MILAN (Reuters) – Italian billionaire Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone has emerged as a leading player in the reshaping of Italy’s financial sector that is currently under way.
BATTLES IN GENERALI AND MEDIOBANCA
Caltagirone last year expanded his investments in Italy’s financial sector and is now a key shareholder in bailed-out bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) and fund manager Anima Holding.
On Friday MPS launched a surprise 13.3 billion euro all-share offer to buy merchant bank Mediobanca (OTC:), in which over the last five years Caltagirone has become the second-biggest investor.
He is the third-largest shareholder in Italy’s top insurer Generali (BIT:), with a 6.9% stake. Mediobanca is the top investor in Generali with a 13% stake.
Caltagirone has repeatedly complained that Mediobanca exerts excessive influence on Generali through the board and a governance system which allows outgoing directors to name their successors.
As a long-standing investor and board member at Generali, in 2022 he and late fellow billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio sought in vain to oust CEO Philippe Donnet.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government has approved contested corporate governance changes championed by Caltagirone, and criticised by fund managers, which tighten the terms under which a company’s outgoing board can file a list of successors.
Donnet’s term comes up for renewal in the spring and he is expected to be put forward for another mandate backed by Mediobanca.
WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN ITALIAN BANKING CONSOLIDATION?
Caltagirone’s holdings potentially pit him against UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel who in November launched a buyout offer for Banco BPM, shortly after BPM had launched its own bid for Anima and bought a 5% stake in MPS.
The Treasury in Rome has long favoured combining BPM with MPS, which both partner with Anima, and building a core of long-term shareholders as it re-privatises the Siena-based bank it rescued in 2017, sources have said.
Before UniCredit upended Rome’s plans, Caltagirone, with a 5% stake in MPS, a 5.3% Anima holding, and 2% of BPM, looked set to become a significant shareholder in the combined entity.
Caltagirone in December named two representatives to the MPS board, including his son Alessandro.
WHO IS CALTAGIRONE?
An Italian entrepreneur with interests in construction, the cement industry, real estate, publishing and finance, Caltagirone was born in Rome on March 2, 1943 to a family of Sicilian descent.
According to Forbes’ 2024 wealth ranking, Caltagirone is Italy’s 10th richest person with an estimated wealth of 5.6 billion euros ($5.9 billion).
He owns Rome-based daily Il Messaggero, Italy’s eighth-largest newspaper by circulation, which is broadly supportive of Meloni’s government, and several regional newspapers.
Despite his wealth and influence, Caltagirone keeps a relatively low profile and rarely gives media interviews.
He started out by reviving his late father’s building business alongside his two brothers and a cousin. He expanded in the 1980s with the acquisition of Vianini Group, a Milan-listed cement and infrastructure firm.
His cement company Cementir, listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, has a presence in 18 countries with 3,000 employees worldwide. It is the largest cement producer in Denmark, the third-largest in Belgium and among the main international grey cement operators in Turkey.
Caltagirone has three children – Francesco, Alessandro and Azzurra – all involved in his operations, but no designated successors.
David Maraniss, who has spent nearly five decades at the Washington Post, took to social media on Wednesday and bemoaned the fact that his employer “has utterly lost its soul.”
David Maraniss (right), longtime associate editor for the Washington Post, criticized his own newspaper on Wednesday. He is pictured with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in May 2019. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images“Essentially equating Biden’s questionable pardons with Trump’s outrageous Jan. 6 pardons was unconscionable,” Maraniss said. AFP via Getty Images
“The newspaper I’ve been part of for 48 years has utterly lost its soul.”
Maraniss, who has written biographies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, referred to an editorial titled: “Pardons from Biden and Trump flout the rule of law.”
“President Joe Biden started the trouble by issuing preemptive pardons for five family members as well as former members of his administration,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote.
“His rash action opens the door for future presidents to likewise immunize their families and staffs from merely theoretical prosecution by their successors — as though future presidents should be considered enemies whose actions must be defended against.”
