WSJ : Shire Rejects AbbVie Approach

Shire Rejects AbbVie Approach
U.S. Drug Maker Says Shire's Board Turned Down Cash-and-Share Proposal

U.K.-listed drug maker Shire SHPG -1.30% PLC has rejected a £27.2 billion ($46.35 billion) takeover bid from U.S. rival AbbVie Inc. ABBV -0.70%

AbbVie said Friday that it had made three cash and share proposals to the board of Shire, with the latest valued at £46.26 ($78.87) for each Shire share, based on AbbVie's closing share price of $54.03 on May 29.

AbbVie, which was spun off from Abbott Laboratories ABT +1.56% in early 2013, said discussions were no longer ongoing and that there could be no certainty that any firm offer would be made.

Under U.K. takeover rules AbbVie has until July 18 to announce a firm intention to make an offer and said it reserves the right to introduce other forms of consideration and vary the cash and share mix of the bid.

Shire, which is domiciled in Dublin, couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Shire's shares closed at £37.38 on Thursday, valuing the company at roughly £22 billion.

The proposed deal follows Pfizer Inc. PFE -0.40% 's failed $120 billion attempt to buy AstraZeneca AZN.LN -0.26% PLC.

AbbVie, which makes arthritis drug Humira, in April reported a 1.2% rise in first-quarter profit to $980 million on net sales up 5.4% to $4.56 billion. The company hopes to bring other drugs to market over the next few years, including a treatment for hepatitis C.

In May, Shire raised its earnings guidance for 2014, saying it expects growth in underlying earnings per share to be in the mid- to high-20% range. Shire's first-quarter profit rose to $230.4 million from $64.8 million a year ago. Sales rose 16% to $1.35 billion in the latest quarter, boosted by sales of attention-deficit-disorder drug Vyvanse and the inclusion of blood-disease drug Cinryze, which came from Shire's $4.2 billion takeover of Viropharma that closed in January.

(BFW) Shire Rises Most Since 2006 After AbbVie Confirms Approach +14%

Shire Rises Most Since 2006 After AbbVie Confirms Approach
2014-06-20 07:07:19.388 GMT


By Allison Connolly
     June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Shire up as much as 14%, the most
since Oct. 2006; vol. at 29% of 3-mo. daily avg.
  * Panmure (buy) says offer of GBP46.26/shr implies 25x PER,
    which for a growth stock is “barely adequate”
    * Says AbbVie may be able to increase its offer to >GBP50
      depending on tax inversion benefits
  * NOTE: Earlier, AbbVie Confirms Made Approach to Shire
  * NOTE: Earlier, MORE: AbbVie Says Shire Rejected Approaches,
    Talks Are Off


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

To contact the reporter on this story:
Allison Connolly in London at +44-20-3525-7043 or
aconnolly4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or
jludden@bloomberg.net

(BN) AbbVie Says $46.5 Billion Offer for Shire Rejected as Talks End

AbbVie Says $46.5 Billion Offer for Shire Rejected as Talks End
2014-06-20 05:26:38.523 GMT


By Drew Armstrong and Michelle Fay Cortez
     June 20 (Bloomberg) -- AbbVie Inc., the drugmaker split
last year from Abbott Laboratories, said three escalating offers
to buy Shire Plc for as much as 27.3 billion pounds ($46.5
billion) were rejected by the Dublin-based company.
     Shire’s board has so far turned down the proposals that
began in May and no talks are occurring, AbbVie said late
yesterday in a statement. The cash-and-stock offer would allow
AbbVie to diversify its portfolio beyond its top drug, the
arthritis medicine Humira, which generated 57 percent of its
2013 sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
     AbbVie “made an indicative approach to Shire with a merger
proposal which was rejected by the board of Shire,” the North
Chicago, Illinois-based company said in the statement. “There
can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made.
Discussions are no longer ongoing.”
     The announcement of AbbVie’s bid for Shire is the latest
attempted merger in a period of increased acquisition activity
in the drug and medical device industry. Not including the
AbbVie offer, there were deals proposed or completed worth
$260 billion in the second quarter, according to data compiled
by Bloomberg, five times more than any quarter since at least
2009. Pfizer Inc.’s $117 billion rebuffed bid for AstraZeneca
Plc was the largest proposed deal in drug industry history.
     AbbVie’s first cash-and-stock offer to Shire was 39.50
pounds a share, and its latest bid increased to 46.26 pounds a
share, AbbVie said in the statement. Shire closed at 37.38
pounds yesterday in London, valuing the company at more than 22
billion pounds.

