Asset management

SoftBank’s $100 bln US pledge is doubly fanciful

17 Dec 2024

In 2016 Masayoshi Son offered to invest $50 bln stateside. Now the Japanese group’s founder has promised Donald Trump twice that sum, despite having barely a quarter of it at his disposal. It will be hard to make up the difference without selling shares in his crown jewel, Arm.

Why private credit is shrinking as it booms

17 Dec 2024

Non-bank lenders, sitting atop $2 trln in assets, keep taking more of the market away from the traditional titans of Wall Street. Yet the industry is now rapidly consolidating. In this episode of The Big View podcast, Marc Lipschultz, co-CEO of Blue Owl Capital, explains why.

ANZ’s new CEO has his hands partly tied

9 Dec 2024

HSBC's ex-retail boss Nuno Matos will take charge of Australia's second-largest lender. Its subpar performance merits the outside hire. But key projects, like integrating Suncorp's bank, are far from complete. That will limit his ability to shake things up at the $60 bln group.

Brookfield’s simpler structure adds layer of rigor

4 Dec 2024

The $100 bln investment shop is nearly finished rearranging its sprawling standalone units, helping narrow a stubborn discount to asset value. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is a big believer. The new challenge for boss Bruce Flatt will be returns depending purely on performance.

BlackRock’s HPS deal seals Netflix-like strategy

3 Dec 2024

Boss Larry Fink intensified the race against Apollo and others to capitalize on booming private markets. For the index-fund titan, it means finding content-like assets to push through its pipes. Buying a credit shop managing $150 bln helps, but only up to a point. Just ask Apple.

Buyout barons salivate over uncertain wealth prize

20 Nov 2024

Blackstone says $80 trln is up for grabs from coaxing individual investors into private-market assets. KKR puts the figure at $200 trln. The range reflects the variety of people whose nest eggs the firms are targeting, and regulatory hurdles. Shareholders aren’t counting on it.

Investors ignore the law of long-term averages

14 Nov 2024

US stocks are trading at 38 times cyclically adjusted earnings, near the most expensive level ever on that measure. For more than two decades, equities have defied predictions that valuations return to the historical mean. Yet conditions which enabled juicy returns are fading.

UK megafund plan is weak tonic for investment ills

14 Nov 2024

Chancellor Rachel Reeves wants to consolidate the 1.3 trln pound retirement sector to create funds with more firepower to support the economy. It’s a worthy move, but could take years to pay off. Britain’s economic problems need more radical action.

COP29 will highlight bifurcated energy transitions

12 Nov 2024

Donald Trump’s election victory casts a pall over the UN climate confab in Baku. It will also make raising $1 trln a year from rich states to decarbonise the developing world even harder. But his return will also hasten a shift East and South in the fight against global warming.

Schroders can stop slide by getting grip on costs

5 Nov 2024

The $6.6 bln asset manager’s shares fell over 10% as it warned of clients withdrawing funds. Once first among UK equals, Schroders now suffers from a humdrum valuation, and a lack of scale. New Chief Executive Richard Oldfield can at least tackle its bloated expenses.

Growth-hungry EQT boss faces an M&A puzzle

17 Oct 2024

The $40 bln buyout group’s CEO Christian Sinding is practically shouting from the rooftops that he wants to buy a private-markets peer. So-called secondaries targets, the biggest of which is Ardian, make sense. But it’s a sellers’ market and EQT’s Swedish stock may be a turnoff.

Larry Fink’s private index dream may be holy grail

19 Sep 2024

The boss of $137 bln BlackRock wants to create benchmarks and passive investment products for alternative assets like buyouts and direct lending. Packaging up illiquid funds will be tricky, and data quality is patchy. A repeat of Fink’s success with public markets seems unlikely.

China’s banks have a nasty case of indigestion

11 Sep 2024

For decades, Beijing leaned on lenders to fuel growth in the $17 trln economy. But it will take years for them to digest problem IOUs from firms and local governments. Officials will have to find new ways to boost GDP, or the financial dyspepsia could turn into something worse.

Blackstone $16 bln AI deal borrows from SPAC boom

5 Sep 2024

A group led by Steve Schwarzman’s firm is paying a large sum to buy data centre operator AirTrunk from Macquarie. By tinkering with EBITDA, the buyer can present a low valuation multiple for a purchase in a hot sector. It's unnecessarily reminiscent of the blank-cheque froth.

How HSBC can heal the scars of its CEO battle

29 Aug 2024

The $160 bln lender’s retail and wealth head Nuno Matos left after losing out on the top job to Georges Elhedery. The bank now has an empty CFO post, and a lack of potential future leaders. Recruiting heavy-hitting outsiders, like Citi’s Jane Fraser has done, would help.

UK wealth buyout requires elbow grease and luck

9 Aug 2024

After an intense courtship, CVC and Abu Dhabi have snapped up investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown for $7 bln. The rich price tag means the new owners will have to slash costs while cranking up sales to make a decent return. That may be tricky if interest rates keep falling.

UK financial watchdog’s H2O thwack has a downside

8 Aug 2024

The fund group will repay 250 mln euros after the FCA said it bought esoteric bonds and didn’t declare conflicts. The deal gets money to investors quicker than if a fine had been levied. But, at just a fraction of what some clients are claiming, the settlement risks looking soft.

China’s mounting bad debts have fewer places to go

7 Aug 2024

StanChart-backed Bohai Bank is selling $4 bln-worth of non-performing assets. It underscores the pressure lenders are under as property-linked loans sour. Yet distressed-asset managers like Cinda are feeling the strain too. Disposing banks' $470 bln bad debt pile will get harder.

Warren Buffett sagely ignores his own advice

6 Aug 2024

The Omaha billionaire once warned that having too much cash is a poor investment. After selling a big Apple stake, his Berkshire Hathaway now sits on some $275 bln of it, towering over other US corporate holdings. As markets wobble, he and his war chest are kings again.

Singapore bourse may yet be upgraded to also-ran

6 Aug 2024

Policymakers want to end its IPO drought and dismal liquidity. Tax breaks, listing government assets like Changi Airport and encouraging state fund GIC to invest locally could help. But the city-state lacks the wherewithal to be a big draw for business from China and beyond.