In the next paragraph, the editorial calls out Trump for pardoning those convicted for their roles in the rioting at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“His reckless handout risks emboldening militias and others to commit future acts of barbarity in support of political aims. When such violence is tolerated, it happens more often,” the editorial read.
The New York Post has sought comment from the Washington Post.
Maraniss on Thursday told Status newsletter that it “disheartens” him “to see what is happening in this era of leadership” — a reference to owner Jeff Bezos.
The Washington Post editorial board criticized pardons issued by both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Getty Images
Bezos, the Amazon founder, has so far ignored a request from more than 400 of the newspaper’s staffers to visit the newsroom in the wake of an exodus of talent sparked by the decision to spike an endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“People are in utter despair,” a Washington Post staffer told Status. The newsletter said Washington Post employees found it “confounding … as to why Bezos insists on maintaining ownership of the newspaper.”
“While he once seemed to take pride in owning it, and perhaps even enjoyed that the outlet served as a bulwark against Trump in his first term, that no longer seems to be the case,” Oliver Darcy wrote in Status.
The Post has sought comment from Bezos.
In recent weeks, the Washington Post has parted ways with several high-profile reporters and editors who have decamped for other media outlets.
Washington Post staffers have asked for a meeting with newspaper owner Jeff Bezos. Getty Images for The New York Times
Philip Rucker, the highly regarded national editor, left for CNN, while longtime opinion columnist and Trump-basher Jennifer Rubin resigned to join Substack.
Ann Telnaes, the newspaper’s cartoonist, resigned after the publication refused to print her cartoon mocking Bezos and other tech moguls as being too subservient to Trump.
Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, two national political reporters, left for The Atlantic while investigative political reporter Josh Dawsey quit to join the Wall Street Journal.
Management at the newspaper has also laid down the law and told staffers that they are welcome to submit their resignation if they refuse to return to the office five days per week.
On Jan. 14, Paul bought $100,000 worth of call options for the then-little-known tech company Tempus AI.
Remember that name over the coming months; based on the Pelosis’ record, the stock is bound to go gangbusters.
In fact, the Pelosis have racked up so much profit off their portfolios that there’s a whole cottage industry of exchange-traded funds and social-media accounts tracking their every move.
Just the disclosureof Paul’s purchase sent Tempus AI’s stock surging — because everyone assumes Nancy knows something the general public doesn’t, a pretty rock-solid bet to make when it comes to one of the most powerful leaders in Congress.
Yet when politicians (and their undoubtedly in-the-know spouses) make incredibly “lucky” market decisions that earn them millions, the pubic is right to suspect some dirty dealing likely went down.
It’s a shameless, in-your-face snub. And it only bolsters distrust of elected officials, weakening political stability and enflaming resentment.
Heck, the Pelosis aren’t even discreet about it: Last year, Paul sold off more than $500,000 worth of Visa stock less than three months before the company got hit with federal antitrust charges.
Unless he’s some modern-day Nostradamus, that move reeks of insider knowledge, so much so that then-candidate Donald Trump called for Nancy to be prosecuted.
President Biden, meanwhile, stayed mum on the issue until the 11th hour, finally announcing that “nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress” in December. (A parting jab at Nancy for getting him kicked off the Democratic ticket?)
It wasn’t exactly a brave stance, considering he had one foot out the door.
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True, Nancy’s not the only pol who profits off stock trading; plenty of Republicans, too, rake in big bucks.
But she’s one of the most prolific: Her investment portfolio pulled in a sweet 65% return in 2023, way above the S&P 500’s 24% gain.
No, public service shouldn’t require a vow of poverty. But when electeds get rich off stock trades based on inside info, it’s patently unfair to less privileged Americans, bordering on outright corruption.
Trump, and the Republican-majority Congress, need to put an end to it once and for all.
I’m a big fan of the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement. The idea of building a sustainable passive income to supplement and hopefully replace my nine-to-five gig sounds ideal.
