Puppet On A String!                                                                    17 November 2023

The week’s 2,421 real estate and properties transactions totalled US$ 2.54 billion, during the week ending 17 November 2023. The sum of transactions was 492 plots, sold for US$ 1.30 billion, and 1,924 apartments and villas, selling for US$ 1.24 billion. The top three transactions were all for plots of land, the first in Mohammed bin Rashid Gardens for US$ 55 million, and two plots in Wadi Al Safa 3 for US$ 39 million and US$ 36 million. Me’aisem Second recorded the most transactions, with one hundred and one sales, worth US$ 283 million, followed by eighty sales, in Wadi Al Safa 2 for US$ 39 million, and seventy-nine sales in Palm Jabal Ali valued at US$ 542 million. The top three transfers for apartments and villas were for a villa in Island 2 for US$ 39 million, another in Business Bay, sold for US$ 14 million, and an apartment in Me’aisem First for US$ 10 million. The mortgaged properties for the week reached US$ 384 million; one hundred and forty-three properties were granted between first-degree relatives worth US$ 193 million.

Danube Properties has launched a thirty-nine floor tower, Sportz, with 1.1k apartments in Dubai Sports City, and its first ready-to-move-in project, Eleganz, (with two hundred and fifty-nine apartments and townhouses), at the Jumeirah Village Circle. The former is Danube’s twenty-seventh project and twelfth to be launched since January 2022. Sportz by Danube features an Olympic-sized lap pool, trampoline area, table tennis, wall climbing, and a sky jogging track. In addition to this, Sportz will also offer mentoring and coaching as one of the amenities. Both projects will have smart and sustainable homes and will consume less energy – in line with the UAE’s commitment to sustainability ahead of COP28 – and include a contract offering a 1% per month repayment plan. The developer expects to deliver two other projects – Jewelz and Olivz – by the end of the year. This will bring the developer’s project to 14.9k units, spread across twenty-seven projects, with a combined development value of US$ 4.22 billion.

Citi Developers’ latest launch is Aveline Residences, located in Jumeirah Village Circle and slated for completion by Q2 2026. The development comprises two hundred and sixty-three apartments, ranging from studios, (454 sq ft), to 1, 2 and 3 B/R (1,392 sq ft). The developer has introduced a flexible payment plan – a 10% booking instalment, 10% on SPA, 30 days after booking, 1% for thirty months, and 50% upon handover.

Effective 11 November, the new brand identity ‘Dubai Health’ replaced ‘Dubai Academic Health Corporation’ in a move approved by Dubai Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. (DAHC was established as per Law No (13) of 2021 issued by the Dubai Ruler). Responsible for six hospitals, twenty-six ambulatory health centres and twenty medical fitness centres, its main aim is to enhance the quality of patient care in the city, whilst consolidating Dubai’s leadership in advancing healthcare excellence across the domains of health, education and research. Sheikh Hamdan also directed the transformation of Dubai into a leading global model for advancing human health by providing highly efficient medical services and adhering to best international practices in healthcare.

Last Friday, DP World Australia was hit by a cyber security incident that disrupted movement of goods for three days, coming back online on Monday. Although services were resumed, the port operator noted that it was still in the process of investigating the disruption and guarding its systems against cyber-attacks and added that investigations and ongoing remediation work were likely to continue for some time. The firm manages around 40% of goods entering and leaving the country. At the time, a spokesman for the Dubai-based global port operator posted that “our teams are working diligently to contain the situation and determine the impact on our systems and data. To safeguard our employees, clients and our networks, we have restricted access to our Australian port operations while we continue our investigation.” DP World Australia, part of Dubai’s state-owned ports giant DP World, operates four container terminals in Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and in Fremantle. The parent company employs more than 7k people in the Asia Pacific region and has ports and terminals in eighteen locations. No such attack comes at the right time but to add to its woes, the port operator has also been embroiled with union troubles disrupting its normal working routines.

On Monday, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, inaugurated the eighteenth edition of the Dubai Air Show under the banner ‘The Future of the Aerospace Industry’, which closed today. The five-day event gave all stakeholders the opportunity to gather, discus future trends and further opportunities in the aviation, space and defence industries. Over the course of the week, many orders were made.

