Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd CEO Levin to step down; Names CFO Eyal Desheh interim CEO
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BFW 10/30 09:28 *ELIOR PLANS IPO IN 2014-2015, CHALLENGES REPORTS BN 10/30 09:27 *ELIOR PLANS IPO IN 2014-2015, CHALLENGES REPORTS
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Elior Plans IPO in 2014 or 2015, Challenges Reports 2013-10-30 09:31:38.535 GMT
By David Whitehouse Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Charterhouse hopes for a valuation of at least 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion), Challenges reports, without citing anyone. * Co. had sales of EU4B in 2012: Challenges.
For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>} First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Whitehouse at +33-1-5365-5059 or dwhitehouse1@bloomberg.net
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BN 10/30 09:30 *EU SETS DEC. 4 DEADLINE TO RULE ON MICROSOFT/NOKIA DEAL BN 10/30 09:29 *MICROSOFT/NOKIA DEAL NOTIFIED TO EU FOR APPROVAL
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*MICROSOFT/NOKIA DEAL NOTIFIED TO EU FOR APPROVAL 2013-10-30 09:30:04.159 GMT
--GAURAV PANCHAL
-0- Oct/30/2013 09:30 GMT
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Bollore CEO: No Plan to List More of Blue Solutions 2013-10-30 09:04:04.700 GMT
By Marie Mawad Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Bollore also plans to keep control of Blue Solutions, Vincent Bollore tells journalists after a press conference in Paris today. * NOTE: Bollore Says Blue Solutions Unit Raised EU41.8m in IPO {NSN MVFXBA6S973J <go>}
Link to Company News:{BLUE FP <Equity> CN <GO>} Link to Company News:{BOL FP <Equity> CN <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: Marie Mawad in Paris at +33-1-5530-6290 or mmawad1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Rhinds at +33-1-5365-5072 or srhinds@bloomberg.net
Interesting Article on European Telecom...Restructration is coming...
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Iliad’s Niel Harnesses Billionaire Heft to Muscle Into Deals (1) 2013-10-30 08:14:56.495 GMT
(Updates with stock trading in 13th paragraph.)
By Marie Mawad and Matthew Campbell Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Xavier Niel, the founder of French mobile and broadband provider Iliad SA, has made a second career backing startups with uncertain prospects. Now he’s ready to apply those skills to Europe’s beleaguered phone companies. As his net worth reaches $8.1 billion, Niel is assessing deals for telecommunications operators in the region, people familiar with his thinking said. Among targets he’s recently examined for Iliad to join forces with, or to take a stake in himself: SFR and Bouygues Telecom, France’s second- and third- biggest wireless carriers, and Mobistar, the Belgian operator controlled by Orange SA, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The 46-year-old, one of Europe’s most active venture- capital investors, is trying to muscle into the league of billionaires including Carlos Slim and Li Ka-shing, who have been enticed by the cheap valuations of the region’s phone companies relative to the U.S. While most operators in Europe have struggled to pull through a stagnant market, Iliad shares doubled in the past two years for a market value of $14 billion, giving its founder the currency for a bigger deal. “I’m always investing,” Niel said in an interview this month as he sat in front of a panoramic view of Paris atop Iliad’s headquarters. “I’m constantly in talks with someone about some opportunity. You just don’t hear about most of my discussions.”
Orange Overture
Working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s private-equity arm, Niel reached the final round of bidding in 2011 for mobile operator Orange Switzerland, people familiar with the matter said at the time. The Orange division was sold to Apax Partners LLP for about $2 billion. He also considered buying Royal KPN NV’s Belgian unit, BASE, before the Dutch owner canceled the sale. In France, Iliad’s Free phone brand pioneered so-called triple-play packages combining TV, landline, and Internet services. Free added mobile services in January 2012, and with tariffs as low as 2 euros ($2.75) a month and heavy cross- selling of wireless and home plans, wrested a 10.3 percent market share -- 6.8 million customers -- in 18 months. By June, it has reached 5.5 million fixed-broadband subscribers. Orange had 10 million.
Office Naps
The strategy Niel used to disrupt France’s communications market is being emulated elsewhere. Dutch broadband provider Ziggo NV is challenging incumbent KPN and Vodafone Group Plc locally with discount Internet and mobile packages. And Niel co- founded an Israeli operator, Golan Telecom, that follows a similar model. Niel has built his reputation on doing things outside the norm. While he’s France’s seventh richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his shaggy hair, and uniform of jeans and open-necked shirts make him stand out in the staid telecom world. He doesn’t have an assistant, a separate office or a chauffeur, prefers e-mails to meetings and says he sees no reason why working at 3:00 a.m. or napping at the office in the afternoon shouldn’t be routine. “Niel’s got a track record in France which would justify him trying to duplicate Iliad’s success in another market, and there are assets for sale in Europe,” said Stephane Beyazian, a London-based analyst at Raymond James Euro Equities. Within France, Iliad “will be looking at possible consolidation but it’s very tough, because the regulator is opposed” to deals that could reduce competition, said Francois Godard, who specializes in European telecom at Enders Analysis.
