Liberty Media Group (LMCA, LMCB, LMCK) – market cap as of 28/09/2016: $9.61bn Introduction On September 7, Liberty Media Corporation, a US-based mass media company, announced a two-step acquisition of Formula One in a deal that values the company at $8bn, and its equity at $4.4bn. Liberty Media Corporation will Read more…
United States This week the S&P500 gained 1%, DJIA is up 0.60% and NASDAQ100 remained somewhat unchanged. The VIX volatility index registered a sharp decrease of more than 20%, signaling that market participants expect a brief calm period following the Brexit turmoil. In addition, VIX ETFs were the most shorted Read more…
Today we are living in a period of ultra-low and in many cases negative interest rates. This has been caused by strong expansionary policies by most central banks, especially in developed countries. In fact, in Japan and Eurozone central bank deposit rates are negative, in the UK and other European Read more…
This year has been particularly good for emerging markets and there are several reasons underlying the so-called EM rally. The main one is probably the yield hunt, in which yield-hungry investors move to riskier assets in order to have some decent return in the low interest rates environment, thus boosting Read more…
Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) – market cap as of 23/09/2016: $30.85bn SolarCity (SCTY) – market cap as of 23/09/2016: $1.93bn Introduction On August 1, 2016 Tesla Motors (“Tesla”), US electric cars developer and manufacturer, agreed to acquire SolarCity, US provider of solar energy services, in a $2.6bn deal. Tesla shareholders Read more…
Bayer AG (BAYN) – market cap as of 24/09/2016: $84.86bn Monsanto Company (MON) – market cap as of 24/09/2016: $45.31bn Introduction On September 14, following months of negotiations, Bayer and Monsanto agreed on a final merger agreement. Bayer will pay $57bn to Monsanto’s shareholders, and will take on $9bn in Read more…
Hutchison Holding (2CK.F) – market cap. as of 23/09/2016: HKD387bn VimpelCom Ltd (VIP) – market cap. as of 23/09/2016: $6.17bn Iliad S.A. (ILD) – market cap. as of 23/09/2016: €10.9bn Introduction On August 6, 2015 CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and VimpelCom Ltd. agreed to combine their Italian subsidiaries, 3 Italia Read more…
Introduction The issue of the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs, from now on) has been long debated over the last few weeks and a new system has been designed with the purpose of creating a market for these troubled assets, which at the moment are still occupying the balance sheets of most Read more…
In finance, a covariance matrix can be a useful tool to estimate the cross correlations between different stocks. However, historical data contains random noise, which can alter the underlying information. Here we illustrate how Random Matrix Theory can be used to filter a diagonalisable matrix and how information about the market Read more…
The 24th May 2015 marks an unprecedented change in Poland’s direction under many aspects. On that day Andrzej Duda, candidate of the Law and Justice party (PiS, abbreviation of “Prawo i Sprawiedliwość”) won the presidential elections, defeating the incumbent president Bronisław Komorowski, for the Civic Platform (PO, “Platforma Obywatelska”). Probably Read more…
Technogym S.p.A.; market cap as of 07/05/2016: €759.600m About Technogym Technogym is a manufacturer of equipment for sports and training based in Cesena. In 1983, the Italian entrepreneur Nerio Alessandri, founded Technogym at age of 22. Mr. Alessandri began building exercise equipment in the garage of his home. Today, Read more…
Introduction Abbott agreed on Thursday, May 5th, to acquire St. Jude Medical in a cash and stock offer for c. $25bn. By combining, Abbott and St. Jude Medical will capture a larger position across the market for cardiovascular devices. This was the largest in a flurry of health-care deals announced Read more…
United States After reaching its weekly high at 2075, following good news from Facebook earnings, the S&P 500 fell to a low of 2033 and finished at a mid 2053 the end of earnings’ season. The Fed Once again proved to be Dovish and incapable of raising rates which drove Read more…
Oil has long been one of the main drivers of the worldwide economy and for this reason it is closely watched by all investors and traders. The central role of what, back in the days, was called the “Black gold” is given by its high cross asset correlation. It has Read more…
DreamWorks Animation SKG, Market cap as of 29/04/2016: $3.8bn Comcast Corporation, Market cap as of 29/04/2016: $147.12bn Introduction Last Thursday April 28, 2016, Comcast Corporation announced after quick merger talks that it would acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG for $3.8bn in an all-cash transaction. DreamWorks Animation will be folded under Read more…