Latest news with #Amsterdam-headquartered
AU Financial Review
01-07-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Inside the high-frequency trading floor where grads are paid $250,000
Stockbroking is tough, fund managers face intense competition from index-tracking robots. Still, there's one corner of the market that's living it up, if not quite Wolf of Wall Street-style – high-frequency traders, where finance meets technology. And at its centre is Optiver, the Amsterdam-headquartered market-making and trading firm. Here, graduate salaries head north of $250,000. Then there's the new office, five levels in the centre of Sydney CBD that opened this week and will act as the firm's headquarters in Asia. Sure, Optiver has offices in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. But the timezone in Sydney is ideal, and the lifestyle is attractive enough to lure the best traders.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Infrastructure is a solid bet: Ferrovial exec
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Even as federal infrastructure dollars have become more uncertain in the U.S., the private sector can step in to help close the public funding gap. That's according to Silvia Ruiz, global head of investor relations at Amsterdam-headquartered civil engineering firm Ferrovial, who noted that urbanization and population growth are driving the need for transportation, data centers and energy projects, making infrastructure an attractive sector for investors. 'From express lanes to smart cities, infrastructure demand is soaring,' Ruiz told Construction Dive. Indeed, infrastructure is a hot item for the likes of New York City-headquartered investment manager BlackRock, according to Infrastructure Investor. In addition, last month, Barings, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, collected $950 million for its private equity and infrastructure fund for high-growth energy, digital infrastructure and transportation assets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Here, Ruiz talks with Construction Dive about private infrastructure funding, global trends and which sectors are set to be hot in the coming years. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. SILVIA RUIZ: We believe infrastructure is an attractive sector from an investment point of view — stable, inflation-resistant and fueled by state spending. Through public-private partnerships, the private sector helps close the funding gap, ensuring industry stability. Consumers interact with major infrastructure daily by driving on highways, passing through airports and witnessing firsthand the surge in travel and tourism. By investing in what they know and use, investors can develop a deeper understanding of how the industry grows over time, like with population influxes to growing cities. Overall, as cities, communities and businesses grow across the U.S., the need for infrastructure projects and improvements increases. For example, we're seeing continued growth in highways and airports, driven by cities' needs to alleviate congestion and airport modernization efforts as populations grow. The necessity of infrastructure creates a steady demand for investments. We remain bullish on the infrastructure sector. The long-term need for modern, resilient infrastructure in the U.S. remains unchanged as the industry supports community growth in America's expanding cities. Ferrovial has a track record of financing, designing, building, operating and maintaining large-scale infrastructure across industries. We work proactively to maintain compliance, minimize risks and ensure that our projects contribute to shared objectives such as improving transportation, fostering economic growth and enhancing safety. Since we invest equity in developing these projects, public funds can be allocated to address other local needs. We expect to see strong growth in transportation, data centers and energy. Developing efficient highways and modernizing aging airports will continue to be essential. We're optimistic that public-private collaboration will continue to be a growing trend as demand increases and budgets are limited, and the private sector can help to close that gap. We've also seen energy demand rise exponentially to help power AI processing through data centers and expect continued growth to help power technology demand increase. Globally, infrastructure investments are increasing particularly in rail, energy and digital infrastructure sectors, driven by the trend of more people moving to fast-growing cities. Infrastructure, particularly for the highway and airport sectors, has rebounded significantly following COVID-19 with most nations reporting travel figures higher than pre-pandemic numbers in 2024, showing the industry's resilience. In the first quarter of this year, Ferrovial's highways division delivered 14.1% year-over-year revenue growth. Notably, 407 Express Toll Route in Canada delivered double-digit EBITDA growth despite adverse weather conditions. These mobility solutions are essential assets, indicating just how resilient infrastructure is as an investment due to its continuous operation. And the need for these projects only increases to meet growing community demands. First and foremost, population influxes to cities and increases in travel due to that movement continually drive infrastructure investment. Public-private partnerships continue to be a successful focus in delivering essential transportation needs, from efficient highways to modernizing airports. We're tracking the rise in energy demand alongside the growth of data centers and sustainable AI cloud solutions. While our current investment is modest, we've established new divisions to explore the opportunity. For now, our primary focus remains on U.S. express lanes. Ultimately, the future of infrastructure lies in how well we adapt to new technologies, to global challenges and to the evolving needs of the communities we serve. We see that as both a responsibility and an opportunity. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
