By Nell Mackenzie

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds continued to take bets against bank and financial stocks in the week to Friday, Goldman Sachs wrote in a note seen by Reuters on Monday, amid reported job cuts and reduced dealmaking.

Financial stocks ended the week as the most net sold sector at Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage trading desk, which serves global hedge funds, the note said.

Banks, insurance companies, publicly traded property trusts and capital markets firms which allow people to buy and sell bonds and stocks were all sold on a net basis for the fourth straight week.

A short position bets that an asset price will decline in value, whereas a long position expects it to rise.

Europe’s STOXX 600 banking index has risen 1.7% since August 26, whereas the Dow Jones banking index closed Friday up over 2% for the week ahead of Monday’s U.S. holiday.

Financials as a stock sector were sold in six out of the last seven weeks, said the Goldman Sachs note.

The selling was global, led in notional terms by North America, developing markets in Asia and Europe, the note said.

While total deal values globally have risen by about a fifth, the number of mergers and acquisitions deals has fallen by 25% for the year to June 25, LSEG data shows.

Hedge funds carried out modest net buying in consumer finance, said the Goldman Sachs note.

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Hugh Lawson)

Validus, a Singapore-based digital lending platform for small and medium businesses, has secured $50 million in debt financing from HSBC under the ASEAN Growth Fund strategy.

Validus will use the proceeds to support the financial inclusion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia, addressing the challenges they face in accessing financial resources.

With 64.2 million MSMEs contributing 61% of Indonesia’s GDP, according to Indonesia’s Ministry for Economic Affairs, the potential for growth is immense. These MSMEs employ about 119.6 million people, which is 97% of the total workforce in the country. However, only about 17.5 million MSME players are tapping into the online ecosystem and e-commerce. Indonesian MSMEs face significant challenges in accessing financing, mainly due to commercial banks’ stringent operational, reporting, and collateral requirements, as per a 2017 report by the World Bank. Despite government initiatives, only around 20 percent of bank loans go to MSMEs, the World Bank report said.

Vikas Nahata (Executive Chairman) and Nihkilesh Goel (CEO) co-founded the business in Singapore in 2015. They developed a supply chain-focused lending model that utilized non-traditional data access through partnerships with traditional banks and international institutions. The company has since expanded to include Indonesia (Batumbu), Thailand (Siam Validus), and Vietnam (Validus Vietnam).

“Traditional banks across the SEA region still rely on legacy credit evaluation methods for small businesses, and they are overly reliant on historical financials and real estate-backed collateral,” Goel said. “For a region experiencing GDP growth of 5-6% per annum, small businesses need access to stable and accessible working capital to grow their businesses and contribute to job creation and nation building. This is where Validus plays a major role as the largest digital SME financing provider across ASEAN.”

Its users are MSMEs, who primarily borrow for their short-term working capital needs, Goel told TechCrunch, while lenders include major international institutions (Citi, HSBC, FMO, Credit Saison, OikoCredit) and leading local banks (CIMB Niaga, Bank Mandiri) across Indonesia and Thailand. Goel mentioned that one of its differentiators is over 100 unique partnerships throughout the Southeast Asia region.

“Validus is the largest SME financing marketplace across the South East Asia region by outstanding loan book or monthly loan disbursals where we are currently averaging $150 million of new loan disbursals per month,” Goel said.

In the past three years, the startup has experienced growth in both revenue and net profits.

“Over the last three years, we have grown our consolidated Group revenues at a 69% CAGR and more importantly, our Indonesia business, which is our largest market amongst the four countries we operate in – has been net profit positive since 2022 and a source of positive cash flow for the Group,” Goel told TechCrunch. “Our EBITDA margins are over 50% and at a consolidated Group level we are aiming to be cash flow positive by early next year.”

The company has more than 300 staff across five countries, but it did not disclose how many customers it has.

Its has raised approximately $75 million in total equity funding. Its previous investors include Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, Vertex Growth, FMO, 01Fintech, NongHyup Financial Group, Norinchukin Bank, Aizawa Asset Management, and Lotte F&L.

STARTING THIS FALL MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN WILL HAVE A NEW CLASS REQUIRMENT THEY’LL NEED TO COMPLETE IN ORDER TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL AND THAT’S A PERSONAL FINANCE CLASS THIS NEW REQUIRMENT IS HOPING STUDENTS CAN LEAVE SCHOOL WITH ESSENTIAL SKILLS IN BUDGETING, SAVING, AND INVESTING. THE HOPE ALSO IS THAT THIS YOUNGER GENERATION IN MICHIGAN WON’T HAVE TO FIGURE OUT FINANCIAL ROAD BLOCKS ON THEIR OWN AND THAT THEY CAN BUILD A SECURE FUTURE SEVEN NEWS DETROIT REPORTER PETER MAXWELL SPOKE WITH SEVERAL PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT KIND OF ADVICE THEY COULD SHARE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION