>>> Symrise may make more acquisitions six months down the line

Symrise may make more acquisitions six months down the line
Symrise, the listed German maker of scents and flavorings, may make more acquisitions six months down the line, according to an interview published in Boersen-Zeitung.

As part of a wider conversation with the German-language daily, finance chief Bernd Hirsch said Symrise may seek new acquisitions once it has spent a half-year focusing on integrating its recent EUR 1.3bn buy, the Diana group.

Asked whether the financing for the Diana deal takes Symrise's leverage outside the target range of 2.0 to 2.5 times EBITDA, Hirsch confirmed that the ratio will rise to about 3.0. He added that this is not a bad figure. Symrise's leverage is likely to be back in the 2.0-2.5 range by 2015, he predicted.

Hirsch did not rule out the possibility of seeking a credit rating, saying this may be pursued should Symrise become a more frequent user of the bond market as a financing source. He mentioned further acquisitions as a possible reason why such a change may take place.

Hirsch said Symrise expects synergies from its purchase of Diana to be worth about EUR 20m, or 5% of Diana's turnover. He said that to a substantial extent, these synergies will be in production costs, thanks to using the raw materials of Diana. He added that the synergies will not be fully realized until 2018.

Hirsch said the integration of Diana is likely to cost EUR 15m-EUR 20m, with the costs likely to be incurred during 2014, though the integration may still be under way in the beginning of next year.

Symrise would be financially ready to conduct another takeover by the beginning of 2015, Hirsch told the newspaper.

Hirsch rejected the idea that Symrise might become a takeover target for the Japanese seasonings maker Ajinomoto. He also said that Symrise, which has a EUR 5.2bn market capitalization, would cost at least EUR 8bn.


Source Boersen-Zeitung

>>> Dialog Semiconductor interested in small technology companies, large buys p

Dialog Semiconductor interested in small technology companies, large buys possible (translated)
Dialog Semiconductor, the listed German semiconductor company, is interested in acquisitions, Euro am Sonntag reported. Dialog chief executive Jalal Bagherli told the German weekly acquisitions have a positive effect on margins and he is interested in small technology companies and large buys are also possible. Bagherli said he does not have to buy at any price.

Dialog Semiconductor recently explored a possible merger with Austrian AMS but several months of talks ended without an agreement, Bagherli told the paper.


Source Euro am Sonntag

NY Post : Investors are willing to overpay for revenue growth

Investors are willing to overpay for revenue growth

Investors are chasing revenue growth — and are willing to overpay for that luxury.
In today’s economy, America’s largest and strongest companies are simply unable to generate top-line growth. Since they cannot increase their sales revenues, they have turned to buybacks, dividend hikes and, sadly, layoffs just to maintain their stock prices.
Investors desperate for growth without such shenanigans are piling into a few stocks, like Facebook, up 34 percent in 2014, and Twitter, up 15 percent in the past month.
But does growth really trump all?
While Twitter and Facebook are growing robustly, when do the stock prices get ridiculous? What would make a person pay 27 times sales revenues for a mega-cap company with no earnings, like Twitter?
Twitter, which reported growth of 124 percent year over year in its report after the close on Tuesday, made a whole 2 cents per share for the quarter with all that growth.
The question is, is it worth a $27 billion market cap? That’s hard to justify.
You see John Deere, the tried-and-true tractor company with a similar market cap, rings the register with $37.8 billion in sales revenue and $9.09 in earnings per share.
The same argument can be made against Facebook, except that it is already very profitable.
What would drive an investment manager to buy Facebook at 20 times sales and 81 times earnings?
Facebook makes good money — $2.38 billion in last 12 months — and should make more this year. But is that worth $190 billion?
IBM, which typifies this stale economy, is still a massive company with $100 billion in revenues, and it hasn’t grown in six years.
Is Facebook, with 1/10 the sales and 1/8 the profits, worth what IBM is worth?
Investors remember: It’s buyer beware.

