finance firm with offices in New York and Boston with more than $1.5 billion in investments as of last year. Goldstein said Parabellum placed no restrictions on the funds, which he used to buy the D.C. property and pay taxes.
Parabellum said in a statement that it is a witness in Goldstein’s criminal case and that the firm has not been accused of wrongdoing. “A minor part of the case involves small investments Parabellum made several years ago,” the firm said.
Goldstein’s bid to quickly sell the property faces an uphill battle given its connections to his bail conditions, white-collar experts said.
“The facts here are what’s going to be a problem for him,” said Michael Weinstein, who leads the white collar criminal defense practice at law firm Cole Schotz. Weinstein said he was a law school classmate of Goldstein’s at American University, but has no personal relationship to him and is not involved in the case.
“In my experience, the federal government typically prevails in cases where property is reasonably alleged to be a tainted asset,” said Arun Rao, a Mayer Brown partner and former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general.
Goldstein wants the 4th Circuit to reverse Griggsby’s ruling and allow the sale, or to order an evidentiary hearing on whether the house is a tainted asset.
A spokesperson for the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– Alphabet’s Google urged a federal judge, opens new tab in California last week to slash a request for $128.3 million in legal fees tied to a class settlement over its advertising practices, calling the demand “massively inflated.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers in a court filing argued, opens new tab that the fee award is justified by what they called a “trailblazing” settlement. Law firm Pritzker Levine served as the lead for the consumer plaintiffs, and worked with firms Bleichmar Fonti, Simmons Hanly, DiCello Levitt, Cotchett Pitre and Bottini & Bottini.
Under the settlement, Google will add a new control allowing users to limit data shared in online ad auctions and will notify account holders via email and a dedicated webpage. The plaintiffs value these changes at $1.4 billion.
Google, which has denied any wrongdoing, counters that the lawsuit delivered minimal success. There was no settlement fund, and the company said it was implementing only modest changes largely duplicating existing privacy settings.
Google has proposed capping the fee award at about $14.3 million. The court will weigh the competing proposals at a February hearing. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elizabeth Pritzker, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said Google’s filing “misstates the record and the law in an effort to diminish plaintiff’s counsel’s reasonable compensation for this significant result.”
– A federal judge in Philadelphia on Thursday rejected a bid by plaintiffs’ law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro to force his recusal from long-running litigation over the drug thalidomide.
The Seattle-based law firm argued that communications between U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond and court-appointed official William Hangley were improper, citing hundreds of hours of contacts between them.
In his ruling, opens new tab Diamond dismissed the claim as “absurd,” noting that Hangley’s appointment in 2014 allowed such communications and that they averaged less than an hour per week over 11 years. Diamond said several plaintiffs opposed his recusal and none supported the firm’s arguments.
“The law does not require a judge’s recusal because a party dislikes his rulings,” Diamond wrote.
The recusal motion followed Hangley’s 2023 report accusing the firm of dishonesty and finding that a former partner altered evidence and gave false testimony. The report said the firm’s conduct bordered “on the criminal.”
Hagens Berman has disputed the report and denied any wrongdoing. The firm also has questioned Diamond’s decision this week to refer the firm to the U.S. Justice Department to investigate its conduct in the case. Hagens Berman and the firm’s outside counsel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read more:
Conservatives split on litigation funding reform legislation
Lawsuit that ignited Tom Girardi scandal ends after five years
Law firm’s AI experiment gives lawyers a break from billable hours
Reporting by Mike Scarcella
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Purchase Licensing Rights
David Thomas reports on the business of law, including law firm strategy, hiring, mergers and litigation. He is based out of Chicago. He can be reached at d.thomas@thomsonreuters.com and on Twitter @DaveThomas5150.
ROME — Creative director Dario Vitale is leaving Italian fashion brand Versace only eight months after he was appointed, the company said in a statement Thursday.
Vitale’s exit comes just two days after Prada Group finalized its $1.375 billion cash acquisition of Versace, starting a new era for the brand.
“We would like to sincerely thank Dario for his outstanding contribution to the development of the brand’s creative strategy during this transition period, and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavors,” Versace said in a statement.
Vitale will exit the brand on Dec. 12 and his successor will be announced in due course, the company added.
Meanwhile, CEO Emmanuel Gintzburger will oversee the creative team.
Vitale’s ascension at Versace in April marked a dramatic turn for the fashion house. He was only the third creative director after Gianni Versace, who was killed in 1997, and his sister Donatella Versace, who assumed the role after his death until Vitale took over.
