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☆ Indivior opioid settlement makes purer M&A case
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Indivior (INDV.L) is one step closer to becoming a takeover target. Litigation risks have weighed down Indivior in the years following the company’s spinoff from Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L) in 2014. The group still has lawsuits to settle over the same charges with insurers and patients. With its litigation risks easing, Indivior could soon lure larger cash rich pharmaceutical companies keen to access a market that is sadly showing no signs of decline. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Persons: Reckitt, Roche, Indivior, Aimee Donnellan, Neil Unmack, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, Suboxone, AstraZeneca, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Twitter, Toyota, Thomson Locations: U.S

Cost inflation rose during the COVID-19 pandemic and was exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which sent energy prices to record highs last year. Energy costs have since dropped, however, while global prices for some commodities are rising more slowly. Companies like Nestle (NESN.S), Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L) and Danone (DANO.PA) continued to raise prices sharply in the first quarter even though input costs are easing. First quarter price/mix, a basket of variables the company uses to help determine what prices to charge, rose 12.4% while sales volumes declined 4.5%. Similarly, Nestle increased its prices by 9.8% during the quarter and sales volumes - which the company calls real internal growth - fell only 0.5%.

☆ Reckitt names Kris Licht as CEO, beats sales estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L) has named company insider Kris Licht as CEO designate to succeed Nicandro Durante, taking the helm by the end of the year after a transition period. Licht, who has served as president of Reckitt's health business and as chief customer officer since July 2020, will be appointed to the board as an executive director from June 1. Durante, a former BAT (BATS.L) chief executive, will stay with Reckitt until December "to ensure a smooth transition". The company, which makes Durex condoms and Lysol cleaning products, also reported like-for-like net revenue up 7.9% in the first quarter, beating analyst expectations of a 3.6% rise in consensus forecast provided by the company. Reckitt, which also makes Nurofen tablets, cold remedy Lemsip and Dettol hygiene products, now expects like-for-like net revenue growth of 3-5% for the year after beating sales expectations for several quarters in a row, helped by price increases.

☆ Reckitt CEO switch may boost odds of a takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Reckitt Benckiser’s (RKT.L) decision to appoint an insider as CEO may help to entice prospective buyers, like U.S. giant Procter & Gamble (PG.N). Reckitt has been a perennial takeover target, as previous bosses struggled to deliver consistently strong revenue growth. It is still paying down a hefty debt pile following an ill-advised $17 billion takeover of baby food maker Mead Johnson in 2017. Net revenue grew by nearly 8% year-on-year in the first quarter – after excluding acquisitions, disposals and currency fluctuations. Reckitt’s shares trade at 17 times forecast 2023 earnings, compared with P&G’s multiple of nearly 25 times.

The blue-chip index (.FTSE) fell 0.3%, down for the third straight session, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 (.FTMC) shed 0.4% as of 0829 GMT. The FTSE 100 had a good run earlier this month, buoyed by strength in commodity stocks and defensives like pharmaceuticals. However, markets have taken to a wait-and-see mode as earnings kicked in, to assess the impact of monetary tightening on results. Oil and gas stocks (.FTNMX601010) rose 0.6% as crude prices gained on reports of falling U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories. Drax Group's shares (DRX.L) rose 3.8% after the power generator announced a 150 million pound ($187 mln) share buyback programme.

☆ Starbucks' new CEO will start life at the coffee giant with a pay packet that could be worth over $28 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Laxman Narasimhan just started as CEO of Starbucks, and he's set to take home a hefty paycheck. This includes annual equity awards with a target value of $13.6 million, SEC filings show. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings from September, Narasimhan will start with a base salary of $1.3 million per year. Starbucks says he'll also be eligible for annual equity awards with a target value of $13.6 million. When Kevin Johnson resigned as Starbucks CEO in April 2022, former boss Howard Schultz was named as his interim replacement.

☆ Meet Laxman Narasimhan, a coffee industry outsider who just took over as CEO of Starbucks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Laxman Narasimhan officially took over as Starbucks CEO, replacing Howard Schultz. Narasimhan is new to the coffee industry, having started his career in the consulting world before joining PepsiCo, and, later, British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser. Narasimhan built his career in the beverage and consumer-goods industriesLaxman Narasimhan at Starbucks Investor Day in September 2022. Starbucks said at the time that Narasimhan would begin as CEO on April 1, taking over for interim CEO Schultz. Of the 365 Starbucks stores that have held votes to unionize, 292 have voted to form a union.

☆ Water’s big moment risks getting lost in the weeds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Antony Currie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The latest is research published last Thursday by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. The sum, though, is just $140 million, and the U.S. government’s International Development Finance Corporation is pouring in three-quarter of the proceeds. But there is a decent investment case for water without state or supranational support. Without them, water’s big moment risks getting lost in the weeds. Follow @AntonyMCurrie on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSThe United Nations 2023 Water Conference starts on March 22, World Water Day, in New York.

