NEWSLETTER of April 2, 2026

The following content has been added at finexpert:

PwC
EMISSIONSMARKT DEUTSCHLAND: Q1 2026
Although rising volatility cast a shadow over the stock market environment at the start of the year, three companies went public in the first quarter of 2026, raising a total of 678 million euros. The largest IPO of the quarter was by VINCORION SE. The defense supplier successfully made the leap to the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (proceeds: €345 million). Submarine equipment supplier Gabler Group AG raised approximately €133 million in its initial listing on the Scale segment. ASTA Energy Solutions AG had already successfully moved to the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at the end of January. The Austrian company, which specializes in processing copper for the energy sector, raised €200 million in the process. The aftermarket performance of the three new listings was solid: Shares of VINCORION and the Gabler Group have risen by 10% and 3%, respectively, since their IPO, while those of ASTA Energy Solutions have surged by as much as 38%. >more

Kiel Institut
THE COST OF CLOSING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ: ENERGY BOTTLENECKS AND GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
In March 2026, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. The shutdown blocks roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and one-quarter of its liquefied natural gas, triggering severe welfare losses in energy-dependent developing countries worldwide. Standard trade models underestimate the impact because they miss the bottleneck mechanism: energy disruptions cascade through chemicals and fertilizer production into food prices, amplifying losses for the world’s poorest countries. Developing countries that depend on imported energy and fertilizers—particularly in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East—face the steepest food price increases and welfare losses. The aggregate global costs are moderate, but the burden falls disproportionately on the world’s poorest: the USA loses just −0.07%, while countries in South Asia and Africa face losses 10–20 times larger. >more

Deutsche Bank Research
WHAT IRAN MEANS FOR THE DOLLAR: A PERFECT STORM FOR THE PETRODOLLAR
The long-term legacy of the Iran conflict for the dollar could be the way it tests the foundations of the petrodollar regime. If fault lines are further exposed, there could be significant downstream effects to the dollar’s use in global trade and savings, and the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. The world saves in dollars in large part because it pays in dollars. The dollar's dominance in cross-border trade is arguably built on the petrodollar: globally traded oil is priced and invoiced in USD. This arrangement can be traced to a deal struck in 1974 where Saudi Arabia agreed to price oil in USD and invest surpluses in USD assets, in exchange for US security guarantees. Because oil is a core input to global manufacturing and transport, there is a natural incentive for global value chains to dollarize, and global surpluses to accumulate in USD. >more

Bank for International Settlements
BIS QUARTERLY REVIEW, MARCH 2026
During the review period, financial markets had to adjust to shifting currents. Even though markets initially appeared calm on the surface, there were significant shifts under the surface as investors rotated away from previously high-performing assets. Volatility began to creep up, exacerbated by the conflict in the Middle East in early March. Global equity markets saw regional and sectoral shifts in late 2025, with investors moving away from US large cap and growth stocks. European and Japanese equities posted gains, while emerging market economy (EME) equities saw an even greater boost. Despite solid earnings, concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) spending and disruption weighed on richly valued technology companies. Value and small cap stocks outperformed. While index volatility rose, it was eclipsed by significantly greater individual stock volatility. >more

ACQUIRING SUPPLIER NETWORKS: DOMESTIC MERGERS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE
Ling Cen, Sudipto Dasgupta, Isil Erel, and Yanru Han
2025
Long-standing international supplier relationships represent valuable and hard-to-replicate intangible assets that mitigate the search and contracting frictions inherent in global value chains. We propose and show that domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) serve as a key strategic vehicle for acquiring these established supplier networks, providing a novel source of merger synergy. Using detailed transaction-level shipment data from 2007–2020, we find that post-merger, acquirers systematically adopt the target’s supplier relationships, with a pronounced preference for those that are long-standing. This adoption occurs for both inputs the acquirer already sources (enhancing resilience) and new inputs (facilitating expansion). Consistent with this type of synergy, the likelihood of a merger increases with the similarity of the firms’ imported input portfolios, especially during periods of heightened supply-chain risk, when the value of a target's vetted network is highest. Furthermore, these mergers generate competitive advantages through foreclosure-like effects on target rivals when their supply chains overlap with the acquirer’s, leading to improved valuations and sales growth for target firms. Overall, we show that a primary synergy in many M&As is the acquisition of “relational capital” embedded in the target’s supply chain. >more

WHY IS PRIVATE LENDING SO POPULAR?
David T. Robinson, and Melanie Wallskog
2025
Private lending has exploded over the past two decades.  To explore its rise, we focus on Business Development Companies (BDCs). We show that their growth is intimately connected to growth in private equity. Many BDCs are directly connected to large private equity organizations, and their compensation structures mirror those in private equity. BDCs not only provide debt for PE-sponsored deals, they make PE-like investments themselves involving deferred interest, preferred equity, and exposure to underlying assets. Understanding private lending's connections to private equity is especially salient for the rapidly growing retail investor segment and has important implications for regulation. >more