The Information : Perplexity’s Commerce and Ads Experiments Are Stuck in Neutral

Perplexity’s Commerce and Ads Experiments Are Stuck in Neutral

The Takeaway
  • Perplexity has been slow to approve brands to advertise
  • Perplexity has been working with outside firms to improve its shopping experience
  • Perplexity still missing key shopping features like shopping cart

Perplexity has drawn plenty of its headlines for its relentless fundraising—which recently valued the artificial intelligence search firm at $20 billion—and its penchant for declaring big-ticket acquisition targets like TikTok. But its efforts to build businesses in online shopping and advertising, which would put Perplexity’s revenue growth on more sustainable footing, have moved much more slowly.

Nearly a year after the company began selling ad space and letting users buy things through its app, marketers and merchants are frustrated by their experiences with the firm. Perplexity has allowed very few advertisers to buy space or brands to sell directly through the app or its website, marketers and brands say. That’s partly driven by Perplexity’s desire to not alienate users, particularly with too many ads, and partly by a need to figure out the right technology to make shopping more seamless, several e-commerce software firms and retailers told The Information. Right now, for instance, Perplexity shoppers have to order one item at a time, rather than filling a shopping cart with multiple items.

Perplexity could end up backing away from advertising altogether: It called its initial effort, announced last year, an experiment. And Taz Patel, a Perplexity executive leading its advertising efforts, left the company last month.

How Perplexity fares in either business is of great importance to investors across the AI industry, as both advertising and shopping offer a way for AI firms to make money from their audiences outside of selling subscriptions. OpenAI, which has more than 700 million users who use its chatbot for free, has projected it could collect $110 billion in revenue between 2026 and 2030 from that audience, The Information has reported, sparking speculation about its plans for ads and commerce.

It’s also important for big brands and retailers. Brands are increasingly interested in AI search advertising, especially because they say Google ads are less effective than they used to be. Brands also see Perplexity and other AI search engines as new places to make sales and tap in to a fast-growing group of potential customers, similar to how TikTok Shop quickly became a shopping destination a few years ago.

Ads Experiment

Perplexity has risen to prominence operating an AI-powered search engine, which provides summarized answers to people’s questions, putting it in direct competition with Google’s search engine. Perplexity has a free service, but it also charges $20 a month for a Pro tier, which had 260,000 paying individual subscribers at the end of last year, up from roughly 15,000 in October the year prior.

The cost of running cloud servers and paying for AI models has kept Perplexity in the red. The firm generated $34 million in revenue last year but burned about $65 million in cash, The Information has reported. When it announced its plans to experiment with advertising late last year, Perplexity said it needed to build a “robust and self-sustaining business.”

Despite that, the company has made clear it isn’t anxious to rush into advertising. It noted in its initial announcement that “users come to Perplexity for a more efficient, uncluttered and unbiased search experience, and that isn’t changing.” Critics have complained that Google has saturated its search results with ads.

In line with that policy, Perplexity has turned away most of the advertisers that have asked to buy space on the site, the company says. “Less than 0.5% of the thousands of advertisers who have directly asked to advertise on Perplexity have been admitted to do so. That’s intentional,” a spokesperson said.

“[Perplexity] is very cautious about scaling their ad business,” said Dan Roberts, global vice president of search at the ad agency Assembly Global. He said some of his clients were not approved to buy ads on Perplexity. Another ad buyer also said Perplexity has only accepted some of its clients into its advertising program.

And advertisers who did buy space on Perplexity were sometimes dissatisfied with the experience. Ads appear as “sponsored follow-up questions” that come up as a suggested question below Perplexity’s answer to a user’s query. One Perplexity advertiser said they were frustrated that they were not able to make their logo more prominent in Perplexity ads.

A spokesperson said Perplexity has intentionally kept the ads program small as it aims to “experiment with a small group of top advertisers slowly over the coming years.”

That policy may explain why Perplexity only made $20,000 in ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, as The Information previously reported. At an advertising industry event in March of this year, Patel said the company was working with only about a dozen advertisers.

There are signs Perplexity isn’t advancing its ad plans. Executives last month announced details of a new revenue sharing program where publishers get paid from a new subscription tier tied to its web browser, Comet. When Perplexity first announced a program to share revenue with publishers in June 2024, it was based on ad revenue.

Data Scraping

Perplexity’s embrace of commerce has been warmer. Last year, Perplexity announced its launch of a shopping service “where you can research and purchase products.” Users could seamlessly make purchases “for select products from select merchants” without leaving Perplexity’s site. It invited merchants to reach out for more information. In May, PayPal announced it was working with Perplexity to enable consumers to complete transactions through PayPal or its Venmo service.

The one-click checkout service built into Perplexity’s site remains limited to certain merchants and products. Perplexity says it is working to expand the library of eligible products that can be purchased using its shopping service Buy With Pro, but that it has started by selecting product categories it believes will be the most popular with shoppers. That means if “Buy with Pro” isn’t available for an item, shoppers have to visit the outside site to complete their purchases.

