Johnson & Johnson [JNJ: NYSE] – Market Cap as of 19/02/2019 $364.53bn Introduction On February 13th, the healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson announced the acquisition of the privately held surgical robotics firm Auris Health, for approximately $3.4 billion in cash. The terms of the agreement also include additional payments to Read more…
EUROPE During this week European indices have on average soared by 1% . In particular, the German DAX30 started the trading week at 11’267 and closed around 11’460 and the French CAC40 opened at 5’160 and closed at 5’215, both increasing around 1.5%. Differently from core countries, the most important Read more…
Description of Belt and Road Initiative The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) or the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, is a development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure and investments in European, Asian and Read more…
Morgan Stanley [NYSE: MS] – Market Cap as of 24/02/2019 $71.89bn Solium Capital Inc. [TSE: SUM] – Market Cap as of 24/02/2019 $1.08bn Introduction On February 11th, Morgan Stanley announced it had struck a definitive agreement to acquire the workplace wealth solutions’ company Solium Capital for $900m. The deal comes Read more…
Introduction On Tuesday (Feb 12, 2019), right at the deadline for the decision to be made, Banco Santander announced that it had decided not to repay its outstanding €1.5bn CoCo bonds. CoCo bonds are hybrid securities mostly belonging to Additional Tier 1 capital, introduced by regulators in the wake of Read more…
BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) – market cap as of 11/02/2019: USD 38.48bn SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) – market cap as of 11/02/2019: USD 29.06bn Introduction The all-stock $66 billion merger between BB&T and SunTrust banks is the biggest M&A deal for the banking industry in more than a decade, signalling Read more…
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) – market cap as of 10/2/2019: $81.98bn Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) – market cap as of 10/2/2019: $61.56bn Introduction On the 3rd of January 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) announced the acquisition of Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG) in a cash and stock transaction with Read more…
Introduction With the fear of an imminent slowdown in the global economy and the ongoing trade war, uncertainty is currently dominating the upstage, to the detriment of M&A cross-border transactions, which so far could instead count on a positive momentum. With the looming pressure from Chinese companies pushing for acquisitions Read more…
Introduction Often overlooked and easily dismissed as a basic collateralised loan, repos (the short form for repurchase agreement) are much more. In fact, well-functioning (and possibly liquid) repos market is essential for the stability and efficiency of the “proper” securities markets. These is why we have defined them as the Read more…
In this article we analyze the advantages of combining together value and momentum long/short portfolios in many asset classes and in different geographical areas. In fact, they have historically shown negative correlation between them. You can exploit it by including value and momentum in a portfolio, which will have a Read more…
USA Financial markets have reacted positively to the talks between China and the US held in Beijing, that next week will move to Washington, with the S&P500 scoring a +2.50% over the week. The Dow Jones and the Nasdaq both increased by 3.09% and 2.05%, respectively. The deadline for the Read more…
“May you live in interesting times” says a Chinese proverb… Well, 2018 was actually pretty interesting to say the least for markets, with 93% of asset classes posting a negative return in USD terms – this figure is astonishing not only when compared to last year when only 1% of Read more…
US Oil production in America continued its rise, hitting home market concerns that a surge in supplies would further put downward pressures on prices. Synchronized global movements have not helped either, as the rise in American oil production is matched by Saudi Arabia and Russia. The growth in supplies also Read more…
As the automotive industry evolves towards EV’s (electrical vehicles), an analysis of all the new commodities that will be used in the sector, in particular the battery sector, is required. EV batteries are made of an anode and a cathode. The anode is always made up of graphite, while the Read more…
“Option Greeks” is the common name for the sensitivities in price of options or, in general, of derivatives and portfolios of derivatives, with respect to different factors, such as spot price of the underlying, implied volatility, risk-free interest rate, etc. Each Greek represents the ratio between the change in price Read more…