                         Takeover Rules

     The deal falls under U.K. takeover rules, which forced
AbbVie to disclose its proposal. The drugmaker will have until
July 18 to make a firm offer, or will go into a waiting period
where it can’t do so for as long as six months.
     Adelle Infante, an AbbVie spokeswomen, declined to comment
on the details or timing of the offer. Jessica Mann, a
spokeswoman for Shire, didn’t return an e-mail requesting
comment. The news was reported yesterday by Reuters.
     Shire’s biggest products are medicines to treat attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, including Vyvanse and Adderall.
It has other drugs to treat rare diseases and neurological
disorders.
     AbbVie was identified earlier this year as a potential
merger partner for AstraZeneca when the London-based drugmaker
was defending the unsolicited bid from Pfizer.
     Shire’s shares rose earlier this week when John Boris, an
analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in New York, said the
Dublin drugmaker would be a target of Allergan Inc., the maker
of the wrinkle treatment Botox that is fighting a hostile
takeover bid of $45.7 billion from Valeant Pharmaceuticals
International Inc.

For Related News and Information:
Pharma Plan in Deal Frenzy Is to Be Best, First or Move On
NSN N4I3796K50XS<GO>
Top stories: TOP <GO>
Today’s most popular health-care stories:MNI HEA <GO>
Top health stories: HTOP <GO>
Bloomberg Industries reports: BI PHRM <GO>

To contact the reporters on this story:
Drew Armstrong in New York at +1-212-617-8933 or
darmstrong17@bloomberg.net;
Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at +1-612-991-8887 or
mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at +1-212-617-2563 or
rgale5@bloomberg.net
Andrew Pollack, Russell Ward

NY Post : Verizon Wireless eyeing Dish Network spectrum

Verizon Wireless is very interested in buying Dish Network’s spectrum, The Post has learned.
A top Verizon executive told a group of insiders in the last few weeks that the country’s No. 1 wireless carrier was eyeing the lucrative spectrum owned by Charlie Ergen’s satellite-TV company, a banker with direct knowledge of the conversation said.
Analysts have estimated Dish’s spectrum could be worth as much as $17 billion.
A second source close to the companies said the two companies have held informal, early talks about the spectrum.
Verizon’s appetite comes only weeks after it tried to quiet deal rumors.
CEO Lowell McAdam on May 20 said during an investor conference that Verizon was not interested in buying the $27 billion Dish.
“I don’t think owning a satellite company is something I’m interested in at this point,” McAdam said.
The CEO did not address Dish’s valuable spectrum.
Acquiring the bandwidths would help Verizon better stream videos in urban areas.
Plus, much of Dish’s spectrum is complementary to spectrum Verizon presently owns, a source said.
Much of Dish’s spectrum is important for short-range Wi-Fi communications.
The pressure may be building for Verizon to act soon.
The Federal Communications Commission last month set guidelines for selling government-owned spectrum and imposed rules that would make it harder — and more expensive — for the New York telecom to compete in those fall auctions.
“I would try like hell to skip those auctions,” a telecom expert said.
Buying Ergen’s spectrum would be a way to avoid that process.
Verizon might also be pushed to act sooner rather than later because, according to a recent analyst report, Dish soon might make a bid for T-Mobile, taking its spectrum off the market.
JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick this week put forward the possibility that Dish might buy T-Mobile.
Ergen too might be motivated.
If he sold his spectrum for $17 billion, Dish’s shares could rise from $59.81, their closing price on Thursday, to roughly $70 a share, a source said.
Also, Ergen has until spring 2017 to connect 40 percent of his spectrum, or will need to return it to Washington.
It would cost Dish more than $10 billion to activate all of its spectrum.
Dish is presently rolling out a wireless fixed broadband service in Corpus Christi, Texas, that is rather antiquated and shows a lack of commitment to building a true wireless service, one source said.
Separately, in recent days Dish has postponed its annual meeting — and Ergen, in a little-noticed June 2 regulatory filing, updated his trusts. The update will allow, among other things, Ergen to dispose of his Dish shares in a change-of-control situation.
Verizon did not return calls, and Dish declined to comment.

