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courtneytincher · 5 years

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The Tory Rivals Jockeying to Become Britain's Next Chancellor

(Bloomberg) -- As Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson enter their final weeks of campaigning to replace Prime Minister Theresa May in No. 10 Downing Street, speculation is mounting over who would take up residence next door as Chancellor of the Exchequer.While neither Hunt nor Johnson say they have promised the job to anyone yet, both have been preparing their transition teams ahead of the result on July 23. A number of names have been circulating, including Sajid Javid, Amber Rudd and even Hunt himself -- if he loses to Johnson.The new chancellor will have a packed in-tray when he or she starts. Incumbent Philip Hammond is leaving some key decisions to his successor, including picking the new Bank of England governor and deciding the scope of the upcoming spending review that sets limits for government departments.There’s also Brexit to consider. Both Johnson and Hunt have said they will pursue a no-deal exit from the European Union if an agreement can’t be reached. As Johnson has made it clear he will not allow dissent in his pro-Brexit Cabinet, current europhile ministers such David Gauke have said they are unlikely to be offered a position.So who is vying for one of the most powerful jobs in government?Sajid Javid The bookmakers’ favorite for the job is Sajid Javid, a 49-year-old former Deutsche Bank trader, business secretary and Treasury minister. Currently the home secretary, Javid has similar spending ambitions to Johnson on infrastructure and housing.He is the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver and would be Britain’s first chancellor from an Asian background. Pro-Israel and socially liberal, Javid is seen as fiscally tough and intellectually euroskeptic, positions that are popular among rank-and-file Tories. Crucially for Johnson, Javid is prepared to leave the EU without a deal and has now publicly backed the Tory front-runner.Jeremy HuntIf Johnson wins the Tory leadership race, he could make a bold offer to his defeated rival and give the chancellor’s job to Hunt. The foreign secretary has repeatedly noted his shared positions on Brexit with Johnson and both candidates have promised generous spending plans and tax cuts.The herbal tea-drinking Hunt is a polite multimillionaire, who likes to remind voters that he started his career as an entrepreneur. Even so, putting Hunt in the Treasury would be a dramatic peace offering to a rival who has done his best to undermine Johnson’s chances.Liz TrussLiz Truss has been a loyal supporter of Johnson since the early days of his campaign, which could put her in pole position for a key role. As the current chief secretary to the Treasury, she’s nominally in charge of the government spending review -- though she has clashed with Hammond on key policies including the divisive HS2 north-south high-speed rail project.While Hammond wants to keep HS2 on track, Truss has sided with grassroots Tories who complain it will cut through the picturesque counties surrounding London. Johnson has spoken of the need for another review of its economic benefits, while Hunt has given the project his full support.Truss, 43, doesn’t enjoy as much support in the party as other candidates. Some of her public appearances have attracted mockery, particularly when in a 2014 speech to the Tory annual conference she declared: “We import two thirds of our cheese. That. Is. A. Disgrace.”After growing up in a left-wing household in Yorkshire, northern England, Truss rebelled and joined the Tories. In the Thatcherite tradition, the pro-Brexit Truss advocates deregulation and hard work, and was co-author of a 2012 book claiming British workers are among the world’s most idle.Matt HancockThe ambitious 40-year-old Matt Hancock threw his weight behind Johnson after quitting the leadership race at an earlier stage. That surprised some of his fellow moderate Tories, given the health secretary took aim at Johnson’s anti-business rhetoric and has said he would vote to remain in the EU if given the chance in another referendum. Yet Hancock’s ability to defend government policy -- whatever it is -- will be useful to whoever wins the contest.Hancock has won a horse race as a jockey and played cricket in the Arctic. More relevantly, he’s worked as an economist at the Bank of England and as an adviser to former chancellor George Osborne.It may not be smooth sailing if Hancock gets the job. He and Johnson disagree on so-called sin taxes on sugary drinks and unhealthy foods. Hancock sees the taxes as key to tackling obesity; Johnson has pledged to review the levy. Johnson also rowed back a pledge to end a public-sector pay freeze, just hours after Hancock announced it -- apparently on his behalf.Amber RuddAmber Rudd has been talked of as a potential chancellor for years. As home secretary in 2017, she was rumored to be in line to replace Hammond if May won a landslide election victory. May failed, and Rudd stayed at the Home Office until she was forced to resign over the department’s mishandling of legacy immigration issues.It’s Rudd’s stance on Brexit -- and her past criticism of Johnson’s character -- that will weigh against her this time. As one of the most high-profile pro-EU members of Cabinet, Rudd has threatened to quit if a no-deal Brexit becomes government policy, making her an unlikely Johnson appointee.During the 2016 EU referendum, she questioned Johnson’s reliability, saying while he was the life and soul of the party, he “was not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening.”Rudd, 55, is also one of the most vocal backers of Hunt, saying he’ll be able to best unite the divided Tory party. The work and pensions secretary is a leader of the One Nation Conservatives group backing “good regulation” and free enterprise.Best of the RestIf Johnson or Hunt decide to fill their Cabinet with Brexiteers, there are a number of contenders who could be in line for top jobs. They include Environment Secretary Michael Gove, and former Cabinet ministers Andrea Leadsom and Priti Patel.Cult figure Jacob Rees-Mogg could be a wildcard candidate for chancellor. He shares a number of similarities with Johnson, his fellow Old Etonian. The 50-year-old euroskeptic is a figurehead for the Tory party’s staunchest Brexit backers, and has supported Johnson from the start.Rees-Mogg is an arch critic of Bank of England governor Mark Carney, accusing him of interfering in Brexit and of a “panic interest-rate cut” in the wake of the 2016 vote to leave the EU.The father of five is sometimes jokingly called the “member of Parliament for the 18th Century.” He’s admitted to never changing a diaper, wore suits as an undergraduate at Oxford University, and was interviewed by the BBC at the age of 12 about his investments in industrial giant General Electric Co. He said he wanted to be managing director of the company by the age of 30.To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Shankleman in London at [email protected];Kitty Donaldson in London at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at [email protected], Stuart BiggsFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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mikemortgage · 5 years

