Lovely bit of writing, this on.ft.com/4gB7pli
Corporate Finance Editor at the Financial Times. Have a tip? Email: robert.smith@ft.com / robert.smith.ft@proton.me | Signal: robert_smith_ft.55
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Lovely bit of writing, this on.ft.com/4gB7pli
A little bit of navel-gazing on the last twelve months of trying to run a start-up local news organisation with no investment or plan, entirely funded by readers. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-new...
Murray Melvin was a total one of a kind. This is a really sweet interview youtu.be/Op8D_Vwr42c?...
I got through JD in three sittings at home. I can't imagine how anyone could sit through the whole thing in a cinema. It's an admirable film, and totally unique, but my most reactionary opinion is that it topping the Sight and Sound list is woke bullshit.
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"The first ever second state visit for an elected leader who claims a third presidential election win started off with a bang on Tuesday night, when Donald Trump landed at Londonās fourth most glamorous airport." @jemima.bsky.social on sublime form on.ft.com/41XZUih
file under "you couldn't make it up": A former head of the Institute of Directors has been banned from acting as a company director for 11 years for abusing a pandemic-era business loan scheme on.ft.com/42wtT0P
Cracking reporting from the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...
Apollo Global Management has amassed a short position against the debt of a US automotive parts supplier that has come under scrutiny for its accounting policies and financing techniques. More on the tussle over First Brands Group rattling the private credit market from team FT šš» on.ft.com/4n3WMKg
Feels like ABS investors might be about to get a painful lesson in how effective āback-up servicersā are in practice
also lol bsky.app/profile/bond...
also lol bsky.app/profile/bond...
They've just updated the piece to replace the "rocket concert" typo with "rock concert". The misspellings of Roula's name remain.
I checked the recording, just in case it was a verbal fumble he recorded accurately. Roula definitely said "rock concert"!
I checked the recording, just in case it was a verbal fumble he recorded accurately. Roula definitely said "rock concert"!
Some amusing stuff in this dispatch from the FT Weekend Festival, but amazing how sloppy the writing / subbing is. Manages to misspell Roula Khalaf's name two different ways! thecritic.co.uk/britains-eli...
Strong NYT read on JPMorgan's enduring relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Lots here will be familiar to those who followed the Jes Staley high court case, but there's plenty of new detail too, all woven together into a damming account of America's most powerful bank www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/m...
Jeffrey Epsteinās estate has given Congress a copy of the 2003 birthday book, including the letter with Trumpās signature that he has said doesnāt exist. Read more: š on.wsj.com/4nGGdnJ
So much weird in here, but hard to disagree that the average Saxon would have recognised policies of sinking vessels you don't like the look of, and imprisoning people who look different.
Nate Silver would beg to differ lol bsky.app/profile/dave...
"When a door closes, a window opens", Russian version "There have been 56 deaths of successful businesspeople and officials under strange circumstances since February 2022. Many of them have fallen out of windows" (Foreign Affairs)
this is a cracking piece on "Uncle Steve" Cohen's lobbying campaign to build one of New York's first casinos in Queens from @pollard.bsky.social on.ft.com/4pdl7Pc
The Gladstone quote is wonderfully succinct.
"If god werenāt already dead, this mightāve been enough to kill him" @bryce.lol on sublime form filleting Goldman Sachs's latest "research" on "the postmodern cycle" www.ft.com/content/0723...
Reform is Britain's first alternative investment-alternative political party crossover.
We got to get away from this as a society where we can't see rich people as being capable of doing dumb stuff. Rich people do dumb stuff all the time. They're human, many are greedy, that makes you do dumb stuff! They just don't usually suffer the consequences of it because they're rich!
haha indeed!
Balmer a special case: one of the worldās richest men who poured his own money into building a lavish new stadium for the Clippers.
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Nicely put
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Yep, itās just reflexive
Cuban clearly hasnāt watched the episode and its depth of reporting that suggests this was a salary cap skirting mechanism. Iāve covered so many financial shenanigans stories involving supposedly sensible/smart actors. āX isnāt that dumbā is such a common refrain. And yet they frequently are!
Absolutely top tier financial investigation into sports chicanery from @pablo.show. no notes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Owz...
"in hindsight, I should have checked Ohio court records more closely"
You probably havenāt heard of Patrick James, the little-known car parts entrepreneur behind Ohio-based First Brands Group. However, his company is causing ructions in the private credit industry, after borrowing billions and then coming under scrutiny for its financial disclosures on.ft.com/47nJWSb
Doing Godās work
Iāve always enjoyed @adamfriedlandnyc.bsky.socialās show, but this episode with Ritchie Torres is one of the most extraordinary interviews Iāve ever seen. Very much worth watching the full hour and not just the clips about Israel floating around on social media. youtu.be/q0Eeht171HQ?...
this is a jaw dropping read www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
I had no idea that Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC's AUM was a state secret! Great piece from @tobyn.bsky.social breaking down how you can take a stab at estimating it on.ft.com/41u29cT
Very nice deep dive into Drahiās ownership of Sothebyās, by @samknightwrites.bsky.social for the NYer www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
the times objectively thinks bribery by the staff of the current mayor is less urgently newsworthy than the admissions application for a mayoral candidate to a college he didn't get into.
I really don't want to cause a pile on, particularly as it may not even have been their call to not cite. I guess there's also a certain degree of (im)plausible deniability (eg they otherwise obtained the letter outside of court and just so happened to use the same square bracketing as I did)
š SSUK clearly met the tests for both balance sheet and cash flow insolvency fwiw
Anyway, to end on a positive note, I thought this Guardian piece was a very good overview of the parlous state of Gupta's "empire" (and I appreciated the citation for the FT's prior work on suspected invoice fraud at the group) www.theguardian.com/business/202...
