32 Monday January 3 2022 | the times
Business
satellite company, in September and
last month was said to be considering
an initial public offering of Sotheby’s,
barely two and a half years after acquir-
ing it for $3.7 billion.
Drahi, who has declined to be inter-
viewed about his interest in BT, is the
son of maths teachers who was born in
Casablanca, attended the elite École
Polytechnique in Paris and is believed
to have French, Israeli and Portuguese
citizenship. In his two public state-
ments since becoming BT’s largest
shareholder in June, he has given his
support to BT’s board and its strategy of
investing to extend BT Openreach’s
full-fibre broadband infrastructure in
Britain.
Other options beyond engineering a
takeover of BT include pushing the
group to separate or sell Openreach,Need to know
the Aviva share price has stalled in
recent months.
That will not satisfy Cevian, the
Swedish activist investment group that
has amassed a stake of more than 5 per
cent. It has been supportive of Blanc,
applauding the disposal strategy, but
wants to see it followed up by a more
aggressive handover of the proceeds
and further cost-cutting.
Last month Blanc, 54, a no-nonsense
Welshwoman and rugby fan from the
Rhonda Valley, lifted a planned share
buyback from £750 million to £1 billion.
She also has promised an ultimate pay-
out of £4 billion. Cevian sees £5 billion
as perfectly manageable. Blanc has
promised a dividend rethink alongside
the results in March; Cevian wants to
see a very ambitious payout plan, much
more generous than the present official
policy of lifting dividends by a low to
mid-single-digit percentage each year.
Blanc also has to demonstrate that
she is getting to grips with the byzantine
and sometimes luddite bureaucracy of
Aviva, modernising systems to make
things easier for its 33 million policy-
holders and to save money. She has
promised £300 million a year by 2022;
Cevian reckons she could go to
£500 million by 2023.
So far, the Swedish activist has been
supportive, but on occasions it can
show its teeth, as when it helped to
defenestrate Ulrich Spiesshofer, chief
exeuctive of ABB, the Swiss engineer-
ing conglomerate, in 2019. With its
5 per cent holding, it could call an
extraordinary meeting to insist on
choosing a board member.
Indeed, it could go much further,
pushing for a break-up of the entire
business if its rating stays stubbornly
low. Aviva has yet to show that there is
much value in combining general
insurance with life and pensions — and
demergers have become fashionable
these days.patrick drahi
The recent voluntary commitment by
Patrick Drahi not to make a bid for BT
for six months is unlikely to be the last
that Britain’s largest telecoms group or
its investors hear from the tycoon
before mid-June (Alex Ralph writes).
Despite the moratorium — and the
government’s prompt warning after the
Swiss-based businessman raised his
stake to 18 per cent from 12.1 per cent
that it “will not hesitate to act if
required to protect our critical national
telecoms infrastructure” — BT, its
investment bank advisers, regulators
and ministers are on alert for fur-
ther manoeuvres.
Drahi, 58, founder of Altice,
the French telecoms group,
and the owner of Sotheby’s, the
auction house, has a reputa-
tion as a corporate raider,
acquiring undervalued tele-
coms assets in France, the
United States and Portugal in
highly leveraged deals
before stripping out
costs.
His recent
dealmaking has
been frenetic.
He took Altice
Europe off the
Dutch public
market and
private last
year, launched
a €2.8 billion
takeover bid
for Eutelsat,
the Frenchjonathan brearley
Jonathan Brearley might just have
the toughest job in the energy sector
(Emily Gosden writes).
As chief executive of Ofgem, the
regulator, he must oversee updating the
government’s energy price cap that
limits tariffs for 15 million households.
An announcement is due in February
on its level from April and analysts have
predicted that Brearley may have to
increase the cap by as much as 50 per
cent — authorising suppliers to make
the biggest price increases on record
and making him a lightning rod for
public anger.
The forecast increase is driven pri-
marily by the unprecedented rise in
wholesale gas and power prices in
recent months. Most of the measures
the industry believes could offset such
increased costs appear to be in the gift
of the government, not Ofgem, giving
Brearley limited room for manoeuvre.
