UniCredit SpA; Market Cap (as of 03/10/2014): €35.45bn Santander SA; Market Cap (as of 03/10/2014): €87.68bn On September 22, UniCredit, the largest Italian bank by assets, and Santander, the largest bank in the Eurozone by market value, are in talks to merge their asset management units to create a European Read more…
eBay Inc, Market Cap (as of 03/10/2014): $67.46bn On September 30, John Danahoe, president and CEO of eBay, revealed the intention to spin-off its payments arm PayPal into a publicly traded company by the end of the next year. The CEO pointed out that, although both companies are already two Read more…
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International; Market Cap. (as of 3/10/2014): $42.9bn Allergan Inc.; Market Cap. (as of 3/10/2014): $53.64bn As low debt obligations alongside large cash holdings and patent expiration liabilities continue to foster a conducive environment for M&A activity in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry another multi-billion dollar struggle has emerged: Read more…
This week we had the extraordinary opportunity to meet and talk with Sir Michael Moritz, Chairman of Sequoia Capital, who was at Bocconi to talk at the Lectio Inauguralis Rodolfo De Benedetti Chair in Entrepreneurship. Sir Moritz gave us a speech for about an hour, here we summarize the contents Read more…
Merck KGaA, Market Cap (as of 26/09/2014): €31.4bn Sigma-Aldrich Corp., Market Cap (as of 26/09/2014): $16.2bn On September 22, 2014, the German drug and chemicals company Merck KGaA announced a definitive agreement under which it will acquire the US-based leading life science consumables supplier Sigma-Aldrich for $17bn, creating one of Read more…
Siemens AG, Market Cap (as of 26/09/2014): €83.16bn Dresser-Rand Group Inc., Market Cap (as of 26/09/2014): $6.3bn Siemens AG (NYSE:SI), the Munich-based global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, has agreed to acquire Dresser-Rand Group Inc. (NYSE:DRC), the Houston-based leading supplier of equipment for the oil and gas sector. According Read more…
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Market Cap (as of 26/09/2014): $222.98bn In September 2014, the Chinese e-commerce Alibaba secured its place as a major global company by completing the world’s largest IPO with a price of $68 per share. Due to a very strong demand, the bankers running the deal decided Read more…
US Equity markets in the US lost ground this week, ending short of the fresh highs touched in the previous one. Macroeconomic data came in mixed, as a solid manufacturing PMI and positive data on new home sales on Tuesday and Wednesday were confounded by disappointing durable goods orders and Read more…
Lately, there has been increasing speculation regarding the results of the AQR (Asset Quality Review), which will be published by the ECB in about a month time. The AQR is a central part of the “comprehensive assessment” investigation that the ECB is leading on European banks balance sheets. Working in Read more…
US US equities enjoyed significant gains in the week just past us after trading sideways for most of the summer. The S&P 500 was 1.25% above its closing value last Friday, closing now firmly above the 2,000 level at 2,010. The index clocked in its largest gains mid-week, on the Read more…
IPhone 6 officially hit Apple Stores this weekend in 9 key markets; it was very welcomed with 4 million preorders (double those of iPhone 5) and tremendously long lines of fans: outside Apple flagship store of 5th Avenue people flocked in a line 12 blocks long. The new model of Read more…
Intercontinental Exchange Inc, Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): $23.45bn Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), announced on September 5, 2014 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SuperDerivatives, a leading provider of risk management analytics, financial market data and valuation services. The acquisition will accelerate the expansion of ICE’s Read more…
Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): Market Cap €143bn SABMiller PLC, Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): Market Cap €73bn Heineken NV, Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): Market €34bn Beer brewing was historically a local business, with only few brands having a global presence in the estimated $600bn market. Read more…
AbbVie Inc., Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): $94.63bn Shire plc., Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): £31.12bn In its attempt to become one of the global leaders in the rare diseases market, AbbVie successfully got the approval from Shire’s board of directors for its $54bn acquisition. This approval came after two Read more…
Burger King Worldwide Inc., Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): $10.96bn Tim Hortons Inc., Market Cap (as of 19/09/2014): $11.75bn Burger King, the US-based fast food restaurant chain, joined the list of the controversial tax-avoiding companies when on August 26 it formally reached an agreement for acquiring the Canadian coffee maker Read more…