Roads & Transportation

Corona Capital: Covid-19 tests, Bed Bath & Beyond

1 October 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Diagnostic company Quidel predicts a quarterly earnings bonanza; meanwhile the pandemic turns a struggling retailer into a winner, at least temporarily.

Corona Capital: U.S. sports’ virus-bubble success

29 September 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Professional hockey and basketball associations scored victories keeping infection rates low or at zero in spectator-free games. And less traveling and more sleep helped players up their game. Wall Street take note.

Breakup could remove Benettons’ Italian roadblock

24 September 2020

Atlantia, the clan’s infrastructure group, is at loggerheads with Rome over the sale of its crisis-hit motorway unit. Spinning off the division could end the dispute by establishing a fair market price. It’s a risky manoeuvre, but the threat may bring the government to the table.

Big price for trains just about stays on track

15 September 2020

Blackstone’s infrastructure group may be offering what looks like top dollar – $20 billion – for Kansas City Southern, a 133-year-old U.S. freight railroad. But with interest rates so low, big prices for relatively predictable assets with stable returns may become the new normal.

Corona Capital: Movies, Magazines

7 September 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: the U.S. opening weekend of Christopher Nolan’s time travel epic “Tenet” suggests punters aren’t hurrying back to cinemas; Future, publisher of “Metal Hammer” and “Horse & Hound” rocks its way through the crisis.

UK LBO jalopy offers buyout barons last wild ride

14 August 2020

Roadside repair group AA is drawing interest from private equity again. It’s still crippled by a 2.7 billion pound debt load from past takeovers. With a cash injection and thorough service, a new driver could make a decent return, but it would still be a risky journey.

Corona Capital: Telemedicine, Outdated movie rules

10 August 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Men’s wellness outfit Hims matches the online medical consultation trend with a financial one, namely blank-check companies; and Washington finally scraps a “Gone with the Wind”-era regulation.

VW’s China acceleration leaves Renault in the dust

30 July 2020

An uptick in Middle Kingdom car sales helped Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess restate a pledge to make an annual profit, following a half-year loss. By contrast, the French carmaker is losing money and market share. New Renault CEO Luca de Meo’s cost-cutting plan needs more fuel.

Italy road saga hands Benettons life-saving finale

15 July 2020

The clan’s infrastructure group Atlantia could end a government dispute over a bridge disaster by letting state actors invest in its motorway unit, and list it. The shakedown may leave the group with a stake worth just 5 bln euros, but it’s better than a threatened expropriation.

China’s Didi looks short on engine power

23 April 2020

The ride-hailing giant unveiled a three-year plan. Hard-to-compare targets and more of the same bets hardly inspire, especially as tech peers Alibaba and Meituan grab Covid-19 opportunities in health and more. Didi’s $53 bln valuation is vulnerable without a stronger drive.

Virus hands Elon Musk electrifying cost challenge

2 April 2020

Tesla’s boss has ironed out most of its production snafus and amassed enough cash for the carmaker to go almost a year without revenue before running out of juice, longer than Ford or GM. But Musk can only pull that off if he has finally mastered how to keep costs under control.

Beijing helps gas guzzlers at clean cars’ expense

2 April 2020

The government might ease electric vehicle production quotas and delay raising emissions standards. It will ease some pressure on battered conventional auto giants, which generate jobs for millions. But it’s more bad news for struggling new energy startups like Nio.

Mitsubishi is too mild a mediator for Nissan

27 March 2020

Mitsubishi Corp, second-largest shareholder in the eponymous carmaker, is mulling a 10% stake in Renault, Reuters reports. It’s a small step, but could signal an overdue adjustment within the troubled troika. The French group will have to give more to get Nissan on board.

Cheap gas drives auto industry to distraction

19 March 2020

With crude oil futures near $26 a barrel, drivers might lose enthusiasm for electric vehicles if governments put support on hold and let pump prices free-fall. But the push away from hydrocarbons is about more than petrol costs. Carmakers are ill-advised to let investment slide.

Alstom’s M&A detour has lower chance of derailment

17 February 2020

The French train maker is paying $6.7 bln for Bombardier’s locomotive unit, after its preferred deal with Siemens was blocked. Bulking up can counter the threat of China’s CRRC. Success hinges on punchy synergies and a green light from the sticky antitrust signal box in Brussels.

Atlantia charts tentative path to road truce

24 January 2020

The $19 bln infrastructure group’s new boss wants outsiders to invest into its units. These include embattled motorway operator ASPI, which risks losing a rich road concession after a bridge collapse. Opening ASPI’s capital to state investors offers a way out of the crisis.

Alstom-Bombardier rail M&A would face faulty track

22 January 2020

The $11 bln French train maker and its Canadian rival are discussing a deal, Bloomberg reported. The former’s failed deal with Siemens posed more obvious EU antitrust issues, but Brussels may still balk. And synergies that rely on big job cuts in France will be politically toxic.

Siemens CEO’s climate blog sends semi-woke signal

13 January 2020

Joe Kaeser has admitted the 98 bln euro German engineer should not be working on Australia’s Adani coal mine, but cannot pull out. Creating a panel to vet deals for their greenness, and possibly nix them, is partial penance. The CEO’s public disapproval may be a better deterrent.

New York entertains a lesson in secession

10 January 2020

Staten Island may reanimate a 26-year-old bid to break away from the Big Apple. There are countless reasons not to, and the economic case is sketchy – but residents could back it anyway. New York’s “forgotten borough” is a fitting ambassador for a world that’s getting smaller.

Benettons play risky game of chicken in road row

10 January 2020

Motorway operator Atlantia, part-owned by the Italian dynasty, is haggling with the government over toll fees following a 2018 bridge collapse. Betting that the fragile executive won’t cancel its concession could backfire. Besides, the $20 bln group can afford Rome’s demands.