NY Post : US could lose $20B in tax revenue from corporate ‘inversions’

US could lose $20B in tax revenue from corporate ‘inversions’

Profit-hungry US corporations see a lot more green abroad — and the number relocating overseas for corporate tax advantages is set to soar, according to financial experts.
With the latest intense focus on corporate “inversions,” or mergers that allow US corporations to legally transfer their headquarters to Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg and other lower-tax jurisdictions, experts are raising a new alarm.
A nightmare scenario could soon see unprecedented numbers of US corporations quitting America to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes, they warn, costing jobs and a huge capital flight.
“The high US corporate tax rate will continue to encourage US companies to head for the exits,” Dean Zerbe, former senior counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee, told The Post. Zerbe, who worked closely with the current ranking minority member of the committee, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), added: “Corporate tax lawyers will continue to sharpen pencils late in the night to avoid US corporate taxes as long as the rates are so high.”
Zerbe’s assessment is shared by others. Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, an independent global financial advisory, says that unless the current US corporation tax rate of 35 percent is slashed, a growing number of American multinationals will say adios.
A Congressional policy research group has counted 76 US corporations that since 1983 shifted their tax residence to a foreign address. In the past decade alone, 47 moved, the most since 2008, it noted.
These American companies are often eyeing a pot of gold as shareholders draw blood for reduced costs and higher profits, critics charge. Nearly $20 billion in potential US tax revenues could go “uncollected” because of controversial corporate inversions in the coming decade, a Congressional committee estimates.
The eyebrow-raising inversion deal of the year is one example of the potential tax bloodletting: Irish-based healthcare outfit Covidien agreed to be acquired by Minnesota-based medical device company Medtronic. The $42.9 billion deal will result in Medtronic shifting its principal legal address to Ireland, a move that would sharply reduce its tax bill.
That ultimately slashes Medtronic’s corporation tax to the much lower 12.5 percent rate prevailing in Ireland.
Call it the luck of the Irish.
But President Obama
has blasted US corporations for playing games by “magically” transforming into “Irish companies” — simply by buying a company in Ireland.
Apple, critics say, is an expert in complex tax arrangements, saving billions by having a large workforce in Ireland. Apple has come in for criticism by Washington for paying corporation taxes that, via complicated loopholes, may be as low as 3 percent.
Senate investigators recently showed how Apple saved taxes on $44 billion of offshore income over several years.
Google, another significant employer in Ireland, is said to employ the “Double Irish” tax arrangement. That has resulted in the majority of its worldwide profits avoiding income tax anywhere, experts say. Google’s worldwide income-tax bill was reportedly slashed by $2.2 billion in 2012.
Green is not surprised. “It is our experience that the vast majority of American companies do want to remain headquartered in America,” he said. “But with the tax code as it stands, and with obligations to shareholders, there is mounting pressure to consider overseas, low-tax destinations.”
Zerbe thinks lawmakers might be barking up the wrong tree. “Congress and the administration need to focus on fixing the problem — high corporate rates — and not just focusing on the symptoms — inversions,” he said.

