Bank giants

call for peace

in Hong Kong

after protests

By Lucy Burton

HSBC and Standard Chartered have fi-

nally spoken on anti-government pro-

tests in Hong Kong, with adverts

calling for a peaceful resolution.

HSBC, set up in Hong Kong to sup-

port trade between China and Europe

in 1865, wrote it was “deeply con-

cerned. We strongly condemn violence

of any kind and the disruption caused

to the communities in which our cus-

tomers, staff and shareholders live”.

The banking giant added that main-

taining the rule of law was vital to Hong

Kong’s “unique status as an interna-

tional financial centre. That is why we

fully support the ambition to resolve

the present situation peacefully”.

The Chinese adverts were in news-

papers the HK Economic Times, HK

Economic Journal, Sing Tao, Wen Wei

Pao and Ta Kung Pao, days after Hong

Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, in a

cryptic front-page advert, called for vi-

olence to end “in the name of love”.

Standard Chartered, which has been

in Hong Kong for 160 years, also took

out adverts in three newspapers yes-

terday. “We love this dynamic, vibrant

and resilient city, oppose all forms of

violence and call for the general public

to restore peace in the community as

soon as possible,” the adverts read. “We

firmly uphold the ‘One Country, Two

Systems’ and support the Hong Kong

SAR government to maintain social or-

der and safety of the society.”

A spokesman added: “We hope to

see a peaceful resolution that helps set-

tle the current social issue and protect

Hong Kong as an international finan-

cial centre.”

The protests have plunged Hong

Kong into its worst political crisis since

the 1997 handover to China, risking its

status as Asia’s financial hub.

“Clashes between protestors and po-

lice are circulating around the globe,

and that has chipped away at investor

confidence in the West,” said David

Madden, CMC Markets analyst, last

week.

Last week Rupert Hogg, British-

born chief executive of Cathay Pacific,

resigned days after the airline pro-

voked a backlash in mainland China by

appearing to endorse the right of its

employees to take part in demonstra-

tions.

‘We oppose all forms of

violence ... and support the

Hong Kong government to

maintain social order’

Biggest fracking tremor was minor, says Cuadrilla

By Telegraph Reporters

FRACKING was stopped at

the UK’s only shale gas ex-

ploration site after a tremor,

energy firm Cuadrilla said.

Operations paused for 18

hours as Cuadrilla moni-

tored the site near Blackpool

after a “micro seismic event”

of a 1.55 magnitude.

The company confirmed

the tremor was the largest

recorded at the facility. Most

locals would not have felt

the movement, which would

have felt similar to a large

bag of shopping being

dropped on the floor, said a

Cuadrilla spokesman.

“Minor movements of this

level are to be expected and

are way below anything that

can cause harm or damage to

anyone or their property.”

The Preston New Road site’s

“integrity” was confirmed

by regulators, he said.

The tremor was detected

at 8.46pm on Wednesday, af-

ter fracking operations had

finished for the day.

In response, Rebecca

Long-Bailey, the shadow

business secretary, renewed

calls for fracking to be

banned. Friends of the Earth

claimed in 60 days of frack-

ing last year there were 57

tremors in Lancashire. It is

“obvious” fracking cannot

be carried out without trig-

gering earthquakes, said

Jamie Peters, a campaigner

for the organisation: “Even

small vibrations at ground

level can be the sign of far

more damaging impacts

deep underground.”

The Government says the

extraction of shale gas

through fracking could sup-

port the UK’s transition to

net zero greenhouse gas

emissions.

This week’s movement

was stronger than a 1.5-mag-

nitude tremor which halted

work at the shale site in De-

cember.

Tinker Taylor The singer Taylor Swift, who was dismayed at her music manager Scooter

Braun buying her former record label and with it the rights to her first six albums, has

responded by saying she plans to start recording new versions of the tracks next year.

ANDREW H. WALKER/REX

Germany mulls ban on negative rates as irritation mounts at ECB

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

GERMANY is examining plans to pro-
hibit banks from imposing negative
interest rates on savers, threatening to
leave lenders in an impossible position
and greatly complicating the job of the
European Central Bank as it prepares
fresh stimulus.
The outlandish move comes amid
growing German irritation with the rad-
ical monetary experiments of the ECB
and its policy of negative rates – cur-
rently minus 0.4pc – deemed an assault

on hard-working savers and known as

“punishment rates”.

