SBWire

Stocks and shares of airlines have been unstable since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with international travel having been subjected to some of the strictest restrictions across Europe. Earlier this month, Germany lifted some of the tough restrictions placed on visitors from countries such as the UK and Portugal, which resulted in a positive uptick but then quickly nosedived. Airlines such as Lufthansa, Ryanair, and the International Airlines Group all saw gains before the stocks across Europe fell with the pan-European Stoxx 600, London, Paris, and Frankfurt all seeing decreases.

The reopening roadmap continues apace in the UK and as we pass the latest milestone with more businesses bringing staff back into offices and warehouses, there are warnings about the consequences that this could have for energy consumption.

To take advantage of the digital transition that is underway in every aspect of modern life, procurement professionals must adapt and adjust to the new technologies and possibilities that can yield higher levels of productivity. The majority of older procurement procedures were designed around the aims of procurement, rather than processes that could have been helpful for those within the business. Procurement teams are now able to put the needs of the business at the core of every decision as a direct result of digitalisation. Platforms that concentrate on what users want can help improve compliance and play a greater role in generating development across an organisation.

A new report by HFM and the Alternative Investment Managers Association indicates that there is an increasing enthusiasm for hedge fund investment. In fact, around a third of investors are going to increase the investments they make in hedge funds during the second half of 2021.

According to the latest Biotech-Report for Germany conducted by Boston Consulting Group for VFA Bio, Germany remains the second largest manufacturer of active biopharmaceutical substances licenced by the European Union, with biopharmaceutical sales accounting for 30.8% of the overall medicines market. Based on the current study, biopharmaceutical sales (in the pharma and hospital sector) reached €14.6 billion in 2020, up 14% from the previous year.

Over the last century pharmaceutical researchers have been able to produce increasingly effective medications based on particular active components. Thanks to professionals in the research and development roles, we as a global society have been able to overcome numerous epidemics in very short periods of time through innovative and ground-breaking treatments.

In the current climate of working from home and online meetings, video conference tools like Zoom have safeguarded businesses' abilities to continue working effectively during the coronavirus pandemic. However, when conducting international business, language barriers can continue to impede effective trade.

Innovation is being pushed up to the top of the agenda in the UK thanks to the government seeking to co-invest alongside private enterprise in new and emerging technology. A £375 million fund has been announced that will mark a new era of R&D investment designed to make the UK a leader in its field in terms of tech innovation.

In May, the German Bundestag approved new legislation with regards to autonomous driving cars and is just awaiting the signature of the Chancellor. This new regulation paves the way for businesses to begin turning a profit from autonomous driving services, which, in turn, would boost research and development into the technology.

Digital banking has made huge progress over the past year with widespread adoption driven partly by the need to adapt to pandemic conditions and partly by momentum already in play. It's become obvious to consumers and organisations alike that the advantages of digital banking are real and tangible.

Bavaria, Germany's southernmost state, is in discussions with Intel to establish a European chip factory to alleviate supply constraints that have hindered automobile manufacturing, according to ministers. The US-based manufacturer has been pursuing 8 billion euros in government subsidies to establish a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Europe. A scarcity of semiconductors is causing problems for Europe's car manufacturers and may jeopardise Germany's economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fintech has been a significant growth area and has exciting potential for those pursuing financial services careers in Hong Kong. However, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) is currently taking steps to rein in the monopolistic behaviour that many fintech firms have been displaying. Most recently, Jack Ma's Ant Group has been on the receiving end of sanctions from the PBOC. According to the central bank, Ant Group is not the only offender as many other mobile payment companies have breached anti-monopoly laws and the PBOC intends to take action against them.

The law is a key tool in dealing with cyber security attacks and acting as a deterrent to those who may be tempted to engage in this kind of crime.

"Empty shelves" has been a headline that we have started to see a lot more of in the past month. Fears about disruption to supply chains as a result of Brexit and the pandemic are becoming very real. UK and Europe procurement and supply chain recruitment is crucial to ensuring that shelves remain stocked and supplies remain available all over the country.

