Download PDF Introduction Once seen as too unpredictable, consumer brand leveraged buyouts have grown in popularity over the past two decades. Fashion cycles and shifts in consumer preferences increase the risk of such buyouts, as cash flow generation is, in general, less certain. Yet deals such as Permira’s acquisition of Read more…
Download PDF In the past few years, cryptocurrencies have made the headlines on many different occasions and many think that they are here to stay, for better or worse. Regardless of their social impact, we believe that they have introduced interesting contrasts to traditional finance in their market microstructures. In Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Commercial sports, from football to ice hockey, have captivated fans across the globe and it is no surprise that this has turned the heads of investors. The industry has seen ever-growing revenues coming from broadcasting rights, merchandising and sponsorship deals. Consequently, sports franchises have become an attractive Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Grindr [GRND:NYSE], an online dating app targeted towards the LGBTQ+ community, went public on November 18, 2022 after completing a merger with Tiga Acquisition Corp., a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), at an initial post-transaction enterprise value of $2.1bn. The leading social network for the LGBTQ+ community Read more…
Download PDF Introduction A yield curve depicts the returns of fixed income securities against their term, or time to maturity. In this article, we explain the role that the discount function and forward rates have in the creation of a yield curve and compare different methodologies to fit the yield Read more…
Download PDF US The week started off with a substantial drop in the DOW Jones Index during the last hour of trading on Monday amid worries around commentary by Fed officials and reports of protests spreading in China. These worries were the main drivers of Tuesday’s markets as well with Read more…
Download PDF US On Thursday, and parts of Friday, US markets were closed due to Thanksgiving. This was the driving force behind the lack of liquidity and uneventfulness of the week in both the primary and secondary markets. The Nasdaq and the Russell 3000 Growth index were the only indices Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In 2010, it was a head-scratcher as to why FIFA would pick Qatar as the 2022 World Cup host. A single football stadium, scorching heat, and a national team ranked 96th in the FIFA world ranking. FIFA’s own technical committee rated it the worst of all bids Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On November 11th, crypto trading startup FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the US just three days after admitting to being unable to meet $5bn in customer withdrawals. Sam Bankman-Fried, a 30-year-old trader and founder of the crypto exchange, resorted to filing in a Delaware federal court Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Formally, a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) is defined as an individual or firm registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which gives “advice” on futures, options, and the actual trading of managed futures. CTAs are responsible for advising managed accounts and pooled investment vehicles, such as Read more…
Download PDF Introduction Correlation is a pervasive concept in financial markets. It is studied by investors looking for the most reliable way to hedge their exposure while financial products that offer a directional correlation exposure also became substantially more liquid in recent years. Moreover, the substantial mispricing of correlation risk Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The second biggest cosmetics company by revenue in the world, Estée Lauder [NYSE: EL] has announced on November 15 that it has signed an agreement to buy the fashion house Tom Ford brand for $2.8bn making it the largest acquisition within the luxury world this year. The Read more…
Download PDF What are the Basel Agreements? Financial risks have long been observed and studied, but it was only in 1974, with the failure of West Germany’s Bankhaus Herstatt, that central bankers became aware of and decided to act on settlement risk. For these very purposes, the Bank of International Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On November 10th 2022, Origin Energy Ltd. [ASX : ORG], received and backed an $11.8bn takeover bid from a consortium led by Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management [NYSE : BAM] and private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners. The business is to be split up, with Brookfield acquiring Read more…
Download PDF Introduction On October 31st, Thermo Fisher Scientific [TMO: NYSE], one of the global leaders in the supply of scientific instrumentation, announced that it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire The Binding Site Group, a Birmingham-based specialty diagnostics firm. European private equity firms Nordic Capital and Five Arrow Read more…