Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Investment

  • Smart EV charging company, Wallbox, completes a $25M investment

    Smart EV charging company, Wallbox, completes a $25M investment

    Wallbox announced the closing of a $13 million USD (€12 million) second tranche of Series A investment in early March, bringing the total Series A round to $25 million USD (€23 million).

    The round was led by Seaya Ventures, a Spanish venture fund focused on technology companies, with additional investment from Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors such as Iberdrola (IBDSF), a Spanish multinational electric utility company.

    The funds raised will be used to drive Wallbox’s international growth in China and North America, and to continue to expand its technology innovation and R&D efforts.

    Wallbox began its expansion into the Chinese and North American markets in 2019. With its Chinese company Wallbox FAWSN Charging Systems Co Ltd., a joint venture with Changchun FAWSN of China, Wallbox manufactures EV chargers for the Chinese market in Suzhou, 100 km west of Shanghai. The initial capacity in Suzhou is 100,000 chargers per year.

    Wallbox in US

    In the U.S., Wallbox opened its Silicon Valley office last year to distribute its EV chargers to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company presented its Pulsar Plus and Quasar chargers ahead of the forthcoming U.S. launch this fall and won four “Best of CES” awards from Engadget, Robb Report, Electrek and Newsweek.

    Wallbox’s Quasar was also selected as a finalist for Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards in the energy category and received an honorable mention in the general excellence and consumer products categories.

    Wallbox designs, develops and manufactures intelligent charging solutions for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for both domestic and business use.

  • Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has taken a 5% stake in Macy’s

    Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has taken a 5% stake in Macy’s

    Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has taken a 5% stake in Macy’s and plans to engage management on ways to improve performance of the struggling U.S. retailer, shows Daily Beat NY.

    Kretinsky, an energy and media magnate, also purchased a 5.35% interest in the U.K.’s postal service, the Royal Mail.

    Daniel Kretinsky calls the participation a “strategic investment”: he also wants to reform the struggling company and aims to have constructive discussions with management and the board of directors, Retail Detail shows.

    Macy’s share price plummeted once again, having lost almost 70 % of its valuation this year.

    Daniel Kretinsky is CEO and 94% owner of Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH), the largest energy group in Central Europe and co-owner and president of football club Sparta Prague.

  • Sales Layer has raised €3.5 million in a Series A financing round

    Sales Layer has raised €3.5 million in a Series A financing round

    Spanish company Sales Layer has raised €3.5 million in a Series A financing round led by SONAE IM, the tech investment arm of Portuguese listed company SONAE, accompanied by venture capital investment firm Swanlaab Venture Factory and Valencia-based corporate investor Global Omnium.

    The Portuguese conglomerate has invested €2.5 million in Sales Layer, while Swanlaab Venture Factory and Global Omnium have joined with further million.

    The funding will enable Sales Layer to scale international operations and expand its operational infrastructure.

    Founded in 2013 by Álvaro Verdoy and Iban Borràs, Sales Layer’s team has become one of the world’s leading PIM solutions, helping brands and retailers to transform their catalogs into an enriched, digital and multichannel control centre.

    The company’s technology uses a cloud-based catalog management platform to connect the information to hundreds of channels throughout the supply chain, both for brands and retailers. 

    Sales Layer serves more than 200 new accounts in more than 25 countries, including global manufacturers and retailers such as Teka, Rexel, Bobux, Reebok and Fermax.

  • Thimba Media acquires Casinomartini.com from Swedish owners

    Thimba Media acquires Casinomartini.com from Swedish owners

    Thimba Media, a global iGaming content marketing company, acquires Casinomartini.com, its player bases, operations and staff from the Swedish based founders of the business.

    Casino Martini main operations include the UK, Germany and New Zealand. It offers a strong platform for organic growth in these markets for Thimba Media.

    The agreed purchase price represented a multiple of approximately 3.9x EBITDA for the last twelve months, with the possibility of additional payments based on certain key performance indicators.

    The founder of Casino Martini  will continue to be involved in the operations and use their know-how to support Thimba Media’s roll out of the product in Latin America and Canada.

    The acquisition was settled using Thimba Media’s current cash balance.

  • Stenn closed a new $200 million financing facility

    Stenn closed a new $200 million financing facility

    Stenn International Ltd announced that it has closed a new $200 million financing facility from Crayhill Capital Management LP, a New York-based private credit manager and asset-based lender.

    The facility complements Stenn’s existing accounts receivable securitisation programme, which provides financing to companies engaged in international trade.

    The new programme, Stenn Direct Funding, carries a sizeable accordion feature and is structured to ease access to working capital for new and existing clients via Stenn’s online funding technology.

    This new facility will help provide liquidity and cash flow management to global companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

    Founded in 2015, Stenn provides agile financing for international trade across a range of industries, helping to address the $1.5 trillion ‘trade finance gap’ identified by the International Chamber of Commerce as a significant unmet need in global trade financing.

