Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870 – 1924), the Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist better known by his alias ‘Lenin’, was reputed to have remarked that ‘there are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen’. His observation seems to aptly characterise the first quarter of 2022, as a defiant Vladimir Putin plunged Europe into the largest conflict, and resulting humanitarian crisis, since World War II. Our thoughts and prayers are with the brave people of Ukraine and all those affected by this ongoing tragedy.
Price returns for the first quarter of 2022 reveal some striking numbers, but also conceal the vastly different journey for asset classes over the period, as investors attempt to navigate a rapidly shifting financial market landscape. The war has coincided with a period of rampaging global inflation, a reescalation of pandemic concerns following further strict lockdowns in China and a resurgence in global COVID cases, and a far more hawkish tone from both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
TEAM plc (LON:TEAM) is building a new wealth, asset management and complementary financial services group. With a focus on the UK, Crown Dependencies and International Finance Centres, the strategy is to build local businesses of scale around TEAM’s core skill of providing investment management services.