BSIC

Market Recap 10/03/2019

US The week just ended has led losses to US equity indices: the S&P 500 fell 2.16% to 2,743, thus failing to break the resistance line at 2,800-2,815. Similarly, the NASDAQ lost 2.46% and the Dow Jones decreased by 1.80%. This week has not brought major news for what concerns Read more…

The Dollar Index: Critical Analysis

Introduction The US Dollar Index was created by the Federal Reserve in 1973. The index was initially intended to provide an external bilateral trade weighted average of the US Dollar as it freely floated against major global currencies. Consequently, the US Dollar Index [ticker: U.S.DX® ] (USDX hereon), is a Read more…

Venezuela’s Lone Survivor Under Crossfire

Introduction Venezuela is a state in chaos; this is a systemic issue that arises from many long years of economic mismanagement from the Chavismo administration which has ruled for two decades. These issues are now coming to light given the dismal state of affairs in Venezuela, the most obvious indicator Read more…

Growing healthy: Roche to acquire Spark therapeutics in $4.3bn deal

Roche Holding AG (SIX: ROG.VZ) – market cap as of 03/09/2019: $233.86bn Spark Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCE) – market cap as of 03/09/2019: $4.32bn Introduction On February 25, 2019, the Swiss multinational healthcare company, Roche, announced that it entered into an agreement to buy Spark Therapeutics in a transaction that Read more…

The bigger they are… the harder they fall – General Electric sells its BioPharma division to Danaher for $21.4 bn

General Electric Company [GE: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 03/03/2019 $89.40bn Danaher Corporation [DHR: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 03/03/2019 $91.18bn Introduction On Monday 25th February 2019 General Electric (GE) announced the sale of its BioPharma business to Danaher for a total consideration of $21.4 billion, including $21 billion in cash. GE, which had previously come Read more…

Liberty Global is finally free! Restructuring completed after a $6.3bn sale of Swiss Unit

Liberty Global plc [LBTYA: NASDAQ] – Market cap as of March 10th $18.36bn Sunrise Communications Group AG [SRCG: SW] – Market cap as of March 10th CHF3.41bn ($3.41bn) Introduction On February 27, 2019, Liberty Global, the biggest international TV and broadband internet company, agreed to the sale of its Swiss Read more…

Investing in the ETF Era

Introduction Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have constantly been on the rise ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Year over year, increasing amounts of assets are placed in ETFs causing their market share (especially in the United States) to expand to over 25% of total open-end funds in 2018 according to Read more…

Market Recap 03/03/2019

US This week saw modest gains on most American indexes, with the s&p increasing by 0.39% and Nasdaq by 0.9%. The Dow remained fairly stable with a loss of -0.02%. Overall the markets seem to be pricing in a relaxed scenario for tariffs as the deadline for trade talks between Read more…

THE INVISIBLE GEARS – Repurchase Agreement and the (Credit) Repo Market – Part 2

Introduction After examining the main features of the repo market as well as some peculiar characteristics of the European credit repo market (https://bsic.it/the-invisible-gears-repo-agreement-and-the-credit-repo-market-part-1/) we would like to walk you through what happens when a repo fails (and why this might happen) and the recent reform of the CSDR, i.e. the Read more…

Students loans are not cheap! Navient refuses a $3bn takeover offer

Navient Corp. [Nasdaq: NAVI] – Market Cap as of 28/02/2019 $3.07B Introduction: On February 18, 2019, student-loan servicer Navient rejected a $3.2 billion takeover bid from two investors, the hedge fund Canyon Capital Advisors and the private-equity firm Platinum Equity Advisors, as it believed the offer undervalued the company. Navient’s Read more…

Never change a winning team: Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone for Scout24

The Blackstone Group L.P. [BX: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 26/02/2019 $41.77bn Scout24 AG [G24: XETRA] – Market Cap as of 26/02/2019 €4.96bn Introduction On Friday 15 February 2019 Scout24, the leading German online classifieds group, received a voluntary public takeover offer by Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman. At Read more…

Looking ahead: BlackRock and KKR to buy oil pipelines in the UAE for $4bn

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) – market cap as of 26/02/2019: $69.83 bn KKR & Co Inc Class A (NYSE: KKR) – market cap as of 26/02/2019: $18.97 bn Introduction On February 24th 2019,the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced a landmarked partnership between the national state-owned oil company and Read more…