Top Dealmakers Leaving London and Heading Into the EU, Hunt for the Next Tesla Fuels Wave of Electric-Vehicle Deals, NEOM and The Line: a Saudi blueprint for the global future of urban living.
Brexit News EU: Top Dealmakers Leaving London and Heading Into the EU – Bloomberg
I would expect that 3,000 to 4,000 more investment bankers, especially industry-focused specialists and debt and equity issuance advisers, will have to leave London and come back to Europe,” said Andreas Halin, founder of Global Mind Executive Search Consultants GmbH.
The prospect of losing a highly paid cadre of taxpayers is particularly bad news for the U.K. since it relies so much on financial services for revenue.
Bankers in London can no longer directly pitch transactions or capital-raising operations to corporate clients on the continent. They require the involvement of a so-called chaperone.
Elite Diamond-Buying Club Shrinks as De Beers Culls Old Clients – Bloomberg
De Beers has cut off some of its long-term diamond buyers, marking one of the biggest shakeups in the way the miner sells gems since the end of its monopoly 20 years ago.
De Beers wants a smaller number of companies specializing in each one, giving them more pricing power and greater resilience to downturns.
The world’s biggest producer has been wrestling with the way it sells diamonds after several tough years for the companies that cut, polish, and trade the world’s gems.
NEOM and The Line: a Saudi blueprint for the global future of urban living
Saudi engineer Faisal Abdul Aziz Abdullah Alzaibag has more than 12 years of experience in the management and implementation of megaprojects, and professional qualifications in planning smart cities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“As a practitioner I know we are on the edge of the future and I can’t wait for Saudi Arabia to be the first to carry this through.” – Saudi engineer Faisal Abdul Aziz Abdullah Alzaibag
There will be no roads or cars in The Line, which positions it to be the first smart-city project to solve a problem known as the fundamental law of congestion.
All of the energy used by NEOM will be 100 percent renewable — including solar, wind, and hydrogen-based power generation — to ensure clean, pollution-free urban environments.
Hunt for the Next Tesla Fuels Wave of Electric-Vehicle Deals – Bloomberg
Wall Street’s obsession with electric vehicles is touching off a new round of public listings and helping clean-tech companies to forge partnerships with powerful allies.
EV company valuations are soaring as investors hunt for the next Tesla Inc.
The Lucid transaction could be valued at up to $15 billion. The EV manufacturer, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, targets the luxury end of the market, and its chief executive officer, Peter Rawlinson, was previously Tesla’s chief engineer on the Model S sedan.
Over $1bn piled into MENA-based startups in 2020
Despite crossing the $1bn mark for the first time, the region’s total deal count pared by 13 percent, down to 496 transactions last year, the 2021 Emerging Venture Markets Report suggested.
Three innovation hotspots – the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia – accounted for 68 percent of the total deals disclosed in 2020.
Mercedes and BMW’s dominance wanes as electric brands ascend | Auto Finance News
Tesla, Nio Inc. and Li Auto Inc. emerged as forces to be reckoned with in China, where BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen AG’s Audi have long controlled more than 60% of the luxury segment.
“The historically untouchable German brands have begun ceding market share to Tesla and other luxury EV specialists,” Alexander Potter, a Piper Sandler & Co. analyst, wrote in a report.
Monks Snap Up ESG Debt in Japan as Social Investing Booms – Bloomberg
ESG investing is so popular in Japan that even Buddhist monks are getting into it.
A Zen Buddhist temple in central Tokyo. The religious group wanted to make more money for building repairs and maintenance over the coming decades, so it bought 40-year social bonds sold by the University of Tokyo.
Nomura Securities Co. has been finding that more and more Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines are interested in buying environmental, social and governance bonds, according to Satoshi Tsukazaki.