Asset management

Capital Calls: Cevian tries ‘relaxivism’ at UBS

19 Dec 2023

Concise views on global finance: The pushy European investor has bought shares worth around 1.2 bln euros in the Swiss bank, equivalent to a 1.3% stake. Yet it seems happy to sit back and let UBS management execute their strategy.

Capital Calls: Roche, Brookfield/Origin

4 Dec 2023

Concise views on global finance: The $224 bln Swiss drugmaker is splurging $2.7 bln on obesity drug developer Carmot; the Canadian investment firm’s joint $13 bln bid for Origin Energy has failed. The trick now is to show what lessons it’s learned from its 16-month-plus campaign.

Private-asset binge exposes insurance to new risks

30 Nov 2023

US insurers hoovered up private loans from buyout firms last year in a profitable game of pass-the-parcel. Their hoard of alternative assets has swelled 65% in five years, and regulators are struggling to keep up. The March banking panic shows what can happen when firewalls fail.

UBS faces a long wait for M&A share-price boost

7 Nov 2023

Boss Sergio Ermotti is cutting costs and shedding unwanted Credit Suisse assets. He’s even won $22 bln of new money from wealthy clients. The question is when investors will reward him with a richer valuation. Lingering legal and integration risks suggest it might take time.

Capital Calls: Paramount’s stricter streaming

3 Nov 2023

Concise views on global finance: The media stalwart’s shares popped 10% as boss Bob Bakish predicted that losses from its costly streaming push have topped out. But the company still faces a cutthroat market full of better-resourced rivals.

Capital Calls: CVC, Grocer wars, Atos

2 Nov 2023

Concise views on global finance: The European buyout group has postponed its plans to list in Amsterdam; British supermarket Sainsbury’s is thriving, which is bad news for rivals like CD&R-owned Morrisons; French IT firm Onepoint has grabbed a 10% stake in ailing peer Atos.

Larry Fink’s next M&A may go in surprise direction

1 Nov 2023

BlackRock’s founder built the world’s largest fund group on audacious acquisitions. He wants to do a last deal before leaving. Absorbing an alternative asset manager is tricky, while an index compiler like MSCI could offer synergies. The wild card is a data firm like Bloomberg.

CVC may have guard rails against choppy IPO waters

20 Oct 2023

The European buyout firm is prepping a float valued at over 10 bln euros. Market jitters make it an odd time to do so. Yet securing a share-based M&A currency may matter as much as the IPO price, and the buyers could be sovereign funds that can live with post-listing price dips.

Banks’ wealth-management heyday may have passed

18 Oct 2023

Morgan Stanley, UBS and others focused on catering to rich people after the 2008 crisis, as asset prices soared and regulation hit their traditional businesses. Now, falling fees and rising rates imply slower growth. The silver lining is that smaller players will struggle more.

Capital Calls: BlackRock, Dollar General

13 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: Boss Larry Fink squares off with Uncle Sam; Dollar General bets on its ex-boss’s old magic.

Private credit partygoers reach for the hard stuff

11 Oct 2023

With rising rates crimping their LBO-financing spree, direct lenders like HPS and Blue Owl are devising ways to prop up weak borrowers. With $7 trln of debt due over the next three years, it’s a growth area. Yet returns may fail to reflect the risks private credit is running.

Capital Calls: Food prices, Brookfield, SPAC spin

3 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: The cost of ingredients for the average UK meal fell 0.1% in September; the Canadian giant’s $1 bln renewables deal reflects how European green assets are getting more appealing; Singapore’s SPAC puts a new spin on blank-cheque targets.

Apollo’s divergent path outshines Blackstone

28 Sep 2023

Marc Rowan’s $55 bln asset manager found permanent capital in insurance. Steve Schwarzman’s firm uses small-fry investors. That led Apollo to safer assets, while Blackstone is leaning into buyouts that suffer from high rates. Apollo’s valuation can shed its boringness discount.

Capital Calls: UBS Russia risk

27 Sep 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Swiss bank’s value fell by $3 bln after Bloomberg reported that the US Department of Justice is investigating the recent acquisition of Credit Suisse over possible compliance failures.

Capital Calls: Shein/Forever 21

24 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Chinese retailer is partnering with Sparc, the operator behind Forever 21. That helps validate Shein before a public listing without the messiness of a merger. Forever 21 gets a new omnichannel and potentially a way to an IPO.

Capital Calls: Italian bank levy flip-flop

9 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: Rome has only partially soothed investors panicking over its windfall tax on lenders.

Capital Calls: Dish and EchoStar

8 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: Billionaire Charlie Ergen is reuniting the two satellite businesses he controls, beefing up the $4.5 billion Dish Network’s strained balance sheet as it tries to expand its wireless strategy.

Europe’s listless IPOs are red flag for big floats

31 Jul 2023

The region’s string of mostly mid-sized initial public offerings this year are now just 3% above their listing price on average. Such poor performance will make investors wary of backing new ones. That will give larger float candidates, like CVC and Galderma, pause for thought.

BlackRock makes a sharp bargain with Mukesh Ambani

27 Jul 2023

The world’s largest money manager, run by Larry Fink, is teaming up with India’s richest man to re-enter the country’s asset management business. The duo can grow fast in the cutthroat $540 bln sector riding on Reliance’s network. It justifies the US firm giving up on control.

Glencore deal epitomises net zero’s reduced status

27 Jul 2023

The $75 bln miner used to argue it was better to wind down its coal assets than sell them to a less responsible owner. Now CEO Gary Nagle wants to buy a rival and spin off the enlarged coal unit. Investors, distracted by energy security and fat profits, are unlikely to stop him.