Emirates opened the show with a US$ 52 billion Boeing order for ninety-five wide-body aircraft, comprising fifty-five Boeing 777-9s, thirty-five 777-8s, and five 787s. It also ordered the engines to power the new additions to its fleet – two hundred and two GE9X engines to power the additional 777X aircraft ordere, taking its total GE9X engine order to four hundred and sixty units. (The carrier is still awaiting some one hundred and fifteen 777-9s from a previous order, with the first batch due to arrive in 2025). The first 777-8 is not expected in Dubai until 2030).

The world’s biggest long-haul airline, ordered an additional fifteen Airbus A350-900s, valued at US$ 6.0 billion. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed noted that “we plan to deploy our A350s to serve a range of new markets including long-haul missions of up to 15 hours flying time from Dubai.” The order for the A350-900s came after differences between Emirates and engine-maker Rolls Royce stood in the way of a deal for the larger A350-1000 model. The airline was seeking guarantees from the UK manufacturer on the maintenance cost of the engines for the A350-1000 and their performance in harsh desert conditions.

Meanwhile, flydubai has placed its first wide-body order for thirty Boeing 787-9s, valued at US$ 11.0 billion), diversifying its current fleet of all-Boeing 737 aircraft; delivery will start in 2026. (Flydubai currently operates a single fleet-type of eighty Boeing 737s aircraft and has an order backlog of more than one hundred and thirty 737 MAX aircraft to be delivered by 2035).

Jordan’s state airline Royal Jordanian Airlines placed an order for six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners as it seeks to grow its long-haul operations.

SunExpress Airlines announced a Boeing deal to buy up to ninety aircraft, becoming the first to announce a deal at the Air Show. The Turkish-German carrier placed forty-five firm orders, (twenty-eight MAX-8s and seventeen MAX-10s), five options and forty purchase rights. Already operating a 44 fleet of A220-300s, Air Baltic ordered thirty similar aircraft which will make it the largest A220 customer in Europe.

Ethiopian Airlines placed an order for eleven Airbus A350-900s, and for sixty-seven Boeing planes, as it aims to become one of the top twenty leading airlines globally by 2035, but cementing its current position as the largest operator of the aircraft in Africa.

The UAE’s Tawazun Council signed eleven deals, worth US$ 1.88 billion, of which local companies snared US$ 1.33 billion of the total, including US$ 900 million to ‘Black Diamond’ company, to procure an air defence system, along with further deals with Advanced Integrated Systems, (for aircraft maintenance services), Earth Company (ammunition), and Trust International Group (UAV systems), valued at US$ 200 million, US$ 160 million and US$ 48 million respectively. It also awarded three international contracts worth US$ 558 million – Raytheon (ammunition), Italy’s Leonardo (aircraft maintenance) and China’s CATIC (ammunition), worth US$ 381 million, US$ 57 million and US$ 120 million.

Other deals signed at the Air Show include:

• Emirates signing agreements worth more than US$ 1.5 billion with major industry players such as Honeywell, Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, Safran, Lufthansa Technik, OEM Services, Gameco, Haeco at alia
• Sikorsky, the aviation unit of US major Lockheed Martin, signing a partnership with the UAE’s military maintenance company Ammroc
• UAE’s Edge Group also signing multiple deals, including a US$ 300 million defence deal with the UAE Armed Forces and a collaboration with Italy’s Leonardo, along with US$ 1.12 billion and US$ 133 million deals with the Ministry of Defence

Emirates also signed several contracts, totalling US$ 1.2 billion, with French aerospace company Safran, that makes cover products for its new aircraft seats to wheels. Included in the total was US$ 1.0 billion for business, premium economy and economy class seats on Emirates’ new A350 and 777X-9 jets and its existing Boeing 777-300 fleet. It signed a ten-year agreement with Safran Aerosystems covering repair and maintenance for Boeing 777 safety and cabin systems components.

Spanning over one million sq mt, Emirates announced that it would be investing US$ 950 million to build the largest and most advanced engineering facility to be operated by any airline which will be able to support the carrier’s aircraft fleet and operating requirements “into the 2040s”. Located at Dubai World Central, the new facility “will enable Emirates to be entirely self-sufficient when it comes to maintenance, repairs, overhaul and all engineering requirements for our aircraft fleet.” According to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, it will also “create thousands of skilled technical jobs and add value to Dubai’s economy.”  Construction work on Phase 1 is expected to begin next year and be completed in 2027, and will comprise eight maintenance hangars and 1 paint hangar – all capable of handling any size of commercial aircraft up to Code F (A380) – an engine run-up facility, some twenty support workshops, massive storage facilities, and administration offices. Spare capacity could potentially be offered to other airlines as well.

flydubai announced plans to invest US$ 190 million for a purpose-built MRO facility in Dubai South. The construction of the new hangar and workshop will commence next year and is expected to conclude by Q4 2026. The carrier’s chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, noted that the “milestone” brings the airline “greater control over its maintenance requirements as it continues to grow its fleet”. Its CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith added how “Dubai has emerged as a thriving aviation hub that fosters connectivity, innovation, growth and setting benchmarks for the global aviation industry”. The carrier has built a team of over four hundred and fifty skilled engineers working in Line Maintenance, Technical Services, Materials and Workshops, with a further two hundred and thirty engineers joining over the next twelve months.

