Our briefing for Tuesday March 30, 2021:

Mar 30, 2021 4:23:43 PM

One day after United States’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky shared her feelings of “impending doom” at a White House COVID-19 briefing, President Joe Biden made a plea of his own. The president implored state and local officials to reinstate mask mandates where some have lifted them altogether and/or issued new guidance on restaurant capacity and other measures. “I need the American people do their part as well. Mask up, mask up. It’s a patriotic duty. It’s the only way we ever get back to normal,” said President Biden. Health experts have warned another case surge is likely on the way in the coming weeks, with the majority being fueled by coronavirus variants.

In Canada, the country’s three most populous provinces are in various stages of handling the latest waves of the coronavirus pandemic. Ontario – the country’s most populous province – experienced just over 2,300 new cases on Tuesday and Critical Care Services Ontario (CCSO) said 46 more people with a COVID-19 related illness were taken to ICU units – the highest single day increase since the pandemic began. In Quebec, the province’s health minister acknowledged on Monday they have now entered a third wave of COVID-19, even as some restrictions loosen in their largest city, Montreal and cases rise in other regions. Quebec reported 864 new cases on Tuesday and the health minister said he is watching the situation closely and if hospitalizations go up, the province may need to reintroduce some measures. Finally, in British Columbia, the province is introducing a three-week “circuit breaker” style-lockdown, introducing sweeping new restrictions on indoor dining in restaurants, group fitness and worship services after hitting a single-day high in cases over the weekend.

In the United Kingdom, the Evening Standard is reporting the country could be receiving a fourth vaccine for use within the next four weeks. Professor Paul Heath, chief investigator for the Novavax inoculation trial, believes the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which has been using a fast track “rolling review” process, now has nearly all the data it needs to make an approval decision. “The regulator will do a very detailed and thorough review and will decide in good time. I would hope it would be in the spring, possibly end of April,” said Heath.

Germany is the latest country to recommend AstraZeneca COVID shots only be used for people aged 60 or over following further reports of a rare brain blood disorder. Germany’s medical regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, says it has received reports of 31 people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine suffering rare blood clots in the brain. Nine of those people died, the agency announced Tuesday. In 19 of the 31 cases, the people also had low blood platelets. German leaders are set to discuss the use of the vaccine after several states said they would stop giving the inoculation to people under the age of 60.

In Australia, two separate clusters that both originated from the same Brisbane hospital at different times, has pushed the city into a snap three-day lockdown. Queensland’s state chief health officer described the growing cluster of seven cases “as significant community transmission” of the UK variant and warned people in greater Brisbane to stay home over the coming days. The hospital at the centre of the two outbreaks – Princess Alexandra Hospital – has also been put into lockdown. Snap lockdowns, social-distancing rules and speedy contact-tracing systems have helped Australia control fresh clusters in recent months and they hope for the same to happen in Brisbane over the coming days.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released their findings Tuesday from the fact-finding mission they made to Wuhan, China back in January and it was immediately met with calls to do more. The governments of the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Israel and nine other countries have asked for a more independent review and fully transparent evaluations with access to all relevant data in the future. The countries’ joint statement wants further studies of animals to find how the virus was introduced to humans and called for a renewed commitment from WHO and member countries to access, transparency and timeliness. The statement followed WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s assertion that data wasn’t freely shared with its investigators who traveled to China to research origins of the pandemic.

Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management

Private Equity’s Taste for Tech Spurs $80 Billion Deal Spree

Brief : Private equity firms are barreling through the records as they place bets on technological revolutions in sectors ranging from finance to health care. Firms have spent $80 billion acquiring companies in the global technology sector this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s an all-time high for a quarter and already up 141% on this point in 2020, which went on to be a record year for such deals. This month alone has seen Thoma Bravo ink a $3.7 billion acquisition of fintech outfit Calypso Technology Inc. and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan agree to take a majority stake in Mitratech, a provider of legal and compliance software, in a $1.5 billion deal. In Europe, TA Associates said it would take over Dutch enterprise software firm Unit4 NV in a $2 billion-plus transaction, while one of Insight Partners’s portfolio companies bought data management group Dotmatics Ltd. for as much as 500 million pounds ($690 million). Earlier this year, Montagu Private Equity agreed to acquire U.K. software developer ITRS Group Ltd. for about $700 million. Buyout firms are flush with investor cash and are being drawn to startups helping companies to reinforce their businesses following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Chris Sahota, chief executive officer at tech-focused advisory boutique Ciesco.

