CAAT: 600 Finance Leaders Confirmed At Arms Finance Summit

This year, Farnborough International Airshow is introducing a dedicated Finance Summit alongside its usual exhibition of aircraft and weapons systems. The 3-day summit, hosted by Baroness Patience Wheatcroft, takes place across 20th-22nd July. More than 600 finance and investment leaders from 350 organisations are confirmed to attend. These include:

1. Major banks: Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, UBS,
2. Private equity firms: Blackstone, Carlyle, Warburg Pincus
3. Public financial bodies: British Business Bank, UK Export Finance and the London Stock Exchange.

Tuesday 21 July’s headline session is titled ”Defence Investment Strategy, Policy and Funding Models” - a workshop on how to finance weapons and war.

“Finance and investment have always been underlying themes of the airshow, but we wanted to give it emphasis to support the industry as it accelerates. The launch of the Finance Summit is our response to the growing demand from investors seeking direct access.”

• Gareth Rogers, CEO of Farnborough International

Barclays has been named FIA2026’s official strategic partner. Barclays has been a regular investor in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, and remains a primary dealer of Israeli government bonds. It also lends over £8 billion to companies supplying weapons to Israel, including BAE Systems.

UK Export Finance, the public body that underwrites British arms exports, is also attending the Finance Summit, seated alongside the same banks and private equity firms financing the industry it exists to support.

Farnborough 2024 closed its four day event with a record $105bn in announced orders. With exhibitor numbers reaching a record 1,400 companies this year and a dedicated finance track now built into the programme for the first time, analysts expect this year’s deal volumes and overall revenue to expand massively.

The Finance Summit makes explicit what had previously only been inferred: a direct channel linking the banks and financial leaders investing in the arms trade, the companies manufacturing the weapons, and the UK government bodies who license and underwrite their export…all connecting under one roof in Hampshire, eager to expand their trade.

CAAT will also be there. Stay tuned for an email with updates and logistics on how to get involved in our 20th July FIA action.

To mobilise this sort of resistance takes resources, organisation and time. 100% of our campaigning work is funded by our supporters, and thanks to your support we’ve managed to become a familiar face at the gates of Farnborough. But not all support is financial – spread the information, follow the socials, email your MPs, invite friends to actions, become a thorn in the side of these genocidal profiteers.

There is also still time to email featured hotels for Farnborough International Airshow and urge them to cut ties with the ‘Supermarket of Death’. Accommodating delegates who uphold the global arms trade implicates these hotels in the death and destruction Farnborough International Airshow facilitates.

Warm Regards,
Hassan

Campaign Against Arms Trade

Unit 1.9, The Green House,
244 – 254 Cambridge Heath Road,
London
E2 9DA

Tel: 020 7281 0297

Web: www.caat.org.uk

Email: [email protected]