Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK investment platform that pioneered selling stocks and funds directly to retail investors, has agreed to a £5.4bn takeover by a group of private equity firms.

The consortium, which is made up of CVC Capital Partners, Nordic Capital and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, has agreed to pay £11.40 in cash for each Hargreaves Lansdown share.

The price includes a final dividend of 30p for the last financial year. The deal has an “alternative” option for shareholders who want to stay invested in Hargreaves Lansdown, by allowing them to roll over their stake into the unlisted company.

The FTSE 100 business was founded in 1981 by Peter Hargreaves from his spare bedroom with Stephen Lansdown. The company, which floated in 2007, grew rapidly by offering individuals low-cost access to funds, as well as stocks and shares.

Hargreaves, who owns almost 20 per cent of the company, supports the deal and will sell 50 per cent of his stake while also keeping the rest in the business under its new owners. Hargreaves will receive £534mn from his share sale, according to people close to the process. Hargreaves declined to comment.

Lansdown has opted to sell his entire near-6 per cent holding. He told the Financial Times: “As with all such deals there is plenty of work to do, but I am pleased that we now have certainty and everyone can get on with their lives.

“[It’s] a bittersweet moment for me personally but I feel it is the right time to part company with Hargreaves Lansdown and concentrate on other projects.”

The option for shareholders to keep a portion of their stakes under the new owners has drawn criticism from some large shareholders because it would exclude investors who are unable to have holdings in unlisted companies.

The deal makes Hargreaves Lansdown the latest company to delist from the London market, adding to a stream of businesses picked off by private equity firms and other acquirers that view UK companies as relatively cheap.

The board “believes that the cash offer represents an attractive opportunity for HL Shareholders . . . which may not be achievable until the execution of the strategy is delivered over the medium to longer term”, said Alison Platt, chair of Hargreaves Lansdown.

The private equity groups said Hargreaves Lansdown “now requires substantial investment in an extensive technology-led transformation” to improve its “proposition and resilience” and to drive “the next phase” of growth and development.

Shares in the company have fallen from a peak of £24 in 2019 following criticism over the cost of its technology overhaul under previous management. Under Dan Olley, who became chief executive a year ago, Hargreaves Lansdown has refocused its efforts to improve its technology. The shares climbed 2 per cent to about £11 in early trading on Friday.

Hargreaves Lansdown made its name by selling investments directly to customers — rather than through financial advisers — and offering tax-efficient products such as Individual Savings Accounts and self-invested personal pensions. It oversees about £155bn of customer money and has amassed 1.9mn customers.

However, it came under fire for backing investment manager Neil Woodford, even as his fund started to come unstuck.

Analysts at Jefferies said although the offer represented a sizeable premium, they believed “there [was] greater value” in Hargreaves Lansdown over the medium term and expected shareholders to support the deal.

One analyst said that under private ownership, it would be easier for Hargreaves Lansdown to cut fees charged to customers, noting that the investment platform is more expensive than rivals in some cases. “Under public ownership, it’s hard to cut fees; under private, you can do that more easily,” he said.

Nordic Capital, a member of the consortium, previously invested in Nordnet, a similar digital investment site. Nordic Capital took the business private in 2016 and then relisted it in 2020.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Japanese stocks opened strongly on Friday, taking their momentum from the overnight surge on Wall Street and creating an upbeat end to one of the most turbulent weeks in Tokyo market history.

The broad Topix index rose about 1.5 per cent in the first hour of trading on Friday, matched by similar gains in the narrower Nikkei 225 Average. The yen, whose rapid surge played a central role in Monday’s crash in Tokyo shares, traded relatively calmly at about Y147.2 against the dollar.

On Thursday, US equities posted their strongest daily gain since November 2022 as a drop in US unemployment claims helped to soothe fears over an imminent economic slowdown.

Concerns around the US economy remain the overwhelming driver of sentiment, traders said. A week earlier, a more negative-looking jobs report stoked recession fears and helped trigger the massive, record-breaking sell-off in Tokyo on Monday that wiped 12 per cent off the major Japanese stock indices.

On Tuesday, with brokers able to convince investors that the sell-off had been wildly overdone, shares rebounded with their biggest one-day gain since 2008. By lunchtime on Friday, the Topix had sufficiently recovered to be only 1.5 per cent lower on the market close a week earlier.

Overnight, the benchmark S&P 500 share gauge rose 2.3 per cent, closing out its best day in almost 21 months, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 2.9 per cent — its biggest daily gain since February. The rally has helped retrace some of the losses suffered through this week’s steep sell-off.

The advances follow data on Thursday showing that new US applications for unemployment aid — seen as a proxy for job cuts — had fallen to their lowest level in a month. This brought relief to investors after weaker than expected payroll figures last Friday triggered sharp selling across equity markets.

“It was the jobs report last week that sent markets into a tailspin,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global strategist at Invesco, so “it makes sense it was a labour market point that would calm markets” this week.

Figures from the US labour department on Thursday gave a reading of 233,000 for initial state unemployment claims in the week ending August 3 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from the previous week’s upwardly revised level of 250,000 — and below economists’ forecasts of 240,000.

By contrast, last week’s payrolls report showed the world’s biggest economy added just 114,000 jobs in July, far fewer than consensus predictions of 175,000 — sending share prices sharply lower in volatile trading on Friday and Monday, and triggering a steep rally in government bonds as investors cranked up their bets that the Federal Reserve would need to cut interest rates imminently.

