Netherlands Picks Sleijpen to Succeed Knot as Central Bank Chief
The Dutch government appointed Olaf Sleijpen to head the central bank.
Sleijpen will start his seven-year term on July 1. He will succeed Klaas Knot, who led the central bank for 14 years and couldn't stand for another period.
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5 top FTSE 100 stocks offering plenty of global growth for an ISA
The FTSE 100 is made up of the largest companies listed in London. But this doesn't mean that most stocks are UK-focused, far from it. In fact, it's quite straightforward to build a Stocks and Shares ISA portfolio of FTSE 100 shares that offer truly global exposure. Here are five that would certainly do the job. Let's start with the largest stock by market cap in the Footsie today: AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN). This healthcare giant has truly global operations, spanning the areas of oncology, respiratory and immunology, rare diseases, and more. This year, the firm is expected to rake in $57.5bn in revenue, with a net profit of about $14bn. And it generates this from nearly everywhere, including China and Japan. Region % of total revenue (2024) US 40% Europe 16% China 12% UK 9% Japan 6% Rest of world 17% As we can see, investors in AstraZeneca are getting diversified exposure to the whole of the developed world. The reason the US is such a sizeable part is because it has the largest healthcare system of them all. The stock has fallen 17.5% since the end of August, putting it on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.5. For a profitable firm of this calibre, which also offers a 2.3% dividend yield, I think that's very attractive. Turning to another FTSE 100 giant now, we have HSBC (LSE: HSBA). The bank is increasingly focused on Asia these days, as that's where most of the world's growth is expected to come from in future. Indeed, according to the Asian Development Bank, Asia's middle class is set to swell to roughly 3bn people by 2050. With HSBC increasingly focused on wealth management in the region, the long-term growth story looks very promising. This year, the bank is expected to earn around $23bn on revenue of almost $67bn. The stock is offering an attractive 5.8% dividend yield. The third stock is Airtel Africa. As the name implies, the firm's operations extend across Africa. Specifically, Airtel is a provider of telecommunications and mobile money services to 166m people in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The share price has been on a tear, surging 55% this year alone. However, it still looks decent value to me, trading at 12.5 times next year's forecast earnings. There's also a well-supported 2.8% dividend yield. Finally, for even more global portfolio exposure, investors could consider Coca Cola HBC and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. These are both bottling partners for the US beverage giant, selling brands like Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, and Monster. The former's markets include Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. The other's portfolio is more weighted toward emerging and developing markets, including Poland, Romania, Nigeria, and Egypt. Naturally, none of these five stocks are totally risk-free. The Coca-Cola bottlers could suffer during a severe global economic downturn, as this would put pressure on consumer spending. Meanwhile, HSBC and AstraZeneca may fall foul of regulatory changes in China, especially if trade tensions with the US worsen at some point. Finally, most of Airtel Africa's revenue is collected in local African currencies, but it's reported in US dollars, exposing the company to currency risk. Nevertheless, adding these stocks to an ISA would make it truly global, with vast exposure to Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The post 5 top FTSE 100 stocks offering plenty of global growth for an ISA appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool HSBC Holdings is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Ben McPoland has positions in AstraZeneca Plc, Coca-Cola Hbc Ag, and HSBC Holdings. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Airtel Africa Plc, AstraZeneca Plc, and HSBC Holdings. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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How can Liverpool afford Florian Wirtz?
The signing of Florian Wirtz comprises a new club-record deal for Liverpool. Wirtz will join from Bayer Leverkusen on a five-year contract. In exchange, Liverpool have agreed to pay the German club £100million ($135.9m) in guaranteed fees, with a potential £16m due in add-ons. The deal, even without those add-ons, eclipses Liverpool's previous transfer record by a distance. That record is generally seen as having been in place since January 2018, when they parted with £75m to buy Virgil van Dijk from Southampton. Advertisement In fact, the Van Dijk fee may already have been topped prior to this agreement. Darwin Nunez was signed from Benfica in June 2022 for an initial £64m that could rise to £85m. To the end of last December, according to the Portuguese side's financial disclosures, Liverpool had paid a further €10m (around £8.5m) of a potential €25m in add-ons, so any more conditions being met in the last six months could mean Nunez's transfer fee went past Van Dijk's. Either way, Wirtz's signing tops both of them, and makes him one of only a dozen or so footballers in history to command a £100m-plus fee. How, then, can his new side afford him? Wirtz's club-record arrival comes at a time when Liverpool are enjoying record revenues. They cleared £600m for the first time in 2023-24, a year in which they had to make do with Europa League football and finishing third in the Premier League. Last season, with a return to the Champions League and a twentieth domestic title secured, alongside a full season of the extended Anfield Road End being open and continued commercial growth, Liverpool should have topped £700m in turnover, a feat only previously managed by Manchester City in England. A further record in 2025-26 looks likely. The Athletic estimates Liverpool earned £181.5m through winning the Premier League and, even if they don't retain the title in 2025-26, they