Air Chateau International has signed a preliminary agreement with Archer Aviation to Invest US$ 500 million to purchase up to one hundred of the next-generation aircraft. The Dubai-based private heliport operator, which is planning to run a ME air taxi network, will use Archer’s Midnight electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. This is the Californian company’s second foray in the UAE – last month, it announced a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to start all-electric air taxi operations in the UAE by 2026.

With Q3 passenger numbers posting a 39.3% annual increase to 22.9 million – the highest quarterly return since pre-pandemic 2019 – DXB is expecting to welcome 22.3 million in Q4 to bring the 2023 total to an expected 86.8 million. In the first nine months of the year, India was the airport’s top country destination with 8.9 million passengers followed by Saudi Arabia, (4.8 million), the UK (4.4 million), Pakistan (3.1 million), the US (2.7 million) and Russia (1.8 million). The top four cities by traffic were London (2.7 million passengers), Riyadh (1.9 million), Mumbai (1.8 million) and Jeddah (1.7 million).

In the nine-month period, DXB’s baggage handling system processed a total of 57.5 million bags, (6.1% higher than 2019 baggage volume), with a success rate of 99.8%, equating to a rate of 2.5 mishandled bags per 1k passengers. In terms of baggage delivery on arrival, 91% of all baggage was delivered within forty-five minutes of arrival.

Most European airports should take note that the world’s busiest airport has an average waiting time at passport control queues less than eleven minutes for 96.4% of the arriving passengers and 95.1% of passengers queued for less than six minutes at departure passport control. The average queue times at security-checks on departure was less than four minutes for 98.4% of total passengers. Q3 cargo rose 12.3%, year-on-year, to reach 446.4k tonnes, whilst the first nine months witnessed a 1.0% dip to 1.3 million tonnes of cargo. Q3 flight movements jumped 5.1% to reach 106k and for the first nine months. DXB handled 308k in total flight movements – up 25.2% year-on-year.

Dubai Police have busted an “international syndicate” of forty-three cybercriminals, involved in hacking into CEOs’ emails and then sending out mails to branch managers to dupe them into transferring money from their accounts; an estimated US$ 46 million was involved. Many of the gang live outside the UAE and international arrest warrants have been issued against twenty of them, living in various countries, including France, Hong Kong and Singapore. Operation ‘Monopoly’ managed to trace the gang’s movements and modus operandi which was to transfer funds from one account to another before withdrawing it via intermediaries. The money was then deposited in cash vaults of money holding and transport companies. Police investigations discovered that two companies, located in Asia, were individually scammed, by sums of US$ 27 million and US$ 19 million. Both sets of money were transferred to Dubai banks. The first case started when a senior company official logged a complaint that its CEO‘s email had been hacked and the accounts manager had been instructed to transfer the money to a Dubai-based bank. While investigating the second case, the police found the gang had hacked into the electronic communications of another company, outside the UAE, and embezzled US$ 17 million. Having tracked the money trail, the police lured the suspects to the UAE, where they were arrested, with authorities confiscating luxury cars and expensive artworks.

Having been converted into a public joint stock company, last Sunday, by a decree from HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Dubai Taxi will go ahead with an IPO, becoming the fifth government entity to do so. The issue will involve 624.75 million shares, equating to 24.99% of the share capital. Just after the pandemic, the Dubai government announced that it was considering a series of public offerings, and that it would list ten entities on the Dubai Financial Market to increase liquidity in the equity market and boost the bourse’s market capitalisation to US$ 817.8 billion, (AED 3.0 trillion). Four government entities that have already taken “the plunge” include DEWA, Empower, Salik and Tecom Group. The Crown Prince also approved the Board of Directors of the Dubai Taxi Company, with Abdul Mohsin Ibrahim Younis, as the Chairman, Ahmed Ali Al Kaabi, Vice Chairman, Shehab Hamad Abu Shehab, Youssef Ahmed bin Ghalaita, Dr Hanan Sulaiman Al Suwaidi, Abdulla Mohammed bin Damithan, and Issa Abdullah bin Natouf.

