Opening Bell: 6.7.17
Santander to Take Over Popular as ECB Says Bank Was Failing (BBG)
Santander will raise about 7 billion euros through a rights offer to bolster Popular’s balance sheet, it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The lender will acquire Popular for 1 euro after its stock and shares resulting from the conversion of its riskiest debt and Tier 2 instruments were wiped out, imposing losses of about 3.3 billion euros on the bank’s securities holders.
Banco Popular CoCo bonds wiped out after Santander takeover (FT)
Banco Popular’s €500m 11.5 per cent AT1 bond has collapsed 50 points to a bid value of just 5 cents on the euro, while another fell 45 points to 2 cents this morning. One bank bond investor said that “nothing is really trading”, however, as the bonds’ real price is “zero.”
Lloyd Blankfein’s Only Twitter Follow Pairs Well With Vodka (WSJ)
The sole account he follows belongs to Be Mixed, a startup maker of low-calorie cocktail mixers. Why that business? Perhaps the fact that it was founded by his daughter-in-law has something to do with it. Cristina Ros Blankfein, who is married to the chief executive’s son Alex, co-founded Be Mixed in 2013 with a Harvard business-school classmate, Jennifer Ross, herself a former Goldman Sachs analyst.
Hedge funds go to war over US defence contractor (FT)
“It’s a clear case of trying to whack the share price with a headline,” said a manager at one of the funds invested in TransDigm [who , strangely, would not go on the record]. Another shareholder [who also wouldn't go on the record] called it “a smash and grab job” by short sellers.
A Tale of Two Markets: Politics and Investing! (Damodaran)
It is no secret that we live in partisan times, where almost every news story is viewed through political lens. Why should financial markets be immune from political partisanship? I have seen no research to back this up, but my very limited sampling of investor views (on politics and markets) indicates a convergence of the two in recent months. Put simply, Trump supporters are more likely to be bullish on stocks and confident about the future of the economy, and Trump opponents are more likely to be bearish about both stocks and the economy. Both sides see what they want to see in news stories and data releases and ignore that which does not advance their theses.
Spring Rally in Stocks, Bonds, Gold and Bitcoin Unnerves Investors (WSJ)
The Nasdaq has hit more than three dozen new highs this year, reflecting the surge of red-hot tech stocks such as Alphabet and Amazon, both of which this month have surpassed $1,000. Bitcoin has tripled this year, hitting a record high Tuesday. At the same time, U.S. bond yields on Tuesday sank to their 2017 low at 2.147% and the price of gold, long viewed as a barometer of market concern about potential risks ahead, settled at $1,294.40, its highest in seven months.
At London’s Badoo, Job Perks Include Pole Dancers and Sushi Served on Models (BBG)
All that partying is starting to take a toll—and not just a financial one. A series of employees complained to human resources and several left Badoo last year because of the parties and Badoo’s broader workplace culture, according to six current and former employees. The complaints were pretty consistent, those people say: Badoo’s casual style could often be a plus, but its regularly sexualized office culture wasn’t what the departing workers said they’d signed up for. Last year, the frequency of the parties began to slow from weekly to monthly.
Live donkey fed to tigers in China zoo after dispute (BBC)
A group of angry zoo investors have fed a live donkey to tigers at a Chinese zoo after a dispute with management. The incident took place on Monday afternoon at Yancheng city in Jiangsu province in front of stunned visitors. The zoo said the shareholders had tossed the donkey to the tigers "in a fit of rage", and apologised to the public for the incident.