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☆ Nestlé U-turn is refreshing example of M&A candour
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It’s less common for them to admit as much and reverse tack after just two years. Nestlé originally touted potential annual sales of $1 billion for the drug, which had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Nestlé Chief Executive Mark Schneider can arguably afford to be honest, rather than trying to bury the M&A flop within his $330 billion behemoth. That’s because his overall acquisition strategy seems to be working. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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☆ Rate shock calls time on funky debt boom
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Luxembourg-based group’s move portends a shakeout in the once vibrant market for funky debt that has equity-like characteristics. Hybrid debt boomed during the low-rate era, with issuance topping 35 billion euros last year, according to ING. Yet calling bonds now means issuing new securities at a high cost, especially for weaker companies. Some, like Telefonica (TEF.MC), are still issuing, even at a higher cost. If investors demand higher returns to compensate for the risk of extension, the result will be a smaller, more discerning market.

☆ Brenntag’s U.S. swoop is both logical and risky
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - German chemical distributor Brenntag (BNRGn.DE) is eyeing $5 billion U.S. rival Univar Solutions (UNVR.N). A deal would offer the $10 billion group scale in a fragmented market, and greater exposure to North America. A deal would offer synergies and scale, and give Brenntag more exposure to North America. That market may be more resilient to Europe’s energy crunch, and it made up nearly 70% of Univar sales in 2021. And given the healthier U.S. market, there’s a risk Brenntag gets stuck in a bidding war – or ends up overpaying.

☆ Dr. Martens exposes fashion’s squeezed middle
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Dr. Martens (DOCS.L) revealed a weak spot in Britain’s already ailing retail sector. It also warned that it will have to spend more to hit its existing revenue target of “high teens” percent growth for the full year. That means its EBITDA margin will be 1 percentage point to 2.5 percentage points lower than last year’s 29%. Dr. Martens straddles the high street and luxury retail sectors. Chief Executive Kenny Wilson revealed growth in its direct-to-consumer offering was also slower than expected in the first half.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), announced earlier this year that she intended to hold an advisory independence vote on Oct. 19, 2023, but that it had to be lawful and internationally recognised. Polls suggest voters remain evenly split over whether or not they support independence and a vote would be too close to call. The Scottish government's most senior law officer had asked the UK Supreme Court whether the Scottish government could pass legislation paving the way for an advisory second referendum without the approval of the UK parliament. "The Scottish parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence," said Robert Reed, the president of the UK Supreme Court. Under the 1998 Scotland Act, which created the Scottish parliament and devolved some powers from Westminster, all matters relating to the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England are reserved to the UK parliament.

The interest rate on her operating note doubled this year and will be higher in 2023. Now, his interest rate is 7.35%, and he expects it could reach 8% by year’s end – a 142% increase in eight months. "It's easier to get financing when interest rates are cheap because [banks] are willing to take more risk," said a CNH Industrial dealer representative, who declined to be named. In separate statements, Deere and AGCO said interest rates they offer depend on loan terms, borrower creditworthiness and equipment type. CNH Industrial said interest rates for larger equipment are lower than rates for smaller machinery.

On the contrary, he’s fired Twitter employees who publicly disagreed with him about engineering issues at the company. Musk originally claimed he bought Twitter because he wanted to encourage more free speech on the platform. But no one should be surprised that “free speech” for Musk really means free speech for the powerful. But that doesn’t make him an avatar of free speech. But like other bosses, he’s got a genius for manufacturing unfreedom.

The licenses gave FTX access to U.S. commodities derivatives markets as a regulated exchange. FTX also saw its regulatory status as a way of luring new capital from major investors, the documents show. “FTX has the cleanest brand in crypto,” the exchange proclaimed in a June document presented to investors. According to the document, FTX told the regulator it did not have the same issues as products from other providers that the agency had investigated. "We confirmed these were solely rewards based and do not involve lending (or other use) of the deposited crypto," FTX wrote.

☆ Foreign workers laid off from Big Tech face a deadline: Find a job ASAP, or leave the country
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | Sakshi Venkatraman | Sakshi Venkatraman Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Under the umbrella of a tech giant, not only would he have job security, he thought, but visa security as well. Originally from China, he needed the sponsorship of an H-1B work visa to stay in the U.S.A year went by in his new role and everything seemed to be going well. immigration policy has amplified the uncertainty for immigrant workers in times like this. “It’s definitely harder trying to find a job or trying to find a company that’s willing to sponsor you. “This really helped drive the tech boom in the U.S. and made the U.S. the big tech hub,” Khanna said.

