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IPL billionaires and Birmingham City owners win auction for Hundred teams

IPL billionaires and Birmingham City owners win auction for Hundred teams

Yahoo30-01-2025

English cricket's landmark Hundred sale produced an eventful first day as the Ambanis, India's richest family, and Knighthead Capital, owners of Birmingham City, secured the right to buy 49% stakes in Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix respectively.
The Guardian has learned that Knighthead's offer of about £40m for 49% of the Phoenix prevailed in a sealed-bids auction over that of private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. CVC had earlier lost out to Reliance Industries Ltd, owners of Mumbai Indians, in a three-way auction for the equivalent stake in Oval Invincibles.
Related: 'We're not gonna be woke': Middlesex chief risks ECB wrath over new diversity rules
The winning bid by Reliance, who are chaired by Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest person, is understood to be worth about £60m, placing the overall value of the Oval Invincibles at £123m. It means the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) raised £100m on the first day of the process and is on course to meet its initial target of £350m. The money will be redistributed to the counties and the grassroots game.
London Spirit has been valued by those involved in the process at about £150m, which would bring in another £75m for the ECB, while the Manchester Originals' valuation is forecast to be close to £100m. The London Spirit auction will take place on Friday along with that for Cardiff-based Welsh Fire, with those for Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Trent Rockets and Southern Brave due to follow next week.
Reliance and Knighthead will now enter a six-week period of exclusive talks with Surrey and Warwickshire respectively, as well as the ECB and its financial advisers, in order to complete the deal.
As well as the strong valuations, the identity of the first two winning bidders will be viewed as encouraging by the ECB. In addition to their vast resources, the Ambanis are hugely influential within India, while the governing body has actively courted American owners linked to football clubs throughout the process.
Knighthead is controlled by hedge fund manager Tom Wagner, who has unveiled ambitious plans for a new stadium since buying Birmingham City, and includes legendary American football quarterback Tom Brady as one of the club's shareholders.
Assuming the Reliance deal goes through, it will see Oval Invincibles added to a sporting portfolio that includes Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and WPL, MI Cape Town (SA20), MI Emirates (ILT20) and MI New York (Major League Cricket).
While Oval Invincibles are the most successful Hundred franchise to date, having won the men's and women's titles twice in the past four years, it remains to be seen whether they retain their name and colours or adopt the 'MI' moniker and livery to denote their new co-owners. Little is expected to change for this year's tournament, with the new ownership model set to come into effect ahead of the 2026 season.
Richard Gould, the chief executive of the ECB and once a vocal critic of the Hundred during his time at Surrey, has previously said the sell-off will 'recapitalise the county game for the next 20-25 years' provided the money is used wisely. The recreational game is due to receive 10% of proceeds from the sale. Surrey and Warwickshire were contacted for comment.

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CartCon 2025: Tariffs, turbulence and the future of resilient retail
CartCon 2025: Tariffs, turbulence and the future of resilient retail

