Annylz Insights on Global Update
What we are Reading
Trend of SPAC
Investment vehicle SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) is becoming more and more popular.Blank-check companies have raised a record amount on U.S. exchanges this year.Interest in the SPAC space was already growing before: they raised $13.6 billion in 59 offerings in 2019, only $1.4 billion in 10 listings in 2013. This year shows $19 billion raised across 50 deals, with an average size of nearly $380 million, up 65% from last year.Billionaire investor Bill Ackman's SPAC collected $4 billion this week.Black-check companies raise capital with the intention to buy a business and take it public.In such a blank-check empty company investors don’t know yet what companies will be taken public.
Another SPAC deal hit the market after Bill Ackman raised $4 billion in an offering this week for a SPAC called Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, widely believed to be the largest SPAC IPO on record.
Alec Gores and his Gores Group, a veteran of the SPAC movement, returned to the market this week with an IPO filing for their fifth blank-check company. In 2016, a Gores-backed SPAC acquired iconic snack-cake company Hostess Brands. And telecom billionaire Craig McCaw and software entrepreneur Vivek Ranadivé recently filed for SPAC offerings of their own, adding to a crowded field.
At Annlyz Growth Partners (Annlyz Inc.) we are advising Corporates, Funds and VC’s on innovation, we scout for investment targets, introduce strategic investors and facilitate exits through a Special Exit Vehicle but always based upon a solid existing business, technology, market.
Given the current market dynamics and looking at history it is hard to believe investors stepping in big time based on an intention, albeit from a successful venture capitalist, without any solid business.
But apparently there is a market for everything😎.
Global Innovation
Corporate longevity is on the decline. In the 1960s, a typical S&P 500 company was estimated to last more than 60 years—these days, the average lifespan is just 18 years.
In today’s fast-paced world, companies need to stay relevant in order to survive and to prioritize innovation.The chart looks at the top 50 most innovative companies in 2020, based on a survey by Boston Consulting Group. While you may say “startups” when thinking of innovation big firms aren’t lagging far behind when it comes to innovation! Although 52% of small firms are considered innovation leaders, 43% of large firms still find themselves in the same boat. Larger firms generally have more access to resources and manpower, and often have an advantage when it comes to research and development and the creation of innovation-focused programs. Investing in innovation shows a far greater payoff down the line—firms that invested 1.4x more in innovation input saw 4x the amount of new products sales.
Annlyz Inc. is an expert in Growth, of Network, Knowledge, Innovation, Business, Capital and Investments. Unique partnerships with innovation agencies like Unknown Group or VC’s, PE funds.
Global Real Estate investments plunges
Global real estate investment has taken a steep dive as investors weigh the long-term impact of the pandemic. Property investment dropped 33% globally in the first half of the year, according to a report by real estate broker Savills. Asia Pacific recorded the biggest drop, with a 45% decline year-over-year, while investment fell 36% in the Americas and 19% in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Investors were particularly hesitant to pour money into hotels (-59%) and retail properties (-41%) in the first six months of 2020.
However at Annlyz Growth Partners we also see opportunities in regions such as Poland, Rumania, Ukraine and Georgia.
Instead of investing directly an investment in a real estate fund has always been safer. However: the best opportunities we encountered are in Real Estate Debt Funds or Special Projects like the ones we saw in Poland and Georgia.
Not afraid to die because of a plane crash? Start worrying now as there is a way to die more quickly thanks to flying!
Risk of dying from COVID-19 as a result of flying are higher than plane crash risk, according to a statistical model compiled by Arnold Barnett George Eastman Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management
Airlines could minimize that risk by leaving open the middle seat, but airlines including United and American refuse to do so.
Barnett posted his paper on the medRxiv pre-print server this past weekend. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, and so its findings must be taken with a degree of caution but my gutfeel tells me the conclusion feels pretty logical to me.
Top Court kills U.S.-EU privacy Shield deal
Europe’s highest court just ushered in a nightmare for thousands of American companies. Some now find themselves immediately unable to legally serve users in the EU. Many Big Tech titans, starting with Facebook, could soon be in the same boat. It’s all due to U.S. surveillance laws, which dont give Europeans a chance to control the collection of their data by US intelligence agencies. The Court of Justice of the European Union struck down a 2016 data-sharing deal between the U.S. and EU, because it could not guarantee data-protection rights of Europeans when their data goes across the Atlantic, as happens whenever they use a site like Facebook or Google. There’s even potential fallout for China from this ruling. While it mostly involved the U.S.—ending the Privacy Shield mechanism for sending Europeans’ data to U.S. servers—it also paved the way for the suspension of data flows to any country that has insufficient safeguards attached to government surveillance. That means, if somebody in the EU asks their local privacy regulator to look into what happens to their TikTok or WeChat data, there’s a possibility of those companies becoming unable to legally serve European users. Retaliation would surely follow. Europe is waking up!
Corporate Debt is on the rise
A pledge by the U.S. Federal Reserve to buy corporate bonds amid the pandemic has spurred companies to double issuance so far this year. The move by the US central bank, along with lowering interest rates almost to zero, has protected businesses that otherwise could not have afforded to borrow, but it has also led others to rack up debt, posing new risks amid an uncertain economic recovery. 💲
At Annlyz Growth Partners (Annlyz Inc. ) we also see this trend with customers in countries such as Spain, United Kingdom, Malta, India, Singapore.