ABN Amro profit beats estimates on fees, bad loan provisions
[AMSTERDAM] ABN Amro Bank reported first-quarter profit that beat expectations after higher fees and lower-than-forecast provisions for souring loans helped offset the effect of declining interest rates. Profit at the Amsterdam-headquartered bank came in at 619 million euros (S$902.8 million) for the three months through March, compared with the analyst estimate of 543 million euros in a Bloomberg survey. Fee income grew 8 per cent due to higher assets under management and increased trading volumes that drove income from clearing, better than estimated. 'Fee growth is continuing, and the business momentum is good,' chief financial officer Ferdinand Vaandrager said in an interview. The results are the first to be presented by Marguerite Berard, a former BNP Paribas executive who was named to the bank's top role last month. She takes over the reins as the continent's banks grapple with the European Central Bank's interest rate cuts and the potential economic fallout of tariffs. ABN Amro is also working on containing expenses arising out of an increase in staff it had brought in to boost data capabilities and for regulatory programmes over the past year. In April, the firm imposed a hiring freeze to help achieve cost targets. 'After a few quarters of rising costs, we managed to reduce our underlying costs' in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, Berard said in a statement. 'To deliver on our guidance of keeping underlying costs broadly flat compared with last year, cost discipline remains a priority,' she said. The firm forecasts costs of between 5.3 billion euros to 5.4 billion euros this year and reiterated its outlook for net interest income. Berard is set to lead a review of the bank's activities to improve profitability, with ABN Amro's next strategic plan due to be presented at a capital markets day in November. This comes as the Dutch government, which is the lender's largest shareholder since its bailout, is in the midst of reducing its stake to about 30 per cent. ABN Amro has previously said it will provide an update on a potential share buyback along with second-quarter results. BLOOMBERG
Wall Street Journal
23-04-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Just Eat Takeaway Posts Flat Growth for Key Metric, Backs Guidance
Just Eat Takeaway TKWY -0.18%decrease; red down pointing reported a flat result for a key metric in the first quarter, as growth in Europe and the U.K. was offset by declines elsewhere, and maintained its full-year guidance. The Amsterdam-headquartered food-delivery group said Wednesday that gross transaction value–a key metric for the industry which refers to the total amount of transactions it processes on its platform–for the quarter remained flat at 4.72 billion euros, equivalent to $5.39 billion, from 4.70 billion euros for the same period a year earlier.
Zawya
11-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
China has considered opening its $520bln ETF market to Western market makers, sources say
China has been looking at allowing Western firms such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street to act as market makers in its rapidly growing exchange-traded fund (ETF) sector, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Over the last two years, Chinese authorities have issued more licences and encouraged the development of domestic market makers. But international market makers are more experienced in providing liquidity to ETFs and the move would boost trading efficiency and lower costs, the people said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. The sources cautioned, however, that the escalating trade war with U.S. that has seen China saddled with tariffs of 145% this year could delay Beijing's official green light for U.S. firms. ETF market makers serve as liquidity providers, offering continuous bid and ask quotes for ETF shares which allow investors to trade the products efficiently and at lower cost. Licenced market makers in China enjoy lower fees and less restrictions in trading. Billionaire Ken Griffin's Citadel Securities and Jane Street, two of the largest market-making firms in the U.S., as well as Amsterdam-headquartered Optiver may be the first to benefit when the market is opened up, according to one of the people and a third source. Citadel Securities applied in January to set up its own securities broker unit in China. The China Securities Regulatory Commission, Citadel Securities and Jane Street did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Optiver declined to comment. China's ETF sector has expanded 134% over the past two years to be worth $510 billion, driven by strong inflows from state capital that has propped up the stock market. It is now the second-largest ETF market in the Asia Pacific region after Japan's, which is worth $620 billion. Foreign financial firms have in recent years been granted wider access to China's domestic securities, funds and insurance sectors. Even so, many foreign firms have trimmed headcount in mainland China and pared back expansion plans, concerned about slow growth for the world's second-biggest economy and the rise in geopolitical tensions. Last year, firms doing so included Fidelity International, Morgan Stanley and Legal & General. (Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)
