Early premarket gappers
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Gapping up:
- AMBA +25%, URBN +11.3%, VLN +8.9%, IREN +6.8%, NTNX +6.5%, BGNE +5%, ARWR +4%, EVLV +3.2%, MMS +2.6%, BTSG +2.1%, NOAH +1.6%, GTE +1.3%, YY +1.2%, CYH +1.1%, LSAK +1%, NVS +0.7%
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Gapping down:
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>>> Up
* Aviva Raised to Outperform at KBW; PT 545 pence
* Bastide le Confort Raised to Outperform at Oddo BHF; PT 27 euros (+)
* Direct Line Raised to Outperform at BNPP Exane; PT 198 pence
* EDP Renovaveis Raised to Buy at Jefferies; PT 13 euros
* Essity Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 310 kronor
* HAL Raised to Buy at KBC Securities (+)
* Henkel Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 100 euros
* Investor AB Raised to Buy at Pareto Securities; PT 328 kronor (+)
* Melexis Raised to Neutral at UBS (+)
* Nestle Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Nestle Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* Nestle ADRs Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; PT $85
* Nvidia Raised to Hold at Punto Casa de Bolsa; PT $140
* OCI Raised to Buy at Redburn; PT 14 euros
* Opmobility Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 12 euros
* Stratec Raised to Buy at M.M. Warburg (+)
* Syensqo Raised to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 86 euros
* Volvo Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 330 kronor
>>> Down
>>> Down
* Allreal Cut to Neutral at UBS (+)
* Boohoo Cut to Hold at Jefferies; PT 30 pence
* EDP SA Cut to Hold at Jefferies; PT 3.70 euros
* Generali Cut to Underperform at KBW; PT 25.50 euros
* Nokian Renkaat Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; PT 6 euros
* Segro Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 800 pence
* Swiss Prime Cut to Neutral at UBS (+)
* TotalEnergies Cut to Neutral at BNPP Exane; PT 61 euros
* Workday Cut to Neutral at Piper Sandler; PT $270
>>> Initiation
* Workday Cut to Neutral at Piper Sandler; PT $270
>>> Initiation
* Bank of Cyprus Rated Buy by Roemer Capital With €5.43 Target (+)
* CMB Tech NV Resumed Buy at KBC Securities (+)
* Huhtamaki Rated New Buy at Deutsche Bank; PT 42 euros (+)
* Lonza Rated New Buy at Redburn; PT 650 Swiss francs
* NKT Rated New Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT 529.70 kroner
* NKT Rated New Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT 529.70 kroner
* Puig Rated New Overweight at Barclays; PT 24.40 euros
* Springer Nature Rated New Overweight at Barclays; PT 30 euros
>>> Call
>>> Call
* Equinor Upgraded to Buy at Berenberg on Gas Price Strength
* Goldman Sees ‘Significant’ Hit to US from Trump’s Canada Tariffs
* BofA Sees S&P Rising 11% to 6,666 and ‘Cyclical Inferno’ in 2025
* BofA Sees S&P Rising 11% to 6,666 and ‘Cyclical Inferno’ in 2025
* NKT a Major Player That’s Fairly Valued, New Neutral at Oddo BHF
* Volvo Raised, OEM Ratings Maintained at JPMorgan in 2025 Outlook
LVMH’s Bernard Arnault summoned to court in trial of France’s former spy chief
Billionaire to give evidence as witness in illegal surveillance and influence peddling trial that has gripped France
LVMH’s billionaire chief Bernard Arnault will appear in court on Thursday as a witness in a spying-gone-wrong case that has pitted France’s former intelligence chief against left-wing activists targeting the luxury group.
The trial is the culmination of a long-running investigation that has landed Bernard Squarcini, the country’s intelligence services boss under president Nicolas Sarkozy, on trial for charges related to corruption, illegal surveillance and influence peddling.
Many of the allegations relate to incidents that took place while Squarcini was employed as a private security contractor for LVMH, between 2013 to 2016.
Paris-listed LVMH, which is the world’s most valuable luxury group with a €296bn market capitalisation, already paid €10mn in 2021 to settle allegations it faced, without any admission of wrongdoing.
The scandal involving a harmless left-wing publication and activists has been an embarrassment for the owner of Dior and Louis Vuitton. It has also offered a glimpse into the paranoia simmering at some of the highest echelons of the company.
Former French spy chief Bernard Squarcini, centre, arrives in court with his lawyers Patrick Maisonneuve, left, and Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, right © Poitout Florian/ABACA via Reuters
The testimony of Arnault, who has been summoned to give evidence as a witness, is one of the highlights of the 15-day trial that started earlier this month.