Olaf Scholz, Germany’s finance min-

ister, said his officials are exploring if it

is legally possible to shield savers from

further cuts. “I don’t think it is a good

idea for banks to charge penalties for

depositors in checking accounts or

money markets accounts,” he said.

Many Germans depend on interest

from savings accounts and have suf-

fered since rates dropped to zero. They

have been shielded so far from negative

rates but this is now under threat. Forc-

ing them to pay a monthly fee on their

accounts would break the ultimate ta-

boo and risk popular fury.

The ECB has signalled fresh cuts next

month to head off recession and prevent

deflation gaining a foothold. Carsten

Brzeski, of ING, predicted “a final mon-

etary firework” with rates dropping to

0.6pc, along with €30bn (£27bn) a

month of quantitative easing.

A wide coalition of German politi-

cians and monetary conservatives are

trying to head off this fresh violation of

Bundesbank orthodoxy. Bavaria’s Social

Christian Union – chancellor Angela

Merkel’s sister party – has proposed a

ban on negative rates on deposits below

€100,000 in the Bundesrat or upper

house. The explicit purpose is to bind

the ECB’s hands. Markus Söder, the Ba-

varian premier, said: “At the start of

Christine Lagarde’s new term as ECB

president, the federal government

should make clear that negative interest

rates are not the way forward.”

German banks have so far swallowed

the costs of negative rates for ordinary

households but this is bleeding money

and eroding their business model.

The German Savings Bank Associa-

tion says talk of a ban is well intentioned

but would make matters worse.

Prof Richard Werner, a German bank

expert at Oxford University, says ultra-

low rates and overregulation is crip-

pling the best part of the German

banking system. “It is wiping out the

remaining 1,400 savings and commu-

nity banks,” he said.

“For the last 200 years, these banks

have been the backbone of German eco-

nomic performance. It is thanks to this

solid network of local lenders that Ger-

many has its thriving Mittelstand of

family firms. The ECB favours the big

casino banks. It is going to ruin Ger-

many. It is criminal.”

-0.4pc

The current negative interest rate of the

ECB, which has been deemed as an assault

on hard-working savers across Germany

Hasbro snaps

up owner of

Peppa Pig

for £3.3bn

By Christopher Williams

ENTERTAINMENT ONE, the film and
television company behind the chil-
dren’s character Peppa Pig, was last
night bought for £3.3bn by Hasbro, the
American toy giant with franchises in-
cluding My Little Pony and Transform-
ers.
The all-cash deal represents a pre-
mium of 31pc of Entertainment One’s
share price over the last month, and
more than three times an aborted take-
over attempt by ITV three years ago.
It unites Peppa Pig, which has be-
come of Britain’s biggest media exports
in recent years, with one of the world’s
biggest toy brands. Hasbro, valued on
Wall Street at $14.4bn (£11.8bn), makes
the board game Monopoly, the action
figure GI Joe and Play-Doh, among
other favourites.
Allan Leighton, the former Asda chief
executive who serves as the FTSE 250
company’s chairman, recommended
Hasbro’s bid and said it “creates signifi-
cant, immediate value for shareholders
as it recognises the strength of our fu-
ture-facing business model”.
The takeover marks the latest raid
on a British-listed company this sum-
mer by foreign bidders and private in-
vestors. The brewer Greene King, the
engineer Cobham, the theme park
owner Merlin Entertainments and sat-
ellite operator Inmarsat have become
bid targets as market fears over the im-
pact of a no-deal Brexit have risen and
the value of sterling has declined.
Ownership by a toy maker marks an
unlikely end for Entertainment One,
which was founded in Canada in 1973
as a music distributor.
Under chief executive Darren
Throop, the company expanded into
the film and television industries and
listed on the London Stock Exchange.
As well as Peppa Pig and the newer
franchise PJ Masks, it owns the pro-

US toy giant’s all-cash deal

for Entertainment One is

worth more than three

times ITV’s aborted bid

ducers of series such as the zombie

drama The Walking Dead and Sharp Ob-

jects, a thriller adaptation starring Amy

Adams. Entertainment One’s recent

film productions include the Oscar-

winner Green Book.

Such properties attracted a £1bn bid

from ITV in 2016 as it invested in ex-

panding its production business, but it

was swiftly rejected as it “fundamen-

tally undervalued” the company.