Meanwhile, merchants who aren’t part of Perplexity’s program but want to make sure searches for their product turn up accurate information don’t have a direct way to upload product information to Perplexity’s site, e-commerce firms say.

Perplexity is working with e-commerce software firm Commerce to ensure its product data is accurate, according to Sharon Gee, senior vice president of product for AI at Commerce. Gee said that Perplexity sometimes uses data scraped from the Web about products, which isn’t always up to date.

Revelyst, an outdoor goods retailer that sells Camelbak water bottles and Fox Racing motorcycle gear, is one merchant that wants to ensure searches on Perplexity for its products turn up the right information. Owen Spencer, senior director of direct to consumer applications and AI enablement at Revelyst, said his firm had been working with Commerce to feed its retail data into Perplexity so customers can get information about Revelyst’s products more easily.

Traffic from Perplexity to Revelyst’s sites has grown exponentially in the past six months, Spencer said. Still, it remains well below traffic from ChatGPT, and both sources pale compared with Revelyst’s Google traffic.

One key feature that retailers say Perplexity is still missing is the ability for shoppers to build a cart of multiple items, like they can on most other e-commerce sites or marketplaces. Instead, users currently have to purchase items one by one. That’s a turnoff for merchants, which want the ability to persuade shoppers to add extra items to their cart and be able to manage and ship orders more easily, Spencer said.

“This idea of doing a single-point purchase and we’re shipping out a pair of socks and a pair of gloves and a single T-shirt doesn’t really align with our goals,” he said.

Despite all of the shortcomings in Perplexity’s commerce offering, it may still be worth it for the company, Spencer says.

“I don’t think Perplexity would also look at the system that they have right now, and be like, this makes a ton of sense for us, but it was a way for them to be first to market, which I know is kind of a driving factor for them.”

WSJ : Apple and Citadel Fuel London Office Boom

Apple and Citadel Fuel London Office Boom
Tech and finance companies, many from the U.S., are filling the swankiest spaces in the ancient commercial quarter known as the City

London's commercial quarter is experiencing an office boom, driven by finance, tech and American firms.
Rents for prime office spaces in the City of London have surged over 50% since 2020.
New skyscrapers and amenities attract tenants but there have been tensions with heritage groups.

LONDON—Larry Fink complains BlackRock is running out of desks. HSBC’s new tower turned out to be too small. Ken Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel, signed a lease on a building three years ahead of time.

The office market in London’s ancient commercial quarter—known simply as the City—is booming, fueled by an influx of American law and finance firms, a growing tech scene and demand for the swankiest spaces to lure workers back to their desks.

The boom shows Britain’s finance industry has defied fears of a post-Brexit exodus. Despite losing some business and financiers after the U.K. left the European Union, London still hosts by far the biggest banking and capital markets in Europe.

The buoyant market also reflects the district’s broadening appeal. For decades the area was a bastion of finance and insurance. Now tech companies—including Apple, TikTok and several thousand smaller firms—vie for space, drawn in part by the prospect of easy access to potential investors.

“London, as a location for international businesses, seems to have really proven its resilience,” said Martin Towns, who runs M&G’s $43 billion real-estate business. “The City has a renewed level of vibrancy.”

The City, officially called the City of London, is a district of historic buildings and gleaming office towers packed into roughly a square mile of land on the north bank of the River Thames. It is home to the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The area was London’s birthplace in Roman times, remnants of which are often dug up by developers. Dozens of trade associations known as guilds, some of which still exist, emerged when it became the principal place to do business in the Middle Ages.

Canary Wharf, a dock-turned-financial district in East London, prised banks away in the 1990s and 2000s with its shiny towers. But London’s historic place of commerce is back in the ascendancy.

Rents for snazzy offices in the City’s newest towers have jumped more than 50% since 2020, to more than $160 a square foot, according to real-estate broker Cushman & Wakefield. By comparison, Grade A offices on New York’s Park Avenue—home to big banks and hedge funds—fetch about $116.

The City drove a record number of leasing deals in the wider area last year, Cushman said. In New York, there has been a similar flight to high-quality offices since Covid.

The City of London Corporation championed the construction of a new generation of skyscrapers to win back businesses. The centuries-old local authority has also worked to jazz up the area’s cultural appeal, prodding developers to incorporate public spaces and dining spots. The quarter’s central location and transport links are another plus for employers trying to encourage staff to return to the office.

The City does face challenges. London’s stock exchange is battling long-term decline. Britain’s banks have struggled to compete with American rivals since the financial crisis. And though it throngs with workers in the middle of the week, the area lacks some of its prepandemic buzz. Footfall is still down at most of its metro stations.

New towers have fanned tensions with heritage groups who worry about the proximity of new skyscrapers to historic sites such as the Tower of London. Planning constraints include rules to preserve views of St. Paul’s.