One of the best thing about court reporting is that journalists at rival publications act in a collegiate manner. We often have to team up to force disclosure. It's faintly depressing that other hacks who didn't bother to show up seemingly think it's okay to rip off that work.
I was in the High Court over two days this week covering the collapse of Sanjeev Gupta's Speciality Steel. Two reporters who weren't there used the exact same quotes as me from proceedings and a govt letter I obtained, right down to the comma placement and square brackets. No citation naturally.
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a much more persuasive version of this article would be like "here's why I'm forcing myself to get on TikTok"
Yada-yadaGPT
Iām increasingly of the opinion that Bryan Johnson is simply doing one of the greatest extended bits in comedy history
The thing you donāt see about lengthy libel cases like this is the mental impact on witnesses - and on news outletsā willingness to do similar stories. Respect to all the women who chose to go to court to defend this story - plus Sirin Kale, Lucy Osborne, Paul Lewis and the Guardian team.
(taken from this @sindap.bsky.social & @pollard.bsky.social story) on.ft.com/461g90e
entirely normal state of affairs for two independent companies that just happen by coincidence to have similar names
"STATE TO TAKE OVER LINCHPIN OF GUPTA'S UK STEEL BUSINESS" @bondhack.ft.com / #LaithAlKhalaf for @financialtimes.com ā British Government is set to take over a major part of #SanjeevGupta's #LibertySteel. FULL STORY: t.ly/IBuYE #FinancialTimes #TomorrowsPapersToday #IBPAPERS
Unclear what the potential fallout for the Lochaber Smelter deal with GFG Alliance and the Scottish Government is But in terms of a general health check of GFG's assets, it's hardly a ringing endorsement.
BREAKING: The British government is set to take over the running of a major part of Sanjeev Guptaās Liberty Steel business, after one of the UKās largest steelworks was declared insolvent in Londonās High Court. on.ft.com/4mtFtC4
Collapse of FX broker Argentex - which lacked treasury function, confusion at highest levels over reliance on high-risk 'zero-zero' trades - has tied up one of Nigel Farage's biggest patrons. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-20/fx-brokerage-implosion-ties-up-millions-owed-to-farage-backer
This is, of course, only happening now over four years after we published this story around evidence of suspected invoice fraud involving Gupta, with the Serious Fraud Office opening investigation shortly after. (Gupta's GFG Alliance has denied wrongdoing) www.ft.com/content/e450...
Is it finally the beginning of the end for Sanjeev Gupta's steel operations in the UK? The British government is ready to step in and oversee an imminent insolvency of a crucial part of his Liberty Steel business if necessary, Londonās High Court heard on Wednesday on.ft.com/3UA2WoX
bsky.app/profile/erne...
Thanks for the recommendation!
Naturally, the story is the sort of turgidly written allegory that most teenagers would roll their eyes at if it featured in a YA sci-fi novel.
Do you sometimes find the toast pretty moving?
Very good, proper and normal that erstwhile SBF whisperer Will MacAskill asked for the software's consent before posting this online.
this is absolutely horrifying www.reuters.com/investigates...
I concur - great piece!
Another excellent investigation into Aziz who appears story by story to be a total menace to Londonās social fabric at the motivation of profit by property
Already happened! on.ft.com/3UxP92c
I've actually been watching this guy on TikTok since he first tried a Greggs and a packet of Monster Munch on an early trip here. Super wholesome content. He's also been to more parts of the UK than most British people by now.
Aura.
āWeāll be matchmaker, he says. Weāll fix everything, he says.ā Perfect.
Hell of a pic
Elon Musk appears to be suggesting that Sam Altman is somehow gaming Twitter, the company that Elon Musk owns
missed this! very cool, thanks
So sad he never had the opportunity to make another film.
Not sure Zuber Issaās explanation of why EG Group gave the brothers interest-free loans to buy private jets passes the smell test! From interview with my colleague Ivan Levingston: on.ft.com/45F2f3P
remarkable that jemima kelly has filed a more jemima kelly story than shooting lizards with the chairman of interactive brokers
This is a complete riot
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(taken from comment section here) on.ft.com/45kFwsE
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Sensational
Ah yeah, hard to fit all the Coulson lore in one article. A very canny deal for the Cooler and the South Wharf shareholders.
Irish billionaire Paul Coulson strikes $300mn deal to walk away from Ardagh-capping more than a year of negotiations with creditors owed more than $10bn built up in the era of cheap money and low interest rates. www.ft.com/content/a14c... @bondhack.ft.com @financialtimes.com
(Unless theyāre aspiring to be this Rob Smith, obviously)
While I'd suggest that any "Wannabe Rob Smith" seek psychiatric help immediately, this is a great job going at the FT covering one of the most important markets in the world. Happy to lend some advice to anyone interested in applying!
Reposting in honour of the great Stanley Kubrickās birthday!
Bit more context from the excellent Kubrick: An Odyssey!
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Thames Water is allowing senior executives to retain bonuses awarded last year, even though an accounting restatement meant they missed a cash flow target. on.ft.com/4m6nVuY
bsky.app/profile/step...
Ursula mentioned! Hope you don't find it to be Borey Lyndon š¬
Yes, noticed this when rewatching on the big screen at the weekend.
You're bang on about Reverend Runt's face!
