Good afternoon, it is February 25th 2021 and here is your economic and market update from BlackBee.
Today’s focus:
- Irish healthcare research firm acquires rival for $12 billion
- Cryptocurrency exchange to list on NASDAQ
Icon plc (ICLR), the Irish based healthcare contracting research firm, is set to buy rival PRA Health Sciences in a deal valued at approximately $12 billion. In January this year, the company revealed that it provided clinical trial services to the Pfizer BioNTech Covid 19 vaccination programme. The $12 billion deal valuation puts a premium of 30% on PRA’s share price (COB 23.02.2021). PRA has developed mobile and connected healthcare platforms and works with data based healthcare solutions. Icon is listed on the NASDAQ and also released quarterly earnings of $1.90 EPS yesterday, higher than analysts’ forecasts of $1.83 EPS. (Source: RTE, Icon, NASDAQ)
Coinbase Base Inc., the US’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is set to become one of the first major companies to directly list on the NASDAQ. In the group’s filing with the SEC, it has said that it will not raise any more in the process of listing on the NASDAQ. The move will be seen as a massive boost to the cryptocurrency asset class. XBTUSD is trading 6% higher for the day at the time of writing.(Source: Bloomberg)
Best & Worst Performers of Large Cap US Stocks on Wednesday
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Global Market Update
(as at close of markets 24/02/2021)