Shuaa Capital’s board has approved the liquidation of its Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company because of the uncertainty in the global economy and “not to proceed further with finding a target entity considering current market conditions”. The Dubai-based investment bank had listed its Shuaa Partners Acquisition Corp l on Nasdaq in March last year.

Salik posted increases in both Q3 revenue and profit – by 14.0% to US$ 139 million and by 6.3% to US$ 69 million; its revenue-generating trips grew about 15.0% to US$ 30 million. The Dubai toll operator saw finance costs jump 117% to US$ 17 million, with depreciation/amortisation costs up 5.0% to US$ 6 million; it also incurred a Q3 concession fee expense of nearly US$ 30 million. Although nine-month revenue was 11% higher on the year, net profit declined 23% to US$ 219 million, Having gone public in September 2022, Salik’s usage revenue represents about 87% of its revenue; since July 2022, it has been operating as a separate legal entity from the RTA, via a forty-nine-year concession agreement. The government still retains 75.1% of the utility, after it divested 24.9%, (equivalent to 1.867 billion shares at US$ 0.545 – AED 2.00 – per share), raising US$ 1.02 billion at the time.

In line with other Dubai-based developers, Deyaar posted impressive Q3 increases in revenue and net profit – by 50% on the year to US$ 85 million and 327% to US$ 32 million – driven by higher revenue on the back of Dubai’s buoyant property market. There was also a marked rise in property development revenue to US$ 91 million. Its CEO, Saeed Al Qatami, noted that “this achievement is fuelled by the recognition of revenue from Tria and Mesk, coupled with accelerated construction progress in Regalia. Furthermore, the complete portfolio sale of Noor and Mesk has significantly bolstered our financial standing.” Its nine-month profit was 130% higher at US$ 65 million, with revenue up 63% to US$ 263 million. The developer, majority-owned by Dubai Islamic Bank, posted a 1.0% rise in assets to US$ 1.69 billion.

Dubai Investments has reported a 45.2% annual decline in nine-month net profit of US$ 223 million, with total income for the period also lower by 8.3% at US$ 817 million; total assets reached US$ 5.74 billion as at 30 September, whilst total shareholder equity increased to US$ 3.58 billion. The result for the current period is significantly higher by around 61%, if adjusted for the one-off  2022 US$ 267 million gain on divestment of DI’s 50% share in Emicool. It is reported that the Danah Bay development in Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah is progressing well, with the launch of the residential tower expected soon.

The DFM opened on Monday, 13 November 2023, 355 points (9.0%) higher the previous fortnight, gained 26 points (0.7%) to close the trading week on 3,995, by Friday 17 November 2023. Emaar Properties, US$ 0.15 higher the previous fortnight, gained US$ 0.06 to close on US$ 1.93 by the end of the week. DEWA, Emirates NBD, DIB and DFM started the previous week on US$ 0.65, US$ 4.81, US$ 1.51, and US$ 0.37 and closed on US$ 0.68, US$ 4.93, US$ 1.49 and US$ 0.39. On 17 November, trading was at 72 million shares, with a value of US$ 62 million, compared to 111 million shares, with a value of US$ 96 million, on 10 November 2023.

By Friday, 17 November 2023, Brent, US$ 10.93 lower (11.8%) the previous three weeks, shed US$ 0.71 (0.9%) to close on US$ 81.30. Gold, US$ 73 (0.8%) lower the previous fortnight, gained US$ 40 (2.1%) to trade at US$ 1,983 by 17 November 2023.

Riyadh Air was widely expected to place a large order for narrow-bodied jets at the Dubai Air Show but  decided to delay its decision until later. In March, the Saudi carrier already made an order for seventy-two 787s and posted that “by the end of this year, you will see Riyadh Air has made two very large orders within its first nine months and it will give an indication of the fleet size that will take us to connecting one hundred and ten cities by 2030.” The carrier plans to connect the Saudi capital with “all the major cities” and some of the secondary destinations in Europe, as well as the major cities in north-eastern America and Canada, most of the Far East Asian capital cities, Central Asian cities, the Indian subcontinent, the Gulf and Saudi cities by 2030.