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‘I feel good about the progress we’ve made’: How CEO Roy Gori is working to reinvigorate Manulife

Roy Gori doesn’t expect to be able to turn Manulife Financial Corp.’s stock performance around overnight.

The insurance and asset management giant’s chief executive, who has been in the job for just over a year, says he’s pleased with progress the company has made pursuing his strategic initiatives, such as rolling out consumer-friendly and cost-saving technology, and the redeployment of capital into higher-return businesses.

But as to whether they will be enough to bring back investors — who have been waiting since the financial crisis for shares that closed Thursday at about $21 to regain their pre-crisis heights — he has no illusions.

“The honest truth is there is some skepticism as to whether we can continue to execute,” Gori said in a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Post this week.

“We can’t just do that over the course of three quarters. We need to do that consistently over many quarters.”

Changes at Manulife more than cosmetic as insurance giant looks to simplify

Manulife reinsuring business, hiking dividend, buying back shares

Manulife shares climb 7 per cent as CEO scorns hedge fund's claims as 'commercially absurd'

For Manulife, it hasn’t been an easy road since the post-crisis days of 2009, when over-exposure to interest rates and equities forced the firm to shore up capital through measures that included cutting the quarterly dividend in half.

The subsequent years of historically low rates that followed combined with increasing longevity to drag on returns.

By design, the Manulife that Gori inherited is far less sensitive to interest rates and equity markets than it was then.

As CEO, Gori has already led the company to realize more than two-thirds of a pledge last year to free up $5 billion from underperforming “legacy” businesses by 2022, through a combination of stronger accountability, cost management and new strategic opportunities.

But for the Australia-born 49-year-old, who took over as CEO in late 2017 after a quick introduction to Manulife via its Asian operations, not everything has gone according to plan.

This past October, the short-seller firm Muddy Waters targeted Manulife with the suggestion the Toronto-based company could lose a court case in Saskatchewan, which would put it on the hook for billions of dollars. Shortly after, Manulife issued a statement refuting the report’s conclusions, and added that it believed the position advanced in the lawsuit by hedge fund Mosten Investment LP was “legally unfounded.”

