How Women Entrepreneurs Navigated COVID-19...Actor Daniel Dae Kim's Fight for Equity...Asia's Anticipated IPO Wave

[Goldman Sachs]( [BRIEFINGS] June 17, 2021 How Women Entrepreneurs Navigated COVID-19 Above (L to R): Asahi Pompey and Candice Tse of Goldman Sachs and Mantsha Pheeha of Talent Unleashed When South Africa went into lockdown last year, executive coach Mantsha Pheeha saw her revenue streams and in-person speaking events dry up overnight. “I moved from having a secure business to owing people back their deposits,” Pheeha explains in an episode of Exchanges at Goldman Sachs. Pheeha is one of more than 1,100 female graduates of the firm’s 10,000 Women and 10,000 Small Businesses programs who participated in a recent report on how their businesses fared during the pandemic. Like many respondents, Pheeha survived by embracing technology. She shifted to virtual speaking events and, in the process, “sold more books online than I ever did in person.” At that moment, she says, “I decided, OK, there’s actually another business model that I can employ.” Pheeha’s experience echoes that of many small business owners, says Asahi Pompey, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. “When the economy turns down, entrepreneurs ramp up. They're nimble. They pivot. And we saw that among our population.” According to the report, 78% of respondents say they are confident about their future business prospects. “The degree of confidence matters because it can impact the likelihood of growing a business's footprint,” says Candice Tse, U.S. head of Market Strategy within GSAM’s Strategic Advisory Solutions team and the lead author of the report. “It can also define an entrepreneur's desire to seek out more funding to carry out new, innovative ideas.” [Listen to podcast]( [Read report]( SHARE: [twitter]( [facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [email](mailto:?subject=From%20Crisis%20to%20Confidence%3A%20How%20Women%20Entrepreneurs%20Fared%20During%20the%20Pandemic&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfyCLXYWW05I%26feature%3Dyoutu.be) New Frontiers: Mergers, Activists and Digital Currencies In recent episodes of The Daily Check-In, experts from Goldman Sachs discuss the “superbloom” in M&A, the surge in shareholder activism and the prospect of central bank digital currencies. David Dubner of the Investment Banking Division on the tailwinds leading to a “superbloom” of M&A and separation activity: “We are hopefully emerging positively from what is a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and that is leading corporate boards and management teams to reassess and reimagine their businesses ahead...And that is leading many clients to look to the M&A chess board, both in terms of inorganic M&A growth opportunities as well as on the divestiture side, pruning their portfolio to better optimize that mix.” [[Watch video]( Avinash Mehrotra of the Investment Banking Division on what’s driving levels of shareholder activism to an all-time high: “One of the biggest factors driving this activity is really the emergence of non-dedicated activists or funds that really have not done activism in the past, but this is their first time or they're an occasional activist. When you think about all of the activity we've seen this year, over two-thirds of that activity in the U.S. has come from these non-dedicated or occasional activists.” [[Watch video]( David Mericle of Goldman Sachs Research on why central banks are considering digital currencies (CBDCs): “The reason that these projects have really accelerated over the last year or two is in part a desire to crowd out adoption of private digital currency alternatives that could pose a financial stability risk, by offering a central bank digital currency as an alternative…In the case of emerging-economy central banks, the emphasis is really on financial inclusion and payment sufficiency. And that is especially true in countries where the average person might not have access to a local bank or where some big app-based payment provider would otherwise monopolize the domestic payment system. In contrast, advanced-economy central banks are more focused on improving the safety and robustness of the payment system, although most consider it an open technological question whether or not a CBDC would really achieve this.” [[Watch video]( [Watch videos]( SHARE: [twitter]( [facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [email](mailto:?subject=The%20Daily%20Check-In%20with%20Goldman%20Sachs&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPLIyiGQywEp65ogt2Bi3vTK7ngXDTM6wT9) Actor Daniel Dae Kim's New Role: Advocate for Equity Above (L to R): Candice Tse of Goldman Sachs and actor and producer Daniel Dae Kim In a recent episode of Talks at GS, actor and producer Daniel Dae Kim discusses his latest role: advocate for racial equity. In March, he testified before Congress in favor of stronger measures to fight the rising tide of violence against Asian Americans. “It matters to me that I live in a country where people don't kill each other because of what we look like,” Kim explains. “And that goes beyond the Asian American community. That's about humanity.” But the Korean American star of many shows and movies—including Lost, Hawaii Five-0 and Raya and the Last Dragon—says Hollywood also has a lot of work to do. “You have, in my industry, a lot of representation now in comparison to what used to be. At the same time, if you look at how many [Asian Americans] are [in] leading roles—how many are actually the number-one on the call sheet, the lead—we still have a real big disparity. And that's also true in the executive levels of our business,” Kim notes. [Watch video]( SHARE: [twitter]( [facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [email](mailto:?subject=Talks%20at%20GS%20with%20Actor%20Daniel%20Dae%20Kim&body=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2F_-f-LwZiNbM) Briefly…on Asia’s Anticipated IPO Wave At Goldman Sachs’ annual TechNet Conference, senior leaders from the firm’s Investment Banking and Financing business in the Asia-Pacific region discussed what's