Passive investing beats active. That’s the inference to draw from the fact that Warren Buffett won his bet against hedge fund Protégé Partners. Back in 2007 he bet that an S&P 500 tracker fund would outperform its selection of hedge funds up to the end of 2017. It did so so handsomely that Protégé Partners conceded defeat months ago. Chris Dillow believes this poses the question: if passive investing is so good why don’t more people do it? Click here to continue reading this week's column.
Back in December, director of Central Asia Metals and former majority shareholder in Kazakhstan’s largest bank Kenges Rakishev acquired a 22.4 per cent stake in the Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk. He met with the board for the first time this week to agitate for several strategic shifts in the wake of a boardroom coup that led to the ousting of chairman Peter Hambro, and the subsequent resignation of co-founder and chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy. Alex Newman reports on whether the latest developments could lead to a turnaround for the company.
Which FTSE 100 chief executive received the most pay in 2017? If you believe some media reports, the smart money will be on Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of Persimmon. But the company’s clever 2012 share award has made it a victim of its own success, says our pay expert Paul Jackson in this week's No Free Lunch column.
As ever, all of this week's stories can be found here.
