As part of our annual year-end coverage each year, WSJ Pro asks members of the private-equity community to share their thoughts on the past year and reflect on challenges and opportunities they see in 2021. Alok Singh is the co-founder and chief executive of Bridge Growth Partners, a New York-based growth investment firm focused on technology.
He was quoted as saying: Digital transformation is driving change across all industries, and the advent of 5G, edge computing and ML/AI [machine learning/artificial intelligence] will accelerate this in the coming years. To be successful across a digital transformation journey, enterprises must make significant investments in technology to operate in hybrid cloud environments, scale their infrastructures and address heightened needs for data movement, analysis and protection. Successful private-equity investing will require firms to deploy much more than just financial capital given the complexity and evolving nature of these markets. We look forward to finding businesses in the middle market to invest in, and to capture this investment opportunity, by deploying our differentiated team and leveraging our unique ecosystem of relationships.
Below, some of the best analysis and insight from WSJ writers and columnists, the Dow Jones Newswires team and occasionally beyond, on investing, the wealth-management business and more.
CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
AstraZeneca and Oxford’s Bumpy Partnership Hangs Over Covid Vaccine’s Future: The latest Covid-19 shot wins approval in the U.K. but continues to face challenges sown by confusing trial results.
PLANNING & INVESTING
Big Pharma Heads Toward a Deals Spree: In the year ahead, investors should expect Big Pharma to have its wallet open. Investors hunting for buyouts should think big.
New Army of Individual Investors Flexes Its Muscle: The online brokerage industry might be hard pressed to outdo the record-breaking year it experienced in 2020, but for now, few are betting against it.
MARKET TALK
From Dow Jones Newswires
There is a risk that investors may start to question the safe-haven nature of U.S. Treasurys as inflation edges higher, U.S. monetary policy stays loose and the dollar weakens, says Davis Hall, head of capital markets for Asia at Indosuez Wealth Management. “Given currency debasement, record debt levels and negative real rates, foreign investors and global reserve allocators have already commenced diversification programs towards other less risky safe-haven alternatives,” he tells The Wall Street Journal in an interview. U.S. authorities may curb any rise in Treasury yields via yield-curve control, but this would weaken the dollar. If the dollar is perceived to be vulnerable, Treasurys would be less attractive to investors, he says. ([email protected])
The Chinese yuan is likely to rise further in 2021, says Davis Hall, head of capital markets for Asia at Indosuez Wealth Management. The USD/CNY rate has fallen more than 6% year-to-date and Indosuez expects it to fall towards 6.30 during 2021, from 6.5250 currently. “The only place to find true real yield is in China,” says Hall, who admits “we weren’t bullish enough on the Chinese currency.” China’s current account and trade surpluses, helped by the medical supplies being shipped out of the country and as China imports less, are resulting in a great deal of appreciation pressure on the currency, even as the central bank “has been leaning against it,” he says. ([email protected])
BUSINESS & PRACTICE
Record IPO Surge Set to Roll On In 2021: Despite the Covid recession, companies raised more than $167 billion on U.S. exchanges this year.
IMPACT INVESTING
‘There Was a Piece Missing—We Were All White’: One Bank Targets Racial Inequity: Companies across the U.S. are pledging to hire and promote more women and people of color, in many cases saying they want to make their workplaces reflect their customers. Boston-based Eastern Bank has made sustained efforts yet still says “we have a long way to go.”
TALKING POINTS
As 2020 Limps to an End, Ad Executives Look Warily to 2021: Among the trends: the pivot to digital continues to favor big platforms; companies will have to meet diversity goals; people are burned-out, but could it turn into the Roaring 2020s?
TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE
Post-Vaccine Vacation Dreamers Plot to ‘Get the Hell Out of Their House’: Coronavirus cabin fever, coupled with a burst of optimism over the vaccine, is sparking some big-trip dreams for 2021.
SUBSCRIBER NOTICE
This newsletter won’t be published Friday in observance of New Year’s Day. It will resume on Monday, Jan. 4.
ABOUT US
The Wealth Adviser Briefing covers topics of interest to wealth managers, financial planners and other advisers. The content is curated by the Dow Jones Newswires team using articles from the Newswires, Barron’s, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal. The briefing is delivered to subscribers by email each workday morning at 6:30 a.m. ET. You can sign up here for email delivery.
We welcome feedback. Please email [email protected] or contact Dwight Oestricher at [email protected]
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