His first collection for the house debuted in September.
Extending the life cycle of digital devices and maximising the value of each component: this is the goal of the OnLife project, developed by Leonardo, which introduces a circular economy model applied to workplace assets. The initiative, which stems from a collaboration between Leonardo’s Sustainability and Digital Solutions departments, integrates digital technologies – from automation to artificial intelligence – with circular processes that reduce consumption, emissions and the use of raw materials, while generating social value for the communities in which the Group operates. The aim is to transform the traditional process of managing discarded PCs and monitors into a concrete opportunity f structured around three main drivers.
The first driver concerns the reuse of devices into the secondary market (PROSPERITY) through online sales channels, to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable economy. The proceeds from the sale cover the costs of the project and the refurbishment of the PCs intended for donation. In this first phase, 160 assets were collected, 99% of which are prepared for reuse.
The second driver is digital inclusion (PEOPLE) and is part of HP’s Hope project: some of the decommissioned and refurbished devices are donated to non-profit organisations operating in areas with a greater digital divide. This initiative promotes access to technology, fosters interest in STEM subjects and creates new educational and professional opportunities.
The third area (PLANET) involves the implementation of advanced recycling processes for non-reusable devices to extract critical raw materials (CRMs), which are essential for the digital and green transition. This urban mining approach reduces dependence on virgin raw materials and helps to limit the overall environmental impact by cutting emissions and reducing the extraction of natural resources.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) today announced a settled disciplinary order sanctioning a U.S.-based registered public accounting firm, TPS Thayer LLC (“the Firm”).
Violations Found By the PCAOB
As described in further detail in the order, the Board is imposing these sanctions based on the Firm’s conduct in connection with five audits of two public companies that have their principal place of business in the People’s Republic of China.
Specifically, the Firm failed to appropriately plan the five audits and failed to reasonably supervise an unregistered public accounting firm – also based in China – that played a substantial role in those audits.
In addition, the Firm failed to properly disclose the unregistered firm’s participation (1) on the PCAOB’s required Form AP and (2) in communications to the audit committees of the public companies.
Sanctions Imposed by the PCAOB
The order:
Censures the Firm;
Imposes a civil money penalty in the amount of $100,000 on the Firm; and
Requires the Firm to undertake certain contingent remedial actions.
Learn More
Further information about the PCAOB Division of Enforcement and Investigations is available on the PCAOB website. Firms or individuals wishing to report suspected misconduct by auditors, or to self-report possible misconduct, may visit the PCAOB Tips and Referrals page.
*****
About the PCAOB
The PCAOB is a nonprofit corporation established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports. The PCAOB also oversees the audits of brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws.
Freeport not counting on deals for growth, CEO says
Says more government incentives needed to boost US copper output
Grasberg expected to hit 90% capacity by mid-2026, back fully by end of 2027
NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Copper producer Freeport-McMoRan (FCX.N), opens new tab would pursue an acquisition if “the stars and the moon” aligned, but is not counting on deals to grow and is focused on developing existing assets, its CEO said on Thursday.
As an M&A frenzy envelops the mining industry, Freeport’s stance stands apart as global demand for the key electrification metal pushes rivals BHP (BHP.AX), opens new tab, Anglo American (AAL.L), opens new tab, and others to scramble for deals.
Sign up here.
“You never say never about M&A, because we keep relationships around the industry … but we’re not counting on that,” Kathleen Quirk told the Reuters NEXT conference in New York. “The stars and the moon and everything would need to align.”
FREEPORT EYES NEW TECHNOLOGY
The world’s largest publicly traded copper company produced 1.26 billion pounds (571,530 metric tons) of copper in the U.S. last year and 4.1 billion pounds (1.86 million metric tons) globally.
By the end of the decade, Freeport aims to be producing 800 million pounds annually of copper outside of traditional mines with novel leaching technology in the U.S. That is roughly the size of a new mine’s output, yet at lower cost and with fewer regulatory issues.
“In the next five years in our U.S. business, we have the opportunity to grow by up to 50% through internal organic growth,” said Quirk, who became CEO of the Phoenix-based company last year after previously serving as finance chief. “We have the opportunity … to essentially build a new mine without spending a huge amount of capital.”
Freeport, which operates mines across the Americas and in Indonesia, would be interested only in buying a rival copper company or mine that could have synergies with its existing assets and technology, Quirk said.
