Abu Dhabi backed Redbird IMI selling Telegraph and Spectator

Prospective owners can bid from June 21st.

Walmart Tops the 2024 Fortune 500

Top companies are Walmart, Amazon and Apple. The threshold to make the 2024 list was $7.1 billion in revenue. The Fortune 500 makes up two thirds of US GDP. US GDP was 25 trillion in 2022.

UBS and Credit Suisse Merger to Close on 31 May 2024

The merger of UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG is expected to complete on 31 May 2024. 

Merger of the US intermediate holding companies and Swiss specific entities is on hold for future quarters pending regulatory approvals. 

UBS made a net profit of 1.8bn USD in Q1 2024 with underlying QoQ revenue growth of 15%. A reduction of USD 16bn in RWA for non-core and legacy was achieved reflecting active unwinds. RWA now stands at 526bn USD. It spent 523m USD on integration expenses in Q1.

Musk raises $6bn for xAI

 xAI has raised $6n from investors including Andreesen Horowitz to bring its “first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies.” Some of this money will go into data centers with some expensive GPUs. Founder Elon Musk is also suing its competitor OpenAI for its partnership with Microsoft citing an abandonment of its mission to benefit humanity.

Griffin Urges Al-Mat to Embrace "Western Values"

Citadel hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has stopped giving funding to Harvard over how it has handled campus protests. He has stressed a necessary return to values of meritocracy, speaking at the Managed Funds Association Conference in Miami.

Trend Followers Triumph in Q1 2024

SocGen has showed quant hedge funds gained 12% for the year to the end of March with positive outcomes for Man Group. Aspect Capital and Winton, helped by soaring cocoa prices.

Klarna Preps IPO after 5th annual consecutive loss

Swedish BNPL (buy now pay later) fintech Klarna is prepping for an IPO reputedly in New York in order to boost investment. It posted a 2.5bn SEK loss (£191m), an improvement over a 10.4bn SEK loss in 2022. Sebastian, its Chief Executive, said the company was a path to long term profitability but in the short term had decided to invest in growth.  Once one of Europe's most valuable companies, its valuation has been hit by higher interest rates. It has around 150m active users.