Pay

Andrea Orcel’s moral victory weakens Ana Botin

10 Dec 2021

A court awarded the Italian banker 68 mln euros as compensation for Santander’s sloppy U-turn on making him its CEO. The Spanish bank will appeal. But the ruling vindicates Orcel’s decision to fight, while reviving doubts about Santander’s chair, and the rest of the board.

Visa-Mastercard payments duopoly has staying power

8 Dec 2021

The $770 bln duo’s shares are down 5% in 2021. Investors worry that Amazon and banks will negotiate sweeter terms, or that fintech will cut out middlemen. But even if they have to give up some revenue, none of the threats are existential. Current valuations are too pessimistic.

Capital Calls: Amazon’s wage rise

14 Sep 2021

Concise views on global finance: The e-commerce giant’s salary strategy could catch on.

Capital Calls: Geely’s employee stock awards

1 Sep 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Chinese automaker shifts the idea of granting workers share options into gear.

Hollywood talent wars call for a new currency

12 Aug 2021

Scarlett Johansson’s fight with Disney shows the old model of paying stars based on the box office doesn’t work in an age of streaming. Netflix has its own radical alternative, but there’s another way, too: Align stars’ pay more closely with numbers shareholders care about.

Jamie Dimon’s $50 mln award is sane in a mad world

21 Jul 2021

That’s the rough value of stock options the JPMorgan CEO will receive for sticking around for a “significant” time. It’s better structured than some packages handed out by big U.S. firms. But it’s not clear he needs the inducement, and the it’s-all-relative argument rings hollow.

Wizz Air CEO’s 100 mln pound bonus is aptly remote

6 Jul 2021

Jozsef Varadi’s payday could be even bigger than Michael O’Leary’s at rival Ryanair if his airline’s shares nearly treble. Linking such a big reward to stock performance looks crude but the target implies a fourfold revenue jump. Even Varadi can’t sustain that steep a climb.

Review: Reining in the crypto-fanatics

25 Jun 2021

Ex-Swift executives Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha de Terán traverse the payments world in “The Pay Off”. Anecdotes and explanations lend pace and purpose. But despite warnings about central bank digital currencies and other novelties, they ask more questions than they answer.

Capital Calls: Klarna, Dan Loeb, Fashion IPO

28 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: The Swedish “buy now, pay later” group’s possible $50 bln price tag may leapfrog rivals Afterpay and Affirm; the corporate agitator deserves a taste of his own medicine; About You’s mooted 3 bln euro valuation implies a discount to rivals.

Workers get the whip hand in economic policymaking

19 May 2021

New Zealand will cut low-skilled migration, U.S. President Joe Biden is hiking the minimum wage for federal contractors, and rate-setters everywhere are giving labour markets time to tighten. Such measures will help push up pay. Expect profit margins to fall or prices to rise.

Capital Calls: Uber, Roblox

11 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: Free rides for Covid jabs won’t help the ride-hailing app’s labor battle with Washington; the online games platform’s year-on-year growth decelerated sharply in April.

Capital Calls: KKR

6 May 2021

Concise views on global finance: The private equity firm is investing in Charter Next Generation in an employee-friendly deal.

Capital Calls: Elon Musk, LeBron James

1 Apr 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Endeavor, Ari Emanuel’s entertainment group, is hoping the Tesla boss’s stardust will help a second attempt at an IPO; the basketball star’s stake in the Red Sox is a foil to Steve Cohen’s Mets deal.

Capital Calls: BlackRock’s Archegos angle, SPACs

30 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The fallout from the collapse of Bill Hwang’s family office gives regulators reasons to focus on funds, not fund managers; and bosses of blank-check companies don’t take investor questions.

UK governance overhaul faces messy application

18 Mar 2021

The government wants company directors to face bans and pay clawbacks if they cause losses or failure. The proposals’ fuzzy language may warp incentives, and lead to legal disputes. PM Boris Johnson’s desire to attract listings to Britain after Brexit may also blunt their teeth.

Capital Calls: T-Mobile US, Ulta Beauty

12 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: The U.S. telecom is benefiting from its merger with SoftBank’s Sprint; the U.S. cosmetics retailer revealed a tidy succession plan, but its business still faces lingering pandemic side-effects.

Europe’s payments king faces fight to keep throne

10 Feb 2021

Netherlands-based Adyen is one of the region’s few successful listed fintechs, giving it scarcity appeal. Its reliance on large customers like Facebook could one day be a problem, and competition in the bloc is hotting up. A rich $76 bln valuation leaves little room for error.

The Exchange: The long life of bad economic ideas

2 Feb 2021

From self-funding tax cuts to runaway executive pay, economists have provided intellectual support for seriously flawed policies. Reuters journalist Tom Bergin, author of “Free Lunch Thinking” tells Peter Thal Larsen how dodgy theories helped mislead politicians and the public.

Cineworld’s new release is moral hazard disaster

22 Jan 2021

The $1.3 bln movie chain wants to give executives including CEO Mooky Greidinger shares which would be worth $142 mln if they recover to pre-Covid-19 levels. It’s a skewed reward for a company which owes its survival to creditors and governments. Only investors can stop it.

Corona Capital: Peloton, BioNTech

22 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Peloton shareholders are getting a little too pumped up; BioNTech’s boss gives two reasons not to panic about the latest Covid-19 strain.