One of the incidents at the heart of the affair is a kerfuffle between LVMH’s security team and left-wing activists intent on confronting Arnault about factory closures at the group’s 2013 annual general meeting.
As the activists led by François Ruffin — now an MP — were swiftly spotted at the event and escorted out, one of them tried to argue his way out of the situation, giving away that he had allegedly been working undercover on behalf of the luxury group.
“Let me go, let me go — stop,” the man shouted, according to testimony from security staff read out in a Paris court last week. “I’m the mole, I’m the mole. Just ask them, they will tell you.”
The informant allegedly received several thousand euros in compensation for his services via Squarcini’s subcontractors, while a second plant — who posed as a photographer — was given camera equipment and a small sum of money.
“The ‘mole’ seemed pretty low-end to me,” the security staffer said in their testimony. “Plus he is a coward — he told me straight away that he was the mole.”
LVMH spent €2.2mn on contracts with Squarcini, who was hired in 2013 by the luxury group’s then number two executive Pierre Godé to advise on matters from fighting counterfeit goods to crisis management and prevention, according to court documents.
Squarcini in turn paid about €450,000 to a cast of former police and intelligence officials, many now also on trial, who appear to have passed on a litany of inaccurate or exaggerated intelligence, according to evidence given in court.
Ruffin, who appears as a civil party in the case, has criticised the LVMH settlement. For a group that had €86bn in revenues last year, “it’s like slapping a €10 note on the judge’s desk and saying this is forgotten”, he said in court last week.
LVMH’s former security director Laurent Marcadier, an ex-magistrate referred to as “Lolo” in Squarcini’s text messages and phone records, is among 10 other defendants.
Squarcini has denied wrongdoing, saying that protecting Arnault was a matter of “national interest”.
Born in Rabat, Morocco, Squarcini headed up intelligence in France from 2008 to 2012 under Sarkozy’s presidency. A counterterrorism specialist, he also worked on key dossiers such as the rise of Islamic extremism.
When François Hollande became president, Squarcini left for the private sector, founding his consultancy Kyrnos Conseil. LVMH was one of its main clients.
Squarcini in court insisted he did not know informants had been remunerated, while he and his associates have rejected the allegations that they “infiltrated” Ruffin’s circle on behalf of LVMH.
They have argued that the term is inaccurate despite it appearing in more than a dozen communications, obtained by prosecutors via phone taps and during searches performed by law enforcement, according to court documents reviewed by the Financial Times.
In one phone call in 2013, LVMH’s Godé said: “It could be interesting . . . to infiltrate them, right?”
“That’s what I’m going to look at with the people concerned”, Squarcini replied — something he described in court as a “diplomatic” answer.
In another part of the case, Squarcini is accused of using his influence to access confidential information about an investigation into LVMH’s stealth stakebuilding in luxury rival Hermès.
Paris-based Hermès fended off the takeover attempt but filed a complaint to financial prosecutors about the tactics LVMH had used in 2010 to build a 20 per cent position while avoiding disclosure requirements. LVMH later paid an €8mn fine.
The former director of the Paris judicial police was fined last year for transmitting information about open investigations to Squarcini.
LVMH’s anxiety about Ruffin’s activist group Fakir, sharpened further as Ruffin prepared to release a documentary about Arnault in 2016 called Merci Patron! (Thanks, boss!).
The film, which highlighted the plight of workers who had lost their jobs when an LVMH supplier closed a garment factory, was an unexpected hit in France, winning a César, the French equivalent of an Oscar, despite its shoestring budget.
The prosecution alleges that Squarcini and his associates set out to covertly obtain a copy, which now forms part of the charges. Ruffin says he would have been happy to organise a screening at LVMH “but those requests never reached me”.
Squarcini, for his part, said he never saw the film. “Now might be a good opportunity to do so,” the presiding judge suggested.
The effort to counter Fakir, then a 20-strong group with no history of violence, was “an excessive waste of human resources”, former LVMH director Marcadier said in court as he blamed the contractors around Squarcini for overhyping the situation.
Ruffin has blamed Arnault’s intolerance to criticism and former anti-terrorism officials “playing soldiers” resulting in disproportionate methods being used against Fakir’s “schoolboy” tactics.
“They are bored, they are in a small office having to study this little story,” he told the court. By “accentuating the threat, it will justify the resources [and] the invoices”.
Asked by the judge as to whether he thought “this waste of resources on Fakir” was excessive, Squarcini acquiesced.
“I was caught between two worlds, that of the exaggerated information I was given, and the concern of the people at LVMH,” he said. “Intelligence helps decision-making, but you are not the decision maker.” The case continues.