NY Post : Toppled American Apparel CEO plots to retake helm

American Apparel is girding for a nasty battle with its controversial founder Dov Charney.
The board of the struggling clothing chain has hired boutique investment bank Peter J. Solomon as a financial adviser as it braces for blowback from its surprise move to oust Charney as CEO, The Post has learned.
Charney is looking to corral shareholder support to seize back the reins, according to sources. While he can’t oust current directors, he’s angling to gain a voting majority by packing the seven-member board with additional seats.
“Dov isn’t going down without a fight, and there’s an argument to be made that the board has overreached,” said a source close to the situation.
The board blitzed Charney at a Wednesday board meeting, citing personal-conduct issues. The board offered Charney, who has weathered sex-harassment allegations from female employees for years, a four-year consulting contract that he turned down, according to insiders.
Charney, whose stake was diluted to 27 percent from more than 40 percent following a $30 million equity raise in March, is looking to additional investors to gain a shareholder majority to demand as many as four extra directors, insiders said.
Among Charney’s likely supporters, sources said, are FiveT Capital, a Swiss hedge fund that had scooped up nearly 13 percent of the company as of April, according to securities filings.
Complicating matters Thursday, lender Lion Capital exercised a right to take two seats on the retailer’s board under the terms of a $15 million term loan it has extended to the company, sources told The Post.
Theoretically, sources said Charney could assemble a majority with the support of Lion and between two and four additional directors, depending on whether he can get support from an existing director.
If successful, such a move could nearly double the size of American Apparel’s board to 13 members, including the two new seats claimed by Lion.
One source close to the board said Charney could “potentially” pull off such a gambit, but cautioned that “it’s a lot more difficult than he may think.”
Charney declined to comment.
It’s not clear whether Lion would side with Charney, who remains a director, or take issue with the board’s move to fire the company’s controversial CEO and strip him of his chairman title.
Lion CEO Lyndon Lea has a history of supporting sometimes eccentric retail visionaries including Charney under previous financing deals. Lea’s fashion-focused investments have included John Varvatos, Jimmy Choo and AllSaints.
Having claimed board seats, UK-based Lion also could elect to demand immediate payment of the principal, creating a potential liquidity crunch for the cash-strapped retailer.
Indeed, sources said American Apparel’s board has hired Solomon mainly in case it needs to raise money to pay off the loan from Lion, likely through an issuance of fresh stock.
In 2009, Lion extended a term loan worth more than $80 million to help American Apparel through a liquidity scrape.
That loan was paid off late last year, but soon thereafter Lion extended the current $15 million loan, which gives it the right to throw the retailer into default in the event of a CEO change.
Lion declined to comment.
American Apparel has no immediate plans to pursue a sale of the company, according to a source close to the board.
Nevertheless, banking sources said the company appears to be primping itself for such a possibility with the hire of a bank and the ouster of Charney.

