The spike in US bond yields has implications for equities, but perhaps not as directly as one might imagine. Yes, long bond yields and particularly TIPS, provide an effective proxy for a risk-free return and therefore the essential anchor for valuing other asset classes, but only from a relative rather than absolute perspective. It may […]
Continue reading
These are dangerous waters for investors. Not just from the visible reefs, such as the rising trade and military tensions, but to what remains hidden, as Trump positions himself ahead of what could prove to be the most important mid-term elections for a generation. This is a game however, where many of the key pieces […]
Continue reading
Do telcos have pricing power; is the sector at the cusp of an upswing as it comes out of a protracted investment cycle, or just a value trap? For those despairing at the billions already being chucked at 5G licences (€6.5bn last week in Italy) before they’ve extracted much of a return from 4G, one […]
Continue reading
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary might sound pro-EU when it comes to Brexit, but his commercial approach is about as Anglo-Saxon as one can get. For the soon to be disenfranchised UK investors after Brexit, it must therefore come with a certain sense irony to see the group playing hardball with its Continental unions. While shareholders may […]
Continue reading
“Accept the Recommended Comcast Offer Immediately”[!!!] If I was a Comcast shareholder I would be concerned about the apparent enthusiasm with which the Sky board were recommending that their shareholders accept their managements revised offer for Sky. Whoever was pulling the strings over at Sky (Murdoch, Disney?), they have played a blinder; extracting a 125% […]
Continue reading
Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. According to the Sunday Times yesterday (23rd September 2018), a volcano in Iceland (indeed an “Icelandic giant” called Katla no less) is “about to erupt”. “The ash plume that brought European air travel to a standstill in 2010 could be dwarfed by an […]
Continue reading
The commercial TV industry is littered with failed acquisitions of production companies, but that doesn’t seem to stop newcomers from falling into the same trap. New management at ITV ought to take note, given the reports that they are considering purchasing Big Brother producer, Endemol. The strategic rational of moving upstream into content origination […]
Continue reading
Chasing rainbows for capital intensive businesses can be tricky, particularly if you’ve sunk a lot of capital only to find no crock of gold. This must be how Copa Holding must feel now, having thrown capital into building capacity in Argentina ahead of some particularly aggressive traffic growth forecasts. While traffic volumes has so far […]
Continue reading