Greensill Capital is a financial services company, based in the UK, that serves the worldwide market. They filed for insolvency protection this Monday, March 8th 2021. Founded in 2011 by Lex Greensill, a prominent billionaire Australian businessman, the company focused primarily on supply chain finance. This writer would not be surprised to see a premiere of a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’’-esque film glamorising the story of this colourful character and the recent explosive collapse of his namesake firm. Let’s tell the story from start to finish - the origins, rise and fall of Greensill Capital, a saga peppered with many recognisable names; Sanjeev Gupta, GAM Investment Fund and David Cameron among them. 

The U.S Treasury yield curve has steepened to a four-year high, foreshadowing economic expansion and inflation, reacting to vaccines and new stimulus packages. A steep yield curve- indicating little difference between short term and long-term rates for bonds and notes- often precedes a period of economic expansion.

"In the 21st century, culture is power."  - Park Geun-Hye, Former Korean President.

In the 21st century, Africa has seen exponential growth in its economy. People are moving from rural areas to cities in search of work and the cities are growing at an incredible pace. The future is incredibly bright and looks as if it will be prosperous for the continent. However, there are outside elements spotting the opportunity that is developing. 

In capital markets, most investors used to subscribe to one of two of the main doctrines, value or growth investing. Growth investors seek strong earnings growth often investing in stocks within a 10-year range of their IPO (a prudent estimate). Usually, the investors will value these companies using a projection of earnings by some multiple (or a similar metric to the same effect). Value investing hinges on finding “bargains.” Comparing price to earnings (or once again a similar metric), investors look for companies who have been undervalued by the market.

Ant Group is China’s premier FinTech (Financial Technology) company. The company operates China’s largest digital payment platform, the AliPay app, similar to Venmo in the US, or Revolut in Europe, but also offers online loans which they provide in partnership with traditional banks. The app is by far the largest of its kind in the world, servicing 700 million monthly users.