Rebuffed Recently
Niel’s interest in SFR, which is being spun off by media conglomerate Vivendi SA, was rebuffed by French regulators, while Bouygues Telecom’s owner, the Bouygues SA industrial group, isn’t interested in selling for now, two of the people said. He remains interested in future tie-ups with both companies, one of the people said. Representatives at SFR and Orange declined to comment on Niel’s interest in the carriers. An official at Bouygues Telecom couldn’t be reached after regular office hours. Iliad climbed 0.5 percent to 170.80 euros at 9:11 a.m. in Paris. Orange fell 0.7 percent, Vivendi slipped 0.2 percent and Bouygues added 0.2 percent. European phone companies are valued at 13.9 times their estimates full-year earnings, compared with 18.5 times for U.S. peers, data compiled by Bloomberg for the S&P 500 and Stoxx Europe 600 telecom indexes show. That gap is narrowing after investors in August began valuing European firms more highly, helped by a flow of deals and interest from international buyers.
Slim, Sawiris
Slim, John Malone of the U.S., and Egypt’s Naguib Sawiris are among billionaires who have held talks in the past year to invest in European carriers. Slim’s America Movil SAB bought into KPN last year and offered to buy all of it before dropping the plan. AT&T Inc. has eyed assets including EE, the U.K. wireless company co-owned by Orange and Deutsche Telekom AG, as well as Vodafone, which has operations in 21 countries. Carriers on the block in Europe may include VimpelCom Ltd.’s Wind unit in Italy, Spain’s Yoigo, and Stockholm-based Tele2 AB. Jazztel Plc in Spain or TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc in the U.K. could be good fits for Niel, according to Beyazian of Raymond James. “Iliad historically hasn’t done much M&A -- there are reasons for that,” Beyazian said. “For Niel to make a deal, you’d definitely need attractive valuations and, just as important, a DNA similar to Iliad’s.”
Deezer, Square
Iliad’s approach has its critics, with competitors Orange - - formerly known as France Telecom -- and Vivendi arguing Free’s mobile prices are unsustainable. The company also faces the slow, expensive task of building its own high-speed wireless network, which could force it to raise prices. That’s not slowing Niel’s venture-capital activities, which stretch from minority stakes in U.S. mobile-payments company Square and online music-streaming startup Deezer to co-ownership of French newspaper Le Monde. Niel sold about 310 million euros in Iliad shares last month, adding to his personal resources. Niel -- who got started running sex-chat services on Minitel, France’s precursor to the World Wide Web -- is also investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs. He’s put money this year into a Paris school, dubbed “42” in reference to Douglas Adams’s comic science-fiction series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” in which 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything. At the school, young adults train for jobs in Internet and technology companies as well as entrepreneurship. Niel is also the biggest investor in a plan to build a 30,000 square-meter (323,000 square feet) workspace in Paris to host start-ups by 2016. “We need to create an ecosystem which will make young people want to start their own company,” Niel said. “I’d rather people talked about the 1,000 most successful French Internet companies instead of the 5 or 10 faces we already know -- including mine.”
For Related News and Information: Billionaires Snubbed in Netherlands Show Phone Stock Rebound NXTW NSN MUV9626TTDS2 <GO> ‘Pigeon’ Entrepreneurs Take Hollande Tax Protest to Web NXTW NSN MBB8S71A74E9 <GO> Iliad’s Niel Sees Silicon Valley on the Seine With Web School NXTW NSN LOBYXE07SXKY <GO> Today’s top technology news: TTOP <GO> Mergers and aquisitions data: MA <GO>
--With assistance from Vidya Root in Paris. Editors: Heather Smith, Kenneth Wong
To contact the reporters on this story: Marie Mawad in Paris at +33-1-5530-6290 or mmawad1@bloomberg.net; Matthew Campbell in London at +44-20-3525-8684 or mcampbell39@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at +49-30-70010-6215 or kwong11@bloomberg.net; Aaron Kirchfeld at +44-20-3525-8830 or akirchfeld@bloomberg.net
Additional capacity planned by EuroChem is main threat, Nesis, who sold out of biggest producer Uralkali in July, says in interview.• Once EuroChem starts potash sales “how will the Canadians respond? Or Uralkali? Will they just clear space for EuroChem?” • “I am not certain of the future for the potash market” • “We don’t see any investment case for Uralkali itself” • Initial investment in Uralkali was bet on success of Uralkali-Silvinit merger, Nesis says • “Once we saw that the value of the merger was realized in the share price, we started to sell.” • NOTE: Nesis, once 12% owner in Uralkali, completed sale of his stake in co. in July, before Uralkali announced break up with joint trading venture with Belarus, sending potash lower • NOTE: EuroChem plans to starts mines at two potash deposits in Russia in 2017 with total projected capacity of 8m tons of potash/yr NSN MV494J6VDKI8 <GO> • NOTE: Nesis focused on investments into Polymetal, rare-earth metals and urea projects, transportation business, he says in interview NSN MVFWFE6VDKHU <GO> • NOTE: Nesis agrees to buy >40% stake in O1 Properties, Russian real estate investment company, from entrepreneur Boris Mints, he says in interview NSN MVFU826S973Z<GO> • NOTE: Nesis’ other investments include telecommunication assets in Peru, Bangladesh and Italy, Greek gambling company Opap
2.88m shares offered @ €14.50, trading €17.50 +20%
bollore kept 28k millions shares
Gallimard welcomes LVMH as 9.5% shareholder
French family-owned publisher Gallimard finalised a capital increase reserved to listed French luxury group LVMH, which will end up with a 9.5% stake in the holding company Madrigall, French daily Les Echos reported. The report cited Antoine Gallimard, chairman and chief executive of Gallimard, as confirming the news. He did not disclose the amount of the reserved capital increase, but the report claimed that the investment is valued at between EUR 25m and EUR 30m.