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L), maker of Dettol and Lysol cleaning products, on Wednesday marginally beat full-year like-for-like net revenue expectations, helped by higher prices and its nutrition and health businesses. The company said it would target like-for-like net revenue growth of mid-single digits for 2023, excluding the substantial boost its 2022 sales received from the recall of a rival's infant formula. Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) early last year recalled dozens of infant nutrition products in the United States after customers complained of infants contracting bacterial infections. Reckitt, its biggest rival at the time, ramped up production to fill the supply gap left by Abbott, helping to drive full-year like-for-like net sales growth of about 23% in its nutrition business. The company said full-year like-for-like net revenue increased by 7.6%, edging ahead of analysts' expectations of a 7.5% rise, according to a company-provided consensus.

[1/2] Customers shop at a mall ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Beijing, China January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File PhotoLONDON/MILAN/FRANKFURT/NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - The world's top consumer and luxury goods companies have seen sales of everything from cosmetics to condoms grow in China since Beijing ended strict COVID-19 curbs, another sign that the world's No. Tourism from China was helping sales in neighbouring Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Japan, he added. Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Nurofen tablets, cold remedy Lemsip and Durex, saw a pick-up in China after a decline in volumes because of lockdowns. U.S. retailer Walmart Inc (WMT.N), which operates nearly 400 retail and wholesale stores in China, reported strong traffic in its stores since reopening.

☆ Reckitt sales marginally beat full-year estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Britain's Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L), maker of Dettol and Lysol cleaning products, on Wednesday marginally beat full-year like-for-like net revenue expectations, helped by its nutrition and health businesses. The company said it would target like-for-like net revenue growth of mid-single digits for 2023. Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) early last year recalled dozens of infant nutrition products in the United States after customers complained of infants contracting bacterial infections. Reckitt, its biggest rival at the time, ramped up production to fill the supply gap left by Abbott, helping drive full-year like-for-like net sales growth of about 23% in its nutrition business. Reckitt's own 2022 like-for-like net revenue growth target was 6% to 8%.

☆ EMA's safety committee starts review of cold medicines
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 10 (Reuters) - A European Medicines Agency (EMA) committee said on Friday it has started a review of decongestant medicines for cold and flu that contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine following safety concerns. The EMA said the review was due to reports of conditions affecting blood vessels in the brain in some patients who took pseudoephedrine-containing medicines. Pseudoephedrine is a drug that is used alone or in combination with other medicines to treat a blocked nose due to cold, flu or allergy. Makers of pseudoephedrine-containing drugs include Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L), McNeil Products Ltd and Organon & Co (OGN.N). Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bayer’s rude health lays better path for breakup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Activists like Jeff Ubben’s Inclusive Capital Partners may now, however, be in a better position to push for a breakup. Smaller peer Bluebell Capital Partners has also bought in recently. Using UBS forecasts, they would be worth 50 billion euros and 88 billion euros respectively. Its smaller consumer drugs division might fetch another 18 billion euros, using peer Reckitt Benckiser’s (RKT.L) 12 times multiple. Add them up, take off debt, pension liabilities and a further 6 billion euros of future Roundup litigation costs, and Bayer’s equity could be worth nearly 110 billion euros.

☆ Baby formula imports to face tariffs again in 2023 - WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 28 (Reuters) - Imported baby formula would be subject to tariffs again in the new year after the expiration of exemptions implemented amid a nationwide shortage, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. According to the WSJ report, a White House spokesman said the tariff waivers doubled the number of manufacturers selling baby formula in the United States. In August, two big U.S. retailers Walmart Inc (WMT.N) and Target Corp (TGT.N) said supplies of baby formula were improving. Still, Target had purchase restrictions on baby formula products both at its stores and online. However, Reckitt in early December said it expects the U.S. infant formula shortage to "persist" until spring.

[1/3] Mead Johnson's product Enfamil baby formula are displayed on a store shelf in New York City, U.S., February 10, 2017. Panicked parents had earlier this year emptied the baby formula aisles at supermarkets after former top U.S. manufacturer Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) in February recalled dozens of types of its Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas. Since the Abbott recall, share of Reckitt in the infant formula market has skyrocketed, making it the No.1 supplier in the United States. Companies normally bid for state contracts to be the sole provider of baby formula for low-income families under the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programme. Reckitt has said its formula factories are operating 24/7, and it was feeding more than 40% of all low-income WIC infants.

☆ Here are the 10 stocks we consider our core holdings in the Club portfolio — and why
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

At the Investing Club, we generally try to keep our portfolio to around 30 stocks, give or take a few. In light of Thursday's "Monthly Meeting," we wanted to identify what we consider our 10 core holdings of the 32. We may consider a stock a core holding today but that could change three months from now. Management sees its post-separation core business growing revenues at a high single-digit clip and earnings-per-share increasing in the double digits. The stock provides a stellar dividend yield of nearly 3.5%, and the bank has plenty of excess capital to repurchase stock quarter after quarter, while other banks have paused their buybacks.

