Restructuring power players; Blackstone's Las Vegas bets; fintech winners and losers
Welcome to Wall Street Insider, where we take you behind the scenes of the finance team's biggest scoops and deep dives from the past week.
As the coronavirus shuts down industries and keeps consumers at home, companies have been scrambling for cash to cope. We took a look at the advisers and investors who are gearing up amid the chaos.
Alex Morrell listed top restructuring bankers who will help companies navigate the crisis. From Casey Sullivan and Bradley Saacks, here's a look at 10 Wall Street power players picking through up to $1 trillion in distressed debt to bag huge returns. And in case you missed it last week, Casey also wrote about 10 lawyers who have navigated the biggest bankruptcies in history.
If you aren't yet a subscriber to Wall Street Insider, you can sign up here.
I also wanted to give a warm welcome to Dan Geiger, who joined the team as real estate correspondent on Monday. He's already broken big news about how real-estate tycoon Aby Rosen is abandoning $600 million worth of acquisitions in New York City. And he teamed up with Meghan Morris to report that WeWork competitor Knotel has stopped paying some rent and vendors (plus, they got a look at Knotel financials showing how it's fallen far short of sales targets.)
Have a safe and healthy weekend. As always, my line is open at mmazzilli@businessinsider.com.
-Meredith
Fintech winners and losers
As Dan DeFrancesco reports, the coronavirus crisis is providing the first big test for many young fintechs, which benefitted from rising stock markets and ample funding for years. He spoke to investors and dealmakers about the startups best positioned to succeed - and those that will likely struggle.
Read the full story here:
Here's which fintechs will soar and which will flop as funding dries up, according to 6 investors and dealmakers
Blackstone's Vegas bets
Meghan Morris took a look at how Blackstone has poured billions into a 1.5-mile stretch of Las Vegas in the last five years. The private-equity giant bet on four casinos as part of a simple investing thesis that extended to strategies beyond real estate: people would pay to get out of the house for entertainment.
But with the lights shut off across Sin City due to the coronavirus, Blackstone can't make money from its crown jewel, the Cosmopolitan, though it can still collect rent from the others, for the foreseeable future.
Read the full story here:
Blackstone bet big on 4 huge Las Vegas casinos. Then the coronavirus brought Sin City to a halt, right as the PE giant was trying to unload one of its multi-billion-dollar jewels.
Tiger Global is a fan of TikTok
As Bradley Saacks reports, Tiger Global told investors that "no one knows how long coronavirus will affect our lives or the impact it will have on the economy." Still, it's identifying winners and losers.
"Some businesses, particularly online retailers, digital content platforms, and online education providers, appear to be relative beneficiaries," the firm wrote in an investor letter. It has $1.7 billion in software-as-a-service companies, and also had high praise for TikTok's parent company, ByteDance.
Read the full story here:
Chase Coleman's Tiger Global reveals why it likes TikTok parent ByteDance even more during the coronavirus pandemic
Buy now, pay later
As Shannen Balogh reports, buy now, pay later options are seeing a surge in demand from merchants looking for new ways to get consumers to shop. The companies that offer the service charge merchants a fee for each transaction, but say that their ability to drive sales and increase shopping cart values are worth it.
For one, Affirm has seen a 92% jump in home-office sales - which includes merchants like standing desk retailers Autonomous and Uplift Desk - and a surge in the fitness space from the likes of like Peloton and Mirror.
Read the full story here:
Buy now, pay later startups are 'having a moment' - here's why retailers like Walmart and Target are betting on installment payments to keep consumers spending
On the move
Goldman Sachs has tapped Bradley Gross, Stephanie Hui, Adrian Jones, and Scott Lebovitz to lead a newly formed decision-making body responsible for overseeing the firm's investments in private equity.
Read the full memo Goldman sent to staff announcing the appointments.
WFH on Wall Street
- Bank of America has drawn outrage from customers and staff over its handling of the coronavirus crisis - here's a look at how it dropped the ball
- Here's exactly what the world's biggest wealth managers are doing to keep their richest clients happy during the pandemic
- Citi's head of campus recruiting explains why the bank just guaranteed full-time offers for interns, and shares its latest thinking on going virtual this summer
- How UBS's massive US wealth business made the switch to remote work - and which changes could stick around in the long run
- The CEO of a cloud-based trading tech startup that saw a 30% surge in business last month says the coronavirus is a catalyst for overhauling how Wall Street works
Hedge funds and investing
- Activist investors are scooping up 'ridiculously cheap' shares during the coronavirus crisis, setting off a war of words involving top law firms and Wall Street titans like Carl Icahn
- How a brain-zapping device can calm hedge-fund traders' nerves when markets are chaotic, according to a veteran performance coach
- Chase Coleman's Tiger Global reveals why it likes TikTok parent ByteDance even more during the coronavirus pandemic
- Billionaire-run hedge funds Tiger Global, Maverick, and Coatue all lost double-digits in a tough month
- How $6 billion Balyasny trounced most hedge funds in the first quarter - and where it's focusing next after losing a top macro investor
Fintech and proptech
- Peter Thiel-backed insurance startup Jetty lays off 40% of staff days after pausing the sale of all new policies
- Short-term rental managers are ramping up their amenities to include masks, hand sanitizer, and large cases of wine as city dwellers look for their 'destination isolation'
- The CEO of a coworking software startup explains how he inked a deal to buy a smaller rival in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic - and why he sees more consolidation in the space
- SoFi is buying a payments startup that powers Robinhood, Chime, and Monzo in a $1.2 billion deal that could upend the fintech ecosystem
- WeWork board members are suing SoftBank for backing out of its plan to buy $3 billion of shares, and former CEO Adam Neumann is still weighing legal options
- McKinsey says payments companies could see a $210 billion hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the 10 most important things execs need to know about managing the crisis.
