Squaring it the Afterpay way, Coinbase joins our Cowries Watch.
Square is set to acquire afterpay, Markets and usual and why the second richest celebrity takes coffee with us today.
Hey Hisa Fan,
Last week was an interesting one as markets reacted to various data and events from both private and public entities.
On the side of the global markets, Jack Dorsey, the tech mogul who founded the bird app (Twitter) and American financial services and digital payments company, Square Inc, took to Twitter on Tuesday evening, announcing that Square Inc would be acquiring the Australian firm Afterpay, dubbed for it’s “Buy now Pay Later” program.
Since its founding back in 2014 in Australia, Afterpay has expanded its footprint and now operates in five global markets comprising Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Afterpay has grown from a nil income company to a $39 billion firm.
The acquisition of Afterpay brings further limelight to square Inc, which earlier this year launched a banking service, allowing for its users to save and even provide loans to small business owners. This now brings square to the next stage of development, even after Dorsey announced that the digital payment company will start the development of their own cryptocurrency.
Coffee Break
Rihanna is a billionaire - That’s right, looks like Rihana’s umbrella isn’t that full. The musician investor is now the second richest female celebrity, coming second to Oprah Winfrey. According to data from Forbes, Riri is now worth $1.7 Billion.
Guess where Riri got her shining diamonds from? Apparently, $1.4B of the celebrity’s wealth comes from her beauty company, Fenty, for which she holds a whopping 50% stake. So, thinking about doing music, you might want to add a beauty and cosmetics line next to it.
On Markets.
From the global front, U.S Stocks raced to new highs for a second straight week backed by the latest jobs report reflecting the broadly favourable fundamental backdrop. Big tech companies were on the lead, many investors are looking at tech & healthcare stocks to continue the gain, with news of the now fire-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Local Stocks were fairly flat for the week, Safaricom hit an all-time high as news came in that Safaricom Ethiopia would be allowed to operate mobile money services once the bidding for the second telecommunication’s licence in Ethiopia was complete.
The All-share index of the NSE (NASI) was up 0.98 points to close Friday at 178.50 basis points. The NSE 20 share index and the NSE 25 share indices were similarly up, adding 0.17 points and 27.08 points to close the week at 1974.46 and 3917.17 points respectively.
Our main focus for the week was on Kenya Reinsurance Corporation which released lower than expected Half Year results, signalling a struggling insurance sector in the country.
What Cowries Are we collecting this week?
Unga Group Plc - Well, looks like it’s Unga is what we need as our daily bread. Unga Group entered conditional investment agreements pitting two of its subsidiaries with global nutrition and aquafeed manufacturer Nutreco International B.V. Our cowrie collectors will be following on any further restructuring processes taking shape in the company. A week earlier, Unga Group announced of a purchase agreement with cold storage and logistics company BigCold Kenya to sell its bakery business represented by the Ennsvalley Bakery Limited.
Coinbase Global Inc - On Tuesday, Coinbase global inc will be releasing their financial results, much-awaited will be to see the performance of the company with the possible effect of earnings on the company which focuses mainly on cryptocurrency trading. What are your expectations of Coinbase’s performance?
Global Data Watch - As a growing concern, we will be watching the spreading of the Delta Variant of covid and also the impact it has on markets as various global markets move towards releasing various economic data including the U.S Import Price Index (IPI) and the growing tech crackdown from China.
How about you? What are your cowries for the week?
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