Warehousing group Segro upbeat on occupier demand after 15% profit jump
Feb 14 (Reuters) - Segro (SGRO.L), opens new tab said on Friday that a pickup in occupier activity seen during the final months of the year carried into the early weeks of 2025, after the pan-European warehousing group reported a 15% jump in 2024 profit.
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Reuters
17 minutes ago
- Reuters
Asset manager Amundi plans to cut 50 jobs in Italy, document says
MILAN, June 9 (Reuters) - The Italian arm of France's Amundi, Europe's biggest asset manager, has set a target of 50 staff cuts to be achieved by the end of the year, a document it sent to unions on Monday showed. The proposed layoffs amount to 13.8% of a total staff in Italy of 363 people, based on the numbers included in the document, of which Reuters reviewed a copy. The figure is at the lower end of the range Amundi SGR, the company's Italian unit, flagged to unions in the country last month, when it first unveiled plans to reduce its headcount and help the group meet its savings goal and shield profit margins as competition in the sector rises. Reuters was first to report on May 15 of the proposed cuts. A representative for Amundi declined to comment, reiterating the target of yearly savings of between 30-40 million euros starting from 2026 set by the group, as it focuses resources on growth drivers comprising Exchange Traded Funds, technology, Asian markets and third-party distribution accords. Italy is the biggest foreign market for both Amundi and its parent company Credit Agricole ( opens new tab. In 2017 Amundi paid 3.545 billion euros ($4.04 billion) to buy the fund business of UniCredit and struck a 10-year distribution contract which runs out in 2027. ($1 = 0.8769 euros)
Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
Australia's Afterpay says some BNPL users told to close accounts, then sold credit cards
SYDNEY, June 10 (Reuters) - Some customers of Australia's Afterpay have been asked to close buy-now-pay-later accounts to qualify for a mortgage and offered a credit card upon qualification, the BNPL provider said on Tuesday, underscoring fierce competition in the consumer finance sub-sectors. BNPL loans, on-the-spot interest-free short-term loans with minimal credit checks, exploded as an alternative for younger shoppers after the COVID-19 lockdowns and stimulus payments spurred an online shopping frenzy. Customers are incentivised to pay on time by the promise of maintaining or increasing their borrowing limit. In a survey of 1,000 of its customers, Afterpay said more than 10% reported being offered a credit card by the same bank or mortgage broker that told them to close their BNPL account to qualify for a loan, without specifying which banks or brokers. Owned by U.S. tech billionaire Jack Dorsey's Block (XYZ.N), opens new tab, Afterpay leads Australia's BNPL market with more than 3.5 million active monthly users, half the country's total BNPL accounts, according to government figures. Lenders are required by law to make reasonable inquiries about an applicant's finances but may not give financial advice. Spokespeople for Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the biggest lender, and No.3 lender National Australia Bank ( opens new tab told Reuters that they did not tell applicants to close their BNPL accounts. A spokesperson for No.4 lender ANZ ( opens new tab said the bank assessed BNPL liabilities alongside a person's other finances and "depending on the customer's overall financial position, goals, and objectives, they may choose to restructure or close certain debts – such as BNPL accounts – to support their application". Afterpay claimed banks were capitalising on a perception of BNPL users as riskier than traditional borrowers to protect a declining lending category. Australian interest-accruing credit card debt is down 30% in half a decade as borrowers seek cheaper options. The company added that its survey found BNPL users had credit scores and on-time repayment records broadly in line with credit card users. The BNPL model has avoided regulation under Australian consumer credit laws so far as it doesn't involve interest. However, "if it looks and acts like credit, then it should be regulated as such," the Australian government had said last year. New legislation requiring BNPL firms to run credit checks on borrowers kicks in on Tuesday, which, Afterpay's Head of Public Policy Michael Saadat hopes, would improve transparency around user creditworthiness. The main reason Afterpay customers close their accounts is because their lender or broker told them to, and "this should not be something that is driven by misperception of the regulatory requirements," Saadat told Reuters in an interview. According to mortgage broker AFG, ( opens new tab one in 10 Australian mortgages are arranged by brokers. Mark Hewitt, general manager of industry and partnerships at AFG, said the company does not distribute credit cards but responsible lending rules require it to "ensure adequate enquiry is made around an applicant's ability to meet their financial commitments".
ITV News
24 minutes ago
- ITV News
Nato chief to call on UK to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence
Life comes at you fast in Downing Street. It's only a week since the Prime Minister was dodging questions about when he would increase defence spending to 3% of GDP. Today the Nato Secretary General is in town to tell Keir Starmer that actually Britain ought to spend 3.5% by 2035. Its expected the PM will agree with the target. And we are talking big sums here. That extra 0.5% is worth north of £17bn. Put a different way our defence budget of around £60bn would have to rise to more like £100bn to meet the 3.5% which is the new Nato target. Thats an NHS scale amount of money. And it inevitably means spending cuts elsewhere or tax rises or both. There are two reasons for this. The first is Vladimir Putin, the second is Donald Trump. Putin has shown he is ready and willing to attack his European neighbours. Trump has suggested he is less willing to come to the rescue. Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it could be Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. That's where we come in. Those three Baltic states are all Nato members. If they are attacked we would be obliged to defend them, we would be at war with Russia; that's the Nato deal. Mark Rutte wants Nato to be big enough, tough enough and determined enough to deter Putin, to make it not worth his while to test the alliance. But Nato's 2035 target is, of course, ten years away. Many defence analysts think that it will only take Putin a couple of years after ending the Ukraine war to reconstitute his armed forces. So here's the key question; are we in a Cold War moment when the threat in Europe will not materialise, or a pre-1939 moment when it will?