Despite the company’s defence, Manulife shares fell 5.7 per cent in the two days following the short report, dipping from $23.19 to $21.86, before sliding below $20 as markets in general tanked that month.

Gori: “We remain highly confident we’re going to prevail in the matter. This is not going to have a material impact on our business…”

In the interview this week, Gori reiterated the company’s position and characterized the attack as being among the sort of “unexpected challenges (that) are par for the course for any big company and any CEO.”

Though the court case described in the short-seller’s report had not been disclosed in the company’s financial statements, he noted that it had already been “in the public domain for a long time.” A story in the Financial Post last February detailed the fight at the heart of the case over side accounts on certain life insurance products that allowed investors to hold money at guaranteed interest rates.

“This is before the courts and that process often can take time, but we feel very confident about our position and where this will ultimately end,” Gori told the Post this week.

“We remain highly confident that we’re going to prevail in the matter. This is not going to have a material impact on our business, I feel very confident about that.”

Shortly after the Muddy Waters report was published, Saskatchewan amended its insurance regulations to prohibit insurers from accepting deposits above what’s required to pay premiums over a policy’s eligible period. As a result, Manulife said it would seek to have the court dismiss the hedge fund’s claims that life insurers can be compelled to accept unlimited premium payments, adding that the Saskatchewan amendments should accelerate resolution of the principal matters of the case in Manulife’s favour.

In November, the month after the short report, Manulife announced agreements to release more than $1 billion of capital in keeping with its previously announced strategy. This included reinsuring substantially all of Manulife’s legacy U.S. pay-out annuities businesses.

The firm also announced plans to buy back up to 40 million of its own shares and increase its common share dividend by 14 per cent.

Again, these moves had little lasting impact on the direction of the stock.

Creating value for shareholders, and having that reflected in the share price, is “obviously very critical” to his job as CEO, said Gori, who was preparing to leave this weekend to attend the World Economic Forum, which begins Sunday in Davos, Switzerland.

Manulife Financial’s head office in Toronto.

“I feel good about the progress we’ve made (on) an execution front in 2018,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of great, in my mind, proof points that articulate that we can execute the agenda we set and we can achieve the ambition we are setting for the company … but we have to continue to do that.”

One plank in the plan to get there is to focus on areas of growth, such as Asia, where Gori got his start at Manulife after leaving Citigroup to join the Canadian company in 2015.

Despite recent trade and political tension between North America and China, Gori said he is “more excited now about (Manulife’s) Asia opportunity and … business than ever before,” particularly with China’s movement toward more liberalized markets for investment products and the loosening of foreign ownership and control restrictions on insurance companies in China.

“While there is some (recent) tension there … that we’re all seeing, I really don’t see that that will have any effect on our business in a material way, and certainly not one that would derail the progress that we’re making and the opportunity we see,” Gori said.

The company’s beachhead in China is Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co. Ltd., of which it owns 51 per cent alongside partner SinoChem.

Gori said the venture is already in good position to take advantage of a growing middle class and demand for insurance and wealth management products in China, but that it is only a beginning.

“We clearly would like to have a greater interest in China, because we think the opportunity is very significant,” he said.

“We’d love to (have) a greater share of the business, but it’s only an opportunity if we see that SinoChem has a desire to divest and at this point they don’t, and we’ll continue to work with them.”

He said diversification within Asia — in addition to China, Manulife operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam — and across their North American operations gives him comfort the company can ride out any short-term issues.

In recent years, the company has fielded questions numerous times about whether it is considering selling John Hancock, the Boston-based insurance firm purchased in 2004 that doubled Manulife’s size and catapulted it into the upper echelons of Canada’s financial services industry. Some of the U.S. business lines, including variable annuities and long-term care, which face challenges due to longer lifespans and low interest rates, have also been the subjects of sale speculation.

Gori said the U.S. market is the largest for both insurance and wealth management, and while nothing would ever be ruled out as the company looks to get the highest return for capital invested, there is no need to sell Hancock.

