General

Shockwaves from the Ukraine Crisis and tightening of financial conditions have tested the Financial System’s resilience in 1Q’22. Deal activity across all the sub-sectors declined as investors traded cautiously while deploying their capital.

In a world of traditional banking when a customer applied for a loan, it took weeks to get to the loan approval decision. Traditional banks made the process seem as difficult as swimming across an ocean!

Fueled by rising geopolitical tensions in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, worsening macro-economic outlook, higher interest rates, and supply chain disruptions have all led to dampening investments activity, particularly in M&A hubs in Asia-Pacific including China, Japan, and South Korea.

In this industry expert we discuss what DI is, it’s advantages, challenges and how it can provide a competitive advantage for investors.

M&A market sentiment in APAC seems cautiously optimistic and positive. Momentum in deal making activity has continued and led to a Y-o-Y growth of 78% and high growth in technology, energy and consumer space, seemed to be the common theme across capital markets.

The London Inter-bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) is the most important rate globally, referencing nearly USD 370 trillion (as of 2018) equivalent of contracts that cover a myriad of products such as mortgages, bonds, and derivatives.

The spike in SPAC activity has two main causes: the increase in volatility in the markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making SPACs more appealing than traditional IPOs; and the large number of billionaire investors and bulge bracket banks sponsoring SPACs, which caught the attention of the public

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published the draft proposal of a new standard, General Presentation and Disclosures in December 2019, which is expected to replace the existing IAS 1.

In 2020, the technology sector witnessed the highest growth with more than 42% returns, which were more than double the returns (on average 18.9%) generated over the last decade

We take a look at the top 10 countries by M&A volume and evaluate how are they performing with regard to dealing with COVID-19 uncertainties, economic activity, and M&A deal making.

M&A in APAC increased by 15% in 2020 primarily due to a surge of activity in Q3 2020 and activity started recovering at the end of H1 2020; strong H2 2020 ensured double digit
growth for the full year.

Fintech stocks outperforming other stocks in the FIG sub-sector and banking remains the most affected sub-sector due to deteriorating loan portfolios and low
interest rates

The banking industry’s creditworthiness remains closely tied to the economic performance of sovereign agents during times when the IMF and IDB forecast GDP losses between 8-10% for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020.

COVID-19 has shut down large segments of the economy despite complete lockdowns being lifted in most countries, since negative effects caused by the disruption in supply chains and social-distancing restrictions has caused the risk of mass loan defaults to continue to mount.

If Standard Due Diligence cannot answer these questions, Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) is required. If EDD is unable to answer these questions, the determination may be that the client relationship/transaction is not appropriate for the institution performing the due diligence.

SPACs have no commercial operations and are formed exclusively to raise capital via IPO, with the only purpose of acquiring an existing company, which generally is unidentified, within a predetermined period up to 24 months. After the acquisition, the acquired company automatically turns into a public company.

The six largest economies of LatAm – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru – are among the top 12 countries with the most coronavirus cases in the world, which has led to negative GDP forecasts for 2020, depreciation of local currencies and deterioration in credit profiles.

The volume of M&A activity in APAC increased by 13% YTD compared to 2019 and aggregated to $585bn, primarily due to higher deal volumes in China and Japan.

We take a look at the top 10 countries by M&A volume and how they are faring with regard to COVID-19, their economy, and M&A dealmaking. We assign a recovery score indicating their extent of recovery so far and how much they need to do to achieve a pre-COVID-19 level of normalcy.

Before we delve into the post-pandemic scenarios, here is a quick recap of the developments in the LNG market: The first six months of 2020 were one of the most turbulent phases for the market.

Fintech stocks outperformed the S&P 500 due to a strong demand for digitalization. Banking stocks, on the other hand, have suffered the most due to existing pressure on margins due to the recent cuts in interest rates and expected continuous increase in non-performing loans due to the overall economic slowdown.