☆ Baby formula maker Perrigo buying Nestle's Good Start brand, Wisconsin plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jessica Dinapoli | Thomson Reuters | New York-Based Reporter Covering U.S. Consumer Products Spanning Paper Towels To Packaged Food | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Infant formula manufacturer Perrigo Company Plc (PRGO.N) said on Tuesday it is buying the Good Start brand and a Wisconsin plant that makes the product from Nestle SA (NESN.S), as U.S. retailers recover from shortages of the good. The deal is part of a $170 million investment that Perrigo is making in its U.S. infant formula manufacturing. The investment includes $60 million to expand the plant's capacity by roughly 100 million eight-ounce bottles each year. Nestle has sent cans of specialized Alfamino formula and NAN from Europe to help try to alleviate the shortage earlier this year. Perrigo will supply Nestle with Good Start formula so the company can fulfill its contracts with the Women, Infants and Children program, which helps poor families afford the item.

☆ Analysis: European retailers are on investors' naughty lists this Christmas
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Joice Alves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

On stock markets, the European retail sector (.SXRP) has lost 40% of its value so far this year, more than twice the hit on the broader regional share index (.STOXX). Yet, JPMorgan and other strategists say the worst is yet to come for consumers and retailers alike. European retailersSURGING COSTSHigher energy bills and wages and elevated freight and fabric prices have pushed up costs for euro zone companies by more than 40% this year, according to Eurostat data. "A lot of these retailers are running with elevated inventory levels, in order to clear that you'd expect a lot more promotions and discounting. "Our exposure to retailers has remained highly selective all year," he said, adding that he prefers discount retailers, which could benefit from consumers trading down.

"The peak of pricing and commodities will be the second half of this year," he added, saying supply chain cost inflation is starting to come down. Despite those pressures, Reckitt now expects like-for-like sales growth of 6%-8% in 2022, compared with its previous guidance of 5%-8%. "Clearly consumers are buying a little less in more discretionary categories," Carr said, flagging that sales volumes had declined in the supplements, vitamins and air freshener categories. Sales volumes declined 4.6%. Once all these one-offs are excluded, some sell-side analysts believe underlying sales growth is far more modest and close to the bottom end of medium-term sales growth guidance."

☆ Reckitt upbeat on sales outlook as prices rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The higher prices, which are contributing to a global cost-of-living crisis, are denting sales volumes as many people turn to cheaper or private label products. The company's third-quarter like-for-like revenue rose 7.4%, above the 6.1% growth analysts had expected in a company-supplied poll. Sales volumes declined 4.6%. Prices for the company's products rose 12% in the quarter. Reckitt, which has held off on price increases in this category, said it estimated this benefit to have added about 3% to net revenue growth in the third quarter.

☆ FTSE 100 dips as mixed earnings offset Sunak-driven optimism
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The FTSE 100 index (.FTSE) was down 0.1% by 0747 GMT, while the midcap FTSE 250 (.FTMC) rose 0.2%. Shares of WPP (WPP.L) dropped 3.6% to the bottom of FTSE 100 after the group tempered its expectations for operating margin growth, and Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L) slumped 3.2% despite providing a positive sales outlook. read moreSunak said he would try to fix the mess left by his predecessor, restore trust in British politics and tackle a "profound economic crisis". Shares of Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and Barclays (BARC.L) slipped even as both the lenders reported higher quarterly profit. read moreReporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-PhillipsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ European markets set to edge lower after hitting five-week high
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

European markets were on course to open Wednesday marginally lower, with corporate earnings season in full swing and a European Central Bank meeting ahead. However, banking stocks closed down 0.3% amid mixed earnings, with UBS beating market expectations but seeing profits slide. Deutsche Bank reported early Wednesday, and also surpassed analyst forecasts. Other European companies to report include Barclays, Standard Chartered , Mercedes Benz , Heineken and Reckitt Benckiser . Asia-Pacific markets were higher on Fed expectations and comments from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on creating a "regulated, transparent open, lively and resilient" market.

Along with other consumer goods companies, Unilever has faced a surge in labor, freight and ingredients costs. Billionaire Peltz in recent weeks met two possible contenders to replace Jope, one of the sources said. FLORIDA TALKSEven before Jope announced his departure, Peltz met with a former consumer goods CEO in Florida, one of the sources said. In the last month, Peltz and his team also approached another former consumer packaged goods CEO about the Unilever job, the source said. Peltz supports Unilever's sustainability strategy, including a plan to decarbonize the company's business units, Unilever has said.

☆ Abbott recalls some liquid baby formula over bottle defect
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 14 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) said on Friday it was recalling some ready-to-feed baby formula liquid products including Similac-branded items due to inadequate sealing of some bottle caps. The recall, which equates to less than one day's worth of infant formula used in the United States, is not expected to impact the overall formula supply, Abbott said in a statement. Abbott has been at the center of a baby formula shortage in the United States that earlier this year sent parent scrambling for supplies. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe recall of baby formula made at Abbott's Michigan plant following complaints of bacterial infection in February exacerbated its shortage in the United States. Shares in Abbott, which is recalling products made at the company's plant in Columbus, Ohio, were down 1.1% at $101.39 in afternoon trading.

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