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Our main story today is about London's Canary Wharf Group, which will receive a £118m loan from the government's Housing Infrastructure Fund to support the development of a life sciences centre, a healthcare diagnostics facility and several hundred new homes.
UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt referred to the funding in yesterday's budget, promising £242 million as he pledged to help build a total of 8,000 homes in east London and “[transform] Canary Wharf to new hub for life sciences companies.
The funding will be split into £124 million to “unlock” 7,200 homes at Barking Riverside, a major housing development located along the River Thames, and investment in Canary Wharf, which will support up to 750 homes.
The Treasury has confirmed that the £118m purchase of Canary Wharf, which will also help fund retail and commercial development projects, will be in the form of a loan to developer Canary Wharf Group – owned by asset management firm Brookfield, which has more than $900m under management, and Canary. Wharf Group – Owned by asset management firm Brookfield, which manages more than $900 million. Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. Here is more about government support.
Here are the other things I'm tracking today:
ECB Interest Rate Decision: Hardline policymakers are expected to reject pressure to ease monetary policy when the ECB meets today.
Big Tech: Today is the first day that companies designated as gatekeepers – including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft – must ensure they comply with the rules of the EU's Digital Markets Act.
UK house prices: Halifax publishes its monthly house price index.
American Politics: President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address to Congress.
Results: Admiral Group, Aviva, Beazley, Broadcom, Brooks Macdonald, Darktrace, Elementis, Entain, Funding Circle, Grafton, ITV, Kier, Lufthansa, Melrose Industries, PageGroup, Rentokil Primary, Robert Walters, TT Electronics and Vivendi report.
Five more stories above
1. Conservative MPs broadly welcomed what British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt described as his “responsible” budget yesterday, but admitted it was unlikely to be a springboard to a snap election in May. Hunt placed a £10 billion cut in National Insurance at the heart of a budget designed to reduce Labour's lead in the opinion polls while leaving the door open for further tax cuts before the autumn election.
2. The head of the pharmaceutical group told the Financial Times that market speculation about Bayer selling new shares was unfounded. Bill Anderson has ruled out a new capital raise as he battles investor doubts about his plan to turn around the debt-laden German pharmaceutical and pesticide company hit by lawsuits. Read the full interview.
3. Joe Biden is set to lay out the “tough choice” facing Americans in this year's presidential race during his State of the Union address today. Officials from his administration said that the US President's speech to Congress will address issues ranging from immigration to the war in Gaza and internal inflation, and contrast the president's record with that of his opponent, Donald Trump. Below is a preview of the President's annual address.
4. The European Union is expected today to conclude an agreement with Mauritania to reduce illegal migration towards Europe, despite serious concerns about human rights violations. About 60 million euros will be allocated explicitly to manage migration, according to people familiar with the matter, as part of EU efforts to cooperate with African countries to clamp down on migration.
5. Exclusive: JPMorgan Chase spent a year discussing a potential deal with Discover Financial before Capital One agreed to a $35 billion bid for the credit card company. The largest US bank began actively exploring a deal to control Discover's Pulse electronic payments network in mid-2021, but abandoned those efforts in mid-2022 after failing to convince Discover of its merits, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
Great reading
Despite huge investments and increasing competition, rail travel in Europe remains slower and more expensive than flying. While aviation is a highly competitive market with frequent price wars, railways remains dominated by state-run operators whose domestic priorities often trump efforts to improve international connectivity. Can European trains hope to compete with low-cost airlines in terms of price and comfort?
We read too. . .
'NATO LAKE': As Sweden prepares to join NATO today, the defensive alliance nearly encircles the entire Baltic Sea, an important oil trade route for Russia and home to one of Moscow's fleets.
Corporate diversification: Non-core businesses at Japanese companies are no longer just a nuisance for shareholders, writes Leo Lewis. They have become an active barrier to deal making.
Union views: The Financial Times' Rana Foroohar sat down with four of the US's top union leaders, discussing everything from the recent jump in industrial labor to the coming impact of artificial intelligence.
Today's chart
Donald Trump's landslide victory on Super Tuesday highlighted the broad support he enjoys among Republicans, but the results also revealed weaknesses for the former president. In eight of the nine states where a large number of exit polls were conducted, his performance is below the pre-election poll averages, and his support varies between demographic groups.
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Take a break from the news
Guy Ritchie's 2019 crime series The Gentlemen has been expanded into a shifting, eight-part Netflix series that, if nothing else, improves on the original by avoiding racist and sexist stereotypes, writes Dan Enough.
Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm
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