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☆ Glencore’s Teck gambit could slip on an oily patch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Karen Kwok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Valued at 6 times its expected 2024 EBITDA of $3.2 billion, Teck’s metals unit would be worth just under $20 billion. Glencore boss Gary Nagle’s alternative plan, which would hand Teck shareholders 24% of the enlarged company, initially looks more appealing. Nagle can’t put the business, the pride of Glencore founder Marc Rich, together with the new coal unit. The risk for Nagle is that Teck shareholders do too. Teck shareholders will vote on the company’s proposal on April 26.

☆ Novartis buoyed by trial success in early-stage breast cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Ludwig Burger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Swiss firm's shares jumped 5.8% on Monday to a four-week high by 0734 GMT, after it said a panel of independent supervisors recommended stopping the trial early because an interim analysis had shown a clear benefit. Kisqali has been approved to treat hormone-driven breast cancer that has spread to other body parts, where it has taken market share from Pfizer's (PFE.N) Ibrance. Rival drug Verzenio by Eli Lilly (LLY.N) has approval in the early setting for women at high risk of recurrence after surgery. Kisqali, which saw sales gain 31% to $1.2 billion last year, is one of two new drugs with a particularly important role for the group's future sales growth. Detailed trial results will be presented at a medical conference, Novartis said, without identifying the meeting or its timing.

☆ Xavier Niel can feast on European telco misery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Pamela Barbaglia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Xavier Niel is set to be more than a spectator in the looming consolidation of Europe’s telecoms industry. It earned EBITDA after leases of 3.3 billion euros last year. Those shareholdings have a combined market value of 1.2 billion euros, though they were partly funded through derivatives, potentially limiting the tycoon’s cash outlay. On a multiple of 6 times last year’s EBITDA of 652 million euros it’s worth little more than the 3.5 billion euros Niel and other investors paid in 2017. Smaller investments in Monaco Telecom and holdings in Senegal and the Comoros are probably worth a combined billion euros, bankers estimate.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoLONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Investment managers Bridgewater Associates, Millennium Management and Marshall Wace added to short positions on European banking shares after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked contagion fears across global banks, according to data from Breakout Point. Short sellers had amassed bearish positions worth more than $15.7 billion against European banks by Tuesday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Millennium Management, Citadel, Wellington Management, Capital Fund Management, Odey Asset Management and Marshall Wace declined to comment. Marshall Wace held the largest disclosed number of short positions against banks, public filings from Austria, Italy, Sweden, Britain, Spain and Poland analysed by Breakout Point showed. Its shares were up 18% at 1602 GMT, in a broader European banking index (.SX7P) up 1.4%In the week to Wednesday, some 120 billion euros had been wiped off the value of European bank shares.

Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruling that "gruyere" can legally be used to describe cheese regardless of where it was made. The USPTO rejected a bid by two groups representing cheese producers from Switzerland and France for a mark that would restrict the use of "gruyere" to cheese from Gruyère itself. Gruyere cheese, "widely considered among the greatest of all cheeses," was first made in the Swiss district of La Gruyère in 1115, the court said. Switzerland's Interprofession du Gruyère and France's Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Gruyère asked the USPTO in 2015 to certify that gruyere cheese only comes from the Gruyère region. Circuit Court of Appeals, No.

☆ Credit Suisse CEO tries to bail out a leaky ship
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Chief Executive Ulrich Körner is doing what he promised at Credit Suisse (CSGN.S). The goal is to focus Credit Suisse on its steadier wealth-management and retail banking units. Revenue from trading equities was just $15 million, down 96% year-on-year, partly because Credit Suisse clamped down on risk. Clients pulled a net 111 billion Swiss francs of assets from the group during the three-month period. Credit Suisse shares were down 9.7% at 2.94 Swiss francs as of 1041 GMT on Feb. 9.

[1/2] A logo is pictured on the Ibex building of Lonza, where the Moderna mRNA coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine will be produced, in Visp, Switzerland, September 29, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoJan 25 (Reuters) - Lonza (LONN.S) on Wednesday said it will buy back shares worth 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.17 billion), despite an expected drop in annual margins, as the Swiss drug contract manufacturer backed its growth prospects for the near future. Lonza expects its 2023 core earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA margin, to slip between 30% and 31%, down from 32.1% in 2022, as last year's boost from COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing services waned. The Basel-based company, however, reiterated a target of 33%-35% for 2024 marginsand announced a 17% rise in its annual dividend. The Swiss group forecast sales growth in the "high single-digit" adjusted for currency swings, a slow-down from the 15.1% rise it saw last year.

☆ The top 20 safest airlines in the world for 2023, according to experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AirlineRatings.com has revealed the 20 safest airlines in the world for 2023, which includes five from the US. The website also revealed the top 20 safety low-cost carriers — another five of which were from the US. He also noted that the safety margins between the top 20 carriers were "very small," and that they are "all outstanding airlines." Meanwhile, the same five US carriers that made the list last year — Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Air Lines — maintained their spots in 2023. The organization also published the world's 20 safest low-cost carriers, which included five US carriers — Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Spirit Airlines.

☆ Gucci designer’s exit boosts Kering’s M&A urgency
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MILAN, Nov 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The abrupt departure of star Gucci designer Alessandro Michele on Wednesday is putting French luxury boss François-Henri Pinault on the spot. The Italian brand, Kering’s (PRTP.PA) largest, has been a money-spinner for the 68 billion euro French conglomerate. Gucci revenue nearly trebled to 9.6 billion euros between 2014 and 2019. Reuters GraphicsFollow @LJucca on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSKering’s top brand Gucci said on Nov. 23 Creative Director Alessandro Michele had stepped down. Under Michele’s creative leadership, Gucci sales grew nearly three times from 2014 to 9.6 billion euros in 2019, one of the best performing brands in the luxury world.

☆ New Delhi wrestles with 'hazardous' air pollution, primary schools shut
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Tanvi Mehta | Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Authorities in New Delhi ordered primary schools to shut from Saturday, and told schools to stop outdoor activities for older children as air in the world's most polluted capital had become a severe risk to health. The chart below shows the daily maximum PM 2.5 concentration at the U.S. Embassy New Delhi since 2015. Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said going forward 50% of Delhi government employees would be told to work from home, and he urged private firms to take similar steps. School girls walk towards a school as they reopened after remaining closed for nearly 15 days due to a spike in air pollution, on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, India, November 29, 2021. According to data compiled by the Swiss group IQAir, New Delhi has been the world's most polluted capital for the past four years.

Jars of Nescafe Gold coffee by Nestle are pictured in the supermarket of Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, February 13, 2020. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has propelled energy and grain prices to all-time highs, driving up the cost of packaged goods. That has been felt particularly acutely in parts of Asia and North Africa, where people spend a higher proportion of income on food and fuel than in the United States and Europe, prompting some shoppers to stockpile non-perishable items. "Nestle is seeing hoarding with bouillon, to an extent soups, coffee for sure," Al Bitar told Reuters. Several countries in North Africa and Central Asia are suffering recurring shortages of basic necessities.

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