Even though the case is eight years old, Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y Lee had his final day in court today over accounting fraud and stock price manipulation charges involving an US$ 8 billion merger of two Samsung affiliates – Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries – in 2015. Prosecutors allege that Lee, and other executives, were actively involved in stock price manipulation for personal gain, at the expense of minority interests; last year, he was pardoned for an earlier, separate conviction. Lee has form, having after being convicted of bribing former South Korean President Park Geun-hye and went to jail for a total of eighteen months over the four years 2017-2021; he was subsequently paroled in 2021 and pardoned in 2022.

Six years ago, Body Shop was bought by Natura in a US$ 1.1 billion deal and now it has been acquired by global private equity group Aurelius, from the Brazilian cosmetics group at 25% of that price because the chain wants “to simplify and refocus its operations”. Anita Roddick had founded the company in 1976, which stood out from the rest of the industry because of its ethical stance and that its key product lines included body scrubs, white musk perfume and fruit-scented shower gels with all-natural ingredients. In 2006, the chain was sold to L’Oréal for US$ 815 million. Although Natura redesigned its stores and introduced a refills service, it failed to turn around its finances because of a lack of innovation and catch-up by other players in the market, along with consumers trading down to more affordable retailers. The fact that the new owners already have investments in fashion and sportswear brands, including Footasylum, may improve Body Shop’s marketing strategy.

Founded thirty years ago, by Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, Hotel Chocolat has been acquired by Mars, with each of the cofounders, (with a 27% individual stake), in line for US$ 180 million after agreeing to sell the British business to the US company for US$ 664 million. Both will invest some of this money into Hotel Chocolat, with Thirlwell staying on as chief executive. Mars has commented that there were “absolutely no plans” to change any of the company’s recipes and had no plans to sell Mars confectionery in Hotel Chocolat shops.  It has around one hundred and twenty-four shops in the UK, and some others overseas, including Ireland and Gibraltar. In September 2022, it closed its five US shops, but continues to sell online, focusing on its Velvetiser hot chocolate-maker. It has had a partnership in Japan to open stores there, but the deal turned sour costing Hotel Chocolat US$ 27 million. However, another recent deal there sees a JV with Tokyo’s Eat Creator Corporation to set up twenty-one Hotel Chocolat shops.

Last month, Carlsberg finally terminated its business in Russia some twenty months after western sanctions were first imposed, with the boss of Carlsberg, Jacob Aarup-Andersen, posting that the Kremlin had “stolen our business in Russia”. The Danish brewer had remained open with the aim of trying to sell the business but, in July, the Russian state seized control of Baltika. This week there are reports that the boss of Carlsberg’s Russian business and a top manager have been arrested, accused of fraud, alleging that the accused had acquired intellectual property rights for the companies Carlsberg Kazakhstan and Vista BWay Co, which previously belonged to Baltika, “through deception”; Carlsberg branded the allegations fake, saying “ it is appalling that the efforts of the Russian state to justify their illegal takeover of our business in Russia has now evolved into targeting innocent employees.”

For many years,  Avon, the one hundred and thirty-seven-year old retailer, that had relied on an army of door-to-door sales reps to sell its beauty products, has finally decided to open physical stores in the UK. It seems that the pandemic accelerated a move to online sales and that an increasing number of women wanted to “touch and experience” the products they were buying. The UK stores, expected to open over the next two months, would be based in “neighbourhood communities” rather than on traditional High Streets, and would be “mini beauty boutiques” showcasing a selection from Avon’s range. The company is also expanding its presence in Superdrug stores, following a tie-up in September which saw Avon products sold in selected branches of the pharmacy chain. No details on numbers and locations have been made readily available. Readers may be surprised to learn that its “Ding dong, Avon calling!” doorstep slogan has not been used since 1967.

Moody’s downgraded its outlook on US credit ratings from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’, based mainly on the country’s “very large” fiscal deficits and weakening debt affordability, with one of the main drivers being “continued political polarisation within the US Congress raises the risk that successive governments will not be able to reach consensus on a fiscal plan to slow the decline in debt affordability,” However, the ratings agency affirmed the US’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings at “Aaa”, citing credit and economic strengths, but noted that the downside risk to the US fiscal strength had increased. Fitch had also downgraded ratings – from AAA to AA+, noting that the country’s ballooning fiscal deficits, and an “erosion of governance”, had led to repeated debt limit clashes over the past two decades. S&P has had an AA+ rating for the country since 2011.

