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Chinese Envoy Praises US for ‘Good Faith' Trade Negotiations
Chinese Envoy Praises US for ‘Good Faith' Trade Negotiations

Bloomberg

time6 hours ago

  • Business
  • Bloomberg

Chinese Envoy Praises US for ‘Good Faith' Trade Negotiations

The US is undertaking trade negotiations with Beijing in 'good faith,' China's top diplomat in Singapore said, as President Donald Trump weighs whether to extend a tariff truce between the world's two largest economies past an Aug. 12 deadline. 'The US has shown a lot of good faith and patience in its negotiations with China,' Ambassador Cao Zhongming told reporters Wednesday in the city-state. 'I believe in three months' time, we can do a lot of things together.'

'It took me seconds to say yes!': Lynsey Jones on her 'shock' redundancy and new start with Ambassador
'It took me seconds to say yes!': Lynsey Jones on her 'shock' redundancy and new start with Ambassador

TTG

timea day ago

  • Business
  • TTG

'It took me seconds to say yes!': Lynsey Jones on her 'shock' redundancy and new start with Ambassador

Lynsey Jones was devastated after being made redundant by Balkan Holidays in April. Not knowing what her professional future looked like meant anxiety started to creep in – and to compound matters, she had just discovered she was pregnant. Jones talks TTG's Harry Kemble through how she got back on track. Lynsey Jones was so admired and respected by agents at Balkan Holidays that she was affectionally known as 'Lynsey Balkan'. Yet, it wasn't just agents who were fond of her. The specialist handed her several promotions during her six-year stint. Jones started as a regional sales manager in 2019 before being promoted to national sales manager in 2022 and then head of sales and brand in November last year. However, in April, Balkan suddenly closed its UK business after nearly 60 years, cancelled all forward bookings and made around 20 UK-based staff redundant – including Jones, who at this point had started telling colleagues she was pregnant. 'I loved it at Balkan but they decided ultimately it was not financially viable to keep operating here,' says Jones. 'While it was a shock to be made redundant, it wasn't a surprise.' 'This is a great move for me' As Jones came to terms with losing her beloved job, she was determined not to let the inevitable stress affect her unborn baby boy due to arrive in October. Fortunately, Jones' army of industry friends rallied around her at one of the lowest ebbs. Ambassador Cruise Line's interim head of trade, Karen Cameron, got in touch to offer her a lifeline. The pair had got to know one another at Scottish Passenger Agents' Association events over the years. "I was made redundant on the Thursday, spoke to Karen on the Friday and then signed my contract on the Tuesday,' recalls Jones. 'I thought about Ambassador's offer for about two seconds!' Jones reveals she was contacted by other travel companies about working for them but only ever gave Ambassador's offer of a four-month contract serious thought despite not having any significant cruise sector experience on her extensive CV, which features spells with the likes of Skiworld, Neilson, Tui and, of course, Balkan. "I was approached by other companies as well but – no pun intended – Ambassador has made a lot of waves recently,' she says with a smile, when asked why she decided to join the cruise sector. "After being made redundant by Balkan Holidays, I just felt cruise was the right step for me. All the feedback from agents I've spoken to before was always cruise, cruise, cruise. I feel Ambassador is a great move for me.' Jones adds: 'I thought cruise – generally speaking – was a lot harder for agents to sell. It felt like I used very complicated systems to sell cruise holidays when I was at Tui.' Prior to joining Tui, Jones spent 12 years managing ski resort hotels in the Alps, meaning she is nearly fluent in French. So, have her linguistic skills helped Ambassador following its merger with French cruise operator Compagnie Francaise de Croisieres (CFC) in January? Jones claims colleagues only discovered her secret talent in July – almost halfway through her short-term contract, which ends just before her due date and the start of Ambassador's debut Caribbean programme. 'I did speak French in a meeting in London with two French colleagues the other day,' she explains. 'To be fair, I've not really needed to [use it] – but never say never.' 'Ambassador investing a lot of money' Jones says she's 'loving' her time at Ambassador. 'I feel so lucky Ambassador took away much of the stress by employing me quickly," she continues. "It sounds cheesy, but Ambassador saw something in me. It's great to feel at home straight away. I've honestly never been part of such a big team. "The other day, we worked out the team had 235 years' travel industry experience with the likes of [national account manager] Louise Tansey, [business development executive] Debbie Ballantyne and Karen.' Her new colleagues are constantly checking in with heavily pregnant Jones to make sure she is comfortable. 'Last week, we were in London, and we had a team meal out – they were asking if I wanted help with the stairs, if I was tired, if I wanted to go home. They're constantly checking in on me." On the day Jones speaks to TTG about her new job, she is visiting a Hays Travel branch in Rochdale with plans to meet agents in Bury and Halifax soon after. 'There's a lot of positivity around the [Ambassador] brand from all the agents that I'm visiting,' Jones notes. 'I think the agents see how much effort comes from the trade team. Clearly, we're investing a lot of money into the brand.' Following Ambassador's merger with CFC, a 10-departure Caribbean programme was announced – part of the line's first-ever fly cruise programme. To help promote the programme and support agents selling it, Ambassador hired 19 reps from sales agency 3For in addition to its own 16-strong in-house trade sales team. Jones says: 'I think Ambassador has done a great job. We're turning the high street purple. And we're offering a completely different Caribbean product to other cruise lines.' Jones reveals she's using her contacts to good effect and is currently working with Virgin Atlantic – one of Ambassador's airline partners for the programme – and Visit Barbados ahead of the October launch. In addition, she has distributed research questionnaires to agents to understand what tools they need to sell Ambassador's new Caribbean sailings. 'Agents have been asking for more posters and training so we're doing a myth-busting session to educate the trade about our new products,' Jones reveals. The burning question on my lips though is what does Jones plan to do when she resumes her successful travel career after maternity leave? After all, Jones has now had time to consider her next move. Plus, being unattached professionally speaking means she won't be tempted to check her work emails during the long-night feeds in the months ahead. 'Hopefully I can come back to Ambassador after nine months,' she says. 'It has all worked out in the end.' Previous Article First look at NCL's upgraded 270-acre private island featuring new waterpark with 19 slides Next Article Titan Travel hires Virgin Voyages' Andrea Jones as trade team expansion continues

