Week in Business: The billionaires backing Britain
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Virgin supremo Sir Richard Branson, businessman John Caudwell and JP Morgan top dog Jamie Dimon – quite the quartet – have all made some fascinating interventions this week.
Let’s start with BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, running more than $11 trillion on behalf of pension funds, private clients and sovereign wealth funds – CEO Larry Fink told The Times that they’re bullish on Britain – believing UK assets to be undervalued.
Fink was explicit, saying he has more faith in the UK economy than he did a year ago. He went on to sing the government’s praises – rowing in behind Labour’s long-term growth agenda.
And of course, long-term is the key phrase here.
When you’re deploying hundreds of billions of pounds into UK investments you’re not looking to cash out just because the FTSE hits a new high – BlackRock plays the long game – we’re talking about major infrastructure investment and multi-decade timeframes.
You could argue that Fink is putting his money where my mouth is – in the sense that regular viewers will know that I’m fully supportive of the government’s long-term agenda on infrastructure, housing, planning reform, nuclear energy and new runways – a veritable shopping list for the likes of BlackRock.
The concerns about employment rights reform or national insurance contributions do not bother the likes of BlackRock any more than daily market movements do or any more than a fly would bother an elephant.
These kinds of investors look above the fray to place long-term bets and it’s encouraging that the UK is seen as a safe haven for long-term capital.
Larry Fink’s view was echoed by one of the world’s top bankers, Jamie Dimon, who told the FT yesterday that he fully supports Rachel Reeves’ pro-growth agenda based on the government’s commitments to open markets in the face of Trump’s tariffs and the ambition to boost UK infrastructure spending while reviewing regulatory burdens. Dimon still puts the odds of the US economy tumbling into recession at 50:50, so again, it’s encouraging that he views the UK as a solid bet.
Will the UK benefit from a US brain drain?
Let’s turn to our third billionaire, John Caudwell, who also has strong views on the state of the United States and he uses his CityAM column today to suggest that the UK could benefit from a flood of US talent leaving the country.
Indeed, he says that we should roll out the red carpet for the scientists, academics, medical researchers and highly skilled individuals either quitting or being fired from US institutions as the Trump administration asserts itself.
Caudwell cites research showing a “remarkable mass migration of minds and money” out of the US and towards Europe. His message to those wishing to escape the MAGA mindset is that the UK offers a leading research ecosystem fueled by some of the world’s best universities, in addition to one of the only trillion-dollar tech sectors outside of the US.
He’s echoing the point made by another of our columnists Lewis Liu, the AI founder and US citizen with a soft spot for Britain. Lewis wrote a few weeks ago that as much as it pains him to advocate it, the UK should be aggressively going after US talent in science, academia, the law and tech – luring them to the UK with the promise of stability.
Our fourth billionaire – Sir Richard Branson – made the same point this week when he was in London, opening a new Virgin hotel in Shoreditch, where he told the BBC that the UK is “one of the few countries in the world that is stable” – and that Trump’s unpredictability has caused huge damage to the US. He said the UK remains a fantastic place to start a business – even if he did nod to record high taxes.
He’s right, of course, that the UK is a fantastic place to start and grow and business – which is why I’ve spent so much time ranting on this show about the poor short-term decisions the government has made – decisions which do make it harder and more expensive to hire people and grow – policies that make life harder for us mere mortals even if they don’t trouble the billionaires.
But, if we allow ourselves to think like a billionaire investor – to look beyond the noise, disruption and mistakes of the here and now then yes, the future is bright.
And yes, it’s nice to hear these four billionaires say so.