Capital Calls: Christine Lagarde, Bernie Madoff 14 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance: The European Central Bank president’s quest for inflation will take a while to achieve its goal; investor gullibility will live on after the death of the Ponzi schemer in a U.S. federal prison.
Capital Calls: LVMH surges back to full health 13 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance: The 300 billion euro luxury conglomerate’s first-quarter sales surpass pre-Covid-19 levels.
Box KKR deal kills two birds with three stones 8 Apr 2021 Activist Starboard Value wanted a sale of the $4 bln cloud-services group and board changes. Now KKR will invest $500 mln in convertible preferred stock, which Box will use to repurchase regular shares. Governance improvements are a plus, but it's a complicated way to buy time.
Viewsroom: Everything we know about Archegos 1 Apr 2021 The extraordinary unwinding of Bill Hwang’s family office was one of those rare stories that connected Breakingviews columnists from Hong Kong, New York, Zurich, London, Melbourne and Washington into one big, hard-working family. Here are some of the lessons they learned.
Capital Calls: Elon Musk, LeBron James 1 Apr 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Endeavor, Ari Emanuel’s entertainment group, is hoping the Tesla boss’s stardust will help a second attempt at an IPO; the basketball star’s stake in the Red Sox is a foil to Steve Cohen’s Mets deal.
Credit Suisse is overdue for new chairman’s axe 31 Mar 2021 The Swiss bank’s shares are down 23% in a month after Archegos and Greensill collapsed. Though losses are unclear, investors assign no worth to the investment bank. By shrinking that unit, and hiving off the fund and local divisions, António Horta-Osório could rescue some value.
IPO laggards pay price for predecessors’ chutzpah 30 Mar 2021 Miner GV Gold, defence firm Leonardo DRS and soccer team Club Brugge shelved their listings. Investors have been stung by the poor performance of a wave of richly valued tech floats earlier this year. With the pipeline still full, hopeful issuers will now have to offer bargains.
Deutsche Bank flips equities business on its head 25 Mar 2021 The German lender may be hiring a dozen capital markets experts, less than two years after slashing the team amid mass global layoffs. The equities business has a reputation for being a people-heavy volume game, but Deutsche may have found a way to make small pay, too.
Goldman’s glum juniors are a reversion to the mean 19 Mar 2021 A slide deck protesting 120-hour weeks and “inhumane” conditions elicits few tears – Wall Street analysts often bellyache but fare better than most. Still, self-pity signals the end of hard white-collar graft as a status symbol. It’s a reason banking is losing its shine.
Review: When “Ocean’s Eleven” meets Chapter 11 19 Mar 2021 “The Caesars Palace Coup” rolls a casino caper and legal thriller into one edifying book. Dense bankruptcy lingo sometimes bogs down the ruthless scrap over $18 bln of distressed debt. And it’s hard to find a Danny Ocean in a Wall Street dramatis personae full of Terry Benedicts.
Credit Suisse is better off without its funds unit 18 Mar 2021 CEO Thomas Gottstein split the Swiss group’s $477 bln asset management business from its private bank and installed a new head. Yet risk-management issues highlighted by the Greensill saga may deter clients. Industry pressures strengthen the case for selling to a rival like UBS.
Robinhood SPAC rival makes tough U.S. trade 16 Mar 2021 Online brokerage eToro will go public via a blank-check firm with SoftBank and Third Point as backers. Its established access to crypto means the $10.4 bln valuation is doable. But growth depends on the U.S. market, which is crowded, and regulatory scrutiny is ramping up.
Capital Calls: Elon Musk, AstraZeneca 15 Mar 2021 Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The electric-vehicle maker’s jocular new title of “Technoking of Tesla” tests the theory that deeds matter more than words; fears over the drugmaker’s vaccine risk further delaying the re-opening of Europe’s economy.
Hong Kong bankers size up office return risk 12 Mar 2021 A Covid-19 outbreak in a gym has forced HSBC, Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas to send staff home. It comes as the finance hub rolls out vaccinations and bank bosses elsewhere talk up the virtues of workplaces. Getting back to normal, whatever that looks like, will be a long slog.
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.
The house always wins with SPACs 26 Feb 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.
Airbnb’s post-IPO showing is a pre-SPAC throwback 25 Feb 2021 The home-sharing app’s quarterly revenue fell 22%, yet still beat rivals. Because it went through its growing pains in private, Airbnb’s first results as a listed company show an already solid business. Many startups taking the blank-check route to market won’t have that luxury.
Coinbase’s listing is a cryptic way into crypto 25 Feb 2021 The exchange for bitcoin may ink a $100 bln valuation in an upcoming listing. Growth and profit are encouraging. But its model relies on transactions, and past crashes are a problem. More disclosure would be reassuring. The prospectus leaves room to assume the worst.
Investors can’t have GameStop cake and eat it too 18 Feb 2021 U.S. lawmakers want it both ways for consumers: cheaper trading and protection from sharp losses. Additional transparency and less game-like software from Robinhood and other trading platforms might help. But risks remain and could rise with more retail access to private markets.
JPMorgan London hire is at smart end of new trend 18 Feb 2021 Linklaters Senior Partner Charlie Jacobs is joining the U.S. group as co-head of UK investment banking. He’s the latest in a string of senior outsiders to transfer to the industry, including ex-UK Chancellor George Osborne. Lawyers are better prepared to make a successful switch.