BUSINESS LIVE: HL and AJ Bell assets soar; Hipgnosis strategic review; Fund firms struggle for inflows

OnTheMarket Stocks rose by more than half on Thursday after the group revealed it had agreed to be acquired by US commercial property information group CoStar in a £99m deal.

OnTheMarket shares rose 53.19 per cent or 37.50p to 108.00p in early trade on the back of the 110p per share offer – a 56 per cent premium to Wednesday’s closing price.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain are struggling to compete for talent as recruitment costs soar, a new study suggests.

The survey of 514 small businesses shows that 89 percent struggle to match salaries of larger organizations in Britain, while multinationals pose a threat to 69 percent of companies, according to recruitment platform Employment Hero.

Asset managers are facing the pressure of choppy market conditions and weak investor sentiment, which is causing client cash inflows to dry up.

Schroders on Thursday reported a fall in assets under management for the third quarter to £724.3 billion, despite the company’s capital assets growing from £102.6 billion to £104.2 billion in the three months to September 30.

Two of Britain’s largest online trading platforms reported solid asset and customer growth despite troubled markets and weak investor sentiment.

AJ Bell’s customer base rose by more than 50,000 to 476,532 during the 12 months ended September, with around two-thirds of this growth coming from the direct-to-consumer segment.

Netflix has announced price increases for tens of millions of customers – with the premium subscription priced at £17.99 per month – as it showed better-than-expected growth in subscriber numbers after restricting password sharing.

The streaming giant charges fees in the US, Britain and France. It has different pricing plans that allow different numbers of streams or ad-free viewing.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund has initiated a strategic review that could change the terms of its management agreement due to tensions with shareholders over plans to divest parts of its portfolio.

The music rights investment trust said the review would allow it to “consider and identify changes that will focus on restoring and delivering enhanced shareholder value”. There is no provision for a sale of the company.

Three days after one of Hipgnosis’ shareholders tried to derail the London-listed company’s $465 million (£384 million) deal to sell part of its music catalogs to a private equity-backed group Blackstone company.

(PA) – Telecoms giant Nokia has said it plans to cut 14,000 jobs by the end of 2026 in a bid to sharply cut costs.

The Finnish tech company said the move is part of efforts to save up to 1.2 billion euros (£1.04 billion) over three years.

The workforce will be reduced from the current 86,000 to between 72,000 and 77,000.

Nokia, which has UK offices in Bristol, Cambridge and Reading, has not revealed where the staff cuts will take place.

The announcement came as the company also reported that sales had fallen by a fifth in the quarter to September.

The company had hoped the recent rollout of 5G networks would boost business, but on Thursday blamed a slowdown in demand for the technology in some markets such as North America.

It comes after Swedish rival Ericsson, which has also recently launched a restructuring, revealed its own sales decline last week.

Nokia president and CEO Pekka Lundmark said: “The most difficult business decisions we have to make are the ones that impact our people.

“We have incredibly talented employees at Nokia and we will support everyone affected by this process.”

Kin and Carta, which advises companies on technology strategies, is the latest company to be targeted by private equity predators

Private equity has once again nabbed a London-listed company, dealing another blow to the stock market.

Man Group and Schroders have followed Liontrust with reports of weak or negative changes in their assets under management, as the fund management industry faces weaker sentiment and choppy market conditions.

Man Group generated $700 million from new investors in the three months to the end of September, below analyst expectations of $800 million, but taking assets under management to $161.2 billion.

Meanwhile, Schroders reported a decline in assets under management for the third quarter, driven by weak investor sentiment amid volatile market conditions.

Schroders’ assets under management fell to £724.3 billion in the period from £726.1 billion at the end of June.

Music investor Hipgnosis Songs Fund will initiate a strategic review to “consider and identify changes that will focus on restoring and delivering enhanced shareholder value.”

The decision comes three days after one of Hipgnosis’ shareholders sought to quash the London-listed company’s $465 million deal to sell part of its music catalogs to a group backed by private equity firm Blackstone .

The investment trust told investors this morning:

‘The Strategic Review will consider all options to be considered for the future of the Company with the aim of maximizing shareholder value, including, among other things, a review of the Company’s future management arrangements.

‘The Board of Directors continues to recommend voting in favor of the continuation resolution as it believes it is in the best interests of shareholders to conduct a Strategic Review with the broadest range of options that the Company can consider and to implement changes identify those that will focus on restoring and delivering better shareholder performance. value.’

AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown have seen assets under management rise this year as weaker market sentiment fails to derail the trading platform’s growth.

HL added 8,000 net new customers in the first quarter on Thursday, down from the previous three months due to declining investor confidence and £600 million in new assets. It now has net client assets of £134.8 billion.

Meanwhile, AJ Bell’s assets have skyrocketed 68 percent in the past year thanks to strong client inflows and investment performance.

Michael Summersgill, CEO of AJ Bell, said: ‘I am pleased to report another year of continued organic growth for AJ Bell, with the number of customers using our platform increasing by more than 50,000 thanks to our quality of service, exceptional value and convenient access. -products to be used.

‘Our dual-channel model, which meets the needs of both advised and DIY investors, has proven its strength once again as we generated net inflows of over £4 billion to our investment platform. This contributed to an 11% increase in platform assets under management, ending the year at a record £70.9 billion.”