BlaBlaCar receives USD 200m investment led by Insight, Lead Edge and Vostok New Ventures
Vostok New Ventures Ltd. ("Vostok New Ventures" or the "Company") today announces its investment in BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest long-distance ridesharing community. Vostok New Ventures has agreed to invest a total of EUR 30m (USD 34m) in primary and secondary shares in the context of a larger USD 200m Series D investment round led by Insight Venture Partners and Lead Edge Capital.
BlaBlaCar connects people looking to travel long distances with drivers already going the same way, so both can save money by sharing the cost of their journey. This model has made BlaBlaCar a leader of the global sharing economy with over 20 million members in 19 countries, and is helping to make road travel more efficient and affordable.
BlaBlacar will use the new funding to support accelerated growth in Europe and a rapid take-off in emerging markets, where demand is being fuelled by gaps in public transport provision and the high cost of owning and running a car. The funding will also be used for future expansion where BlaBlaCar currently has its sights on Brazil, Asia and additional markets in Latin America.
Vostok New Ventures’ Managing Director Per Brilioth comments:
”We are excited to announce our new investment in BlaBlaCar. BlaBlaCar, with its strong network effects characteristics, will fit perfectly in our portfolio of high growth online marketplaces, and we look forward to support the company and its founders in the years to come.”
BlaBlaCar was founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella, CEO, Francis Nappez, CTO, and Nicolas Brusson, COO and has now raised more than USD 300mln in funding to date. Currently, BlaBlaCar operates in Benelux, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
It is the virtual equivalent of the old stock exchange, a gathering place for everyone in the business
Over the years, many “Bloomberg killers” have launched and failed. They have come for the king of the financial data and analytics business and missed.
Now comes Symphony, a start-up messaging service and technology platform, nurtured by Goldman Sachs in its tussle with Bloomberg. This is a problem: if there is one organisation that other banks and investment managers resent more than Bloomberg, it is Goldman. On past form, Symphony’s launch this week could be written off.
That would be an error, not because Symphony itself is bound to succeed but because it need not kill Bloomberg to do so. It is not attacking the target head-on, like Bloomberg rivals such as Thomson Reuters. It is using another approach to technology to compete in a different way, just as Android, the open source mobile platform supported by Google, took on Apple’s closed world.
It may flourish — and even if it does not, its model could work for someone else. Technology has evolved, making it easier for rivals both to compete with each other and to attack a bigger foe. The fact that 14 others, including BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, joined Goldman to back Symphony shows that something has changed.
Bloomberg has always appeared to be vulnerable: its orange and black screens; its weird array of keyboard commands; its reliance for 80 per cent of its $8.5bn annual revenues on selling terminals at a fixed price of $21,000 per year each, with no discount even if they are used only to send messages; its cult-like internal culture created by Michael Bloomberg, its founder.
Yet it prospers because, despite the requirement for its 325,000 terminal users to learn an entirely new language, it focuses relentlessly on serving them. The terminal seamlessly integrates data, analytics, messages, and even the ability to trade derivatives and bonds. If something is wrong, or feels wrong, the user calls and it gets fixed.
Bloomberg is more than a network; it is a community. A portfolio manager can chat online about a trade with a salesperson at an investment bank, review a spreadsheet and other data, and execute it, all within their Bloomberg terminals. It is the virtual equivalent of the old-style stock exchange, a gathering place for everyone in the finance business. This makes it, as a rival says enviously, “very sticky”.
How do you attack it? With difficulty, many have found. Thomson Reuters, its main rival, steadily lost ground despite launching fightbacks and “Bloomberg killers” — its market share in 2014 was 26 per cent compared with Bloomberg’s 32 per cent, according to Burton-Taylor, a research group. Upstarts such as FactSet, Markit and Capital IQ are growing but are relatively small.
One crack appeared in 2013 when Bloomberg journalists were found to have observed subscriber activity for stories. Goldman, which pays for 2,500 Bloomberg terminals, and was developing its own messaging and communication system, protested loudly. It later folded this software into Symphony to encourage others to join.
