Coal. It conjures up images of smokestacks and rampant pollution. One would imagine that given the push for renewable energy and clean power, the coal industry is on its last legs and about to exit the manufacturing stage. The reality is that global coal consumption is at the highest it has ever been and growing. What is occurring is a bifurcation between the more developed countries and the less developed ones in their coal consumption. Figure 1 below illustrates this disparity. Due to environmental and regulatory pressures, more developed countries have been phasing out coal, using cleaner energy sources...
Simulation racing is an e-sport that simulates motor car racing such as those seen in F1, Nascar, and World Rally championships. Sim racing can be played either solo or against others and a player can have anything from a basic setup (all you have is a keyboard/controller) to a complete rig as seen in Figure 1. This includes a cockpit, steering wheel, pedals, gear shifter etc. Sim racing has become more prevalent as it has transitioned from a niche video game to a legitimate e-sport. Sim racing is the nearest a game is to the real sport due to its tactility and immersion. In 2019, a sim racer beat a Formula E champion in a real...
Litigation Finance is a burgeoning industry that is turning legal claims into an asset class. An easy way to understand litigation funding is through an example; if someone or a company wants to sue another party due to patent infringement or another reason, but they lack the funding, they can go to a third party funder who will provide non-recourse financing. If the plaintiff wins, the third-party funder gets a pre-determined portion of the proceeds. Litigation funding has appeal to both parties; the plaintiff takes less risk and has potential upside while the funder receives attractive IRRs that is also non-market correlated. If litigation funding is so appealing...
Our goal in this paper is to understand the domestic Waste Management space and crystalize a perspective on investable trends and companies. More specifically, we provide the backstory to key trends and link these trends to underlying companies poised to benefit. At the end of the article, we segment the different classes of players to help as a reference when reading. We hope this will be useful for the investor seeking to advance their knowledge of the Waste Management space while developing perspectives on potential investment opportunities...
The BNPL industry has caught a lot of attention recently with firms like Afterpay and Affirm commanding nose bleed valuations. What hasn’t got as much attention is BPNL’s lesser-known cousin, Lease to Own (LTO). This industry is geared towards sub/non-prime customers who typically have a credit score below 650 or have no credit score at all. This is about 40% of the US population with an industry TAM of around 50B. Historically the industry was dominated by brick and mortar Rent to Own (RTO) players such as RCII and Aarons, who bought furniture/other items wholesale and then leased those items from their stores...
Although the luxury goods industry has not yet reached that stage in online maturity, that could be a reality sooner than people expect. Chances are none of our readers have ever bought from or even heard of the luxury good platforms Farfetch, MyTheresa, Cettire, and TheRealReal (if you have please reach out). These companies are taking the luxury goods market online. This is a peculiar industry as the luxury goods market is designed for the personal tailor-made experience. Walking into a high-end boutique store, one gets the ten-star experience from personal customer service to incredibly ornate wrapping etc. Over the last ten years...
The amount of companies coming public towards the second half of 2020 has been a bit insane to say the least. According to SEC regulatory filings, Q3 2020 has seen 81 IPOs (ex-SPACs) making it the busiest Q3 by deal count since 2000. The average IPO first-day pop has been 37%. The actions from government organizations to shut down economies have devastated industries such as hotels and leisure but have been a boon to sectors such as Healthcare and Tech. As society pushes for a vaccine, more people than ever are now working from home evidenced by screen time on our favorite devices up almost 60% since...
