Laith Al-Khalaf

Laith Al-Khalaf focuses on how corporate finance, regulation and private capital reshape major business sectors and the people who work in them. He has built his reputation as a business reporter at The Sunday Times, with a brief that centres on professional services firms, outsourcing companies and pharmaceuticals. His work consistently ties boardroom decisions and policy changes to tangible consequences for suppliers, employees and investors, whether in law firms, audit giants, banks or drug makers. More recently he covers banking and fintech, examining how technology-driven finance and regulatory reforms are changing the structure of the UK’s banking system. Across these areas he tends to report through detailed company stories, activist campaigns and government deals rather than abstract market commentary.

Private equity and professional services

A core strand of Al-Khalaf’s coverage is the growing role of private equity and large investment funds in professional services. He has written about why law firms are attracting private equity interest, profiling deals in which investors back legal businesses as part of a wider acquisition spree across professional services. His work on firms such as Xeinadin, which provides auditing and corporate finance services to small and medium-sized companies, follows owners and advisers as they explore auctions and strategic options for these practices.

He has reported on accounting giants facing downturns and job cuts while simultaneously increasing partner pay in response to fiscal changes, framing these stories around the pressures on partnership models and balance sheets. In a widely cited piece on McKinsey’s multi-billion-dollar hedge fund, he examined conflicts of interest between consulting and asset management, using expert commentary to probe governance and reputational risk at the heart of the firm’s business model. Articles on commercial real estate and education businesses such as Cognita extend this theme to other asset-heavy sectors, tracking how global investors value and exit portfolio companies.

Outsourcing, public contracts and corporate fallout

Another recurring focus is the intersection of government, outsourcing companies and employment. Al-Khalaf has covered the collapse of a major prison builder, reporting on the Texan tycoon behind the business, the thousands of job losses and the debt owed to a leading investment bank as the company went bankrupt. He has written about the £3 billion annual cost of housing migrants in hotels and the opaque companies profiting from each room booked, scrutinising how public money flows through private contractors.

His reporting on Whitehall’s agreements to pay private outsourcing companies additional bills from the budget looks at how fiscal decisions translate into revenue streams for suppliers. In coverage of border checks and paperwork introduced after Brexit, he has highlighted the impact of removing onerous controls on businesses ranging from garden centres to abattoirs, linking regulatory change directly to operational burdens and costs.

He has also examined safety and compliance issues in the gig economy, including the illegal use of modified vehicles by couriers seeking to speed up deliveries, reflecting his interest in how new work models collide with regulation. When activist investor Elliott pressed BP to close divisions and cut hundreds of jobs at its head office, Al-Khalaf reported the campaign as both a corporate restructuring story and a jobs narrative inside a global oil major.

Banking regulation and fintech

Al-Khalaf’s business reporting extends deeply into banking policy and the rise of fintech. He has covered plans to relax key UK banking rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis, explaining how changes to post-crisis safeguards could alter the way banks are supervised and structured. His more recent work as a banking and fintech reporter includes coverage of lobbying by traditional banks for fintech firms to help fund new “banking hubs” in the UK, designed to replace physical branches while digital-first players themselves operate without offering in-person services.

He reports on the tension between incumbent institutions seeking shared infrastructure and fintech companies built around online-only models, framing the issue as a question of who pays for access to cash and face-to-face services. Earlier pieces on international trade policy, such as the impact of US tariffs on vehicle imports on UK manufacturers and suppliers, show his willingness to connect macroeconomic decisions to the fortunes of specific industries and firms.

Across these stories his focus is on the mechanics of regulation, the lobbying around it and the business strategies banks and fintechs adopt in response.

Pharmaceuticals, technology and corporate strategy

Pharmaceuticals and technology-related disruption form another strand of Al-Khalaf’s work, reflecting his brief’s inclusion of healthcare and pharma alongside business and industry. He has written about AstraZeneca’s decision to end its Covid vaccine, analysing slowing demand and the strategic pivot by the company while competitors race to develop new vaccines for other conditions. In technology, his coverage of a “logic error” at CrowdStrike that caused widescale travel delays explores how a failure at a single software provider can ripple through airlines and airports worldwide.

He has reported on cyber incidents affecting retailers such as M&S and Co-op, focusing on how hacks squeeze small suppliers who are left with unsold goods and disrupted supply chains. Profiles of senior figures like Marco Amitrano at a major audit firm, who spent his early tenure cutting jobs and pay before positioning the business for an AI-driven era, illustrate Al-Khalaf’s interest in leadership decisions and their long-term strategic implications. He also conducts in-depth interviews with corporate chiefs, as seen in his discussion with an industrial group leader for The Times, using conversation with executives to draw out plans for growth, investment and restructuring.