Companies & Funds

Top Glove triple listing bid is a stretch

3 March 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.

Xi’s green campaign will restructure state sector

3 March 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.

Twitter’s future looks like its underwhelming past

2 March 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.

Sustainable debt may be too popular for own good

2 March 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 March 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.

Capital Calls: Exxon, Greensill, Research SPAC

2 March 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 March 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 March 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 March 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 March 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 March 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.

Finance pioneer Greensill hit by old-school risks

1 March 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 March 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 March 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 March 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 March 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.

Danone has plenty more cash cows to milk in China

1 March 2021

Chief Executive Emmanuel Faber has unveiled his latest plan to placate activist investors. He wants to sell its $2 bln stake in China Mengniu Dairy. It means pulling out of a growing firm. But peddling Danone’s own brands to thirsty Chinese consumers will keep the cream flowing.

Goldman’s 1MDB pain looks light next to AmBank’s

1 March 2021

The Malaysian lender is paying what equates to 30% of its market value for its part in the sovereign fund scandal, more than four times the Wall Street firm’s ratio. Domestic politics is at play, but AmBank’s fine is ominous for global banks yet to draw a line under the affair.

Unizo mess could make Japan M&A less hospitable

1 March 2021

Less than a year since the hotelier’s $2 bln takeover battle, it is under pressure from the massive debt used to repay buyout backer Lone Star. An aggressive deal structure exacerbated pandemic risks. The danger is that Japan Inc’s more open-minded approach to deals closes again.

The house always wins with SPACs

26 February 2021

In poker, if you don’t know who the sucker is, it’s you. That’s also true of blank-check firms like the one that just did a deal with Lucid Motors. Sponsors, SPAC traders, merger co-investors and target-company owners all rake it in. Regular shareholders get the crumbs.