Sands’ Sin City sale might fund pivot to Australia 4 Mar 2021 The $50 bln casino company has filled its war chest after negotiating a rich price for Las Vegas assets. Crown Resorts would be an affordable addition to their Asia-Pacific empire, and the group founded by the late Sheldon Adelson would be welcomed by watchdogs Down Under.
Rare lender deal underscores India’s credit reset 4 Mar 2021 Creditors of real estate lender Altico voted to sell its assets to a unit of New York-listed Ares. The out-of-court resolution is a sign of maturity in a market where the regulator is too often forced to intervene. Foreign distressed debt investors have other things to cheer too.
UK recovery may not reflect its vaccine head start 3 Mar 2021 Rishi Sunak’s budget showed Britain’s rapid inoculations are aiding its economy. But while the finance minister will keep paying Britons’ wages until September, his longer-term stimulus is more meagre. A lot rests on businesses driving the recovery, even as he taxes them more.
Oscar’s $8 bln IPO is triumph of hope over scale 3 Mar 2021 The tech-driven newbie has made a start on disrupting U.S. healthcare. But bigger groups can offer more choice in care, negotiate better prices, and keep more premiums to themselves. Customer growth alone doesn’t make Oscar's 2020 revenue worth more than 10 times rivals' sales.
Capital Calls: BoE, Soros, Infrastructure, Pay 3 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The Bank of England starts to embrace the green transition; George Soros has some advice for France; Joe Biden gets a timely reminder of the importance of infrastructure; climate laggards risk getting hit in their wallets.
London IPO shakeup is more about SPACs than tech 3 Mar 2021 Finance minister Rishi Sunak plans to overhaul stock market rules to attract more listings. The changes may prevent some UK startups from defecting. But they also allow London to join the craze for blank-cheque offerings. The costs of weaker regulation will become apparent later.
Hey Hong Kong, leave those SPACs alone 3 Mar 2021 The Asian financial centre may ape Wall Street by letting blank-cheque firms list on its bourse. Yet it only recently squished a boom in shifty shell companies. And the issues SPACs claim to avoid aren’t relevant for Hong Kong IPOs. The exchange is better off steering clear.
Stellantis finds limits of cost-cutting 3 Mar 2021 The 43 bln euro Franco-Italian carmaker’s shares rose after its maiden results following January’s merger. Savings bolster CEO Carlos Tavares’ ambitious profitability goal. To raise the group’s lowly valuation, he needs to expand in Asia and have a bolder electric vehicle plan.
Xi’s green campaign will restructure state sector 3 Mar 2021 Shares in energy champions like Sinopec are rallying as they announce plans to serve Beijing’s carbon-neutral push. State firms generate 4.5% of global GDP; cleaning them would pay big dividends. But smaller players can’t pivot so easily. Green progress means dirty defaults.
Top Glove triple listing bid is a stretch 3 Mar 2021 The world’s largest rubber-handwear maker wants to sell shares in Hong Kong on top of Malaysia and Singapore. Firms with small home markets must often move to grow but few can juggle the complexities of three bourses. That may provide cover for it to ditch the least useful.
Meme stocks game could stop with Gensler 2 Mar 2021 The nominee to lead the U.S. securities regulator talked about trading gamification, inadequately funded platforms, and payments for order flow. The GameStop share-price roller coaster deserves a close look. But the SEC has other, perhaps tastier, fish to fry, like SPACs.
Biden finds Mohammed bin Salman is too big to nail 2 Mar 2021 The American president has taken heat for inaction over Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, despite judging him responsible for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. But MbS’ influence has metastasized across global finance. The fallout from sanctioning him would be more than diplomatic.
Twitter’s future looks like its underwhelming past 2 Mar 2021 Boss Jack Dorsey is aping features from Snapchat and Clubhouse, and making acquisitions in an attempt to double sales by 2023. Twitter isn’t the only tech firm with that kind of strategy. But the social network lags rivals, and past attempts to borrow and buy have flopped.
Chancellor: A bear market in bonds is beckoning 2 Mar 2021 Bond bull runs tend to last for decades, making it nearly impossible to accurately predict a turning point. But recent fixed-income extremes, together with the complacent attitude of central bankers and investors, suggest history’s greatest bond boom has passed its sell-by date.
Wall Street bosses’ pay sets course for conflict 3 Mar 2021 Morgan Stanley gave James Gorman a raise; JPMorgan kept Jamie Dimon’s pay at $31.5 mln. Goldman and Citi bosses took cuts because their banks misbehaved. Yet U.S. lenders benefited hugely from government Covid measures in 2020. That could make proxy season contentious.