A cluster of skyscrapers has shot up this century, with nicknames such as the Gherkin, Cheesegrater and Walkie-Talkie. Several more developments—including 1 Undershaft, which would be Western Europe’s joint-tallest building—have been approved.

The new towers won’t come soon enough to prevent a shortfall of offices in the next few years, said Kevin Darvishi, leasing director at Stanhope, a real-estate developer. Many companies signed short-term deals emerging from the pandemic, he said, and some are now hunting for longer-term arrangements.

BlackRock CEO Fink has lamented the lack of space in London after the asset manager’s recent acquisitions, telling Britain’s Times newspaper earlier this year he would build his own office if he could do so quickly. BlackRock has a decade left on its lease near the Bank of England, and people close to the firm have said it isn’t in any rush.

New offices with bells and whistles are particularly in vogue. The City’s tallest building, 22 Bishopsgate, has a Gordon Ramsay restaurant on its top floor and a climbing wall on the window of the 25th. Tenants include Apple, Nasdaq and Skadden, the law firm.

At 40 Leadenhall, tenants—including law firm Kirkland & Ellis and insurer Chubb—have access to saunas, a hair salon and a screening room. The building, nicknamed Gotham City for its neo-gothic-inspired design, opened last year fully occupied.

Fancier facilities have boosted rents, pushing some would-be tenants to go elsewhere. One beneficiary is Canary Wharf, which has struggled since the pandemic because of its out-of-town location and aging towers.

Having said it would relocate to the City, HSBC recently renewed a lease at its older home in Canary Wharf after realizing its new building won’t fit everyone.

Hedge funds are among the City’s fastest-growing tenants, according to broker Knight Frank, reflecting the sector’s expansion globally. Last year, Citadel and its market-making sister firm, Citadel Securities, pre-let a third of twin City towers due to open in 2027—a major expansion of their London footprint.

Another cohort expanding in the Square Mile: U.S. law firms. They are seeking to capitalize on a resurgence in deals involving British companies, and to work with fast-growing private-equity clients.

Patrick Sarch, a partner at White & Case, said his team of mergers and acquisitions lawyers is growing to keep up with activity, driven in part by U.S. buyers looking for bargains in the U.K. market. The New York law firm took on two more floors of its office building in the City two summers ago.

“Our lawyers are busier than they have been, ever,” Sarch said. “We are hiring partners, baby lawyers out of law school, people in the middle. There is a war for talent in London.”

WSJ : China’s Economy Shows Signs of Summer Slowdown

China’s Economy Shows Signs of Summer Slowdown
Broad slowdown hits world’s second-largest economy as trade uncertainties loom, property sector weakens

  • China’s economic data reveals a slowdown in retail sales, industrial production and investment.
  • Unemployment in China has increased, and the housing market continues to face difficulties.
  • Some analysts believe Beijing may delay major initiatives to stimulate household spending if it remains on track for its 5% economic growth target.

SINGAPORE—Signs of weakness in China’s economy stretched into August, adding pressure on Beijing to step up efforts to stimulate near-term growth.

Momentum in retail sales, industrial production and investment all slowed, while unemployment ticked up and the housing market continued to struggle, according to data released Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics. China also recently reported slowing export growth and persistent deflation for August.

Taken together, the data suggest the world’s second-largest economy is showing some fatigue after expectation-defying growth earlier this year. They also signal that China’s so-called anti-involution campaign to rein in extreme competition may be starting to curb excess production and overinvestment.

Economists and policy advisers have been calling for Beijing to rebalance the economy to be driven more by consumption, with China’s reliance on exports and investments to drive growth increasingly challenged by global trade tensions and slowing productivity gains.

The fate of one of China’s most important trade relationships remains unclear, with U.S. and Chinese negotiators meeting in Madrid for the latest round of trade talks.

Still, some analysts believe Beijing may hold off on major initiatives to stimulate household spending as long as it remains on track for its target of around 5% economic growth this year.

China’s economy expanded an annual 5.3% in the first half of the year, driven by surprisingly strong exports, according to government data. But economists expect growth to slow the rest of the year as U.S. tariffs hit global trade and the boost from inventory stockpiling runs out.

The main effort to boost spending so far has been a consumer goods trade-in program offering subsidies for purchases of items such as household appliances and electric vehicles. That has helped drive retail sales since the program was rolled out last year, but could be running out of road since consumers only buy big-ticket items so often.

Retail sales increased 3.4% from a year ago in August, according to the government data, down from 3.7% growth in July and below economists’ 4.0% forecast.

Household demand has been weak in recent years as a prolonged property market downturn and worries about the economic outlook have pushed consumers to save money and watch their spending. Meanwhile, many industries are dealing with hypercompetition and price wars, especially in industries championed by China’s leaders such as solar energy and EVs.

Beijing’s recent drive to curb excess capacity in key industries and this summer’s adverse weather conditions—high temperatures, heavy rain and flooding—have weighed on factory activity and cut into industrial production, economists say.

