—— Blackstone Helps L’Occitane Take-Private; Google Gemini Near Enterprise-Ready; Taiwanese Groups Consider Overseas Headquarters; Blue Owl Acquires Prima; EQT Sells Rimes to Five Arrows; Musk Sees AI Smarter Than Human; Boeing Shares Fall After Report
1. Blackstone Helps L’Occitane Take-Private
Reinold Geiger, the billionaire owner of L’Occitane International SA, is close to finalizing an agreement to privatize the skincare company with financial assistance from Blackstone Inc., according to sources familiar with the matter. This move could potentially conclude its 14-year tenure on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The sources, who preferred to remain anonymous as the information is not public, indicated that the world’s largest alternative asset manager might offer debt financing for the acquisition. An official announcement is anticipated in the coming days, they added. Trading of L’Occitane was halted in Hong Kong on Tuesday pending an announcement related to takeover regulations, following a Monday closing stock price of HK$29.50.
Geiger is contemplating offering a 20% premium over the stock price of HK$26 per share, which was the price before Bloomberg News initially reported on Blackstone’s potential involvement in a privatization deal on February 6, the sources disclosed.
Financing arrangements for the deal have reportedly been secured by Geiger.
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2. Google Gemini Near Enterprise-Ready
During its annual cloud computing conference in Las Vegas, Google introduced numerous updates to its artificial intelligence services for corporate clients, highlighting their safety and suitability for corporate applications, despite recent setbacks in consumer-oriented tools.
Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian showcased Gemini, Google’s most robust AI model, demonstrating its capabilities in generating advertisements, enhancing cybersecurity defenses, and producing short videos and podcasts.
One notable feature for corporate users is the ability to anchor Gemini’s responses to credible sources of information, a practice known as grounding. Kurian announced that Google search results will now serve as a source for the AI model’s answers, ensuring greater accuracy and currency of information for users.
Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary, Google, currently lags behind Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in the realm of cloud computing. However, this market represents one of the tech giant’s most promising avenues for growth, particularly as its primary revenue source from search advertising approaches maturity.
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3. Taiwanese Groups Consider Overseas Headquarters
Several prominent Taiwanese manufacturers are contemplating establishing secondary headquarters overseas as a precautionary measure to ensure uninterrupted operations in the event of a potential Chinese incursion into Taiwan.
These considerations, though largely in the preliminary stages, underscore the growing importance of global initiatives aimed at securing supply chains. Such initiatives are compelling companies, particularly those integral to manufacturing networks, especially in the technology sector, to undertake significant strategic adjustments.
According to Rauniei Kuo, a partner and head of the family office business at KPMG in Taiwan, “We have clients who are looking into or planning for setting up a second headquarters.” These entities, primarily engaged in manufacturing, are actively exploring potential locations in Southeast Asia for a secondary headquarters. This strategic move aims to establish an alternative command system abroad, which could be promptly activated in the event of an emergency in Taiwan.
For decades, Taiwanese contract manufacturers have served as the cornerstone of global supply chains for electronic devices and their components. This includes essential products such as personal computers, smartphones, servers, and telecommunications networking equipment.
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4. Blue Owl Acquires Prima
Blue Owl Capital Inc. is initiating a real estate finance initiative through the acquisition of Prima Capital Advisors and the recruitment of Jesse Hom from GIC Pte to lead the endeavor, as confirmed in a statement following an earlier Bloomberg News report.
The New York-headquartered alternative asset manager is acquiring real estate lender Prima for $170 million, a company primarily owned by Stone Point Capital LLC, as detailed in the statement. Upon the completion of the deal, which is anticipated to take place in the second or third quarter of this year, Prima’s staff is expected to transition to Blue Owl.
As part of this initiative, Jesse Hom, formerly the global head of real estate credit at the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, will assume the role of Chief Investment Officer within Blue Owl’s real estate platform. He will be reporting to Marc Zahr, who serves as co-president of Blue Owl and leads the real estate division. In addition to spearheading the development of the new strategy, Hom will also focus on expanding Blue Owl’s current triple net lease business.
Only last week, Blue Owl reached an agreement to acquire Kuvare Asset Management, a firm specializing in servicing the insurance industry. This transaction is projected to contribute up to $20 billion in assets under management to Blue Owl’s portfolio.
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5. EQT Sells Rimes to Five Arrows
EQT AB has reached an agreement to sell data management company Rimes Technologies to Five Arrows, the alternative assets division of Rothschild & Co.
According to a statement released by EQT on Tuesday, the Swedish firm, along with its co-shareholders, has divested the business to Five Arrows Long Term Fund and Five Arrows Principal Investments, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.
While the exact sale price remains undisclosed, individuals familiar with the matter suggest that the transaction values Rimes at between €800 million ($870 million) and €900 million, inclusive of debt.
Private equity firms are increasingly divesting portfolio companies as valuation expectations stabilize following a challenging 18 months for dealmaking. Moreover, these firms face mounting pressure from their investors to generate returns.
Rimes Technologies provides data and investment management solutions to a diverse clientele, including industry giants like Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Shell Plc. Established in 1996, Rimes caters to 60 of the world’s leading asset managers and the top 10 asset servicers globally.
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6. Musk Sees AI Smarter Than Human
The cost to attend an Ivy League school next year is surpassing $90,000.
At the University of Pennsylvania, for example, the annual cost of attendance now exceeds the median household income in the US, totaling an estimated $92,288 for tuition, fees, housing, and other expenses. Similarly, Cornell University’s expenses will exceed $92,000, while Dartmouth and Brown are both priced at over $91,000.
Despite these high figures, many students enrolled at Ivy League colleges will pay less after receiving federal and institutional aid. With an endowment of $21 billion, Penn covers costs for students whose families earn $75,000 or less. However, the continual rise in college costs follows one of the most chaotic application seasons ever, with an increasing number of prospective students across the US seeking to avoid the burden of the nation’s $1.7 trillion student debt crisis.
Families who are paying the full price for an Ivy League school could potentially be looking at a total bill exceeding $350,000 for four years of attendance.
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7. Boeing Shares Fall After Report
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. has witnessed a significant decrease in value, amounting to approximately $2.8 billion, as certain retail traders who aggressively pushed up the stock last month have started to offload their positions.
The social media company, predominantly owned by former President Donald Trump, has experienced a decline of 37% since its closing price on March 26. Furthermore, the stock has dropped below the level it was trading at on March 22, when investors greenlit its merger with the blank-check firm, Digital World Acquisition Corp.
Trump Media, the owner of Truth Social, initially experienced a surge in its early days as a public company following its merger with DWAC, the former name of the shell company.
However, the stock, trading under the initials DJT, has faced challenges in maintaining the interest of individual investors who purchased shares as a means of backing the former president for his potential 2024 reelection campaign.
As the stock continues to decline, the theoretical financial gain for Trump himself has decreased by approximately $1.6 billion, now standing at roughly $2.9 billion.
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The content of this article comes from various financial news media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.