Of course, there is a lot of hard work, discipline, and good luck needed to achieve another earnings stream. I think investing in high-quality UK stocks is one of the most achievable ways for me to do this.
Here are three things that investors should be considering when building a passive income for the future.
Investing in the right stocks
Picking the right investments is key. Personally, I prefer stocks with high dividend yields as payout levels tend to be relatively ‘sticky’. Company boards tend to avoid reducing dividends substantially, when they can, to avoid sending the wrong signal to investors.
There are many high-yield stocks on the Footsie. One example is Legal & General (LSE: LGEN), which is currently yielding an impressive 8.7%.
That is well above the Footsie average of around 3.5% and one of the highest within the UK large-cap index. The company is a major player in the UK asset management industry and could benefit from pension consolidations as it seeks to grow assets under management and associated fees.
While high yielding, Legal & General isn’t one for me at the moment. The company’s dividend coverage ratio of 0.9 indicates its earnings aren’t covering its dividends and that creates question marks over future payouts. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio being north of 40 is another concern for me.
To that end, it’s important to be aware of the dividend value trap. This happens when investors buy a stock for its high yield but in reality the share price is falling due to poor performance, making the yield look artificially high.
While I’m all for dividend payers that can boost my future portfolio value, Legal & General isn’t one for me. There are several other Footsie stocks with strong yields including GSK, which I am considering.
Building sustainable savings habits
Investing in the likes of Legal & General and other dividend stocks is only possible with cash to invest. Investors that can build healthy savings habits for the long run are really in the box seat to build a sizeable passive income.
These habits are also helpful when hunting for bargains. Investors that have the cash available to buy when others are selling could potentially invest in some cheap stocks and propel their returns in the long run.
Having a rainy day fund
The above is all well and good, but investors can be easily caught out by market movements. The stock market tends to be cyclical, so a recession could impact the value of a portfolio at the same time as people need the cash most.
Clearly, it’s best to avoid selling at the bottom. One of the best ways for investors to protect themselves is by building a ‘rainy day’ or emergency fund to cover a reasonable amount of expenses.
That amount will vary for everyone, but I tend to keep three to six months’ worth of expenses tucked away. By doing this, while picking the right investments and steady savings habits, I can hopefully avoid forced selling and build a long-term passive income.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — People here are accustomed to this week’s weather, in which the roads are like bunny slopes and the flake-filled skies occasionally are illuminated by a flash of lightning followed by an ominous roll of thunder. There’s a name for it: thundersnow, and sometimes the visibility is so poor you can see only a couple of car lengths in front of you.
But Buffalo Bills fans, they can see all the way to New Orleans.
All it requires is winning at Kansas City on Sunday in the AFC championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. Although they have beaten the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs four times in the regular season, the Bills are 0-3 against them in the playoffs.
Buffalo Bills fans, these two shown sitting between snow-covered seats before the start of a December game, are as dedicated as it comes in any weather conditions.
(Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)
To Buffalo fans, the Super Bowl seems so close, even though a good portion of them weren’t born, or old enough, to remember when their team last played on the NFL’s biggest stage.
It was a historic run. Four consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 1990 through ’93, and four consecutive heartbreaking defeats. The first ended on a moment so scarring it’s known simply as “Wide Right,” when Scott Norwood’s final field goal attempt just missed its target from 47 yards and the Bills lost to the New York Giants 20-19.
“I was sitting on the floor watching that kick,” said diehard Bills fan Ashleigh Dopp, who was in grade school at the time. “I was so confused. I remember looking at my mom and asking, ‘What happened?’ And her face was just buried in her hands.”
Even in a snowstorm, it’s easy to pick Dopp out of a crowd. She stays warm in a faux fur coat she dyed in the colors of her team — red, white and blue — and turned that into a business, designing and selling similar coats for fans of lots of teams.
“They’re fashion-forward and super warm,” she said. “We’ve done Pittsburgh, Syracuse orange, Carolina, I’m working on a Green Bay, and Dallas Cowboys.”
