US Over the course of this week several key US data were released. On Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing PMI was released: it fell to 57.3 from the previous month’s 59.3 and missing market expectations of 58.3. On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) left its target Read more…
Introduction In this paper, we will try to explain what are the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) and Euro OverNight Index Average (Eonia) rates, what drives the spread between them and specifically why this was the case during the 2008 financial crisis. Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) rates are the Read more…
Correlation of 10y US Treasuries with Stock Market On April 25th, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note broke above the psychologically important 3% threshold for the first time since 2014. The yield’s high for the day was 3.033%, meaning it was just short of 3.05%, which would have Read more…
Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) – market cap as of 04/05/2018: £7.84bn Introduction Conflicts of interest between shareholders and managers represent an old phenomenon and an inherent element of capitalistic governance systems. It stems from the fact that managers tend to profit from simply because their companies are getting bigger (through higher Read more…
Kroton Educacional SA (BOVESPA: KROT3) – market cap as of 04/05/2018: R$ 21.75bn Somos Educação SA (BOVESPA: SEDU3) – market cap as of 04/05/2018: R$ 5.70bn Exchange rate: 1 BRL (R$) = 0.285 USD ($) Introduction On April 23, 2018, Kroton Educacional, the largest for-profit education company in Brazil, proceeded Read more…
Fidessa Group plc (LON:FDSA) – market cap as of 04/04/2018: £1.57bn Introduction On April 20, the board of the UK software company Fidessa has agreed to a £1.5bn all-cash takeover offer from ION, an Ireland-based financial technology company backed by The Carlyle Group. The announcement comes after Fidessa had agreed to be Read more…
US This week, US equities have shown an increase in volatility: on Tuesday 24th, following the breakthrough of the psychological barrier of 3% in the yield of 10y US treasuries, the most important US indexes S&P 500/DOW JONES 30 and Nasdaq 100 have lost about 2% each. On the same Read more…
Introduction Trade wars and tit-for-tat tariff threats between the two largest national economies should not be expected in a world embracing trade integration and common regulation through institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, this is exactly what we are currently observing in a US-led, politically motivated upheaval Read more…
The CDS Market Until 2008, credit default swap (CDS) markets have grown exponentially since their emergence in the late 1990s but shrunk considerably to an estimated outstanding notional value of $9.6 trillion in 2017. Despite deliberate efforts by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and market participants on both Read more…
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) – market cap as of 27/04/18: $151.2bn Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) – market cap as of 27/04/18: $67.7bn AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) – market cap as of 27/04/18: $215.8bn Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) – market cap as of 27/04/18: $75.8bn Introduction M&A activity is not a Read more…
Playtech PLC (LSE:PTEC) – market cap as of 27/04/2018: £2.50bn Snaitech SpA (BIT:SNA) – market cap as of 27/04/2018: €409.8m Introduction On April 12, the world’s largest online gaming software supplier announced it had agreed to acquire a 70.6% stake in Snaitech, the Italian gaming and betting market leader. Subject Read more…
Total S.A. (EPA:FP) – market cap as of 27/04/2018: €138.0bn Direct Energie S.A. (EPA:DIREN) – market cap as of 27/04/2018: €1.90bn Introduction On April 18, 2018, French oil major Total S.A. announced the acquisition of 74.33% of Direct Energie’s share capital in a transaction valued at approximately €1.4bn. At a Read more…
Novartis AG (SIX: NOVN) – market cap as of 20/04/2018: CHF204.12bn AveXis Inc (NASDAQ: AVXS) – market cap as of 20/04/2018: $7.62bn Introduction On April 9, Novartis submitted an offer to acquire all the shares of the American gene therapy group AveXis. The Swiss drugmaker offered an 88% premium adding Read more…
Monex Group Inc (TYO: 8698) – market cap as of 20/04/2018: ¥149.15bn Introduction On April 16, the online brokerage giant Monex officially acquired the cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck for ¥3.6bn (~$33.55m). The move is questioned by the general public due to the recent security breach in Coincheck and the theft of Read more…
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) – market cap as of 20/04/2018: $462.0bn Tencent Holdings Ltd. (HKG:0700) – market cap as of 20/04/2018: HK$3,780bn Introduction The first two weeks of April 2018 have seen a string of aggressive acquisitions and the announcement of financing rounds by companies backed by the Chinese Read more…