ACCOUNTING

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SpaceX went public in June, raising a record-breaking $75 billion that put the company at a nearly $1.8 trillion valuation. The quick pacing of the transaction was perhaps fitting for a company that builds rocket ships, but one of its finance leaders said she “wouldn’t change a thing” with respect to the speed it required.

“Time can be your enemy,” Courtney Zeppetella, SpaceX VP and corporate controller, said on a panel at Workiva’s Amplify conference in September.

Whereas it could take up to two years for some companies to get ready for an IPO, Zeppetella told a packed conference room in Las Vegas that she found out in “early winter” that SpaceX intended to go public. The company confidentially filed a draft Form S-1 on March 30.

“Sometimes 12 and 18 months feels very far away, and so I think it is sometimes hard to get people to focus on the things that they need to focus on,” Zeppetella said.

SpaceX pulled off its accelerated feat in no small part because of its preparation. In describing the process, Zeppetella and her fellow panelists had some advice for companies with IPOs in their sights.

Build the financial reporting team well in advance, the SpaceX controller advises.—AZ

      

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CAPITAL MARKETS

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Yields for long-term bonds are high right now, but it’s not just the US experiencing this phenomenon. Yields are high for bonds in many parts of the world, which pushes up interest rates for consumer and business borrowers.

In the US, the 10-year Treasury closed at 5.28% on Oct. 2, and hit 5.34% on Oct. 5—the highest level it reached since 2002.

The UK’s 10-year Gilt yield hovered at 5.38% on October 6, down from 5.4% a day before. And Japan’s 10-year government bond stood at 3.1% on Tuesday, its highest level since 1996.

“Long-term bond yields have risen sharply around the world, both compared with pre-pandemic levels and since the Iran conflict began,” Citigroup said in a Sept. 25 global markets and economy report. The investment bank noted that, in several countries, 10-year bond yields have jumped by 60 to 100 basis points since February.

Dominic Pappalardo, chief multi-asset strategist at Morningstar Wealth, told CFO Brew that the hike in bond yields “is not just happening in the US. It’s definitely happening around the globe, particularly [in] other developed markets.”

US government funding needs are also driving higher yields.—LB

      

MERGERS

Morning Brew Inc.

After a yearlong courtship complete with lawsuits, rival suitors, and financing drama, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery finally tied the knot yesterday, closing their roughly $110 billion merger and creating a new media mega-giant named Skydance. Shares will trade on the NYSE under the ticker SKYD.

The combination puts a head-spinning who’s who of Hollywood under one roof, bringing together streaming services and TV networks like HBO, CBS, CNN, Paramount+, and HBO Max, along with franchises ranging from Harry Potter to Mission: Impossible.

The wedding bill. But married life is no picnic: Skydance now has to prove that the empire it just built is financially sustainable, starting with a balance sheet carrying roughly $80 billion of debt.

Paramount raised about $52 billion of debt to fund the acquisition, including investment-grade bonds, junk bonds, and loans, and it did so at an especially painful time for borrowers. The longest-dated bonds were issued at yields approaching 9%, while the broader surge in Treasury yields has pushed borrowing costs to levels not seen in decades.

One analyst calls the path ahead for Skydance an “uphill climb,” Brew Markets reports.—SY

      

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market forces

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: 30%. That’s how much an eBay call option rose in seven minutes on May 7, following a recommendation from a Discord trading chat to buy. This follows a trend of financial influencers, or “finfluencers,” causing a rush in retail trading through Discord messages. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “For the first time, we have the studios, the franchises, the libraries, the talent and scale all under one roof to compete with anyone in the world…We didn’t do this deal simply to get bigger…we’re going to invest aggressively in great storytelling.”—Skydance CEO David Ellison to Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount employees (Business Insider)

Read: A year after President Donald Trump’s administration made drastic cuts to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the corporate watchdog has given a “clean bill of health” to many of the companies it reviewed earlier this year. (Reuters)

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• CFO at System One
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