Private equity and venture capital markets in Europe

This review article provides a comprehensive outlook of the European Venture Capital and Private Equity markets. Venture Capital investments are a fundamental pillar for the future of European firms and European innovation. They are increasing at an unforeseen rate, leveraging on the unprecedented size of the resources available and the huge opportunities, as the ESG paradigm, arising in the continent. The literature entangling venture capital in Europe is relatively young. Nevertheless, Europe represents an excellent ground to test research ideas, as the venture capital markets considered are mature but rich in variety of specificities withi

Bimodal action of the flavonoid quercetin on basophil function: an investigation of the putative biochemical targets

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Flavonoids, a large group of polyphenolic metabolites derived from plants have received a great deal of attention over the last several decades for their properties in inflammation and allergy. Quercetin, the most abundant of plant flavonoids, exerts a modulatory action at nanomolar concentrations on human basophils. As this mechanism needs to be elucidated, in this study we focused the possible signal transduction pathways which may be affected by this compound. Methods: K2-EDTA derived leukocyte buffy coats enriched in basophil granulocytes were treated with different concentrations of quercetin and triggered with anti-IgE, fMLP, the calcium ionophore A23187 and the phorbol ester PMA in different experimental conditions. Basophils were captured in a flow cytometry analysis as CD123bright/HLADRnon expressing cells and fluorescence values of the activation markers CD63-FITC or CD203c-PE were used to produce dose response curves. The same population was assayed for histamine release.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Quercetin inhibited the expression of CD63 and CD203c and the histamine release in basophils activated with anti-IgE or with the ionophore: the IC50 in the anti-IgE model was higher than in the ionophore model and the effects were more pronounced for CD63 than for CD203c. Nanomolar concentrations of quercetin were able to prime both markers expression and histamine release in the fMLP activation model while no effect of quercetin was observed when basophils were activated with PMA. The specific phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor wortmannin exhibited the same behavior of quercetin in anti-IgE and fMLP activation, thus suggesting a role for PI3K involvement in the priming mechanism.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results rule out a possible role of protein kinase C in the complex response of basophil to quercetin, while indirectly suggest PI3K as the major intracellular target of this compound also in human basophils.</p

The regulation of banking system and of capital adequacy

The debate around the need of a European CIB system is much more relevant and impactful as it involves the European community and European stakeholders at large. The question is not merely reported to the financial industry per se and to the Banking Union but it has to embrace the larger political debate about the strategy Europe has to pursue. The risk EU is facing appears crystal clear: the European financial industry could become a huge lending system whereas the role of banks will be under pressure. On the one hand, more value add services of CIB are delivered by non-EU players. On the other, fintech companies generate a lot of competition with a significant disruptive power or at least disruptive on margins. Is it acceptable? Alternatively, shall we suggest more proactive and concrete actions not against someone but in favour of a more diversified eco-system whereas European voice matters? Is it too late to promote concrete actions to stimulate the rising of a competitive European CIB industry? It is not, but actions have to be focused and they have to be identified through bottom-up and top-down recommendations and suggestions related to the architecture of the Banking Union

Venture capital network

Entrepreneurs spend days and days in finding the way to get introduced to VCs, while VCs jump from event to event in the aim of spotting the next unicorn. The whole startup and venture capital industry is connected over tiny details: participating at the same events, binge at the same accelerator, investing together in a promising – or in a failing – company. Other ties are more personal. Founding a company together, or attending the same university, creates strong social ties among individuals. Startups themselves are connected by providing products to each other. Investors and entrepreneurs are the fundamental players in developing companies and they coexist in a complex networked system. Innovation, funding, information, and knowhow are spread through it, by means of a multitude of connections formed in a variety of ways. The entry provides an overview of the state of the literature, shedding a light on the challenges faced by this research area and offering suggestions on its potential developments

The fundamentals of banks

We need to revert the story telling on banks and give a proper perspective on what they can do for the economy overall. Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) is in fact the banking activity that most affects the growth of companies and their ability to be more robust and competitive. In the financial world, the key variable for development is technology, enabling the use of information for the benefit of the customers. The availability of data and their reading on a large scale makes it possible to overcome segmentations and artificial classifications, which have been part of the history of banking strategies, moving towards a punctual offer and cut on the real profile of each individual customer. For the corporate market, the tailor-made design of the products involves a more complex choice, which sees the replacement of credit services open to the whole range of financial operations: from debt capital markets, equity capital markets, private equity, restructuring to M&A deals. In this sense, the role of the bank is crucial because only the bank has knowledge and authority to push and guide managers and entrepreneurs to choices not easy, such as to open up capital and use the markets for their funding. Acting as an advisor, as an investor, or as a financial sponsor. All decisions are decisive for their growth

Introduction to corporate and investment banking

In addition to size, the business model of banks is another penalizing aspect of the European banking system. The most revealing statistic in this regard can be found in the breakdown of funding for American and European institutions. In the US, 70% of funding for companies consists of securities, while in Europe the same percentage is covered by bank loans. This substantial difference makes European companies less capitalized and less competitive from the market’s perspective. Moreover, from a lender’s standpoint, this means that European banks appear to be very dependent on the lending business and as such exposed to the (mostly external) volatility of interest rates. Vice versa, the dependence of US banks on the securities market protects them from reliance on interest margins. However, the business model question does not imply that a radical transformation of European banks is either obligatory or even desirable. Instead, there needs to be a shared (European!) commitment among banks to progressively transition toward a complete range of investment banking activities. This should be endorsed, once again, on the political, supervisory and regulatory fronts, while engaging shareholders as well. All this is not only for the good of the profit and loss accounts of banks, but more importantly for the sake of financial growth - and real growth - of businesses