China’s industrial production rose 5.2% last month, compared with 5.7% in July and a 5.8% projection by economists. Fixed asset investment increased 0.5% in the first eight months of the year, compared with a 1.6% year-over-year rise in the January-to-July period and expectations for 1.3% growth.

The yearslong property slump is another factor denting investment, say analysts. Property investment fell 12.9% between January and August, worsening from a 12.0% decline in the first seven months. New home sales by value fell 7.0% in the first eight months, widening from a 6.2% drop in the first seven months.

Average home prices in the major 70 Chinese cities fell 3.0% from a year earlier in August, compared with a 3.4% decline in July, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal based on the statistics bureau data.

China’s urban surveyed unemployment rate came in at 5.3% last month, edging up July’s 5.2%, as millions of fresh college graduates entered the job market. Earlier, China reported its export growth slowed in August to 4.4% year-over-year, the slowest pace in six months.

Meanwhile, factory-gate prices have been in contraction for nearly three years, with producer prices dropping 2.9% on year in August. Consumer prices have hovered around the flatline.

FT : China’s curbs on defence metal germanium create ‘desperate’ supply squeeze

China’s curbs on defence metal germanium create ‘desperate’ supply squeeze
Prices for material used for thermal imaging systems in military equipment at 14-year high

Chinese export restrictions on germanium, a metal crucial for the defence industry, have created a “desperate” supply crunch and pushed prices to their highest level in at least 14 years, traders say.

Germanium is essential to the production of thermal imaging systems used in military equipment, including fighter jets. But its production is heavily dominated by China and companies do not typically hold large stockpiles. 

China said in 2023 that it would halt the export of germanium, gallium and antimony following restrictions by the US and the Netherlands on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment. However, traders and analysts said exports started to nosedive in earnest from the end of 2024 onwards.

Terence Bell, of minor metals trader Strategic Metal Investments, said he had been unable to buy germanium for at least six months, with shipments from China having “completely dried up”.

“I spent my whole summer taking 2-3 [enquiries] a day from companies looking for germanium,” he said. “It’s desperate out there.”

Germanium imports to the US from China fell about 40 per cent between January and July compared with the same period in 2024, according to an analysis of trade data by Silverado Policy Accelerator, a non-profit organisation.

As of Wednesday, the price of germanium had risen to almost $5,000 per kilogramme, compared to just over $1,000 at the start of 2023, according to price reporting agency Fastmarkets. The September price is the highest ever recorded by Fastmarkets, in data going back to 2011.


Christian Hell, of trading house Tradium, said germanium demand was “through the roof”, with requests coming mostly from the US and Europe.

“Almost everybody is approaching us” and there was “panic” in the market, with Tradium unable to fulfil “all the enquiries we’re getting”, he said.

The Chinese restrictions have “devastated the ability for there to be a functioning spot market”, said Aaron Jerome, a trader at Lipmann Walton & Co. “People we used to be able to buy 100kg from, we’re lucky now if they can give us 10kg, and the price is three to four times higher.”

Like rare earth elements, germanium is economically and practically challenging to extract rather than globally scarce. It is commonly produced as a byproduct of zinc and coal fly ash.

Russia has historically been a supplier of germanium, but sanctions imposed on the country following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine have contributed to supply shortages in the west. 


In a notable signal to the market, US defence group Lockheed Martin announced in August a germanium supply agreement with producer Korea Zinc. 

Since purchasing germanium has historically been outsourced by defence companies to subcontractors, the deal was “a signal” of how challenging the market had become, said Jerome.

Global germanium demand is about 180 to 200 tonnes a year, according to Fastmarkets.

Finding substitute materials is difficult, in part given the “performance and precision requirements” of the military optics applications germanium goes into, said Caroline Messecar, a Fastmarkets analyst.

“You might need a complete redesign and there are situations where any potential reduction in accuracy is unacceptable,” she said.

Florida-based LightPath Technologies, which has received US government funding, is working on providing alternatives. “No one in their right mind is going to redesign an existing system until they have to,” but some companies were now starting to do so, said LightPath’s chief executive Sam Rubin.

Outside China, the Belgian battery materials producer Umicore and Canadian miner Teck Resources — which this week announced a $50bn tie-up with Anglo American — produce some germanium.

Nyrstar, a subsidiary of trading house Trafigura, is also considering building a germanium and gallium recovery and processing facility at its zinc smelter in Tennessee. 

FT : The designer debuts set to make a mark in Milan and Paris

The designer debuts set to make a mark in Milan and Paris
A new guard is leading the way at some of the world’s biggest fashion labels this season. Are they up to the challenge?

It’s all change in fashion, with 13 creative directors debuting their first womenswear designs for new brands this season, including Demna at Gucci, Jonathan Anderson at Dior and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. For these designers, and the brands they lead, everything is on the line as much of the luxury sector continues to face shrinking sales and disengaged shoppers. Ultimately, the winners will be those who can reboot a brand’s image, set culture-defining trends and make profits for shareholders. The losers? Well, they may not be around for long. 