Two Cambodian wildlife officials were among eight people charged Wednesday with running an international monkey smuggling ring that shipped primates to the U.S. that were poached from the wild and falsely labeled as coming from breeding facilities, federal prosecutors said. Cambodian wildlife officials were paid to help transport the monkeys to the facilities, including the Vanny Bio Research center in Cambodia, the indictment says. One of the Cambodian wildlife officials, Masphal Kry, 46, was arrested Wednesday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. According to federal prosecutors in Miami, he personally transported the monkeys to the Cambodian facilities and received payments from the other members of the alleged smuggling ring between December 2017 and this September. “The allegations are alarming — the plundering of wild populations of long-tailed macaques and falsely labeling them as captive-bred in order to bypass regulations,” Kite said.

☆ U.S. targets supply of Iranian drones to Russia in new sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Daphne Psaledakis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The United States is seeking to increase pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, which has reduced cities to rubble and killed or wounded thousands. Russia has procured drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and power infrastructure in Ukraine. Iranian military entities and industries are already under heavy U.S. sanctions over Tehran's nuclear development program. Iran has acknowledged that it had supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine. Treasury also targeted Abbas Djuma and Tigran Khristoforovich Srabionov, accusing the two of being involved in the Wagner group's acquisition of Iranian drones to support combat operations in Ukraine.

☆ Hurricane Nicole unearthed 6 human skulls from a Florida beach, and it's the latest case of long-buried remains found after worsening weather
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Beachgoers found skulls and other bones in Florida after Hurricane Nicole, according to local news. "They are ancestors of the Seminole people," Tina Osceola, a member of the Seminole tribe in Florida, told WPTV. Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesBones won't stay buried in eroding beachesThis is not the first time that hurricanes have unearthed Indigenous remains. Switzerland's melting glaciers unearthed human remains and the wreckage of a historic plane crash. More recently, melting glaciers in the Swiss Alps revealed two sets of human remains and the wreckage of a 1968 plane crash that had been frozen beneath snow and ice this summer.

You can close your Twitter DMs to people you follow in the Privacy and safety section of settings on the website or mobile app. How to close your Twitter DMs on desktopYou can close your DMs to allow messages from only the accounts you follow with just a few clicks in the Twitter website in any browser. To stop spam cold in its tracks, don't allow people whom you don't follow to message you. Dave JohnsonHow to close your Twitter DMs on mobileYou can also close your DMs to allow messages only from accounts you follow using the Twitter mobile app. Go to the Direct Messages settings to stop people you don't follow from messaging you.

☆ Fed's Brainard: Crypto finance needs strong regulation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Recent turmoil in the cryptocurrency market shows the need for it to be firmly regulated the same way traditional finance is, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said on Monday. "It's really concerning to see that retail investors are really getting hurt by these losses," Brainard said in an interview with Bloomberg in Washington, repeating her long-held view that crypto finance needs strong regulation. While the crypto industry has touted digital assets as fundamentally different from traditional finance, Brainard has argued the sector has proven to be susceptible to the same risks and should be subject to the same rules. "It reinforces I think this need to make sure that crypto finance, because it is no different than traditional finance in the risks that it exposes, needs to be under the regulatory perimeter." {nL4N32A0P7}"There need to be strong regulatory guardrails," Brainard said, noting that could include bringing some crypto finance into compliance with existing rules and in some cases expanding regulation.

☆ As Russian Army Falters in Ukraine, Paramilitary Leader Close to Putin Flexes Power
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Thomas Grove | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For years, Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin supported President Vladimir Putin’s foreign military interventions from the shadows with his Wagner paramilitary group. Now, the man known as “Putin’s chef” for his Kremlin-linked catering business is leveraging his fighters’ prominence on the battlefield to boost his influence over the military and in the Kremlin. Analysts say Wagner’s expanded role exposes the haplessness of Russia’s war effort.

☆ Analysis: Iran's unrest sounds death knell for once vibrant reformists
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

It highlighted the main problem facing reformists in a system where Khamenei, 83 and in power since 1989, wields ultimate power. "People feel reformists helped hardliners by promising reforms that were impossible with hardliners in power," a former official who served in the Khatami administration told Reuters. The reform movement is dead." That view has been echoed in the streets where protesters have grouped reformists with hardliners as part of the problem. The fact is that the reform movement is dead, its has been dead for some time," he said.

