Articles

Bed Bath & Beyond – The Long Road to Bankruptcy

Download PDF Introduction Internationally, Bed Bath & Beyond is probably best known for its prominent role in the 2021 meme stock craze. Inside the US, however, the firm and its specialty homeware shops were a central part of popular culture. The company’s April 23rd bankruptcy capped off a tumultuous couple of years, during which Bed Bath & Beyond tried to and ultimately failed at turning around its business. As the company neared bankruptcy, it scrambled Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Modelling Swap Spreads

Download PDF Introduction Swap spreads, which measure the difference between the fixed rate on a swap and the yield on a Treasury bond of the same maturity, have often been negative in recent years, particularly in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. This phenomenon has puzzled market participants, as negative swap spreads imply that investors are willing to accept lower yields on swaps than on Treasuries. In this article, we review the literature Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Exploring the inflationary environment in the UK

Download PDF Introduction Inflation made a return post pandemic and has been affecting all market participators for 18 months now. In this article, we will dive into the persistence of inflation in the UK specifically and the struggles the UK has had to face trying to cool this red-hot inflation down. Lastly, we will analyze some possible investment opportunities that have arisen from this complex macro and political environment in the UK. An important metric Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Our Analysts’ Take: Commercial Real Estate

Download PDF Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Before delving into commercial real estate (CRE), which will be the focus of this article, it is useful to provide an overview of the Real Estate Market. The Real Estate sector is expected to reach a size of $613.6tn in 2023, with the United States alone contributing $113.6tn. Given the size of this market, we can divide it further into different areas. Residential Real Estate is the biggest Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Glencore – Teck Saga: Analysis

Download PDF Introduction  The potential $23bn hostile takeover of Teck Resources (NYSE: TECK) by the commodities behemoth, Glencore (LON: GLEN), would mark a significant moment in the industry. The Canadian family-controlled company has long been a prized asset eyed by the biggest industry players; however, its organisational structure was thought to be the biggest obstacle. With Glencore’s possible divestment of its coal assets, Teck represents a credible opportunity for the Swiss-based company. Reports suggest that Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Market Recap 07/05/2023

Download PDF US The week in the US market was marked by big losses in regional banks stocks, as First Republic failed. The S&P500 lost 0.8% for the week, the Dow Jones was down 1.24% and the Russell 3000 Value was down 1.71%. While the Nasdaq and Russell 3000 Growth gained 0.07% and 0.11% respectively. The CBOE Volatility Index closed the week at 17.19, 4.88% higher than the previous week. The week started with regional Read more…

By BSIC, ago

How Digital Ledger Technology could become the new standard for Repo Markets

Download PDF Introduction Repos, or repurchase agreements are the pillars of the financial system, maintaining stability and providing short-term liquidity solutions for the parties involved. As of today, the repo market is estimated to trade more than $3 trillion every day. In a new era of digitalization, many operations across the whole financial market are being automatized, streamlined, and their processes are being simplified. With the use of blockchain technology, and more specifically the Digital Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Equity Risk Premium, a predictor of future returns?

Download PDF Introduction When investors decide to allocate their money in a risky investment, they demand higher expected returns than riskless investments. Thus, the expected return on every risky investment can be seen as the sum of the risk-free rate and a risk premium that compensates investors for bearing the risk. For this reason, market participants that allocate a portion of their portfolios in equities are implicitly accepting the risk premium offered by the market Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Our Analysts’ Take: Healthcare Industry

Download PDF Introduction The healthcare industry saw a surge in M&A activity post-pandemic in 2021 which stretched across geographies and was driven by an incentive to consolidate healthcare systems to exploit economies of scale, fill pipelines, and boost top-line growth. In 2022, macroeconomic conditions, namely uncertainty, inflation, and high labour costs brought down both the volume and value of deals in the sector and saw VC funds reallocating their capital away from high-growth tech healthcare Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Bitdeer’s delayed SPAC Deal  

Download PDF Introduction After the great years of 2020 and 2021, the cryptocurrency market has been recently going through what many industry analysts believe to be a “crypto winter”, with Bitcoin prices reaching a low of $15,000 in December 2022, falling from almost $60,000 in November 2021. The fall from glory was caused by the impending bursting of a speculative bubble, as well as several bankruptcies and illicit actions in the cryptocurrency market, the most Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Market Recap 30/04/2023

Download PDF US The US stock market closed the month of April with the S&P posting monthly gains for the second month in a row, adding 0.87% for the week and 1.5% for the month. All US indexes closed the week in the green, with the only exception of the Russell 2000 losing 1.26% for the week. The Nasdaq closed the week 1.28% higher amid strong earnings results from big tech companies. The CBOE Volatility Read more…

By BSIC, ago

ASDA – Untangling How to Buy a Company Without Paying for It

Download PDF Introduction The Issa Borthers, along with their private equity partner TDR, made the headlines in early 2021 when, out of relative obscurity, they acquired the UK supermarket chain ASDA from the US giant Walmart [NYSE: WMT] for an enterprise value of £6.8bn. Despite having acquired susbtancial wealth through their ownership of the EG Group, many observers wondered how the brothers managed to come up for the equity required to finance the acquisition, as Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Our Analysts’ Take: Photovoltaic Industry

Download PDF Introduction The photovoltaic (PV) industry experienced remarkable growth in 2022, as evidenced by the record-breaking new solar installations of 268GW worldwide, an 60% increase from 2021. This surge in demand was primarily fueled by the growing awareness of energy safety and supportive government policies. While the environmental benefits of solar energy are common sense, the technology, the supply chain, and the planning of global governments behind the industry are not so well-known. For Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Merck joins in on the acquisition spree in the healthcare industry: Prometheus Biosciences for $10.8bn

Download PDF Introduction This week Merck & Co. announced one of the biggest healthcare deals disclosed so far in 2023. The US drug maker reached an agreement with Prometheus Biosciences to acquire the company in an all-cash transaction that values Prometheus at $10.8bn, a 75% premium to its market cap of $5.4bn. Merck expects the deal to close by the third quarter of 2023, but it is still subject to approval from Prometheus shareholders and Read more…

By BSIC, ago

Feeling lucky? Gambling company Lottomatica to go public at the end of the month

Download PDF Introduction On April 13th Lottomatica announced plans to go public via an IPO seeking a valuation of up to €2.67bn. The gambling company, owned by the alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management [NYSE: APO], intends to list its shares on the Borsa Italiana by the end of April at a price per share between €9 and €11. The firm will be selling both existing shares as well as new ones issued in a Read more…

By BSIC, ago