Bill Ackman plans Pershing Square IPO
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KKR to acquire majority ownership in Agiloft
KKR will acquire a majority stake in Agiloft, a technology company specialising in data-first contract lifecycle management. As part of the deal, existing investor FTV Capital will make an additional investment in the company, while JMI Equity joins as a new investor.
According to a press statement, the investment will help the company “continue to expand as it grows market share, acquires new customers, further innovates product solutions, and extends its world-class standard of customer success”. KKR, JMI Equity and FTV Capital will also collectively support Agiloft in implementing a broad-based employee ownership programme.
KKR is making the investment through its Next Generation Technology III Fund, has growing global portfolio of technology and software investments, including OneStream, o9, OutSystems, ReliaQuest (also an FTV Capital portfolio company), RainFocus and Restaurant365.
Moelis & Company and Baker McKenzie advised Agiloft, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher advised KKR.
Market embrace of banking stocks is helping the UK exit NatWest
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EigenLayer raises the stakes for ethereum
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Eurozone Inflation Accelerates; ECB Cut Is Still on Track
Consumer prices in the eurozone increased by 2.6% year-on-year in May, according to Eurostat’s flash estimate, up from 2.4% in April and above economists’ expectations. It’s the first month-on-month acceleration of 2024. Core inflation, which shows prices without energy and food costs, also accelerated to 2.9% over a year earlier– the rate was 2.7% in April.
In May, the greatest contributors to eurozone inflation were services (4.1%, compared with 3.7% in April), followed by food, alcohol and tobacco (2.6%, down from 2.8% in April), non-energy industrial goods (0.8% vs 0.9% in April) and energy (0.3% vs -0.6% in April), according to Eurostat estimates.
Could Higher Inflation Derail ECB Rate-Cutting Plans?
“Higher than expected inflation in May will have some investors concerned, particularly as the rise was driven by services inflation, the one area that the ECB had previously expressed concern about. Although an uptick like this is disconcerting, particularly after sequential downward movements, we do not believe there is any cause for panic,” said Michael Field, European Market Strategist at Morningstar.
He said there are three things to bear in mind:
“First, and most importantly, inflation was never going to see a perfectly straight line decline to the ECB’s targeted 2% rate. The ECB had previously forecasted inflation to fall to 2.3% by year end. At 2.6% now, with seven months to go in the year, there is plenty of time for inflation to fall further. Inflation rates in May differ massively across the Eurozone. In Belgium inflation is running close to 5%, while in Italy it’s less than 1%. This disparity just highlights that tight labour markets are country specific, and not an endemic trend across the entire block, so unlikely to drive inflation up much further as the year progresses. Core inflation, the measure the ECB is most focused on, rose by 20 basis points in May, but remains under 3%, almost half the level witnessed this time last year. There may be bumps ahead, but we’ve come a long way, and the trend is still downward.”
Eurozone bond yields rose slightly after the release of price data. Germany’s 10-year yield was up 0.048% at 2.7% (source: MarketWatch). Italian BTP yield was at 3.49% (source: Borsa Italiana). Stock markets were mixed as of noon.
Pace of ECB Rate Cuts Is More Uncertain After June
The European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy meeting will take place on June
Edinburgh Book Festival ends 20-year partnership with Baillie Gifford over ‘threats of disruption’
In a statement on Thursday (30 May), the board of the festival argued their ability to deliver this year’s event to audiences, authors and staff had been “severely compromised” after several authors withdrew from the festival and activists threatened disruption. “It is with regret that our board of trustees and Baillie Gifford have collectively agreed to end our partnership,” said Jenny Niven, CEO of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. “We are hugely grateful to the firm for its considerable support over two decades, including through some challenging times for the festival, an…
Edinburgh book festival and Baillie Gifford cut ties after 20-year sponsorship
Comparing Saudi Aramco’s $1.9T Valuation to Its Rivals
Published
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May 31, 2024 Graphics/Design:
See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.
Putting Saudi Aramco’s Market Cap Into Perspective
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
As of May 2024, there are just six trillion-dollar companies in the world, and only one of them is an oil company.
In this graphic, we put Saudi Aramco’s market cap into perspective by comparing it to the rest of the world’s largest oil companies. Numbers were sourced from Companiesmarketcap.com, and are as of May 24, 2024.
Data and Takeaways
The data we used to create this graphic are listed in the table below.
CompanyMarket Cap
(as of May 24, 2024) 🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco$1,914B 🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil$509B 🇺🇸 Chevron$288B 🇨🇳 Petro China$243B 🇳🇱 Shell$225B 🇫🇷 TotalEnergies$165B 🇺🇸 ConocoPhillips$137B 🇬🇧 BP$103B 🇨🇳 Sinopec$102B
Saudi Aramco launched its initial public offering (IPO) on December 11, 2019. It remains the largest IPO in history, raising $25.6 billion and valuing the company at $1.7 trillion. Aramco is also the only trillion-dollar company that isn’t based in the United States.
As of 2022, Aramco had proven reserves equal to 259 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which is massively greater than rivals like ExxonMobil (17.7 billion) and Chevron (11.2 billion).
$1.9T*
It should be noted that the Saudi government directly owns 90% of the company, while another 8% is held by the country’s sovereign wealth fund. With only 2% of shares available to the public, some believe that the company’s current valuation carries little weight.
For example, a Bloomberg op-ed from 2023 described Aramco’s valuation as an “illusion” due to its very low trading volume. Over a one year period, Aramco’s average daily turnover was just $51 million, compared to $1.9 billion for ExxonMobil and $1.4 billion for Chevron.
See More Market Cap Comparisons from Visual Capitalist
If you enjoyed this graphic, be sure to check out our similar graphic covering Nvidia.
European Central Bank rate cut ‘now imminent’ despite Eurozone inflation rise
This marks a 0.2 percentage point rise from April’s rate of 2.4%, with the services sector most responsible for this rise. Despite this increase, analysts have echoed reassurance that the European Central Bank will still be able to cut rates. “Today’s data does not disturb the narrative that, broadly, disinflation remains on track,” said Natasha May, global markets analyst at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Record low unemployment rate spells quiet optimism across the Eurozone “The ECB has its scissors at the ready after today’s inflation release,” she added, with a rate cut from th…