NEWSLETTER of August 6, 2021

The following content has been added at finexpert:

Deloitte
PROPERTY INDEX 2021: OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN RESIDENTIAL MARKETS
The pandemic has not harmed the European residential real estate market as a whole: According to Deloitte's Property Index 2021, both purchase and rental prices again rose in most European countries last year, albeit to very different degrees. As expected, German rental and residential property prices once again showed very dynamic growth last year, with offer prices rising at double-digit rates on average. Germany is therefore more than ever one of the most expensive residential real estate markets in Europe. >more

BCG
HOW ASSET OWNERS CAN GO FROM NET ZERO TO CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
The race to net zero is on for asset owners. Many pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and foundations have declared their intent to have net-zero portfolios by 2050 or sooner. Our conversations with investors, and observations of market dynamics, suggest many more will soon follow. A net-zero portfolio can be engineered by steering capital to low-emissions sectors (like technology) and divesting high-emissions sectors (such as energy, agriculture, and manufacturing), where climate action and capital are most needed. But these moves are not enough. >more

KPMG
VENTURE PULSE Q2 2021
Investors poured $157.1 billion of venture capital into startups worldwide in the second quarter of this year - more than ever before in three months. This brings the total for the first half of the year to $304.3 billion - more than twice as much as in the same period last year ($141 billion). This is shown by KPMG's new Venture Pulse, for which global venture capital investments are regularly evaluated. >more

Roland Berger | Bundesverband Deutsche Startups
FÜR EIN WIRTSCHAFTSWUNDER 2.0: STARTUPS KÖNNTEN BIS 2030 FAST 4 MILLIONEN JOBS IN DEUTSCHLAND SCHAFFEN
Startups and scaleups are valued above all for their innovative strength - be it because they make payment easier with payment apps, or because they develop novel vaccines or revolutionize business processes with new software. Relatively little is known, however, about their employment effect, i.e., their role in creating and securing new jobs. In a recent study, Roland Berger, the Internet Economy Foundation, the German Startups Association and Deutsche Börse examined the topic in greater detail. >more

BANK CREDIT AND MARKET-BASED FINANCE FOR CORPORATIONS: THE EFFECTS OF MINIBOND ISSUANCES
Steven Ongena, Sara Pinoli, Paola Rossi, and Alessandro Scopelliti
2020
We study the effects of the diversification of funding sources on the financing conditions for firms. We exploit a regulatory reform which took place in Italy in 2012, i.e., the introduction of “minibonds”, which opened a new market-based funding opportunity for unlisted firms. Using the Italian Credit Register, we investigate the impact of minibond issuance on bank credit conditions for issuer firms, both at the firm-bank and firm level. We compare new loans granted to issuer firms with new loans concurrently granted to similar non-issuer firms. We find that issuer firms obtain lower interest rates on bank loans of the same maturity than non-issuer firms, suggesting an improvement in their bargaining power with banks. In addition, issuer firms reduce the amount of used bank credit but increase the overall amount of available external funds, pointing to a substitution with bank credit and to a diversification of corporate funding sources. Studying their ex-post performance, we find that issuer firms expand their total assets and fixed assets, and also raise their leverage. >more

DO ACQUIRER ANNOUNCEMENT RETURNS REFLECT VALUE CREATION?
Itzhak Ben-David, Utpal Bhattacharya, and Stacey E. Jacobsen
2020
Stock returns around acquisition announcements are widely viewed as being reflective of the net present value created by these transactions. As such, announcement returns should correlate with acquisition outcomes. Using a new measure of realized transaction-level acquisition failure, as well as acquirer firm-level performance, we show that while these outcomes can be predicted based on observable deal and firm characteristics, they are largely uncorrelated with announcement returns. Our results cast doubt on the usefulness of announcement returns as a measure of the value created in acquisitions and call for caution in other contexts. >more