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☆ See the 6 startups that have raised the most cash in 2023 to transform healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Startups in the industry raised $3.4 billion across 132 deals in the first three months of 2023. The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftKey raised $300 million in a round led by its majority investor Lorient Capital. The clinical-trials-tech startup Paradigm raised a $203 million Series A round led by Arch Venture Partners and General Catalyst. The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftMed raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures. raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures.

☆ Russia's VTB eyes rebound after sanctions-hit $7.7 bln loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Elena Fabrichnaya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

CEO Andrei Kostin has blamed the bank's losses squarely on Western sanctions against Russia's financial sector. VTB posted a net loss of 612.6 billion roubles ($7.73 billion), down from a record profit of 327.4 billion roubles in 2021. Provisioning costs increased 343.3% to 514.3 billion roubles and net interest income slumped 50.3% to 321.0 billion roubles. It purchased rival Otkritie for 340 billion roubles from Russia's central bank late last year and is planning a second additional share issue this quarter, in which it plans to raise 50-125 billion roubles. The disposal of those subsidiaries cost VTB 229 billion roubles before tax.

☆ 20-year-old real estate investors who started with less than $1,000 in savings and couldn't qualify for a traditional loan explain the strategy they used to buy property without the bank's help
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

When Caleb Hommel and Chuck Sotelo decided to invest in real estate, they didn't have any savings. They were still in junior college at the time and delivering food to pay for an online real estate mentorship program. With seller financing, there are no pre-qualifications since it's a completely private loan. They're no longer responsible for managing the property or tenants, which can be time-consuming responsibilities that come with traditional real estate investing. Part of the reason seller financing isn't super common is because most people don't own their properties completely, she said.

☆ South Africa fights to keep phone networks up as lights go out
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Nqobile Dludla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

A bank of expensive backup batteries, theft-proofed within a block of concrete. "Our costs have gone through the roof," lamented Sitho Mdlalose, managing director of Vodacom South Africa (VODJ.J). President Cyril Ramaphosa in February declared a national state of disaster, calling the crisis an existential threat to South Africa's social fabric. While most network towers in South Africa are equipped with a battery for backup power, more advanced systems are less common. That risks delaying South Africa's pivot to the digital economy and could leave rural areas, which already suffer from sparse coverage, lagging even further behind.

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☆ Bank stocks remain out of favor. Here's why we're sticking with our 2
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Wells Fargo is a multiyear turnaround story, encompassing cost-cutting strategies to please investors and improvements to risk-management operations to satisfy both regulators and investors. Both stocks were firmly in the red Tuesday, with Wells Fargo sinking below $37 per share and Morgan Stanley below $85 per share. In the short run, that decreases the likelihood that shares of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley will rip higher. That's especially true for Wells Fargo, knowing that CEO Charlie Scharf can execute additional restructurings to reduce expenses. The logo of Morgan Stanley is seen in New York Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

☆ Commercial real estate is struggling with rising rates and bank woes, but the cohead of a $21 billion lender said it's the best time in his more than 20 year career
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

High interest rates, office woes, and less bank funding are chilling commercial real estate. But a top commercial real estate lender said there's never been a better time for firms like his. It's a bleak time in commercial real estate, and it can be hard to find any rays of sunshine. One Bank of America analyst just warned commercial real estate presents a major risk regional banks that own a disproportionate 68% of the sector's loans. While interest rate uncertainty is clouding the commercial real estate outlook, some transactions could provide clarity to the market, de Haan said.

☆ Cineworld looks to raise $2.26 billion to emerge from bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 2 (Reuters) - Cineworld Group Plc (CINE.L) is planning to raise $2.26 billion, according to a court filing on Sunday, as the theater chain aims to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the first half of 2023. The fundraising will consist of a first lien senior secured debt credit facility of $1.46 billion and issuance of new common stock for an aggregate purchase price of $800 million, according the filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court in the Southern District of Texas. Cineworld filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in September to try to restructure its debt after being hit by the pandemic and a lack of blockbuster movies. The proceeds of the capital raising will be used to meet costs and expenses relating to the restructuring, and also to pay fees, other expenses and provide working capital to reorganized debtors, according to the filing. Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil, which helps businesses automate paperwork, used to raise $5 million from Craft Ventures and Alphabet's Gradient Ventures
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It raised an additional $5 million for its Series A round from Craft Ventures and Gradient Ventures. Insider has an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise the new funds. Three years ago, he set out to raise fresh capital for his startup, Anvil, which helps businesses create documents from data. In 2020, Craft Ventures heard Ng's pitch and passed. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Anvil used to raise an additional $5 million:

☆ Here's how to fund your side hustle without going broke
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

If you're starting a side hustle, there are many ways to invest in your skills without going broke. "Side hustles are a great way to dip your toes into the world of business," Loren, a Harvard alumna, said. Entrepreneurs should use those three months as proof of concept: Determine whether you have enough consistent sales to keep the business going. A side hustle allows you to be more conservative about the amount of capital you take since it's not a full-time business, Loren said. "The majority of capital that you're going to be seeking is probably going to be a small amount," Loren said.