Copper is used in construction, transportation, electronics, and many other industries. The U.S. imports roughly half of its copper needs each year and has only two active copper smelters, one of which Freeport owns.
SEEKING MORE INCENTIVES FROM WASHINGTON
Quirk called on the U.S. government to do more to protect the domestic copper industry from competitive global threats.
President Donald Trump in July imposed a 50% tariff on copper pipes, tubes, and other semi-finished products, but left out copper input materials such as ores, concentrates, and cathodes that Freeport produces.
The move was essentially a boost for Chile and Peru, two of the world’s largest copper miners and major suppliers, yet for Freeport, the final levy missed market expectations.
“If the U.S. wants to be self-sufficient in copper, some kind of incentive would help,” said Quirk, adding that permitting reform is one of the company’s other requests from Washington.
“We’re not going and asking Washington for handouts, but we are spending a lot of time with the administration to educate them on what we do.”
GRASBERG MINE FULLY ONLINE IN 2027
After a fatal accident in September at Freeport’s Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia forced operations to halt, production should be 90% restored next year and fully back online by 2027, Quirk said.
The disaster was caused by mud that breached a previously undetected hole in the mine’s retired open pit and rushed into a zone where a two-person electrical crew and a five-person boring crew were working. Mud reached that area in minutes.
Quirk went to Indonesia after the disaster to meet with the miners’ families and recovery workers.
“Our team has taken it very hard, but we’ve unified together, and we’re committed to coming out stronger and safer in the future,” Quirk said.
View the live broadcast of the Reuters NEXT World Stage here and read full coverage here.
Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Shariq Khan
Editing by Rod Nickel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Purchase Licensing Rights
Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent covering critical minerals and the global energy transition, as well as the author of “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power our Lives,” which was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award and was named the American Energy Society’s Energy Book of the Year. He previously wrote about the U.S. shale revolution – drawing on a two-year stint based in oil-rich North Dakota – as well as politics and the environment. A native of Maine, Scheyder is a graduate of the University of Maine – where he was named a distinguished alumnus in 2021 – and Columbia Journalism School.
Shariq is a New York-based energy reporter and has led coverage of the destruction caused in the oil patch by the coronavirus pandemic, the industry’s rebuilding efforts, and the upheaval of trade routes from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, among other major developments.
Dryrobe, the maker of huge waterproof towel-lined coats favoured by cold water swimming fans, has won a trademark case against a smaller label that must now stop selling items under the D-Robe brand within a week.
A judge at the high court in London ruled the company was guilty of passing off its D-Robe changing robes and other goods as Dryrobe products and knew it was infringing its bigger rival’s trademark.
The ruling described a Dryrobe as “an oversized waterproof coat with a towelled lining, designed for surfers or swimmers to change under whilst also drying them, keeping them warm, and protecting them from the weather”.
The company has rigorously defended its brand against being used generically by publications and makers of similar clothing and is expected to seek compensation from D-Robe’s owners for trademark infringement.
Dryrobe was created by the former financier Gideon Bright as an outdoor changing robe for surfers in 2010 and became the signature brand of the wild swimming craze.
While they shot to prominence during Covid lockdowns, when outdoor swimming became a popular alternative exercise while gyms and leisure centres were shut, Dryrobes are now just as likely to be sported on the high street or by dog walkers in chillier and wetter parts of the UK as they are on beaches and riverbanks.
They have even sparked their own culture war. A sign appeared at a beach in Ireland warning visitors to “beware of Dryrobe wankers”, which prompted a counter action online, with social media posts by fans under the hashtag #dryrobewankers.
Sales of the brand, whose signature coats sport a large Dryrobe logo on the back, rose from £1.3m in 2017 to £20.3m in 2021 and made profits of £8m. However, by 2023 sales had fallen back to £18m as the passion for outdoor sports waned and the brand faced more competition.
Bright said the legal win was a “great result” for Dryrobe as there were “quite a lot of copycat products and [the owners] immediately try to refer to them using our brand name”.
He said the company was now expanding overseas and moving into a broader range of products, adding that sales were similar to 2023 as “a lot of competition has come in”.
Judge Melissa Clarke said: “In my judgment, D-Robe and Dryrobe have a high degree of visual similarity.” She said a “substantial proportion of attentive consumers” who knew the Dryrobe trademarks would link and “indeed confuse them” with the D-Robe sign.
