FT : Starmer pledges planning reforms to boost nuclear power

Starmer pledges planning reforms to boost nuclear power
Changes will pave the way for construction of a new generation of small modular reactors

Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday announce changes to the planning system designed to speed up the delivery of new nuclear power stations in England and Wales.

The British prime minister will claim that the planning reforms will “clear a path” for the introduction of small modular reactors, which are faster to build than existing larger reactors. 

The shake-up will involve the scrapping of a list of eight favoured sites for larger nuclear schemes, giving developers more flexibility in where they can build. 

Ministers will remove the expiry date on nuclear planning rules so projects no longer get “timed out”.

They will also announce plans to set up a new Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce to oversee improvements to regulations to help more companies build nuclear projects. 

“This country hasn’t built a nuclear power station in decades, we’ve been let down and left behind,” Starmer will say.

“I’m putting an end to it, changing the rules to back the builders of this nation.”

Only one new nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, is currently being built in the UK, developed by EDF of France. But it is delayed by years and over budget by billions of pounds.

The project is due to start generating in 2029 at the earliest, and cost up to £46bn. That compares with initial forecasts from 2016 that it would start at the end of 2025 and cost £18bn. 

Meanwhile plans by EDF and the British government to build a second project in Suffolk at Sizewell are also behind schedule as they try to persuade institutional investors to commit billions of pounds of private funding. 

The government has so far equivocated over whether or not they want a third project to be built at Wylfa in Anglesey, despite the last Tory government purchasing the site from Japanese developer Hitachi early last year.

Ministers are already overseeing a competition for private companies to win state support to develop small modular reactors, and they will now be included in the planning rules for the first time. 

In spite of the planning overhaul, ministers will insist that they will uphold Britain’s nuclear safety standards.

In September the government picked four companies to enter negotiations for taxpayer support for their technology: Rolls-Royce, the FTSE 100 British engineer, alongside US-owned rivals Holtec Britain and GE Hitachi, and Canadian-owned Westinghouse Electric.

FT : Russian billionaires Fridman and Aven sell Alfa-Bank stakes in bid to overt

Russian billionaires Fridman and Aven sell Alfa-Bank stakes in bid to overturn sanctions
Longtime partner Andrei Kosogov completes a $2.5bn deal to buy the bank and its insurance arm

The sanctioned billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven have sold their stakes in Russia’s largest private lender and its insurance arm, as they attempt to overturn EU sanctions against them.

Fridman and Aven offloaded Alfa-Bank and Alfa Strakhovanie to their longtime partner Andrei Kosogov last year, according to documents seen by the Financial Times, completing a deal struck in 2023 that values the two companies at about Rbs240bn ($2.5bn). The oligarchs held a combined 45 per cent stake in the bank and a 42 per cent stake in the insurer.

Kosogov, who is not under sanctions, has emerged from relative obscurity to become the largest shareholder in Alfa-Bank and LetterOne, the Mayfair-based conglomerate, after buying out his sanctioned partners.

The oligarchs hope that selling the bank and insurer — a deal expedited by Russian government intervention on ownership of “economically significant” firms — will aid their challenge to the EU sanctions imposed on them in response to president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, the EU’s General Court partially annulled the basis for the sanctions by ruling the bloc had not presented enough evidence to show Fridman and Aven were involved in efforts to undermine Ukraine.

The oligarchs’ victory was the highest profile blow to the EU sanctions regime against Russia since the invasion.

The EU sanctions remain in place, however, under a separate justification that points to Fridman and Aven’s status as “leading business persons [ . . .] involved in an economic sector providing a substantial source of revenue” to the Kremlin.

Fridman and Aven are separately challenging that justification. If they are successful, EU member states could decide to lift the sanctions, appeal the court decision or reinstate them under another new justification. Latvia has appealed against the first ruling in the oligarchs’ favour.

Anitta Hipper, EU spokesperson for foreign affairs, said the European Commission could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings. “Restrictive measures against Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman remain in place — these were renewed based on the Council decisions in September 2023 and March 2024,” she said.

Hipper added that the council of EU member states “regularly reviews the listings”.

UK and EU sanctions forced Fridman and Aven, as well as their former partners German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, to cede control over investment group LetterOne and resign from its board.

