What You Need To Know This Week — September 21st, 2019
What You Need To Know This Week
A weekly recap to keep you informed on the most important events this week impacting markets, business, tech and the global economy.
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BLACKSTONE ACQUIRES DREAM GLOBAL REIT IN $6.2 BILLION REAL ESTATE DEAL
Private equity firm Blackstone announced the friendly acquisition of Canadian real estate investment trust Dream Global for $6.2 billion in cash, representing a premium of 18.5%. Dream Global owns a high-quality and diversified portfolio of office and logistics assets in Western Europe, in which they assembled over the past eight years.
ATTACK ON SAUDI OIL INFRASTRUCTURE TAKES 5% OF GLOBAL PRODUCTION OFFLINE
Oil prices soared as much as 20% after attacks on key oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia took out 5.7 million barrels of oil of production. The damage at the Abqaiq oil-processing facility and Khurais oil field disrupted about half of Saudi Arabia’s total output and roughly 5% of global oil supply. Oil gave back nearly half of its gains after the Saudis indicated they would have production restored by month end.
WEWORK DELAYS ITS HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL IPO
Co-working office leasing company WeWork has delayed its initial public offering after suffering muted investor demand amidst a backlash over numerous corporate governance issues and questions regarding its business model. The company was pursuing a valuation rumoured to be as low as $10 — $15 billion, a large discount to its last financing round at a $47 billion valuation.
A DIVIDED FED CUTS INTEREST RATES AS THE STOCK MARKET NEARS NEW HIGHS
As expected, the Federal Reserve cut its Fed Funds Rate by 0.25%, putting it in the range of 1.75% — 2.00%. This was the Fed’s second interest rate cut in as many months and Fed Chair Jay Powell left the window open for more subsequent cuts. The Dow jumped 100 points on the “dovish” interest rate cut.
Recommended Articles, Podcasts, Books and Tweets
Listen to Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman talk about his new book “What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence” on the James Altucher show.
AT&T is considering spinning off or selling its DirecTV subsidiary. It is expected to fetch half the near $50 billion value it was acquired for in 2015.
FedEx shares tumbled as much as -13% after its fiscal Q1 profit came in below expectations. The company blamed the shortfall on a slowdown from the global trade war and the loss of business from Amazon.
Investment banks are looking to sell their research services to corporate clients.
Softbank’s Masayoshi Son uses an incredible amount of leverage, and WeWork’s wobbles are putting his fortune in danger.
The OECD estimates a no-deal Brexit will slash 3% from the UK’s economic growth.
Some supposedly “Green-friendly” ESG ETFs hold shares of coal companies.
Assets in index funds surpassed actively managed mutual funds for the first time.
A profile of Jim Grant, founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.
Hedge funds are split over the future of trend following as a strategy.
Cloudflare IPO surges 20% in its first day of trading.
Overstock founder and former CEO Patrick Byrne engineered a short squeeze in the stock and then sold his 13% stake in the company into it.
-The Accelerate Team