driving the recent surge in capital markets activity. Philippa Vizzone moderated a conversation with Aaron Arth, Raghav Maliah and Jung Min on the outlook for corporate activity in the region. Below are excerpts from their conversation. Philippa Vizzone: Raghav and Jung, as the co-heads of the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Group in Asia Pacific Ex-Japan, can you describe the state of the current environment in the TMT space and how those companies fared during the pandemic? Raghav Maliah: The pace of digitization significantly accelerated during the pandemic. Things that we were expecting to happen a couple of years down the road are all happening now. In general, technology has helped the world cope and live life in a more normal way. And over time, it's also changing behaviors. Jung Min: It wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about why companies were staying private for longer and continuing to grow in size as private companies. Interestingly, it seems that with COVID and the acceleration in the digitization of fundamental technologies, we’ve seen a wave of private companies decide it was the right time to go public. We actually started to see this in the Asia-Pacific region first, starting last August, and it’s been an incredibly busy period since then. Philippa Vizzone: Aaron, as head of financing for the region, can you describe its state of financing at a time when we’ve seen a blistering pace of companies going public? What has the appetite been like for listings and follow-on offerings? Aaron Arth: We’re seeing increased liquidity in the markets and that’s provided a strong base for companies to raise capital and fund the growth they need in the region. As a result, we’re seeing companies raise capital at a breakneck pace. For example, year-to-date issuance has already surpassed the full-year volumes for 11 of the last 15 years. While companies in the TMT sector have been particularly active, we’re seeing activity across sectors and platforms, as well as record volumes of issuance in the secondary market across primary or convertible securities. Philippa Vizzone: Given this strong base of capital raising, what do you expect to see on the horizon for China in the next 12 months? Raghav Maliah: Over the next few years, we expect to see 300 to 400 companies in Asia go public. And to be clear, these aren’t startups, but developed, high-quality businesses with strong fundamentals that are expected to be profitable, having already benefited from available private capital. To be sure, we’re seeing a little bit of indigestion right now with markets in Asia falling more recently and rising concerns over inflation, but we remain optimistic. Aaron Arth: While it’s true that we’re probably getting a bit of pushback from the market, given the record levels of issuance, if you take a step back and look at what’s actually going on, the type of companies coming to market are well established. This is a crucial and differentiating factor. During the tech bubble in the late 1990s and early 2000s, startups were often just adding a “dot-com” to their names and going public in a market that was euphoric. Today, there’s a strong set of corporates coming into the market with an enormous amount of capital—and importantly global capital—that’s available for the region. These are companies that should be going public. So we believe this is just the next stage of maturation in this region for companies, particularly those in and around tech. Philippa Vizzone: Just to widen our perspectives, can you describe some of the opportunities in India and the Southeast Asia markets? Jung Min: We’ve seen growing investor interest in those markets in recent years. While China is clearly the biggest geographic market in the region, Southeast Asia and Korea are garnering more attention as companies show that they’re able to scale beyond their borders. And we think we’ll soon see multibillion-dollar companies in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. In India, we see a large pipeline of private companies that have been able to grow tremendously because of the availability of private capital that’s been growing in India over the last five to 10 years. And at some point, we’re going to see those companies tap the public markets. Philippa Vizzone: And what would be the catalyst for these companies to tap the public markets? Aaron Arth: We’ve seen how the access to global, not just local, capital has spurred companies in China to go public, and we expect this global capital will be a key catalyst in these markets, as well. In particular, India has been an isolated market for some time with a lot of local capital driving the market. Today, there’s greater scale in the amount of capital that’s being raised. And that capital creates greater liquidity. There’s always been an interest in these markets, but the question was: How do you invest in these markets with some safety and security with liquidity behind it? Now investors have a lot more comfort in entering these markets. [Read more Briefly Q&As]( SHARE: [twitter]( [facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [email](mailto:?subject=Briefly%E2%80%A6on%20Asia%E2%80%99s%20Impending%20IPO%20Wave&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goldmansachs.com%2Finsights%2Fseries%2Fbriefly%2Findex.html) Goldman Sachs Media Highlights Business Insider - June 15 [Goldman Sachs Says It Is Seeing a 'Superbloom' of M&A Activity]( CNBC - June 15 [Goldman Sachs’ Jeff Currie Sees $80/Barrel Oil in Third Quarter]( (4:16) Bloomberg - June 11 [Could Be in a Redistribution Cycle from Capital to Labor: Koch]( (8:19) [Subscribe]( [Unsubscribe]( The data provided in this newsletter is for information purposes only and should not be construed as investment or tax advice nor as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any particular security. Goldman Sachs believes the data in this newsletter is accurate, but does not verify its accuracy independently and does not warrant or guarantee that it is accurate or complete. 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