In the US, the Labor Department posted that October price increases over the previous twelve months had dipped 0.5% to 3.2% on the month – and although housing costs headed higher, this was more than offset by lower energy costs. Although the price index – which measures prices of a basket of items – was unchanged, prices rose 0.2% when food and energy prices were stripped out. These latest figures are a possible indicator that the Federal Reserve will probably not be raising rates again in the foreseeable future even though housing costs, which accounted for 70% of inflation last month, have risen 6.7% in the year to October.

The Office for National Statistics noted that there had been signs of the UK job market slowing, despite wages having risen faster, (at an annual Q3 7.7% rate), than inflation by the most for two years. Official figures showed that wage rises are starting to slow in some industries, with the unemployment rate flat at 4.2%, as the number of job vacancies continue to fall. In the quarter to October, the estimated number of vacancies in the UK fell 5.7% to 957k – the sixteenth consecutive month of falls. Although inflation is beginning to slow, after two years of prices of goods such as food and energy rising much faster than wages, consumers are increasingly being squeezed by higher interest rates which have driven up the cost of mortgages and other loans. Latest figures show that regular pay – which excludes bonuses – rose by 1% in Q3 after taking inflation into account – the largest increase since Q3 2021, with average weekly earnings  estimated to be US$ 776 for regular pay in September, and US$ 841 for total pay (which includes bonuses).

The ONS also posted that the October volume of products sold fell by 0.3% to the lowest level since February 2021 noting that petrol and diesel sales may have been “affected by increasing fuel prices”. It is obvious that consumer spending is still being impacted by rising living costs, and the poor weather, (including Storm Babet), last month was also a driver in the surprising dip in sales. In the month, there were demand falls for fuel (2.0%), alcohol (4.2%), tobacco (10.4%), household goods and clothes. It does seem that shoppers “were buying cheaper products and prioritising important items”.

It is expected that Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement will include millions of dollars in funding for companies wanting to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, and that the Chancellor will pledge more subsidies and grants to EV manufacturers. To date, the existing US$ 1.5 billion Automotive Transformation Fund has helped to lure Nissan and Tata to the UK, who have already taken most of that money. The main thrust of this year’s Statement will be at stimulating the economy, including growth in advanced manufacturing. Growing the economy comes with two problems – continuing inflated input prices and financial costs allied with weaker consumer demand. It is a shoo-in that the government will continuing “full expensing”, and it is also widely expected to extend – or possibly make permanent – a tax break that allows firms to offset 100% of the money they spend on new machinery and equipment against their profits. Currently, the annual cost of this particular measure is put at around US$ 12.4 billion, with some of that balance being offset by a boost to the economy. What is sure that the more any entity invests in capex, the less tax it will pay. Even more certain is that business investment in the UK – as a percentage of national income – has lagged behind most other developed countries for many years.

When he was running the UK, David Cameron took it on himself to appoint Australian financier Lex Greensill, as an unpaid advisor, who had access to eleven government departments and was even apparently allowed unlimited access to 10 Downing Street. He was the Prime Minister for over six years until he resigned in July 2016, following the debacle of the Brexit vote; three months later, he resigned as an MP. In 2018, Cameron became an advisor to Greensill Capital and held share options in the company reportedly worth as much as US$ 60 million as well as being paid over US$1 million each year for twenty-five days’ work per year. A Panorama investigation concluded that overall, through a combination of his salary and share sales, Cameron earned around US$ 10 million before tax for thirty months’ part-time work. In 2019, Cameron arranged for a private meeting between Greensill and the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the disgraced Matt Hancock; during his tenure, several NHS trusts went on to use Greensill Capital’s Earnd app. A year later, Cameron lobbied for the government to bend the rules to allow it to receive Covid Corporate Financing loans, but Chancellor Rishi Sunak declined to help the Australian. Not to be beaten, Cameron then held an unheard of ten virtual meetings with two permanent secretaries to try to obtain money for Greensill. The government-owned British Business Bank  lent Greensill up to US$ 500 million, through a different scheme, leading to a potential US$ 416 million loss to the taxpayer. His firm collapsed in 2021, with billions of dollars missing; criminal inquiries, into alleged fraud, are ongoing in Germany and Switzerland, where Lord Cameron’s ex(?) friend and employer has been named as a suspect. This week, the UK public breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that David Cameron was not to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but a little concerned and greatly puzzled that, particularly after his much-criticised role in Libya, he had been set loose on the world stage, as the New Foreign Secretary. Many are now discussing whether Rishi Sunak or David Cameron is the Puppet On A String!