$133bn
Microsoft seems exceptionally cautious with its balance sheet. About 84 per cent of its $133bn in cash is invested in US government and agency securities, the greatest share of its peer group. But company filings and public documents show that one of the world’s largest technology companies doesn’t just dump its excess cash into bonds and leave it there. It has taken an approach to the $14tn Treasury market that is more akin to that of professional money managers.
$700m
Switzerland’s Nestlé is accelerating its expansion in the US coffee market by taking a majority stake in California-based Blue Bottle that values the café and roastery chain at more than $700m. The acquisition of fast-growing Blue Bottle is a strategic shift into retailing by the world’s largest food and drinks company, which owns the Nespresso coffee capsule and Nescafé brands. It also pits Nestlé directly against two other huge coffee brands in the US — Starbucks and Keurig Green Mountain, which the JAB investment group bought two years ago for $13.9bn.
$1.36
The pound is witnessing a renaissance, leaping above the $1.36 mark on Friday to its highest level since the Brexit vote, as a speech from a Bank of England policymaker hardened perceptions that the central bank is moving to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade. Gertjan Vlieghe, a member of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee who has previously been cautious about tightening policy, said “we are approaching the moment when the bank rate may need to rise”. Coming a day after the MPC kept rates on hold but gave a heavy signal it is minded to lift the base rate from a record low, the speech added fuel to the pound’s rally.
$17bn
Want to ride a Shinkansen? Of course you do. Everyone wants to ride a bullet train. But unless you get to Japan at some point in the next few years, you might find that most of India rides one before you do. This week, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe headed to India to lay the first stone in a Japanese-financed $17bn bullet train project set to cover the 310 miles between Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad. This is exciting stuff. That’s partly because bullet trains are amazing in themselves — this one will cut the journey time from eight hours to under three. It is partly because the Japanese have offered a fabulous deal on the finance — and are signing various other investment deals along the way.
$25bn
When Ghana became the first west African nation to enter the international bond markets a decade ago this month, it was part of a flurry of debt-raising in the world’s least developed region. Now the bills are coming due, with nearly $25bn of sovereign debt set to mature in the region next year according to an FT analysis of Thomson Reuters data. Investors’ rush into emerging market debt since the start of this year should be a boon for African finance ministers seeking to refinance — sub-Saharan country debt with a total return of 10.9 per cent has outperformed the EM average of 9.1 per cent so far this year, according to Bloomberg data.
