News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
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Swedish fintech company Klarna achieved a significant improvement in its financial performance during the first quarter, as it halved its net loss compared to the same period last year. The company reported a net loss of 1.3 billion Swedish krona ($120.7 million), down 50% from the previous year’s loss of 2.6 billion krona.
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PwC Report Tackles Third-Quarter Deal Flow
A new PwC report is out with a look at third quarter 2019 deal flow. Technology deal volume fell by 46% when compared to the second quarter. Because the first half of the year was exceptionally strong total volume of technology M&A is still up 37% year over year. The gain has been driven primarily by mega deals. In 2019, we saw nine deals for $138 billion compared to 2018 when we had just seven deals totaling $63 billion.
Allworth Financial Buys RAA and Expands U.S. Reach
Allworth Financial is purchasing RAA, one of the country’s largest financial planning firms specializing in the airline industry. Based in Dallas, RAA manages roughly $2.8 billion of client assets. This brings Allworth’s AUM more than $7.5 billion.
Crestline Opportunity Fund III Europe Closes
Crestline Investors has announced the final closing of its first European Opportunity Fund. The credit-focused institutional alternative asset manager has called the fund the Crestline Opportunity Fund III Europe.
Apollo Global Doubles Stake in Athene Holding
Apollo Global Management will buy an 18% stake in Athene Holding (NYSE: ATH). The $1.55 billion deal will see Apollo double its stake to roughly 35%. The purchase comprises about 35.5 million common shares.
Volatility and Returns: The New CIBC Income Pools Manage Both
CIBC Asset Management launches a suite of three Fixed Income Pools that provide access to advanced bond strategies.
The new CIBC Fixed Income Pools access leading portfolio managers from around the world. Investors can use one or more of the Pools depending on their need for regular income or modest capital appreciation, or anything in between.
Fintechs Across The Asia Pacific Can Go Global Using The Visa-Marqeta Alliance
Visa and Marqeta have partnered to offer fintechs in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam a new way to themselves internationally accepted.
Fintechs in these countries can turn their user account balances into digital cards that are accepted wherever Visa is and where the Marqeta platform is certified.
Ken Fisher: No Layoffs Coming to Fisher Investments
Ken Fisher – the embattled money manager – has seen outflows of roughly $3 billion. The swell of outflows comes weeks after he made a series of remarks during an investor conference that irked investors due to their sexual nature.
Prologis and Liberty Property Trust Announce REIT Merger
Prologis and Liberty Property Trust announced a merger between the two firms. According to deal terms, Prologis will acquire Liberty $12.6 billion, including the assumption of debt. The board of directors of both REITs have approved the transaction.
UBS’ Walsh on ESG: ETFs Can’t Be Subject to A Standard ESG Definition
Andrew Walsh is head of passive and ETF specialist sales for UK and Ireland at UBS Asset Management. He gave a pertinent example of the difficulty of applying a standardized, “one-size-fits-all” definition of ESG: Can you cubby-hole companies in the oil and gas sector along with the ones in the tech sector? No, that’s because the metrics for ESG for the two industries would be vastly different.
JPMorgan Asset Management Closes $1.06 Billion Special Situations Fund
More than half of investors are first-time investors in a J.P. Morgan Alternatives fund. JP Morgan Asset Management closed its Lynstone Special Situations fund. The fund raised $1.06 billion for the Luxembourg-domiciled strategy that focuses on stressed, distressed and event-driven situations in North America and Europe. The press release below offers a full recap of…
AT&T Defuses Hedge Fund Elliott Management Pressure With Three-Year Plan
Activist hedge fund Elliott Management took aim at AT&T Corporation in September. Elliott had proposed cost cuts, divestment of certain businesses, and a freeze on further acquisitions. Now, the telecom giant has pushed back with a three-year plan to diffuse Elliott’s activist pressures.
