Ant IPO puts Chinese bourses on collision course 20 Jul 2020 Jack Ma's $200 bln fintech group wants to list in Hong Kong and on Shanghai's hot STAR market. Ant can find global investors and hard currency in the former, and higher valuations in the latter. Having to share coveted tech listings, however, ups their rivalry several notches.
Wirecard’s red flags offer lessons for investors 20 Jul 2020 Shareholders couldn’t have known that $2 bln of the payments group’s cash was missing. But its seemingly unnecessary reliance on debt finance raised questions. A weak board and short-term executive pay packages were further warning signs. All three serve as a teachable moment.
Viewsroom: Wirecard, Hong Kong and Tesla 2 Jul 2020 The German fintech scandal shines a light on its hapless regulator; China’s new security law stinks up the fragrant harbor and Elon Musk hasn’t just surpassed Toyota in market value, he’s becoming as rich as Croesus. Breakingviews columnists around the world weigh in.
Fintech superstars face brutal financial comedown 3 Jun 2020 Digital banks like Chime and Monzo have millions of customers but are tackling their first big crisis with scant revenue. Online lenders from Kabbage to Klarna face rising defaults, less new business, and funding concerns. Valuations, business models, even survival, look shaky.
Corona Capital: Texas bank merger 26 May 2020 Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Texas Capital and Independent Bank ditched their almost $3 bln deal as Covid-19 played havoc with oil-and-gas loans. It is, at least, a mutual decision.
Alibaba’s health shift prescribes market medicine 6 Mar 2020 The e-commerce group is injecting assets into a healthcare subsidiary, now worth a punchy $25 bln. It’s a bet that the coronavirus will accelerate reforms, like opening China’s $370 bln drug industry to web retailers. Alibaba’s scale could deliver a potent treatment to investors.
Robinhood’s trading arrows turn into friendly fire 3 Mar 2020 Rivals like Schwab matched the startup’s chief appeal, and $7.6 bln valuation, by ditching fees. Now outages during frenetic markets are landing more blows. Valuable service can overcome glitches, as Twitter and Slack show. But Robinhood’s 10 mln customers have plenty of options.
Intuit shows how to tame a fintech unicorn 25 Feb 2020 The $75 bln owner of TurboTax will pay over $7 bln for finance portal Credit Karma. As personal finance gets disrupted, established firms are realizing they can either join in or stand aside. But the large sums at stake mean there’s no free lunch for consumers.
Revolut speeds towards a valuation paradox 25 Feb 2020 Nik Storonsky’s digi-bank is now worth $5.5 bln. To justify the price tag, he’ll need multiples of the $76 mln revenue it generated in 2018. Subscriptions for services like stock-trading help. But a lending push may eventually prompt investors to judge Revolut like a normal bank.
Fintech M&A shows bank disruption stuck in infancy 21 Feb 2020 LendingClub set out to upend retail finance by making small loans online. But like Radius, the digital bank it’s now buying, it’s still small fry. Sure, venture-capital funding for such upstarts is robust, but deep-pocketed incumbents like JPMorgan retain the upper hand.
Bank of England’s AI approach will toughen up 21 Feb 2020 UK finance has yet to face many restrictions on using artificial intelligence. But the technology brings risks as well as opportunities, the BoE’s fintech director told Breakingviews. A light-touch approach will change as machines make increasingly important financial decisions.
Hong Kong’s new banks will move fast, break things 3 Feb 2020 The city’s first digital-only bank, backed by insurer ZhongAn, is paying around 6% deposit interest. Similar promotions may come from newbies backed by Ant, Xiaomi, and others. The aggressive entrance suggests incumbents may lose revenue share fast to rich upstarts.
Flying cars are a cool solution to a tiny problem 23 Jan 2020 Toyota has pledged $394 mln to support aviation startup Joby; Geely and Hyundai are also dabbling. Technology advances have put commercialisation within reach, and regulators will slowly come to grips with the idea. The final frontier is finding actual customers.
UK’s $13 bln tech scene may already have peaked 15 Jan 2020 Startups in Britain raised 44% more money last year than in 2018. Relative to the size of its economy, UK technology investment now matches the U.S. A Brexit-induced talent squeeze, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s strategic pivot away from London, will cap future growth.
Buy now, pay later faces Juul-style backlash 24 Dec 2019 Companies offering the credit innovation say it can drive online sales and help retailers deal with refunds. One player, Klarna, is valued at $5.5 bln. But making it a lot easier to shop for free could prompt a reaction like that which befell the vaping heavyweight.
China’s e-yuan will be more cryptic than crypto 23 Dec 2019 Beijing is primed to launch the world's first digital sovereign currency in 2020. The rollout will give authorities a powerful tool to tackle fraud and money laundering. Deploying the breakout innovation into the wheeling-dealing banking system could also aid a cleanup.
Review: Bloomberg primer goes beyond hagiography 20 Dec 2019 A recent bio of the former New York mayor and Wall Street information tycoon was given relevancy by his unconventional bid to replace Donald Trump. It’s a book that might have just sat on the shelf gathering dust but for the fact he might have a shot at the presidency.
Air seeps quickly out of SoftBank bubbles 12 Dec 2019 Ping An’s bank-software vendor OneConnect slashed its IPO valuation to half the $7.5 bln imputed when Masayoshi Son’s Vision Fund backed it last year. SoftBank also just took a loss on dog-walking outfit Wag. Dozens of startups from Didi to Oyo may soon be feeling deflated, too.
Ping An’s fintech halo is losing its glow 4 Dec 2019 China's top insurer may list its OneConnect banking software business at a $5 bln valuation. That would be a third lower than its last funding round, which included SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Other cutting-edge ventures have hit bumps, too. Ping An is falling short of the hype.
Online loans party leaves Seoul set for a hangover 3 Dec 2019 Peer-to-peer lending is flourishing in South Korea, despite trouble elsewhere. That’s thanks to government support and dysfunctional banks. But with the economy slowing and households already carrying $1.3 trln of debt, there is credit pain ahead. Web upstarts will feel it first.