Conglomerates

Flu-remedy shortages sap investor misperceptions

21 Dec 2022

Drugmaker GSK spun off $35 bln Haleon in July with legal issues, high debt and low expectations, but strong demand for children’s Advil and other medicines are providing a salve. Similar splits in media, oil and tech have defied the odds, too. Contrarian bets can be therapeutic.

Vietnam’s Tesla faces daunting Nasdaq road test

7 Dec 2022

Electric-car maker VinFast has filed for a U.S. IPO. It is unprofitable, has only just gone all-in on battery power, and its dependency on parent Vingroup may be a turnoff, too. The young marque could make a case for a $5 bln valuation, but investors will kick the tires hard.

Mukesh Ambani will take credit where it’s due

6 Dec 2022

The Reliance boss is pushing into consumer lending and might trim his stake in the $220 bln conglomerate to fund the move. A star-banker hire, and huge customer base are pluses. Still, there’s good reason for the tycoon to play down his ambition in this booming corner of finance.

Buffett places classic chips in $4 bln Taiwan bet

15 Nov 2022

His Berkshire Hathaway now owns 1.2% of TSMC. The semiconductor giant’s stock has taken a beating this year, in part on fear China might invade Taiwan, its HQ. But the company has a near-monopoly in cutting-edge tech. Such traits have long appealed to the Oracle of Omaha.

Capital Calls: Twitter ads, Supervoting stock

11 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: Elon Musk is giving big brands an easy out – and a drain on advertising is harder for Twitter to overcome than Facebook; a dual-class share structure enabled the ousted CEO of TuSimple to team up with his co-founder and sack the board.

A decade after split, Mondelez eats Kraft’s lunch

19 Oct 2022

The two food companies were once housed under Kraft’s brand. After a breakup 10 years ago, Mondelez bought smaller food businesses and stayed the course. Kraft plunged into a $80 bln deal with Heinz, and spent years integrating. Returns show big mergers don’t always pay off.

Capital Calls: Netflix struts

18 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $109 bln streaming service reversed its subscriber losing streak and reminded rivals of its first-mover advantage.

Capital Calls: TSMC

13 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $324 bln Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing barely addressed questions regarding U.S. technology export controls on China during its earnings call.

Samsung stares at use-it-or-lose-it cash dilemma

7 Oct 2022

Cooling demand for chips and smartphones hit operating profit at the South Korean trade bellwether. It’s trying to catch up to rivals on multiple fronts, and a crashing won cuts the cheque it could write for overseas M&A. Deploying its $77 bln war chest is getting trickier.

Beware spins from Danaher’s well-oiled M&A machine

4 Oct 2022

The $200 bln conglomerate plans to separate yet another division, this time packaging and water filtration. Its acquisition nous generates strong returns, but recent castoffs have disappointed. Transferring the parent’s kaizen-based system to its progeny is proving difficult.

Capital Calls: Buffett’s Berkshire successor

4 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The Omaha oracle owns $100 bln of stock in his conglomerate. His potential successor Greg Abel’s purchase of $68 mln of stock last week – after selling shares in a subsidiary for $870 mln in June – is too small a move toward Buffett’s standard.

Samsung climate inertia is by-product of Seoul’s

20 Sep 2022

The $274 bln conglomerate's 2050 net-zero goal underwhelms next to those set by Apple, Intel and others. Blame South Korea’s power-market monopoly and regressive renewable policies. With investors and customers demanding action, Samsung's corporate heft will be put to the test.

Mukesh Ambani pulls off one shade of overseas M&A

19 Sep 2022

The boss of $212 bln Reliance has so far failed in his hot pursuit of big flashy targets, the types of deals that tripped up his tycoon rivals a decade ago. Ambani’s quiet penchant for buying foreign technology to further his domestic clean energy goals looks much smarter anyway.

Adani’s Fitch debt spat is good news all round

8 Sep 2022

The U.S. group’s CreditSights unit rankled the $255 bln opaque Indian behemoth last month by calling it “deeply overleveraged”. But it got Adani’s executives talking more, and investors now have two clearer views of the company to weigh up. That’s a transparently good outcome.

India’s Reliance is too richly dressed to impress

30 Aug 2022

The $220 bln energy-to-retail conglomerate’s annual meeting was missing its usual wow factor. The cool market reaction underscores a new risk for boss Mukesh Ambani: shareholders are expecting a near perfect delivery on the company’s ambitious transformation plans.

Gautam Adani’s tycoon rivalry spills into the news

24 Aug 2022

The Indian infrastructure tycoon has grabbed a 29% stake in $300 mln NDTV, a move to match the influence Mukesh Ambani enjoys thanks to his Reliance group’s TV channels, watched by half the country. The broadcaster may be a trophy asset but there are decent returns to be made.

Capital Calls: Walmart whiplash

16 Aug 2022

Concise views on global finance: The U.S. mega-retailer revised its profit forecast yet again, just weeks after sounding the alarm.

SoftBank’s Alibaba sale could end breakup taboo

10 Aug 2022

Masayoshi Son’s group will cut its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant to 15% from 24%. It’s a sensible, albeit belated, move. The holding contributes to a 55% conglomerate discount, which would be narrowed further by spinning off Arm and selling more of its Japanese telco.

Gautam Adani takes new tycoon risk to next level

9 Aug 2022

The world’s fourth-richest man is using the $220 bln empire he founded to amass critical energy and infrastructure assets. Financial profligacy broke many of his Indian rivals. Politics, complexity and opacity are bigger concerns for a billionaire starting to get too big to fail.

GE’s new branding is appropriately pedestrian

18 Jul 2022

It took six months and thousands of conversations to name the $69 bln firm’s post-split divisions: GE Healthcare, GE Aerospace, and – the creative bit – GE Vernova. The separation is an effort to help shareholder value. With those names, GE is setting expectations low.