Shell BG Merger will create World's Largest Producer of LNG - Banks Pile into Bridge Financing

Shell shareholders have approved a merger with their smaller, Reading, Berkshire-based rival BG to create the largest producer of LNG in the world. The merger will take place on Feb 15, 2016. Van Beurden has promised £2.5bn in cost savings.

Barclays Bank is the facility agent for the bridge financing of the deal. Bridge financing is a way to close the gap in order to raise finance to close a deal - at least until such time that the borrower can arrange long-term financing.

Bankers involved with Barclays in financing the deal include:

Alastair Macdonald, Deutsche Bank
John-Paul Way HSBC
Michael Atherton RBC Capital Markets, part of Royal Bank of Canada
Thierry Muschs, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

The VIX in 2015 (and a little bit of 2016)

24 January 2016 - the VIX is trading at 22.34.

Exactly five months ago to the date, on Monday, August 24, 2015, the VIX peaked at 40.74, reducing to 36.02 the following day. This corresponded to a sudden drop (and whipsaw action) in the S&P 500 Index.

The next day, though people kept selling the index, they also sold off volatility, anticipating a rebound in the index.

It was also an interesting time to contemplate risk reversals, selling puts and buying calls, to take advantage of the change in market direction (here risk reversal is considered as an investment stratey rather than measure of vol skew).

Yuan Achieves Reserve Currency Status

The IMF has decided that renminbi qualifies for the SDR basket of currencies. The yuan joins the euro, dollar, pound and yen. London has emerged as the European hub for renminbi trading, with renminbi denominated sovereign bonds being sold in London (UK sovereign bonds in renminbi, used to finance Britain's reserves, lead managed by Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered), with Hungary keen to follow suit. The yuan is now the fifth most used currency in international payments according to SWIFT, the first being the USD and the second being the Euro.

The Discount Brokerages of India

India has does not have its own Charles Schwab - it has multiple. Here is a sample of discount brokerages of India.

Zerodha
RKSV - offering 5 free trades per month
SAS Online

Data from London & Partners shows £1bn Investment in London Technology Firms in 2015

London & Partners, the official promotion company for London, has released the figures, which constitute 75% of the UK total. This is ten times the money raised in 2010. Half of the capital has gone to the following companies:

• Deliveroo, £45m
• Made.com, £39m
• Secret Escapes, £39m
• Prodigy Finance, £12.75m

Fintech specifically has attracted £362m in 2015. EdTech has also been identified as a potential opportunity, with a new body called EdTech UK set up to promote the sector and supported by The Education Foundation.

Dell Proposes $67bn Acquisition of Storage Technology Giant EMC

On October 12, Dell proposed merging with tech giant EMC to create a "premier end-to-end technology company".  This is a massive move for Dell and will give Dell a much stronger foothold in the enterprise market. The Board of EMC approved the deal but it still needs regulatory and shareholder approval.

Great news in theory for investors in EMC, although the share price of EMC peaked at the time of the announcement (at $28.35 a shared) and was on a downward trend since then.

EMC is best known as the storage technology company founded in 1979. However, its businesses include famous technology brands like RSA Security, VMWare for virtualization and Pivotal for cloud and agile development solutions. Perhaps less-well known is VCE, which specialises in converged infrastructure solutions and has a strong relationship with Cisco, including engineering, resale and support agreements. VMWare is anticipated to continue to trade publicly (VMW:NYSE). EMC really is an all round enterprise technology company and Dell wants to be that too.

On the Acquisition of SunGard for $9.1bn - Gary Norcross at Helm of Payment Technology Giant Fidelity National With a Strategy to Unlever SGard

Jacksonville, Florida-based Fidelity National Information Services also known as FIS, a banking and payments technology expert, has purchased financial software specialist SunGard for $9.1bn, paying cash and stock. This gives FIS exposure to the asset management space.

Gary Norcross, CEO of FIS, wants to reduce SunGard's debt drastically post-acquisition. He joined FIS more than 10 years prior, when the company acquired ALLTEL information services for $1.05bn. He has a business degree from the University of Arkansas.

This transaction is another landmark in the history of SunGard, which was acquired in 2005 in what was the largest technology privatisation ever, by seven private equity investors who struggled to boost its value. SunGard had earlier spun off its disaster recovery unit in order to reduce its size and make it more of a reasonable acquisition to a prospective buyer.