will still benefit from an uptick in the league's overall income. A new TV rights cycle starts this season, with the Premier League expecting to earn £12.25bn over the next three years — a 17 per cent increase on the 2022-25 cycle. Liverpool's commercial growth is well-placed to continue. August will see them begin a new kit deal with Adidas. The agreement, while incentive-based, represents a significant potential increase on the club's already lucrative arrangement with Nike. The latter secured Liverpool a base payment of £30million a season, but garnered around double that in reality. Booming revenues are all well and good but of little use if your expenditure is through the roof. Liverpool lost £57.1million pre-tax in 2023-24, the worst financial result both of the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) era and in the club's history, so are costs are swallowing their income whole? Not really. That big loss a year ago was very much out of the ordinary for a club who, across FSG's near-15 years at the helm, have broken even. In fact they've most likely done better than that: as detailed in The Athletic's BookKeeper series, published in March, we expect Liverpool to have returned to profitability in 2024-25, and healthy profitability too. Even if the club's wage bill crept up to the £400m mark — not a guarantee by any stretch, but possible once league-winning bonuses were handed out — we project Liverpool could still have booked a £30m profit. Advertisement The club are big wage-payers, as evidenced by their 2023-24 wage bill only trailing Manchester City domestically. The Athletic understands Wirtz will earn around £200,000 per week at Anfield, before any bonuses which may accrue to him. From Liverpool's perspective, inclusive of employer-related costs on top of his basic salary, Wirtz will cost them at least £12m a year to employ. Liverpool have some world-class players and pay them accordingly, but they'll benefit from the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who also cost them £12m a year in employment-related costs (again before bonuses). One of the reasons the signings of Van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson are often pointed to as examples of Liverpool not skimping on fees is they were pretty much outliers; they did spend big on the pair, but their transfer spending has generally trailed domestic rivals. At the end of 2023-24 the cost of assembling Liverpool's squad, across transfer and agent fees, was £749.4m, the seventh most expensive squad in the world but well behind Chelsea (£1.4bn), Manchester City (£1.1bn), Manchester United (£943.9m) and Arsenal (£882.4m). Correspondingly, annual amortisation costs hitting the club's books were well below domestic peers; Liverpool's amortisation bill of £114.5m last year was over £20m behind Spurs and £75m less than Chelsea. After a quiet summer in 2024, amortisation won't have ticked up much, if at all. Assuming his signing completes on June 16, when the transfer window reopens, Wirtz's £100m fee, plus assumed agent fees on top of around 10 per cent, will add £20.9m to Liverpool's 2025-26 amortisation bill, with a further £21.8m per season following thereafter until 2029-30 (a small sliver, £1.8m, will fall into 2030-31 as a result of the club's 31 May accounting date). Alongside the recent signing of Jeremie Frimpong, they'll have added around £28m a season onto their amortisation costs, but they'll still trail all the rest of the 'Big Six' clubs, with the potential exception of Spurs. Advertisement No. We recently explained how Liverpool could have lost £75m last season without breaking any Premier League rules. Across wages and transfer fee amortisation, signing Wirtz will add an extra £34m or so in annual costs — but the club have the headroom to handle it. That's not to say that outgoings are not likely this summer. They aren't needed to satisfy Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) — the profitability of 2024-25 and growing revenues will ensure no issues there — but they will help balance both the squad and the books. FSG has long sought to run Liverpool sustainably and, while they can splurge this summer without fear of bankruptcy or rule-breaking, and lose a chunk of money in 2025-26 if they wish to, that doesn't mean they'll do it for the sake of it. A big money departure, likely Nunez, would be no surprise. Cash worries are different from PSR ones, but Liverpool have little concern there either. Access to funds is no problem. Even if FSG was reluctant to loan money in (something they've generally preferred to do for infrastructure spend rather than operational costs), the ownership refinanced a revolving credit facility in September last year, lifting its limit from £200m to £350m. At the end of May 2024, it had only drawn down £116m of the original £200m, so there's plenty to be dipped into if the need arises. Liverpool may not need to increase borrowings anyway. Operating cash flow was positive at £83.7m in 2023-24 even without Champions League revenue, while cash spent on infrastructure has reduced following the completion of the revamped Anfield Road End. As well, their relatively low spending on transfers — and keenness to pay more of deals up front if they can — means Liverpool owe far less than peers in outstanding fee instalments. At the end of May 2024, they owed a net £69.9m, an amount which is expected to have dropped even lower in the past year. The previous figure was already lower than seven other Premier League clubs at the time and nowhere near the £308.9m Manchester United owed at the end of March 2025. Signing Wirtz is a significant undertaking for Liverpool. Combining the transfer fee, assumed agent fees and five years of his basic salary puts the total cost to Liverpool of signing and employing him at an estimated £170.5m. With potential add-ons and bonuses that sum could feasibly reach £200m. All parties concerned will hope it does — it will mean Wirtz and Liverpool have enjoyed plenty of success together. Those are big sums, but then Liverpool are a wealthy club. FSG's ownership has not been to every fan's taste, but it is precisely because of its frugality that Liverpool are able to make these deals when opportunities arise.
