Aurelia Butler

If approved by a vote of partners at both firms, the tie-up would be one of the largest law-firm mergers in recent years and result in a firm with around 3,900 lawyers across 49 offices worldwide.Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, which will be called A&O Shearman for short, “will be the only global firm with U.S. law, English law and local law capabilities in equal measure,” the two firms said in a joint statement.They said the deal will give Allen & Overy greater access to the U.S. corporate client base of Shearman & Sterling, which in turn would benefit from A&O’s global reach.The planned merger comes just months after Shearman & Sterling abandoned talks over a tie-up with transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells.Shearman & Sterling announced in February it was laying off attorneys and business professionals in the United States. It has also seen a number of partner-level departures in recent months across several U.S. and international locations.Allen & Overy, which posted global revenues of $2.65 billion in 2021/22, is significantly larger than Shearman & Sterling, which generated about $1 billion, according to figures reported by The American Lawyer.The proposed merger would create the third-largest integrated law firm in the world by gross revenue, the two firms said, with a $1 billion practice in the United States. The firms’ joint statement gave no timeline for a partner vote on the deal.Allen & Overy senior partner Wim Dejonghe said the tie-up “supercharges our ability to serve clients in the U.S. market, which has long been a strategic priority.”Adam Hakki, senior partner at Shearman & Sterling, said “merging with Allen & Overy will dramatically accelerate our ability to meet (clients’) needs in an increasingly complex environment.” More

Hello and welcome to the working week.This week ends as the last one began, dominated by elections in Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the favourite going into the presidential run-off, but then commentators said the reverse last week and look where that got them.Joe Biden flies straight back from the G7 Summit to try to finally resolve the US deficit ceiling impasse. It has already seriously undermined his geopolitical agenda, forcing him to cancel scheduled meetings with Pacific Island nations and Asian partners in the Quad security network.JPMorgan Chase hosts an investor day in New York on Monday, with presentations by members of the executive management team. Chief executive Jamie Dimon has demanded an SEC investigation into the behaviour of investors shorting bank stocks to “finish” the sector’s recent disruption.British politicians, magic circle lawyers, bankers and those who generally aspire to influence in UK society need travel no further this week than west London for a sport of high-quality networking. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, a carnival of flora that has in recent years become a magnet for movers and shakers, bursts into life on Tuesday. Get an early glimpse of the 2023 displays from this piece by FT columnist Jane Owen.The Ukraine conflict will never be far from the headlines. In the diary, Nato’s spring parliament session concludes on Monday with Russia’s aggression high on the agenda. As summer beckons, the latest earnings season fades but there is a full diary for economic data reports, particularly from the US and UK. The main themes for this week’s results are retail (Marks and Spencer, Gap, Best Buy, Abercrombie & Fitch and Kingfisher), utilities (SSE, Severn Trent and United Utilities) and tech (Nvidia). Full details below.Thank you for those who get in touch about the Week Ahead. Email me at [email protected] or if you have received this in your inbox just hit reply.Economic dataThe notable reports in a run of American and British data this week are revised US first-quarter gross domestic product figures, the May minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee rate-setting meeting and UK inflation figures. The Bank of England is expecting the annual rate of consumer price inflation to drop almost 2 percentage points from 10.1 per cent in March to 8.4 per cent in April, above the consensus, which is closer to 8 per cent.For international economic comparison, there is the latest download of purchasing managers’ index data for manufacturing and services across the G7 nations.Central banks in Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey are expected to leave their interest rates unchanged.CompaniesAI mania has sent the share price of Nvidia through the roof, more than doubling this year. Its graphics processing units (GPUs) are the main workhorses for training large language models — and with perfect timing, the company started shipping its new H100 chips this year, the first GPUs specifically designed to handle transformers, the crucial technology behind AI large language models. There’ll therefore be much interest at Wednesday’s earnings call in how fast the company has been able to scale up production of the H100 to meet the latent demand.The restaurant industry by way of contrast is having a rotten time. On Monday Prezzo holds a company voluntary arrangement meeting, aiming to close stores and cut staff to recover the core business. If approved by at least 75 per cent of the company’s creditors, 46 of Prezzo’s 143 UK sites will close. But will it be enough?Crucial economic and company reportsHere is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.MondayChina, policy rate decisionEU, May FCCI flash consumer confidence indicatorJapan, core machine ordersJPMorgan Chase investor day in New YorkPrezzo company voluntary arrangement meetingUK, Rightmove House Price IndexResults: Big Yellow FY, Ryanair FY, Wincanton FY, Zoom Communications Q1TuesdaySociété Générale chief executive Frédéric Oudéa steps down at today’s AGM when his term expires. He