Yahoo

time21 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

CartCon 2025: Tariffs, turbulence and the future of resilient retail

At second-annual CartCon conference in Napa Valley, CA, the tone was electric with anticipation but also laced with urgency. Billed as a summit for the company's expansive ecosystem of brands, vendors and strategists, the event served as both a product showcase and a pressure valve. Nowhere was that tension more visible than during one of the conference's hardest-hitting panels, a deep dive into the complexities of tariff policy and its ripple effects on global sourcing, consumer pricing and retail resilience. The panel consisted of three voices with rare insight into the collision of policy and commerce: Chris Smith, president of Summit Global Strategies; Tim Manning, former White House supply chain coordinator under President Joe Biden; and Nick Stachel, logistics strategy adviser at Izba Consulting. What followed was not a high-level overview, but a granular exploration of the legal, political and operational forces shaping how, and where, products are made, moved and sold. From globalization to geo-economics Smith opened the discussion by tracing the historical arc of U.S. trade policy. For decades following World War II, American trade strategy revolved around multilateralism. The U.S. saw global trade not just as an economic imperative but as a geopolitical tool, creating allies, raising standards of living and preventing conflict. But in 2016, that long-standing consensus fractured. The bipartisan abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership signaled a sharp pivot. As Smith explained, the political center collapsed under the weight of the 'China Shock,' a term describing the decimation of American manufacturing towns due to offshoring. Smith described President Donald Trump's tariff policy as a psychological reset. Before Trump, U.S. tariffs averaged around 2%. Within months, they jumped to 18% in key categories. This wasn't just an economic strategy, it was anchoring. 'It's like burger sizes,' Smith said, relating back to Wendy's psychological marketing strategies. 'Before Trump, we had singles and doubles. Now the triple is on the menu, and everything else looks small by comparison.' Tariffs, he added, have become Trump's 'cat toy' — a provocative distraction wielded without consistent strategy. Even if future administrations soften tariff policy, Smith warned, the structure of global trade has already shifted. Retailers and manufacturers alike are building permanent workarounds. Inflation, particularly in consumer goods, is the slow-burning consequence. While Smith provided the philosophical backdrop, Manning broke down the legal tools underpinning today's tariff landscape. The real disruption, Manning emphasized, has come through the use, and misuse, of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Originally designed as a tool for national security sanctions, IEEPA has been repurposed by the Trump administration to enact sweeping tariffs with little congressional oversight. Manning described the legal and logistical chaos for businesses from these tactics. In just six weeks, the Trump administration issued 17 executive orders using IEEPA authority, stripping trade policy of its usual predictability and process. For businesses, this has been catastrophic. Sourcing strategies built over years have unraveled in days. 'We're in a volatile environment,' Manning said. The cost of doing business now includes factoring in the potential for abrupt, unexplained swings in tariff exposure. Long-term investments have become high-risk bets, and in many cases, they're simply not being made. On-the-ground retail strategy Bringing the policy talk down to the warehouse floor, Stachel outlined how brands are actually coping with this new reality. In the short term, some are fast-tracking inventory from China before new tariffs hit, relying on expedited ocean freight and cross-docking at West Coast ports to minimize delays and avoid customs bottlenecks. Others are making subtler moves — like holding prices steady on high-visibility products – say, a gaming console – while raising prices on accessories and add-ons to recoup margin. Stachel noted that many brands have moved beyond the now-familiar 'China Plus One' strategy, opting instead for a 'China Plus Three' approach. They are spreading risk across Vietnam, India and Mexico, often working with global manufacturing giants like Foxconn that can seamlessly shift production across borders without retooling or retraining labor. In essence, brands are outsourcing flexibility itself. For those planning beyond the current election cycle, geographic diversification is no longer enough. Brands are factoring in port access, transportation infrastructure, exposure to natural disasters and local workforce stability. Some are eyeing countries like Morocco, Colombia and Thailand as next-generation sourcing hubs. Nearshoring to Mexico has particular appeal, not just because of its proximity to U.S. consumers, but because of the downstream economic benefits. 'We're still benefiting from a cross border perspective, from a transportation trucking perspective, from a warehousing perspective, as these border towns are growing, the economies in the small border towns are growing as well,' said Stachel. These sourcing shifts are backed by hard data prepared by Stachel. According to a comparative analysis of emerging manufacturing markets, countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines are increasingly viable alternatives to China, not only in terms of labor costs but also port infrastructure and U.S.-bound vessel frequency. Vietnam, for instance, operates nearly 50 seaports, including Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong, both of which have multiple sailings to the U.S. each week. Indonesia boasts over 100 ports, including Tanjung Priok in Jakarta. Even Cambodia, though limited in scale, has weekly direct sailings from both Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. These figures underscore the importance of transportation fluidity and market access in sourcing decisions. As Stachel emphasized, brands are no longer optimizing solely for cost, they're optimizing for resilience. Both Smith and Manning cautioned that the real reckoning may be ahead. While tariff impacts are already being priced in at the retail level, the broader inflationary wave has yet to crest. Smith called inflation the 'other shoe,' likely to drop later this summer as new tariffs pass through the supply chain and collide with already fragile consumer sentiment. Uncertainty, they agreed, has become the greatest tax of all. With businesses unable to predict future policy, many are frozen. Manning advised attendees to monitor key macroeconomic signals, including treasury bond activity, consumer confidence indices and safety stock drawdowns. Executive orders posted on he added, are the best early indicators of a sudden policy shift. What retailers are saying – and doing The audience at CartCon also offered candid perspectives. Through real-time polling, attendees offered a rare window into how brands are navigating the chaos. Asked what recent policy had most affected their supply chains, 68% cited China tariffs, with an additional 24% naming de minimis enforcement, or stricter checks on duty-free, low-value imports. In a sign of just how volatile the environment has become, 64% said they revisit their sourcing strategies quarterly. And nearly half, 47%, have responded by raising prices. Twenty-nine percent have changed sourcing countries, while 18% are simply eating the cost. 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The post CartCon 2025: Tariffs, turbulence and the future of resilient retail appeared first on FreightWaves. 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

