Market Recap 15/10/2023

Download PDF USA This week in the US, we observed a market recovery following the previous week’s declines, driven largely by the robust Non-Farm Payrolls data. However, by the week’s conclusion, this optimism had waned somewhat, with the S&P managing only a modest 0.4% increase. Leading the way was the Read more…

Vintage Private Equity Deals: Merlin Entertainment – Learnings from one of Blackstone’s Most Successful Investments

Download PDF Introduction In 2005, Blackstone’s [NYSE: BX] private equity fund made a, for its size, relatively modest investment of £102m to acquire Merlin Entertainment, a theme parks company, from the private equity fund Hermes Equity Partners. This was the first step in its strategy of rolling up the attractions Read more…

An Overview of Now-casting Methods

Download PDF Introduction Now-casting methods are a class of forecasting models originally used in meteorology, and that later found useful applications in economics and finance. The first paper that generalizes the use of now-casting methods in economics is Giannone, Reichlin, and Small (2008). The idea of now-casting is that high-frequency Read more…