NY Post : Inside Jay Z’s sports agency, where big-name athletes want in

Inside Jay Z’s sports agency, where big-name athletes want in

The sun hammered Mark Light Field at Alex Rodriguez Park on July 26, the humidity so prominent in Coral Gables, Fla., that you couldn’t even summon the energy to chuckle about so many baseball folks — nearly 100 — convened in a place named after a currently banned player.
Rusney Castillo, too, looked like he was feeling the heat.
The 27-year-old Cuban defector, the reason for this showcase to end all showcases, went through a lackluster first round of live batting practice, failing to put consistent good wood on the ball.
As the 5-foot-9 Castillo toweled off and hydrated, a taller gentleman wearing a T-shirt, gym shorts and Roc Nation Sports baseball cap clutched Castillo’s shoulders, looked him in the eye and spoke to him in Spanish.
“I told him hitting was just like riding a bike,” Juan Perez explained later to The Post. “You don’t forget how to do it.”
Castillo returned the eye contact, nodded and retreated to home plate for a second round. In this instance, you could’ve called it “The money round.”
With blasts over the scoreboard in left field and into the parking garage in right field, the right-handed hitter showed off the power that should make him quite wealthy as soon as this coming week.
If the vocal approvals of the talent evaluators didn’t cool down the place, their reactions at least distracted you from the conditions.
The moment, and the day, typified everything Roc Nation Sports aspires to be. It combined the flash of a big event — never before had a Cuban prospect auditioned on American soil — with the personal touch of its unconventional leadership, co-founders Jay Z and Creative Artists Agency and the president Perez.
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Juan Perez, right, and Cuban Baseball player Rusney Castillo.
Photo: Larry Marano
“With us, everything is magnified. It’s bigger,” said Perez, a close associate of Jay Z for nearly 20 years. “[Castillo] would’ve been a regular guy with another agency.”
“With [Jay Z] being an artist, being in front of crowds, there’s definitely a connection there,” said Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, who left his longtime representatives at The Legacy Agency for Roc Nation Sports last winter. “It’s just them being good people.”
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, another client, said of Perez: “He’s a good guy, man. He’s cued into the players. He really knows his players and knows the game and really understands the game. He’s someone you can pick up the phone and talk to at any time and just bounce ideas off of him.”
Roc Nation Sports’ arrival has shaken up the crowded, cutthroat world of athlete representation, generating more anonymous sniping and scrutinizing than even the usually high such level in this arena.
Simultaneously, the agency’s lack of media access has given it an air of mystery to which this universe is not accustomed, generating curiosity over the principals and their practices.
The agency announced its arrival on April 2, 2013, with a bombshell — the swiping of then-Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano from industry titan Scott Boras. Cano left the Yankees last winter to sign a 10-year, $240 million contract with Seattle, an action that drew both praise (for landing so much guaranteed money) and criticism (for taking Cano out of New York to a team with four straight losing seasons).
In June of last year, Roc Nation Sports added its second superstar in Kevin Durant of the Thunder.
Cano, Sabathia and the free agent Castillo make up the baseball stable so far, while 2014 Celtics draft pick James Young and WNBA player Skylar Diggins have joined Durant in the basketball group.
In football, along with Cruz are his former Giants teammate Hakeem Nicks of the Colts and Jets quarterback Geno Smith.
Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown signed with Roc Nation Sports this past May, only to depart in July for his previous agent Drew Rosenhaus.
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Mariners’ Robinson Canó and Jay Z.
Photo: WireImage
That’s a total of eight clients — “Within the next 90 days, it’ll be over 10,” said Roc Nation’s president and chief of branding and strategy Michael Yormark — with about 45 employees to service them and grow the business.
Some of those 45 also spend time with Roc Nation, the parent company that represents 112 artists, producers and writers.
The parent company and its subsidiary occupy the 38th and the 39th floor of a Times Square building, with Roc Nation Sports on the lower level.
The Roc Nation Sports office has a sleek look to it, with open-glass offices hugging the walls while a cluster of desks facing one another occupies the middle. At the end of the hallway rests Perez’s 1,500-square-foot office.
MLB Network played on a flat-screen TV last Monday as Perez welcomed this Post writer (but no photographer) inside his lair. One wall featured a painting of legendary boxer Joe Louis, adorned with a ticket stub from one of The Brown Bomber’s fights.
Another wall held a work by late artist Keith Haring; “Jay got me that,” Perez said.
Behind his desk sat a replica of the plaque that used to adorn the old Yankee Stadium, with a quote from Joe DiMaggio reading, “I’d like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee.” Cigars are available to VIPs.
In an adjoining conference room, you can find a Satchel Paige painting similar to the Louis work; a table for meetings and negotiations, and a framed Mariners jersey with the back reading “CANO 240.”
“We talked about doing this maybe five, six years ago,” Perez said of starting a sports agency with Jay Z. “It’s just the time wasn’t right. Jay just brought it up to me again. ‘Why not just add the sports to it?’ We always talk about how entertainment and sports go together, but nobody has put it together. So let’s do it.”
As Perez said two days before Castillo’s showcase, in a telephone interview, “Every athlete wants to be rapper, and every rapper wants to be an athlete.”
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Yankees’ pitcher CC Sabathia, left, signs papers with Jay-Z as Sabathia signs on with Roc Nation Sports.
Photo: AP
By putting it together, the agency believes it has leveraged its myriad connections to help athletes with endorsement and charity opportunities. Michael Yormark, twin brother of Nets CEO Brett Yormark, left his high-ranking position with the NHL’s Florida Panthers to join the enterprise.
“Our job is to take our athletes and create star power around them,” Yormark said. “That’s the job we do off the field.”
