What we’re reading (4/18)
“GM And LG Announce Another $2.3 Billion EV Battery Plant” (CNN Business). “General Motors and LG plan to build a new $2.3 billion plant to build batteries for electric vehicles, a key step toward the US automaker's goal of an all-electric future. The new plant, GM's second EV battery operation with LG, will be adjacent to the automaker's Spring Hill assembly plant in Tennessee, where it announced last fall a $2 billion investment to build electric vehicles.”
“Mall Department Stores Were Struggling. The Pandemic Has Pushed Them To The Edge Of Extinction.” (Washington Post). “Department stores, once a middle-class mainstay of convenience and indulgence, had been spiraling downward long before the pandemic turbocharged online shopping and helped tip a number of big-name retailers into bankruptcy. Nearly 200 department stores have disappeared in the past year alone, and another 800 — or about half the country’s remaining mall-based locations — are expected to be shuttered by the end of 2025, according to commercial real estate firm Green Street.”
“The Biggest Alternatives Firms Will Make More Money From Fees In 2021” (Institutional Investor). “Major alternative asset managers will rake in higher fees over the next couple of years as investors continue to flock to alternative investments, according to Morgan Stanley equity analysts. In their preview of publicly-traded alternative asset managers’ first quarter earnings on Friday, the analysts predicted fundraising will drive 17 to 18 percent of average fee-related earnings growth in 2021 and 2022. In addition, they anticipated an increase in gross realized performance fees of 56 percent in 2021 and 33 percent in 2022.”
“America's Best Work-From-Home Expert Is Bracing For Turmoil” (Business Insider). “From reduced commute times to better work-life balance, [Stanford Economist Nicholas] Bloom sees plenty to celebrate about the shift to remote work. But over the course of three video calls with me this year, he also said the transition would be rocky. He said many employees would be unhappy with the arrangements their companies offer, some would leave for competitors, innovation could slow, and promotion disparities would emerge as single men got more face time with their managers than women with young kids, which would culminate in all sorts of discrimination lawsuits.”
“Landmen Who Once Staked Claims For Oil And Gas Now Hunt Wind And Sun” (Wall Street Journal). “These days, the jobs are going dry. Landmen, after riding the highs of the boom, face weakened demand for fossil fuels and investor indifference to shale companies after years of poor returns. Instead of oil and gas fields, some landmen are securing wind and solar fields, spots where the sun shines brightest and the wind blows hardest.”
