Matthew Feargrieve blog

সুইজর্লণ্ড: বাঙালি সিনেমা ও হেজ ফান্ডসমূহ

1:03 PM

রাইমা সেন: Raima Sen

সুইজারল্যান্ডের বাংলা চলচ্চিত্র শিল্প

বাংলা সিনেমা have always featured fantasy sequences, moments in the middle of the narrative where a song playsover a scene set in a beautiful location.

The northern Indian region of Kashmir was a popular backdrop for these Bollywood song sequences, but political unrest in the 1990s forced Indian filmmakers to find an alternative location.

Switzerland welcomed this surge in interest with open arms, and at the same time as the country was offering attractive tax incentives for বাংলা চলচ্চিত্র নির্মাতারা.

The majority of the Switzerland’s হেজ তহবিল are in three centres, all of which are part of the Greater Zurich Area:

Zurich

It is estimated in 2019 that the hedge fund industry in Zurich supported 5,000 jobs. Zurich is the centre of choice for managers, with around 60 hedge fund management companies established there.

There are around 15 fund management companies in Zug, a low-tax canton some 45 minutes by fast train from Zurich. There around another 15 based in Pfäffikon, a sleepy town some twenty-five minutes along the lake from Zurich which in the past fifteen years has enjoyed prominence as a centre of global alternative management thanks to the sizeable presence of হেজ তহবিল.

সুইজারল্যান্ড সম্পর্কে আরও পড়ুন:

https://medium.com/@matthewfeargrieve

Matthew Feargrieve investment management specialist joins Withers LLP to establish European investment funds practice in Switzerland

লেখক: MATTHEW FEARGRIEVE

coronavirus

CORONAVIRUS: Pourquoi le Royaume-Uni ne peut pas le Maîtriser

8:35 PM

airlines

Zurich Airport wins ACI Award

3:11 PM

CORONAVIRUS: Le Royaume-Uni ne sait pas Réagir

1:26 PM

aviation

AIRLINE BOSSES CASH IN ON CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

1:02 PM

CORONAVIRUS: EU Relaxes Landing Slot Rules

4:41 PM

EU Suspends Landing Slot Rules as COVID-19 Slams Airline Capacity

A British Airways flight, MXP to LCY, 9 March 2020.
BA have now suspended all flights between the UK and Italy.

Airlines operating routes in Coronavirus-stricken Europe have been flying ghost flights since the virus arrived in February. The UK's national carrier, British Airways, was reporting a 25% capacity hit around the middle of February, and it has not been alone in feeling the pain as capacity continues to get slammed.

Under EU rules, airlines operating out of Europe must run not less than 80 per cent of their flights on each slot, in order to maintain their hub presence and not forfeit slots to a competitor. This is the so-called “use-it-or-lose-it” rule. The continuing application of this rule by the EU has obliged airlines to run ghost flights, with only a handful of passengers aboard, at the cost of thousands of gallons of aviation fuel.

Following representations by the UK government to the European Commission, the EU headquarters in Brussels has indicated that the 80/20 rule will be suspended.

Before this decision, the rules had been suspended on only two previous occasions, namely 9/11 and following the outbreak of SARS in 2003 when (ironically) demand impact on routes was considerably lower than what airlines have experienced in the past three weeks. Now, the 80/20 rule has been relaxed on all routes operated in and out of mainland Europe, in addition to slots used to fly to China and Hong Kong.

Notwithstanding the UK's exit from the European Union ("Brexit"), the UK and its airlines (notably British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) are still obliged to play by EU rules until the end of 2020.

Staff at Korean Air

Ryanair have cancelled flights between the UK and Italy until 9 April, and easyJet have cancelled most of its flights to Italy, as have Air France. Spain has also banned direct flights with Italy, which amount to 9 per cent of all Spanish international air traffic. Norwegian Air has said it will cut about 3,000 flights in the next three months, about 15 per cent of its capacity.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has indicated that the virus could erase up to USD113 billion (GBP90 billion) from global airline sales. UK regional operator Flybe went into liquidation last week, as reduced capacity drove the final nail into the stricken carrier's coffin (more about this in our blog here:

https://matthewfeargrieve.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/matthewfeargrieve-coronavirus/

Meanwhile, Korean Air, having cut more than 80 per cent of its international capacity, has been making worrying noises about its ability to survive if the Coronavirus crisis continues. Which it looks set to do. Our eyes will soon be turning to the US, and its carriers, as the virus makes itself felt there. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have each warned that its profits targets for 2020 are under threat, and that they will likely need to reduce capacity on a large number of routes.

You can read more of Matthew Feargrieve's blogs here: https://medium.com/@matthewfeargrieve

Matthew Feargrieve

CORONAVIRUS: Why the UK is Getting It Wrong

12:49 PM

Spread of COVID-19 in UK could be worse than in Italy

Lessons from China not being learned

COVID-19

There are worrying signs from the UK government, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that the administration's handling of the rapid spread of CORONAVIRUS in the United Kingdom is based on political posturing, rather than medical science.

Does this mean that the UK will ignore the lessons being learned about the virus in Italy and in China?

British Stiff Upper Lip

The UK government seems determined to carry on as normal. Schools, universities and places of work — including Parliament — will remain open. Trains and buses will stick to their schedules. Under no circumstances will cities be closed off and their populations quarantined in their homes. The UK populace is being told to wash their hands frequently and for at least 20 seconds on each occasion. They are told to blow their noses into tissue and bin it. They are told not to touch their faces. They are told to stay at home if they are unwell. These steps are minimal, non-interventionist ones, designed to delay the inevitable spread of the virus.

Normality is to be preserved, no matter what. People in the UK are being told by the government that the mortality rate will be less than 1%, a figure based on the expectation that there are many more people with the virus than reported. On the other hand, the figure given by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 3.4%, a number that is holding up not just in China but in other major outbreaks around the world. Indeed, the WHO has urged governments around the world to spare no effort in taking pro-active measures to contain the spread of the virus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

“Negligent” and “ridiculous” is how many doctors have described the UK government’s response to COVID-19. There are insufficient beds and health workers in Britain's hospitals, even at the best of times, and beds for the critically ill and ventilators are in even shorter supply. As the UK Chancellor Stands up today in the House of Commons, the eyes of the UK population - and the world - will be on how the UK administration copes with Coronavirus from both a political, and a medical perspective. The indications at the moment, though, are not encouraging. It is to be hoped that the British government can get the balance between political robustness and the welfare of the population of the UK right.

You can read more of MATTHEW FEARGRIEVE’s blogs here: https://matthewfeargrieve.wordpress.com/author/mattfeargrieve2019/

Matthew Feargrieve