All posts tagged: Sachs

UK stock market shrinking at fastest pace in history, says Goldman Sachs

UK stock market shrinking at fastest pace in history, says Goldman Sachs

Thanks for joining me. British mining giant Anglo American has rejected a blockbuster £31.1bn takeover bid from Australian rival BHP, arguing that it was too low. “The board has considered the proposal with its advisers and concluded that the proposal significantly undervalues Anglo American and its future prospects,” the London-listed company said in a statement one day after BHP launched its colossal bid, adding that the deal was “highly unattractive”. 5 things to start your day  1) How a global race to secure copper supplies sparked a £31bn bid for a FTSE giant | Heightened demand for net zero minerals could trigger a wave of dealmaking in mining 2) Chris Packham leads protests against Drax over environmental ‘destruction’ | Broadcaster among dozens calling on the power station operator to ‘stop burning trees’ 3) Google owner worth more than $2 trillion after announcing first dividend | Microsoft also revealed record profits 4) McLaren’s losses more than double to £873m as sales fall | Production delays hit British supercar maker’s revenue 5) PwC picks only man on …

Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs

Zomato’s quick commerce unit Blinkit eclipses core food business in value, says Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs said in a report late Thursday that Indian food delivery giant Zomato’s quick commerce arm Blinkit is now more valuable than its core food delivery business, as per the bank’s sum-of-the-parts analysis. The investment bank estimates Blinkit’s implied value at 119 Indian rupees per share ($1.43) or about $13 billion, while Zomato’s food delivery business is valued at Rs 98 per share. Goldman previously pegged Blinkit’s valuation at $2 billion in March 2023. Blinkit’s valuation surge is driven by its strong growth potential in India’s fast-growing quick commerce market. Goldman Sachs forecasts Blinkit’s gross order value (GOV) to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53% between the financial years 2024 and 2027, outpacing the overall online grocery market’s projected CAGR of 38% during the same period. Zomato acquired Blinkit for less than $600 million in 2022. The investment bank believes that India’s quick commerce market is poised for growth due to several factors, including a large unorganized grocery sector, high population density in urban areas, and a favorable ratio of …

Hidehiro Imatsu named president of Goldman Sachs Japan

Hidehiro Imatsu named president of Goldman Sachs Japan

TOKYO : Goldman Sachs has appointed Hidehiro Imatsu as president of its Japan unit, it said in a release on Thursday. Imatsu, who is based in Hong Kong, will relocate to Tokyo and, as well as serving as president, will retain his current roles as co-head of global interest rates product trading and co-head of the Asia Pacific fixed income, currency and commodities. Imatsu takes the place of Masanori Mochida, who announced he would retire last year after more than 38 years at the investment bank. Mochida is credited with leading Goldman Sachs’ expansion in Japan, where it has had a presence for 50 years. Global investors have become increasingly enthused by Japanese companies as long-awaited corporate governance changes and rising profits have helped drive the Nikkei share average to record highs this year. “As international investors focus their attention on the Japanese market and the country’s biggest companies look to expand their global reach, Goldman Sachs will continue to provide the highest level of service to clients under its new leadership in Japan,” the …

Goldman Sachs executive remains skeptical about Bitcoin

Goldman Sachs executive remains skeptical about Bitcoin

Despite the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency as an asset class by many traditional financial institutions, Goldman Sachs remains skeptical about Bitcoin (BTC). In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the bank’s chief investment officer, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, stated that Bitcoin is not considered an investment asset class and that the bank does not believe in cryptocurrencies. Mossavar-Rahmani questioned the value of Bitcoin: If you cannot assign a value, then how can you be bullish or bearish? Mossavar-Rahmani also stated that customers have not expressed interest in crypto. The bank officially launched its crypto trading desk in 2021 and has been facilitating various Bitcoin-linked trades, including Bitcoin non-deliverable futures and CME BTC futures. Still, the bank does not interact with the cryptocurrencies directly. Max Minton, Goldman’s Asia Pacific head of digital assets, noted in an interview that the recent approval of ETFs has reignited interest and activity among the bank’s clients. Many clients are either currently active in the crypto space or are considering entering it, with a noticeable increase in client interest, onboarding, pipeline, …

FTSE 100 to hit new record, says Goldman Sachs

FTSE 100 to hit new record, says Goldman Sachs

Thanks for joining me. Rishi Sunak will today declare that Britain’s nuclear industry is a “critical national endeavour” as he announces a package of investment aimed at boosting skills and jobs amid concerns about defence spending. The Prime Minister will tout a new fund backed by £20m in public money to support growth in Barrow-in-Furness, the Cumbrian town that is home to Britain’s Astute class submarines and Dreadnought programme. He will commit to a further £180m a year over the next decade, which Downing Street says would provide grants to local organisations and improvements to transport and health outcomes in the area. Industry leaders including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, EDF and Babcock are partnering with the Government to help create more than 8,000 career opportunities in the nuclear industry. They will invest around £763m in skills, jobs and education, which Number 10 hopes will help the sector fill 40,000 new roles by the end of the decade. Ahead of a visit to Barrow-in-Furness later, the Prime Minister said: “Safeguarding the future of our nuclear deterrent and …