Sabathia credited Roc Nation Sports for improving his apparel agreement with Air Jordan.
Out in the Pacific Northwest, meanwhile, Cano and his new agents have worked diligently to eradicate the notion the perennial All-Star gave up considerable sponsorship dollars by departing New York.
Cano has signed an agreement with Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, and according to Yormark, he has a meeting lined up shortly with well-known Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who used to own the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics. Starbucks doesn’t use celebrity spokesmen, yet there could be other partnership opportunities there for Cano.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 21, Cano will come to Brooklyn (the Mariners are in Philadelphia the previous day and in Boston the subsequent day) to join Sabathia in hosting a charity basketball game at Barclays Center, with their respective charities — RC22 Foundation and PitCCh In Foundation — profiting. Durant and the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, not a Roc Nation Sports client but a friend, will serve as the honorary team captains.
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Robinson Cano salutes Jay-Z.
Photo: Paul J. Bereswill
Such endeavors lead to the complaint, voiced privately, that Roc Nation Sports has its priorities reversed. The Yankees, in their negotiations with Cano, were concerned he was more interested in building his brand than building his Hall of Fame case.
“During the season, we limit what we’re doing with them,” Perez said. “In the offseason, when they’re training, I make sure that the athletes are always focused on their craft first and marketing second.”
For example, Roc Sports Nation publicist Ron Berkowitz pointed out Cano opted not to attend the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles during the All-Star break, instead taking the time to rest.
Perez, 46, was born and raised in Harlem, rooted heavily for the Yankees — his favorite player was Willie Randolph — and attended Brandeis High School on the Upper West Side.
After high school, “I was doing the airport thing,” he said, declining to explain before cutting off that line of questioning. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
He became friendly with Jay Z in 1996 or 1997, he said, through Kareem “Biggs” Burke, one of the co-founders (along with Jay Z and Damon “Dame” Dash) of Roc-A-Fella Records; Burke now is in prison for marijuana distribution.
Perez helped run studios with Jay Z, and then he aided with the rise of the 40/40 Club, the lower Manhattan hot spot opened by Jay Z.
“Basically, me and Jay, we always had these athletes come to the club and guys ask us for advice,” Perez said.
“Juan and I just hit it off right from the start,” Sabathia said. “On my very first night [after signing with the Yankees], I went to the 40/40 Club.”
“Perez said he feels his personal experiences allow him to connect with athletes in a way more traditional agents can’t.
“People have got to understand where we come from,” said Perez, referring to himself and Jay Z. “You’ve got certain things, you come out of your building, somebody might say something to you and you end up fighting and you go to jail for a fight. Or anything. It’s just where you come from.
It’s not Park Avenue and 65th Street where I grew up. Where I grew up is a big building with a bunch of people.
“…Just because I didn’t go to Fordham University or City College or whatever doesn’t make me dumb. I believe a lot in experience. When you live life, when you experience things, you become somebody smart. And I think common sense is what people need more in life than just book smarts. Common sense can save you a lot of headaches and will take you to a lot of places.”
(As evidence he doesn’t have a police record, Perez showed The Post his New York City personal handgun license.)
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CC Sabathia embraces Jay-Z in City Hall after the Yankees won the 2009 World Series.
Last year, Cruz and the Giants agreed on a five-year, $43 million extension.
“During my contract negotiations he understood the level of what I wanted as a player and what the organization wanted from their end,” Cruz said of Perez. “He understood that barrier and understood we had to meet somewhere in the middle…For him to just know that and really talk to me about it, assure me about certain things, along with Tom Condon and all of us together, that was something that kind of alleviated my initial worries.”
Said Smith: “Juan and [his wife] Desiree do a great job keeping the family environment and that atmosphere. We all hang out a bunch. We just do normal things. We don’t want to be in the spotlight. Obviously we are because of our positions and Jay, but we’re normal people. They’re good to my family. That’s what I like.”
Veteran NFL agent Condon works for CAA and is therefore part of the Roc Nation Sports operation, just as CAA Baseball co-head Brodie Van Wagenen works with Perez on Cano, Sabathia and now the Castillo sweepstakes. Van Wagenen, Perez and Jay Z all were heavily involved in Cano’s free agency.
Roc Nation Sports vice president Rich Kleinman is certified by the Major League Baseball Players Association, just like Jay Z and Perez.
Desiree Perez is not certified, and her participation in Cano’s meetings with the Mariners raised industry eyebrows. Nevertheless, there is no indication she violated any tenets by attending; Van Wagenen, Jay Z and Juan Perez did the actual negotiating.
The Perezes also got hit with some shrapnel from last year’s A-Rod mess because of their friendship with the Yankees’ suspended star and his sharing of Berkowitz and law firm Reed Smith with Roc Nation. Yet Rodriguez’s baseball agent remains Dan Lazano, and Roc Nation Sports has the full backing of the Players Association.
The Cano contract, Perez agreed, has represented the firm’s biggest challenge to date.
“To me, it was a little nerve-wracking, doing it for the first time,” he said. “Sitting with the Yankees and them not being where we wanted them to be. It was a little nerve-wracking. We got it done. [Cano] was happy. That’s what was important to us. Onto the next.”
That would be Castillo.
“We definitely showed everybody that we could get the contract [with Cano], and we did,” Perez said. “And we’re about to get another one for Mr. Castillo. It’s probably going to be better than any other defector ever got, hopefully. I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking we’re going to do a great job with that, too.”
It’s another test for this still developing, still mysterious group. The rest of the sports community won’t even fake disinterest. They’ll be watching eagerly.

