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Corporate Financier’s Notes by Aivars Jurcans
Done! And Done
Western Alliance Bancorp, has agreed to purchase Aris Mortgage Holding Company, the parent of California-based AmeriHome (a mortgage company), for about USD 1 billion in cash. Four months ago AmeriHome had announced plans for an IPO that would have valued it at more than USD 1.3 billion. The offering did not go ahead.
Source: Bloomberg, Reuters
Bawag Group, an Austrian lender, has agreed to buy Depfa Bank, a former Irish unit of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, from FMS Wertmanagement, Germany’s state-owned bad bank. The purchase price was not disclosed but is said to be more than EUR 320 million. Bawag is expected to continue the orderly wind-down of Depfa which had EUR 6.9 billion of total assets at the end of June 2020.
Source: Bloomberg
Ingka Group, an owner of IKEA stores, has agreed to buy a 49% stake in Ikano Bank, its financial services partner. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The bank is owned by Ikano Group which was spun off from IKEA in 1988 to the sons of Mr Ingvar Kamprad, the furniture brand’s owner.
Source: Reuters
Deals On The Table
MoneyLion, a mobile banking platform, is said to be planning to go public through a merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp, a blank-cheque company, in a deal that values the equity of the combined company at USD 2.9 billion.
Source: Reuters
Aviva, a UK insurer, is said to be “in advanced talks” on a sale of its Italian operations. It is said to be in negotiations to sell its Italian life insurance business to CNP Assurances, and its general insurance unit to Allianz. The two disposals are expected to fetch more than EUR 1 billion combined.
Source: Bloomberg
Thanks, But No Deal
Ares Management, a US private equity group, has scrapped its AUD 6 billion bid for AMP, an Australian financial group. However, according to AMP, it is still in talks with Ares about a potential sale of AMP Capital, its international asset manager.
Source: FT
DWS Group, an asset manager majority-owned by Deutsche Bank, has abandoned plans to sell its City of London office building after bids fell short of its GBP 145 million asking price.
Source: Bloomberg
Exciting Numbers
Bitcoin, a digital currency, traded as high as USD 50,584.85 for the first time, up 68% for the year, with a total market value in circulation close to USD 909 billion.
Source: WSJ
A Thought Worth Noting
“Commodity super cycles tend to occur after periods of loose central bank policy and run for about a decade. Commodities peaked relative to equities a decade ago and now they are very cheap and below their levels seen in 1969 and 1998 before prior super cycles began.”
Chris Watling, chief market strategist and founder, Longview Economics
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Aivars Jurcans has more than 20 years of corporate finance and investment banking experience. His services are currently available through MURINUS ADVISERS.
Design by Artis Briedis, Photo by Joe Taylor on Unsplash
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