But there was also a wider question for the officials: could the energy companies' use of such complex instruments threaten financial stability? So the ECB has widened its scrutiny to examine potential domino effects, including on the banks which it supervises. read moreWhile ECB President Christine Lagarde said the ECB stood ready to provide liquidity to banks, she said it would not do the same for energy firms. "Energy companies pose specific risks not only to financial stability. Reuters GraphicsRating agency Moody's, meanwhile, said that energy companies did not provide enough information about their derivatives.

☆ I run the first Chick-fil-A to offer a 3-day workweek. We received 400 job applications for a single job despite the 14-hour shifts.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

What came out of it was the existing three-day workweek that we use now. I split the team into two "pods" that rotate between three-day blocks of 13- to 14-hour shiftsChick-fil-A is famously closed on Sundays. I realized I couldn't schedule those really long shifts and do a normal five-day workweek. We received 429 job applications for the program in one weekChick-fil-A Kendall staff now only have to work two Saturdays a month. Courtesy of Chick-fil-A KendallWe posted a job for a full-time team member on the three-day workweek, and in a period of a week, we had 429 applications.

☆ Brex: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

While Brex broke through as a fintech disruptor offering small businesses and startups access to credit lines and software to manage their finances, it's moved up the corporate food chain in recent years as some of its early clients grew into big companies. Brex boasts more than 10,000 corporate customers, including DoorDash and Airbnb. While its main product – an unsecured, high-limit charge card for start-ups – exposes it to high-risk companies that could fail, the company manages risk by using real-time data on customers to help make dynamic lending decisions. It recently exited the small business sector but expanded its services to include cash flow management software. In April, DoorDash became the first customer for Empower, a spend management tool which also covers travel, procurement, payments and banking access.

☆ The surprising reasons why keeping a handwritten 'core values' list will make you a better leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Maria Dimitropoulou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Keeping a handwritten list of your core values can help you be more efficient and self-aware. Even if you feel committed to your core values, the chaos of daily life can still leave you stuck. Your business mission, vision, and core values are clear, and you identify with them (or at least you think you do). Scripting your values list can also add a therapeutic tone to the whole process; you know what you tolerate and make value-based choices that foster your desired identity. TakeawayA handwritten personal core-values list is a powerful tool for any leader.

☆ Xi opposing nuclear weapons in Ukraine was reason enough to visit China, Scholz says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN/FRANKFURT Nov 5 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was heavily criticised for a trip to Beijing this week, said on Saturday his and President Xi Jinping's joint statement opposing the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine had been reason enough to travel there. Scholz's comments come a day after his visit to the world's second-biggest economy alongside key German corporate CEOs, the first by a G7 nation since the COVID-19 pandemic. "Because the Chinese government, the President and I were able to declare that no nuclear weapons should be used in this war, that alone made the whole trip worthwhile," Scholz said during an event of his Social Democratic party. Xi, who secured a third leadership term two weeks ago, agreed that both leaders "jointly oppose the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons" over Ukraine, but refrained from criticising Russia or calling on Moscow to withdraw its troops. And that means diversifying for all the countries we trade with, especially, of course, a country that is so big and has such a large share of the world economy," Scholz said.

☆ Linde's potential delisting from Germany's biggest stock exchange matters for shareholders like us
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The Club holding is currently listed on two different stock exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange in the U.S. and Germany's Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The main stock index in Germany is the DAX, roughly equivalent to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Additionally, most actively managed mutual fund managers in Europe prohibit any one company stock from comprising more than 10% of a fund. Management believes this cap and associated pressure has negatively impacted Linde's valuation, and shares could realize their full potential by delisting from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. But the trading action in Europe is the completely wrong way to approach Linde's stock.

My financial planning clients always want to now: How much do I really need to save every year? The more expensive your goals and the faster you want to achieve them, the higher your savings rate needs to be. If you're saving 10 to 15% of your income: This is the baseline many experts recommend for a savings rate. If you're saving 15 to 20% of your income: Saving at this level is likely where you start to see a little bit of flexibility in your future. If you're saving 20 to 25% of your income: You're on pace with the baseline my company recommends for our own financial planning clients.

SHEVCHENKOVE, Ukraine—When Russian armored columns drove into this rural community of 20,000 people on the first day of the invasion, Mayor Valeriy Prykhodko tried to count the tanks, artillery pieces and fighting vehicles that rolled past his windows. After the first few hundred, he gave up. “It was too big for counting,” Mr. Prykhodko said. “The horror.”

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