>>> T-Mobile execs deem Niel offer serious, amid regulatory concerns about Sprin

T-Mobile execs deem Niel offer serious, amid regulatory concerns about Sprint proposal
Frenchman Xavier Niel’s USD 15bn offer for 57% in T-Mobile US has been deemed serious by some of the target’s executives, according to a report from the Journal du Dimanche. A portion of a report sourced to a person close to the company said the execs noted the lack of competition issues arising from such a tie-up of Niel’s Iliad group and the number four US mobile telco.

Niel is up against Sprint in the bidding for the Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile US, the JDD noted. The New York Times’ Dealbook column on the matter deemed the rationale behind such a Franco-American linkage dubious in some ways. Dealbook said antitrust fears may be sparked by a Sprint/T-Mobile merger, but also said that Niel would end up saddled with heavy debt were he to follow through on a stated commitment to fund only USD 2bn of the deal with equity. The columnist Robert Cyran concluded that Iliad might pose a threat to Softbank-owned Sprint in the tug of war for T-Mobile.

On Friday it was reported that the UK’s HSBC and France’s BNP Paribas were lined up to provide debt on the French side. The item attributed the information to unidentified sources. Iliad was advised by Lazard on the USD 15bn offer for about 56.6% of the Bellevue, Washington company now owned by German incumbent telco Deutsche Telekom.


Source Journal du Dimanche (France), The New York Times

FT : Private equity eyes drug brands purchase

Private equity eyes drug brands purchase

Private equity groups are exploring a $10bn plan to buy hundreds of older drug brands from GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi and merge them, highlighting the continued intense deal activity sweeping the pharmaceuticals sector. KKR and Warburg Pincus are among those weighing bids for the GSK and Sanofi assets – and looking at a possible combination of the two portfolios, according to several people familiar with the matter. KKR and Warburg Pincus declined to comment. GSK said last week that it had received "very significant" indicative bids from private equity companies and midsized drugmakers in a portfolio of mature products with annual sales of about £1bn. Sanofi, meanwhile, is considering the sale of about 200 older drugs with annual revenues of at least €2.1bn. Those assets alone have an enterprise value of €6.3bn, according to internal Sanofi documents leaked by a labour union last month. Other private equity groups to have shown an interest in one or both of the portfolios include Blackstone, Advent, Apollo and Bain Capital, said people close to the matter. The concept of rolling the two sets of assets together is still at an early stage as Sanofi is yet to make a firm decision on what to do with its portfolio. However, work is being done by potential bidders on a potential combination, those people added. Mylan of the US and Lupin of India are among potential trade buyers to have been linked with one or both of the GSK and Sanofi businesses. Mylan this month struck a $5.3bn deal to buy a portfolio of generic drugs from Abbott Laboratories. "Private equity has not traditionally played in this area, so they will either have to bring in experts or partner with third parties who have the expertise," said Jeremy Levin, former chief executive of Teva, the Israeli generic drugmaker. For GSK and Sanofi, the potential disposals are part of efforts to streamline their businesses and refocus investment on growth areas as older drugs lose patent protection. Their so-called established product portfolios are highly profitable and cash-generative, but slow-growing. GSK and Sanofi declined to comment. The pair are being advised by Lazard and Evercore respectively.

