What we’re reading (3/14)
“Dealmaking Slowdown Leaves Private Equity With Record Unsold Assets” (Financial Times). “Private equity groups globally are sitting on a record 28,000 unsold companies worth more than $3tn, as a sharp slowdown in dealmaking creates a crunch for investors looking to sell assets…[l]ast year, the combined value of companies that the industry sold privately or on public markets fell 44 per cent on 2022 to its lowest level in a decade…[t]he decline in value was even bigger where private equity groups sold portfolio companies to rivals, a practice that makes the industry look like a potential ‘pyramid scheme’, according to one critical investor.”
“Apollo Partner Did The OK Kind Of Fraud” (Matt Levine, Money Stuff). “Here, on appeal in a garden-variety six-figure SEC fraud case, the court just casually accused Apollo of a much bigger fraud, “improperly billing” all of its expenses to its funds, when it was supposed to pay them itself.”
“It’s Hard To Beat That 7% Mortgage Rate. These Charts Show Why.” (Wall Street Journal). “Home buyers are going to have to settle for a 7% mortgage. The cost of a home loan has soared in recent years, in part thanks to a series of rate increases by the Federal Reserve. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.74% this week, the mortgage giant Freddie Mac said. It rose to as high as 7.79% last fall. With rates this high, buyers are running through the full playbook of ways to shave a bit off the cost of borrowing money. These include paying the lender more upfront or choosing an adjustable-rate loan. But these popular strategies are no longer doing buyers much good.”
“Come On, Everyone, Let’s Buy TikTok!” (Business Insider). “That's what Steven Mnuchin and everyone else who wants to buy TikTok are planning to do. That's why Mnuchin made his announcement on CNBC this morning — to let every investor on the planet who might give him money to buy TikTok know that he's raising money to buy TikTok. He saved himself a lot of emails and phone calls.”
“Tesla Is The Worst Performing Stock In The S&P 500. Analysts Say It Has Further To Fall” (CNN Business). “The once red-hot electric vehicle maker — heralded as part of the so-called Magnificent Seven behemoth tech stocks — is currently the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year, down nearly 32% since January.”
