Several topics came up at this week’s International Treasurer editorial meeting, some of which we’ll be looking into as the year and the NeuGroup meeting season gets under way. Topics include developing an M&A playbook; peer-to-peer lending; and currency wars.
M&A Playbook.
As usual, according to prognosticators, 2013 is supposed be both a robust and quiet year in M&A. But whatever the trend, treasurers have found it useful to prepare an M&A playbook. This is because as organizations continue to standardize and automate their global treasury activities, integrating a new acquisition can cause significant delays in the overall strategy. We’ll take a look at the many factors that determine whether integration will be “plug and play” or a longer, more drawn-out and manual process. In either case, going in armed with a strategy is key.
Peer-to-Peer Lending.
Further to last week’s announcement that Dell was looking to go private and willing to tap overseas cash to do so, we’ll continue to explore alternatives to the usual funding resources, i.e., banks. The Dell is also in the news again this week as it was announced, or rumored, that Microsoft is in talks to invest between $1 billion and $3 billion in the LBO of Dell. This is according to a report from CNBC. Last week it was private equity firm Silver Lake was reportedly ready to raise $7 billion to be used for the buyout. This wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft lent cash to a competitor, by the way. In 1997 the company invested $150 million in once and future adversary Apple.
Currency Wars.
Recent news reports have been thick with talk of a coming or threats or ongoing currency war. What with the rhetoric out of Japan and the US Fed’s everlasting quantitative easing plan, it’s no wonder it’s all the buzz. A usual currency war skeptic, Marc Chandler, Global Head of Currency Strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, now thinks a currency war “remains a remote possibility.” Although recent pronouncements are “largely in the realm of rhetoric and [do] not appear substantially different than what has been seen through the floating rate area,” it has led to at the very least an inadvertent war. “The synchronized crisis and economic weakness has produced synchronized easing of monetary policy,” Mr. Chandler wrote in a letter to clients. “Officials typically want currency to be supporting not contradicting monetary policy signals.”