“Fashion has turned these shifts into its favourite gladiator sport — part coronation, part execution — with social media as the Colosseum and the crowd baying for blood. The houses play musical executions: the critics cheer, the investors clap, and the poor designers . . . ” the stylist Katie Grand wrote on Instagram last month. “Behind the memes and headlines are creatives whose lives and work are pulled apart in real time.”

Here we give you the lowdown on these 13 industry movers, why they have been hired and what is at stake. Let the games begin.

Milan


Brand: Gucci
Name: Demna
Date: September 23
Format: Event
CV: Maison Margiela, Louis Vuitton, Vetements, Balenciaga
The stakes: Gucci is the biggest brand owned by troubled parent group Kering, accounting for about half of group sales and two-thirds of profits. It has also reported falling sales and operating profits since 2023 (revenue last year was €7.7bn). Demna, who in his 10-year tenure at Balenciaga transformed the label into the fastest-growing brand in the Kering portfolio before a controversial ad campaign in 2022 caused a temporary drop in sales, has been tasked with bringing back growth and zeitgeisty relevance.


Brand: Jil Sander
Name: Simone Bellotti
Date: September 24
Format: Runway
CV: AF Vandevorst, Gianfranco Ferré, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Bally
The stakes: As the first creative director chosen by Italian group OTB, which acquired the label in 2021, Bellotti will be expected to reshape the brand’s visual identity while continuing the retail and category expansion spearheaded by the Italian conglomerate.


Brand: Versace
Name: Dario Vitale
Date: September 26
Format: Event
CV: Dsquared2, Bottega Veneta, Miu Miu
The stakes: Vitale was appointed as Versace’s chief creative officer in March 2025, a month before the Italian brand was acquired by Prada for €1.25bn. As the first external designer to take the helm of Versace, which has been led by Donatella Versace since 1997, Vitale finds himself continuing the legacy of one of the industry’s most historic and beloved labels, with an annual revenue of $821mn. The designer gave a sneak peek of his plans for the label during the Venice Film Festival this month, dressing Julia Roberts and Amanda Seyfried in his first ever Versace red carpet look: a blue tailored jacket worn with a striped shirt and jeans.  


Brand: Bottega Veneta
Name: Louise Trotter
Date: September 27
Format: Runway
CV: Whistles, Gap, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Jigsaw, Joseph, Lacoste, Carven
The stakes: Bottega Veneta, the third-largest brand in Kering’s portfolio, has not been immune to the group’s woes of the past two years. However, its performance has been more resilient than others, with single-digit revenue growth in the most recent quarter. Trotter, who is known for her eye for tailoring and elegant but unpretentious designs, will have to accelerate the brand’s growth while preserving its credentials as the home of Italian leather craftsmanship.

Paris


Brand: Dior
Name: Jonathan Anderson
Date: October 1
Format: Runway
CV: Brown Thomas, Prada, JW Anderson, Loewe
The stakes: Anderson was appointed creative director of women’s, men’s and haute couture collections at Dior this June, the first designer to hold all three roles since founder Christian Dior. At Dior women’s and haute couture, Anderson succeeds Maria Grazia Chiuri, whose successful nine-year run helped grow annual revenues to £9.5bn, according to HSBC estimates. As the luxury market struggles with a global slowdown, LVMH is betting on Anderson to inject fresh energy and compelling storytelling into the megabrand, the second largest by size in its fashion and leather goods portfolio. His own label JW Anderson will go on an indefinite runway hiatus while Anderson takes on the biggest job in fashion.


Brand: Mugler
Name: Miguel Castro Freitas
Date: October 2
Format: Runway
CV: Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Dries Van Noten, Sportmax
The stakes: Castro Freitas is the first designer to be appointed at Mugler by L’Oréal, which acquired the label from Clarins in 2019. For decades, the house has been largely known for its popular fragrances Alien and Angel, but its fashion division was revitalised under Castro Freitas’s predecessor, Casey Cadwallader, gaining social media buzz and celebrity traction. Castro Freitas was most recently creative director of Max Mara-owned Sportmax, where he specialised in sculptural silhouettes and body-con dresses that share an affinity with Mugler.


Brand: Carven
Name: Mark Thomas
Date: October 2
Format: Runway
CV: Neil Barrett, Burberry, Joseph, Givenchy, Helmut Lang, Lacoste, Icicle
The stakes: French label Carven still needs to find its place in the fashion firmament, having been bought out of bankruptcy by Chinese group Icicle in 2018. The British designer, who worked closely with his predecessor, Louise Trotter, at Carven but also at Joseph and Lacoste, is expected to fully develop the label’s aesthetic codes.


