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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.