Food & Beverages

Corona Capital: Davos relocation, Kraft

3 Feb 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Davos plans its annual meeting in Singapore; Kraft ditches Mr. Peanut.

Corona Capital: GDP, Corruption, Norway

28 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. output growth slows from a surge to a gentle trot; Transparency International flags that corruption and pandemic-fighting don’t mix; and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund sees its tech bets pay off.

Corona Capital: Food delivery, Video games

25 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Hedge fund Tiger Global gets a taste for food-delivery investments; and Jagex, developer of fantasy game “RuneScape,” is flipped to Carlyle less than a year after its last sale.

Activist scratches at surface of Danone malaise

19 Jan 2021

Bluebell wants the yoghurt maker to split the role of chair and CEO and for boss Emmanuel Faber to quit. His underperformance relative to peers means that Danone should at least do the former. But boosting sales growth will require more than a corporate governance revamp.

Corona Capital: Bank of America, Halliburton, NBA

19 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Bank of America’s animalistic analogies; Halliburton sees a recovery that can’t come soon enough; The New York Knicks’ valuation has its top spot to lose.

Corona Capital: Satellites, Shoes

15 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: SoftBank pours cash into satellite startup; and footwear winners and losers.

Xi rewrites China’s rags to riches tale

15 Jan 2021

Zhong Shanshan sits atop Asia’s largest fortune, at $84 bln, thanks to bets in bottled water and vaccines. His rise reflects a new economy, where property and tech bosses have fallen out of favour. But as Beijing frets over stock bubbles, new wealth can be just as easily lost.

Wrong sort of inflation is coming down the tracks

14 Jan 2021

A global food price index has been rising. When commodities like cereal grow dearer, consumers end up paying more. The poorest in developed and developing economies, who spend a higher proportion of income on basics, will feel the pinch as wages are unlikely to keep up.

France’s Carrefour defence targets wrong enemy

14 Jan 2021

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire opposes a possible $20 bln takeover of the grocer by Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard. He’s right to worry about jobs and supply chains after Covid-19. But a new owner would still need French cashiers, while suppliers are better protected by law.

Corona Capital: Target, IPOs keep coming

13 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Retailer Target gets an extra sales boost from its earlier e-commerce efforts, while buy-now-pay-later company Affirm continues one of 2020’s less-hated features – a smoking hot IPO market.

Corona Capital: Bond bonanza, Albertsons

12 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. companies' bond issuance in 2020 hits records across the board; and America’s No. 3 grocer continues to take advantage of the shopping habits created by Covid-19 lockdowns.

Corona Capital: Video rental stores, Conagra

7 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: A last surviving U.S. video rental chain shutters, Conagra’s boosted sales aren’t enough for investors.

Pandemic pet boom keeps running for new top dogs

24 Dec 2020

Locked-down humans adopted more four-legged friends in 2020 and upped spending on pet supplies and medicine, causing the stock prices of firms like Chewy and Zoetis to rally. Old-school pet chains also benefited, but as nimble e-retailers take more sales, the pack may thin.

Corona Capital: Poverty, Beer cans, Budget hotels

24 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Hong Kong’s poverty problem was getting worse even before the virus struck; AB InBev sells the family aluminium to cut debt; Whitbread, owner of hotel chain Premier Inn, tries to get its landlords to share the pain.

Tea bubble is set to inflate in China

23 Dec 2020

Coffee has been all the rage across the country as McDonald’s and the local KFC owner challenge Starbucks. On the rise, however, are bubble tea chains Heytea and Nayuki, which are angling for IPOs. Exuberance for consumer companies will have investors gulping down their shares.

Corona Capital: Supercars, Cooking, Home working

10 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Debt-laden carmaker McLaren tries to hitch a ride on the SPAC bandwagon; meal-kit deliverer HelloFresh’s virus feast only goes so far; and America’s working-from-home boom survives the crisis.

DoorDash IPO leaves too much on the table

9 Dec 2020

It raised $3 billion at $102 per share – and the stock started trading at $182. Market share prices don’t tell the full story, but the food delivery company could clearly have gotten more. That’s unfortunate. Between competition and Covid-19, DoorDash could use the extra cash.

Hershey cocoa spat tests limits of investor ethics

4 Dec 2020

Ghana and Ivory Coast may stop selling sustainable beans to the Reese’s maker, accusing it of dodging payments for impoverished farmers. That could make it harder for the $31 bln group to flaunt its sustainability kudos. The snag is that so far shareholders don’t seem to care.

Burger King’s cooks could use a new recipe

3 Dec 2020

Restaurant Brands International prospered after buying the fast food chain. But its Tim Hortons outlet, which is planning a UK push, drags on the $27 bln group’s valuation. Investors 3G and Pershing Square are experts at cooking up deals. It may be time to change the menu.

DoorDash delivers mixed messages for Just Eat

2 Dec 2020

On the one hand, the U.S. market leader's $27 bln pre-IPO valuation suggests Just Eat got a bargain buying Grubhub. On the other, cut-throat competition led by DoorDash has cost Grubhub market share and profit. The American home-delivery recipe isn't yet long-term tasty.