  • Pricefx acquires AI pricing software startup Brennus Analytics

    Pricefx acquires AI pricing software startup Brennus Analytics

    Pricefx announced it has acquired Brennus Analytics, an AI pricing software start-up based in France.

    Brennus uses a modular, proprietary AI technology to provide unique optimization capabilities highly applicable to the challenges of complex B2B environments.

    Brennus’ pricing optimization software is based on AI technology called ”Adaptive Multi Agent Systems” (AMAS). AMAS technology is predictive, prescriptive, transparent, fast and flexible.

    Devised in the 1990s by the Toulouse Research Institute in Computer Science (IRIT), AMAS is based on self-organizing autonomous agent networks, comparable to a living organism. The self-adapting system is particularly well-suited for large scale optimization and continuous learning.

    Brennus Analytics was founded in 2015 by Gregoire Saint-Guily, Florent Dotto, Sylvain Peyruqueou and Sylvain Rougemaille.

    Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is the first strategic acquisition that Pricefx has executed since closing its series B round of venture financing in November 2019.

  • Eugene Kaspersky launches accelerator for tourism startups

    Eugene Kaspersky launches accelerator for tourism startups

    Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky, has launched ‘Kaspersky Exploring Russia’, a tourism startup accelerator.

    The project aims to help the Russian tourism industry in general, and young entrepreneurs in particular, to use this period to expand the opportunities for their businesses.

    The accelerator aims to gather the most interesting and promising tourism projects to then help the creators implement their ideas further.

    How the accelerator works

    Participants will be categorized into four nominations:

    • Technological projects (start-ups) in the field of Travel Tech;
    • Projects that make extreme and leisure tourism more accessible, and that also popularize and create infrastructure for it (Infrastructure Track);
    • Business projects that are socially significant in the fields of travel and tourism (Social Tech);
    • Business projects that have a positive impact on sustainable development (Sustainability).

    The jury – consisting of Eugene himself, Kaspersky representatives, and leading experts in tourism – will select a shortlist of the most promising projects.

    Finalists will get a chance to gain more knowledge on a series of online workshops and lectures. Leading experts in the industry will share their experiences and explain how to create a successful business.

    The finalists will learn everything from how to calculate a financial plan to how to apply a marketing strategy.

    During the program, finalist will not only compete for the main prizes, but also they will be helping themselves attract investment. Even the lecturers themselves could become so interested in projects to start supporting them.

  • Liberty Global and Telefonica to merge their U.K. operations

    Liberty Global and Telefonica to merge their U.K. operations

    Liberty Global and Telefonica announced an agreement to merge their operating businesses in the U.K. to form a 50:50 joint venture (the “JV”).

    The combination of Virgin Media and O2 will create a nationwide integrated communications provider with over 46 million video, broadband and mobile subscribers and £11 billion of revenue.

    There is an attractive valuation for both businesses, with O2 valued at £12.7 billion and Virgin Media valued at £18.7 billion, both on a total enterprise value basis. O2 to be transferred into the joint venture on a debt-free basis, while Virgin Media to be contributed with £11.3 billion of net debt and debt-like items.

    By combining Virgin Media’s market-leading v6 video service and giga-ready broadband network, together with O2’s 5G ready mobile propositions, U.K. consumers will enjoy a superior connectivity and entertainment.

    As a fully converged provider, the JV will provide more competition in the marketplace and choice for consumers.

    In addition, the JV will become a leading challenger in the B2B space as the combination will accelerate the adoption of converged fixed-mobile services to Virgin Media’s and O2’s existing business customers and offer new services using both companies’ digital skills, networks and product portfolios, such as cloud, big data, Internet of Things and cybersecurity services.

  • Air Liquide sold its Czech Republic and Slovakia entities to Messer

    Air Liquide sold its Czech Republic and Slovakia entities to Messer

    In accordance with the agreement initially announced on January 28, 2020, Air Liquide has closed the sale of its entities in Czech Republic and Slovakia to Messer.

    The French company started operating in Slovakia in 2000 and Czech Republic in 2001. Both locations total 53  employees, with office locations in Prague and Trnava.

    Air Liquide follows a strategy to review regularly its asset portfolio and focus its expansion in key regions in order to increase its geographic density and therefore enhance performance.

    The company is present in 80 countries with approximately 67,000 employees and serves more than 3.7 million customers and patients.

    Messer is a supplier of industrial gases, with business on 30 European and Asian countries. The company headquarters are located in Bad Soden (Germany).

    Messer is selling gases for industrial use like oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, helium, shielding gases and gases for medical use.

  • Only 10 countries make 82% of all investments in the US

    Only 10 countries make 82% of all investments in the US

    • Data compiled by Finbold shows that Japan has the highest portfolio investment in the United States at $1.67 trillion.
    • According to the data, the total investment in assets by foreign countries in the US stands at $11.66 trillion.

    The data places the Cayman Islands in the second position with an investment worth $1.64 trillions followed by Luxembourg at $1.20 trillion. The United Kingdom is third with $1.15 trillion while Canada closes the top five categories with investments valued at $1.13 trillion.

