Reuters (July 11)
As its first family fights publicly in an unprecedented and ugly manner, the “shrinking returns” of its sovereign wealth fund, GIC, “are adding gloom to Singapore. The sovereign wealth fund, which manages an estimated $343 billion of assets, has delivered its worst annual performance since 2001 barring the financial crisis.” Moreover, the “outlook is depressing too” as GIC prepares for “a protracted period of low returns.”
Tags: Assets, Fight, Financial Crisis, First family, GIC, Gloom, Outlook, Performance, Returns, Singapore, Sovereign wealth fund, Ugly, Unprecedented
Institutional Investor (June 16)
“Short-termism, often driven by activists, can have grave implications for corporations, for our economy and sometimes for society overall. Innovation, discovery and hiring are curtailed when R&D projects are put on hold or cancelled because of short-term pressures…. Short-termism also leads to mispricing, misallocation of assets and a lack of reliable information about long-term prospects.”
Tags: Activists, Assets, Corporations, Discovery, Economy, Hiring, Innovation, Misallocation, Mispricing, Prospects, R&D, Short-termism, Society
New York Times (April 6)
“The first reaction to the leaked documents dubbed the Panama Papers is simply awe at the scope of the trove” that includes some 11.5 million documents illustrating “how offshore bank accounts and tax havens are used by the world’s rich and powerful to conceal their wealth or avoid taxes.” That reaction quickly gives way to disgust and questions: “How did all these politicians, dictators, criminals, billionaires and celebrities amass vast wealth and then benefit from elaborate webs of shell companies to disguise their identities and their assets? Would there have been no reckoning had the leak not occurred?”
Tags: Assets, Bank accounts, Disgust, Offshore, Panama Papers, Powerful, Reaction. Leak, Rich, Shell companies, Tax havens
The Economist (November 14)
The Great Recession has morphed into the never ending crisis. Over the past decade, we’ve seen fallout from the U.S. housing crisis, the Euro crisis brought on by Greece, and now “a third instalment in the chronicles of debt is now unfolding. This time the setting is emerging markets. Investors have already dumped assets in the developing world, but the full agony of the slowdown still lies ahead.”
Tags: Assets, Crisis, Debt, Emerging markets, Euro crisis, Great Recession, Greece, Housing crisis, Investors, Never ending, Slowdown, U.S.
Financial Times (January 9)
“Investors looking for haven assets are increasingly having to pay up for the safety they provide as the volume of negative-yielding eurozone government debt has swollen to a record €1.2tn.” The change to assets you effectively pay to hold is unprecedented. At €0 in June 2014, this negative-yielding debt now accounts for roughly one quarter of outstanding eurozone sovereign debt, mostly “concentrated among the short-dated debt of core eurozone countries.”
Tags: Assets, eurozone, Government debt, Haven, Investors, Negative-yielding, Safety
LA Times (December 10)
“The emerging sharing economy poses a challenge for government because it doesn’t fit neatly into existing regulatory structures. Individuals put their personal cars, homes and other assets to commercial use on an irregular basis, with the help of companies such as Uber and Airbnb that connect them to customers.”
Tags: Airbnb, Assets, Cars, Challenge, Government, Homes, Regulatory structures, Sharing economy, Uber
The Economist (July 26)
“ONE trillion dollars. That may be the cost to Russian investors of Vladimir Putin’s rule…. The calculation stems from the fact that investors regard Russian assets with suspicion. As a result, Russian stocks trade on a huge discount to much of the rest of the world, with an average price-earnings ratio (p/e) of just 5.2. At present, the Russian market has a total value of $735 billion. If it traded on the same p/e as the average emerging market (12.5), it would be worth around $1.77 trillion.”
Tags: Assets, Cost, Discount, Emerging market, Investors, Market, P/E, Putin, Russia, Suspicion, Trillion
The Economist (July 5)
Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo are facing off in Indonesia’s July 9 presidential election. While both candidates support protectionist policies, “Jokowi’s appears milder. Foreign investors certainly prefer him: Deutsche Bank reports that if Mr Prabowo wins, 56% of investors surveyed would sell their Indonesian assets and just 13% would buy, while a Jokowi win would cause 74% to buy and just 6% to sell.”
Tags: Assets, Candidates, Election, Indonesia, Investors, Joko Widodo, Prabowo Subianto, President, Protectionist
Institutional Investor (September 17)
“As the global recession and financial crisis recede in the rearview mirror, companies have been acting more proactively in using their balance sheets in ways that enhance shareholder value. But we think they can do more…. By mid-2013, U.S. companies were sitting on cash that was equivalent to about 11 percent of their total assets, a three-decade high and earning almost nothing.” Fortunately, there are signs of change. Companies “have become more receptive to using debt to buy back shares, increase dividends and make acquisitions.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Assets, Balance sheets, Buybacks, Cash, Debt, Dividends, Financial Crisis, Recession, Shareholder value, Shares, U.S.
Washington Post (April 29, 2013)
Despite the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo remain too big to fail. “At $7.8 trillion, their combined assets are half the size of the entire U.S. economy, and they hold more than half of the nation’s $7 trillion in deposits.” It is unlikely that the U.S. government could ever allow any of them to fail.
Tags: Assets, Bank of America, Citigroup, Dodd-Frank, Economy, Financial Reform, JPMorgan Chase, Too big to fail, U.S., Wells Fargo
