The FS Club Podcast

In October 2010 the UK Government gave the green light to eight new nuclear reactors. It would see the UK push forward with the most ambitious fleet of new nuclear power stations in Europe. On 11 March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster occurred and nuclear power plant investment in the UK was put on hold. It was not until September 2016 the Government approved the construction of Hinkley C Power Station, with work actually commencing in March 2017 and scheduled to finish in 2025.Originally estimated to cost £26bn latest cost estimates are £36bn with forecast completion dates ranging from 2027 to 2036.The level of investment in these large power stations has led many to consider Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Typically generating 300MW compared to the 1600 MW of the Hinkley C units they can be largely factory built, require lower investment and as the numbers produced are much larger manufacturing time and costs would benefit from the "learning curve” associated with building multiple units.To meet its carbon commitment the UK Government is now considering around seven SMR designs and is predicted to reduce this to two or three by the end of 2023. The ambition was to have SMRs operational by 2030 but latest announcements suggest a final investment decision by 2030 with construction starting around 2035. In the meantime renewable energy is becoming more attractive and new SMR designs are starting to appear and different power generation scenarios are being considered.As time slips by the dilemma facing the Government is: Should it invest in nuclear power? should it invest in SMRs? and if so... When should it make the investment? As time passes the decision becomes ever more complex.

The speed of change in the global energy mix is occurring at a historically rapid pace. TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque will discuss how the growing need for electricity and the urgency to address climate change have increased the need for advanced nuclear technologies to be part of the suite of solutions to meet the energy needs of the future. The Natrium reactor and energy storage system that TerraPower is demonstrating near a retiring coal facility in the U.S. is an innovative combination the provides both clean, baseload power and gigawatt-scale energy storage to support the energy transition.

In this 45-minute webinar, David Craddock discusses the historical contribution from the USA and Europe on the development of direct employee share ownership in the context of market economics; the capacity of employee share schemes to respond to the creative instincts of human nature; the interaction between business competition and business cooperation; and the mindset of entrepreneurship through employee shares participation.

The current UK funding mechanism for critical private sector ESG initiatives is clearly unsustainable. Current ESG objectives are at great risk unless one of the following occurs:

The authors of “competition in public procurement”, published by the UK National Audit Office will present their recent report and recommendations which are equally relevant for buyers and sellers across the public and private sectors. UK government spends over £250 billion every year on the procurement of goods and services. It is a broadly agreed principle that competition can help support efficiency, innovation and quality in public services, yet the government has not defined effective competition. When competition is lacking or ineffective, other safeguards are required, or value for money can be reduced through higher prices, inefficiencies and poorer outcomes. The new Procurement Act will be rolled out in 2024, and is underpinned by illustrative scenarios that suggest increased competition could deliver savings of £4 billion to £7.7 billion per year. This webinar points the way to achieving these benefits under the new legislation.

A regular speaker at the FS Club, EU Regulatory Expert David Doyle is back to give a new year update on the EU financial services regulatory agenda, which will cover:

The term unicorn to describe a private technology company with a valuation of more than $1 billion has become a common currency since it was first coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures. Unicorns have even become a symbol of national achievement with politicians [Rishi Sunak] vowing to transform the UK from a United Kingdom to a Unicorn Kingdom in 2023.

There has been a surge in the number of unicorns over the past decade with valuations pumped by more than a decade of cheap money. But recent geopolitical crises and rising inflation and interest rates have exposed the rampant overvaluation of some unicorns. The collective noun for unicorns is a blessing: now many investors might consider them a curse.

Frontier IP Chief Executive Officer Neil Crabb outlines the perils to investors of ignoring fundamental valuation metrics and explains the company’s approach to building companies, the factors needed to achieve outstanding success and what narwhals can teach us that unicorns can’t.

In our first Esop Sofa webinar of the year, the Esop Centre’s panel of employee share scheme experts will look back over the employee share ownership hot topics of 2023 and their pick of articles featured in “It’s Our Business”, newspad of the Esop Centre. Chairing the panel, Darren Smith of Global Shares, will be asking for their predictions for the year ahead, too.

Milan is the first centre to feature in our 2024 "Focus On" series, where we look at key business and financial centres from around the world. In this webinar:

In this discussion Hugh Morris, who has had a very long career in the City of London, will invite panellists to identify the three threat areas which each of them sees as most critical to the future security and prosperity of the UK and allied Western countries. The conversation will then turn to the principal worries of participants in the webclave, and at the end Hugh will invite comments on emergent threats that will then be covered in the spring 2024 Cityforum Resilience Assessment under preparation with help from the Cabinet Office and the National Preparedness Commission.