RTR - Bodies of possible Ebola victims found in central Monr

Bodies of possible Ebola victims found in central Monrovia

MONROVIA (Reuters) - The bodies of two men previously showing symptoms of Ebola lay in the streets of Monrovia for four days before being collected by health workers on Sunday, residents told Reuters.

"They both gave up and dropped dead on the ground on the street of Clara Town," said resident Nema Red, referring to a district of the Liberian capital.

Both men had shown symptoms of Ebola such as bleeding and vomiting before they died but scared locals had refused to take them to the hospital, she added.

Information Minister Lewis Brown confirmed that the bodies had been collected, although he said they had only been there for a few hours. "I can confirm that the bodies were in the street. They have been removed," he said on Sunday.

WSJ : Major Oil Companies Should Consider Downsizing

Major Oil Companies Should Consider Downsizing

You're gonna need a smaller boat. That is the message from the latest round of results from Big Oil. Take the biggest of the supertankers, Exxon Mobil. Its stock fell 4% last week and is now the only one of the majors in negative territory for the year, on a dollar basis.
Exxon clearly isn't immune from pressures afflicting the entire sector. At just over two million barrels a day, its oil-and-liquids output in the second quarter was the lowest since the merger with Mobil in 1999. In part, that is a good thing: Exxon is prioritizing profit over volume.
But it also highlights what is wrong. Return on capital employed has collapsed. Oppenheimer estimates the average for Exxon, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP will be less than 12% this year, a third less than 2011's level and less than half of 2008's.
Heavy spending to rebuild reserves, and get growth going again, is the culprit and Exxon defended its model on Thursday, saying this would pay off as new projects start up. The problem: With key projects such as Kashagan and Kearl not performing as planned, and even the great hope known as Russia now in question, investors aren't convinced Big Oil can deliver.
Rather than business as usual, more-radical change sets pulses racing. It is no accident the best performing stock of the major oil companies over the past five years, by a wide margin, is that of ConocoPhillips. It threw in the towel on bigness and split itself up in 2012.
Plans for spin offs and big disposals at Occidental Petroleum, Apache, Anadarko and Hess promise more bang for investors' bucks in the months ahead. Italy's Eni, meanwhile, is taking an ax to its downstream business to boost returns. Rather than just slowly turning the supertanker, major oil companies seeking approval should consider downsizing.

Italy May Seek EU20b for Budget Measures for Next Yr: Repubblica

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Italy May Seek EU20b for Budget Measures for Next Yr: Repubblica 2014-08-03 15:56:27.618 GMT

By Chiara Remondini Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Italy’s 2015 deficit to GDP ratio target may be increased to 2.3%, daily la Repubblica reports, citing comments by PM Matteo Renzi last week. * 2015 target may be raised even further, staying below 3% level (current target 1.8%), Repubblica says, without citing anyone * EU20b to come from measures incl. spending review, lower borrowing costs * NOTE July 12: Italy Govt Seeks EU12b of Spending Cuts for 2015: La Stampa NSN N8LCKG6JTSE8 <GO> * NOTE July 29: Italy Borrowing Costs Drop to Record at Six- Month Bill Sale NSN N9GVGS6JIJV2 <GO>

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO> First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Remondini in Milan at +39-02-8064-4241 or cremondini@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or jludden@bloomberg.net