Pepper Money and Latitude have shown they can weather pandemic lockdowns and thrive thereafter. Even so, the two non-banks backed by the buyout shop are trading below their IPO prices earlier this year. Some caution is warranted, but the discount to bigger peers looks overdone.

Pepper Money and Latitude have shown they can weather pandemic lockdowns and thrive thereafter. Even so, the two non-banks backed by the buyout shop are trading below their IPO prices earlier this year. Some caution is warranted, but the discount to bigger peers looks overdone.

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - On Aug. 24, 2011, Steve Jobs conceded he could no longer run Apple (AAPL.O). He handed over the top job to Tim Cook, the operating supremo who had stood in during Jobs’ illness. The company was then worth $350 billion. Some feared Cook could never reproduce the innovation inspired by Jobs, notably the world-changing iPhone, first launched in 2007.

It turned out Cook could succeed in other ways. Mostly incremental product launches and supply-chain improvements brought lasting growth, turning Jobs’ vision into the first $1 trillion company. Apple is now worth $2.5 trillion, and that’s after returning around $550 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends since 2012.

In the past decade, an Apple shareholder has made a total return, including dividends, of some 1,200%: better than Google, now called Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and more than Facebook (FB.O) shares have delivered since the company’s 2012 listing. Apple...

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - He helped transform Target, opened the first Apple store, but failed to save J.C. Penney. Now Johnson is turning his attention to mobile stores. He tells Jennifer Saba about his new venture, Enjoy, and explains how e-commerce is changing everything.

Listen to the podcast

Follow @jennifersaba on Twitter

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - He helped transform Target, opened the first Apple store, but failed to save J.C. Penney. Now Johnson is turning his attention to mobile stores. He tells Jennifer Saba about his new venture, Enjoy, and explains how e-commerce is changing everything.

Listen to the podcast

Follow @jennifersaba on Twitter

Posted

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is going public via a blank-cheque deal with a $3.2 bln valuation. Its financial projections are big leaps of faith. Ed Cropley explains how comparisons to the even loftier goals of his Virgin Galactic space tourism firm may be a Branson own goal.

The trainer maker favored by The Rock and First Lady is bypassing Zurich for New York, with a mooted valuation of some $6 bln, a pack-leading 7 times sales. Athleisure wear is a crowded space, but On is growing fast. Like its marathoning clients, it’ll need endurance on its side.

Trading crypto on non-traditional platforms, or decentralized finance, exploded 10-fold to $150 bln this year. But a recent $610 mln hack shows dangers. The growth threatens traditional financial firms. BlackRock and others can reshape speculative aspects if they join the fun.

Posted

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is going public via a blank-cheque deal with a $3.2 bln valuation. Its financial projections are big leaps of faith. Ed Cropley explains how comparisons to the even loftier goals of his Virgin Galactic space tourism firm may be a Branson own goal.

The trainer maker favored by The Rock and First Lady is bypassing Zurich for New York, with a mooted valuation of some $6 bln, a pack-leading 7 times sales. Athleisure wear is a crowded space, but On is growing fast. Like its marathoning clients, it’ll need endurance on its side.

Trading crypto on non-traditional platforms, or decentralized finance, exploded 10-fold to $150 bln this year. But a recent $610 mln hack shows dangers. The growth threatens traditional financial firms. BlackRock and others can reshape speculative aspects if they join the fun.

He helped transform Target, opened the first Apple store, but failed to save J.C. Penney. Now Johnson is turning his attention to mobile stores. He tells Jennifer Saba about his new venture, Enjoy, and explains how e-commerce is changing everything.

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NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - On Aug. 24, 2011, Steve Jobs conceded he could no longer run Apple (AAPL.O). He handed over the top job to Tim Cook, the operating supremo who had stood in during Jobs’ illness. The company was then worth $350 billion. Some feared Cook could never reproduce the innovation inspired by Jobs, notably the world-changing iPhone, first launched in 2007.

It turned out Cook could succeed in other ways. Mostly incremental product launches and supply-chain improvements brought lasting growth, turning Jobs’ vision into the first $1 trillion company. Apple is now worth $2.5 trillion, and that’s after returning around $550 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends since 2012.

