Simon Hunt

Simon Hunt is City editor at City A.M., covering corporate deals, market swings and business strain with an emphasis on how decisions in the Square Mile affect companies and investors. His work tracks the health of the UK’s corporate landscape through stories on takeovers, buybacks, closures and financial regulation, often tying boardroom moves to wider economic pressures. He reports across formats, from live market blogs to in‑depth features and podcast discussions of the day’s major corporate stories.

City deals and market shifts

Hunt’s regular coverage of mergers, buyouts and listing decisions makes corporate deal flow a core thread of his beat. He has reported on the operator of the London Stock Exchange unveiling its biggest‑ever share buyback as it manages activist investor pressure and shareholder concerns about artificial intelligence, framing the move as part of a broader battle over the future of the London market. He tracks the pace of takeovers and public‑to‑private deals, including pieces on the UK being on course for its biggest year of takeovers since 2021 as more firms exit the London stock market under private equity ownership.

His FTSE 100 live blog coverage follows intraday market moves and sector‑specific swings, such as sessions in which the index rebounded while oil prices fell on hopes of a deal in the Strait of Hormuz, blending price action with corporate and geopolitical context.

Corporate strain and the real economy

Alongside deal coverage, Hunt writes extensively about corporate distress and business closures as a barometer of economic stress. He has detailed how recruitment firms are shutting at the fastest rate since the financial crash, using that sector to illustrate weakening demand and structural change in the jobs market.

In a wider look at “businesses on the brink,” he reported that company closures across Britain have surged to rates not seen since the financial crisis, presenting the trend as a major warning sign for the health of the UK economy. His stories often focus on specific firms under pressure, such as Britain’s oldest brewery weighing its future amid rising costs, to show how inflation and input prices are forcing difficult decisions even at long‑established companies.

He also highlights corporate governance and reputational risk, including coverage of drama in the City when a frontrunner for Lord Mayor withdrew over criminal proceedings facing a close associate, linking City institutions to the integrity of their leadership.

Regulation, politics and the Square Mile

Hunt’s finance reporting regularly intersects with regulation and policy, particularly where new rules reshape trading and capital markets. He has covered the UK financial regulator’s rulebook for the Pisces market framework, explaining how the new structure lays the groundwork for trading to begin later in the year and what it means for market participants.

His stories follow how City politics and international outreach feed into business, including coverage of plans for a London‑Africa business summit led by the city’s mayor to deepen trade ties with the continent. In pieces on firms like the London Stock Exchange Group, he ties corporate actions such as buybacks not only to investor pressure but also to shareholder fears over AI and regulatory scrutiny, reflecting a beat where technology, policy and markets overlap.

That mix of regulation, political initiative and boardroom strategy gives his work a consistent focus on the rules and relationships that shape financial activity in London.

Crypto ventures, retail investors and storytelling flair

Hunt has carved out a strand of coverage on crypto‑linked ventures and retail investing, often framed around fairness between insiders and ordinary shareholders. His reporting on a Farage‑backed Bitcoin venture, the acquis‑listed firm StackBTC, tracks how its shares fell by more than a third in a matter of months after retail investors were invited in at a price around 10p. In that work he contrasts the losses faced by retail buyers with gains for Nigel Farage, who acquired shares at roughly half that price shortly before the offer, using the episode to examine how deal structures can leave different classes of investors with starkly different outcomes.

He extends these themes into audio, discussing the same crypto story on a corporate‑news podcast alongside other major business moves such as Sky’s purchase of ITV’s broadcasting arm and leadership change at Ocado. His features also show a taste for unusual corporate structures, exemplified by a piece on a fast‑growing hotel group framed around a Nasdaq‑listed, Chinese‑owned, Cayman‑incorporated Scottish castle, where the narrative structure underscores how global capital and complex ownership vehicles play out in a single physical asset.

Across these stories, Hunt’s distinguishing mark is his focus on the mechanics of deals and market structures and the way they affect real companies and investors, rather than simply reporting headline price moves.

Formats and newsroom role

As City editor at City A.M., Hunt combines news editing with regular bylines on finance and corporate stories. His author archive spans hundreds of pieces ranging from fast‑turn corporate updates to thematic features on closures, regulation and the shifting fortunes of London’s markets. He appears regularly on the masthead’s Business As Usual podcast, where he and colleagues talk through economics, business and politics in an accessible format aimed at setting up listeners for the trading day.

This mix of newsroom leadership, daily markets coverage and deeper looks at structural change in UK business defines his role and the way his reporting shapes the masthead’s view of the City.