Latest news with #Haigh
Campaign ME
a day ago
- Business
- Campaign ME
Saudi Arabia's PIF, Abu Dhabi's ADIA top 2025 SWF brand rankings
For the second year in a row, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been named the most valuable and fastest-growing sovereign wealth fund (SWF) brand, according to the latest data from Brand Finance, a leading global independent brand valuation consultancy. In a separate Brand Finance ranking of the strongest sovereign wealth fund brands, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) took the top spot, scoring 64.1 out of 100, while Saudi Arabia's PIF ranked second. The ADIA was also ranked the fourth-most valuable SWF globally. Meanwhile, the Kuwait Investment Authority placed sixth in each of these rankings, as the 6th most valuable and the 6th strongest sovereign wealth fund brand. The Asset Management and Sovereign Wealth Fund 50 2025 is the second iteration of the Brand Finance annual ranking of the world's strongest and most valuable AM and SWF brands. The collective value of the 50 ranked brands has grown 5 per cent year on year, totaling nearly $73.9bn in 2025. PIF has the single most valuable brand name among the world's SWFs; valued at $1.2bn, up 11 per cent from 2024. It also ranked seventh for brand value to AUM ratio among all AM and SWF brands combined, the only SWF to feature in the top 10. PIF's assets under management have grown rapidly due to robust portfolio performance, driven by a range of key portfolio companies and long-term projects that are beginning to mature. PIF's value is largely driven by high scores for the brand's awareness, purpose and commitment to positive growth. Commenting on the rankings, David Haigh, Chairman and CEO, Brand Finance, said, 'Brand Finance research finds that high-profile investments with a positive impact continue to build the brand values of asset managers and sovereign wealth funds. This is evident in the impact of successful sports partnerships, which deliver an observable uplift in awareness and familiarity among B2B and informed audience. Haigh added, 'Formula 1 and football are powerful and popular ways for asset managers and sovereign wealth funds to raise their international profiles in a way that is consistent with the brands' wealth and stature. For instance, JP Morgan's banking division Chase just became the first sponsor of Arsenal FC's VIP Lounge. In 2024, PIF signed groundbreaking global partnerships accelerating the growth of sports with ATP and WTA tennis, Concacaf and Formula E, Extreme E and E1 under the E360 umbrella while its ownership of LIV Golf is helping to expand the game's audience around the world.'
Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Business
- Saudi Gazette
PIF ranks as world's most valuable and fastest-growing sovereign wealth brand in 2025 — Brand Finance
Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been ranked as the world's most valuable and fastest-growing sovereign wealth fund brand for 2025, according to leading brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. It marks the second consecutive year the Saudi sovereign wealth fund tops the global list. PIF's brand was valued at $1.2 billion this year, an 11% increase compared to 2024. The fund received an A+ brand strength rating, placing it second globally with a score of 62.9, and seventh in terms of assets under management (AUM) relative to brand value — the only sovereign fund to rank in the top ten in that category. According to Brand Finance's annual report on sovereign wealth funds and asset managers, PIF achieved the fastest brand growth rate in 2025. The report credits this momentum to PIF's expanding asset base, positive performance of Saudi portfolio companies, and the maturation of key projects. The fund's communications efforts and commitment to creating long-term impact also contributed to its brand strength. The Brand Finance ranking, launched in 2024, aims to help organizations understand the value of their brand and how it contributes to overall business performance. It evaluates brand strength based on stakeholder perceptions, financial outcomes, and non-financial benefits such as attracting investment, talent, or media attention. David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said PIF exemplifies the branding power of high-impact investments, particularly in international sports. 'PIF stands out through major initiatives such as its transformation of Newcastle United into a competitive football club, as well as sponsorships in golf, tennis, and electric motor racing,' Haigh said. PIF continues to focus on achieving its strategic goals of generating sustainable returns and driving economic transformation in Saudi Arabia. It is also among the most influential global investors in shaping future economic sectors. In addition to its brand recognition, PIF ranked first globally in governance, sustainability, and resilience (GSR) performance and commitment, sharing the top spot with a 100% score among 200 sovereign investors in a 2025 report by Global SWF. The fund holds strong credit ratings, with Moody's assigning it an 'Aa3' with a stable outlook, and Fitch giving it an 'A+' rating, also with a stable outlook.
CNBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Sarah Jessica Parker used to get by on $40 for 3 days—it taught her there's 'security in being able to pay your bills'
Before the fame, fashion or multi-million dollar deals, "Sex and the City" actress Sarah Jessica Parker used to make $40 stretch for three days, she told podcast host Alex Cooper on a recent episode of "Call Her Daddy." When Parker moved out on her own at 18, she only had "a little money in the bank" from her role on the 1980s CBS sitcom "Square Pegs," she said. So, as she went out for auditions, uncertain of when the next big job would come, she would withdraw her money "very judiciously," she said — only allowing herself $40 around twice a week for her day-to-day expenses. Adjusting for inflation, $40 in 1983, when Parker was 18, would be around $132 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI inflation calculator. Although Parker said she was more driven in her early career by her desire to perform than by fame or money, she also acknowledged that financial stability mattered: "There's security in financial gain" and "security in being able to pay your bills," she said. While Parker's restrictive budgeting may have worked for her short-term, focusing on day-to-day spending isn't the most effective way to strategize and save as a freelancer, gig worker or artist today, says Christopher Haigh, CEO of Icono Capital, a financial advisory firm. "Budgeting for freelancers and gig workers shouldn't be about rationing pennies or envelope systems, it should be about building a system that absorbs volatility," Haigh says. "If you're relying on extreme budgeting methods to stay afloat, that's a sign your financial foundation is cracked." Even with unpredictable income, you can still develop sustainable budgeting strategies, Haigh says. Here's how to juggle those ups and downs and start shifting out of scarcity mode, according to a financial pro. The first step to building a budget is understanding what you're actually spending, Haigh says. In order to evaluate that amount, he says, take a close look at your last three months of expenses. Once you have a good idea of where your money is going on a consistent basis, you can stop guessing and start planning with real numbers, Haigh says. That's when you can start utilizing his "bucketing strategy," where you allocate percentages of your income into different "buckets" every time you earn money. As opposed to tiered budgeting, where you assign fixed dollar amounts to spending categories for every month, a bucket strategy divvies up your expenses by percentage of your income. That can provide flexibility for the fluctuations in income that freelancers, gig workers and artists often need to navigate, Haigh says. "Every time you make a dollar, it should be allocated to particular buckets no matter what," he says. The buckets for a freelancer or gig worker with minimal income should start out fairly basic, he says: Even if the amount you're putting into savings doesn't feel like much, developing good habits early can help you reach your goals later on, Haigh says. Using a budgeting app like Tiller, Monarch Money or Copilot can also help you automate those habits and take part of the load off your plate, he adds. And although it can be difficult to put money aside with inconsistent income, maintaining an emergency fund is especially important if you're likely to encounter weeks or months without work, Haigh says. He recommends freelancers or gig workers put away at least six months of basic living expenses, if possible, which is more than the three months he typically recommends for W-2 workers, he says. If putting away several months of savings isn't feasible for you, which is often the case for people with unstable income, the next step should be to open up options for growing your income, Haigh says. After all, he says, you can't budget your way out of scarcity. To help reduce financial stress, Haigh often advises his clients to take up part-time jobs or diversify the gigs they're pursuing, he says. While it's important to build muscle memory with directing income into your "savings bucket," your priority may need to be figuring out how to expand that income first, Haigh says.
Mint
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Writer Gideon Haigh on the foremost rivalry in cricket today
A line cricket fans and writers love to quote is Trinidadian historian and Marxist scholar C.L.R. James' 'What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?" James meant that in order to properly appreciate the game of cricket, one has to consider the historical and sociopolitical conditions under which the game is played. No contemporary writer proves this dictum more often or more thoroughly than the 59-year-old Australian Gideon Haigh, author of some of the finest cricket books of the 21st century, including The Big Ship: Warwick Armstrong and the Making of Modern Cricket (2001), Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer (2002), On Warne (2012) and Sultan: A Memoir (2022, co-written with Wasim Akram). A prolific writer who began his career as a business journalist in the 1980s, Haigh's body of work is diverse—several true crime books, a history of the workplace, an account of the legalization of abortion in Australia. Westland has recently published his latest book, Indian Summers: Australia Versus India, a collection of essays covering what has grown to be arguably the foremost rivalry in contemporary cricket. These essays cover nearly a century of Indo-Australian cricketing encounters, starting with Frank Tarrant's touring party of 1935-36 and going all the way till the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy played in Australia. All the big, familiar moments for Indian fans—the 2001 Kolkata Test, the 2003 and 2023 ODI World Cup Finals, the 2024 T20 World Cup game—are covered here. These big-game essays show both Haigh's appetite for the 'it' moments and his full suite of writerly skills. Today, it is common to use the word 'cinematic" while talking