‘It's a net positive for us.' For some US manufacturers, Trump tariffs pay off
‘It's a net positive for us.' For some US manufacturers, Trump tariffs pay off

Boston Globe

time22 minutes ago

  • Boston Globe

‘It's a net positive for us.' For some US manufacturers, Trump tariffs pay off

AccuRounds is exactly the kind of high-end manufacturing company that's supposed to benefit from the Trump tariffs —and right now the plan seems to be working. After a sluggish 2024, AccuRounds workers are putting in overtime as they transform steel rods into hundreds of highly specialized industrial gadgets, and the company is looking to hire. Revenues were up by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2025 and Tamasi expects the same for the current quarter. Revenues last year came to about $20 million, he said. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up AccuRounds makes precisely machined pieces of metal that mostly go inside bigger machines, ranging from commercial aircraft to industrial robots to drug manufacturing systems. For instance, one component goes into a pump that excretes the glue used to assemble iPhones. Another is a driveshaft that's found in most of the machines used worldwide to make influenza vaccines. Advertisement AccuRounds also makes surgical tools such as trephenes, the razor-sharp cookie cutters used to extract diseased corneas from human eyes during transplant procedures. AccuRounds even makes components for high-end flutes played by professional musicians. Advertisement AccuRounds is nothing like the grimy machine shops of old. It's clean and well-lit, with a multitude of computer-guided milling machines, each costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Plexiglass windows on each machine are splashed by a constant spray of cutting oil, which cools and lubricates the cutting tools and washes away metal debris. Twelve-foot steel rods are fed into the mill, where they're automatically shaped, drilled and cut into the proper shape, then dropped into a finished-parts bin. Lately the company's installed robotic arms at some of the milling machines. Made by Universal Robots, a Danish company owned by North Reading-based That doesn't mean fewer jobs, Tamasi said, just different ones. 'It's a commitment that we've made to our team here, that technology, The company's recent revenue surge began right after the re-election of Donald Trump, who'd campaigned on a promise to revive US manufacturing by levying high tariffs on imports. 'It was the end of November, early December,' said Tamasi. 'That's when we started to see things turn.' One customer who had been purchasing from machine shops in Singapore and China told Tamasi that the impending tariffs had cause a change of heart. 'They mentioned they spent a couple of years farming work out,' Tamasi said. 'Now they're looking at bringing that work back.' Advertisement Mark Curtin inspected a finished product at AccuRounds. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff It's a reminder that tariffs aren't all bad. And AccuRounds isn't the only local manufacturer to benefit. Canton-based Company president Brian Buyea said that even before Trump took office, he was hearing from customers looking to 'reshore' their supply chain with US-made circuit boards. 'Now you start to add the tariffs on top of that, it's started to give us a little more of a positive boost,' Buyea said. Because the Trump administration has so frequently raised and lowered its proposed tariff rates, Buyea couldn't predict their effect on Remtec's revenues. 'It could be anything from a 10 percent pickup for us, to, we could double our business,' he said. Even skeptics concede that import taxes can benefit domestic manufacturers by driving up the cost of products made by foreign competitors. 'These types of polices inevitably have some winners, at least in the short term,' said Scott Lincicome, economist at the To Lincicome. tariffs produce far more losers than winners, as businesses and consumers throughout the economy end up paying more for products. Either they keep buying imports, and pay the tariff, or they switch to more expensive US sources. Many domestic companies use higher tariffs as an opportunity to raise their own prices. And as domestic orders surge, some companies must invest in new plant and equipment, and their new customers will pay for it. 'Over time, you're getting slower growth and a less efficient, less productive economy,' said Lincicome. Advertisement AccuRounds derives only about 5 percent of its revenue from exports, so the company won't suffer much if foreign nations aim retaliatory tariffs at US goods. But the Trump tariffs make it more expensive for manufacturers to purchase the supplies and equipment they need. Steel tariffs are a problem, Tamasi admitted. He'd happily buy US-made steel but 'the quality and the consistency is not there,' he said. 'We've tried everyone.' So he'll keep importing the steel despite the administration's 50 percent tariff. However, AccuRounds' sales contracts stipulate that the company can pass on any increases in steel costs to the end user, shielding AccuRounds from the tariff burden. There's no way around it, said Tamasi. 'If we had to absorb all price increases,' he said, 'we wouldn't be able to compete.' An even bigger hit could come from purchasing new milling machines, priced at half a million dollars or more even before the tariffs. The only ones worth buying, Tamasi said, are made in Switzerland, Germany and Japan. No US company makes the machines he needs, Tamasi said there's no way he can pass this tariff bill directly to customers, but in the long run it could well push his prices higher. Still, if Tamasi's customers are willing to pick up the tab, AccuRounds is a likely victor of the tariff wars. AccuRounds makes specialized metal parts. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff Hiawatha Bray can be reached at

