Download as PDF European Integration As an introduction, we provide a brief overview of the pan-European regulation on which Financial Services is largely based and which helps explain the convergence and the subsequent attractiveness of the industry towards consolidation. Its objective is the further integration of European countries by the Read more…
Download as PDF Introduction We have touched upon the new trend of ESG factors shaping investors preferences in the “Green Bonds Boom” article published in the last semester. This time around we will try to analyze how environmental, social and governance responsibility may be driving equities, in order to see Read more…
Download as PDF The spiking diffusion of COVID-19 outside of China, particularly in South Korea, Italy and Iran, has negatively affected financial markets, among concerns about its impact on business activity: in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all in correction territory this Read more…
Download as PDF Introduction Over the past few years, volatility in the foreign exchange markets has entered a marked downward trend, which ultimately culminated with the signing of the US-China Phase One trade deal in January 2020. This descending movement has characterised both Developed and Emerging Markets currency pairs and Read more…
Download as PDF BSIC has brought you some of the most interesting deals over the last week, we hope you’ll enjoy! Franklin Templeton acquires Legg Mason for 4.5bn Deal Value: $4.5bn |Deal Type: Acquisition | Date: 18-Feb-2020 | Nationality: US | Subsector: Finance Franklin Templeton, the US global investment firm Read more…
Download as PDF Introduction KKR, the massive American private equity (PE) fund, has agreed on the 10th of February, 2020, to sell the ultrafast German fiber internet business Deutsche Glasfaser in a €2.8bn deal to EQT and Omers, respectively a private equity firm and a Canadian pension fund. According to Read more…
Download as PDF With the equity markets being arguably reluctant to consider the potential threats to global growth stemming from the Corona virus outbreak (COVID-19), the commodities market experienced quite large price movements over the past month. While we clearly acknowledge that commodity prices are more directly affected by an Read more…
Download as PDF United States US markets started the week on Tuesday after remaining closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday on an upbeat tone, the bears took over sentiment for the second half of the week leading to losses on the week, with the S&P500 closing at 3,337 Read more…
Download as PDF Introduction Real interest rates have been fluctuating around 2% for safe and liquid asset for nearly a century before they entered a downwards trend in the last thirty years. This trend is most prevalent in advanced economies where the rate on 10-year government securities has been around Read more…
Introduction In this article, together with a brief introduction to the use of option-implied information in forecasting, we would like to give an answer to the question: does Option-Implied Skewness and Kurtosis improve the predictive power of (Squared) Implied Volatilities on Future Realised Variance? In order to do so, we Read more…
Worldline S.A. (WLN.PA) – market cap: 13.45bn EUR Ingenico Group GCS (ING.PA) – market cap: 8.54bn EUR Introduction On February 3rd, 2020, French payment giant Worldline has announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Ingenico for €7.8bn in cash and shares, in a deal that would create the Read more…
In our previous article, REITs: Is Liquid Real Estate the Solution for the Late Cycle? – Part 1 (https://bsic.it/reits-is-liquid-real-estate-the-solution-for-the-late-cycle-part-1/), we looked at the business cycle and historical REIT returns during its different phases. While some of the findings point to REITs as potential additions for a late-cycle portfolio, this article Read more…
Introduction Back in 2018, when critical discussions on Direct Listings were still ongoing, BSIC published an article, walking the reader through the main aspects of this innovative path to market. At that time, markets were still waiting for the upcoming Spotify direct listing, which was raising several doubts in terms Read more…
Welcome back from the winter break and happy 2020! Recent dominating headlines, such as the Australia bushfires and the Novel Coronavirus, have made many think the new year is off to a bad start. Has this negative sentiment also spread to the financial market? Despite the signs of the Read more…
US This week U.S. stocks rose with S&P 500 gaining 1.56% and Nasdaq Composite 2.35%, closing at 3,380.16 and 9,623.58 respectively, these levels marked records for both indices. U.S. market surged relative to its peers as a result of investors beliefs for American market to be the least affected by Read more…