Until a few decades ago, the term 'billion' actually meant one million million (1e12) in the UK, rather than the now commonly-accepted meaning of one thousand m

Until a few decades ago, the term 'billion' actually meant one million million (1e12) in the UK, rather than the now commonly-accepted meaning of one thousand million (1e9). As a British paper, the FT may simply be trying to avoid the ambiguity.