Hedge Funds’ Coffers Swell Further in February, as Investors Pile in

Brief: Hedge funds have recorded their strongest two-month run of investor inflows since 2014, with multi-strategy managers attracting the strongest interest so far this year, according to new research by eVestment. Allocators poured some USD16.44 billion into hedge fund strategies throughout February, which helped push total net inflows so far this year to USD23.74 billion. At the same time, strong positive performance for managers since the start of this year has brought hedge fund industry’s overall AUM to USD3.407 trillion. Multi-strategy hedge funds have been the biggest draw for investors, attracting USD8.98 billion in the first two months of 2021, which included USD5.34 billion in February. Meanwhile, event driven managers pulled in USD2.47 billion of allocator capital in February, swelling this year’s new money to USD3.30 billion.

Data Breaches are a Frequent Occurrence for the Pensions Industry, says Sackers Webinar

Brief: A new survey by Sacker & Partners (Sackers), a UK-based specialist law firm for pensions and pensions litigation, has revealed that data breaches are occurring frequently. The survey showed that just over a third of those responding to the survey have suffered a breach in the last twelve months, with almost half of such breaches reported to the Information Commissioners Office. Sackers Senior Counsel, Arshad Khan, says: “The pensions industry is firmly in the sights of the media and seemingly public interest too when it comes to data security. And the headlines can be emotive, giving many the impression that the industry is not on top of the situation. But the pensions industry is no different to any other industry, and breaches or cyber attacks do and will continue to happen to everyone, including schemes, such as those in our survey, and government bodies such as DWP, TPR and HMRC too.

Americans Want the Government to Buy U.S. – Made Goods, even if they Cost More

Brief: A year of pandemic-driven shortages of vital safety goods and medicines - not to mention consumer items like bikes and electronics - has not made Americans more willing to pay extra for U.S.-made goods. Yet a large majority think the government should do so. A new Reuters-Ipsos poll found 63% of Americans want U.S. agencies to buy American-made products in general, even if they cost significantly more, and 62% think the government should strictly buy U.S.-made vaccines. That enthusiasm dims a bit when it comes to other types of safety equipment, such as face masks: a majority, 53%, agree it is fine to buy personal protective equipment - or PPE - from foreign sources, while 41% disagreed. The poll shows a longstanding contradiction: Americans like the idea of buying American goods - but not if it means paying more personally for it. It also underscores a challenge facing the Biden administration, which has vowed to bolster manufacturers of crucial safety goods and pharmaceuticals as part of its larger push to revive the U.S. factory sector.

JPMorgan says Banks’ Archegos Hit May be up to $10 Billion

Brief: Banks roiled by the Archegos Capital fallout may see total losses in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion, according to JPMorgan. Losses from trades unwinding related to Archegos will be “very material” in relation to lending exposure for a business that is mark-to-market and holds liquid collateral, analysts led by Kian Abouhossein wrote in a note. They added that Nomura Holdings Inc.’s indication of potentially losing $2 billion and press speculation of a $3 billion to $4 billion loss at Credit Suisse AG is “not an unlikely outcome.” Analysts and investors are trying to figure out the final losses to banks exposed to the Archegos implosion, with the task made harder by the opaque nature of the leveraged trading involved. JPMorgan had previously estimated losses in the range of $2 billion to $5 billion. “We are still puzzled why Credit Suisse and Nomura have been unable to unwind all their positions at this point,” the analysts wrote, adding that they expect to see full disclosures from lenders by the end of this week.

EQT Nears $5.3 Billion Deal for Partners Group’s Cerba

Brief: EQT AB is nearing an agreement to acquire Cerba HealthCare in a deal valuing the French laboratories firm at about 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) including debt, people with knowledge of the matter said. The European private equity firm could announce a deal as soon as this week to purchase Cerba from Swiss buyout firm Partners Group, according to the people. EQT beat out rival bidders including other investment funds, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Partners Group, which owns the business together with Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, has been exploring options for the business including a sale, Bloomberg News has reported. Representatives for EQT and Partners Group declined to comment, while a spokesperson for PSP didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Demand for hospital and laboratory assets has increased amid the Covid-19 crisis and a sale of Cerba could rank among the largest deals in the sector in Europe this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Coronavirus Diligence Briefing