The smaller label sought to defend itself against the claim by arguing that the term Dryrobe had become a generic descriptive term, but the judge ruled that most members of the public understood the term to be a brand name in 2022.
skip past newsletter promotion
after newsletter promotion
D-Robe changed its name to Delta Roam in May. A spokesperson said the rebrand had been in train before the case and it had already sold out of the majority of its D-Robe stock.
“We are in a good place,” the spokesperson said, adding that it had recently launched a product with the backing of the model Jodie Kidd. He said the new name was part of efforts to expand in the US, “where they think a robe is a jazzy dressing gown”.
Geoff Steward, the co-head of the intellectual property team at Addleshaw Goddard, the law firm that represented Dryrobe in the case, said: “As well as being an interesting judgment on trademark genericide, the case highlights the importance of a clear, modern and relentless trademark strategy in protecting brands against free riding, which Dryrobe deployed to great effect.”
The win for Dryrobe came almost two years after it settled out of court with the British fashion label Superdry in a separate trademark case.
Dryrobe agreed not to depict the “dry” element of its logo using “any member of the Helvetica family of fonts” after Superdry sought damages in a high court claim.
Rotherhithe Community Kitchen in south London has been delivering hundreds of cooked meals a week for the last two years to pensioners and vulnerable residents. Yet the volunteer group’s plans have been thrown into disarray by the news that they will not have access to cars and vans on New Year’s Day.
The group had relied on Zipcar, the car-sharing company that offered customers the ability to access its fleet of vehicles from the street using an app. The company caused shock across London on Monday when it said it would shut down UK operations from 1 January.
It will mean many of the volunteers will be unable to collect food from the Felix Project, a charity that gathers surplus food from supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Obvious alternatives are further away, more expensive, or do not offer the same flexible hours.
“It’s going to be affected massively,” said Vimal Pandya, the community kitchen’s founder. “Personally me and my team, we are worried about the logistical challenge we will face. A lot of people like our group are going to struggle.”
Vimal Pandya (far left) said Rotherhithe Community Kitchen was worried about the ‘logistical challenge’ caused by Zipcar’s exit. Photograph: Vimal Pandya/Rotherhithe Community Kitchen
The community kitchen’s drivers are among more than half a million people in London registered as car club members in 2020, and who could be left without convenient access to cars and vans, without the hassle and cost of ownership. The vast majority of those people were likely to be members of Zipcar, which had a near-monopoly position in the city.
The planned closure, subject to consultation with Zipcar’s 71 UK employees, is a big blow to hopes that car sharing in urban areas could reduce the need for private vehicle ownership. Yet some experts also suggested that Zipcar’s departure (the company still operates in the US and Canada) need not spell the end of the road for the idea in Britain.
Car sharing is prized by many urbanists and environmentalists as a way of reducing the ills associated with vehicle ownership. Most cars sit as two-tonne dead weights on the side of the road for 95% of the time, using up space. They also require large carbon emissions to produce, and people who do not own cars tend to walk, cycle and take public transport more. That benefits cities – reducing congestion and pollution – and improves people’s health further because they build more exercise into their daily routines.
Zipcar was founded in 2000 by two American entrepreneurs before being bought by US car rental group Avis Budget in 2013 for $491m (£371m). Zipcar’s revenues of £47m in UK barely registered compared with Avis Budget’s overall annual revenue of $12bn, and so a loss that grew to £11.7m in 2024 gave the parent company little incentive to continue.
Avis Budget has said the closure of Zipcar’s UK operations is part of a “broader transformation across our international business, where we are taking deliberate steps to streamline operations, improve returns”.
Zipcar’s most recent accounts, for 2024, said revenues had fallen as drivers had been taking fewer and shorter trips. “These changes reflect the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis, which continues to suppress demand for discretionary spending,” it said.
Last year, Zipcar closed its operations in Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol to focus on London.
A Zipcar sits in its bay on a street in London. Parking is a central issue for the car-sharing market. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
However, several experts noted that London has specific problems that made it much harder for the company and its rivals to succeed.
Some councils were very supportive but across 33 boroughs car-club operators face a patchwork of varying processes and prices that made it harder to operate. Zipcar’s closure will also coincide with the electric cars becoming liable for London’s congestion charge, adding unavoidable costs for any vehicles enter the charge zone.
As often seems the case in local politics, parking is a central issue. Residents in the wealthiest London borough, Kensington and Chelsea, pay as little as £63 for a year’s electric car parking. The same vehicle in a floating car club (accessible via app, without a fixed parking space) would pay £1,110 annually. For a petrol or diesel model it is £2,217.
