Daily Brief Financials: Japan Exchange Group, Commerzbank AG, ClimateRock, Seazen (Formerly Future Land) and more

• The TSE’s new efforts to encourage companies to disclose measures to improve their capital efficiency and stock prices correlate closely with general indicators of good governance.
• Over 60% of companies that we classify as “Proactive” have already disclosed their status, while only around one third of “Obstructive” companies have done so.
• Companies with higher levels of Board Independence and that are more aligned with shareholders are more likely to be better allocators of capital for long-term growth.

• The German Government is planning to reduce its stake in private companies (100+), which is reviving the talk of a merger between Commerzbank (15.75% owned by Germany) and Deutsche Bank.
• In case of a (logical) all-share merger, the German Government would just exchange a 15.75% stake in Commerzbank for a smaller one in the New Deutsche Bank (estimated ~5.75%).
• The most likely outcome is an accelerated book build among institutional investors (as the British Government has done with Natwest, formerly RBS, in the past), in my view.

• The last week was packed with activity from SPACs ranging from Deals to LOIs and Lawsuits.
• A SPAC will take a holding company public while a blank-cheque firm signs a letter of intent to take an AI-focused company public.
• Also, a SPAC filed a suit against an investment firm and fintech De-SPACs outperformed their IPO peers in Q4. Read on to find out the latest about all things SPACs.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• Vedanta Resources