Halliburton Company; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $43.1bn Baker Hughes Inc.; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $27.5bn Introduction On November 17, Halliburton Company, the world’s second biggest oilfield service provider, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Baker Hughes Inc. in a stock and cash deal worth $34.6bn. The transaction is Read more…
Actavis plc.; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $70.5bn Allergan Inc.; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $63.3bn Introduction The growing emphasis we put on health and quality of life, and the scientific advancements which are making this possible, are putting the pharmaceutical and medical industries in the spotlight. The recent surge Read more…
BBVA; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $60.99bn Garanti Bakasi; market cap (as of 21/11/2014): $16.25bn Introduction On November 19, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) announced the acquisition of a 14.89% stake of Turkiye Guaranti Bankasi’s from Dogus Group through a Turkish Lira (TL) 5.6bn (ca. €2bn) stock purchase. This operation Read more…
The latest weeks have been full of news for the UK economy. Some of the news, like the dovish stance of the Bank of England, were on average expected by the financial markets, whereas others, such as the latest inflation figure of 1.2% for September, were not expected. Actually, the Read more…
Oi S.A.; market cap (as of 14/11/2014): $4.16bn PT Portugal SGPS S.A.; market cap (as of 14/11/2014): $1.46bn Bain Capital LLC; AUM: $75bn Apax Partners; AUM: $20bn On November 12, 2014 two major private equity funds, Apax Partners and Bain Capial LLC, have submitted a €7.075bn offer for the Portuguese Read more…
Club Mediterranee SA; market cap (as of 14/11/2014): €843.79m KKR & Co LP; market cap (as of 14/11/2014): $17.94bn KKR & Co LP; AUM: $102.3bn On November 11, Italian tycoon Andrea Bonomi, made a new bid for a controlling stake in the French tourism operator chain Club Méditerranée (Club Med). Read more…
Procter & Gamble Co.; Market Cap (as of 14/11/14): $238.1bn Berkshire Hathaway Inc.; Market Cap (as of 14/11/14): $358.8bn Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), the world’s largest beauty and home products maker based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, announced last month that it would divest its battery business, Duracell. Read more…
US US equities continued to trade sideways in the last week due to the lack of news catalysts. The only major pieces of news out were the number of initial and continuing jobless claims diffused on Thursday and the retail sales figures released on Friday. The anticipation of the former Read more…
On normal market days, the (positive) correlation between gold and silver is quite high. Looking at the chart below, it looks like silver gives chase to the movements in gold and follows them quite closely. One thing we can observe though is that downside changes in gold reflect more heavily Read more…
US It has been a busy week for US markets, filled with plenty of data and the outcome of the midterms on November 4th. The result of these was a Republican takeover of the Senate, and in all the expression of dissatisfaction or anger at Mr Obama’s performance. The S&P Read more…
There’s a famous saying among financiers : either stress tests are done correctly and banks fail miserably, either they are poorly done in order to make them a success. It is very likely we are in the second situation. Victor Constancio, vice-president of the ECB, declared that not only the Read more…
The Carlyle Group LP; market cap (as of 7/11/2014): $9.08bn The Carlyle Group LP; AUM (as of 30/09/2014): $203bn On November 5, a consortium led by the global asset manager The Carlyle Group announced the acquisition of Dealogic, a provider of software and data platforms to investment banking industry, from Read more…
Lenovo Group Ltd; market cap (as of 07/11/2014): HKD106.78bn Google Inc.; market cap (as of 07/11/2014): $365.90bn On October 30, 2014 Lenovo (HKSE: 992) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced the completion of Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.9bn. The total purchase price includes $660m in cash, $750m Read more…
Oil has been completely crushed after peaking this summer: much has changed since our last article earlier this year (https://bsic.it/oil-quo-vadis/). Weakness in the price of crude was triggered by fear of a global slowdown: China growing at its lowest rate since 2009 (only 7.3%), together with cuts in economic forecast Read more…
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) Market cap (as of 31/10/14): €3.11bn Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Italy’s third largest lender and world’s oldest bank, has again become the center of discussion following the subpar results of European Central Bank’s stress tests released on October 26. MPS Read more…