New York, London, Tokyo, or Sydney?

Do you have a dream work destination? We spoke to people working in Finance in different parts of the world including New York, London, Sydney, and Toyko, and summarised what they had to say on our community about what it's like to live and work there. Read more here!

As always, if you want to join our team or have any feedback, please drop us a message.

For this week's highlights, we look at car leasing, sports-specialised Private Equity, and the risks of forecasting.  We also feature a fund report produced by our team on Perella Weinberg Partners, $PWP. We cover Ecolab's acquisition of Purolite in our M&A Deal of the Week and in our latest podcast, we speak to Michael Nissim, a serial Angel Investor.

Our poll last week saw a 2 to 1 split on bulls to bears, but if markets continue the way in which they've begun the year, we're going to have a tough year ahead of us... Vote below in our poll on where in the world you'd like to work!

🚘 Société Générale bets on car-leasing business

Profiting from lower interest rates, car leasing businesses have become the next profitable area European banks have been looking into. Recently, SocGen’s Paris-listed car leasing business ALD proposed to buy rival LeasePlan for €4.9bn. The combined business after the deal closes at the end of this year is expected to become the largest player in Europe with SocGen obtaining a 53% stake.

🏀 The unforeseen marriage between private equity and the NBA

For most individuals, their perception of private equity would never include the inclusion of specialised sports-based private equity firms, and that is where Arctos swoops in. Despite only having launched in April 2020, it has become one of the most prolific buyers of sports stakes around the world- especially due to its connection with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal.

💰 Should you bother forecasting?

Churchill said that economy is the science that explains why it got it wrong in the first place. Most economists try to outguess the future direction of macrosystems, and the results are appalling: an aggregate that depends on billions of human interactions cannot be framed into a reliable model.

For more bite-size market updates, visit our community!

Ecolab to acquire Purolite in a $3.7 billion deal

Acquirer: Ecolab (NYSE: ECL)

• Ecolab  (formerly known as  Economics  Laboratory until  1986)  is an  American corporation specialising in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services.
• Their water purification applications span further than just drinking water but have applications in the food, healthcare, hospitality, and industrial markets.

Target: Purolite Corp. (privately held company)

• Purolite is a resin technology and services company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, USA that has 38 offices across 30 countries
• They manufacture resins for absorbents, catalysts, and ion exchange for operations such as water purification, food & beverage, nuclear power, and hydrometallurgy

Rationale

• Purolite's revolutionary resin technology combined with Ecolab's state-of-the-art capabilities in clean  and  safe  processing  is  believed  to  offer  a  new  comprehensive  offering  to  clients, improving the end product, making it safer, healthier, and more effective
• Purolite has a strong recurring revenue as it is usually part of FDA drug fillings in life science, this is evident through the 80 upcoming clinical trials and drug submittals through the FDA. It is also an attractive platform for further expansion of Ecolab's fast-growing Life Sciences business with
  drug purification, formulation, and environmental protection
• Christophe Beck, president, and CEO of Ecolab quoted the 2021 sales target of $0.4 billion and growth in the mid-teens to verify Purolite as a 'fast-growing leader in biopharma and industrial purification solutions with very strong margins'
  

This week we are joined by Michael Nissim, an Angel Investor.

This episode covers:

• Turning challenger brands into household names at MNC
• The types of start-ups he invests in
• The financial risks and rewards of angel investing
• Defining 'success' in the venture eco-system

🏦 $FTM - Fantom (Crypto)

Fantom (FTM) is a fast, high-throughput open-source smart contract platform for digital assets and dApps. The project's mission is to provide compatibility between all transaction bodies around the world and create an ecosystem that allows real-time transactions and data sharing at a low cost.

Compatible with Ethereum and Solana  - Fantom has the flexibility that makes it easy to port existing apps built on Ethereum or Solana, which is a great strength for the development ecosystem.

Value-play relative to peers - FTM is trading at a Market Cap/Total Value Locked ratio of 1.09 which is significantly below averages across other chains, suggesting that it may be undervalued relative to its peers.

Catalysts - Continued network outages with rival chains such as Solana, which has suffered 7 outages in the past 3 weeks.

Risks - Continued correlation with the cryptocurrency market and tech stocks could see the market suffer as a whole, or a network outage under higher transaction load.

We'll catch you again next week, until then, make sure you're signed up to our community, and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter! If you have any feedback or want to join our team, send us a message!

- Salman @ Finance Focused