(BofA-ML) Flow Show: Weekly flows show big $13bn inflows to equity funds vs firs

>>> Asset class flows
* Equities: $12.6bn inflows (driven entirely by $13.8bn inflows to ETFs - SPY, IJH, VUG) (inflows boosted by RIA re allocation trade) (Table 1)
* Bonds: $2.3bn outflows (first redemptions in 15 weeks)
* Precious metals: $0.2bn outflows (3rd straight week)

>>> Equity flows
* US: $8.4bn inflows (all via ETFs)
* US Growth funds: first inflows ($0.4bn) in 13 weeks
* By sector, record $1.2bn inflows to Utilities
* EM: $1.4bn inflows (Table 2)
* Japan: $0.2bn outflows (3 straight weeks)
* Europe: $1.1bn inflows (3 straight weeks)
>>> FICC flows
* First outflows from HY bond funds in 19 weeks ($0.7bn)
* Big $5.4bn outflows from Govt/Tsy funds (largely attributable to RIA re-allocation out of IEF & UST ETFs)
* $0.6bn outflows from floating-rate debt (10 straight weeks of outflows)
* $0.6bn inflows to EM debt funds (12 straight weeks) (Chart 3)
* $3.7bn inflows to IG bond funds (26 straight weeks)
* 9 straight weeks of inflows to MBS

FT : GE looks beyond Paris with revised bid

General Electric’s Jeff Immelt, an archetypal US chief executive from his love of (American) football to his Harvard MBA, has often seemed something of a fish out of water in France.
Announcing GE’s revised offer for Alstom’s energy businesses in Paris on Thursday, though, he could afford to laugh about the cultural divide. As his words were laboriously translated, he joked: “If I had known about this, I would have taken French at school.”

In spite of Mr Immelt’s lack of language skills, GE seems to be making progress in assuaging the French government’s opposition. A senior French official described its offer as running “neck and neck” with the rival bid from Siemens of Germany and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi of Japan, but GE’s revised proposal meets many of the concerns that the government has raised.
There are some outstanding questions over the deal, including its valuation, but if it does go through on the proposed terms it would still look like an attractive piece of business for GE, analysts say, even after the concessions that Mr Immelt has made.
The reason is that while the French government has been a central actor in the drama of the bid battle, the motives for the deal have very little to do with France.
Alstom is a global company that earned 90 per cent of its revenues outside France last year, and 67 per cent outside western Europe. The big opportunities for growth are not in developed countries, but in emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America that have fast-growing demand for electricity.
The changes GE has made to its offer to answer concerns about issues such as job creation and control of technology for nuclear plants have made the deal more complex.
Instead of an outright takeover of Alstom’s energy operations, as first proposed in April, GE is now planning to leave parts of them in three new 50/50 joint ventures: one for grid equipment, one for renewable energy, and one for steam turbine technology for nuclear plants.
It is also offering to sell its rail signalling business to Alstom, which would become principally a train company, and promising to create 1,000 jobs in France over the next three years.
However, Mr Immelt argues the heart of the deal as it was originally conceived is intact.
The real prize is the businesses GE would own outright, particularly the operations outside France manufacturing and servicing steam turbines used in coal-fired and gas-fired power plants. That would give GE a stronger position in coal-fired generation as well as its traditional base in gas-fired power. It would also enable GE to create a combined network to service the two companies’ installed base of plants around the world.
Mr Immelt says that 86 per cent of the cost savings expected from the deal, rising from $300m in the first year to $1.2bn by the fifth, will come from Alstom businesses that will be wholly owned.
GE’s successful record with CFM, its aero engines joint venture with Safran of France, has encouraged hopes that similar partnerships might also be effective.
The sale of the signalling business, meanwhile, is only a footnote to the main transaction. GE does not report its revenues or earnings separately, but it is part of the rail management business that had sales of about $500m in 2011. The Alstom energy operations have annual revenues of about $20bn.
Final judgments will have to wait until GE has filled in some of the blanks in its proposal, including the cash cost of the new offer.
“It’s still a bit muddy,” says Christian Mayes at Edward Jones. “They haven’t given us a lot of specifics.”
The company says the valuation it originally put on the Alstom businesses in April, giving an enterprise value of $13.5bn, remains unchanged, but the final price for the deal will be reduced by the agreed values of the operations included in the joint ventures, which have yet to be determined.
However, the original price looked attractive at about eight times pro forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and providing the valuation does not depart too much from that, it is also likely to be welcomed by investors. GE’s shares rose about 1 per cent to $26.93 after the new offer was announced.
Daniel Holland, an analyst at Morningstar, says completing the Alstom deal will mark an important step for Mr Immelt’s strategy of reducing the group’s reliance on GE Capital, the financial services division, which provided 47 per cent of its earnings last year.
When the North American retail credit business is spun off as a new company called Synchrony Financial, in a process scheduled to start this year, and if the Alstom deal is done, GE would by 2016 cut the share of its earnings coming from financial services to just 25 per cent.
Mr Holland said that would be welcomed by shareholders. “If an investor wants exposure to GE’s great franchises in industrial businesses, at the moment they have to have exposure to financial services, too,” he says. Reducing the group’s reliance on GE Capital would enable investors to decide for themselves how much exposure to financial services they wanted.
Mr Mayes cautions, however, that investors should not harbour unrealistic expectations about Alstom being a transformational deal for GE. Although in dollar terms it would be the company’s largest acquisition, it would still be worth only 5 per cent of GE’s market capitalisation.
While success or failure will make a big difference to Mr Immelt’s prestige, it may make rather less of a difference to the fortunes of GE.