Kosogov, the former head of Alfa’s investment unit, had the smallest share in the oligarchs’ empire until he bought Khan’s and Kuzmichev’s stakes in Alfa-Bank and LetterOne in 2022, making him the largest shareholder in both companies. Khan and Kuzmichev lent Kosogov funds to buy their stakes in LetterOne for a combined $7bn and agreed an option allowing them to buy them back within 10 years, according to a High Court ruling in December.

Kosogov then agreed a deal to buy Fridman and Aven’s stakes in Alfa-Bank via a Cypriot holding company and secured an agreement to finance the purchase with a loan from state-run Gazprombank, according to correspondence seen by the FT.

The regulatory approval in Cyprus required for the sale stalled, however, prompting repeated public complaints by Alfa-Bank’s Luxembourg-based parent company.

In the meantime, Russia passed a law allowing the state to redomicile “economically significant” companies held in western jurisdictions.

The initial list of such firms released by Russia’s government last March only named six — the first three of which were the local holding companies controlling Alfa-Bank, Alfa Strakhovanie, and X5, the supermarket group founded by Fridman.

Two months later, a Russian court annulled the Luxembourg-based company’s rights to Alfa-Bank and Alfa Strakhovanie, transferring Fridman and Aven the rights to hold the shares or offload them to Kosogov.

Kosogov has undertaken to pay for the deal out of his own funds, according to the sale agreements.

Though Cyprus approved the deal in July, the Russian decision had in effect rendered it moot as Fridman and Aven no longer needed to seek EU approval to transfer control of the Russian companies.

The law “gives owners a legal way to wipe their hands, because it’s a court and government decision that they seemingly have nothing to do with, but the companies on the list always had good relations with the Russian government,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

By allowing Russian companies to pay dividends and protecting them from seizure under the sanctions, the process “ties their owners to the Russian regime even more closely”, she added.

Fridman and Aven declined to comment. Kosogov did not respond to a request for comment.

>>> US After Hours Summary: FORM -24.8%, PI -24.6%, SWKS -22.6%, ARM -7.1%, F -

After Hours Summary: FORM -24.8%, PI -24.6%, SWKS -22.6%, ARM -7.1%, F -5.3%, QCOM -4.5% lower on earnings; APPS +25.2%, AMSC +14.8%, TTMI +13%, COHR +12.5%, UTI +7.3% higher on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: APPS +25.2%, AMSC +14.8%, TTMI +13%, COHR +12.5%, UTI +7.3%, CCK +7%, RAMP +6.9%, EZPW +5.8%, PAHC +5.1%, RYN +4.9%, NWSA +3%, DLX +2.4%, CENT +2.2%, ALL +2%, CSGS +1.8% (also increases dividend), MC +1.6% (also increases dividend), SNEX +1.4% (also declares 3-for-2 stock split), SKWD +1.2%, WFRD +1.1%, PYCR +0.7%, OHI +0.5%, BKH +0.2% (also increases dividend), MKL +0.1% (also to conduct review of its business)

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: KIRK +6.4% (KIRK finalizes $25 mln investment from BYON), GDRX +3.3% (names new CFO), DIN +2.9% (Applebee's segment president to step down), INSG +2.4% (exec chairman departs to become CEO of SWKS), CBOE +1.7% (reports Jan trading volume), RXRX +1.3% (Phase 2 Data for REC-994), MRUS +0.7% (NEJM publishes data on Zenocutuzumab), MESO +0.6% (stock offering by selling shareholders), SXI +0.3% (acquires McStarlite), JBL +0.2% (consortium of investors have exited their equity stake in Pharmaceutics Intl and have closed on a transaction to sell the co to Jabil), COST +0.1% (reports Jan same store comps)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: FORM -24.8%, PI -24.6%, SWKS -22.6% (also names new CEO and new chairman), LFVN -22.2%, SRTS -18.5%, SYM -15.3%, AOSL -14.2%, WEX -13.9%, SIMO -13.5% (also authorizes new $50 mln share repurchase program), MTRX -13.4%, MOH -9.5%, CNMD -8.4%, VKTX -8.4%, DGII -7.5%, PLUS -7.3%, ARM -7.1%, BARK -6.6%, CPAY -5.9%, ALGN -5.4%, F -5.3%, HP -5.1%, BLBD -4.6%, QCOM -4.5%, CTVA -4.4%, NTGR -4.1%, FR -3.4%, MCK -3.1%, MUSA -3.1%, PTC -3%, BDX -3% (also to separate its Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business from the rest of BDX), HOLX -2.5%, REXR -2.2%, ORLY -2.1%, ENSG -1.9%, CTSH -1.7% (also increases dividend), UGI -1.5%, MET -1.3%, RRX -1.2%, MSTR -1.1%, AFL -1%, GL -0.9%, AVB -0.6%, SU -0.6%, ENS -0.5%, STE -0.5%, DHT -0.3%, STC -0.3%, TENB -0.3%, SAFE -0.2% (also authorizes new $50 mln share repurchase program), UHAL -0.2%, ASGN -0.1%, BV -0.1%, HI -0.1%, HMN -0.1%, KMPR -0.1%, NVST -0.1% (also authorizes new $250 mln share repurchase program), RDN -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: KURA -7.3% (reports topline results from KOMET-001 Phase 2 trial of ziftomenib), MNR -6.7% (launches 12 mln unit offering), IRWD -2.8% (to be removed from S&P SmallCap 600), SONO -2.7% (announces restructuring, including 12% workforce reduction), CRM -1.7% (COO to retire, names Robin Washington as new COO/CFO), ZETA -0.3% (moves up earnings reporting date), BEN -0.1% (files mixed shelf securities offering; also reports Jan AUM), EA -0.1% (enters into accelerated share repurchase agreement), HI -0.1% (to sell 51% stake in Milacron to Bain Capital for $287 mln), PAC -0.1% (reports Jan traffic), DG -0.1% (announces changes to leadership team)