Co Wheels has found success in towns and cities outside London, ranging from Glasgow, Bristol and Oxford all the way to the Orkney islands. Yet the cost and complexity of the capital have so far limited its efforts there.
“We should literally be charged one-twentieth of a resident’s permit,” said Robert Schopen, the head of partnerships at Co Wheels. “We’re taking cars off the street. We’re putting less polluting cars in their place.”
Elly Baker, the chair of the London assembly transport committee, said there needed to be central leadership across all of the capital’s boroughs on car clubs, allowing a single process and unified price guidelines for parking permits.
A spokesperson for London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said car clubs could play an “important role” in reducing private car ownership.
skip past newsletter promotion
after newsletter promotion
Other European countries offer examples for London to follow. Germany introduced national car-sharing legislation in 2017, giving a nationwide framework for parking, subsidies and exemptions. Now, the country has 5.4 shared cars per 10,000 people, while France has 2.1 and Belgium has 6.3, according to the vehicle-sharing software company Invers. The UK lags behind at 0.7 (and Zipcar accounted for more than half of that).
GreenMobility presents Denmark’s first self-driving electric car share in Copenhagen last month. Photograph: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images
“What we see is that car sharing around the world, especially in Europe, is growing,” said Bharath Devanathan, the chief business officer at Invers.
Devanathan said authorities should start to treat car sharing as a form of public transport, and integrate it with train and bus stations. He added that one unnamed client was already seriously considering entering the London market even before Zipcar’s exit, and despite the challenges: “There will be a group of operators that will fill this gap.”
Speaking about the closure of Zipcar’s UK operation, Devanathan said: “It’s very unusual that it’s happened at this scale and the biggest player, but this is definitely not the end.”
The company’s competitors can roughly be divided into two camps: fleet operators, which own or lease and maintain their own cars; and peer-to-peer services, that allow users to rent out their own vehicles to others via app unlocking or by providing lockboxes for keys – a kind of Airbnb for cars.
Examples of the fleet model across Europe include: Denmark’s GreenMobility, France’s Free2Move, which is owned by Peugeot and Fiat owner Stellantis; Germany’s Miles Mobility; Belgium’s Poppy; and Renault’s Mobilize in Madrid. Peer-to-peer players include Britain’s Hiyacar and the US’s Getaround.
One company already weighing up the UK gap left by Zipcar is Turo, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer platform. Rory Brimmer, the managing director of Turo UK, said his company had a “big opportunity” to win more users in London and would look at increasing marketing efforts. UK car owners earn an average of £400 a month from renting their vehicle, he said, enough to fully cover the cost of ownership of some cars.
“There is a void there that is going to need to be filled, because London still needs to move,” Brimmer said.
Yet it could take some time for other players to build momentum. In the meantime, more people will feel forced to buy cars, and others across London will be left without access.
Vimal Pandya and another volunteer use a car owned by a volunteer to deliver food in south London. Photograph: Vimal Pandya/Rotherhithe Community Kitchen
For Rotherhithe Community Kitchen, the next month will be a scramble to find a way to get food out. Pandya said of the volunteers: “Knowing the reality, they are all worried and thinking: ‘How are we going to carry on?’”
(Bloomberg) — A rally that put the stock market within a striking distance of its all-time highs struggled to gain further traction ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve decision. Bitcoin halted its rebound. Bonds fell.
While most shares in the S&P 500 rose, the gauge was little changed. Bets on a Fed reduction next week remained intact despite a slide in jobless claims — a noisy reading that captured the Thanksgiving period. Meta Platforms Inc. jumped 4% as Bloomberg News reported executives are considering budget cuts for the metaverse group next year.
Subscribe to the Stock Movers Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other Podcast Platforms.
Investor worries that the frenzy around artificial-intelligence has gone too far caused a wobble in equity markets last month. But the strong outlook for the sector alongside expectations that policy easing will fuel corporate profits propped up bets on further gains.
“The key question hanging over markets is whether a potential Federal Reserve rate cut next week can trigger a so-called Santa rally,” said Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com. “For now, the S&P 500 forecast remains cautiously constructive, albeit with more hesitancy creeping in.”
The S&P 500 hovered near 6,845. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 4.09%. The dollar fluctuated. The yen climbed as Bloomberg News reported that key members of the government wouldn’t try to stop the Bank of Japan if it decides to raise rates.
“After last week’s sharp rebound, the S&P 500 has made limited progress so far this week,” said Razaqzada. “Even so, the structure retains a mildly bullish slant.”