Now, Student Loan Refinance, in Minutes, on the Blockchain
Mike Cagney founded Figure Technologies uses the blockchain to process transactions on its lending platform. The use of the blockchain allows Figure to function paperless, and that helps to speed up its loan procedure.
AECOM-Canyon Partners Raise $500 Million for Flagship Fund
AECOM-Canyon Partners has closed a $500 million fund. The fund is a joint venture between the AECOM and California-based hedge fund Canyon Partners.
ESG ETF Inflows Increase in September
ETFGI, a global research firm, says the uptick in ESG assets continues to accelerate due to booming investor interest. Global environmental, social and governance assets in ETFs and ETPs have reached $47.33 billion.
SoftBank Group Pumps $655 Million into Greensill Capital
Greensill Capital has received a large capital injections from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund. The tech-focused investment fund gave the eight-year-old financing firm an additional $655 million.
Greensill plans to use the money to finance its international expansion.
Melvin: Recapping the Blackstone Earnings Report
The Blackstone earnings report is always an important quarterly event. Over my years in the investment business, I have learned to watch what people are doing with their money instead of what they say they are doing.
Bitcoin Goes Vertical After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Pro-Blockchain Remarks
Bitcoin rallied 16% after Chinese President Xi Jinping called for his country to “seize the opportunity” afforded by blockchain.
Speaking at a Politburo Committee session on blockchain technology trends Thursday, Xi told committee members: “We must take the blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies.”
The Cost of Fisher’s Foot-in-Mouth: $2.6 Billion
Investors in Fisher Investments are heading for the exits after Ken Fisher’s lewd comments at a conference earlier this month.
The Employees Retirement System of Texas became the latest in a series of institutional investors to pull funds from Fisher Investments. The pension system is moving out $350 million in protest against Fisher’s sexist remarks against women at an October 8 conference.
Square Launches Share Investments on its Cash App (Even as little as $1)
Square’s Cash App, aimed at the young and the hip, will allow investing in share fractions.
The Square Cash App is a mobile payments app that allows people to transfer money between cellphones, pay for retail purchases, and draw cash via credit card, “Cash Card” or ATM.
Dan Loeb’s Third Point Holds a $700 Million Stake in EssilorLuxottica
Third Point, the New York-based activist hedge fund run by Dan Loeb, has built up a $700 million stake in Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica. It revealed this in its third-quarter investor letter.
The fund also said it saw plenty of potential for growth and profits at EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eye-wear company.
PwC Fintech Report Reveals Differences Between FS and TMT Firms
PwC has a new report titled: “Crossing the lines: How fintech is propelling FS and TMT firms out of their lanes.”
A Blockchain P2P Lending System at Scale Could Render London Bankers Irrelevant
According to Business 5.0 expert John Straw, the blockchain could well disrupt the City of London. And put paid to the taxes that the City generates.
An end to the stream of taxes from the City would effectively spell the end of the NHS. Blockchain-based financial services, based on technology such as Ethereum’s, could consign banks to the annals of history.
A.I. Algorithms Predict the Likelihood of Breast Cancer
Dr. Barzilay decided to use artificial intelligence to collect and analyze the available information on breast cancer.
Harnessing artificial intelligence to treat breast cancer
Dr Barzilay is a holder of a doctorate in computer science. She went on to create a database from the pathological reports stretching back three decades at the Mass General Hospital. She developed an algorithm to parse this data, which covered more than 100,000 breast cancer patients.
Broker Charles Schwab to Launch “Fractional Stock” Ownership
Everyday investors are often handicapped by the minimum tradable value of a single unit of an ETF or a stock. Consider this scenario: an investor is looking to invest $100 in the market. But he’s out of luck if any of these are on the shopping list: SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) (now trading at $300 per share), Tesla (TSLA) ($294), Apple ($243), and Amazon (AMZN) (S1,779). However, Schwab’s fractional shares offer can do the trick. The investor can now buy a fraction of any of these stocks/ETF for $100.