Articles or market studies which are backed by data are normally seen as more relevant by readers than those which do not feature data. In some cases, the authors use tons of data to prove their thesis. But is more data always better? From my point of view, it is not the amount of data displayed that counts. It is the quality of the data used to gather information about trends or market segments that really matters. Therefore, the first step to turn data into insights is a qualitative check of the data—the so-called data cleansing—as especially as data derived

The finance industry is known for its high capabilities when it comes to models which predict future developments and/or measure the quality of an issuer or product. So, it is not surprising that rating agencies, asset, and wealth managers have started to develop models and quantitative metrics to evaluate, forecast, and measure the impact of various ESG-related factors such as climate change within their portfolios with a single ratio or score. As a result, these ratios or scores are simplifying a highly complex network of different measures with the intent to make them understandable for a wider audience. Generally speaking,

Occasionally the initial public offering market throws up a bargain. Octave Klaba would say that’s the case with OVHcloud, the IT infrastructure company he’s floating in Paris for up to 3.7 billion euros. Yet the shares are only a steal if a push for European technological sovereignty turbocharges its top line. Like Amazon.com and Microsoft, Klaba’s company sells computing power and storage space to businesses and governments through its 33 data centres. Its IPO price range, unveiled on Tuesday, seems relatively cheap. At the top end, OVHCloud’s enterprise value will be 4.1 billion euros, or 5 times next year’s expected

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) plans to publish its first regulatory guidance for raters of corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. It is doing this to stem growing concerns among asset managers about overstated green credentials. This announcement is in line with the IOSCO Board Priorities – Work Program 2021 – 2022, where IOSCO stated that it will contribute to the goal of improving the completeness, consistency, and comparability of sustainability reporting by delivering respective reports on sustainability-related disclosures for asset managers (including greenwashing) and issuers, ESG ratings, and ESG data providers. The IOSCO board has identified

Palantir Technologies, the data-analytics firm co-founded by investor Peter Thiel in 2003, has filed to go public, it said on Monday. The company hasn’t shied away from helping governments track suspected terrorists and illegal immigrants, along with other controversial and mysterious law-enforcement business. It was valued at $20 billion in a private funding round in 2015. Achieving a similar mark on public markets looks optimistic. What it is eventually worth depends on investors believing that a recent acceleration of growth is durable. The company had about $700 million of revenue last year, according to Reuters sources – Palantir’s financials are

YouTube deserves its own show, away from its $900 billion parent, Alphabet. Three things would make a breakup compelling viewing. It should create a valuation boost, the companies would be better able to field mounting regulatory probes – and Alphabet’s siloed setup means it’s already part way there. Right now, YouTube is part of a sprawling Alphabet cosmos run by Larry Page. The video site, which has 2 billion monthly active users, sits within Google, which is also an umbrella for Cloud, Android, Maps, Search, and app store Play. The broader group also includes smart-home enabler Nest and self-driving unit

Companies often turn to Kantar’s figures on consumer tastes before making a big decision. A quick run through the numbers suggests that possible private-equity buyers might need to do some more market research of their own. Mark Read, the boss of 11 billion pound ad group WPP, wants to offload a majority stake in his data analytics business. Reuters exclusively reported on Tuesday that buyout groups including Advent, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and CVC Capital Partners are interested, and that a deal may value Kantar at 3.5 billion pounds including debt. There’s reason for the interest. Kantar, whose operating profit

In putting together its relatively upbeat August Inflation Report projections for the UK economy the MPC made two key assumptions. First, it assumed that there would be a smooth adjustment to a new set of trading arrangements following the UK’s departure from the EU next March. Second, it assumed that the UK household saving ratio would remain close to an all-time low. The risks around both of these judgments lie in one direction, and that is to the downside. Last year lenders came under pressure from the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee to reduce the risks to their loan

The fact that ESG data is becoming an integral part of many fund managers’ processes is not new information – but a recent roundtable event in Singapore illustrated that institutional investors in Asia are also ramping up their interest in the investment discipline. Julia Gormand, head of market development, investment and advisory for ASEAN at Thomson Reuters and who chaired the day’s discussions, said that one of the key talking points was the fact that ESG is absolutely a key differentiator for all active managers, not just those with a social or environmental conscience. The message from the panel was

Authored by Brenda Zhang. With the explosive growth in passive exchange-traded products (ETPs), constructing appropriate investing strategies in this area is more important now than ever. In recent years, investors’ interest in index mutual funds and ETPs has dramatically increased. The Investment Company Institute reports that between 2007 and 2016, index domestic equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) received $1.4 trillion in net new cash and reinvested dividends. In contrast, actively managed domestic equity mutual funds experienced a net outflow of $1.1 trillion.[1] StarMine quantitative models have a long and proven track record of being strong predictive tools to

Facebook is leading tech to a Minsky moment, much like the one finance faced a decade ago. Since then, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network feasted on burgeoning data and devices, just as banks gorged on easy money. Society’s focus on benefits over risk gave them free rein – until the resulting abuses couldn’t be overlooked. As user trust in Silicon Valley evaporates, regulation beckons, as it did for Wall Street. The financial crisis showed how boom conditions can make almost everyone complicit. Consumers and lawmakers were too beguiled by the prospect of extending home ownership and driving up household wealth to

Where should multinational tech companies pay income tax? Changing international rules devised a century ago will be difficult, but Europe is right that asset-light, data-hungry businesses like Google and Facebook merit fresh thinking. The European Commission will this week propose a tax on digital groups’ revenue of around 3 percent, according to Reuters. The move aims to plug an imbalance that sees international digital companies pay a rate of 10 percent in the EU, according to the Commission, compared with non-digital businesses’ 23 percent. Imposing a flat levy on sales is clumsy, as it penalises less profitable firms and investment. But it