Valuing stock options

This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on June 27, 2022 - July 03, 2022. - A + A Come July 1, Malaysians will further feel the effects of inflation. Price controls on chicken and eggs — the cheapest sources of protein — and higher-end cooking oil will be relaxed. So far, Malaysians by and large have been relatively sheltered from the effects of rising global inflation. Other than eating out, which has become significantly more expensive, households have absorbed the increasing prices of goods and services well. Thanks to subsidies and control mechanisms, most of the commonly consumed items and utilities such as gas for cooking and petrol are in adequate supply. Unlike in Sri Lanka, Malaysians do not have to queue in long lines for petrol or cooking gas cylinders. In situations where price controls are not effective, the government intervenes in the supply-demand dynamics with measures to divert food to the domestic market, … [Read more...] about Alternative Views: ‘Chickenomics’ highlights eroding value of ringgit

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., recently became the largest shareholder of Twitter. Even for the world’s richest person, $43 billion is a steep price. Elon Musk’s proposed all-cash offer to buy Twitter Inc. represents about one-sixth of his $250.6 billion fortune. Yet the vast majority of that wealth is tied to his stake in Tesla Inc., the electric carmaker he co-founded that has surged in value over the past two years and lifted him to the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The purchase isn’t straightforward, but Musk has several financing paths. One option is to sell his Tesla shares outright. Another is borrowing against them to stage a leveraged buyout, possibly with outside partners. Musk, 50, currently has about $3 billion in cash or other somewhat liquid assets after spending $2.6 billion buying a 9.1% stake in Twitter in recent months, according to Bloomberg calculations. Musk + Twitter? | If he buys all of it, Twitter … [Read more...] about Elon Musk needs ‘massive loan’ or big Tesla stock sale to buy Twitter

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin When the leaders of Raytheon and United Technologies UTX first disclosed their plan to merge in June of 2019, they set forth a vision of an aerospace and defense enterprise with unprecedented market presence. The combined company would be a first-tier player in commercial and defense markets, in domestic and foreign markets, in new equipment and the aftermarket. With thousands of programs and tens of thousands of engineers, the company would be able to cope easily with any shift in demand. It did not take long for that vision to be tested. The new company had to integrate its operations during the worst global pandemic in living memory. But three years after the merger was unveiled, the investment thesis behind Raytheon Technologies, the combined enterprise, is still intact. In fact, the company looks to be on a vector to preeminence in global aerospace and defense. That’s what Chief Operating Officer … [Read more...] about COO Chris Calio Says Raytheon Technologies Is Proving The Value Of The Merger

Ankiti Bose (Image: @ankitibose/Instagram) Zilingo founders Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor have joined hands to make a management buyout offer of the company as the Singapore-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce startup is staring at voluntary liquidation, according to sources aware of the matter. "Given the potential of the business and the value you know this company can achieve, I urge you to consider the management buyout offer as a preferred alternative to voluntary liquidation," Dhruv Kapoor, Zilingo's co-founder and chief technology officer, told the Board of Directors of Zilingo, in a mail, a copy of which was viewed by Moneycontrol. "I make this offer on the basis of firm investor commitments and having appointed legal and financial advisers in respect of the management buyout offer," Kapoor added. According to the letter, the new investor will be infusing $8 million in equity in tranches. The offer further stated that pursuant to Singapore's Insolvency, … [Read more...] about Zilingo founders join hands, make buyout offer as B2B startup teeters on edge of liquidation

Infy's market cap after peaking at $110 billion in January is around $79 billion now, more than double what it was when Salil Parekh took charge. By approving a mega-compensation package for Salil Parekh, its CEO for the last four-and-a-half years, Infosys isn’t just rewarding his performance but also correcting a historical wrong. In 2017, Parekh was brought in after the messy exit of previous CEO Vishal Sikka. Through all the sparks that flew in the months leading up to the eventual transition, it was Sikka’s high salary that was the bone of contention. The fact is, notwithstanding co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s disagreements with Sikka over the issue, the company’s investors clearly were impressed with his performance, enough for its share price to rise 26 percent in the three years that he was at the helm. Nor was this part of a secular rise in IT stocks. During that period, Infosys was the outperformer in the stock market with shares of the other four Indian IT companies … [Read more...] about Salil Parekh’s salary is merely a reflection of Infosys’ performance