Brand: Loewe
Names: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez
Date: October 3
Format: Runway
CV: Proenza Schouler
The stakes: McCollough and Hernandez have big shoes to fill. Their appointment follows the departure of Jonathan Anderson, who led the LVMH-owned label for 11 years and is credited with boosting its revenues from €230mn in 2014 to €1.07bn in 2024, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. The American designers, who founded Proenza Schouler in 2002, have the right credentials to take on a brand known for its focus on craftsmanship, art-school design ethos and commercially successful accessories. 


Brand: Maison Margiela
Name: Glenn Martens
Date: October 4
Format: Runway
CV: Jean Paul Gaultier, Y/Project, Diesel
The stakes: Martens joins Maison Margiela following a critically acclaimed decade for the brand under John Galliano. In his first, well-received haute couture collection for the label’s Artisanal line in July, Martens combined tributes to house founder Martin Margiela with his own penchant for deconstructed and distressed looks. He now has to translate that vision into ready-to-wear.


Brand: Balenciaga
Name: Pierpaolo Piccioli
Date: October 4
Format: Runway
CV: Fendi, Valentino
The stakes: Piccioli takes over from Demna, who transformed Balenciaga into one of the most provocative and hyped brands of the past decade with hit accessories such as the Triple S and Speed sock trainers, collaborations with mass-market brands such as Ikea and Crocs, and viral marketing moments, some of which backfired. Piccioli shares this commercial prowess: at Valentino, he also created hit accessories, such as the Rockstud style and a signature colour, Valentino Pink PP. Aesthetically, however, Piccioli is expected to reset the brand’s current streetwear-led image.


Brand: Jean Paul Gaultier
Name: Duran Lantink
Date: October 5
Format: Runway
CV: Duran Lantink
The stakes: Lantink is the first designer to permanently fill the position of creative director at the label after founder Jean Paul Gaultier retired in 2020. Since then, the label has lived on under collaborations with guest designers including Chitose Abe, Simone Rocha, Glenn Martens and Ludovic de Saint Sernin. Lantink, who under his eponymous label made a name for himself by reworking deadstock clothing into surreal and playful creations, shares a similar avant-garde and irreverent spirit to Jean Paul Gaultier. In his new role, Lantink will have to build a cohesive identity for the brand while keeping its heritage alive.


Brand: Chanel
Name: Matthieu Blazy
Date: October 6
Format: Runway
CV: Balenciaga, John Galliano, Raf Simons, Maison Margiela, Céline, Calvin Klein, Bottega Veneta
The stakes: Chanel has been more immune than others to the luxury market slump, with revenue declining 4.3 per cent to $18.7bn in 2024, so Blazy’s challenge is less financial and more stylistic. His predecessor, Virginie Viard, a close collaborator of Karl Lagerfeld who has been at the helm of the house since his death in 2019, designed some commercially successful collections that received a lukewarm reception from critics. After his brilliant reboot of Bottega Veneta, Blazy, a Frenchman who is known for his focus on craft rather than branding, is expected to inject the French label with a fresh and exciting perspective.

FT : American Tower among potential bidders in latest attempt to sell TDF Infras

American Tower among potential bidders in latest attempt to sell TDF Infrastructure
Ardian and EQT are also possible suitors in a deal that could fetch €10bn for the company’s owners


American Tower and private markets firm Ardian are among potential bidders interested in buying TDF Infrastructure, after a number of failed attempts to sell the French company in recent years.

Swedish alternative assets investor EQT Group and Paris-based infrastructure fund Antin are other possible buyers for the telecoms tower company, according to multiple people involved in the process.

A sale of TDF could fetch €8bn-€10bn, the people said, adding that its owners, including 45 per cent shareholder Brookfield Asset Management, have appointed bankers from BNP Paribas and UBS to find a buyer.

APG Asset Management, Arcus Infrastructure Partners and Canadian pension fund PSP Investments jointly own 45 per cent of TDF. Crédit Agricole Assurances, which has a 10 per cent stake, is not understood to be wanting to sell, according to two people familiar with the talks.

The process is at an early stage and may not result in a sale of TDF, which operates over 8,000 mobile towers across France for providers including Orange and Free, which is controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, the people said.

A successful sale would end a saga that has seen several attempts to sell TDF in recent years — most recently in 2023 — stall owing to a lack of buyer interest in a company that has struggled with competition from other tower operators.

But there could be a better chance of a transaction following the sale of TDF’s fibre broadband network to DIF Capital Partners in December 2024, which has slimmed down the business, said a person familiar with the talks.

Boston-based American Tower, which first entered Europe in 2012, already owns 4,400 towers in France. Chief executive Steven Vondran said in February the company saw “potential” in Europe for further acquisitions. 

American Tower, Ardian, Brookfield, Antin and EQT all declined to comment.

A deal for TDF — which also provides wireless infrastructure for broadcast and radio services — would come at a time where several other tower deals have been pulled, including Cellnex’s attempts to sell its assets in Switzerland and Poland. TDF had €799.1mn of revenue last year.