    Other top investors in the US include Ireland ($1.04 trillion), Netherlands ($542 billion), Germany’s ($438 billion), Singapore ($371.57 billion), and France ($354.64 billion).

    In total, these countries’ investments in the US are $9.56 billion which represents 82% of the global value.

    The assets in the portfolio invested by these countries comprise equity and investment fund shares, long-term debt securities, and short-term debt securities.

    According to the report, „foreign portfolio investment assets show up in a country’s capital account. It is also part of the balance of payments which measures the amount of money flowing in and out of a country over a given period”.

  • First Investment Bank (Fibank) will issue 25 million new shares

    First Investment Bank (Fibank) will issue 25 million new shares

    Each of the new shares will have a nominal value of BGN 1 and an issue value of BGN 8.

    The new share issue will allow First Investment Bank to attract fresh financial resources and, at the same time, raise up to BGN 200 million top-quality capital.

    The bank intends to use the capital increase to ensure implementation of its strategy to expand its market presence in retail banking and SME lending.

    After the issue of the new shares, the total share capital of the bank will increase from BGN 110 million to BGN 135 million. As of March 31, 2020, the bank’s regulatory equity amounted to BGN 1,365 million.

    The shares’ carrying value is based on the audited financial statements of the Bank as at the end of 2019, and amounts to BGN 8.57 per share on an individual basis and BGN 8.87 per share on a consolidated basis. In order to attract wider interest among investors, the issue price of the new shares includes a 10% discount over the book value per share on a consolidated basis.

    At the end of March, the book value of the Bank’s shares increased further to BGN 8.63 per share on an individual basis and BGN 8.90 on a consolidated basis. The earnings per share for 2019 amounted to BGN 1.25. This capital increase will be considered successful if at least 2,500,000 shares are subscribed and paid.

  • Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) lost 34% since the beginning of the year

    Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) lost 34% since the beginning of the year

    Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) lost from the start of the year, since the first news about Coronavirus, 34% (EUR 13,2 billion) from the market capitalization, according to ”The Valuation multiples in the context of Bucharest Stock Exchange and local M&A market” report of PwC Romania.

    Thus, the decrease since the beginning of this year exceeded the increase of 23.4% recorded in 2019 compared to 2018, which marked the best performance of the BSE since the financial crisis. In the last 8 years the average yield registered by the stock exchange indices has exceeded the government bonds yield.

    In 2019, BSE’s capitalization increased by 23.4% to EUR 37.8 billion, sustained by high dividend yields, local economic growth above the EU average, promotion to the emerging market status and a series of changes to the legislative provisions.

    In the context of COVID-19, BET, the main index of the stock exchange, fell by about 25% between 30 December 2019 and 30 March 2020, from a 35.1% increase recorded last year. The same decrease was registered by the BET-TR index, which includes the first 17 most traded shares, after an advance of 46.9% in 2019.

    In the period from 1 January 2012 to 30 March 2020, the median excess return of BSE indices exceeded Risk free rate by 4.8% for BET and 13.9% for BET-TR. As far as for the 5-year CDS (Credit Default Swap) evolution, including the cost against non-payment, it is noticed a significant increase of 30% between February and March amid the sanitary crisis driven by coronavirus.

    The main conclusions of the report for 2019

    • Romania had a market capitalization estimated at 17.9% of GDP in 2019, which is below the level observed in Hungary, Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
    • In 2019, the stock market indices hit the highest level in the last 10 years, with BET-TR dividend yield averaging 8% – still at a significant level.
    • The total market capitalization of the 79 analyzed listed companies (for which financial information was readily available) jumped by 33.4% in 2019 as compared to the previous year.
    • In 2019, no IPOs were concluded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Moreover, the number of companies listed on the main market fell from 87 in 2018 to only 83 in 2019 following the delisting process of Oltchim, Boromir Prod, Amonil Slobozia and Petrolexportimport.
    • There is a high concentration of listed issuers on BSE regulated segment, with top 5 listed companies accounting for 65% of the total market capitalization at the end of 2019
    • At the top level, companies are active in the Oil &Gas, Financial Services and Electricity sectors. Therefore, the degree of representation of the economic sectors on the local capital market is low in the absence of several industry leaders.
    • In 2019, the electricity sector registered the highest level of market capitalization.
    • The highest P/E multiple was reported in the Healthcare sector whilst the lowest were in the Industrial sector and the Financial services sector.
    • For the financial services and industrial sectors, the downward trend observed in the last years continued and the valuation multiples of the companies listed on the BSE have decreased significantly and are now at the minimum level of the last five years. The Healthcare sector is at the highest P/E ratio observed in the last five years.
    • During 2007 – 2019, the market capitalization for companies operating in Materials, Industrial and Healthcare sectors were least influenced by the economic cycles, whereas Consumer and Oil and Gas were the most affected. Over the same period of time, the smallest variance in the P/E of companies was observed within Oil & Gas.