"It will be early to assume that the full impact of headwinds (that confront the global and Indian economy currently) are priced in," says Dhananjay Sinha, Managing Director and Head Strategist and Economist - Equity Research at JM Financial Institutional Securities. Gauging the markets using this monitor, JM Financial sees that 30-35 percent of the characteristics of past capitulation are visible as of now, leaving further scope for adjustments. Hence they expect commodity prices to correct further and crude would be the last to collapse, giving rise to a scenario of market capitulation. Thus, the markets may still be afar from a deep value situation, Sinha shares in an interview with Moneycontrol . Excerpts from the interview: Do you think the market fully priced in all these risk factors? Do you see any other risk that the market hasn't factored in yet? While it is true that the market now knows the various risks that confront the global and Indian economy, it will … [Read more...] about Daily Voice | More correction likely as these four risk factors not priced in yet, says Dhananjay Sinha of JM Financial

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Here is a hack that will make you feel more confident in your job search: the interviewer and hiring managers are more nervous than you are. It’s hard to wrap your mind around this concept, as people are indoctrinated to think that job seekers should be the ones who are nervous and anxious going into an interview. They worry about being judged. Job hunters must contend with the shame of not moving onto the next level in the interview process. Even worse, they don’t receive feedback and get ghosted. The hiring process feels—to the job seeker—like the company, human resources, management and internal talent acquisition professionals hold all of the power. What Hiring Managers Obsessively Worry About A supervisor needs to hire. They want to make sure that the applicant possesses all of the requirements listed in the job description. The interviewer also wants to feel that they can click with the candidate and forge a … [Read more...] about Surprise: The Hiring Manager Is More Anxious Than The Job Seeker

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For anyone who writes on the state of the world, the approach of Christmas brings with it the near obligation to sketch out the events and happenings of the year ahead. Last year, I took a traditional though cynical approach when I wrote Drinking with Dickens , the aim of which was to imagine what a vision of the year ahead would look like, whilst under the influence of some of Charles Dickens favourite drinks (i.e. ‘Smoking Bishop’). In the end, some of my comments (‘higher inflation’, ‘tension in Asia’ and ‘Boris resigns’) came close to the mark. The Folly of Forecasting This year, I have a less weary approach, partly because there are so many new, emerging trends, partly because the world is opening up travel wise and partly because there is so much at stake. The real world remains stranger than fiction, though to join the two I have added some book recommendations. JK Galbraith wrote that the only role of … [Read more...] about 2022 – What’s Next?

There are all kinds of reasons that fast-growth companies want to go public. For Reddit , at the top of list is the chance to give back to its loyal employees. On December 15, the online message board company announced it had confidentially filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission for review, with intent to go public through an initial offering of stock. A blog post announcing the IPO gave little detail about the San Francisco-based business's plans, citing regulatory reasons. Known as the internet's town hall, Reddit is reliably one of the 10 most-visited websites in the United States, averaging 52 million daily active users in October 2021. The company, founded in 2005 by University of Virginia graduates Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman --the latter of whom now serves as chief executive--was acquired in its early days by the parent business of the Conde Nast media empire. It later regained autonomy and has raised multiple massive funding … [Read more...] about The Real Reason for Reddit’s IPO Plan Should Come as No Surprise

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin You didn’t know Kazakhstan, a basically landlocked country (it borders the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked), in the middle of Central Asia had a fintech company like this one. But they do. It’s called Kaspi.kz (KSPI). They listed on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday. It was, being considered a tech company now and not just a bank, totally oversubscribed. Kaspi brought in over $1 billion. The stock opened at $38 per share and traded as high as $46.90 with volume of more than 4.4 million shares. That’s more than Russia’s Yandex trading volume, which averages 3.8 million per day. The IPO gives Kaspi a market cap of $6.5 billion as of today . It was the second largest IPO of the year and the fourth largest in all of Europe. And it came from Kazakhstan, a country better known by the masses for being the home to fictional character Borat, then the most promising country in Central Asia, if not all of the large former … [Read more...] about Kazakhstan Fintech Firm Kaspi Surprises With Huge London IPO