WSJ : Porsche China Boss Praises Business

Porsche China Boss Praises Business
Deesch Papke Says Sales Drop in May Expected

SHANGHAI— Porsche AG PAH3.XE +0.91% expects low double-digit sales growth in China this year, according to its China CEO, amid a push to increase dealerships there by close to 50% by the end of next year.

The German luxury sports car maker's forecast comes despite a May sales drop in China, which the executive said was expected.

In May, car sales by Porsche fell 1.3% from a year earlier to 3,164 vehicles. The company didn't give reason for the decline when it issued the report two weeks ago.

In an interview on Friday, Deesch Papke, president and chief executive of Porsche (China) Motors, said the figure means it sold about 40 fewer cars compared with May 2013. The result is "not really a drop," he said, adding, "The marginal drop was preplanned. It was in the budget."

Car sales by Porsche AG in China rose 9.5% in the first five months of this year to 16,465 cars.

"We're confident that the year is going to be double digit in any case on last year," Mr. Papke said. "For us the business is going extremely well." He added that he expects "low double digit" sales growth.

Last year Porsche's China sales rose 20% to 37,425 cars.

One element to increasing sales will be adding distribution outlets. Porsche currently has 68 dealers in operation. It aims to have 85 by the end of this year and just over 100 by the end of next.

"We're well placed in the eastern part of the country and we're now looking for opportunities in the center," he said.

In China, models such as Cayenne and Primavera are popular. Porsche hopes to increase sales of its core sports cars including the 911, Boxster and Cayman. "Year-on-year we get stronger and stronger in sports cars" in China, he said.

Mr. Papke said the recently launched Macan would be available at dealers in China beginning in July. He declined to give specific figures for preorders but said some models were sold out for the rest of the year. "Every day the orders are coming in. We look forward to having the same success as Cayenne."

Mr. Papke was speaking on the sidelines of a Porsche event in Shanghai for customers and dealers.

He said it will take time for China to embrace motor sports—which helps raise the image and demand for high-performance sports cars—to the extent it is in Europe. "It will come. Maybe 10 or 15 years from now, we'll have a Chinese world Formula One champion. That would be fantastic," he said. "One needs to be patient and consistent."

>>> Index Rebalancing Tomorrow 20/06 - a lot of names!!!!!!!!