Sustainable debt may be too popular for own good 2 Mar 2021 Investors are piling into bonds sold by companies such as H&M or Tesco which punish issuers for missing environmental targets. Demand has been such that the funding is now dirt-cheap. That could distort the price of the securities, and their intended effect.
Chip shortages are here to stay, for some 2 Mar 2021 Pandemic-led demand swings and trade wars have left factories short of semiconductors. The chip industry’s too-successful capital discipline is also a factor. The $450 bln industry’s coming splurge on new capacity will benefit smartphone manufacturers more than automakers.
The Exchange: The post-pandemic global economy 2 Mar 2021 Policymakers will face tricky choices about when to withdraw massive policy support as economic recovery kicks in. BNP Paribas’ group chief economist, William De Vijlder, joins Swaha Pattanaik to discuss their options, the focus on inclusive growth and the outlook for inflation.
Capital Calls: Exxon, Greensill, Research SPAC 2 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: U.S. securities regulators take on the oil giant; Investors in even lower-risk funds get nervy about the supply chain finance provider; And a supplier of picks and shovels to the online trading boom gets a blank-check listing.
Danone’s governance fudge sours activist defence 2 Mar 2021 Under pressure from shareholders, the $47 bln French food and dairy group said that Emmanuel Faber will give up his CEO role, but stay on as chairman. Faber’s continued influence may deter potential successors. The board’s decision to back his strategy also makes change harder.
Nio risks running low on power on Europe road trip 2 Mar 2021 The $78 bln electric-car maker’s net loss halved in 2020 as revenue doubled and costs fell. It has plenty of cash, too. But sales growth has slowed. And founder William Li’s plan to drive into Europe will be expensive, and hard for a Chinese luxury brand, sapping recent progress.
UK engineer bets that buyers will pay dual premium 2 Mar 2021 Renishaw’s two octogenarian creators want to use their 53% stake to sell to an entity that keeps its “heritage and culture”. That might deter private equity, while the engineer’s 5 bln pound-plus valuation is beyond domestic trade buyers. That could mean a pretty short shortlist.
Coupang’s next delivery: better disclosures 2 Mar 2021 South Korea's e-commerce darling is seeking a $50 bln valuation. It boasts heady growth and hefty losses. Metrics such as fulfillment costs, reported by peers like Amazon, are missing from its prospectus, though. Scant detail on new bets also makes the IPO math hard to justify.
Swelling Sea mostly flows in sound new direction 2 Mar 2021 Worth quintuple what it was a year ago, the $127 bln tech outfit is buying an Indonesian lender and won a digital bank licence in Singapore. Expanding in finance brings new risks but sensibly deploys capital to diversify. Venturing into Mexico, though, is a nouveau-riche misstep.
Wounded U.S. bank watchdog needs urgent care 1 Mar 2021 The OCC, which oversees giant lenders like JPMorgan, has gone astray. It went solo on community lending rules, banned banks from eschewing oil firms and let them settle over sloppy compliance with little explanation. A new leader can repair the damage, but time is of the essence.
Finance pioneer Greensill hit by old-school risks 1 Mar 2021 Credit Suisse suspended $10 bln of funds linked to the SoftBank-backed group. It grew quickly by helping companies raise money from invoices but is under pressure from overexposure to hard-to-value loans for magnate Sanjeev Gupta. Funding may now be scarcer and more expensive.
Arrival of J&J vaccine is sign of glorious spring 1 Mar 2021 Last March, the world realized in panic that lockdowns were here to stay. This month should unwind that reaction. The U.S. authorization of J&J’s new vaccine and rapid production increases by Moderna and Pfizer are good news for Americans, but also for everyone else.
Walmart’s fintech gain hints at Goldman’s loss 1 Mar 2021 Omer Ismail is leaving the Wall Street bank for a job at the $368 bln retailer, just two months after becoming head of Goldman’s consumer bank. Walmart could become a force in finance. But it’s also a sign that Goldman’s retail bank is losing some shine.
Capital Calls: Sarkozy’s trial 1 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: the former French prime minister’s conviction for trying to bribe a judge creates a new dilemma for the companies on whose board he sits, including hotel chain Accor.
Private equity growth fetish stores up future pain 1 Mar 2021 Last year’s $592 bln of deals were done at near-record valuations, according to Bain & Co. The consultancy reckons buyout barons are increasingly reliant on boosting sales rather than cutting costs. Since fast-growing targets are scarce, and pricey, it’s a recipe for low returns.