Investors' Chronicle

We begin the show with consumer goods giant Unilever (ULVR) – soon to be somewhat smaller, given the $45bn spin-off of its foods business to US spice and sauce maker McCormick (MKC). The reaction to the news, though, has been distinctly underwhelming. Erin Withey examines what it means for Unilever’s future.

Then we turn to Berkeley (BKG), the housebuilder, which, this week, published an unscheduled negative update, less than three weeks after it told investors everything was fine. Hugh Moorhead explores what the company’s retrenchment says about the UK’s wider housebuilding goals.

Lastly, we discuss what is perhaps the UK’s very own meme stock – microcomputer maker Raspberry Pi (RPI). Its shares rose almost 50 per cent in one day following its full-year results. Arthur Sants explains how the company ended up part of the AI boom and whether there’s a decent business underneath it all.

Read more here:
Why the market is turning against Unilever’s $45bn food deal
Raspberry Pi ups sales volumes but margins tighten

Episode timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:21 Unilever
09:54 Berkeley Group
18:30 Raspberry Pi

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Investors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities.

Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At £5.7bn, Artemis Global Income is one of the largest global income funds available to UK investors. It posted enthusiastic returns in 2025, well above what you would normally expect from this kind of strategy. But has this made the portfolio holdings expensive, and where does it go from here?

Manager Jacob de Tusch-Lec talks to Val Cipriani about being nervous about what comes next, whether the war in Iran means 2022 all over again for stock markets, and how he feels about AI.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:07 What is Artemis Global Income?
02:26 Three buckets
04:21 Importance of valuation
05:40 Recent performance
10:49 Are we going back to 2022?
16:20 AI investments
19:19 Financial industry
24:05 Is there value in the UK?
27:26 Recent changes
32:50 When to sell
34:21 Emerging markets

Investors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities.

Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s been another seesaw week as the world weighs up the chances of an end, or at least a cessation, to hostilities in the US-Israeli war with Iran. President Donald Trump is taking a more conciliatory tone, but in this case, a U-turn is not in his gift alone and with Iran talking tough, the optimism of earlier in the week has started to ebb as we record today’s show.

The episode starts by looking in more detail at some of the implications of the continued pressure on the Strait of Hormuz, the key global shipping route that has in effect been put out of action by the war. Alex Hamer is here to discuss the implications for everything from energy (and UK energy policy) and fertiliser to helium. The broad conclusion is of course that prices are going up, but we dig into the detail during the show.

We move on to look at one early victim of the uncertainty in the shape of UK engineer and private investor favourite Goodwin (GDWN), whose shares halved this week on a disappointing trading update. Alex Newman will consider the extent to which some of these problems were of its own making – or at least down to poor communications.

Finally, amid all the uncertainty – and rising bond yields – the stability of an annuity may look more attractive to some of those in or approaching retirement. Holly McKechnie is with us to talk about the pros and cons of the products.

Episode time stamps:
00:00 Intro
01:33 Strait of Hormuz
17:38 Goodwin
33:52 Annuities

Listen to more podcasts from Investors’ Chronicle Apple, Spotify and YouTube or by clicking here

Investors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities.

Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Val Cipriani and Holly McKechnie are back with a new episode of Women & Wealth, and unpack the UK’s student loan system and growing debt burden facing graduates.

The funds editor and personal finance editor for Investors’ Chronicle explore why women often end up paying more, how repayment rules really work, and what the system means for your finances.

Student loans have undergone several reinventions over recent years, but the current focus is largely on Plan 2 loans, taken out by undergraduates between 2012 and 2022. These have become particularly onerous following changes made by the Conservative government in 2022.

Val and Holly look at the three key repayment terms to be aware of, and the other factors that affect how much you pay back.

Maternity, salary gap and employment opportunities in fields studied more by women mean that the student loans issue disproportionately affects them. Val and Holly discuss this, as well as how to minimise your exposure and pay less over the long term.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:58 The state of student loans
01:50 Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 5 student loans
04:40 Why Plan 2 is so bad
08:20 Loan or tax
10:15 Why it impacts women more
13:45 Is Plan 5 better?
15:11 What you can do about it
17:22 When you should overpay

Read more on the student loan issue on Investors' Chronicle:
How to survive the student loan system

Women and Wealth is the monthly podcast series from Investors’ Chronicle. You can listen to and watch the episodes, alongside our other podcasts, on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

Investors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities.

Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s show, we begin with industrials. It was only a month or so ago that the sector was being touted by many as a potential safe haven from AI disruption. Then the US/Israel war with Iran began, and the merits of energy-intensive physical assets were hastily reconsidered.

But of course not all industrials are alike. Today we take a look at top-performing Diploma (DPLM) – crucially more of a distributor than a manufacturer – whose shares rose by a fifth after its latest trading update. We’ll also examine Essentra, which has had a far worse time of it for many years but is now starting to see improvements. Valeria Martinez is here to ask whether both companies can maintain their operational progress in the face of a variety of external threats.

Our big read this week is all about the price investors pay for buying and selling shares. Most DIY investors will know whether or not they’re charged a trading fee when they buy or sell investments, but what actually happens behind the scenes when those trades are executed? Hugh Moorhead is here to explain more and ask whether the system could be improved.

Lastly, we look at another sector that’s likely to feel a significant second-order impact from the war: real estate. And yet, as we’ll discuss, the mood at a recent industry conference was relatively upbeat. Hugh will touch on everything from housebuilders to the London office market and more.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:35 Diploma
06:02 Essentra
11:54 Mechanics of trading
22:39 Real estate

Investors' Chronicle has supported private investors in the UK for over 160 years by highlighting rewarding investment opportunities.

Investors' Chronicle is a service by the Financial Times.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.