WSJ : DOGE Aides Search Medicare Agency Payment Systems for Fraud

DOGE Aides Search Medicare Agency Payment Systems for Fraud
Elon Musk’s allies have been on site at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offices this week

Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where they have gotten access to key payment and contracting systems, according to people familiar with the matter.

The DOGE representatives have been on site at the agency’s offices this week, the people said, and they are looking at the systems’ technology as well as the spending that flows through them, with a focus on pinpointing what they consider fraud or waste. DOGE representatives are also examining the agency’s organizational design and how it is staffed, the people added.

White House and DOGE officials didn’t comment.

Musk’s allies have moved swiftly to exert control over vast swaths of the U.S. government, including at the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. They have demanded access to sensitive information at federal agencies and laid out plans to block spending they deem excessive.

CMS in particular is a highly politically and economically sensitive agency. It is the nerve center of much of the nation’s complex healthcare economy, with outlays of about $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2024, or about 22% of the federal total. With around 6,710 employees, it oversees Medicare, the health coverage program for older and disabled Americans and Medicaid, for lower-income enrollees, among other areas. Many veteran CMS staffers have worked there for decades.

A CMS official said in a statement that the agency has “two senior agency veterans who are leading the coordination with DOGE,” and that CMS leaders are “taking a thoughtful approach to see where there may be opportunities for more effective and efficient spending in line with meeting the goals of President Trump.”

One of the systems accessed by the DOGE representatives is CALM, or the CMS Acquisition Lifecycle Management system, which includes information about contracts, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

One of the people familiar with DOGE’s work at CMS said that, to their knowledge, Musk’s allies hadn’t yet been given access to databases that include identifiable personal health information of Medicare or Medicaid enrollees. DOGE also hadn’t yet accessed a sensitive accounting system called HIGLAS, or the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System, this person said.

The DOGE access is “read-only,” meaning that its affiliates cannot make changes to the systems, the person added.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the high-profile physician and former television host, has been nominated to lead CMS, but hasn’t yet been confirmed by the Senate. Several CMS officials who are expected to work under Oz have already taken over at the agency.

TechCrunch : Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini

Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini

Google launched its much-anticipated new flagship AI model, Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental, on Wednesday. The announcement was part of a series of other AI model releases. The company is also making its “reasoning’ model, Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, available in the Gemini app.

Notably, Google is releasing these AI models as the tech world remains fixated on cheaper AI reasoning models offered by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. DeepSeek’s models match or surpass the performance of leading AI models offered by American tech companies. At the same time, businesses can access DeepSeek’s models through the company’s API for a relative steal.

Google and DeepSeek both released AI reasoning models in December, but DeepSeek’s R1 got a lot more attention. Now, Google may be trying to put its Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model in front of more eyes through its popular Gemini app.

As for Gemini 2.0 Pro, the successor to the Gemini 1.5 Pro model Google launched last February, Google says that it is now the leading model in its Gemini AI model family.