Banks used not to worry about paying Bloomberg’s bill. But times are tougher — tighter regulation has hurt their bond and currency trading divisions. Bloomberg is also competing more directly with them by letting users execute trades directly, rather than using bank-backed electronic trading platforms such as TradeWeb.
No matter how angry Wall Street got about such trends, it could not have done much about them were it not for the evolution in technology. Open source software, cloud computing and the internet have made it simpler to compete with networks such as Bloomberg. Symphony need not do everything — it can build a platform and let others write software and applications.
This will be less like Bloomberg than a Wall Street app store, on which a data provider such as Markit, a bank such as Goldman, or an asset manager such as BlackRock offers pricing and data widgets, or integrates theirs with others. Some services will be private, with only a few users; others open to all.
It will also be far cheaper — from only about $15 per month for the basic message service. Goldman wanted to build its own messaging network so all of its 35,000 employees — from operations and back-office staff to analysts — could communicate even if they did not have a Bloomberg terminal. Symphony similarly aims to spread widely rather than seizing the high ground.
The biggest obstacle is the buyside — the asset managers and hedge funds at which Bloomberg is entrenched, where a new service is another screen to cram on to a desk. Symphony will appeal to investment banks with thousands of back office employees, but what about hedge funds with only a few?
It may yet rise up the ranks, spread across the buyside, and knock the king off the throne but that is unlikely. Although Wall Street has fallen on comparatively hard times, it still has deep enough pockets to buy Bloomberg terminals for the elite traders and salespeople who want them.
Symphony will not kill Bloomberg. But it, or something like it, could make a big impact by being different. That counts as success.
CEO: Affirms FY15 targets - Chinese market seems to have touched low; sees signs of recovery- To conclude sale of engine control business by end of year
Valeo vs SXAP
Valeo vs SX5E
Consumer goods makers were in demand on Wednesday after a bid approach for SABMiller refreshed talk about other possible targets.
Reckitt Benckiser was among the beneficiaries on speculation that it might become a target for Pfizer.
Having last year had its takeover of AstraZeneca blocked, Pfizer has reportedly been investigating breaking up its business.
Splitting into two then buying Reckitt would release Pfizer’s $40bn of cash trapped overseas and would face lower regulatory hurdles than the AstraZeneca bid, said Exane BNP Paribas.
“Our reading of the situation is that a split is nigh on inevitable and that at least one part of Pfizer will again have a burning incentive to seek a tax inversion trade,” Exane told clients.
It expected Pfizer to spin off its legacy pharmaceuticals division in 2017 then seek a tax inversion either with a European drugmaker or a consumer healthcare company.
Reckitt would be big enough to make the maths work even under tightened inversion rules, as would Shire — providing it succeeds with a hostile offer for Baxalta, said the broker.
And if Pfizer takes the path of buying a drugmaker then it will probably sell its consumer healthcare business, most likely to Reckitt, Exane added.
The broker put a £66 target on Reckitt shares, which rose 2.9 per cent to £58.55.
Consumer goods makers were in demand on Wednesday after a bid approach for SABMiller refreshed talk about other possible targets.
Reckitt Benckiser was among the beneficiaries on speculation that it might become a target for Pfizer.
Having last year had its takeover of AstraZeneca blocked, Pfizer has reportedly been investigating breaking up its business.
Splitting into two then buying Reckitt would release Pfizer’s $40bn of cash trapped overseas and would face lower regulatory hurdles than the AstraZeneca bid, said Exane BNP Paribas.
“Our reading of the situation is that a split is nigh on inevitable and that at least one part of Pfizer will again have a burning incentive to seek a tax inversion trade,” Exane told clients.
It expected Pfizer to spin off its legacy pharmaceuticals division in 2017 then seek a tax inversion either with a European drugmaker or a consumer healthcare company.
Reckitt would be big enough to make the maths work even under tightened inversion rules, as would Shire — providing it succeeds with a hostile offer for Baxalta, said the broker.
And if Pfizer takes the path of buying a drugmaker then it will probably sell its consumer healthcare business, most likely to Reckitt, Exane added.
The broker put a £66 target on Reckitt shares, which rose 2.9 per cent to £58.55.