“The pivot for us in the U.S. is really to see how we can use digital ways of interacting to transform the (insurance business and) allow us to gain share,” he said.

“So our focus in the U.S. is to really double down on the opportunity we see there and to … complement that with a very strong wealth management business.”

Even in this scenario, there is still room to do more when it comes to dealing with the “legacy part” of the business, Gori said.

“As I highlighted in 2018, we would never take anything off the table.”

Despite the constant talk about dealmaking and pursuing growth in hot markets around the world, Gori says the lasting mark he would like to leave at Manulife during his tenure as CEO has more to do with the corporate culture. He wants the company and its employees to focus on technology and customers, rather than products, and use the digital transformation to make processes more efficient for both the company and customers.

And he wants the value of the company to be evident, even to the skeptics, through consistent performance.

“We have to make sure that quarter in, quarter out, we’re executing against the agenda and that we’re demonstrating that we can deliver against the goals that we’ve articulated for the street,” Gori said. “I believe once we’ve established a credibility against that, we’ll unlock value in the stock price.”

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cadeau-gateau · 6 years

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Here’s What Denver is Doing to Achieve its 2020 Recycling Goal

Denver is lousy when it comes to recycling.

Compared to its peer cities such as Seattle, Washington, and Austin, Texas, Colorado’s capital recycles less than half of what they do, according to a 2016 report by Eco-Cycle. And if you look at the entire nation as a whole, Denver residents recycle 14 percent less of their overall waste than the national average.

There are multiple reasons for why this perceived “green” city is so bad at maintaining that reputation. For one, Denver residents are not afforded convenient and consistent recycling and composting services. The city does not require apartment complexes with seven or more units to provide recycling carts to its residents — and most don’t. This leaves a large portion of Denver’s population with two options for disposing of their waste — either bag up all of their recycles with their trash and just throw them away or drive their recycles to a drop-off center.

Also, not all businesses in Denver are required to recycle, and for those that do, there isn’t much being done to track that data. That’s huge considering Denver businesses generate around 55 percent of the city’s municipal waste, according to a report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) and Eco-Cycle.

Since the alarming report was published, Denver has started to take initiatives toward making the city more environmentally sustainable. As a result, Colorado adopted its first set of statewide recycling goals. Prior to that, Colorado was one of only 12 states that did not have such goals. Even so, Mayor Hancock’s goal to increase Denver’s recycling and composting rate to 34 percent by 2020 seems far-reaching considering where the city currently ranks in its recycling practices. In 2015, Denver recycled only 18 percent of its waste. The city made a two percent jump the following year, which means that rate of growth will need to increase if there is any hope of reaching 34 percent by 2020.

Photo courtesy of Denver Recycles on Facebook.

Last November, Denver expanded its compost routes, making every neighborhood in Denver eligible to receive composting services. That doesn’t mean that every household in the city is already taking advantage of them, though. There are about 176,000 households in Denver that are eligible to participate in the city’s composting program, but only about 12,000 of them actually do, according to Denver Public Works. It seems that although Denver’s Solid Waste Management added six new compost routes in 2017, which now allows every neighborhood to be eligible to receive their services, the quarterly price of $29.25 could discourage people from using them when curbside trash disposal and recycling services are now “free” (figured into their taxes and not fee-based). According to Charlotte Pitt, the manager at Denver Recycles, there is a lack of education and incentives that propel the disparity of those who recycle and compost and those who don’t.

“Currently, about 50 percent of what Denver homes throw away is organic material that could be composted,” she said.

This creates a huge opportunity for Denver to become a sustainability leader, but that’s only going to happen if the city is able to educate and incentivize its residents to recycle and compost. Denver Public Works (DPW) and Denver Recycles are diligently working to push educational initiatives to teach people about the importance of diverting their waste.

“Composting is critical to working towards zero waste, and that’s why DPW is so focused on growing this program,” said Pitt.

In a city that is seeing an increase in the number of apartment complexes being built to accommodate the rise in housing demand, this is a major area of focus for government officials working toward Mayor Hancock’s 2020 sustainability goals.

