Download PDF Introduction After a challenging 2023, in the first two quarters of 2024, the Equity Capital Markets activity has been recovering. As of May 2024, the ECM volume YTD accounted for $108bn, compared to $171bn for the whole 2023. Moreover, since the beginning of the year, convertibles were issued Read more…
Download PDF Introduction to Closed-End Funds A closed-end fund (CEF) is a vehicle that collects funds via issuance of shares once and, thereafter, keeps its number of shares fixed. Therefore, after the initial fundraising, no additional capital flows into the fund, unless the CEF’s management specifically decides to raise new Read more…
Introduction Historically, large institutional investors pursued purely financial strategies and kept a low profile in governance. This may no longer be the case. In a manner vaguely reminiscent of the corporate raiders of the 1980s, a new generation of activist shareholders is on the rise. The number of companies targeted Read more…
The origins Special Purpose Acquisition Companies were first introduced in 1990s by investment bankers David Nussbaum, Roger and Robert Gladstone, who were among the founders of EarlyBirdCapital, a boutique investment banking firm which since then launched and assisted a remarkable number of SPACs. After them, many other large investment banks Read more…
Valeant Pharmaceuticals; Market Cap: $25.73bn (as of 13/11/2015) Introduction Valeant Pharmaceutical, a pharma behemoth renowned for its aggressive acquisition strategy, has been facing some hard times as its stellar performance has deteriorated considerably amid scrutiny over its monopoly pricing for its drugs as well as recent accusations for its Read more…
Pershing Square Holdings Market Cap (as of 31/10/2014): $6.181bn Pershing Square Holdings, the hedge fund company founded in 2003 by Bill Ackman, the activist investor and Harvard alumnus who boasts a $1.2bn net worth, raised $2.73bn floating for the first time in the Euronext Amsterdam on October 13th. The fund, Read more…