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Our briefing for Friday, September 17, 2021:
Sep 17, 2021 4:11:13 PM
- In the United States, one in 500 people have now died of Covid-19 since the country’s first reported infection. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows 663,913 people in the United States have died of Covid-19 as of Tuesday, a grim figure that represents how badly the country is still struggling to contain the virus. The majority of hospitalizations and deaths have been among the unvaccinated and are largely concentrated in the south, where vaccination rates are lower. With only 54% of the population fully vaccinated, government officials and experts are pushing for widespread vaccine mandates.
- In Canada, three Covid-19 vaccines have been officially approved by Health Canada, and with the full approval comes name changes. The Pfizer vaccine will now be known as “Comirnaty,” a combination of Covid-19, mRNA, community and immunity. The Moderna vaccine will now be known as “Spikevax” and the AstraZeneca vaccine will dubbed “Vaxzevria.” Health Canada announced the name changes on Twitter on Thursday, also adding that the vaccines themselves have not changed, only the names. The U.S. and the E.U. are already using the new names for promotional purposes.
- In the United Kingdom, the government is expected to make changes to their international travel rules. While they recently relaxed the rules for the fully vaccinated, expensive testing for travellers arriving into Britain remains in place. According to reports, the government is expected to scrap the testing requirements, and to revise their traffic light system into simpler high and low risk categories. Many countries are expected to be removed from the high-risk red list. Currently there are 62 countries on Britain’s red list, a category that requires travellers to quarantine for 11 nights in a hotel at their own expense. Quarantine requirements are expected to remain in place for red list countries.
- In Brazil, the federal government wants to stop vaccinations for adolescents, after noting adverse effects and one death that’s currently under investigation. Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said at a news conference that there have been 1545 adverse events registered, in addition to the one death. He criticized state and city governments for issuing the shots to teens without underlying health conditions and maintained that healthy adolescents who have received one shot should not get a second. The country’s health regulator Anvisa said in a statement that it has no evidence to support the need for changes to its approval of vaccines for teens.
- South Korea has reported over 2000 new coronavirus cases, almost hitting a one-day record set last month. More than 1500 of the 2008 cases were in the greater Seoul area. As the nation approaches its biggest holiday of the year, concerns that the spread of the virus will worsen are growing, as millions usually travel across the country for the Chuseok holidays. Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, begins over the weekend and lasts into next Wednesday. “We plead once again that people who aren’t fully vaccinated not to visit their aging parents who are in their 60s or older,” said Deputy Health Minister Lee Ki-il during a briefing.
- In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the trial of a home quarantine system for international travellers arriving in Sydney. The seven-day trial will take place later this month and will involve about 175 people, including both residents and non-residents, as well as some Qantas air crew. "This is the next step in our plan to safely reopen, and to stay safely open," Morrison said. The announcement comes as Australia inches closer towards their reopening plan, aiming for 70-80% full vaccination rates for the adult population. So far only about 45% of adults in Australia are fully vaccinated.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
World’s wealthiest families gained US$312B over past year
Brief: Abundant liquidity, soaring stock markets and accommodating tax policies have been favorable for growing dynastic wealth. The world’s 25 richest families are worth US$1.7 trillion, a 22 per cent increase from a year ago. The Waltons of Arkansas, who own nearly half of retailer Walmart Inc., top the list for the fourth year running with a net worth of US$238.2 billion. Their fortune grew by US$23 billion in the past 12 months, despite the family selling US$6 billion worth of stock since February. New names on the ranking include the Dassaults of France, a third-generation technology and aviation empire, and the New York-based Lauders of cosmetics-maker Estee Lauder. One notable dropoff is the Lees, the family owners of South Korea’s Samsung. They fell from the list after paying an US$11 billion inheritance tax following last year’s death of patriarch Lee Kun-hee.
Private Equity Is Smashing Records with Multi-Billion M&A Deals
Brief: The private equity industry is on a spending spree like never before. Buyout barons Blackstone Group Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc., KKR & Co. and others account for a record 30% of global transactions this year, with deal flow and fundraising close to all-time highs. Investors are flush with cash and looking to put the money to work. In the U.S., a private equity consortium recently announced one of the biggest leveraged buyouts of all time. And in the U.K., PE funds have been at their busiest since the financial crisis, targeting household names including grocery chain Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc. By mid-2021, the sector had amassed a record $3.3 trillion of unspent capital, including $1 trillion held by buyout funds, giving it significant fire power for fresh acquisitions.
Global Economy May be Headed for Shorter, Sharper Cycles, SocGen Says
Brief: Frictions in the world economy, Covid-19 and a shift in thinking about monetary and fiscal policy augur a new era of greater volatility, according to economists at Societe Generale. The French bank expects more bottlenecks and spikes in demand for certain skills because of a synchronized acceleration of the transitions to a digital and low carbon economy, accompanied by changes in lifestyles after the pandemic. At the same time, major central banks are modifying strategies to tolerate inflation overshooting, and governments are embracing fiscal stimulus while worrying less about high debt. “All these movements are happening together, at the same time, on a global level -- for us, that in itself is a source of friction,” Societe Generale Chief Economist Michala Marcussen said.
ISS Tells Five9 Investors to Reject Zoom’s $14.7 Billion Offer
Brief: Investors should reject Zoom Video Communications Inc.’s planned purchase of Five9 Inc., according to influential advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. Zoom’s offer to acquire Five9, valued at $14.7 billion when it was announced, exposes the software maker’s shareholders to “a more volatile stock whose growth prospects have become less compelling as society inches towards a post-pandemic environment,” ISS said in a note published Friday. The all-stock deal, announced in July, took advantage of Zoom’s soaring stock price during the pandemic. Zoom would use the deal to expand into an adjacent market that could bolster revenue as lockdowns end.
How Did Investors End Up on the Other Side of This Trade?
Brief: The stock market selloff in early 2020 took with it a number of high-profile volatility-trading funds that were designed to do the opposite: provide a source of uncorrelated returns. Now Markov Processes International has produced new research indicating that at least one fund was behaving as though it was selling risky hedges, or insurance in simple terms, against a stock selloff to other market participants. That’s the opposite of many of the funds’ objectives, according to investors familiar with the funds. It’s unlikely that investors intended to be in the business of providing tail-risk hedges. But that may be exactly what they did, according to the findings of MPI, which used its proprietary, returns-based style analysis to delve into what drove the behavior of volatility funds, including Infinity Q, Malachite, Parplus Partners, and others, that blew up last year.
