April Second Week Roundup of International and GCC Finance News
Published by Dr. Atie J. El Mouallem
Published April 11, 2021
Forbes: A new billionaire every 17 hours, Citadel Securities Feels the Heat of the Political Spotlight, How Saudi Arabia Can Thrive in a Post-Oil World.
Citadel Securities Feels the Heat of the Political Spotlight – Bloomberg
“In U.S. equities markets, where Citadel Securities has replaced traditional stock exchanges in executing orders for many retail brokers, that its influence is greatest. The firm says it handles about 47% of all stock trading by retail investors on a typical day.”
“Those GameStop shares and options that Gill and other Reddit traders were buying on Robinhood? Citadel was handling almost half of those transactions.”
“When big sharks like Citadel and Robinhood come out ahead no matter what happens, and when the information they gather isn’t disclosed, and when it’s secret how that information is used, it’s easier for these giants to skim off the top at the expense of small investors,” Warren said at a Senate banking committee hearing in March”
“Griffin said at the House hearing in February that “with respect to order flow we simply play by the rules of the road. Payment for order flow has been approved by the SEC.”
US Bonds Aren’t Giving Investors The Returns They Once Did. Here’s Why
“Never has the amount of new government and corporate debt paying even modest yields been so minuscule.”
“Debt rated A or above paying 5% virtually disappeared, leaving the vast majority of such offerings rated in the lowest tier of investment-grade, or worse.”
“Now, after the Fed’s unprecedented intervention in bond markets drove rates down even further in the pandemic, finding anything paying more than 5% has become difficult, except for investors willing to dip into the riskiest parts of the junk-bond market.”
“Steve Willer, who helps manage $21 billion as deputy chief investment officer at the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority says “People are having to be more creative in looking at different segments of the debt market. That comes with different risks.”
“Ray Dalio, the founder of hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, who now recommends avoiding the U.S. bond market entirely and focusing on higher-returning, non-debt investments.”
How Saudi Arabia Can Thrive in a Post-Oil World – Bloomberg
“The country’s rich endowment of natural assets — not all of them hydrocarbon-based — could fuel new industries and sustain existing ones as carbon emissions fall toward zero. Its reserves of phosphates, copper and gold are world-class, but have been under-exploited thanks to the way crude crowds out everything else.”
“There’s another potential role for Saudi Arabia. Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has so far failed to live up to its promise and mostly exists as demonstration projects of questionable viability.”
“Few places in the world receive the intensity and consistency of sunlight that falls on the Arabian Peninsula.”
“Hydrogen, as a chemical fuel and ingredient in industrial processes, has many of the same advantages as petroleum.”
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This UAE Stock Is Up 70% in Three Weeks and Nobody Knows Why – Bloomberg
“IHC invested in 36 new companies last year, bringing the number of legal operating entities under its portfolio to 97.”
“Syed Basar Shueb, IHC’s Abu Dhabi-based chief executive officer and managing director, said” “On a monthly basis, we have two, three or maybe four deals,” and there are more being negotiated at the moment.”
“That growth is evident from IHC’s thirst for acquisitions. It had $3.8 billion in assets as of the end of last year, about four times more than a year earlier. Profit rose 159% to 3 billion dirhams ($821 million) in 2020.”
Forbes: A new billionaire every 17 hours | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 08.04.2021
“With nearly 500 new billionaires in 2021, there is now a total of 2,755 people worldwide with a net worth of at least $1 billion (€840 million), according to Forbes.”
“Most of the newly minted billionaires — 205 to be exact — come from China, the country with the newest billionaires and second-most billionaires overall.”
“Five of China’s new billionaires came to their riches through vaping products.”
“While China surpassed the US in terms of new billionaires in 2021, the United States is still home to the most billionaires overall.”
How Toyota’s Supply Chain Helped It Weather the Chip Shortage – Bloomberg
“Toyota poured over its supply chain to identify the most at-risk items in the hope of preventing a similar disruption in the future. The automaker came up with a list of about 1,500 parts it deemed necessary to secure alternatives for or to stockpile.”
“The company also put in place an intricate system to monitor the vast network of suppliers that produce those items—and the smaller companies those suppliers buy materials from—to develop an early-warning system for shortages.”
“Toyota asks its Tier 1 suppliers to input detailed information about their most obscure parts and materials providers in a complex database that it maintains.“
“These lines of communication alerted the company early on that it needed to stockpile chips.”
