Wall Street Journal (January 30)
“Logistics technology companies are cutting costs and slashing staff as a prolonged slump in freight stretches into 2024.” After soaring to “huge valuations during the Covid pandemic when a wave of consumer spending pushed freight volumes and shipping rates to record levels,” high interest rates and weak freight volumes are now “stretching some companies to their limit.”
Tags: Companies, Consumer spending, Costs, Covid, Freight volumes, Logistics, Pandemic, Prolonged, Shipping rates, Slashing, Slump, Staff, Technology, Valuations
Investment Week (November 6)
“Fixed income markets are currently experiencing a rare irregularity. Short-dated bonds are trading at a higher yield than long-dated bonds, in other words, the yield curve is “inverted”. For investors in short-dated corporate bonds, this provides a unique opportunity to benefit from some of the most favourable forward looking relative return prospects and attractive valuations in recent history.”
Tags: Bonds, Fixed income, Inverted, Investors, Irregularity, Long-dated, Markets, Rare, Relative return, Short-dated, Valuations, Yield curve
Financial Times (September 15)
Internal combustion engines “are on their way out,” while sales of EVs “are set to increase worldwide from about 10mn in 2022 to about 14mn in 2023, or 18 per cent of all cars sold.” This partly explains legacy carmakers low valuations, but the switch also lowers barriers to entry. “Chinese imports already account for about 15 per cent of EVs sold on the continent,” with Chinese automakers hoping to seize more of “a $130bn revenue opportunity by 2030.”
Tags: $130bn, Barriers to entry, China, EVs, Ice, Imports, Legacy carmakers, Opportunity, Revenue, Sales, Valuations
Reuters (August 23)
“Office owners’ valuations are in the basement. U.S.-listed landlords like $20 billion Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE.N), $10 billion Boston Properties as well as France’s 7 billion euro Gecina recently traded at half the forward earnings multiples they enjoyed before the virus emptied offices.” If, however, corporate leaders “are successful in driving the white-collar herds back to the office,” then those “office stocks may come back from the dead.”
Tags: Alexandria, Boston Properties, Come back, Dead, Forward earnings multiples, France, Gecina, Landlords, Office, U.S., Valuations, White collar
Institutional Investor (August 14)
“A public market downturn and an abundant supply of private equity stakes have culminated in an unmissable opportunity for secondaries investors.” Favorable “supply/demand imbalances and market dynamics” have arisen due to “the dramatic outperformance of private equity thanks to lagged marks and flat or marginally down valuations in 2022,” causing “asset owners to become overweight PE as public equity markets declined materially.” Pensions, endowments, foundations and other asset owners have become “forced sellers of private equity stakes to return to their strategic weights,” and “because of illiquidity, overhang, supply/demand imbalance, and forced selling, buyers require a material discount to transact.”
Tags: Asset owners, Discount, Downturn, Endowments, Forced selling, Foundations, Illiquidity, Imbalances, Market dynamics, Opportunity, Outperformance, Overhang, Overweight, Pensions, Private equity, Secondaries investors, Supply, Valuations
Bloomberg (April 8)
“Almost $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. The big question facing those borrowers is who’s going to lend to them?” Morgan Stanley has estimated “office and retail property valuations could fall as much as 40% from peak to trough, increasing the risk of defaults.” Regional banks are now skittish about lending and “the wall of debt is set to get worse before it gets better.”
Tags: $1.5 trillion, 2025, Borrowers, Commercial real estate, Debt, Defaults, Morgan Stanley, Office, Peak, Regional banks, Repayment, Risk, Skittish, Trough, U.S., Valuations
Wall Street Journal (August 2)
“Bearish investors aren’t buying into hopes that July’s rapid advance for stocks heralds the start of a new bull market. If anything, they say the worst might be yet to come as inflation remains high, the Federal Reserve plans more interest-rate increases and stocks trade at valuations that still don’t look cheap.”
Tags: Bearish, Bull market, Fed, Hopes, Increases, Inflation, Interest rate, Investors, July Stocks, Valuations
Pensions & Investments (March 22)
“For decades, South Korea’s most powerful tycoons ran their companies with little regard for minority shareholders. Then came Paul Singer. The hedge fund titan’s activist campaigns…have trained a spotlight on the corporate governance failures and complex ownership structures that saddle South Korean stocks with some of the world’s lowest valuations.” His defeat at Hyundai Motor “is unlikely to derail the nascent shift toward more accountability at the business groups that dominate Asia’s fourth-largest economy.”
Tags: Accountability, Activist, Corporate governance, Hedge-fund, Hyundai Motor, Minority shareholders, Paul Singer, South Korea, Valuations
Institutional Investor (October 9)
In the U.S. many “asset management stocks are trading like ‘junk equity,’” despite the relatively buoyant market. And “given the lackluster potential for growth, traditional asset managers’ cheap valuations are unlikely to change soon.”
Tags: Asset management, Growth, Junk equity, Lackluster, Market, Potential, Stocks, U.S., Valuations
Bloomberg (May 31)
“A gauge tracking Shanghai shares has taken quite a beating in the past six days, closing Wednesday at its lowest level since October 2016. While the bearish sentiment hardly bodes well for China’s big debut, it does mean foreigners are getting in at the cheapest valuations in more than two years.”
Tags: Bearish, Beating, Cheapest, China, Foreigners, Sentiment, Shanghai, Shares, Valuations
