Asset management

Mediobanca’s best M&A defence is the market

27 Jan 2025

The 13 bln euro bank is facing a hostile bid from MPS. CEO Alberto Nagel could in theory court a white knight, like Intesa, or try a deal of his own. But his own rebel shareholders and the Italian government make that tricky. Attacking the merger’s logic looks like his best bet.

Larry Fink uncomfortably blurs crypto lines

23 Jan 2025

BlackRock’s boss floated the idea of bitcoin $700,000 as Donald Trump’s meme coin passed $7 bln in value. The vapidity and grift associated with digital currencies make it an awkward look for the investing goliath. 'Number goes up' is the wrong slogan for a trusted money manager.

Wall St climate cop-out is superficial — for now

14 Jan 2025

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, BlackRock and others have quit some high-profile net-zero initiatives. It may seem a victory for Donald Trump's anti-ESG agenda. But the groups have served some of their purpose. The real surrender would come if the firms ditch their own green goals.

Trading disruptors will mimic banks and beat them

2 Jan 2025

Market-makers like Citadel and Jane Street have mostly focused on low-margin business that JPMorgan, Citi and peers are happy to lose. In 2025, they’ll dabble in more lucrative trades and steal large clients. Wall Street’s grip on the $150 bln global-markets pie will slip.

Buyout barons will find ways to douse fire sale

27 Dec 2024

Groups like KKR and EQT have $3 trln of assets, after years of slow sales. In 2025, pressure to offload companies will grow, putting paper valuations at risk. To soften the blow, firms will rely on innovative disposal tricks, like continuation funds and private share placements.

Credit markets’ calm veneer will crack

26 Dec 2024

Rates are falling, and so too are corporate defaults. Yet firms like Altice France, with $25 bln of borrowings, will still have to grapple with high funding costs. Losses on opaque private-credit loans will mount. Wafer-thin returns for risky debt leave little room for error.

India’s green power producers will get a shakeout

24 Dec 2024

More than a dozen renewable energy assets are on the block as both private equity firms like Brookfield and GIC and industry owners like Siemens look for an exit. Rivals and flush public markets will welcome large players. Smaller ones will have fewer options.

Insurers will stake their claim in private credit

24 Dec 2024

Buyout giants like Apollo and KKR have grabbed hold of an industry dragged down by dire valuations and aged policy books and used it to crack open a $34 trln credit market. As private lenders consolidate, insurers will flip the script by making their own acquisitions in 2025.

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.