In recent years, Entertainment One

has been pulling back from film distri-

bution, previously the bulk of its busi-

ness, in favour of producing more films

and series itself. The shift reflects the

rise of streaming services, which have

boosted demand and prices for original

production. Meanwhile, the changing

economics of Hollywood and the evolv-

ing tastes of cinemagoers have meant

the market for smaller and independent

films in which Entertainment One spe-

cialised has declined.

However, it is the enormous interna-

tional success of Peppa Pig that has at-

tracted Hasbro. Between shows, theme

parks, toys and other merchandise, the

adventures of Peppa and her family

have become and industry generating

more than $1bn annual sales.

Mr Throop said: “There’s a strong

cultural fit between our two compa-

nies. Along with our leadership team, I

look forward to working with Hasbro

on our joint growth and success for

many years to come.”

Entertainment One first became in-

volved with Peppa Pig via a £50m take-

over of Contender in 2007, which was

mostly a DVD distributor but had a

children’s arm that spawned the fran-

chise three years earlier.

Over time, Entertainment One in-

creased its control over Peppa Pig,

which last year contributed the major-

ity of the £159m turnover of the com-

pany’s family business.

In an interview with The Telegraph

four years ago, Mr Throop said: “When

we did the Contender deal, Peppa Pig

was a very small children’s property. It

wasn’t really the primary focus of the

acquisition to tell the truth, but there’s

no question you have to be lucky to be

good.”

NMC shares jump after Fosun interest

By Michael O’Dwyer

SHORT-SELLERS betting
against NMC Health were
nursing big losses yesterday
after an unconfirmed report
that Chinese conglomerate
Fosun was backing one of
two parties in a bidding war
for a 40pc stake in the firm.
More than 14pc of the
FTSE 100 company’s shares
were out on loan to short-
sellers betting on a fall in its
share price at the end of

Wednesday, according to

data from IHS Markit.

Fosun is backing one of

two groups that have bid up

to £1.5bn to take a major

stake in NMC, according to a

Reuters report.

The bidders are eyeing the

holdings of two UAE-based

businessmen – Khalifa Butti

Bin Omeir and Saeed Bin

Butti Al Qebaisi – who in-

vested in NMC in 2011, the

report said. Shares closed up

almost 19pc yesterday at

£22.96, valuing the firm at

£4.8bn, but were more than

£40 a year ago. They were

buoyed by a $200m (£163m)

share buy-back announced

as the firm revealed an 18.4pc

jump in pre-tax profits in the

first half of the year com-

pared with the same period

in 2018.

NMC Health declined to

comment. Fosun, Khalifa

Butti Bin Omeir and Saeed

Bin Butti al Qebaisi could not

be reached for comment.

q

7128.18

-75.79 (-1.05pc)

£$

Rate

1.2252

Change

+1.22¢

£€

Rate

1.1058

Change

+1.22¢

FTSE 250 19205.32

-2.43 (-0.01pc)

FTSE All Share 3912.94

-33.75 (-0.86pc)

FTSE All Share Yield 4.36

+0.04

FTSE Eurotop 100 2868.22

-14.41 (-0.50pc)

Nikkei 225 20628.01

+9.44 (+0.05pc)

EURO STOXX 50 3373.67

-21. 22 (- 0.6 3p c)

S&P 500 2922.95

-1.48 (-0.05pc)

Nasdaq 7991.39

-28.82 (-0.36pc)

52WkHigh 7727.49

52WkLow 6536.53

Yield 4.59pc +0.04

P/E ratio 14.72 -0.16

52WkHigh 27398.68

52WkLow 21712.53

Markets Currencies

FTSE 100 Dow Jones

p

26252.24

+49.51 (+0.19pc)

Commodities

Gold

q

$1498.39

(£1223)

-3.92 (-0.26pc)

Brent Crude

q

$59.92

(October)

-0.38 (-0.63pc)

Biggest riser

NMC Health

2296 p

+360.00 (+18.60pc)

Biggest faller

Burberry

2122 p

-82.00 (-3.72pc)

Inside

Labour’s

paradox

Corbyn’s

policies will

hurt the

poorest

Ryan

Bourne

Dresses for

success?

Analysts

question

Laura

Ashley’s

fashion

sense

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