However, the price rise was also due
to be compounded by an extra levy on
bills to cover the cost of a wave of
supplier failures. The regulator is now
scrambling to find a way to defer pay-
ment of this extra levy until future
years, but Citizens Advice has put
Ofgem squarely in the dock for the fact
that these costs have arisen, accusing it
of a decade of lax regulation.
Brearley, 48, a former civil servant,
joined Ofgem only in 2018 to lead its
work on networks and took over as
chief executive in February 2020. But
with inquiries into the supply market
meltdown looming, he will face
questions over why he didn’t take much
tougher action in his first year and a
half as chief executive to clamp down
on dodgy suppliers despite widespread
warnings over the parlous state of their
finances.
Brearley’s tenure at Ofgem is due to
last until January 2025 and he has
spoken of his desire to use the role to
help to tackle the huge challenges
involved in putting Britain on a path to
“net zero” emissions. For Brearley,
navigating the next few months may
prove to be an even tougher challenge.amanda blanc
It’s going to be another pivotal year
for Amanda Blanc, the chief executive
of Aviva (Patrick Hosking writes). She
is regarded by many as having done a
great job in disposing of no fewer
than eight international businesses,
banking £7.5 billion, cutting debt and
reducing the insurance group to a
smaller, more manageable and
hopefully less accident-prone
business focused on only
three markets — the UK,
the Republic of Ireland and
Canada. For the first time in
20 years, Aviva is close to
losing its troublesome
“basket case” tag.
What she has not yet done
is significantly improve the
rating of the business in the
eyes of investors. It still
languishes as one of
the lowest-rated com-
posite insurers in
Europe, having trad-
ed on a lowly 6.5 to
7.5 times prospective
profits over the past
year. Rivals are on
ten times or more.
After enjoying a
strong first half,Jonathan Brearley
Big hitters are lining
Times writers look at the bosses, regulators and
politicians who will take centre stage in 2022
Amanda Blanc
Dollar rates
Australia 1.3751-1.3759
Canada 1.2646-1.2648
Denmark 6.5336-6.5341
Euro 0.8786-0.8786
Hong Kong 7.7972-7.7978
Japan 115.09-115.10
Malaysia 4.1750-4.1780
Norway 8.8079-8.8209
Singapore 1.3479-1.3484
Sweden 9.0348-9.0412
Switzerland 0.9113-0.9117Other Sterling
Argentina peso 138.99-139.00
Australia dollar 1.8613-1.8615
Bahrain dinar 0.5067-0.5138
Brazil real 7.5472-7.5700
Euro 1.1890-1.1891
Hong Kong dollar 10.552-10.554
India rupee 100.82-100.82
Indonesia rupiah 19235-19235
Kuwait dinar KD 0.4083-0.4107
Malaysia ringgit 5.6450-5.6490
New Zealand dollar 1.9780-1.9784
Singapore dollar 1.8236-1.8256
S Africa rand 21.561-21.573
U A E dirham 4.9662-4.9664Exchange rates
Bid Change
Australia $ 1.863
Canada $ 1.711 -0.02
Denmark Kr 8.858
Euro ¤ 1.191
Hong Kong $ 10.560 +0.03
Hungary 438.974 -1.48
