Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Petershill Partners said it plans to list an investment vehicle on the London Stock Exchange, taking advantage of a sizzling market for private equity. The London-based business, which invests in private equity and hedge fund firms that collectively manage $187 billion in assets, is tapping into global investors’ desire for juicy returns amid perennially low interest rates. The deal, which would see Petershill’s vehicle as a stand-alone company operated by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, could value it at more than $5 billion, said people familiar with the matter. Founded in 2007, Petershill plans to raise $750 million by selling new shares and will also separately sell existing shares. Some of the firms Petershill has invested in include Francisco Partners, Caxton Associates LP and Pelham Capital Ltd. Following the offering of new and existing shares, at least a quarter of the new vehicle’s shares will be listed. The listing comes during a buoyant time for private equity. The industry has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars from investors over the course of the pandemic. The share prices of large private-equity firms such as Blackstone Group Inc. and KKR & Co. have skyrocketed. A public listing would give Petershill a new source of capital to help fund additional investments. Petershill has targeted firms that manage technology investments since 2017 and has recently launched a focus on healthcare and environmental, social and governance matters. Petershill’s plan comes amid a flurry of private-equity initial public offerings.

The Swiss stock market closed favourably on Monday. The topic of "tapering", i.e. the scaling back of bond purchases by the U.S. Federal Reserve, was pushed further back in time after Friday's weak U.S. labor market report, it was reported. That sentiment had supported equities. It was joined by unexpectedly convincing economic data from Germany. The SMI gained 0.6 percent to 12,430 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were 19 price winners and one loser. Turnover was 20.56 (previously: 22.97) million shares. Bank and insurance stocks were well in the market. Here, participants referred to the recent rise in yields on the bond market. The steeper yield curve put financial stocks in the spotlight, said one trader, referring to the long end of the market, where yields had risen sharply since early August. Credit Suisse and UBS gained 0.9 and 0.8 percent, respectively. Zurich Insurance gained 1.2 percent. In addition, JP Morgan had commented positively on the European insurance sector and raised the price targets of Swiss stocks. The papers of luxury goods stocks Swatch (+0.9 percent) and Richemont (+1.5 percent) recovered from their weakness at the end of the week. Holcim, on the other hand, fell 3.8 percent - weighed down by concerns about possible fines for alleged terrorist financing in Syria. Among the second-line stocks, Burkhalter rose 2.3 percent after presenting good business figures. Newron climbed 6 percent. The pharmaceutical company had reported a new study on a hopeful drug.

European stock markets closed higher on Monday in the wake of the Asian markets, while Wall Street is closed for a public holiday. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.7% to 475.2 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and SBF 120 gained 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 climbed 1% while the FTSE 100 in London increased by 0.7%. TotalEnergies (+1.1%) announced Monday that it has signed agreements with the Iraqi government to develop electricity, gas and water infrastructure in the country. The group estimated the overall investment related to these projects at about 10 billion dollars, or about 8.4 billion euros. The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Ihssan Ismail, quoted by AFP, estimated that the agreement would eventually generate a total value of 27 billion dollars of investment. Renault (+0.1%) expects a third quarter "very difficult" on the front of the shortage of semiconductors before an improvement in the fourth quarter, said a spokeswoman for the group Monday. Valneva (+11.3%) continues to be buoyed by speculation about its Covid-19 vaccine, whose Phase 3 clinical trial results are expected early in the fourth quarter. Spie lost 4.3%. The group announced that it had made a non-binding offer to Engie (+0.5%) to buy Equans, its multi-technical services business. Scor gained 2.6%. The stock benefited from a recommendation upgrade by JPMorgan Cazenove which, in a sector note, revised its advice from "neutral" to "overweight". The stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse (+0.1% in Frankfurt) announced on Friday that 10 new stocks would join the DAX index, which will increase from 30 to 40 shares on September 20. Among these newcomers are the aeronautics group Airbus (+1% in Frankfurt), the sports equipment group Puma (+1.1%) and the branch of Siemens dedicated to medical equipment Siemens Healthineers (+0.1%).

On Monday, Wall Street was closed for a public holiday.

A similar picture as at the start of the week is displayed on Tuesday on the East Asian stock exchanges. In Tokyo (+0.7% to 29,881 points) and in the Chinese places in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the indices rise, with the Nikkei index in the course for the first time since April also again over the 30,000 mark. In Seoul, the index falls by 0.8%. While in Tokyo hope prevails that the successor currently sought by the ruling party LDP for the office of Prime Minister will initiate new stimuli for the economy, help in China good foreign trade data. Both exports and imports China rose in August surprisingly much stronger than analysts had expected, especially since recently increasingly meager economic data were reported from the People's Republic. In Seoul, traders report gains in steel stocks such as Hyuandai Steel (+4.9%) and Dongkuk Steel Mill (+5.3%). The background is that the Gulf Cooperation Council has decided not to impose protective tariffs on steel imports. Chinese technology companies soared in Tuesday morning trade, extending a recent rebound as cheap valuations continued to attract buying interest while a new game’s approval offered a boost. The Hang Seng TECH Index rose as much as 2.3%, with Kuaishou Technology leading the pack with an 8.9% jump. The gain by the short-video platform operator, which competes with TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., came as China approved a highly anticipated mobile game earlier than expected. Tencent shares climbed 2.6%. Meituan surged 5.1% and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. added 1.3%.

Long-dated German government debt yields slipped on Monday with the yield on the 10-year German Bund closing at -0.367%, down from -0.357% Friday night. The Reserve Bank of Australia Tuesday reduced its weekly government bond purchases but also acknowledged a sharp economic deterioration by pushing out a planned review of its bond-buying program from November to February next year. RBA Governor Philip Lowe said the central bank's weekly bond purchases would fall to 4 billion Australian dollars (US$2.98 billion) per week from A$5 billion.

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