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Friday newspaper round-up: Coal, Walt Disney, auditors

(Sharecast News) - Almost 200 homes in London have been sold for £10m in the past year as the super-rich's pandemic-inspired desire for a place in the country wanes compared to their wish for swish bolt-holes in the capital. A total of 175 homes were sold for £10m-plus in the 12 months to November 2023, the highest number for eight-years, according to research by the estate agent Knight Frank. - Guardian New direct high-speed train routes from London to Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva and Zurich could be up and running within five years, according to the Eurotunnel owner, Getlink, after work to double the capacity of UK rail links to Europe. While the Channel tunnel, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in May 2024, has struggled to extend its passenger offerings beyond Eurostar's original London to Paris and Brussels services, Getlink said new entrants and destinations could now arrive swiftly. - Guardian

Global demand for coal will hit a record high of 8.5bn tonnes in 2023 despite the worldwide push for net zero, the International Energy Agency has warned. Rising usage of coal in China and India has driven an increase in demand, which comes just days after the Cop28 climate summit agreed to "transition away" from fossil fuels to help hit net zero targets by 2050. - Telegraph

Walt Disney is bracing itself for a bitter proxy battle as the activist investor Nelson Peltz is seeking two seats on its board, pressing ahead with his second such challenge this year. His firm, Trian Fund Management, which owns roughly $3 billion worth of Disney shares, abandoned an earlier bid for one board seat in February. Yesterday it nominated Peltz and James Rasulo, former Disney chief financial officer. - The Times

The accounting watchdog has pledged to address the lack of competition in the industry next year amid concerns that the four largest audit firms continue to dominate the market. The Financial Reporting Council warned that the audit market "remains highly concentrated" as the so-called Big Four firms - KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC - still earn the lion's share of fees from large listed companies. - The Times

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(Sharecast News) - California's home-insurance safety net does not have enough money to pay all of the claims from damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires and has asked private insurers to contribute $1bn toward those claims. All private insurers operating in California are required to contribute to the Fair plan, a plan of last resort established so all Californians would have access to fire insurance. More than 450,000 California homeowners got their insurance through the Fair plan in 2024 - more than double the number in 2020. As of 4 February, the plan had received more than 4,700 claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires, almost half of which were for "total losses". - Guardian
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(Sharecast News) - The British economy is on course to expand by 1.5% this year after the budget gave a boost to public spending but could be blown off course if Donald Trump goes ahead with threatened tariffs, a leading economic thinktank has warned. In a boost to Rachel Reeves after a bruising month of negative economic figures, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) upped its annual growth prediction from 1.2% to 1.5%. - Guardian
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(Sharecast News) - Elon Musk escalated his feud with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on Monday. The billionaire is leading a consortium of investors that announced it had submitted a bid of $97.4bn for "all assets" of the artificial intelligence company to OpenAI's board of directors. The startup, which operates ChatGPT, has been working to restructure itself away from its original non-profit status. OpenAI also operates a for-profit subsidiary, and Musk's unsolicited offer could complicate the company's plans. The Wall Street Journal first reported the proposed bid. - Guardian
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(Sharecast News) - An increasingly complex tax system is burdening the government and businesses with hundreds of millions of pounds more in administration costs, Whitehall's spending watchdog has warned. The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also said "poor levels of service" meant some taxpayers and their representatives were "finding it more difficult to deal with their tax matters and are losing trust in HM Revenue & Customs [HMRC]". - Guardian

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

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