She politely smiled through gritted teeth recently when a Chiefs fan asked for one.
Bills fans are used to heartache. They’ve learned to deal with it. What Tennessee Titans fans call the “Music City Miracle,” a game-clinching, cross-field pass on a kick return that led to a 75-yard touchdown and a playoff victory over Buffalo, the Bills faithful call “The Immaculate Deception” and argue it was an illegal forward pass as opposed to a legal backward lateral.
Then there’s “13 seconds,” a back-and-forth divisional playoff game against the Chiefs in 2021, when Mahomes orchestrated a drive for the tying field goal with 13 seconds remaining. That forced overtime, and Kansas City won the coin toss, received the kick and assembled a winning touchdown drive. The Bills never got to touch the ball in the extra period, and that prompted the NFL to change overtime rules in the playoffs so, regardless of what happens, each team gets a possession.
Despite the bitter cold, despite the string of spirit-sapping losses, Buffalo fans are as bonded and passionate — and resiliently optimistic — as any in sports.
“The younger generation, they’re so amped up,” said Mike Shatzel, who was born and raised in Buffalo and owns multiple bars in the city. “I think the older Buffalonians, they’re really excited but we’ve also got that skepticism that comes with those four Super Bowl losses and that 17-year playoff drought [from 2000 through 2016].
“I think we’ll beat K.C. It’s Mahomes. You never know. But I think this is the year we’re most positive in thinking we’re going to beat K.C. I think it’s our year.”
Funny, the Buffalo season didn’t start that way. This season looked as if it would be a soft reset for the franchise, which had parted ways with lots of key players, among them receiver Stefon Diggs, No. 2 receiver Gabe Davis, stalwart center Mitch Morse, starting safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, and onetime lock-down corner Tre’Davious White.
Bills fan Ashleigh Dopp stands next to a mural on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo that shows quarterback Josh Allen (17) and receiver Keon Coleman.
(Sam Farmer / Los Angeles Times)
What the Bills have is a premier quarterback in Josh Allen, this generation’s Jim Kelly. Allen is beloved, and there are tributes to him all around town, from the life-size cardboard cutout of him behind the lobby desk when you check into a hotel to the mural of him on the brick wall of a building on Hertel Avenue.
In the original version of that mural, he’s standing beside Diggs. They’re both in their Bills uniforms and both have opaque helmet visors covering their eyes. When the Bills traded Diggs to Houston last spring, that mural needed to be changed. It turned out to be an easy fix.
Rory Allen, who created it, put a bright-yellow, puffy coat on the receiver, whose face was completely covered. It’s the distinctive jacket worn by rookie Keon Coleman, so voila … the first-year receiver suddenly co-stars in a prominent mural alongside the star quarterback.
Rory Allen, no relation to the quarterback, has a graphic-design business and generated a lot of buzz in Buffalo by creating lawn signs that looked identical to political ones but read “Allen Diggs ’20.”
“During COVID, the Bills signs really took off,” he said. “People wanted to go to games but they couldn’t, so they were looking for things to spend their money on to celebrate the Bills. They were all over.”
One of the stranger traditions at Bills tailgate parties involves fans leaping from considerable heights — say the roof of an SUV — and doing a belly-flop onto a folding table that doesn’t stand a chance. In a way, these people sacrifice their bodies for their team.
Buffalo Bills fans show their enthusiasm at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.
(Jeffrey T. Barnes / Associated Press)
Their hearts too.
“When the Bills lose for the last time, there’s just that sense of the snow feels heavier, the sun goes away for longer, the wing prices somehow mysteriously go up a couple bucks an order,” Shatzel said. “People really get depressed.”
For Dopp, hope springs eternal. She booked her plane tickets to New Orleans in May and she’s weighing a trip to Kansas City for Sunday’s game, even though it’s really expensive on short notice.
But she’s realistic as well.