From: LAURENT CHEKROUN ()
Subject: >>> Index Rebalancing Tomorrow 20/06 - a lot of names!!!!!!!!
+ : Buy / - : Sell

There is more changes that these ones, I have tried to put all the main ones, if you need more details and more precise list let me know

DAX :
VOW3 +0.41 mil. shares to trade (33% ADV)
DBK +9.92mil shares to trade (74% ADV)

IBEX
EBRO SM : -2.41mil shares to trade (-565% ADV)
ABG/P SM : +14.79mil shares to trade (122% ADV)
ACS SM : +1.23mil shares to trade (104% ADV)
FER SM : +2.87mil shares to trade (106% ADV)
FCC SM : +0.40mil shares to trade (30% ADV)
GAS SM : +2.35mil shares to trade (47% ADV)

CAC
FR FP : +2.15mil shares to trade (461% ADV)
VK FP : -3.27mil shares to trade (-182% ADV)

AEX
None

BEL
None

STOXX (Main only)
ALPHA GA : +19.189mil shares to trade (64.6% ADV)
ATC NA :.+ 0.262mil shares to trade (53.2% ADV)
BMPS IM : +6mil shares to trade (10.6% ADV)
BBVA SM : +3.59mil shares to trade (10.6% ADV)
SAN SM : +7.72mil shares to trade (12.8% ADV)
BNP FP : +2.41mil shares to trade (33.1% ADV)
CABK SM : +1.79mil shares to trade (13.8% ADV)
DLG LN : +2.1mil shares to trade (28.7% ADV)
EDP PL : +0.985mil shares to trade (9.3% ADV)
FUM1V FH : +2.862mil shares to trade (119.5% ADV)
GALP PL : +0.295mil shares to trade (16.3% ADV)
GFC FP : +0.025mil shares to trade (23.3% ADV)
GENL LN : -0.106mil shares ot trade (-11.4%ADV)
HPOLB SS : +0.127mil shares to trade (+256.8% ADV)
HOLMB SS : -0.255mil shares to trade (-149.7% ADV)
HUFVA SS : -0.592mil shares to trade (-157.6% ADV)
IBE SM : -6.343mils hares to trade (-19.5% ADV)
SDF GY : -3.32mil shares to trade (-170.5% ADV)
KCR1V FH : -0.252mil shares to trade (-95.8% ADV)
LLOY LN : +42.472mil shares to trade (+18.9% ADV)
LUX IM : +0.117mil shares to trade (+14% ADV)
MEO1V FH : -0.108mil shares to trade (-13.5% ADV)
MUV2 GY : -0.271mil shares to trade (-39.3% ADV)
NOVOB DC : -0.601mil shares to trade (-19.2% ADV)
ORP FP : +0.176mil shares to trade (+117.6% ADV)
REP SM : +4.109mil shares to trade (+10.4% ADV)
RXL FP : +0.128mil shares to trade (+7.8% ADV)
RDSA NA : +0.439mil sahres to trade (+5.8% ADV)
SGO FP : +0.968mil shares to trade (+32.6% ADV)
SCHP VX : -0.013mil shares to trade (-8.6% ADV)
SHB LN : +0.126mil shares to trade (+15.5% ADV)
SKAB SS : +0.092mil shares to trade (+6.9% ADV)
SOW GY : -0.02mil shares to trade (-5.9% ADV)
SXS LN : +0.029mil shares to trade (+8.5% ADV)
SZU GY : -0.39mil shares to trade (-18% ADV)
SREN VX : +0.134mil shares to trade (+11.2% ADV)
SY1 GY : +0.049mil shares to trade (+9.9% ADV)
TKA AV : -0.096mil shares to trade (-8.5% ADV)
TOP DC : +0.023mil shares to trade (7% ADV)
TUI1 GY : +0.136mil shares to trade (+10.3% ADV)
UCB BB : +0.052mil shares to trade (+17.1% ADV)
WDI GY : +0.051mil shares to trade (+11.6% ADV)