Real Estate

Compass IPO value is all about location

4 Mar 2021

The SoftBank-backed realtor may be worth $37 bln if it is benchmarked against Zillow. As a regular realtor, though, its value drops 90%. Compass is growing like a tech company but also paying for the privilege. That suggests it could be the worst property on the best block.

Capital Calls: Sarkozy’s trial

1 Mar 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: the former French prime minister’s conviction for trying to bribe a judge creates a new dilemma for the companies on whose board he sits, including hotel chain Accor.

Airbnb’s post-IPO showing is a pre-SPAC throwback

25 Feb 2021

The home-sharing app’s quarterly revenue fell 22%, yet still beat rivals. Because it went through its growing pains in private, Airbnb’s first results as a listed company show an already solid business. Many startups taking the blank-check route to market won’t have that luxury.

Capital Calls: Bubble alert

16 Feb 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: Bitcoin burst through $50,000, and global fund managers are maximum bullish on the pace of the recovery from the pandemic.

WeWork tiptoes back to the water cooler

10 Feb 2021

The office-sharing firm may go public via a SPAC, its first foray with public investors since 2019’s disastrous flirtation. This time WeWork has fewer quirks, improving cash flows and less hype. At $13 bln, well below its peak valuation, a deal looks doable.

UK wind auctions are frothy for a reason

8 Feb 2021

The toppy price paid by BP for wind turbine-friendly seabed reflects its desperation to pivot to green energy. But the UK’s subsidy-laden regime is also more attractive than those of other states. That makes wind maven Orsted’s reluctance to match the UK major even more striking.

Corona Capital: UK’s quarantine, U.S. prisons

27 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Britain’s new quarantine rules are weak, but will still hurt the travel industry; and for-profit prisons lose business to the U.S. government.

Tishman unlocks key to sweet SPAC deal with Latch

25 Jan 2021

The real estate giant is taking the smart-lock maker public through its blank-check company, whose shares leapt some 70%. Latch gets a strategic partner and fresh capital to meet pandemic-spurred demand for modernizing buildings. Investors reap the benefits. It’s a textbook SPAC.

Corona Capital: Indian banks, LBOs, Stellantis

18 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Indian banking guru Aditya Puri gives reasons to be bullish about New Delhi’s lenders at a Breakingviews predictions event; the ECB cracks down on risky loans; carmaker Stellantis gets a boost from passive funds.

China plugs big loopholes in real estate crackdown

8 Jan 2021

Beijing has capped bank property loans as a percentage of total credit, a blunter, harsher approach than previous efforts. Indebted developers will suffer, as will lenders. It’s a sign of official confidence that the economic cost of restraining housing speculation is bearable.

Corona Capital: Commercial real estate, IBM

5 Jan 2021

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Commercial office real estate is Zoom’s mirror image; IBM taps former Goldman-exec Gary Cohn.

Brookfield picks up a $5.9 bln new year bargain

4 Jan 2021

The Canadian investment firm’s bid to take its commercial real estate arm private is cheap by its own admission. That suggests there’s room for a small bump. Yet investors may have little appetite to fight a determined majority shareholder, or an uncertain real estate market.

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.

Thoma Bravo digs deep in $10 bln rental data LBO

21 Dec 2020

Online rent collector RealPage is a big target for the private equity group’s massive war chest. It’s growing, and data aggregators are highly prized. But the deal looks dependent on hearty growth, without which Thoma Bravo might struggle to make a good return.

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.

China rental woes show excess creative destruction

15 Dec 2020

New York-listed Danke is the latest property middleman to implode, embarrassing Beijing in more ways than one. It’s a problem for President Xi Jinping's affordable housing push, and yet another good business idea warped by price wars, financial engineering and vague regulation.

Elliott can clean house in Public Storage

14 Dec 2020

Paul Singer’s fund wants the U.S.’s largest self-storage provider to junk its ultra-cautious debt strategy, plow cash into the business, and shape up governance. It’s an activist trifecta. But changes are needed to keep pace with the industry. Elliott has found easy pickings.

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.

Corona Capital: Bitcoin, Lonely Planet

1 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Bitcoin hit a record, buoyed by inflationary fears, new fans and plain old speculation. Meanwhile Lonely Planet has found a new owner, as it wrestles with an anything-but-lonely market for travel information.

Norway’s offices are prize in $3.4 bln bidding war

26 Nov 2020

Sweden’s Castellum launched an offer for Entra days after the Oslo-based group rebuffed a bid from real estate rival SBB. Reliable government tenants and a relatively stable economy are alluring in a sector ravaged by the pandemic. But the bidders will struggle to create value.