about writers who're adept at building dramatic tension with flair and visual details. But Haigh's technique is more akin to classical theatre than contemporary filmmaking (he quotes the Nobel-winning playwright and lifelong cricket nut Harold Pinter in a passage about Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara). His essay about the 2001 Kolkata Test, for instance, drips with Shakespearean foreshadowing. In a particularly striking passage, Haigh describes the overconfidence of the Australian team after day three of the five-day game—as is well-known by now, at this point, India was still trailing Australia's score narrowly, with 4 second-innings wickets already down by the end of day three. While reading this passage (reproduced below), I could clearly visualize Steve Waugh, Michael Slater and Tony Greig in different corners of a large theatre stage, a spotlight shining above whichever head is talking in the moment: ''It'll be over tomorrow,' commentator Tony Greig said airily. 'More time on the golf course.' The Australians were of the same mind. Waugh eyed his Southern Comfort thirstily. Slater, who had nursed some reservations about the follow- on, playfully drew his cigar under his nose. 'This result is so close I can smell it,' he said, to the amusement of Gilchrist, who had not in his eighteen months as a Test cricketer known defeat." For me, though, where Haigh stands out from the crowd is his clear-eyed diagnosis of cricket's ongoing "Big Three" era, wherein India, England and Australia (and within them, mostly India) have hoovered up the lion's share of global cricketing revenues, hosting rights and programming privileges. Haigh's criticism of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is brutal (Haigh has an acid tongue) and I would argue, relentlessly fair. See how he calmly and systematically dismantles the oft-parroted argument that, as the number one generator of revenue in world cricket, India is in fact entitled to the lion's share (Ravi Shastri recently argued on Sky Sports that India is being underpaid by the rest of the cricketing world): 'As is the case for every ICC member, India in international cricket is the creation of generations of tours and tournaments, of rivalries and reciprocities, fostered by the whole world. No country can accomplish anything on its own in international cricket, and every country contributes. Some, for reasons of economy and demography, cannot offer so much. The objective should always be to put a floor beneath and handholds beside the weakest because from a generally rising standard everyone benefits—I'd call it 'levelling up', had Boris Johnson not, like everything he ever touched, debased it." Haigh is brilliant at pairing cricketing logic with political commentary, and showing us how the dots between the two connect in practice. In December 2023, the International Cricket Council (ICC) objected to Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja sporting an illustrated dove on his cricket shoes during a game against Pakistan— to indicate his support for the children of Gaza. Haigh's report at the time (on the website Cricket Et Al) was a masterclass in skewering hypocrisy. He pointed out the absurdity of the ICC's 'no politics' veneer, given that several member countries' cricket boards are headed by politicians from the respective ruling parties. 'For many years the world's longest-running stage comedy was a farce called No Sex Please, We're British, its jollity deriving from the idea that the more the characters tried to avoid the subject, the more they became implicated, and the greater the comic complications. Cricket has its own enduring counterpart: No Politics Please, We're the ICC. Its hilarious premise is that the International Cricket Council is charged with preventing the game's contamination by ill-defined but somehow always untoward political influence. This has now extended to…checks notes…a fucking dove." Indian Summers is a must-read for hardcore and casual cricket fans alike. It showcases the best of a man whose writings have described the game with wit, wisdom and humility for over three decades now. Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based journalist.
Daily Record
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Dumfries and Galloway-based author's new book inspired by the Artists' Town
No One Keeps A Secret is the latest gripping, genre-blurring novel from Denise Brown. A Kirkcudbright author has released her latest young adult novel. And the Artists' Town has provided some of the inspiration for No One Keeps A Secret by Denise Brown. Denise's gripping, genre-blurring novels have fast become must-reads for lovers of pacey, addictive storytelling. This is Denise's fourth book with prize-winning indie publisher Hashtag Press, with It All Started With a Lie – released last year – a finalist in the prestigious Crime Fest Award - YA Book of the Year in May and shortlisted in the Spark! Book Award in June. Set in a remote Scottish coastal village, this clever, twisty murder mystery centres on three teenagers – Haigh, Cherry, and Sunrise –who track a missing chihuahua to an abandoned funfair… only to stumble across a corpse, strangled by his own camera strap. The man was meant to be 400 miles away in London. So why is he lying dead in their village? As the investigation spirals, so does the danger – revealing mafia ties, gossiping grannies, and a still-operating ghost train. For these teens, the truth might be closer to home than they think. Denise said: 'The harbour, the trawlers, the bandstand: they can all be found in Kirkcudbright. Scottish Nights are held throughout the summer, complete with unbeaten tug-of-war team, and Oona the unicorn is real too. "Well, she's made of wicker, and she isn't known as Oona, but she exists. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. 'There is even a willow tree shelter similar to the one in which Haigh and Cherry discover Haigh's mum. And if readers visit on the last Sunday of the month, they'll be able to visit the farmer's market too.'
