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Lawrence Elbaum, co-head of law firm Vinson & Elkins' shareholder activism practice, said investors were looking for value-boosting strategies that do not require much funding in a difficult market. Deka Investment, which has around 367 billion euros ($392 billion) in assets under management and holds stakes in most major German corporations, has repeatedly called out German companies for structural weaknesses. Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 index (.GDAXI) put in the worst performance of any major European stock market in the past year, rising just 2%. Joe Kaeser, supervisory board chairman of Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE), said the United States was much more advanced, and also more successful, in the field of shareholder activism. As CEO of conglomerate Siemens AG from 2013 until 2021, he engineered one of Germany's most successful corporate break-ups, separately listing Siemens Energy and Siemens Healthineers (SHLG.DE) and merging Siemens's wind unit with Spain's Gamesa.

☆ Exclusive: Goldman Sachs to cut asset management investments that weighed on earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Saeed Azhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) asset management arm will significantly reduce the $59 billion of alternative investments that weighed on the bank's earnings, an executive told Reuters. "It's not going to zero because we will continue to invest in and alongside funds, as opposed to individual deals on the balance sheet." The positions included $15 billion in equity investments, $19 billion in loans and $12 billion in debt securities, alongside other investments. If the environment improves for asset sales, Salisbury said he expected to see "a faster decline in the legacy balance sheet investments." Goldman Sachs' asset management arm closed a $15.2 billion fund earlier this month to make junior debt investments in private equity-backed businesses.

☆ Goldman Sachs to cut asset management investments that weighed on earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's asset management arm will significantly reduce the $59 billion of alternative investments that weighed on the bank's earnings, an executive told Reuters. "It's not going to zero because we will continue to invest in and alongside funds, as opposed to individual deals on the balance sheet." The positions included $15 billion in equity investments, $19 billion in loans and $12 billion in debt securities, alongside other investments. If the environment improves for asset sales, Salisbury said he expected to see "a faster decline in the legacy balance sheet investments." Goldman Sachs' asset management arm closed a $15.2 billion fund earlier this month to make junior debt investments in private equity-backed businesses.

☆ Novartis' CEO is charging ahead in cutting tens of thousands of workers to transform the $220 billion pharma giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Novartis is laying off thousands of workers, CEO Vasant Narasimhan told Insider. Through layoffs and spinoffs, the Swiss giant expects to trim its headcount by about 30% by 2024. SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of layoffs are "happening now," Vasant Narasimhan, the CEO of Novartis, told Insider, as he hopes the $220 billion Swiss giant is entering the final steps of becoming a smaller, more-focused drug company. The Swiss giant had about 125,000 full-time employees at the time, and it has about 108,000 workers today. The restructuring will save Novartis about $1.5 billion annually, Narasimhan said during his Monday presentation at the JPMorgan conference.

☆ Wells Fargo, once the No. 1 player in mortgages, is stepping back from the housing market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

watch nowWells Fargo is stepping back from the multi-trillion dollar market for U.S. mortgages amid regulatory pressure and the impact of higher interest rates. It's the latest, and perhaps most significant, strategic shift that CEO Charlie Scharf has undertaken since joining Wells Fargo in late 2019. Following those once-huge mortgage players in slimming down their operations has implications for the U.S. mortgage market. Today, Wells Fargo is the third biggest mortgage lender after Rocket and United Wholesale Mortgage. Wells Fargo employees have speculated for months about changes coming after Scharf telegraphed his intentions several times in the past year.

LONDON/NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Private credit has grown into a $1.3 trillion mountain over the last decade. When banks stopped lending to private equity firms in 2022, private credit firms stayed active. High-yield loans issued by banks and then sold on to investors in the market fell 80% in the first nine months of 2022, according to Fitch Ratings. Specialist private lenders, however, had some $390 billion of spare capital to spend, according to Preqin data. Investors who funded private lenders may be in for a shock.

☆ What’s gone wrong at Beyond Meat
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And fierce competition is squeezing sales, including in frozen, plant-based chicken, a category that is growing while refrigerated plant-based meat sales falter. “We believe that healthy competition within plant-based meat is a good thing as it brings investment in marketing to the category,” said Brown during the November analyst call. It’s true that the plant-based meat pie is smaller these days. Ground plant-based meat fell about 19%, and patties were down 30% in that period. It launched a retooled version, Beyond Chicken Tenders, in stores in 2021, and has built its plant-based chicken portfolio since then.

☆ The tech sector isn't going to be a leader next year, says Truist's Keith Lerner
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe tech sector isn't going to be a leader next year, says Truist's Keith LernerJPMorgan’s Gabriela Santos and Truist Wealth’s Keith Lerner join 'Closing Bell: Overtime' to discuss Brad Gerstner's comments on the Fed and rates. They also discuss slimming down the tech sector.

☆ Google must take 'more drastic actions' like layoffs because not enough employees will leave on their own, analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google's headcount grew much faster than its revenue during the third quarter. Google is now the last major holdout among tech giants to avoid laying off employees amid an economic slowdown. And while the company takes pride in the fact that it's never suffered mass layoffs in its history, there may be no other way out for Google, one analyst says. "Google is likely going to find it difficult to reduce headcount growth below revenue growth without more drastic actions," Shmulik wrote. In the last quarter Google hired around 12,000 new employees, making it 24% larger than it was during the quarter last year.

☆ CNN CEO Chris Licht details layoff plans at all-hands company meeting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CNN CEO Chris Licht detailed layoff plans to staff amid tough conditions for parent Warner Bros Discovery. CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO Chris Licht attempted to assert his authority at an all-hands meeting with staff Tuesday morning about the coming layoffs and his plans for the news organization. Licht took some fire at the all-hands over his previous assertions in June that there would be no major layoffs. He told staff there will be a wider reorganization of newgathering staff. Licht also said there would be no layoffs at CNN Digital, although some newsgathering staff are part of CNN Digital.

☆ Meta is reportedly putting some workers onto a '30-day list' that gives them a month to find a new role at the company — or leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta reportedly puts some workers on a "30-day list" that leaves them a month to find a new role at the company. In July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company plans to shrink several teams over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company," Zuckerberg said during the company's quarterly earnings call in July. Last week, the tech company gave dozens of employees a 90-day window to find a new role or leave Google, the publication reported, citing sources familiar with the issue. Have you experienced the 30-day list?

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