“It’s high anxiety, excitement,” she said, assessing the pulse of the city. “I’ve got to call my doctor for blood-pressure meds.”
PHILADELPHIA — The heartwarming video was shot seven years ago but has been making the rounds again lately. It’s of the late Kobe Bryant at home and gleefully watching his hometown Philadelphia Eagles win their first Lombardi Trophy.
It was shot in 2018 by Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, and originally posted on her Instagram account. The legendary Lakers star, cradling toddler daughter Bianka, paces in a darkened room at home while watching the Eagles put the finishing touches on a Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.
“Oh my god, yes, bro,” Bryant erupts as Tom Brady’s last-gasp Hail Mary falls incomplete. “We won the … Super Bowl. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. We won the … Super Bowl.”
Kobe Bryant, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jersey, reacts toward the referee during a game at Staples Center in 2005.
(Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)
The 1:25 clip, in which Bryant dances around in celebration, is especially poignant now. Not only are the Eagles one victory from another Super Bowl trip — they play host to the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game — but Sunday also marks the fifth anniversary of the horrific helicopter crash that look the lives of Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others.
The Super Bowl video harkens to a happy time, when Bryant wasn’t pulling off an amazing athletic feat of his own but was a relatable everyday football fan.
Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Mike Sielski, author of the 2022 book “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality,” said that brief video captures the essence of Bryant, who made the jump directly from Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburbs to the NBA.
“People here knew him when he was Kobe Bryant, high school basketball star, excellent student, kid who we got along with in the hallways,” Sielski said. “They didn’t know him as Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers superstar.”
Bryant had a complicated relationship with the City of Brotherly Love. His father, Joe, played for the Philadelphia 76ers, and at one point Kobe dreamed of following in his footsteps. In 1996, the 76ers used the No. 1 pick on Georgetown guard Allen Iverson and Bryant was selected 13th by the Charlotte Hornets, who promptly traded him to the Lakers.
When the Lakers played Philadelphia in the 2001 NBA Finals, Bryant famously said he wanted to “cut [the 76ers’] hearts out.” Naturally, that riled basketball fans in his old city.
“If the Sixers had drafted him and he had played for them instead of the Lakers, I don’t have any doubt he would have been the most beloved athlete in Philadelphia sports history,” Sielski said.
“Because he would have been the perfect combination of the talent and the commitment to winning and excellence. The idea of the Mamba mentality being born in Philadelphia and being part of that would have made him an absolute god here. I don’t have any doubt about that.”
Mike Egan understood that passion and loved Bryant for it. Egan was a top assistant at Lower Merion under head coach Gregg Downer during Bryant’s junior and senior years, and first met the hoops prodigy on the courts of the local Jewish community center.
“I first noticed this kid who was really fascinated by the fact that he could jump up and touch the rim,” said Egan, who was an assistant coach at Wilmington College in Delaware. “You sit around and you’re waiting for the game on the main court to end, and he must have jumped up and touched the rim a hundred times. Over and over again.
“The game started, and he was good. He was a skinny, maybe 6-foot kid, but he made good plays and I think he made the winning shot at the end.”
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Jeremy Treatman, a friend of the Kobe Bryant family, talks about the impact the Lakers star had during his years growing up in Philadelphia.
Egan was always on the lookout for talent, and he thought if the kid progressed and got a little bigger, he might be a fit for Wilmington. He asked young Bryant where he played high school ball.
“He said in a whisper of a voice, ‘I go to Bala,’” Egan said. “I’m thinking, `Where the hell is Bala High School?’ And I said, `Wait a second, how old are you?’ He told me he was 13.”
The coach quickly put it together. Bryant was a student at Bala Cynwyd Junior High and the son of Joe Bryant. Clearly, his trajectory had him on a loftier path than Wilmington. As the years passed, and Egan took a job at Lower Merion, the two became good friends.
“I just feel so fortunate to have gotten to spend as much time with him as I did,” Egan said. “I always say about Kobe that he would have been one of my favorite players I ever coached even if he was a terrible player, because he just loved it.
