3 White Paper Ideas for Investment Banking and Private Equity

Jan 28, 2019 | White Papers

If you’re a financial services marketer, 2019 should provide no shortage of opportunities for you to show your expertise and weigh in on topics that your clients are curious about. As we head into what should be a pivotal year for financial markets and the U.S. economy, our latest e-book features 19 ideas for topics that will be ripe for white papers, bylined articles, and other forms of thought leadership in 2019. In a series of upcoming blog posts, I’ve written about different white paper and other forms of thought leadership ideas for different segments of the investment management industry.

Screen Shot 2019-01-09 at 12.46.52 PM First, we wrote about ideas for the institutional asset management industry; then, we wrote about ideas for private wealth management; and in this post, we present ideas for professionals in investment banking and private equity. Finally, in our last post, we’ll feature ideas for thought leaders working in professional services. Of course, if you want to read all 19 of my ideas for financial marketers in 2019, you can download our e-book at the end of this post.

For now, here are three white paper ideas for financial marketers in the investment banking and private equity industries for 2019.

1. LBO Activity in a Rising-Rate Environment 

Private equity firms have gotten used to having access to extremely cheap sources of debt financing for most of the past decade. As interest rates increase, however, it will be interesting to see how this affects financing decisions and valuations for leveraged buyouts, particularly in light of the limitations on deductions for interest expense imposed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. From early October through early December 2018, as the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note hovered just under 3%, the average junk-rated bond spread—the average amount of extra yield that investors demand to hold junk bonds over Treasurys—increased from 3.03 percentage points to 4.18 percentage points, according to The Wall Street Journal.

 

2. Volatility’s Impact on the IPO Market

Volatility may have returned to markets in 2018, but that didn’t stop the IPO market from building on 2017’s reinvigorated offering pace after a sluggish 2016. There were 190 IPOs in 2018, up 19% from the 160 companies that went public in 2017, according to IPO ETF manager Renaissance Capital, although the median deal size dropped 10% to $108 million from $120 million the year prior. Meanwhile, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), a measure of the market’s volatility, recorded huge spikes in February and again throughout the fourth quarter. A volatile market environment typically keeps firms contemplating an IPO on the sidelines, and it will be fascinating to see if this is the case in 2019, especially considering that a number of high-profile, “unicorn” IPOs—including Uber, Lyft, and Pinterest—are looking to go public.

 

3. Anticipating a Recession’s Impact on M&A

With the U.S. stock market suffering its first annual loss in a decade, a festering trade war between the U.S. and China, and a broader global economic slowdown seemingly on the horizon, many strategic buyers and private equity firms are bracing for a recession. But while a recession doesn’t appear imminent—many core economic gauges suggest a healthy economy in 2019—buyers and investors with multi-year timeframes are preparing for an inevitable downturn. If a sustained slowdown were to occur, which sectors are likely to see a pickup or slowdown in M&A activity? How will valuations change? These questions and others present great opportunity for investment bankers to step in and flex their intellectual muscle.
 

In my last blog post in this series, I’ll provide marketers in the professional services industry with four white paper ideas they can use to ignite their content engines in 2019. Until then, download our free e-book that covers all 19 white paper ideas for financial marketers in 2019.

Download Your Free E-Book of 19 White Paper Ideas for 2019

About the Author Scott -About AuthorScott Wentworth is the CEO at Wentworth Financial Communications. He collaborates with a team of writers and editors at Wentworth to help professionals across the financial services industry build their brands by creating investment-grade white papers, bylined articles, newsletters, blogs, social media posts, and other forms of content marketing.

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