Financial Services

City spinner’s $80 mln sale sets an M&A template

10 Jan 2023

Tulchan founder Andrew Grant, a communications consigliere to UK boards, is selling to private equity-backed U.S. group Teneo. It’s an admission that PR firms need a global presence to win the biggest clients. Rivals like Powerscourt and Headland could follow suit.

Jack Ma’s Ant is China tech’s tiniest bellwether

9 Jan 2023

The founder is ceding control of his fintech giant, sending shares of affiliate Alibaba up 7%. The move was expected, yet investors clearly see Ant's rehabilitation as symbolic. That may be misguided, but any excuse to reevaluate China’s beat-down internet sector will do.

Republicans’ U.S. debt threats are a fool’s errand

6 Jan 2023

Conservative U.S. lawmakers are demanding their next House speaker use the debt ceiling as a political weapon. Their threats are either empty or dangerously reckless. Hitting the borrowing cap would destroy trust in the U.S. dollar, roil markets, and erase some 11 million jobs.

StanChart suitors track banking’s flighty fortunes

6 Jan 2023

The emerging market lender has been the subject of takeover chat for four decades. First Abu Dhabi Bank is the latest to consider an offer, following British, American, Chinese and Australian rivals. It’s as much an indicator of Middle Eastern optimism as of StanChart’s appeal.

Sumitomo Jefferies would be neat but no cigar

5 Jan 2023

Boss Jun Ohta wants to expand the Japanese bank’s pact with the Wall Street firm and boost its stake. That would add investment banking without much expense. Unlike the 37% of earnings MUFG logs from owning a fifth of Morgan Stanley, Jefferies is unlikely to make the same mark.

Global finance unknowns are more “who” than “what”

27 Dec 2022

The blowup of the UK pension market has got regulators hunting for weaknesses in the over-$200 trln shadow banking sector. Emerging market funds and leveraged loans both bring vulnerabilities. But in deciding what to police, the question is who’s exposed. That’s a blind spot.

Treasury market best tuned up before it breaks

23 Dec 2022

U.S. government bonds are getting harder to trade, and more volatile. The Fed could deploy a simple patch: revive a Covid-inspired rule tweak that lets banks hold Treasuries without locking up precious equity capital. It sounds like a gift for banks, but beats the alternative.

Capital Calls: Barbarians at the check-in desk

22 Dec 2022

Concise views on global finance: Hotel landlord Vivion is engaged in a war of words with short-seller Muddy Waters, but it could fight back more effectively with cash.  

Interlopers may yet crash the Gulf bank fee party

22 Dec 2022

The Middle East is one of the globe’s few healthy IPO markets. To relative outsiders like Barclays, it may look like big U.S. and domestic banks will grab the best mandates. Yet Saudi Arabia’s insistence that foreign banks base themselves in Riyadh presents an opportunity.

Goldman’s job cuts will be a problem shared

20 Dec 2022

The division that houses Marcus generates little return on its $16 bln of equity. Slashing too much in consumer and wealth would be counterproductive, however. Shareholders mostly subsidize the business; now, unlucky investment banking staff will shoulder some of the burden, too.

Intrepid bankers will find Boutique Blvd jam-packed

19 Dec 2022

Slower periods of M&A often inspire rainmakers to hang up their own shingles. Independent shops already pocket 36% of a $35 bln fee pool, up from 14% two decades ago. The cutthroat deal advice business leaves less room to muscle in on the likes of Blair Effron and Simon Robey.

Who will be Wall Street’s un-American idol?

16 Dec 2022

BNP Paribas wants to grab a larger share of the U.S. market for deals and trading. So do Deutsche Bank and Barclays. This time, the goal isn’t to resculpt banking’s Mount Rushmore, but to slow the Americans’ march in Europe. It’s a plan shareholders ought to be able to get behind.

Texas’s small ESG stick still packs a wallop

15 Dec 2022

Lone Star state legislators exempted Vanguard from a hearing on environmental investing because the asset manager ditched a net zero coalition. Texas’s pension fund is much smaller than ESG-friendlier California’s, but its political heft makes it hard to ignore.

King Dollar is not ready to abdicate

13 Dec 2022

The greenback had its worst month in 12 years in November, raising market expectations of a peak. That looks premature. The currency is overvalued but remains a safe haven. It’s also supported by tight monetary policy, fund flows into the United States and a lack of alternatives.

Hong Kong IPOs go back to a less luminous future

12 Dec 2022

Bankers and officials see the end of China’s Covid-19 restrictions as crucial to reviving the hub’s once-booming IPO market. That understates the city’s challenges. After vying for the hottest listings, the way investors and companies traverse the gateway to China is changing.

Sinema widens gap between Democrats and Wall St

9 Dec 2022

The Arizona senator’s exit from the U.S. Democratic Party won’t change much in Washington, but it reflects a growing split between the financial sector and liberal lawmakers. Kyrsten Sinema stood apart in her support for wealthy investors. Wall Street is edging further right.

UK’s Big Bang barely mitigates City’s Brexit pain

9 Dec 2022

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt is fiddling with some peripheral regulations to try and boost the City’s competitiveness. It won’t reverse the flow of bankers to Europe. The exodus might even speed up if the EU finally gets moving on its own financial reforms.

Blackstone gets a slap from efficient markets

8 Dec 2022

Clients have pulled money from funds like BREIT, whose purported strength is that their valuations aren’t subject to public markets’ whims. That offered stability during recent strange times. But if investors decide the market’s pessimism might be justified, there’s a problem.

New buy-now-pay-later fad runs old-school risks

8 Dec 2022

After Klarna and others saw their valuations slashed, venture investors are now pouring money into business-focused lenders like Wayflyer. It sounds like digital trade finance, which has a patchy past. There’s often a good reason that small borrowers can’t get money elsewhere.

Banks’ buyout-debt machine defies quick jumpstart

8 Dec 2022

SocGen, BNP and Deutsche are buying slices of their own European collateralised loan obligations, which turn private-equity loans into bonds. That has echoes of 2008-style excess, but it’s not too risky. Their bigger problem is that the $1 trln market may be inexorably slowing.