It’s important to note that Denver is not currently battling a landfill space crisis, which has in other states caused a shift toward an increase in better waste diversion practices. Residents haven’t been met with the stark news that their landfills are full…yet. So they are completely removed from the grim reality that improper waste disposal is having on the environment in which they live.

Photo courtesy of Denver Recycles on Facebook.

In late summer of 2018, DPW will launch a new program to make it more convenient for Denver residents to recycle. Homes that are not already subscribed to the city’s no-fee, opt-in recycling program will automatically be delivered recycling carts that they can fill up and leave at the curb for pickup. Denver Recycles and Solid Waste Management will deliver the carts to homes with less than seven units. And then DPW and The Recycling Partnership, a national recycling non-profit that works to improve residential recycling, will offer them educational crash courses on how to divert more of their waste into the recycling bin and why it is so important to do so. DPW found that many residents who do recycle aren’t actually recycling everything that they can from their overall waste.

What makes it particularly difficult to increase Denver’s household recycling rate is that non-composting/recycling disposal of household waste in Denver is very inexpensive. The city collects over 256,000 tons of trash at Denver homes each year, and roughly half of that is organic material that could be composted, according to the City and County of Denver. It seems people would rather forego the city’s composting fees and just dispose of all their waste in the landfill because it’s cheap and easy.

Something the city has been talking about for a few years now but has yet to implement is a “pay as you throw” trash service. That means the more trash you throw away, the higher your bill will be. Recycling and composting rates would be offered at more attractive rates, which would encourage people to divert their waste away from the landfill. Pitt from Denver Recycles didn’t say that the city is still considering this option as they move into their 2019 budget, but she did say that other cities who have implemented it have seen increased diversion rates.

Zero Waste Market. Photo by Brittany Werges.

While the government and the city are working to better Denver’s recycling and composting practices to achieve a 34 percent recycling rate by 2020, there is still more that needs to be done if the city wants to meet that diversion rate. Some local businesses are aware of that and are starting to tackle the issue themselves by encouraging their customers to contribute to landfill diversion. Places like Zero Market, which is Denver’s first zero waste market, sell a wide variety of bulk ingredients to customers who bring their own containers to refill. Some food halls in Denver are also leading the charge by encouraging Denver residents to change they way they dispose of their waste. Places like Zeppelin Station and Stanley Marketplace all have a good reputation when it comes to their recycling and composting practices. And if you happen to stop into an Illegal Pete’s in Denver, you will now be served with 100 percent recyclable and compostable products.

“Working with Eco-Products out of Boulder we have replaced all of our service items with either recyclable or compostable products,” said Illegal Pete’s chief operating officer, Dan Klehm. “We will be continuing to look for additional opportunities to reduce our waste in our kitchens and through better restaurant design. We are hopeful that our industry can continue to lead positive change by demonstrating responsible business practices.”

Recently, Eco-Cycle crafted a letter addressed to Mayor Hancock for Denver residents to sign that pushes for better recycling opportunities and resources. It urges him to “make composting a top priority” in his 2019 budget and allocate funds to offer recycling services to all Denver households and reward those households that reduce their waste by recycling and composting.

So how can the city of Denver further incentivize proper waste diversion practices for its residents? According to Pitt from Denver Recycles, Denver could benefit from taking notes from other cities that do practice effective waste diversion.

“Communities that have aggressive zero-waste goals typically use an array of tools for capturing the low hanging fruit to getting down to the nitty gritty for last few percentage points,” she said.

She offered six “industry best practices” that Denver could use to make recycling and composting appealing and accessible to its residents. They are listed below.

1. Provide access to easy to use services. 2. Educate residents about effective waste diversion practices. 3. Implement utility-style fees for services, or “pay as you use” fees. 4. Create mandatory recycling, whereby fines are given if recyclables are found in the trash. 5. Enact disposal bans at the state level. 6. Draft producer responsibility programs which would include fees and take backs.

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Overall, a lot needs to be done to achieve the Denver 2020 goal. And while the city needs to create more incentives for the population at large, all Denver citizens and private businesses can take up the charge on their own to help reduce our collective waste. To get you started, check out the city’s website or go here for some more tips.

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