New Data Dumpt

Martin Wheatley, head of British FCA, commented that regulating asset managers who are responsible for "maybe 15 percent of liquidity flow" is perverse when the government leaves off-shore vehicles alone.

Pernod Ricard, headed by grandson of founder Ricard and owner of Absolut and Ricard brands, is struggling.

Fosun, after buying Club Med and Cirque du Soleil, bids for Bnaco Novo, the biggest bank in Portugal.

J&J lost the bid for Pharmacyclics -AbbVie took it for $21bn.

Elliott Associates revealed 7.1% stake in Samsung C&T. This will not be easy for the Elliott peeps.

Fuld made a public comeback unrependent and blamed the government for "mandating" its bankruptcy.

The chip-making industry is no longer a growth industry and scale is important for major players like Samsung and Apple. Avago (Singpoare) has acquired US' Broadcom, and we should expect more deals like this from the fabless industry.

Google has already sold 1m of its Google Cardboard, and its JV with GoPro (16-camera device + Google algos) will be interesting.

Hanergy is finally being investigated after its stock price doubled and halved on the same day.

Carved out of RBS in 2010, Worldpay offers payment services for businesses and will go public with $8bn valuation and most likely be marketed as fintech.

A new bacetria has dealt a severe blow to Italian olives. Extra virgins will face pain.

Whole milk powder, the global benchmark, is at its lowest level since reaching $6,000 peak in 2013. Now it's $2,400.

Maersk has ordered 11 new vessels to remain the world's largest container shipping company. With market share of 15% of seaborne freight, the Danish company is a bellwether for global trade. Daewoo won these orders.

Dixons Carphones' merger has proven to be successful.

Data Dump June

Petrobas just issued century bonds with 8.75 yields. With such time horizon, principal repayment is discounted into a few cents. Past issues have come from France's EDF and Mexico in April.

Obama's Iran Attempt

"For the greater good, FDR stuck an alliance with Stalin, Nixon with Mao, Reagan Afghanistan's mujahideen. By these standards, Iran's transgressions are small potatoes" -Edward Luce on the FT#

Big Updates V

- Barclays and RBS are shrinking their  investment bank operations.

- Many Syrian rebels claim that their original cause of felling Assad now looks unrecognizable. 

- Bentley, owned by Volkwagen, showed its first sports car since 1920s

- Univision, largest Spanish Broadcaster in the US, is issuing $1bn in debt.

 - Endo outbid Valeant for Salix, pharma is deal crazy.

Big Updates Part IV

Lloyd Shapley, a Nobel Laureate, is famous for his Gale-Shapley algorithm, which matches couples into "stable" relationships.

AccelorMittal cut net debt by $2bn to prepare for low prices

"Mr. Buffett said that, since he began investing in shares at the age of 11, he had never once bought something on the basis of an analyst recommendation"

"Late night quips have no answer to terrorist states that incinerate people...it is a mark of sanity to be able to laugh at the result" -Edward Luce of FT

Off-shore deepwater rigs experience first decline since 2001-2002 and would recover in 2017. A lot of "mothballing" and "cold-stacking"

GM pulled out of Indonesiain Feb, 2015 due to lack of extensive supplier/dealer network. Indonesia is reolling out a green car scheme that would require qualifying manufacturers to source 80% of their supplies locally by the fifth year.

Nielson, which measures TV viewership, may not be as strong as ComScore in measuring digital ad effectiveness. WPP invested in ComScore, which partners with Google, while Nielson allies with Facebook and Adobe.

"Daley family, where father and son held a firm grip for 43 of the past 60 years. To win elections, the Daleys kept the public sector unions sweet, scheduled elections in sub-zero February, then relied on neighborhood stewards to get out the vote" -Edward Luce of the FT

Great analogies: like herding cats or stapling jelly.

Alibaba and Lending Club have partnered. Lending Club will offer up to $300,000 working capital financing to US businesses that buy from Alibaba.

Alibaba operates China's largest money market fund through Ant Financial. Ant was the first of eight companies granted a license to launch a credit-scoring service, Sesame Credit. Sesame will benefit from Alibaba's data.

Laws in Tokyo restrict sound to 45 decibel (lvl of a library) in residential suburbs. The city is considering making excepttions for kids. 

Big Updates Part II

Intel pays mobile makers to use its chips, calling it "contra-revenue." Despite that, Intel has free cash-flow of $1bn in 2014.

Mongolia is hosting a mass text vote referendum over its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine to solve disputes with Rio Tinto

Private jets evoke "a comsbustible combinatio of moralism and desire" according to Ludovoc Hunter Tilney in a FT column.

Sal Oppenheim reported its first loss in 2007 after WWII.

Big Updates

Michele Ferrero of Ferrero SpA, a EUR 8.1bn company, competing against Nestle, Mondelez and Kraft passed away. He never gave an interview and Ferrero is infamous for being "unbankable"

All this geopolitics is raising stock prices in defense companies such as BAE Systems.

Pay for asset mangers is set to surpass that of investment bankers by 2016

Russian billionaire Mikhail Friedman, through his $29bn investment fund LetterOne Group, is threatening to sue the UK government for intes.

rvening L1's investment into North Sea asset.

Fall in oil prices has increased demand for consulting companies, such as Wood Mackenzie, which is concurrently pursuing an IPO & sale to maximize exit price.

In 2014, Vanguard attracted fifth of industry's net inflows. Pimco was the worst.

Holcim and Cemex are merging, but they must divest some assets.

According to MI5, there are 3,000 SoI (Subject of Interests) under surveillance as possible terrorists.

L1 is chaired by Lord Browne, former BP chief. The company plans to grow through partnership deals and acquisitions.

Google is restructuring its European business into a single entity.

China's Postal Savings is going public, and MS tapped investors for minority stakes. Lukewarm interests.

On Feb. 28th, 2015, John Authers of FT says "the bond market must turn sometime"