Joseph Schnaier Announces Nationwide Scholarship Opportunity for Undergraduate Finance Students Pursuing a Career in the Financial Sector
Joseph Schnaier Announces Nationwide Scholarship Opportunity for Undergraduate Finance Students Pursuing a Career in the Financial Sector

Yahoo

time22 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Joseph Schnaier Announces Nationwide Scholarship Opportunity for Undergraduate Finance Students Pursuing a Career in the Financial Sector

NEW YORK, June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Joseph Schnaier Scholarship for Finance Students is now accepting applications from eligible undergraduate students across the United States who are committed to advancing their education and future careers in finance, economics, accounting, or business. Created and funded by veteran financier and entrepreneur Joseph Schnaier, this scholarship aims to identify and support rising talent within the financial industry. Offered to students currently enrolled at accredited U.S. colleges or universities, the Joseph Schnaier Scholarship for Finance Students seeks applicants who demonstrate a clear passion for finance and a strong vision for how they hope to contribute meaningfully to the field. This opportunity is open to students from any U.S. state or city. To be considered for the scholarship, students must submit an original essay addressing the following prompt: "What inspires you to pursue a career in finance, and how do you plan to make a meaningful impact in the financial world?" Essays must be written in English, range between 500 to 800 words, and be submitted in either PDF or Word document format. Applicants should be pursuing a degree in finance, economics, accounting, business, or a related discipline and must be undergraduate students While his professional achievements are extensive, Joseph Schnaier has also prioritized giving back. Through this scholarship initiative, he is providing an avenue for students to focus on their academic and career goals without being burdened by financial strain. With this program, Joseph Schnaier continues to foster a pipeline of driven individuals who will help shape the future of finance through innovation, leadership, and ethical practices. The deadline to apply for the scholarship is January 15, 2026, and the recipient will be officially announced on February 15, 2026 via the scholarship website. More details, including submission guidelines and eligibility criteria, are available at: Joseph Schnaier has long advocated for initiatives that encourage educational and professional advancement. With this scholarship, Joseph Schnaier reinforces his commitment to developing future financial leaders who are equipped to tackle industry challenges with intelligence and integrity. About the Scholarship The Joseph Schnaier Scholarship for Finance Students is a private merit-based scholarship created to assist promising undergraduate students pursuing careers in finance and related fields. View original content: SOURCE Joseph Schnaier

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