Five fascinating business facts – Part 38

6.3bn

Cambridge university’s £6.3bn endowment fund, the largest in the world outside the US, is facing renewed pressure to abandon its investments in fossil fuels after 60 academics and leading campaigners warned they posed huge financial and reputational risks. Academics linked to Cambridge have stepped up efforts to push for action on carbon-intensive investments that are “incompatible with the Paris climate agreement”. Cambridge has repeatedly clashed with academics and students over divestment, partially because of concerns that research funding could be hit as several oil companies — including BP, ExxonMobil and Shell — have donated money to the university. In 2000, BP donated £22m to the university’s research fund.

3%

There may be no respite for the British pound after its worst weekly performance in a year. The sterling fell almost 3 percent last week, after a chaotic Conservative party conference cast the premiership of Theresa May in doubt. With political intrigue set to continue, the Brexit talks restarting and manufacturing data due, strategists anticipate another volatile week and investors in the options market have turned bearish. Meanwhile, May could be planning an overhaul of her team of top ministers soon, after plots to unseat her began to fizzle out.

$1.6bn

Ivory Coast is talking to French train equipment suppliers Alstom SA and Thales SAabout taking part in a 1.4 billion euro ($1.6 billion) urban-railway project to be funded by France, pushing out South Korean manufacturers that were part of the deal. The West African nation is about to amend an initial 2015 concession agreement for the project with a French-South Korean consortium known as STAR, and expects to sign a fresh deal with only French companies this month.

40%

Remittances from expatriate Egyptians rose 40 percent year on year in August, a central bank statement said on Sunday.

Remittances reached $16.3 billion since Egypt floated its currency in November through August, a 17.3 percent increase, the statement said.

1.7bn

Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol said on Friday it had saved $1.7 billion thanks to spending cuts since 2014 in response to lower crude prices. Oil companies across the world have made steep cuts to their annual capital expenditure over the last three years to cope with a slump in oil prices. Sonangol said in a statement production costs per barrel had nearly halved since 2014 and other cost cutting measure had helped it save $1.7 billion this year.