Financial Markets

Long-term trends in tech investments In the world of technology investments, it is essential to underline the long-term structural growth. Tech companies are often in a constant state of innovation and development, which means that their true potential sometimes only becomes clear over longer periods. This is similar to navigating a long sea voyage: temporary storms can slow p ...

There has been a series of regulatory changes in China since 2019, mainly taking place in new economy sectors, first with gaming, then fintech, and now private education. On July 23, Beijing announced new rules barring for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressure on families. These regulatory measures have had a major impact on the equity market especially for the affected industries, though the short-term macro impact has remained limited.

Chinese regulators decided to launch a new Nasdaq-style Shanghai’s Star Board on 13 June 2019. Their vision is to make the Star Board a serious competitor to the Nasdaq - an attractive financing option for dynamic companies while offering investment opportunities. It wants to create a fundraising platform for promising technology firms in key fields such as chip making, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant Ant Group has announced its long-awaited public offering with a dual listing on the new Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Board (or the Science and Technology Innovation Board, which is being dubbed “China’s Nasdaq”) and also on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The current situation in the financial world can best be described as a VUCA world. This term was thought up by the United States, in the 1980s, to describe the situation in the years following the Cold War. VUCA stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity”.

One of the brokers we work with in Asia, CLSA, puts out an annual Feng Shui Guide as an alternative look at what’s in store for the new year to help luck flow in your direction. That also includes a forecast for what will happen to financial markets in the year ahead.

After having written about Santa Claus and the origins of the Finish gaming industry in our previous blog post, we will now zoom into the Finnish gaming industry a bit more.

Anta Sports is a great example of the type of Global Challengers we are looking for. The Anta brand was established in 1991. The company’s strategy is to be a competitive global player in terms of sportswear and apparel. They are already known as ‘China’s Nike’. Thanks to the acquisition of Amer Sports, a Finish sportswear conglomerate having brands such as Wilson, Salomon, Arc'Teryx, PeakPerformance, Atomic, they are now also expanding globally.

The combination of all-encompassing gigantism in the technology sector and blind buying in passive investment products could, however, turn out to be dangerous if everybody wants to head for the exit.

In our work at Econopolis, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to construct the best investment portfolios—and these days, a big part of that conversation centers on the role of active and passive styles of investing, an ongoing (and sometimes quite heated!) debate in the financial industry.  This isn’t just an academic conversation: It has the potential to affec ...