James Ratzer, analyst at New Street Research said the slow progress on tower deals reflected uncertainty about the assets’ prospects.

“With higher interest rates, uncertainty on the impact of in market consolidation and slowing tenancy growth, private sector demand for buying tower assets has slowed,” he added.

TDF, UBS, PSP, BNP Paribas, Arcus and APG declined to comment. Crédit Agricole did not respond to a request for comment.

FT : Donald Trump’s new SEC appointee scraps aggressive enforcement agenda

Donald Trump’s new SEC appointee scraps aggressive enforcement agenda
Paul Atkins signals a softer approach to regulation of Wall Street than under his predecessor

The head of the top Wall Street watchdog has pledged to give businesses notice of technical violations before “bashing down their door”, as he scraps the aggressive enforcement agenda pursued under former president Joe Biden. 

Paul Atkins, who this year was appointed chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission by US President Donald Trump, told the Financial Times in an interview in Paris that the agency was geared to go after “crooks”. 

“If you lie, cheat or steal your investors and steal their money like [disgraced former financier] Bernie Madoff, we’ll leave you naked, homeless and without wheels,” Atkins said, quoting a sign posted in the office of his first SEC boss Richard Breeden.

But he added there were “other gradations of that where you have to give people notice”.

“You can’t just suddenly come and bash down their door and say ‘uh-uh we caught you, you’re doing something and it’s a technical violation’,” he said.

Atkins is reshaping the commission, an independent agency tasked with protecting US investors, as Republican regulators adopt a more business-friendly stance, unleashing deregulation drives and rowing back tough enforcement programmes adopted by watchdogs under Biden.

Since January, the SEC has dropped a string of cases and investigations targeting crypto platforms — a number of which donated to the inauguration fund for Trump. The president is a crypto champion who has reported income of almost $60mn from one of his digital ventures and has touted his own $TRUMP memecoin on social media.

Atkins did not comment on the cases.

The contrast with Atkins’ predecessor, Gary Gensler, is stark. The former SEC chair cracked down on misconduct and issued a number of wide-ranging new rules while at the helm.

“I think a lot of people rightly criticised the SEC,” said Atkins. “Especially in more recent years it was not grounded in precedent [or] predictability. It would shoot first and then ask questions later,” he added, repeating a Republican criticism that Gensler regulated through enforcement — accusations the former chair rejects.

“What I am trying to address is a market perception that . . . there was a lack of due process, a lack of notice, a lack of rule of law,” Atkins said.

He condemned the billions of dollars in fines Gensler slapped on banks and brokers for record-keeping violations — a linchpin of his enforcement programme that he argued was aimed at preserving the integrity of, and trust in, the market.

“That’s not how a regulator should have acted” in response to industry-wide behaviour, Atkins said. The approach “devolved . . . to where it became a formula: what’s your revenue, here’s your invoice”.  

Atkins argued the process should have resembled “back in school days, the teacher flapping the ruler on the table, saying ‘class, you’re out of order . . . you have six months to clear this up’.”

Record-keeping rules differ among broker dealers, investment advisers and others, he added. “It’s high time that we have this systematised.”

In another sharp departure from his predecessor, the SEC chair is aiming to fulfil Trump’s promise to make the US “the crypto capital of the world”.

Gensler argued that most tokens were securities and launched a series of lawsuits against what he deemed a “wild west” industry rife with fraud. He declined to craft crypto-specific rules, arguing securities law was sufficiently clear.

A crypto advocate, Atkins disagrees. He claims that most tokens are not securities and wants to develop rules that would allow investors to trade tokenised versions of shares and bonds — synthetic versions of securities that have the same legal rights but can trade 24/7 using blockchain technology.

“We want people not to be doing this offshore,” he said, referring to the 2022 collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. Although many who invested in the Bahamas-based crypto exchange lost money, funds in its regulated US derivatives arm were safeguarded and returned to customers.

“It’s a really powerful example of how a good regulatory scheme can help to protect investors while something else offshore is not going to be adequate,” Atkins said.

Crypto sceptics, however, have argued FTX exemplifies the bravado of an industry that offers few investor protections.

Atkins said the SEC needs rules to govern “smart contracts” that promise instant settlement of trades via crypto, but warned companies that are already offering tokenised US stocks trading to be “very careful” as the commission developed rules. “The securities laws do apply if they’re trading securities.”

FT : Europe’s maze of bank regulation needs to be simplified

Europe’s maze of bank regulation needs to be simplified
There are three reforms that could reduce complexity while preserving resilience

The naysayers of banking regulation in Europe have it wrong. Since the Great Financial Crisis, it has been a success story. European banks are arguably more resilient than ever. But the post-crisis reforms were the result of extended and complicated negotiations that had to balance many different interests and goals.

Thus, European banking regulation is also more complex than ever. Regulators and supervisors must ask: is it time to simplify? Lobbyists will say yes, but simplification must not be mistaken for deregulation. The aim is not to lower standards, but to make the rules more transparent and effective.