Google accidentally announced the Gemini 2.0 Pro model’s release in the Gemini app’s changelog roughly a week ago. But this time, it’s for real. The company is releasing an experimental version of the model on Wednesday in its AI development platforms, Vertex AI and Google AI Studio. Gemini 2.0 Pro will also be available to subscribers to Gemini Advanced in the Gemini app.

Specifically, the new Gemini Pro model excels at coding and handling complex prompts, per Google, and it comes with “better understanding and reasoning of world knowledge” than any of the company’s previous models. Gemini 2.0 Pro can call tools like Google Search, and execute code on behalf of users.

Gemini 2.0 Pro’s context window is 2 million tokens, meaning it can process about 1.5 million words in one go. Expressed another way, Google’s newest AI model could ingest all seven books in the Harry Potter series in a single prompt and still have about 400,000 words left over.

Google is also making its Gemini 2.0 Flash model generally available on Wednesday. This model was announced in December and is now available to all users of the Gemini app.

Lastly, possibly to rival the excitement surrounding DeepSeek’s models, Google is introducing a new, more cost-efficient AI model, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite. The company says this model outperforms its Gemini 1.5 Flash model, but runs at the same price and speed.

FT : What would be in the MAGA Fund?

What would be in the MAGA Fund?
Sovereign Wealth fun


We wrote in November that President Trump was super-keen on a US sovereign wealth fund. We first focused on the crypto aspects of his plan, but it’s worth recalling that:

 . . . in September, he promised the Economic Club of New York to make America its own sovereign wealth fund, “to invest in great national endeavour to the benefit of all of the American people”, funded by “tariffs and other intelligent things”. Among a list of uses for this wealth fund, he said that it would “return a gigantic profit which will help pay down national debt”.

On Monday, he signed an Executive Order directing the Secretary of the Treasury to come up with a plan within 90 days to create a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

Rather touchingly, the executive order ends by noting that the UK wants to start developing its own SWF.

This may have been a way to forestall the common criticism that countries need to run budget surpluses if they want to build sovereign wealth funds. We actually agree they don’t. Sovereign Wealth Funds tend to be canonically divided into savings funds (piggy banks for the distant future), stabilisation funds (piggy banks for rainy days), and strategic funds (special purpose vehicles into which state assets can be thrown and managed). Turkey, for example, has run a SWF despite a persistent budget deficit and current account deficit over the past decade.

Anyway, the EO argues that a SWF could start with the $5.7 trillion in assets that the US government already directly owns when natural resource reserves are excluded.

That’s a lot of assets! Unlike thousands of other US government websites, the US Treasury’s website has not yet been taken down. On it we found a government balance sheet detailing assets worth $5.4 trillion at the end of 2023, which is maybe close enough. So what are they?


There’s a lot to chew on. Being America, the numbers are all very large.

It’s striking, for example, that the federal government’s $566 billion valuation of all of its furniture, fixtures and equipment eclipses the combined market value of Australia’s Future Fund and Singapore’s Temasek. And its book of student loans and tax prepayments together had the same value as Tesla. (Not that we’re suggesting that this would be a good trade.)

Hidden away in the Cash & Other Monetary Assets section is the country’s gold reserve, valued at a mere $11 billion of book value. Using today’s market price this would swell what we’ll call the MAGA Fund by a further $732 billion, to a little over $6 trillion.

Chucking all your office furniture into a Sovereign Wealth Fund to raise the potential asset value may strike some as a little preposterous. But we thought we’d give you a glimpse as to the international sovereign wealth asset landscape in the event that this was pulled off.

How would this new fund work? Early signs are that governance might be top-heavy. On signing the Executive Order, this is what Trump had to say:

We’re going to be doing something, perhaps with TikTok, and perhaps not. If we make the right deal, we’ll do it. Otherwise, we won’t but I have the right to do that. We might put that in the sovereign wealth fund.

Readers will recall that one of Trump’s first actions on taking office was to suspend for 75 days the enforcement of a law requiring ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell or close down the site in the US — supposedly on national security grounds. Faced with closure, we don’t have to stretch too hard to imagine that the price of otherwise zeroed assets might not be high. And if Trump really is the type to make offers you can’t refuse, any US Sovereign Wealth Fund might be able to quickly accrue assets at low prices.

A President-led governance framework would also give the administration the ability to provide an exit for any friends trapped in private equity deals or those seeking to cash out of private firms at elevated valuations. So swings and roundabouts.