Volvo reports truck deliveries in Aug amounted to 12,116 vehicles
In August 2015 truck deliveries rose by 28% in Europe and by 13% in North America. On the other hand, deliveries decreased by 43% in South America and by 8% in Asia. In total the Volvo Group's wholly-owned operations delivered 12,116 trucks, which was 3% more than in August 2014.
The time is now
While SABMiller is not a ‘textbook’ acquisition target for ABInBev, with a window of opportunity
presented courtesy of bond / fx markets, with no other large beer assets on the shelf and with the
company facing structural growth issues (cf. Volume detox, The Craft Invasion), our motto has
been ‘Now or Never’ with regard to the likelihood of the deal happening (cf. Deal detox). Following
yesterday’s announcements, is the time for this often-talked about deal finally now?
Much to ponder but we think the deal will go ahead…
There are many imponderables to keep us guessing over coming days, weeks and months.
Acquiring SABMiller would be anything but straightforward (it would be a huge deal, there are
many interested parties that need to be happy, cultural misfits, anti-trust issues….etc). Still, needs
must and we dare say that ABInBev has incorporated these factors into its thinking / sounded the
important parties out before approaching the SABMiller board.
…if ABInBev stumps up
If the SABMiller board is to recommend a deal, it will do so at a materially higher share price in our
view. Recent fx weakness should not cloud the compelling structural growth story that awaits
SABMiller in the medium to long-term. ABInBev are being shrewd opportunists yet again. Fair play
to them but after some toing and froing, we expect it will have to stump up for a takeout price in the
GBP40s (we upgrade our TP to GBP42.50). We keep SABMiller on an Outperform rating.
A potentially compelling investment, but there are too many unknowns right now
The combined entity would be a compelling investment proposition at the right price in our view,
(55% of the global beer profit pool, better diversification, fantastic pricing power...etc). However,
with ABInBev shares up 6% yesterday, many unknowns at play, likely poor value creation, the risk
of a dividend cut….etc, we see no rush to jump on board here. We keep ABInBev on a Neutral
rating for now.
AB InBev bid for SABMiller likely to be 40% in stock; analysts estimate knockout bid range of GBP 3.90 to GBP 4.50 per share
A takeover bid for FTSE-100 brewing company SABMiller [LON:SAB] by Belgian rival Anheuser-Busch InBev [EBR:ABI] would probably involve at least 40% of the bid being offered in AB InBev shares, according to an analyst cited by The Times. The analyst argued that financing an offer with that proportion of stock would allow SABMiller shareholders the Santo Domingo family and Altria to stay invested in the brewing sector.
Altria owns a 27% stake in SABMiller, while the Santo Domingo family holds 12%, the item said. The article also noted that the private equity firm 3G Capital is an investor in AB InBev.
SABMiller on Wednesday, 16 September confirmed that it had been informed by AB InBev that the Belgian brewing company intends to submit a takeover offer. SABMiller added that it has yet to receive an offer from AB InBev or any further details regarding the potential bid.
Most analysts cited by The Times report thought that AB InBev would pitch its opening offer at 4000p per share, although analysts at Nomura thought that the Belgian group would offer 4400p.
Analysts cited by a Financial Times report estimated that a knockout offer for SABMiller would be priced at between 3900p and 4500p per share. That range represents a valuation of GBP 63bn (EUR 86.52bn) to GBP 73bn for SABMiller.
SABMiller’s African joint venture with the French company Castel might be a complicating factor in any takeover by AB InBev, the FT article said. Should Castel walk away from the joint venture, SABMiller’s African business - a key aspect of any deal given AB InBev’s very limited presence in the continent - would be considerably less attractive, the report said.
Other potentially complicating factors include SABMiller’s bottling operations on behalf of Coca-Cola. AB InBev has similar deals with Coca-Cola’s rival PepsiCo, the item noted.
SABMiller’s share price closed 599.5p up at 3614.0p in London yesterday, valuing the company at GBP 58.47bn.
Kuwait Oil Planner Al-Attar: Govt seeking to increase oil production capacity; to begin offshore oil exploration in two years
- To add 700K bpd from offshore
- Kuwait to raise production capacity to 3.5M bpd by end-2015- and targets 4M bpd by 2020