Infrastructure

Infrastructure profit takes many diverging paths

5 Apr 2021

America’s decrepit hardware needs an upgrade, but not all will create the kind of rewards that lure capital providers. Water treatment is one example. President Biden’s first task will be to separate the publicly desirable from the privately investable. There’s room for both.

Benettons avoid crash at end of Italian road feud

1 Apr 2021

Atlantia, part-owned by the clothing-to-infrastructure clan, looks set to sell its motorway unit for 9 bln euros to a group led by state investor CDP. The sale should end a row with Rome and cut debt. For the new owners, rising investment means the returns will hardly be racy.

Draghi’s corporate inbox will keep flashing red

31 Mar 2021

Rome’s to-do list, left over from the last government, includes selling dud bank MPS, resurrecting carrier Alitalia, expanding broadband and ending a motorway row. With vaccinations and recovery his legacy, these secondary tasks will slip to the bottom of Mario Draghi’s pile.

Messy Singapore deal strains to lay new foundation

24 Mar 2021

CapitaLand wants to sell its property development arm to backer Temasek and list the rest. Even if investors are willing to embrace a carve-up of the $15 bln company, achieving a desired valuation closer to peers such as Lendlease will be hard in a yield-focused market.

Capital Calls: Chubb/Hartford, Son of Kozmo

23 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Insurer Hartford rebuffs an offer from rival Chubb without breaking a sweat; snack-delivery outfit GoPuff raises capital at an $8.9 billion valuation, giving new life to an old Silicon Valley idea.

Suez brings water pistol to French sewage shootout

22 Mar 2021

CEO Bertrand Camus proposed carving up the group or swallowing an “irreversible” poison pill if Veolia doesn’t raise its 11.3 bln euro bid. Rival boss Antoine Frérot can afford to pay more. But in the absence of other bidders he can first try to kick out Suez’s board.

Mega-train deal warrants long Washington layover

22 Mar 2021

Canadian Pacific’s $25 bln takeover of Kansas City Southern would be the second transcontinental railway controlled north of the U.S. border. The price can be justified by a big expected uplift in revenue growth. That’s also the type of thing that merits close regulatory scrutiny.

National Grid’s $11 bln green switch looks smart

18 Mar 2021

The UK infrastructure operator is buying a big chunk of the local electricity distribution network, paid for by selling some of its U.S. arm and UK gas assets. CEO John Pettigrew is betting power assets will grow faster as the energy transition speeds up. It’s worth paying for.

Veolia gambles on Suez shareholder showdown

11 Mar 2021

The French group sweetened its 11.3 bln euros bid by pledging not to dismantle its target’s domestic waste and water business. Handing the unit to infrastructure fund Meridiam should reassure politicians and unions. All Suez CEO Bertrand Camus can do is haggle for a higher price.

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.

Corona Capital: M&A boost, Purell

22 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and other banks collectively reaped billions in fees related to advice on transactions with the expectation the money will keep rolling in; hand sanitizer makers hope good habits linger.

Leaky Suez defence only enhances takeover appeal

18 Jan 2021

CEO Bertrand Camus, under siege by would-be acquirer Veolia, wants a compromise. Details are scant, but it could mean infrastructure funds taking a stake in the $13 bln French waste company. The lack of synergies and added complexity makes rival Antoine Frérot’s bid look cleaner.

5G will zoom from myth to mass-market reality

23 Dec 2020

The mobile technology is much debated and little used. But falling prices mean most handsets sold in 2021 will work on new networks. Post-pandemic consumers may happily pay for extra reliability and speedier downloads. Commercial uses remain vague, but phone envy will kick in.

Corona Capital: Holiday Zoom

18 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The video call company is removing the 40-minute time limit on free calls for the holidays – a gift it can easily afford, and one that may not be appreciated.

Heathrow expansion faces long Covid-19 quarantine

16 Dec 2020

Britain’s Supreme Court cleared the way for the London airport to build a third runway, boosting its capacity by two-thirds. The pandemic-induced collapse in air travel makes passenger forecasts obsolete. Even if demand recovers, airlines will struggle to cover the extra costs.

Corona Capital: Vaccines

11 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. regulators prep to rubber-stamp the approval of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca will partner with Russia and its Sputnik V jab in a possible combination that could ease jitters.

Cellnex M&A machine scales top of valuation tower

7 Dec 2020

After two years of frenetic dealmaking, the telecom-mast firm’s market value has hit 25 bln euros. With cash flow from existing contracts accounting for maybe 90% of that worth, it’s getting little credit for future M&A. As rivals belatedly muscle in, that may be just as well.

Corona Capital: Merck sells Moderna stake

2 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The U.S. drugmaker is banking its winnings on an investment in Covid-19 vaccine producer Moderna that dates back to 2015.

Viewsroom: What Biden bodes for money and markets

7 Nov 2020

Without a clear Senate majority, the former vice president will need to tack to the center when he occupies the White House. For Wall Street that’s a bullet dodged. For other industries, it’s a mixed bag. For multilateral institutions, it’s an improvement from Donald Trump.

Corporate America prepares for life in purple

7 Nov 2020

From finance to tech to weed to transport, companies have had plenty of time to consider what a Joe Biden presidency means. Without a clear Senate shift one way or the other, legislative gridlock appears likely. Here is what the 2020 election will mean industry by industry.