Daily Brief United States: Ethereum, Shift4 Payments, Cactus Acquisition Corp 1 Ltd, Sealed Air Corp, Bread Financial Holdings , Tredegar Corp and more

• Crypto market is driven by narrative in the short term, and capital favors new narratives. Ethereum restaking is the brand new narrative and biggest investment opportunity in this cycle.
• Restaking and Liquid Restaking will bring upward pressure to ETH, and tokens of Liquid Restaking protocols will benefit from the growing restaking market.
• DeFi use cases related to Liquid Restaked Tokens introduce increased financial leverage to the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, which also entails heightened risks.

• We explore Klarna’s and Stripe’s IPO prospects and valuations based on recent share transactions; Nuvei and Cielo are close to being taken private, with Worldpay now controlled by private equity
• Nuvei and Worldpay both grew by acquisition but failed to deliver on the market’s expected returns, in our view, ending up under PE ownership; is Nexi a potential PE target?
• We retain Visa as a core holding and also keep PagSeguro and PayPal as buys, replacing Cielo with new peer group addition Shift4; we keep our sell rating on Affirm

• This last week was packed with deals, amendments, and merger breakups.
• A SPAC is set to merge with an electric utility firm, and a blank-cheque firm is taking a critical metals supply chain-focused firm.
• Also, Sam Altman’s SPAC surges as it nears a deal, and a SPAC terminates a merger with a hydrogen energy firm. Read on to find out the latest about all things SPACs. 

• Sealed Air (SEE) is a disaster in motion: its entire business is facing extinction as customers move away from the thin-film plastics the company makes.
• Sealed Air’s e-Commerce business has collapsed as Amazon has moved away from the single-use plastics, formerly ever present in its packaging. 
• California just passed two recycling and labeling bills that we think will make Sealed Air’s products unlikely to be used in the State and possibly in the US as a whole.

• Bread Financial (formerly Alliance Data) has experienced a drop in stock price since 2015 but has improved its balance sheet.
• The future earnings outlook is uncertain due to pending regulations, but the company is expected to generate a high return on equity.
• Bread Financial issues private label and co-brand credit cards with major partners, making it a potentially valuable investment opportunity at its current price.

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.

• Tredegar Corporation has been selling off businesses, annuitizing pension plans, and seeing key executives retire in recent years
• With only two remaining businesses, the company is estimated to be worth $11-13 after accounting for debt, before tax implications
• These actions indicate a significant shift in Tredegar’s strategy and possible future liquidation piece by piece

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.