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Reeves blinked on income tax and chose fiscal drag instead
(UPDATED) The Budget on 26 November 2025 delivered around £26bn of tax rises, but not via the headline rate hike Starmer was telegraphing earlier in the month. The Chancellor instead extended frozen thresholds to 2030-31 and stitched together a "smorgasbord" of smaller measures. Tax-to-GDP is heading to a post-war high of 38%. Fiscal headroom doubled to around £22bn, which is still only 0.6% of GDP and thin against forecast volatility. The detail is where it bites: 2pp uplift
Yiwang Lim
Oct 25, 20253 min read
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Yiwang Lim
Jun 7, 20251 min read
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Yiwang Lim
Jun 5, 20251 min read
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Yiwang Lim
Jun 4, 20251 min read
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Yiwang Lim
Jun 3, 20251 min read
Elon Musk’s xAI: Why a US $113 Billion Tag Is More Than Just a Moon-Shot
Key numbers at a glance Metric Latest figure Context & source Secondary share sale (tender offer) US $300 mn Allows early staff liquidity...
Yiwang Lim
Jun 2, 20253 min read
Public Windows into Private Capital – Why Listed Vehicles Still Matter
Market euphoria around anything labelled “private” shows no sign of abating. Assets under management in global private markets hit $13.1...
Yiwang Lim
Jun 1, 20253 min read
Switzerland’s Currency Paradox: How the World’s Strongest Franc Still Powers Export Growth
A currency that just won’t weaken Since Bretton Woods collapsed the Swiss franc (CHF) has appreciated against every major currency....
Yiwang Lim
May 31, 20252 min read
Is Private Equity Now Trapping Capital?
The Great Exit Logjam Public markets have staged a remarkable rebound since the Covid lows – the S&P 500 is up almost 95% over five years – yet private equity is stuck in the slow lane. There are an estimated 12,000 unsold PE-backed businesses in the US alone. At the current exit pace of around 1,500 per year, it’ll take the better part of a decade to clear the backlog. Capital returned to LPs has collapsed. Where distributions once hovered around 30% of NAV annually, they’re
Yiwang Lim
May 30, 20253 min read
EQT’s Contrarian Bet on America
When most LPs are trimming their US private-equity exposure, Stockholm-based EQT AB (€273 bn AUM) is gearing up to do the opposite. Founder-chair Conni Jonsson told the FT that “everybody is running away from the US – that might be a good time for us to do more”. Below is my quick take on why the Swedes might be onto something – and the key risks to watch. Why the timing looks attractive Valuations & exits under pressure. Bain counts c.30 000 unsold PE-backed companies worth
Yiwang Lim
May 28, 20252 min read
AI-Fuelled Demand Powers Europe’s Electrification Champions
The “picks-and-shovels” trade is alive and well on this side of the Atlantic. Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, Schneider...
Yiwang Lim
May 27, 20252 min read
Rethinking IRR: Understanding PE's Key Metric
The headline numbers that won’t die KKR still touts a 25.5 % gross “since-inception” IRR and Apollo waves a 24 % net badge. Impressive –...
Yiwang Lim
May 26, 20252 min read
Britain’s Fintech Stumble: Can VRP Help Us Catch Up?
London used to set the global pace in payments: Faster Payments (2008) gave us near-instant transfers years before the US FedNow pilot,...
Yiwang Lim
May 25, 20253 min read
The great climate pull-back — but is it really the end of green finance?
Over the past quarter we’ve seen a procession of household-name banks temper, defer or ditch their headline net-zero targets. HSBC has...
Yiwang Lim
May 24, 20253 min read
Stay Invested, Diversify Your Bonds
Another burst of tariff headlines has knocked the S&P 500 2.6% lower on the week and pushed the 30-year US Treasury yield back through 5%...
Yiwang Lim
May 23, 20252 min read
GM’s Battery Gambit
Quick take GM is already the largest EV-battery cell maker in North America and targets a further $30/kWh cost cut in 2025 via cheaper...
Yiwang Lim
May 22, 20253 min read
OpenAI’s $6.5B Bet on Jony Ive: A Strategic Play to Redefine AI Hardware
The tech world is buzzing after OpenAI’s landmark acquisition of Sir Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup, io, in a $6.5 billion all-equity...
Yiwang Lim
May 21, 20253 min read
Builder.ai’s Insolvency & What it Means
London-based Builder.ai, once a $1.6 bn “no-code” darling backed by Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority, has filed for...
Yiwang Lim
May 20, 20253 min read
Why AI Won’t Save Junior Bankers From the Grind (And Why That’s a Good Thing)
Slightly different to my usual posts, but still a topic I find very interesting & relevant... The Financial Times’ recent coverage of AI...
Yiwang Lim
May 19, 20253 min read
Data is the New “D” in DCF: Navigating the Emerging Markets for AI Training Data
The AI stack has long been summarised as power + compute + data. While investors have poured capital into gigawatt-scale data centres and...
Yiwang Lim
May 18, 20253 min read
UK Banks Push to Break the Fence — BoE Weighs Smarter Ringfencing
The story so far The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has asked supervisors to sketch out ways of easing the UK’s...
Yiwang Lim
May 18, 20253 min read
Private Capital’s Crossroads: Smart Allocation or Strategic Misstep?
A Mispriced Opportunity with Risks Few Are Pricing Properly The UK’s recent Mansion House Accord represents a bold attempt to re-energise...
Yiwang Lim
May 16, 20253 min read
The Rise of the 'Stealthy Wealthy': Unveiling the Power of Unassuming Enterprises
In the realm of wealth accumulation, the spotlight often shines on high-profile sectors like finance and technology. However, a...
Yiwang Lim
May 15, 20252 min read
Perplexity’s £11 bn Capital Raise: a 140× ARR Wager on the Future of Search
AI-native search challenger Perplexity has inked a $500 m (£400 m) series-E led by Accel, vaulting its valuation to $14 bn (£11.2 bn)....
Yiwang Lim
May 14, 20252 min read
AI’s Content Crunch: Why Data Licensing Is the New Battleground
Generative AI is devouring text, audio and video faster than GPUs can crunch it. After two years of legal skirmishes, the creative...
Yiwang Lim
May 13, 20253 min read
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