Traditional outsourcing growth is being put on the back foot by customizable Internet-based software. This is impacting the profits of "traditional" IT outsourcing businesses like Infosys. Operating margins for both TCS and Infosys is around 25%.
Saturday, 16 July 2016
Sunday, 3 July 2016
Thursday, 30 June 2016
GAM buys $4bn AuM Cantab Capital Partners for $290m and starts Systematic Unit
Zurich-based GAM (listed on the Swiss stock exchange and which manages around $120 billion) is acquiring Cantab Capital Partners (CCP), a systematic asset management firm.
This acquisition will form the basis of GAM Systematic - a new offering from GAM covering "traditional" long-only investments as well as alternative investing.
In GAM's investor presentation, a Deutsche Bank 2016 Alternative Investment survey was referenced which mentioned a growing allocation to systematic strategies by institutional investors (the presentation also heralds equity market neutral strategies as offering promising performance in 2016). Coupled with GAM's distribution network, there is certainly scope for GAM to ramp up allocations to its systematic funds.
GAM is also planning UCITS versions of CCP's strategies, UCITS being a form of European-regulated fund first introduced in 1985
The question though is whether performance can be maintained and what capacity constraints exist on the strategies pursued by the funds - according to GAM, the funds are scalable and the capacity constraints are low. This is supported by the proportion of Cantab's employees who are involved in strategy research (high), multiple models and multiple traded markets. Cantab has $4bn AuM as of 31 May 2015.
This acquisition will form the basis of GAM Systematic - a new offering from GAM covering "traditional" long-only investments as well as alternative investing.
In GAM's investor presentation, a Deutsche Bank 2016 Alternative Investment survey was referenced which mentioned a growing allocation to systematic strategies by institutional investors (the presentation also heralds equity market neutral strategies as offering promising performance in 2016). Coupled with GAM's distribution network, there is certainly scope for GAM to ramp up allocations to its systematic funds.
GAM is also planning UCITS versions of CCP's strategies, UCITS being a form of European-regulated fund first introduced in 1985
The question though is whether performance can be maintained and what capacity constraints exist on the strategies pursued by the funds - according to GAM, the funds are scalable and the capacity constraints are low. This is supported by the proportion of Cantab's employees who are involved in strategy research (high), multiple models and multiple traded markets. Cantab has $4bn AuM as of 31 May 2015.
ONS Publishes Q1 2016 CAD Figures for the UK
The ONS has published its Q1 CAD figure of £32.6 billion (3x2=6). This means value of imports exceeds the value of exports.
George Osborne, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2010, expressed an interest in managing the economy to surplus, but has since retracted this aim post Brexit (the "Exchequer" was the medieval English institution responsible for collection of revenues, whose name comes from a physical table used to perform tax calculations).
George Osborne, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2010, expressed an interest in managing the economy to surplus, but has since retracted this aim post Brexit (the "Exchequer" was the medieval English institution responsible for collection of revenues, whose name comes from a physical table used to perform tax calculations).
Thursday, 2 June 2016
From Soda to Soya - Coca Cola Makes Unconventional Acquisition from Unilever
Coca Cola is acquiring AdeS, the biggest brand in soy beverage in Latin America for $575m.
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Oil Companies Adapt to "Lower for Longer" Operating Environment
With oil prices hovering around $50 a barrel, oil companies are adapting to a "lower for longer" oil price environment. This has meant cutting back on investment and jobs. Shell plans to shut down its office in the Thames Valley Park by the end of 2016.
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
AWS Lifts Amazon Q1 Earnings - Cloud Computing Proves Viable Second Stream To Ecommerce
For the last 12 months, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been a $9bn business. Bezos expects it to be a $10bn annual business.
Within the AWS offering, Amazon offers EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Customers include Netflix, Autodesk and Nasa/JPL. EC2 works in conjunction with VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) - which allows users to create their own virtual networking environment within AWS, including IP address ranges, subnets and so forth.
Within the AWS offering, Amazon offers EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Customers include Netflix, Autodesk and Nasa/JPL. EC2 works in conjunction with VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) - which allows users to create their own virtual networking environment within AWS, including IP address ranges, subnets and so forth.
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