Tag Archive for 'Investing'

The Venture Capital Winners of 2011

Published on December 16, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Did someone say economic slump? Not in Silicon Valley. The initial public offerings of LinkedIn (LNKD) and Groupon (GRPN) brought billion-dollar paydays* to venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock Partners, while Kleiner Perkins Caufield & is expected to profit handsomely from Zynga’s IPO on Dec. 16.

For venture firms that missed out on those high fliers, plenty of money was made in vacation-rental site HomeAway (AWAY), which helped Redpoint Ventures crack the year’s top 10. Khosla Ventures was the only investor to make a splash unrelated to the Web with its majority ownership of KiOR (KIOR), a biofuel maker that is valued at over $1 billion even though the company has yet to generate a penny of revenue [Source].

Hong Kong: still the great mall of China

Published on November 30, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Is Hong Kong losing its allure as a launching pad for foreign brands looking to tap into the Chinese market?
The decision by Gap to set up shops in Shanghai and Beijing in 2010 before making its debut in Hong Kong last week certainly seems to suggest that some foreign businesses have no qualms about bypassing Hong Kong and taking a more direct route into the mainland’s estimated $2,100bn retail market.

There are obvious reasons why brands would jump straight into the mainland. Apart from the sheer size of the market, mainland China’s top cities increasingly offer high-quality shopping centres and department stores where western brands feel at home.

Meanwhile, the cost of doing business in Hong Kong could be prohibitive. Retail rent is now the second-highest in the world and fast-approaching levels charged on Fifth Avenue [Source].

Indonesia is next for Asset Managers

Published on November 7, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co., South Korea’s second-largest money manager, is considering an acquisition of an Indonesian asset-management company to tap rising affluence in the Southeast Asian nation.

Mirae Asset Global Investment is betting on higher income levels in Indonesia, whose middle class grew by 62 percent from 2003 to 2010, according to World Bank estimates.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are considering buying brokerages in Indonesia, two people with knowledge of the matter said in September, while South Korea’s Hyundai Securities Co. also said last month it’s considering an acquisition of a brokerage.

The International Monetary Fund predicts Indonesia’s economy, Southeast Asia’s biggest, will expand between 6 percent and 6.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, according to a statement on Oct. 21. Indonesian gross domestic product gained 6.49 percent in the second quarter, compared with growth of 4 percent in neighboring Malaysia and 2.6 percent in Thailand. [Source].

Buffett Broadens Portfolio by Spending $23.9B In Quarter

Published on November 7, 2011 in International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $23.9 billion in the third quarter, the most in at least 15 years, as he accelerated stock purchases and broadened the portfolio beyond consumer and financial-company holdings.

Buffett, 81, drew down Berkshire’s cash as Europe’s debt crisis and Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. pushed stocks to their worst quarterly performance since 2008. The investments disclosed Nov. 4 include $6.9 billion of equities, $5 billion for preferred shares and warrants in Bank of America Corp. and the acquisition of Lubrizol Corp. for about $9 billion [Source].

KKR Said to Seek Up to $6 Billion for Second Asia Buyout Fund

Published on October 25, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

KKR & Co., the U.S. buyout firm co- founded by Henry Kravis, is seeking as much as $6 billion for its second Asian buyout fund, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan.

The firm, based in New York, is planning to wrap up the first round of fundraising by the middle of next year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. KKR gathered $4 billion for its first fund making Asia investments in 2007.

Private-equity firms attracted $25.6 billion for Asia- Pacific funds this year through Aug. 31, compared with $38 billion in all of 2010, according to market researcher Preqin Ltd. Fund-raising in the region peaked at $88.4 billion in 2008, before the impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. rippled through global markets, the London-based firm said in a report last month [Read more].

Samsung: The next big bet

Published on October 9, 2011 in Emerging Markets and Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The world’s biggest information-technology firm is diving into green technology and the health business. It should take care; its rivals should take notice.

In 2000 Samsung started making batteries for digital gadgets. Ten years later it sold more of them than any other company in the world. In 2001 it threw resources into flat-panel televisions. Within four years it was the market leader. In 2002 the firm bet heavily on “flash” memory. The technology it delivered made the iPhone and iPad a reality, and made Samsung Apple’s biggest supplier—and now its biggest hardware competitor.

The handsome payoffs from these ballsy bets made the South Korean company a colossus; last year its sales passed $135 billion. Now it is embarking on a similarly audacious plan to move away from electronics into technologies where it barely has a presence today. It intends to spend $20 billion over ten years on solar panels, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used for lighting, electric-vehicle batteries, medical devices and biotech drugs.

These businesses shift Samsung away from easily substitutable gadgets towards more essential industrial goods (see table)—or from “infotainment” to “lifecare”, as the company puts it. Just as electronics defined swathes of the 20th century, the company believes green technology and health care will be central to the 21st [Read more].

Intel Capital invests $24 million in seven new companies

Published on September 8, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Intel Capital announced today it has invested $24 million in seven new startups. And so far this year, Intel said that it has seen two initial public offerings and 10 acquisitions from its portfolio of investments in startups.

The new investments include five new software start-ups and two follow-on investments. Since the company is a strategic corporate investor, it shoots for both a financial return and investments that help Intel’s strategic interests. The deals show Intel isn’t slowing down its investments despite a slow world economy [Read more].

Norway rides wave of prosperity on back of oil

Published on August 31, 2011 in International Business and International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Blessed with large petroleum reserves, as well as robust public finances, Norway’s economy has managed to largely circumvent the EU debt crisis.

Blessed with large petroleum reserves, Norway is riding a wave of prosperity brought by high oil prices and robust public finances while the rest of Europe is mired in a debt crisis.

This Scandinavian nation of 4.9 million is the biggest oil producer and exporter in western Europe, with most of the oil production taking place offshore in the North Sea. Norway was also the world’s second largest exporter of natural gas after Russia last year, when crude oil, natural gas and pipeline transport services made up nearly 50% of its exports value.

To make sure future generations also benefit from the oil resources first discovered in 1969 and which will eventually run out, Norway saves petroleum revenues in a pension fund valued at roughly $550 billion. The so-called 4% fiscal rule limits the swings in the Norwegian economy; under the rule, the government aims to spend only 4% of the pension fund annually, though the exact percentage can vary [Read more].

Northern light: Sweden’s economy ‘a little Germany’

Published on August 31, 2011 in International Business and International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sweden is one of Europe’s fastest growing economies and its success is noteworthy given
the debt woes plaguing southern Europe.

Residents of this capital radiate a sense of well-being and it’s not only because they live in a beautiful city built on 14 islands that draws comparisons to Venice. It’s also because they call home one of Europe’s fastest growing economies.

The success of this export-oriented Nordic nation is noteworthy, because it’s in stark contrast to the debt woes plaguing Greece, Portugal and other southern euro-zone countries. Sweden is a member of the European Union, but it has chosen to keep its own currency. Public debt levels are relatively low and the government expects a budget surplus this year [Read more].

Emergence Capital Partners raising $200M fund

Published on July 26, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Venture capital firm Emergence Capital Partners is in the process of raising its third fund, a $200 million fund labeled “Emergence Capital Partners III,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Emergence Capital Partners is known for investing in enterprise companies like cloud storage provider Box.net and online enterprise social network Yammer. It also invested in file transfer service YouSendIt [Source].