Download PDF Introduction Last month, the Japanese operator of 7-Eleven [XTKS: 3382] rejected a friendly takeover bid from the Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard [TO: ATD], which controls the Circle K brand. At $14.86 per share, the bid valued the business at $39bn, which would have made this Japan’s biggest-ever buyout Read more…
Download PDF Introduction The Japanese economy was a peculiar case in the last 50 years. From growing its GDP at 7% a year in the post-war boom period, after the 1990’s bubble, it sunk into a disastrous vicious cycle, made of negative growth, deflation, credit crunch, liquidity trap and a Read more…
Download PDF Introduction As Bill Ackman – Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management [AMS: PSH] mentioned on an interview with David Rubenstein in November of last year, some people are simply born to be activist investors. Clearly, that begs the question: What are activist investors? The strategy refers Read more…
Download PDF USA The start of the week can be described as the calm before the storm in major US stock indices, as investors digested last week’s higher-than-expected inflation print and were waiting on the Federal Reserve to announce their policy decision on Wednesday. Accordingly, no index posted significant gains Read more…
Download PDF Sentiment in global financial markets was once again largely affected by rising inflation fears. USA The week started with a continuation of the relief rally in risky assets, as sellers momentarily reduced their pressure. The scenario was quickly reversed as soon as traders’ expectations for Tuesday’s inflation reading Read more…
Download PDF USA Major market indexes registered significant losses for the fourth consecutive week, highlighting April 2022 as the worst month for the markets since March 2020. The S&P 500 is still in correction territory, losing 8.8% in the last month, and being down approximately 14% from its January all-time Read more…
Download PDF USA Following signs of a more hawkish central bank policy, bond markets in the US sold off substantially over the course of the week. On Tuesday, Charles Evans, the Chicago Fed’s president defined a year-end range for the policy rate between 2.25 and 2.5 per cent as realistic, Read more…
Download PDF Sentiment in global financial markets was once again largely affected by the developments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and by the Federal Reserve policy. USA The declarations of Fed Governor Lael Brainard on Tuesday and the release of minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee of mid-March on Read more…
Download PDF GlobalLogic – privately owned Hitachi – market cap as of 11th April: ¥4.97tn Introduction On March 31st 2021, Hitachi announced its agreement to acquire GlobalLogic, a Silicon Valley-based software services company, for $9.4bn. This transaction values GlobalLogic at 37x forecasted 2021 adjusted EBITDA, while giving it an equity Read more…
Download PDF At the beginning of 2020, BSIC members took a first glance at NIRP in the article “Negative interest rate policy – friend or foe?”. The piece discusses the impact of negative rates in the Euro area and the possible unintended consequences. This year we try to go through Read more…
Download PDF Renesas Electronics [TSE: 6723] – market cap as of 19/02/2021: ¥2.14tn Dialog Semiconductor [FWB: DLG] – market cap as of 19/02/2021: €4.99bn Introduction Renesas Electronics has agreed to buy the Anglo-German Dialog for €4.9bn in an all-cash transaction. The offer priced Dialog at €67.50 per share, a 52% Read more…
Download PDF US US stock market marks new record highs with the hopes rising for the soon vaccine development and investors’ look into the Biden’s victory on the US presidential elections. S&P500 closed at 3,585.15 with weekly gain of 2.16%. Dow-Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA) was up 4.08% reaching 29,479.81. Read more…
Download PDF Introduction In the past year Berkshire Hathaway slowly built a 5% stake in each of the 5 most important trading houses in Japan. The overall size of the transaction is ¥670bn ($6.3bn) and it was backed by a surprising ¥625.5 billion issuance of yen-denominated bonds made in September Read more…
Download as PDF US US market ended another wild trading week with a slight gain after last Friday substantive losses. S&P500 closed at 2,972.37, with a weekly gain of 0.61%. Dow-Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA) was up 1.79% reaching 25,864.78. The demand for haven assets is rising and the bets Read more…
Download as PDF United States The US markets experienced the worst week since 2008 due to a massive sell off caused by coronavirus uncertainty. S&P500 closed at 2954.22 with a weekly loss of a staggering 11.50% whilst the Dow-Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Index finished the week at 25.409, down 12.00% Read more…