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could boost the US economy by a trillion dollars, Goldman Sachs says

Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could boost the US economy by a trillion dollars, Goldman Sachs says

More Americans taking popular medications used for weight loss, including Ozempic and Wegovy, could benefit the national economy in the future, Goldman Sachs analysts predicted in a recent research report. Both Ozempic and Wegovy are classified as GLP-1 agonists, a diabetes medication that gained popularity online and among celebrities as an anti-obesity drug. According to a 2023 analysis reported by NBC News, U.S. health care providers wrote more than nine million prescriptions for Ozempic, Wegovy and similar diabetes and obesity drugs during the last three months of 2022. Quarterly prescriptions for those drugs increased 300% between early 2020 and the end of 2022. Ozempic is not approved for weight loss by regulators. However, semaglutide is approved for weight loss under the brand name Wegovy. Goldman Sachs estimated that GLP-1s could add 0.4% to America’s gross domestic product — a monetary measure of the market value of all the goods and services produced by a country — “in a baseline scenario where 30 million users take the drugs and 70% experience benefits,” and as much as …

Goldman Sachs bets on Simetrik’s payments infrastructure tech

Goldman Sachs bets on Simetrik’s payments infrastructure tech

Nearly two years after securing $20 million in Series A capital, B2B financial solutions startup Simetrik is back with additional investment to the tune of $55 million in Series B funding. The Colombia-based company is developing financial automation technology around record centralization, reconciliations, controls, reporting and accounting. Where it is differentiating itself is through its Simetrik Building Blocks, or SBBs, which are scalable and adaptable concepts based on no-code development and generative AI technologies. “There are a number of controls and automations that need to be done in the CFO’s office, including financial flows, and many others that are currently run manually,” Santiago Gómez, co-founder and COO of Simetrik, told TechCrunch. “Never before has there been this approach. We had an orchestration platform, which we left behind, and are now dedicated to software for CFOs.” Goldman Sachs Asset Management led the investment and was joined by Series A lead FinTech Collective, and Cometa, a seed investor, Falabella Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Actyus, Moore Strategic Ventures, Mercado Libre Fund and the co-founders of Vtex. The new capital …

Trump win would boost FTSE 100, says Goldman Sachs

Trump win would boost FTSE 100, says Goldman Sachs

Thanks for joining me. Germany’s economy will grow less than expected this year, a closely-watched report has suggested, as the eurozone economy teeters on the brink of recession. Europe’s largest economy will expand by only 0.7pc in 2024, according to the Ifo Institute, down from 0.9pc growth in GDP it predicted in December. It comes after Germany’s highest court blocked Olaf Scholz’s plan to spend €60bn (£52.4bn) of emergency borrowing on green initiatives. The climate spending package was found to be in breach of the country’s debt laws in November, forcing the chancellor to overhaul his budget. Germany’s economy shrank by 0.3pc last year after it was hit by higher interest rates and elevated energy costs, with its finance minister Christian Lindner admitting in Davos this month that the country had become the “tired man” of Europe. Meanwhile, the eurozone is on the brink of recession after data indicated business activity shrank in the fourth quarter, which follows a  0.1pc contraction in the third quarter of 2023. Ifo head of forecasts Timo Wollmershäuser said: “Now …

Gamified e-learning platform Kahoot gets acquired in a .7B deal led by Goldman Sachs, Lego and more

Gamified e-learning platform Kahoot gets acquired in a $1.7B deal led by Goldman Sachs, Lego and more

Big moves ahead for Kahoot, the Oslo startup that’s built a popular platform for users to create, share and play education-focused “games”, played by billions of students and adults over the years. The company has announced that it is going fully private in an all-cash PE deal at 35 NOK per share, valuing Kahoot at $1.7 billion (17.2 billion Norwegian kroner) based on 492,836,049 shares issued and outstanding. The private equity division of Goldman Sachs Assets Management is leading the acquisition, with existing Kahoot backers General Atlantic (currently its largest shareholder), LEGO Group’s KIRKBI Invest A/S (“KIRKBI”) and Glitrafjord (controlled by Kahoot CEO Eilert Hanoa) named as the other major shareholders in the deal. Unnamed other investors and management also will have stakes in Kahoot. The deal represents a premium on Kahoot’s publicly traded shares as of yesterday — specifically 53.1% to the closing price on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 22nd May 2023 (when it was NOK 22.86). However, it’s a major step down from the company’s highest valuation at the peak of the …