is succeeded by Slawomir Krupa.EU, France, Germany, Japan, UK, US: Cips/S&P Global manufacturing and services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dataUK, public sector net borrowing dataUK, Kantar’s monthly supermarket sales, market share and inflation dataUS, April new residential sales figuresResults: Agilent Technologies Q2, AutoZone Q3, Cranswick FY, Intuit Q3, SSP Group H1, Statkraft Q1, Topps Tiles H1, Victorian Plumbing H1WednesdayEuropean Central Bank (ECB) Financial Stability ReviewGermany, Ifo Business Climate IndexNigeria, Q1 GDP figuresUK, April consumer price index (CPI), retail price index (RPI) and producer price index (PPI) inflation rate figuresUS, Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutesResults: Abercrombie & Fitch Q1, Analog Devices Q2, Aviva Q1 trading update, Close Brothers Q3 trading update, Kingfisher Q1 trading update, Marks and Spencer FY, Nvidia Q1, Severn Trent FY, SSE FYThursdayFrance, business confidence figuresGermany, final Q1 GDP figuresTurkey, monthly interest rate decisionUK, Q1 immigration statisticsUS, revised Q1 GDP and consumer spending figuresResults: Autodesk Q1, Best Buy Q1, Costco Wholesale Q3, Dollar Tree Q1, Gap Q1, Generali Q1, Hill & Smith trading update and AGM, Johnson Matthey FY, Medtronic Q4, Pets at Home FY, Qinetiq FY, Ralph Lauren Q4, Tate & Lyle FY, United Utilities FY, Workspace Group FYFridayFrance, consumer confidence figuresUK, April retail sales figuresUS, University of Michigan sentimentWorld eventsFinally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week. MondayBrussels, Nato parliamentary assembly Spring Session concludes. Speakers include Ukraine defence minister Oleksii Reznikov.France, ECB policymaker and Bank of France governor François Villeroy de Galhau speaks about monetary policy transmission at a conference at the French central bank.South Korea, a summit marking 60 years of EU-South Korea diplomatic relations takes place in Seoul between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk YeolMongolia, French president Emmanuel Macron completes a two-day state visit to the country following the G7 Summit.Papua New Guinea, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to co-chair a summit of Pacific Island leaders with his counterpart in Papua New Guinea James Marape, the first visit to the country by an Indian PM.UK, members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working as customer service advisers in personal taxation operations for HMRC in Glasgow and Newcastle upon Tyne resume an 18-day strike.US, South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott to make a “major announcement”, widely expected to be his decision to enter the 2024 presidential nomination race.TuesdayBrussels, EU Foreign Affairs Council (Defence) to discuss supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.UK, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a key networking event in the London calendar, opens in the gardens of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.UK, winner of the International Booker Prize announced in London.UK, ballot opens for members of the Royal College of Nursing to vote on whether to take strike action in response to the government’s latest pay offer. The ballot closes on June 23. A separate strike ballot among 10,000 London Underground workers by the RMT union closes today.WednesdayGermany, ECB president Christine Lagarde gives opening remarks at the 25th anniversary celebration for the central bank in FrankfurtUK, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and London Stock Exchange chief executive Julia Hoggett speak at the Net Zero Delivery Summit, hosted by the City of London Corporation in association with the COP 27 Egyptian Presidency.UK, a two-day strike begins by Ulverston-based workers at pharmaceutical company GSK, part of a series of walkouts throughout May at six sites across England and Scotland.ThursdayUK, 1,400 security officers at Heathrow airport resume strikes over pay, part of an eight-day programme of action throughout May. The Unite union says it expects the action to cause “inevitable disruption and delays”.US, Bank of England monetary policy committee member Jonathan Haskel speaks at Peterson Institute for International Economics in WashingtonUS, court hearing in New York for Steve Bannon, charged with money laundering, conspiracy, scheming to defraud for his role in the ‘We Build the Wall’ scheme.FridayBermuda, Bermuda Day. Financial markets closed.Hong Kong, Buddha’s birthday. Financial markets closed.SaturdayFrance, Cannes Film Festival concludesSundayFrance, French Open tennis tournament beginsIndia, prime minister Narendra Modi expected to inaugurate the country’s new parliament building in New DelhiItaly, municipal elections second round run-offsSpain, regional and municipal electionsTurkey, presidential election runoffUK, TransPennine Express’s contract expires, bringing the company temporarily into operator of last resort status by the British government More

“I’m open to the idea that we can move a little bit more slowly from here,” the newspaper quoted Kashkari as saying in a Friday interview that was published on Sunday. However Kashkari, a member of the central bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee, cautioned that his mind was not yet made up: “I would object to any kind of declaration that we’re done.”To contend with stubbornly high inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. central bank has raised sharply over the past year, including a 25-basis-point bump adopted earlier this month, bringing benchmark lending rates to a range of 5%- 5.25%, the highest level since before the 2008 financial meltdown.While inflation has shown signs of moderating since the summer of 2022, it remains well above the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed has faced calls to refrain from further tightening to lessen the risk of driving the U.S. economy into recession. More