☆ US manufacturing sector weakest in nearly three years in March -ISM
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday that its manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 last month, the lowest reading since May 2020, from 47.7 in February. It was the fifth straight month that the PMI remained below the 50 threshold, which indicates contraction in manufacturing. Reports last month also showed orders for capital goods excluding aircraft eking out a small gain in February as did manufacturing output. But it noted that manufacturing depending on bank credit also "tend to have larger firms that other things equal will have an easier time finding alternative sources of capital." The ISM survey's forward-looking new orders sub-index fell to 44.3 last month from 47.0 in February.

☆ 12 crypto projects supporting AI development as mega-cloud giants like Amazon dominate the space, according to a research analyst
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"Despite the seemingly smooth progress of AI development, there are underlying challenges and bottlenecks that must be addressed. His recent report points to crypto projects that are developing decentralized machine learning compute networks. Crypto projects lowering the barrier to AIThere are five main stages in the development of AI, according to the report. The two crypto projects that currently have the ability for this are gensyn and together however their blockchains are not yet live. Both of the above tasks aren't as strenuous as model training, so more crypto projects can support them.

☆ Paris vote rocks scooter rental firms’ shaky ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The business of renting out electric scooters is taking a turn for the worse. Turnout for the vote was low - only 7% of the population registered for it, and they were skewed towards older age groups, who tend not to ride such scooters anyway. The sector was already facing a tougher environment for raising capital and is struggling to turn a profit. The vote is also a potential red light for Lime, which is eyeing a listing. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

TOKYO, March 31 (Reuters) - Japanese regional lenders will be well able to weather even "large" losses on their foreign bond portfolios thanks to strong capital buffers, a senior banking regulator official said, rebuffing concerns fuelled by U.S. banking woes. "Overseas media seem to be focusing on Japanese regional banks in association with the SVB collapse, but I'd like to emphasise that they are completely different," he told Reuters in an interview. Analysts at SMBC Nikko Securities calculated unrealized foreign bond losses at over 70 listed Japanese regional banks totalling 1.4 trillion yen ($10.6 billion) at the end of last year, the worst in decades for global bond markets. "It is true that unrealized losses on foreign bond holdings at some regional banks are large, but the banks have enough capital buffers even when such losses are taken into account," Yashiki said. He also said he saw no immediate need to review Japan's regulatory framework as Japanese banks have grown resilient with significantly improved asset quality.

☆ Electric truck maker Nikola is planning to sell its own shares at a 20% discount to their lowest ever price
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Zinya Salfiti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Nikola is planning to raise $100 million by selling its stock at a huge discount. The electric truck manufacturer said Thursday that it would sell shares at $1.12, or 20% below their lowest ever price. The electric truck manufacturer said in a statement Thursday that it planned to raise the $100 million by selling 29.9 million shares to the public and another 59.4 million shares to an unnamed investor. It's pricing the shares at just $1.12 as part of the stock offering, a 20% discount to the all-time low of $1.40 they had fallen to by Thursday's closing bell. Nikola shares have cratered around 95% since Hindenburg released its first report into the company on September 10.

☆ Nikola shares sink after its $100 million stock offering priced at 20% below market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( John Rosevear | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Electric heavy-truck maker Nikola said that its planned $100 million secondary stock offering, announced on Thursday after U.S. markets closed, has priced at $1.12 per share – 20% below the stock's closing price of $1.40. Even with the discount, there appears to have been very limited interest in the shares on Wall Street. An unnamed private investor has agreed to buy the remainder directly from Nikola, the truck maker said. Nikola had $233.4 million in cash and equivalents available as of Dec. 31. The truck maker lost $222.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

☆ Senate Democrats led by Elizabeth Warren press federal bank regulators to implement stronger capital requirements
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are pressing federal banking regulators to toughen bank capital requirements following back-to-back congressional hearings where officials testified about the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. "We write to urge you follow through with establishing strong capital requirements that protect consumers and taxpayers, and preserve the safety and soundness of our banking system," Warren, along with Sens. Under the "stress capital buffer" implemented at the time, the capital requirements for banking firms is determined annually according to supervisory stress tests. The lawmakers urged regulators to enforce strong capital requirements to fend off aggressive lobbying from Wall Street and safeguard against more bank failures. "In order to prevent future bank crises and protect working Americans, I urge your agencies to quickly implement strong capital requirements and resist industry pressure to weaken or delay these requirements."

