the times | Monday December 6 2021 41Business
Bitcoin stabilised yesterday after briefly
falling by almost by $10,000 in minutes
on Saturday as investors pulled back
from riskier bets because of concerns
about the impact of the Omicron coro-
navirus variant on the global economic
recovery.
The cryptocurrency, which had
started the week at $57,900, fell by more
than 20 per cent to a low of $42,000
before recovering to about $49,000.
President Bukele of El Salvador,
where bitcoin is legal tender, tweeted
on Saturday that it had taken advan-
tage of the price fall to buy 150 bitcoin
for an average of $48,670 each. Later he
wrote that the country had “missed the
f***ing bottom by 7 minutes”.
Other cryptocurrencies that tum-
bled on Saturday included Solana,Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. Ether, one of
the most commonly traded crypto-
currencies after bitcoin, dropped by
more than by 10 per cent.
Based on data on CoinGecko, the
cryptocurrency data platform, the
market value of all the 11,392 coins thatBooming demand for second-hand cars
has helped to persuade a website spe-
cialising in new cars to beef up its latest
service focused on the used vehicles
market.
Carwow has raised $55 million to
expand Sell Your Car, a portal that was
created after it bought Wizzle in the
summer and which helps owners to find
a buyer for their old car.
About 5,000 cars are listed for sale on
the site each week and in six months
cars worth a total of £200 million have
been sold. The platform has about 350markets catch cold from Omicron
thing from first-aid kits to cleaning
supplies and coffee cups, sourcing items
at a cheaper price than they could
themselves. Revenue growth hasn’t
shot the lights out, typically being at an
annual low-single-digit rate, but it is
consistent.
Last year it benefited from higher
sales volumes and prices for primarily
higher-margin, own-brand hygiene
products, which offset a decline in sales
to businesses affected by lockdowns.
That benefit is dissipating and the
group is expected to revert to its historic
rate of profit growth over the next three
years. But it’s also shown an ability to
navigate rising inflation and has man-
aged to pass on higher freight costs
through price increases.rit capital partners
The FTSE 250 investment trust’s
main aim is to preserve share-
holders’ capital and deliver
long-term growth. It invests in
a mix of asset classes, listed
and private, including global
equities, government bonds
and property. This year it
has delivered a share price
total return of just under 29
per cent, versus 17.5 per cent
from the MSCI All-Coun-
try World Index. Despite
impressive gains over the
past 12 months, the shares
are trading at a 1 per centdiscount to NAV.
The drawbacks? If it’s plain sailing for
markets, the trust can underperform
the index. Over the five years to the end
of October, the trust delivered a share
price total return of 62.5 per cent, ver-
sus 82.1 per cent generated by the MSCI
World. The charge is also higher than
some rival wealth preservation-fo-
cused investment trusts at 1.55 per cent
of the value of your investment.assura
As a landlord to GP surgeries, Assura is
a slow-moving real estate story. The
FTSE 250 constituent develops and
leases surgeries in Britain and has 625
properties serving more than six mil-
lion patients. Of the £1.6 billion in con-
tracted rent, 82 per cent is paid or re-
imbursed to tenants by the NHS.
The average length of leases is al-
most 12 years and the vacancy
rate was only 1 per cent at the
end of September.
A reliable income stream
has translated into a steady
and growing dividend. This
year that payment is fore-
cast to be 2.96p a share,
which at the present
share price would equate
to a potential yield of 4.3
per cent. But that in-
come doesn’t come
cheap, with the shares
trading at a 13 per cent
premium to forecast NAV
at the end of March next
year.The strength of Nestlé’s
brands gives it powerCovid worries send crypto investors
on dizzy weekend rollercoaster ride
Louisa Clarence-Smith it tracks dropped by nearly 15 per cent
to $2.3 trillion.
The sell-off came after a volatile
week for financial markets as uncer-
tainty continued about the impact of
Omicron. Global equities and bench-
mark US bond yields tumbled on
Friday after data showed that job
growth in the United States had slowed
in November.