In the past decade, an Apple shareholder has made a total return, including dividends, of some 1,200%: better than Google, now called Alphabet (GOOGL.O), and more than Facebook (FB.O) shares have delivered since the company’s 2012 listing. Apple...

NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - He helped transform Target, opened the first Apple store, but failed to save J.C. Penney. Now Johnson is turning his attention to mobile stores. He tells Jennifer Saba about his new venture, Enjoy, and explains how e-commerce is changing everything.

Listen to the podcast

Follow @jennifersaba on Twitter

The Spanish bank is paying $2.5 bln to buy out a 20% minority stake in its profitable U.S. consumer financing arm. It only listed the business in 2014, and has had to hike its offer price. But Santander is doing the same deals elsewhere, and it makes capital and earnings sense.

The Spanish bank is paying $2.5 bln to buy out a 20% minority stake in its profitable U.S. consumer financing arm. It only listed the business in 2014, and has had to hike its offer price. But Santander is doing the same deals elsewhere, and it makes capital and earnings sense.

LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Unlike its physical surroundings, Zurich presents a disappointing backdrop for Europe’s aviation recovery. Despite the Swiss authorities’ relatively relaxed approach to quarantines, allowing vaccinated travellers to enter with few restrictions, passenger numbers failed to top 25% of pre-pandemic levels in the first six months of the year, Flughafen Zuerich (FHZN.S) reported on Tuesday. Business travel was particularly hard hit, suggesting the commercial capital’s legions of financiers are sticking with Zoom calls for now.

On the current trajectory, traffic should recover to half 2019 levels by the end of the year. After slashing operating costs by nearly a third in the last 18 months, that would bring the $5 billion company close to break-even. That faint optimism shines through in a share price down just 10% from the start of 2020. Spain’s Aena (AENA.MC), Germany’s Fraport (FRAG.DE) and France’s Aeroports de Paris (ADP.PA) are...

HONG KONG, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A Chinese vaping company may have picked the worst possible time to list. Shenzhen IVPS Technology, which makes Smok devices, is eyeing a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise up to $1 billion as early as next year, according to a Bloomberg report. It will be a feat to arouse investor interest in the current environment, however. Beijing’s crackdown on consumer sectors it doesn’t like has hammered shares ranging from after-school tutors to video games. Electronic cigarettes are a particular target.

In March, regulators proposed draft rules to regulate e-cigarette products similarly to that of the traditional cigarette industry; earlier this month, shares in related companies fell read more after state media reported that minors had figured out loopholes in bans on e-cigarette sales. Shares of peer Rlx Technology (RLX.N), which said last week it eked out a mere 6% quarter-on-quarter rise in revenue, are down some...

HONG KONG, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. China's Kuaishou Technology (1024.HK) has shed nearly $190 billion in market value from a peak struck shortly after its February listing. Its adjusted net loss is forecast to hit $2.8 billion this year, analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate, as it struggles with regulators and its far-larger rival ByteDance. Barring a turnaround, it may prove to be the Chinese tech sector's shortest-lived flash in the pan.

Kuaishou was the talk of the Hong Kong stock exchange six months ago. The viral-video app's initial public offering smashed records, attracting orders from mom-and-pop traders equivalent to 1,200 times the amount of shares on offer. The stock almost tripled on its first day of trading; by mid-February, the unprofitable company commanded a market capitalisation of over $220 billion, more than video-streaming peers Bilibili (9626.HK) and Hello Group (MOMO.O)...

HONG KONG, Aug 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. China's Kuaishou Technology (1024.HK) has shed nearly $190 billion in market value from a peak struck shortly after its February listing. Its adjusted net loss is forecast to hit $2.8 billion this year, analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate, as it struggles with regulators and its far-larger rival ByteDance. Barring a turnaround, it may prove to be the Chinese tech sector's shortest-lived flash in the pan.

Kuaishou was the talk of the Hong Kong stock exchange six months ago. The viral-video app's initial public offering smashed records, attracting orders from mom-and-pop traders equivalent to 1,200 times the amount of shares on offer. The stock almost tripled on its first day of trading; by mid-February, the unprofitable company commanded a market capitalisation of over $220 billion, more than video-streaming peers Bilibili (9626.HK) and Hello Group (MOMO.O)...