☆ Nikola announces a $100 million stock offering
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( John Rosevear | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Electric heavy-truck maker Nikola said on Thursday that it plans to raise $100 million via a secondary stock offering to the public and — possibly — a private sale of stock to an unnamed investor, if needed. First, the company said, it will offer up to $100 million worth of stock to the public via a traditional secondary offering, with Citigroup underwriting. If the public offering raises less than $100 million, that investor has agreed to buy the remainder at the public offering price. Either way, Nikola will raise $100 million before fees, money that it plans to use for working capital and other general purposes. Nikola had $233.4 million in cash and equivalents available as of Dec. 31, down from $315.7 million at the end of September.

☆ Jim Cramer says these 7 currently undervalued 'franchise names' are stocks worth buying
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

"Franchise names, doing well, undervalued in the portfolio," Jim said during the Club's Morning Meeting on Thursday. TJX 1Y mountain TJX Companies' 12-month stock performance. CAT 1Y mountain Caterpillar's 12-month stock performance. SBUX 1Y mountain Starbucks' 12-month stock performance. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Bernstein's market-beating stock model loves 4 Club holdings. Here's where we stand on each
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Four Club holdings — including Meta Platforms (META) and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) — are among the 12 best-positioned stocks right now, investment bank Bernstein told clients Wednesday. A third characteristic shared by all 12 stock is not being a so-called "crowded trade," as measured by Bernstein's Crowding Model. Meta Platforms Bernstein's take: Meta's aggressive cost-cutting efforts are likely factored into the social media giant's stock price in full, according to the firm. Pioneer Natural Resources Bernstein's take: Pioneer has "the simplest and most reliable" operating model within the energy sector, analysts wrote. Devon Energy Bernstein's take: The firm sees Devon as the best "turnaround story" in the U.S. shale sector, noting that past performance has sometimes been "marred by shaky strategic decisions."

☆ ECB rates will need to rise but possibly at a slower pace - policymakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

FRANKFURT, March 29 (Reuters) - European Central Bank interest rates will likely have to rise further to contain inflation, policymakers said on Wednesday, but at least one outspoken conservative floated the idea of a slowdown in the pace of increases. ECB chief economist Philip Lane, who makes the formal policy proposals to his 25 colleagues, said that his baseline is for the turmoil to dissipate and then rates would need to rise several times. "If the financial stress we see is non-zero, but turns out to be still fairly limited, interest rates will still need to go up." Slovak central bank chief Peter Kazimir, a proponent of rapid rate increases, meanwhile made the case for slower rises following three straight 50-basis point hikes. Reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Jan Lopatka, Jason Hovet and Robert Muller; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Another cultish cost-saving formula gets off-track
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Despite its multiple interpretations and approaches, success is widely gauged by a railway’s operating ratio, a simple measure of how much it spends to make a buck. Union Pacific’s peers improved similarly, indicative of the antiquated ways the industry had been deploying resources. Union Pacific also found itself unable to bring back enough furloughed workers in areas where they were most needed. “In a significant departure from the railroad industry's recent past, we deliberately moved away from a singular focus on operating ratio,” he told lawmakers. “If we wanted to drive [operating ratio] lower over time, we could,” the board wrote in a letter to shareholders in late 2021.

☆ Goldman Sachs picks the winners and losers in regional banks after the SVB collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The banking crisis continues to keep investors on edge about the health of regional banks. Now Goldman Sachs has identified what it said are the biggest winners and losers in the industry in the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. The Wall Street investment bank said the biggest short-term risk for regional banks could come from shifting market shares of deposits as corporates look to diversify. Meanwhile, there is the potential that regional banks will need to "pay up" to prevent deposits from moving to other banks "or leave bank balance sheets entirely," Goldman said. These stocks are all down more than 20% in March as investors spooked by the crisis dumped regional bank shares.

☆ The political will to increase deposit insurance is not there, says Stifel's Brian Gardner
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe political will to increase deposit insurance is not there, says Stifel's Brian GardnerNicolas Veron, senior fellow at The Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Brian Gardner, Stifel chief Washington policy analyst, join 'Power Lunch' to discuss the SVB hearing, the need for congressional action on guaranteeing small bank deposits, and locating capital for insuring deposits.

☆ Buy the dip on this regional bank which, unlike SVB, hedged its interest rate risk, Piper says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

At least one beaten-up regional bank was well prepared for the issues that brought down Silicon Valley Bank, and that makes its stock a rebound candidate, according to Piper Sandler. on Tuesday, saying that the Cincinnati-based bank was well hedged for the rapid rise in interest rates that has stressed other regional banks. The hedging actions by Fifth Third are in stark contrast to SVB's portfolio, which had little interest rate hedging despite a large exposure to long duration bonds. In its final annual report , SVB reported a notional amount of $550 million of interest rate swaps as hedging instruments as of Dec. 31, 2022. The fallout from SVB has hit many regional bank stocks, including Fifth Third.

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