Lower Merion’s Kobe Bryant goes to the basket at the Palestra in Philadelphia during a 1996 playoff game against Coatsville.
(MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
“To be a coach, you have to be a little crazy. To give up all that time and effort with kids coaching a game. But he was as crazy as us. Just to see him and his work ethic and dedication and passion, just wanting to keep getting better all the time.”
Jeremy Treatman was a family friend of the Bryants, who dabbled in coaching but also organized and promoted basketball tournaments. In fact, he was running a girls tournament five years ago when he received word of the helicopter crash.
As with so many people, Treatman was in shock at the news. He thought about ending the event on the spot, but decided to continue, putting 33 seconds on the clock — matching Bryant’s high school jersey number — and asking for a moment of silence from the crowd.
“I remember I just grabbed a man I didn’t know and started sobbing on his shoulder,” Treatman said. “That was crazy. Just a complete stranger. At whatever point it hit me, I did that.”
He attended the celebration of life of Kobe and Gianna at Staples Center nearly a month later and was amazed at the outpouring of love from the sports world and beyond.
“I was so happy that Kobe had this impact and was so beloved,” Treatman said. “There were people who didn’t like him during his career. He had a star-crossed career. Battles with his teammates, battles with the press, battles with the law. For him to be beloved the way he was awesome.
“When he died, he was treated like the tragedy of JFK dying, of Princess Diana dying. It had that much of an impact. That blew me away. And what did it take to get Kobe Bryant off of the airwaves and the news cycle? It took COVID. You needed a story of that magnitude to get people to stop thinking about Kobe Bryant every day.”
With the Eagles a win away from another Super Bowl appearance, and the anniversary of the tragedy, Bryant is back on the minds and hearts of people in his hometown.
“The magic of that video is that you so rarely saw him in absolute, unfettered pure joy,” Sielski said. “It was always the next thing. Even when he won a championship it was almost like a relief as opposed to, `Oh, I’m a champion. This is the greatest thing in my life.’
“But in the video he’s so freaking happy, dancing around his house. I’m sure for people who knew him and loved him, there’s a part of them that’s thinking, boy, he’d be loving this too.”
Arnold attempted to break his fall by grabbing the railing with his left arm, but that didn’t stop his momentum as he ended up at the bottom of the flight of stairs.
Arnold hit the top stair with his right heel instead of the ball of his foot as his phone appears to be the root cause of what could have been a terrible accident.
Terrion Arnold fell down the stairs after looking at his phone a bit too long. X, @ArnoldTerrion
His lower back hit the ground first as he slid down the stairsm but he appears to have avoided a serious injury — although if the Lions had not been upset by the Commanders, he might have made an appearance on the injury report.
Arnold was a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and was among the best rookies in the NFL this year on one of the league’s best defenses when fully healthy.
Terrion Arnold couldn’t break his fall while going down the stairs. X, @ArnoldTerrion
The Lions dealt with a rash of injuries that eventually ended their season but Arnold was a stabilizing piece for the unit led by defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.
Glenn has since departed the Lions to be the Jets head coach.
Terrion Arnold had a strong rookie season for the Lions. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
“Couldn’t be happier for you coach thanks for everything u taught me in year 1,” Arnold posted on X when the news dropped that Glenn would not be back with the team.
Arnold had 10 passes defended and 60 tackles and consistently matched up with one of the opponent’s top receiving threats.
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Say goodbye to mealtime stress with this week’s meal plan, packed with easy, delicious recipes your whole family will love!
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Meal planning is the secret to stress-free, delicious dinners all week long! It’s so satisfying knowing what’s on the menu and having everything prepped and ready to go. Plus, with recipes that are easy to make and packed with flavor, you’ll spend less time wondering what to cook and more time enjoying amazing meals with your family.
Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps
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If you haven’t tried planning your meals ahead of time, this is going to be a game-changer for you! Here’s why I swear by meal planning:
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Quick and Easy Desserts
My weekly meal plans always include a printable shopping list that is measured out and ready to go. It makes things so easy!