Earlier in the week Jerome Powell,
chairman of the Federal Reserve,
signalled that the central bank could
put up interest rates in the first half of
next year.
Speculative assets such as bitcoin,
which have no fundamental yield,
become less attractive in a climate of
higher rates. When the Fed put up rates
in 2017 and 2018, bitcoin prices fell
sharply.
The cryptocurrency, which is notori-ously volatile, became more popular
again during the pandemic, hitting an
all-time high on November 10 of more
than $69,000.
The weekend volatility comes days
before testimony in Congress by
executives from eight leading crypto-
currency firms, including Alesia Haas,
finance director of Coinbase Global,
and Sam Bankman-Fried, chief execu-
tive of FTX Trading, before the House
financial services committee.
The hearing on Wednesday will be
the first time that key players in the
crypto markets will testify before
American politicians, as policymakers
try to understand the role of crypto-
currencies in the financial markets and
how best to regulate them.
Regulators have warned repeatedly
that buyers of crytpocurrencies should
be prepared to lose all their money.Second-hand car market has wow factor for investors
staff, but Carwow wants to add another
15 , most of whom will work on back-
end technology. There are also plans to
run television adverts. The new money
is coming from Hercules Capital.
James Hind, Carwow’s founder, said:
“People research their new car a lot,
they’ll spend hours and hours on You-
tube and reading reviews, but when
people sell their car they pretty much
just go to a dealer or Webuyanycar.
They don’t have the chance to be edu-
cated as much, so we think we need to
get the name out there through a more
mainstream marketing approach.”
Hind, 34, founded Carwow 12 yearsago shortly after graduating. The site
allows would-be buyers to put in the
details of the sort of car they are looking
for and dealers pitch their best offers.
Carwow has attracted investment
from Daimler and Alex Chesterman,
who set up Cazoo, the used car market-
place, as well as Zoopla and LoveFilm.
“We’ve got the new car space to
ourselves, but then rather than trying
to help consumers buy used cars, there
are fundamental challenges as to how
they sell their current car as part of that
[buying] process,” Hind said.
“We’ve got loads of customers on our
site who are looking to buy their nextcar. Trying to sell your current car is a
key part of buying the next one.”
To use Sell Your Car, owners take
pictures of their car and note things
such as mileage and damage. The
platform sends the information to
dealers who then make an offer. Sell
Your Car claims that in 98 per cent of
sales, the dealer pays what it initially
agreed.
Used car prices have taken off this
year as a global shortage of computer
chips has slowed the production of new
models. According to the Office for
National Statistics, prices are up by
27.4 per cent since April.Tom HowardIndustry calls
for state aid
to lift growth
Hamzah Khalique-LoonatManufacturers have called for govern-
ment support for business, saying that
funding could help to unlock growth
and revive productivity. They claim
that £270 billion is being lost to the
economy because of a lack of access to
capital expenditure financing.
Research by Make UK, the industry
body, said that if three quarters of
businesses with lower productivity
received support in line with the top
25 per cent, Britain’s GDP could grow
by roughly 10 per cent. Last month
Tony Danker, head of the CBI, also
called for more government support.
The report from Make UK, which
represents 20,000 companies, said that
manufacturers needed “heavy invest-
ment” to develop expertise and eco-
nomies of scale. Businesses that took
part in the survey called for support in
skills training, access to overseas
markets and investment in transport
infrastructure.
Stephen Phipson, chief executive of
Make UK, said: “Micro and SME man-
ufacturers account for 99 per cent of all
manufacturers in the UK, but they are
being held back by a lack of access to
funding, skills, physical space and
exporting. Manufacturers need access
to higher levels of skill than most, they
need access to finance to not only stay
afloat but capital lenders that are will-
ing to be patient before they see growth
from any investment.”
The research suggested that 38 per
cent of manufacturers had the poten-
tial to develop into fast-growing firms
with investment. Forty-five per cent of
small manufacturers intended to
become a large business.Bitcoin price
44,00046,00048,00050,00052,00054,00056,000$58,000Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5