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Corporate Financier’s Notes by Aivars Jurcans
Done! And Done
Cboe Global Markets, a bourse operator, has agreed to buy Eris Digital Holdings (ErisX), a spot and derivatives exchange operator for digital assets. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Source: Reuters
JAB has acquired a “majority stake” in Cardif Pinnacle, a UK-based pet insurance focused subsidiary of BNP Paribas, and is in the process of buying Figo Pet Insurance, a Chicago-based pet insurer. The prices were not disclosed. JAB has already built up a pet care division, running 1,400 veterinary hospitals and clinics.
Source: Bloomberg
Silver Lake, a US buyout firm, has agreed to acquire a 9.85% stake in Euroclear Holding, a Brussels-based provider of post-trade security settlement, custody, collateral management, fund management and data services, from Intercontinental Exchange for EUR 709 million.
Source: Reuters
Deals On The Table
DBS Group Holdings and Standard Chartered are said to be among the lenders planning to bid for Citigroup consumer banking assets in Asia.
Source: Bloomberg
Svenska Handelsbanken, a Swedish lender, is said to be working to divest its units in Denmark and Finland. Handelsbanken’s allocated capital for Denmark and Finland stands at about USD 1.74 billion.
Source: Bloomberg
UniCredit, an Italian lender, is said to have invited expressions of interest from investors for its leasing business to gauge market appetite for the unit. Analysts estimate between EUR 800 and 900 million of bank’s capital could be allocated to the leasing unit, calculating a return on equity of around 5% for the business.
Source: Reuters
Not So Fast
The US initial public offering of FWD Group Holdings, an Asian insurer, is said to be stalling amid regulators’ increasing unease about risks such as whether the Chinese government could extend its authority to Hong Kong based firms like FWD. The IPO was expected to raise about USD 2 billion to USD 3 billion.
Source: Bloomberg
Metrics To Watch
Goldman Sachs’s stock trades at about 1.5x times the bank’s book value, lagging behind peers JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, which trade at closer to 2.0x times.
Source: FT
Up-and-Comers
Zopa, a UK digital bank, has raised GBP 220 million in a funding round which is said to value Zopa at GBP 750 million.
Source: FT
N26, a German online bank, has completed a USD 900 million fundraising round that values the company at more than USD 9 billion. The bank has more than 7 million customers in 25 countries.
Source: Reuters
Exciting Numbers
Venture capital funding [to crypto sector] exceeded USD 17 billion in H1 2021, 3x times the 2020 figure. Takeovers within the industry totalled USD 4.2 billion in the year to August, on a way to doubling the total for 2019.
Source: FT
There were nearly 7,000 private equity firms in the US in 2019, according to data from Prequin.
Source: FT
A Thought Worth Noting
“The term “hedge fund” is a complete misnomer. I can’t give you a reason the hedge fund industry should exist. What hedge funds have going for them is that they lose less in a crash and make less [in normal markets]. It just makes people poorer.”
Mark Spitznagel, fund manager, Universa Investments
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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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