Storing Leftovers for Meal Planning
I only meal plan Monday-Friday because we sometimes have plans over the weekend or I have leftovers that we can have to finish off the week! If you do have leftovers, make sure to store them properly in an airtight container in your fridge.
Listening to passengers talking about British Airways, there is no shortage of complaints. Listening to shareholders in BA’s parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE: IAG) however, I would be surprised to hear many complaints about recent performance. It was the best performer in the FTSE 100 index last year – and the IAG share price has doubled over the past year.
Despite that, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio continues to look relatively cheap. At 8, not only does it look pretty modest in absolute terms, it is also well off its highs over the past several years.
Created using TradingView
So, is there room for further share price growth at IAG – and ought I to invest?
Things could get better from here
I reckon there could be space for the stock to move up even more.
A key reason for the positive mood among investors over the past year is that IAG’s business performance has been improving. A look at the earnings per share demonstrates this.
Created using TradingView
Things are not yet back to where they were in say, 2018, but the direction of travel has been consistent and positive.
Revenue meanwhile, is ahead of where it stood in 2018. So, if the company keeps a tight rein on costs, that ought to provide an opportunity for profits to move even higher.
Created using TradingView
In the first nine months of last year, net debt fell by around a third. In November the company launched a share buyback, which I take as a sign of financial confidence on the part of the board (though personally I would be more attracted by the money being used to pay down debt or boost the dividend).
Civil aviation demand has been high and the company has struck a positive note about the outlook for this year without yet getting into detailed forecasts.
Am I ready to invest?
However, I have some concerns.
One is what IAG’s years of relentless cost-cutting and testing passengers’ loyalty mean for the business over the long term Yes, lately it has been trying to elevate elements of the passenger experience. But I think that is a reflection of its realisation that it had increasingly lost key competitive advantages as customers questioned why they should shell out big money for airlines with little in the way of service on many routes.
I also see a risk that, when the next big demand shock comes for civil aviation, it could once again hurt revenues, profits – and the share price.
From pandemics to terrorist attacks and recessions, such external shocks tend to pop up from time to time and sit outside IAG’s control to a large extent (or completely).
So while I think the share price could keep moving up, I do not like the risk profile at the current price and so have no plans to invest.
Kate Moss stars in Elisabetta Franchi’s spring-summer 2025 campaign. Photo: Luigi & Iango / Elisabetta Franchi
Kate Moss commands attention in Elisabetta Franchi’s spring-summer 2025 campaign. Shot in striking black-and-white by photography duo Luigi & Iango, the visuals highlight the collection’s mastery of contrasts.
Elisabetta Franchi Spring/Summer 2025 Campaign
Kate Moss poses with the Everywhere bag for Elisabetta Franchi. Photo: Luigi & Iango / Elisabetta Franchi
From a double-breasted blazer with structured shoulders to the sleek Everywhere bag, every piece exudes sophistication. Moss effortlessly pulls off a lace-up blouse paired with clean tailoring, proving why she remains a top fashion icon.
Her pose on a minimalist stool, combined with sharp stilettos and sheer tights, captures a mix of strength and sensuality.
Supermodel Kate Moss wears a blazer in Elisabetta Franchi’s spring 2025 ad. Photo: Luigi & Iango / Elisabetta Franchi
For beauty, hairstylist Lorenzo Barcella creates tousled waves, adding a carefree touch, while makeup artist Georgi Sandev highlights Kate’s striking features with a flawless finish.
Ready for her closeup, Kate Moss fronts Elisabetta Franchi’s spring 2025 campaign. Photo: Luigi & Iango / Elisabetta Franchi
Elisabetta Franchi describes the collection as a celebration of contrasts—light and shadow, strength and softness.
Kate Moss is the face of Elisabetta Franchi’s spring 2025 campaign. Photo: Luigi & Iango / Elisabetta Franchi