China said that US chipmaker Micron Technology’s products posed “serious network security risks” as it banned operators of key infrastructure from buying them, in its first big measure against an American semiconductor group. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday announced that the company, which is the biggest US maker of memory chips, “posed significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain”. As a result, it ordered “critical national infrastructure operators” to stop purchasing products from Idaho-based Micron.The move follows a seven-week investigation into Micron by the CAC, a probe that was widely seen as retaliation for US efforts to curb China’s access to key technology. Last October, Washington introduced expansive chip export controls and the Netherlands and Japan have since followed.Analysts said Micron presented an obvious first target for Beijing as its tech would be more easily replaced with competitors’ chips from South Korean rivals Samsung and SK Hynix. Last month the White House asked South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if the sale of Micron products was restricted.China is an important market for Micron. Mainland China and Hong Kong generated 25 per cent of its $30.8bn in revenue last year, according to a person familiar with the matter.Paul Triolo, an expert on China tech at consultancy Albright Stonebridge, said: “This could be really bad for Micron. It depends how broad China’s definition of critical information infrastructure is, but this could include the financial sector, transportation, energy and data centres.” He added that data centres were a particularly important customer for Micron memory chips.Beijing’s edict comes a day after G7 leaders issued a stark rebuke of China during the annual meeting of global leaders in Hiroshima, decrying its human rights record, “non-market” economic policies and increasing military assertiveness in the East and South China Seas. Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra was part of a delegation of business leaders who attended the G7 summit. He dined with US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Citi chief Jane Fraser on Saturday night in the Japanese coastal town.“We have received the CAC’s notice of conclusion of its review of Micron products sold in China,” Micron said in a statement. “We are evaluating the conclusion and assessing our next steps. We look forward to continuing to engage in discussions with Chinese authorities.”China informed Micron of its decision in a meeting in Beijing on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Micron had received no communication from CAC after responding to questions from the regulator in March until it was summoned for a meeting this weekend, the person said. “This is new for China,” Triolo said of the Micron ban, adding that Beijing was not taking the US actions “lying down”In its statement, the CAC said that “China welcomes global companies and various platform products into the China market as long as they follow China’s laws and regulations”. The regulator’s statement did not provide any information on the “security risks” posed by Micron’s products. Analysts warned that Beijing’s restrictions could even prompt Chinese companies that did not provide “critical information infrastructure” to seek to eliminate Micron from their supply chains.“The blast radius could be much bigger,” said Triolo. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said June 1 remains a “hard deadline” for raising the federal debt limit, with the odds quite low that the government will collect enough revenue to bridge to June 15, when more tax receipts are due.Yellen, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said there would be hard choices to make about payments to Americans if Congress failed to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling before Treasury ran out of cash and was forced to default.”I indicated in my last letter to Congress that we expect to be unable to pay all of our bills in early June and possibly as soon as June 1. And I will continue to update Congress, but I certainly haven’t changed my assessment. So I think that that’s a hard deadline,” she said.U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called Republicans’ latest offers in talks on lifting the government’s debt ceiling “unacceptable,” but said he would be willing to cut spending together with tax adjustments to reach a deal.He said he would speak to top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy on his flight home from his meeting with leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations in Hiroshima, Japan.Less than two weeks remain until June 1, when the Treasury Department has warned that the federal government could be unable to pay all its debts. That would trigger a default that could cause chaos in financial markets and spike interest rates.Asked if Treasury could possibly reach June 15 before running out of cash, Yellen said there was some uncertainty about the exact so-called x-date, but she doubted the money would last through June 15.”There’s always uncertainty about tax receipts and spending, and so it’s hard to be absolutely certain about this, but my assessment is that the odds of reaching June 15 while being able to pay all of our bills is quite low,” she said.Biden told reporters in Japan that he believed he had the authority to invoke the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to raise the debt ceiling without Congress, but said it was unclear that enough time remained to try to use that untested legal theory to avoid default.Yellen said invoking the amendment “doesn’t seem like something that could be appropriately used in these circumstances, given the legal uncertainty around it, and given the tight time frame we’re on.” More