Download PDF Introduction On September 10th, Italy’s UniCredit SpA [ETR: CRIN] has acquired a total 9% stake in the German Commerzbank AG [FWB: CBK], half of it directly off the hands of the German finance agency. About a week later the stake was increased to 21%, the majority of it Read more…
Download PDF Overview Among companies in the credit card industry, three names always stand out – Visa [NYSE: V], Mastercard [NYSE: MA] and American Express [NYSE: AXP]. However, that may soon change if the deal between Capital One and Discover Financial Services goes through. It was announced on 20th February Read more…
Download PDF BBVA (MCE: BBVA.MC) – market cap as of 27th November 2020: €26.34bn PNC (NYSE: PNC) – market cap as of 27th November 2020: $53.23bn Introduction On November 16th BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank, and PNC Financial Services Group announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for PNC to Read more…
Download PDF Nexi (BIT:NEXI) – market cap as of 30th October 2020: €8.41bn SIA Group – Private Company Introduction On the 5th of October 2020, Nexi SpA and SIA SpA, two Italian financial companies specialising in payment solutions, announced a €15bn all-share merger, creating an Italian PayTech champion. Read more…
Download PDF CaixaBank (MCE: CABK.MC) – market cap as of 2/10/2020: €10.3bn Bankia (MCE: BKIA.MC) – market cap as of 2/10/2020: €3.55bn Introduction On the 18th of September, CaixaBank, a Spanish financial company, agreed to acquire in an all-share deal Bankia, a Spanish bank, valuing it at €4.3bn, a Read more…
Temenos Group (SWX:TEMN) – market cap as of 23/02/2018: CHF7.60bn Fidessa Group (LON:FDSA) – market cap as of 23/02/2018: GBP1.47bn Introduction On February 21st, 2018, the boards of both Temenos and Fidessa have reached an agreement for the takeover of the former over the latter for £1.4 billion. The two Read more…
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. (BBVA:MCE) – market cap as of 1/12/2017: €47.17bn Introduction On November 29, 2017, it was announced that BBVA had sold to the American fund Cerberus the bulk of its real estate business in Spain. Through this operation, the Spanish bank will reduce by 70% its Read more…
Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) – market cap as of 17/11/2017: $138.514bn Engie S.A. (PAR: ENGI) – market cap as of 17/11/2017: $34.837bn Introduction On November 08, 2017, the French multinational oil and gas company Total announced that it entered into an agreement to buy the Liquefied Natural Gas assets of Read more…
FirstRand Ltd (FSR:SJ) – market cap as of 11/10/2017: ZAR295.3bn Aldermore Group Plc (ALD:LN) – market cap as of 11/10/2017: GBP1.07bn Introduction FirstRand and Aldermore, as of 6 November 2017, have agreed upon merging in a £1.1bn deal, at 313 pence per share in cash which implies a 22% premium Read more…
Introduction Markets all around the world have been characterized by high volatility and unsatisfying returns in recent weeks, primarily because of the dramatic drop in oil prices and the alarming data on China’s growth, which has failed to meet analysts’ expectations for the fourth quarter of 2015 by about one Read more…
The European banking sector has been facing significant changes in the post crisis era. Regulatory headwinds, a myriad of litigation charges and the lack of a credible strategy at many institutions have seen the sector fall out of favor with equity investors. Though, admittedly, these challenges might not have been Read more…
US Big news has struck the US economy this week and in particular the ones oil-related has had a strong effect on the market. The US economy has been once again the main driver of the fall in oil prices this week as the country’s stockpiles of crude last week Read more…
US The week ended with a boom for the US economy as the November jobs report was released on Friday. 321,000 new jobs were created in the last month, well ahead of economists’ forecasts of 230,000. This piece of news puts the US economy on track to achieve the best Read more…
US The week just past us was one of slight gains in US equity markets, with most volume on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. The week opened with a soft print of the US services PMI, then trading became jittery for the S&P 500 as 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…