The Vix index of expected US stock market turbulence, known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, had briefly topped a reading of 60 on Monday, well above its long-term average of about 20, before retreating.

That gauge of volatility sat at roughly 24 on Thursday, but the day’s share gains still left the S&P about 2.3 per cent off its week-ago close.

For Tim Murray, multi-asset strategist at T Rowe Price, the unemployment report was “a big positive surprise after we’ve seen this run of negative surprises”.

Invesco’s Hooper pointed to an “ongoing process of healing — but with the caveat that markets are going to be on edge because nothing has changed with the Fed. They are not going to do any kind of rate cut before the September meeting.”

“I think it’s going to take time for markets to normalise but we have to ask ourselves what triggered that sell-off, and I think it was irrational,” she added. “I don’t think it’s telling us that we have a big recession coming.”

Equities had until recently had a particularly strong run, driven by hopes of a “soft landing” whereby the Fed successfully brings down inflation without triggering a recession, and by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence companies.

Murray noted that chipmaking giant Nvidia’s second-quarter earnings are due out later this month. Those figures “always have read-throughs for the broader AI infrastructure complex”, he noted. “That might be something that really supercharges the market.”

“But even then, I would be surprised if that happened. It’s more likely we’re back to a slow grind up. And if we have some negative data points along the way, then it could easily move back down very quickly.”

Newly released body camera video reveals the chaotic law enforcement response to the assassination attempt on former President Trump last month.

The footage obtained by NPR shows what was seen by the local officer who encountered the gunman moments before the shooter opened fire at the July 13 rally in Butler, Penn.

The video shows the officer’s point of view as he runs toward the building where the gunman had taken position on the roof. A fellow officer hoists him up, and the officer peeks over the roof.

The encounter lasts just a split second, then the officer immediately drops back down, hits the ground and runs to the other side of the building.

One officer gestures to his colleague to hoist him up so he can gain access to the roof. It’s there that he encounters the gunman.

Butler Township Police Department

hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Butler Township Police Department

The video has no audio, because the officer, at this point, didn’t activate his body cam and it was only recovered after the fact, the Butler Township Police Department said.

A timeline from law enforcement indicates that moments following this encounter the gunman began shooting.

About a minute passes while the officer runs from his encounter with the shooter, to the side of the building and back to his car to load a long gun he has in his back seat. At this point the officer hits record on his body camera and audio begins. The officer, whose name was not released, then directs other arriving officers on the scene.

The officer who encountered the shooter recounts to arriving law enforcement: “This close. Bro, dude, he turned around on me.”

Another officer asks where the shooter is. The officer who saw him says, “He’s straight up! Right where you picked me up, bro? He was on that left side.”

He describes the gunman having “glasses, long hair. He’s got a book bag, he’s got mad s***.”

As he is doing this his body camera captures a number of law enforcement officers attempting to reach the roof. Shouts for a ladder can be heard while other officers are trying to hoist each other onto the rooftop.

Officers continue to shout over each other for several minutes and some officers make it onto the rooftop.

A number of law enforcement officers converge on the building where the gunman is shooting from the roof.

Butler Township Police Department

hide caption

toggle caption

Butler Township Police Department

Advertisement

A 50-year-old former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two other rally-goers were seriously wounded in the attack. Trump was struck in the ear.

The shooter was killed by the Secret Service.

In the aftermath, one video captures another local police officer wondering out loud why no law enforcement had been stationed on that roof.

That question is still unanswered as law enforcement, including the Secret Service, cite an ongoing investigation. In late July, the director of the U.S. Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her post following criticism of the agency’s handling of the incident from members of Congress.

Footage shows the immediate aftermath of the gunman’s killing

Law enforcement officers attempt to reach the rooftop where the gunman was shooting from.
hide caption

toggle caption

The officer who first encountered the gunman on the roof volunteers to be lifted back up there by other officers struggling to get up, according to the footage.

On the rooftop, he joins three police officers — at least two of whom are heavily armed wearing camouflage, vests, boots and long guns — who surround the shooter’s body. One officer keeps his gun trained on the body.

A long trail of what appears to be blood can be seen.

One officer handcuffs the gunman and turns him over as they wait for more officers to arrive.

A backpack can be seen near the body.

One of the officers in camo says near the end of the 26 minute long video, “So much for a picture with Trump.”

Other videos capture confusion at different points

Additional footage released by the Butler Township Police capture officers at different points across the fairgrounds and during the aftermath of the shooting.

A nearly 22 minute long video shows the vantage point from the back of the rally grandstands, just behind where Trump was speaking. The video has no audio, but the footage offers a hauntingly silent look at the chaos that unfolded once the shooting began.

The officer takes cover and does not run to respond to the shooting. It’s unclear what his orders were or what he says to other officers around him also milling about with their guns drawn.

About six and a half minutes into the video, a group of officers carry an injured person by each limb and disappear into a white tent behind the grandstands.

A separate video from an officer outside the building where the gunman fire from underscores the confusion even among law enforcement early on.

One officer says, “I thought it was you! I thought you guys were on the roof!” He swears seemingly in frustration and asks, “Why are we not on the roof?”

Later he laments, “Whenever they saw him … they should have called us earlier.”