Companies & Funds

StubHub IPO is destined for the cheap seats

2 Apr 2025

The online swap-meet for tickets to anything from WrestleMania to Lady Gaga was last valued at $17 bln in 2021. Headliners include cash flow and 30% growth. But gloomy consumers and investors mean controlling shareholder and CEO Eric Baker would be lucky to get half-price.

Brookfield may have to dig deeper to bag Grifols

2 Apr 2025

The Canadian firm is eyeing a $7.5 bln offer for the pharma group, as per Spanish media. The juicier bid could still yield an attractive return and Brookfield’s interest, despite fraud allegations, adds value to the company. That may embolden the seller to play hardball.

UK sandwich deal exemplifies investor M&A allergy

2 Apr 2025

Food group Greencore agreed a 1.2-bln-pound takeover of rival Bakkavor. Cost savings seem tasty, and the return looks rich. The fact that Greencore’s shares dipped during talks, though, is a warning for scale-hungry CEOs: investors have limited M&A appetite in a volatile world.

China’s love of open-source AI may shut down fast

1 Apr 2025

Through DeepSeek and others Beijing is giving away its hottest innovations. Global collaboration helps companies to reduce costs, skirt US sanctions, and speed adoption of Chinese standards. But there are good reasons authorities may soon decide to keep their best tech at home.

Goldman follows logical path to bad executive pay

1 Apr 2025

Proxy firms urged investors to vote against the $80 mln retention fillips for CEO David Solomon and deputy John Waldron. Increasingly formidable rivals would happily wreck succession plans and targeted rewards are awkward. It makes sense, until it ends in more money for the boss.

SAP share-price surge may have a short shelf life

1 Apr 2025

The $313 bln German software group overtook Novo Nordisk as the largest listed European company by market capitalisation. But CEO Christian Klein is benefitting from a forced, and overdue, client migration to the cloud. The future after that process ends looks a lot fuzzier.

OpenAI’s profit trajectory is an open question

1 Apr 2025

The startup behind ChatGPT is raising up to $40 bln from SoftBank at a $300 bln valuation. Yet OpenAI may not generate positive cash flow for years. A profitable business hinges on rapid growth in revenue and in its so-called enterprise arm, which has more scope to break even.

Larry Fink shows his momentum-trade stripes

31 Mar 2025

The BlackRock CEO’s latest missive details how the $12 trln fund manager goes with the flow. Stakeholder capitalism and climate are out; private markets and digital tokens are in. Febrile politics explain such shifts, but the shaky Panama ports deal exposes the extra volatility.

Rocket’s housing expansion cramps existing lodgers

31 Mar 2025

The home lending tech firm is buying mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper for $9 bln, its second all-stock deal in a month. Building a one-stop shop for house hunters makes sense. But the M&A rush dilutes existing investors, whose share of profit-boosting cost savings looks skimpy.

 

Telecom Italia’s latest twist dials down vital M&A

31 Mar 2025

Italy’s state-held Poste has bought most of Vivendi’s stake in the $7 bln domestic telco, making it the biggest shareholder. The deal clarifies Telecom Italia’s future direction. Unfortunately, it also probably makes value-creative M&A with foreign operators like Iliad harder.

US threat oils wheels of Pirelli’s China derisking

31 Mar 2025

The $6 bln Italian tyremaker is pressing its Beijing-backed shareholder to cut its 37% stake. Pirelli’s US growth plans may admittedly suffer if it doesn’t. But a shift might also enable tycoon Marco Tronchetti Provera to once again use geopolitics to improve his influence.

Mini nuclear reactor rush has a short half-life

31 Mar 2025

AI’s ravenous appetite for always-on power has drawn the likes of Google and OpenAI boss Sam Altman into the race to build cheaper atom-splitters. But aspirations to triple nuke power could cost $7 trln, while cheap renewables already benefit from the vaunted economies of scale.

The Li’s brinkmanship with Beijing will be messy

31 Mar 2025

Offloading global assets from ports to telecoms will help the Hong Kong clan behind CK Hutchison exit a value trap, except China senses betrayal. The Li’s exposure to the country remains sizeable: retail, utility and property assets provide Beijing with ample pressure points.

China insurers find capital home in Hong Kong

31 Mar 2025

The $127 bln Ping An and peers are upping purchases of the city's stocks as they hunt for yield. Low interest rates and a lack of investment options on the mainland will sustain the trend. That should help narrow the premium onshore shares trade at to their Hong Kong equivalents.

GameStop completes meme-stock evolution

28 Mar 2025

The $10 bln firm, ostensibly a video-game retailer, is selling convertible debt to fund bitcoin purchases. Pioneered by crypto hoarder Strategy, this is the apex in the life cycle of companies turned message-board obsessions: sell retail trader frenzy as a product to hedge funds.

Ubisoft debt fix leaves valuation quest on pause

28 Mar 2025

The $2 bln French gaming firm’s $1 bln injection from Tencent brings much-needed cash to cut leverage. In return for its massive investment, the Chinese group merely gets a small stake in a new subsidiary. That reflects a generous value for key titles like ‘Assassin’s Creed’.

Carmakers’ US dreams turn to nightmare dilemma

28 Mar 2025

Hyundai is investing $21 bln to ramp up production in the US. It's a risky bet that higher manufacturing costs will be easier to manage than tariff-induced higher import costs. It also underscores the sheer importance of the American market to the South Korean giant.

CoreWeave scripts AI’s Tinker Bell moment

27 Mar 2025

The cloud services firm cut its mooted target IPO valuation by 22% as supplier Nvidia steps in for support. Like the storybook fairy, the business lives on belief, in this case that a few companies will keep feeding a circular silicon economy. Rising doubt could be existential.

Basic rules of banking apply to Klarna too

27 Mar 2025

The buy now, pay later provider wants to be valued as a disruptor in its US IPO. But on conventional metrics, loan losses, which grew 40% to $495 mln last year, compare poorly with credit card users. There’s no sign Klarna and its peers have invented a better way to lend money.

Car investors only take US tariffs semi-seriously

27 Mar 2025

Shares in the likes of BMW and Volkswagen fell after President Donald Trump whacked 25% tariffs on auto imports. Those declines may not be pricing in the worst. Carmakers can soften the blow, and Trump may backtrack. Yet US trade imbalances suggest that may not happen soon.