Markets in Flux: Devina Mehra advocates measured rebalancing over panic moves
Markets in Flux: Devina Mehra advocates measured rebalancing over panic moves

Time of India

time2 days ago

  • Business
  • Time of India

Markets in Flux: Devina Mehra advocates measured rebalancing over panic moves

Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel "Regarding tariffs , there have been some agreements, like Japan announcing investments into the US, though eventually they clarify these are company-level decisions. So it's like kicking the can down the road. But markets seem to have accepted it as business as usual," says Devina Mehra , Founder & CMD, First as I always say, not only should you be global, but 'global' doesn't mean just the US. You need to diversify across countries because no single theme lasts forever — whether it's countries, asset classes, or industries within a country. These things keep changing. We do rebalance globally — although we haven't done it yet for this quarter — but currently, we are somewhat underweight on the US. Since January, we've maintained that stance. We've been overweight on Europe, overweight on China even earlier, and slightly overweight on India. So, broadly, that's our global allocation. Of course, individual countries have their own opportunities, but at a broader level, Europe has been outperforming the US. That's been one major trend. And China, after years of underperformance — and I may have quoted this before — its market hit a high in 2007, and despite GDP growing sixfold since then, that high wasn't breached until recently. So that setup is also tariffs, there have been some agreements, like Japan announcing investments into the US, though eventually they clarify these are company-level decisions. So it's like kicking the can down the road. But markets seem to have accepted it as business as I mentioned, we've been underweight US since January and overweight Europe. We've been overweight on China since last year, and we're slightly overweight on India. And Europe, in particular, has outperformed the US quite meaningfully this I say we're slightly overweight India, it's just that — a slight overweight in our global portfolios, not a huge one. I smiled when you mentioned 'buy and forget,' because in markets there's really no such thing. The definition of a blue chip keeps changing. If you look at the Sensex or Nifty history, you'll see that many companies once considered blue chips have completely faded away — the Thapar group, Scindia Steamships, Mafatlal, Hindustan Motors (which made the Ambassador car), Premier Automobiles (which made old Fiats). These were all considered blue-chip companies when the Sensex was fact, the only company in the original Sensex list with a relatively short history back then was Indian Hotels. The rest had decades of legacy. And if you look at older portfolios — like those from our grandparents' era — you'll find many names from these old business groups, such as JK, Thapar, Modi, Scindia, Mafatlal, all of which are now in the Nifty, the composition has changed dramatically. At one point, there were hardly any banks. Now, banks and financials hold the largest weight. In the late '90s, PSUs dominated — MTNL, BSNL, BHEL, ONGC, Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL, and others. Then came a time when people forgot PSUs were even investable. So the takeaway is: the stocks that lead one bull market are rarely the same ones that lead the notion of 'just buy a stock and wait for 20 years' doesn't hold true across the board. Survivorship bias is very real. People remember the few winners — like HDFC Bank or Kotak Mahindra — but forget the many that failed: Times Bank, Global Trust, Centurion Bank, and several PSU banks. Even Yes Bank had major issues.I recently saw someone's mother's portfolio from the early 2000s — untouched for over 20 years — and it included names like DSQ Software and Pentamedia, which haven't aged well. So yes, markets evolve, and buy-and-forget isn't a viable far, domestic earnings have been mixed, but I believe we'll start seeing some improvement from the second quarter onwards. That was my view earlier as well. There have been some encouraging macro signals — GDP came in ahead of estimates. More importantly, inflation, especially in food and crude, has come down, which helps household India, household finances are quite stretched. If prices of essentials like dal and oil go up, people cut back on other items like soap or shampoo. That's been a drag for nearly two years. But now, prices are not only growing slower, they're actually falling — especially in the food thali category. While that's not great news for the agricultural segment (since realisations drop), for urban and non-farm consumers, it creates more room in the budget and boosts also impacts industries due to its role in downstream products. So, I believe we'll eventually see margin improvements as well, along with better revenue for investors, I always say: good investing is boring. People often tell me I repeat the same advice. That's because good advice doesn't change every two weeks. You should never be 100% in equities, but for your equity allocation, it usually makes sense to stay when there's fear and uncertainty — like now — that's when markets can make sharp upward moves, and you don't want to miss those. Yes, the market could go down, but the key is evaluating risk versus reward. If you miss the 10 best days over a 40-year period, you lose two-thirds of your returns. So most of the time, you simply can't afford to sit it out.

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