Banks now face a maze of requirements. Large EU banks must comply with at least eight parallel “stacks” of requirements, spanning frameworks for both capital and the resolution process to manage the orderly failure of a bank. Each stack contains multiple layers — minimum requirements, buffers and supervisory add-ons — each with its own logic and consequences for non-compliance. The result is a byzantine regulatory framework that is difficult for banks, supervisors and markets to navigate. Worse, unintended interactions between different requirements risk threatening the effectiveness of the framework, especially in times of stress.

Take capital buffers: supervisors require banks to have additional capital to absorb losses, allowing them to maintain lending to companies and households in difficult times. But banks must also meet other regulatory demands in parallel, such as the resolution requirements or the overall cap on leverage. This can prevent banks from using the buffers as intended. In times of loss, these parallel requirements may become binding, forcing banks to shed assets and deleverage — potentially amplifying systemic stress. In addition, the overlaps can create confusion about which resources are truly available in a crisis.

Does this mean we should deregulate? Absolutely not. But after more than a decade with the current system, it is time to examine where simplification is possible. This means making rules more transparent and effective, without lowering standards. Three reforms could reduce complexity while preserving resilience:

Only use the strongest form of capital for meeting going-concern capital requirements. Banks currently meet their requirements with various types of capital, but Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) — comprising shares and retained earnings — is the strongest and most reliable form for absorbing losses. Other instruments, such as Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2, are less transparent and have proved less effective or even counter-productive in periods of stress. Recognising only CET1 would halve the number of parallel requirements and ensure robust loss-absorbing capacity.

Separate capital and resolution requirements. At present, the same euro of capital is used to meet both capital and resolution requirements. This double-counting causes problems: either capital buffers are tied up in resolution requirements and cannot act as safety cushions in a crisis, or there are insufficient resources left to cover losses and protect taxpayers during the resolution of a failing bank.

You cannot have your cake and eat it. A clear solution is to separate capital and resolution requirements, with the latter met by instruments other than CET1. This ensures CET1 is available to absorb losses while the bank is still operating, while at the same time dedicated resources are reserved for use if the bank fails and enters resolution. This approach allows both frameworks to function more effectively.

Merge and simplify capital buffers. The current system features a bewildering number of buffers, such as capital conservation, systemic risk and countercyclical buffers. These could be consolidated, ideally into a single “releasable” buffer that supervisors can lower in periods of stress and a single “non-releasable” buffer to cover bank-specific idiosyncratic and systemic risks.

These reforms would reduce the number of stacks and layers of requirements, making the regulatory framework more effective, transparent and easier to manage, without sacrificing resilience.

Banks would be able to plan and use their capital more efficiently, supervisors could focus on the risks that matter and markets would have a clearer view of each bank’s resilience. Ultimately, resilient European banks are in the best position to support a competitive and more productive European economy.

FT : UK fintech SumUp explores listing at up to $15bn valuation

UK fintech SumUp explores listing at up to $15bn valuation
Card reader company wants to raise cash to buy up competitors

UK card reader company SumUp is exploring a stock market listing that could value the business at $10bn to $15bn and offer the London Stock Exchange a rare boost.

The London-based fintech is weighing up an initial public offering in either London or New York, according to two people familiar with the company’s view.

They added that it had been discussing the plans with investment banks, and was aiming to float in the next year. One person said that SumUp’s founders would remain the largest shareholders, and that it was aiming for a $10bn-$15bn valuation.

SumUp is hoping to raise cash to buy up competitors. One person familiar with the company’s thinking said it believed the payment processing market was ripe for consolidation, particularly in Europe.

In 2022, SumUp raised €590mn in a fundraising round led by private equity giant Bain Capital that valued it at €8bn euros. It had targeted a valuation of €20bn.

Last year, Reuters reported that SumUp was working with Goldman Sachs on a secondary share sale that it hoped would value the business at $9bn.

SumUp’s chief financial officer, Hermione McKee, said in 2023 that there was no rush for the company to IPO.

The news comes amid a wave of investor interest in UK fintechs. The Financial Times has recently reported that Starling is gearing up for a secondary share sale that could value it at £4bn and that Revolut is in talks with investment firm Coatue over a new fundraising round. 

A UK IPO by SumUp would also deliver a rare win for the London Stock Exchange, which has had to contend with a three-year listings drought: lower valuations compared with the US have prompted UK companies to debut there or to shift their listings.

UK-based money transfer company Wise is in the process of relisting in the US. Klarna, while the Swedish buy-now-pay-later group, listed in the US this month.

SumUp was founded by Marc-Alexander Christ, Stefan Jeschonnek, Jan Deepen and Daniel Klein in 2012. It makes card readers for use by small and medium sized businesses, and has 4mn customers in 36 countries. It also provides business accounts and invoicing services.

Last year, it had a target of €160mn in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a measure of profitability.

SumUp declined to comment.