Gallimard was advised by Neuflize OBC, and his family remains a majority shareholder in the business with a little more than 50%. Gallimard reported revenues of EUR 420m in 2012, including the recently acquired Flammarion.
Les Echos
BGZ could be sold this year; BNP Paribas offers EUR 1bn
Rabobank, the Dutch owner of BGZ (Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej), will select a buyer for the Polish bank at the turn of November and December, Puls Biznesu reported. The Polish daily cited a source close to the negotiations, who added that the sale deal could be signed this year.
Puls Biznesu also learned that Rabobank is in parallel talks with all interested bidders. According to the source, apart from three bidders - Santander, UniCredit and BNP Paribas - there are other interested parties, names of which Puls Biznesu was unable to establish.
According to unofficial information, BNP Paribas submitted an offer of EUR 1bn. Polish lender Pekao (a part of UniCredit) and Santander have placed lower offers, a representative of an unspecified bank told Puls Biznesu.
The paper said, citing unofficial sources, that Rabobank wants to complete the transaction as soon as possible. The article also reported that Credit Agricole, Erste Bank and Intesa SanPaolo , which have been interested in the Polish banking sector, are whispered as potential buyers. The article added that Polish listed insurer PZU had been also interested in the transaction.
Source Puls Biznesu
Spending on U.S. shale drilling should pick up next year, sparking fast profit growth for the Houston-based oil services outfit.
Halliburton is poised for a rapid rise in profits as oil companies ramp up spending to tap new shale finds. That could send its shares more than 40% higher within a year. The U.S. is enjoying an oil production boom driven by new drilling technology, which has unlocked vast amounts of oil and gas from porous rock. Early on, that proved lucrative for oil services companies. More recently, too many of them competed for work in a handful of major shale deposits in states like Texas, North Dakota and Ohio, which drove down service prices and profit growth. Halliburton (ticker: HAL) reported a profit decline in 2012 and is expected to grow earnings per share just 4% this year, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Its shares more than doubled in two years ended July 2011 to peak at over $57. Since then they've lost ground and recovered, trading recently near $52. Halliburton and rivals like Baker Hughes (BHI) and Schlumberger (SLB) have trimmed costs to preserve profits. At the same time, recent U.S. shale finds promise to spread demand for drilling services more broadly, to states like Colorado and Louisiana and to new parts of Texas. Industry spending on exploration and production should rise 6% this year, predicted Goldman Sachs in a Monday note to investors. That bodes particularly well for companies like Halliburton, which has heavy exposure to onshore production services. Its earnings per share should rise at a compounded rate of 34% per year through 2015, according to Goldman. The Wall Street consensus shows earnings totaling $3.13 this year and jumping to $5.13 by 2015. The fast growth could catch stock investors by surprise. At 16.6 times this year's earnings estimate, Halliburton shares look fairly priced. But those earnings represent a slow patch. The stock trades at just 10.1 times the 2015 estimate. Cowen and Company analyst James Crandell predicts the stock will hit $75 in a year, a 44% increase. That's based on the stock rising to 14.3 times his 2015 earnings estimate of $5.25 a share. Crandell predicts gains of more than 20% for Schlumberger and Baker Hughes, too.
Halliburton will host an analyst day on Nov. 6 when it will likely update Wall Street on its colorfully named efficiency drives, Frac of the Future, aimed at drilling, and Battle Red, a corporate cost overhaul. It may also report on changes in service demand and pricing. If the news is promising, it could prompt Wall Street to raise its near-term earnings targets, giving shares a quick lift. Several drillers have recently released capital spending budgets for next year that show healthy growth. Halliburton collects more than half its revenue in North America but is also benefitting from strong growth in Russia, the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and Norway. Activity in Brazil and Mexico has been slumping but should bottom out in the first quarter of next year and recover thereafter, according to Cowen's Crandell. Shares carry only a modest dividend yield of 1%. Halliburton last quarter splurged to repurchase more than 7% of its outstanding shares. If profits jump as much as expected in coming years, it will likely have gotten an excellent deal. In short, Halliburton is a well-oiled money maker that should reward investors.