According to some reports, the impact of the pandemic has been to accelerate the expansion of eCommerce by around six years. Grocery is one area that has seen a huge surge thanks to the lockdowns that have required almost entire populations to begin ordering in. While this represents a big opportunity for enterprises within this industry it's also a significant challenge.

COVID-19 has proven to be one of the most resilient of viruses with new waves rising up all the time. June and July 2021 have seen fresh clusters of the virus in the Asia Pacific region and this has continued to have an ongoing negative effect on global supply chains. Vaccination programmes in this part of the world have yet to achieve the same reach as in many others and, as a result, outbreaks can have significantly more impact.

Clean energy is having a big impact on many industries, including banking and financial services. One of the key investment banking developments in China & Hong Kong is the remodeling of sectors such as natural resources, metals and mining, as banks look to take steps towards better serving the sustainability needs of their corporate clients.

A partnership between Singapore's central bank and the private sector is being put in place to help develop the asset management industry in the region.

The most recent Investment Managers Outlook Survey from the Investment Management Association of Singapore offers essential perspective on how the industry is likely to evolve in this part of the world in the coming months and years. It provides effective insight into the latest investment management news Singapore and the challenges, developments and trends that are incoming.

Australia is a country with one asset that is particularly useful when it comes to renewable energy: a lot of space. However, this has not been one of the country's top priorities - until now. Earlier this year, renewable energy zones and dispatchable energy storage were listed as "high priority initiatives'' by Infrastructure Australia for the first time.

Renewable energy career opportunities across Asia Pacific encompass a very wide range of different specialities, both established and innovative. The Asia Pacific Region is home to some of the most forward-thinking projects in this field and a location where there is currently a lot of activity.

Longer lead times have been a consistent issue over the past year or so. While these longer lead times and supplier deliveries operating on a much slower scale are not unique to individual industries, electronic supplies have been particularly badly affected. In July 2021, the Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing Business Survey Committee highlighted how lead times are now at record highs across multiple industries and that this is likely to be a continuous problem going forward. In May this year, lead times for production materials came in at around 85 days. By June this had risen to 88, which is the highest number that has been recorded since monitoring first began. The increase is very stark in an area such as electronics - one respondent to the recent survey identified that lead times for components had shot up from 16 weeks to more than 62 weeks. This is a significant shift and one that even an investment in procurement recruitment may not produce an easy solution to.

The recent geopolitical developments, in regards to the pandemic, have appeared to create a fiasco in the commodities sector. From national lockdowns disrupting supply chains to monetary and fiscal stimulus fuelling inflation fears, many are debating whether we have entered a commodity supercycle where the supply and demand ratio becomes skewed.

Becoming a whistleblower is not an easy step for any professional. However, one of the whistleblowers in the most renowned cases of financial fraud has recently highlighted how crucial it is to protect those who are courageous enough to step forward in a situation where the rules have been broken. Sherron Watkins was an Enron executive who warned management about the fraud and created a report of Enron's use of complex off-balance sheet vehicles to try and disguise millions of dollars in losses. She has now spoken out about the importance of having confidentiality and anti-retaliation protection for whistleblowers, saying that what she did would have been much easier for her if the current protections had been in place at the time. Ms. Watkins highlighted how being labelled a whistleblower has impacted her career in the years since. She said that if current protections had been in place, she would have been able to submit her report in confidence and avoid many of the challenges that followed.

Payments and digital currency company Circle has had a successful recent history and this has led to speculation about whether it is about to go public. Now, this has been confirmed via the announcement of a deal with special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp which is due to happen later this year. The deal is worth $4.5 billion and will create the opportunity for Circle to make its public move. The motivation for signing the deal was described by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire as "an incredible opportunity to grow rapidly and grow around the world." Circle is now an eight-year-old start-up and has expanded in strength over the years. It has been responsible for co-creating USDC, which is the US dollar-backed stablecoin USD coin. While the deal announcement is clearly cause for celebration it also comes amid rumors that there is likely to be more regulation in the stablecoin market in the near future.