Indonesia 19304.222 +48.02
Israel Shk 4.216 +0.02
Japan Yen 155.971 +0.55
New Zealand $ 1.978
Norway Kr 11.944 +0.06
Poland 5.459 -0.01
Russia 101.592 +0.82
S Africa Rd 21.617 +0.04
Sweden Kr 12.263 +0.05
Switzerland Fr 1.234
Turkey Lira 17.987 +0.41
USA $ 1.354
Rates supplied by MorningstarData as shown is
for information
purposes only. No offer is made by Morningstar
or this publicationPRICES
Major indices
New York
Dow Jones 36338.30 (-59.78)
Nasdaq Composite 15644.97 (-96.59)
S&P 500 4766.18 (-12.55)
Tokyo
Nikkei 225 28791.71 n/a
Hong Kong
Hang Seng 23397.67 (+285.66)
Amsterdam
AEX Index 797.93 (-2.32)
Sydney
AO 7779.20 (-64.50)
Frankfurt
DAX 15884.86 n/a
Singapore
Straits 3123.68 (-2.96)
Brussels
BEL20 4310.15 (-4.99)
Paris
CAC-40 7153.03 (-20.20)Zurich
SMI Index 12875.66 n/a
DJ Euro Stoxx 50 4298.41 (-7.66)
London
FTSE 100 7384.54 (-18.47)
FTSE 250 23480.81 (-58.74)
FTSE 350 4228.67 (-10.58)
FTSE Eurotop 100 3561.90 (-8.50)
FTSE All-Shares 4208.02 (-9.68)
FTSE Non Financials 5071.75 (-13.09)
techMARK 100 6980.00 (+1.78)
Bargains n/a
US$ 1.3533 (+0.0037)
Euro 1.1892 (-0.0026)
£:SDR 0.98 (+0.00)
Exchange Index 82.47 (+0.20)
Bank of England official close (4pm)
CPI 114.48 Nov (2015 = 100)
RPI 314.30 Nov (Jan 1987 = 100)
RPIX 290.10 Jun (Jan 1987 = 100)
Morningstar Long Commodity 677.16 (+5.72)
Morningstar Long/Short Commod 4703.45 (+27.75)Our full pricing service
will return tomorrow
Go to thetimes.co.uk
for more updates
Commodities
ICIS pricing (London 7.30pm)Crude Oils ($/barrel FOB)
Brent Physical 78.79 +0.35
BFOE(Feb) 79.32 +0.09
BFOE(Mar) 79.63 +0.30
WTI(Feb) 76.99 +0.43
WTI(Mar) 76.61 +0.43Products ($/MT)
Spot CIF NW Europe (prompt delivery)
Premium Unld 716.00 717.00 +7.00
Gasoil EEC 672.25 674.25 +5.50
3.5 Fuel Oil 421.00 423.00 +2.00
Naphtha 726.00 728.00 +7.00ICE Futures
Gas Oil
Jan 667.00-666.00 Apr 662.25-653.00
Feb 666.00-665.50 May 666.00-651.00
Mar 663.25-662.25 Volume: 556760
Brent (9.00pm)
Mar 77.93-77.89 Jun 76.57-76.00Apr 77.51-77.47 July 78.00-75.60
May 77.07-76.59 Volume: 1490666
LIFFE
Cocoa
Mar 1703-1700 May 1700-1711
May 1725-1722 Jul 1704-1690
Jul 1725-1706 Sep 1739-1711
Sep 1739-1711
Dec 1736-1711
Mar 1720-1695 Volume: 54980
RobustaCoffee
Jan 2500-2450 Nov 2280-2273
May 2310-2304 Jan 2270-2169
Jul 2298-2250
Sep 2273-2165 Volume: 2641
White Sugar (FOB)
Reuters Oct 490.70-475.50
Dec 487.70-483.50
Mar 496.90-495.60 Mar 488.50-478.50
May 493.50-491.90 May 478.70-474.40
Aug 489.30-488.80 Volume: 51045
London Grain Futures
LIFFE Wheat (close £/t)
Jan 206.00 Mar 223.15 May 224.50
Jul unq Nov 196.50 Volume: 599Money rates %
Base Rates Clearing Banks 0.25 ECB Refi -0.50 US Fed Fd 0.00-0.25Halifax Mortgage Rate 3.59Treasury Bills (Dis) Buy: 1 mth -0.100; 3 mth -0.001. Sell: 1 mth -0.500; 3 mth -0.1201 mth 2 mth 3 mth 6 mth 12 mth
Interbank Rates 0.1843 0.2271 0.2515 0.4893 0.8324
Eurodollar Deps 0.04 - 0.24 0.05 - 0.25 0.08 - 028 0.21 - 0.41 0.44 - 0.64