(Jordi Brown, Jack Boswell, Jaahnavi Sikand) Introduction AMD is a California-based firm that designs computer processors, both for the consumer and business markets. The processors AMD designs include central processing units (CPUs) – which are responsible for executing instructions; graphical processing units (GPUs) – which process images and video; and accelerated processing units (APUs) – … More Yet Another Semiconductor Deal: a brief look at AMD and Xilinx

(Claudia Horsham, Michael Best, Xie Shi Jie David) Current climate of the bond market Since the Covid crisis began firms and consumers have been cutting back on spending which has led to many companies experiencing cash flow or liquidity problems. Government restrictions in many states, as well as an increase in employees working at home … More Re-emergence of PIK bonds Report

(Shaokun Chen, Jack Boswell & Jack Williams) Intro In recent months, capital markets have been warped by the coronavirus pandemic, and the US market for junk bonds has not been exempt from pronounced volatility. In March, US high-yield bonds plunged at their fastest pace in history as investors exited the market through fear of widespread … More Demand for US Junk Bonds Continues To Rise as Investors Search For Higher Yields

(Daniel Aliwell, Ankit Mittal & Jeanne Royer) THE COMPANY AND ITS BUSINESS MODEL Snowflake, a cloud data-based warehousing start-up founded in 2012 is currently aiming for an IPO between now and October, with the goal to raise $100 million in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm produces cloud-based software for data … More Snowflake: Taking Advantage of the Rallying Tech Industry

(Alisha Gragya & Nikhil Sahdev) Financial markets are dynamic and hence characterised by the term VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Rightly so, it keeps providing examples that contradict most investor expectations and yet turn out to result in archetypes of financial profits and success. One prominent example is the acquisition of Hilton Hotels, a … More Case Study: A Look Back On Hilton’s LBO By Blackstone

(Giorgio Curti, Matthew Lingham & Jeanne Royer) THE COMPANY AND ITS BUSINESS MODEL Ant Technology group, the payments arm of the Alibaba Group has a total estimated valuation of $150bn, making it the highest-valued FinTech company in the world. Founded by Jackie Ma in October 2000, it has grown to be the largest mobile payment … More The Largest IPO In History? Ant Technology Group Might Break The Record

(Shaokun Chen, Claudia Horsham & Nikhil Sahdev) Introduction At a time when banks that have agreed to finance leveraged buyouts are starting to feel the pain from the lack of investors willing to purchase high risk corporate debt (Bloomberg, 2020), casino operator Eldorado Resorts has sealed the cash-and-stock $17.3 billion deal, to purchase Caesars Entertainment … More Leverage Buyout of Caesars Entertainment by Eldorado Resorts

(Ankit Mittal & Jack Williams) On July 21st it was announced that eBay’s Classifieds Group was to be acquired by Adevinta in a cash and equity deal that is set to create the largest classified advertising business in the world. The classified advertising business model involves generating leads for sellers by pairing them up with … More Adevinta Acquires eBay’s Classifieds Group To Create World’s Largest Classified Advertising Business

(Alisha Gragya & Taiga Nakamura) Background Beginning January 2016, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman publicly declared that he intended to sell 5 percent of Saudi Aramco, a government-owned oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in the face of a widening economic deficit and depleting foreign reserves. The government planned … More Saudi Aramco’s IPO Controversy

(Barkha Babbar & Ali Soufraki) Introduction RoyaltyPharma is a biopharmaceutical company. It purchases the royalty rights in drugs from research and life science organisations. It not only develops these drugs but also invests in clinical trials for new treatments. RoyaltyPharma has been integral in drug innovation.  Since 1996, it has invested $18 billion buying shares … More Royalty Pharma’s IPO

(Giorgio Curti, Jeanne Royer & Sonia Ruan Ye) “Capital markets are vital to the recovery, because public financing alone will not be enough to get our economies back on track,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, the Commission’s executive Vice-President (European Commission, 2020). On the 24th of July 2020, the European Commission adopted a Capital Markets Recovery Package, … More The European Commission’s Capital Markets Recovery Package: a coronavirus response in the road to economic recovery

(Jordi Brown & Claudia Horsham) In recent weeks Nvidia, an American multinational technology company which designs graphic processing units (GPUs) and system on chip (SoC) units for the mobile, computing and automotive markets, has expressed interest in acquiring SoftBank’s chip designer, Arm Ltd. The GPU on a computer processes images and video – Nvidia’s GPUs … More Nvidia Considers Acquiring ARM Amid Monopoly Concerns