Several previously broken levels have now been reclaimed, reinforcing the impression that the bulls maintain a degree of control, he added.
To Matt Maley at Miller Tabak, while the market has spent the past few days consolidating gains, the set-up is a very good one.
“So unless we get a big reversal over the next few trading days, the advantage will definitely be with the bulls,” he said.
Maley notes that one area that could do well if we get a strong year-end rally is the small-cap space.
“A push to a new significant all-time high might finally attract the kind of momentum money that could help this part of the stock market outperform,” he said. “Of course, if the mega-cap tech stocks start to roll-over in a big way, all bets will be off.”
The US tech sector is likely to remain a key driver for the market’s next leg up, but its recent underperformance also points to other compelling opportunities across the market, according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“As we expect US equities to rally into 2026, we think under-allocated investors should add exposure,” she said. “Beyond the tech sector, we expect a good performance from the health care, utilities, and banking sectors to broaden the foundation for further gains.”
Hoffmann-Burchardi continues to expect two rate cuts by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
“In addition to being supportive to equities, the Fed’s easing path also creates a positive backdrop for quality bonds,” she said.
On the macro front, applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest in more than three years, indicating that employers are still largely holding onto workers despite a wave of recent layoffs.
Separate data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed announced layoffs at US companies fell last month after surging in October, but were still the highest for any November in three years.
“Overall, the net takeaway from the data served to confirm the crosscurrents evident in the labor landscape,” said Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets.
Policymakers will not yet have the government’s November jobs report in hand for their meeting next week. The report, originally due Dec. 5, was delayed until Dec. 16 as a result of the record-long government shutdown. That release will also include October payrolls figures.
“There remain some negative payroll employment readings. But the US labor market is not collapsing based on timely data & reports that have leading indicator properties,” said Don Rissmiller at Strategas. “We continue to believe the Fed will cut the fed funds rate again by 25 basis points in December.”
While investors are largely betting policymakers will cut rates again, officials have rarely been so divided as many still prefer leaving rates elevated to keep inflation in check.
Before their final policy meeting of the year, Fed officials will get a dated reading on their preferred inflation gauge. On Friday, the September income and spending report — long delayed because of the government shutdown — is due to be released.
The figures will include the personal consumption expenditures price index and a core measure that excludes food and energy. Economists project a third-straight 0.2% increase in the core index. That would keep the year-over-year figure hovering just below 3%, a sign that inflationary pressures are stable, yet sticky.
Corporate Highlights:
Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg is expected to meaningfully cut resources for building the so-called metaverse, an effort that he once framed as the future of the company and the reason for changing its name from Facebook Inc. Meta Platforms risks a temporary European Union ban on the rollout of new policies over how its AI features in WhatsApp, after being hit by the latest probe into Big Tech’s alleged dominance on the continent. Paramount Skydance Corp. said Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. isn’t being fair in its process to sell itself and isn’t acting in shareholders’ best interests, as a competitive bidding process is underway. Salesforce Inc. gave an outlook for revenue in the current period that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting the software company is persuading customers to buy its AI tools. Snowflake Inc. gave an outlook for operating margin that fell short of analysts’ estimates, raising concerns among investors about the profitability of new AI-based tools. Dollar General Corp. raised its full-year outlook, showing how value-focused retailers are winning over consumers hunting for deals. Kroger Co. lowered the top end of its full-year sales forecast, suggesting that competition is intensifying among food sellers for discerning consumers. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce all beat estimates on results that included strong performance in their capital-markets businesses, continuing a trend seen across other Canadian lenders and wrapping up a year marked by buoyant markets and more advisory work. Novo Nordisk A/S left open the door for additional work on its pill version of Ozempic for Alzheimer’s disease after a pair of failed trials, saying that patients showed a biological response in a handful of areas despite getting no cognitive improvement. Rio Tinto Group’s new chief executive will focus on cutting costs and selling assets in a bid to turn the world’s second largest miner into a slimmed-down operation centered primarily on iron ore and copper. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 was little changed as of 12:06 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 was little changed The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5% The MSCI World Index rose 0.3% Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.3% The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.7% Meta rose 4.1% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1659 The British pound was little changed at $1.3350 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 154.93 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 1.6% to $92,266.32 Ether was little changed at $3,164.38 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 4.09% Germany’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.77% Britain’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 4.43% The yield on 2-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.52% The yield on 30-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 4.75% Commodities