- Henkel (HEN3 TH) +1.3%
- Henkel Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 100 euros
- Equinor (DNQ TH) +0.8%
- LVMH (MOH TH) +0.8%
- France’s Richest Man, the Mystery Paparazzo and the Spy Chief
- Kion (KGX TH) +0.5%
- Iberdrola (IBE1 TH) +0.5%
- Renault (RNL TH) -0.8%
- Croda (6CMB TH) -0.9%
- TotalEnergies (TOTB TH) -1%
- Oil Stabilizes Before OPEC+ Meeting as Cease-Fire Reduces Risks
- Reckitt (3RB TH) -1.1%
- IAG (INR TH) -1.1%
- Air Europa in Talks to Sell 20% to Air France-KLM: El Economista
- Aker BP (ARC TH) -1.2%
- BT (BTQ TH) -1.3%
- America Movil, Telstra Spreads vs Communications Peers Tighten
- Nemetschek (NEM TH) -1.5%
- Watch SAP and European Software Stocks After Workday’s Results
- Generali (ASG TH) -1.6%
- Generali Cut to Underperform at KBW; PT 25.50 euros
- Worldline (WO6 TH) -2.9%
DAX:
- Henkel (HEN3 TH) +1.5%
- Henkel Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 100 euros
- Beiersdorf (BEI TH) +0.9%
- VW (VOW3 TH) +0.6%
- SAP (SAP TH) -0.3%
- Watch SAP and European Software Stocks After Workday’s Results
- Rheinmetall (RHM TH) -0.4%
- Israel and Hezbollah Reach a Cease-Fire Agreement for Lebanon
MDAX:
- Aroundtown (AT1 TH) +1.4%
- Aroundtown 9M Net Rental Income EU882.8M Vs. EU894.5M Y/y (1)
- Kion (KGX TH) +0.9%
- United Internet (UTDI TH) +0.7%
- Nemetschek (NEM TH) -1.1%
- Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) -1.3%
SDAX:
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- Borussia Dortmund (BVB TH) +1.1%
- Heidelberger Druck (HDD TH) +1%
- SGL (SGL TH) +0.9%
- SUSS MicroTec (SMHN TH) -0.8%
Elon Musk’s Twitter backers gain windfall from xAI deal
Investors hit by losses following billionaire’s takeover of social media platform reap rewards from shares in his AI start-up
Investors in Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter are set to make a huge windfall from a surge in the valuation of his artificial intelligence company, reaping rewards from being loyal backers of the billionaire’s business empire.
Musk has given investors that backed his $44bn Twitter acquisition 25 per cent of the shares in xAI, which he founded last year to take on rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
xAI is set to close a new $5bn fundraising round as early as Wednesday, according to people with knowledge of the talks, doubling its valuation to $50bn in just six months.
That has meant some of Musk’s backers, who were sitting on billions of dollars of unrealised losses from the Twitter takeover, could be made “whole” through shares in xAI thanks to the start-up’s massive rise in value.
Those set to benefit as investors in both Musk companies include Fidelity, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Silicon Valley venture firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
The connections between the Musk businesses are the latest example of the overlapping incentives for those who support his ventures, which also include electric-car maker Tesla and rocket builder SpaceX.
Many of his financial backers have justified their support of the takeover of Twitter, since renamed X, as a bet on Musk and a means to stay within his orbit. That thinking has been considered especially prescient as Musk has become a close confidant of president-elect Donald Trump.
“There are few adages in tech that really hold up,” said one investor in Musk’s companies. “Never bet against Elon is one.”
When this week’s funding round closes, xAI will have raised about $11bn of investment in total, needed for the huge spending required to build AI models and one of the world’s largest clusters of supercomputers.
Its rapid growth has been a boon for Twitter equity investors, from whom Musk secured $7.1bn to fund the takeover, with the rest generated by bank loans and Musk’s own fortune, including from selling Tesla shares. Banks including Morgan Stanley and Barclays are sitting on about $13bn of Twitter debt.
Since then, the value of the social media platform has crashed as advertisers have abandoned the site over content moderation concerns. Fidelity, which publicly discloses the value of its stake in X, has written down its investment by nearly 80 per cent, giving it a current value of $9.4bn.
xAI carried out a $6bn fundraising in May, its first major cash injection from outside investors, which gave it a post-money valuation of $24bn. Many of Musk’s X backers chose to put even more cash into the start-up deal, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Prince Alwaleed and Fidelity.
In its latest $5bn fundraising, only investors who had backed xAI in its previous fundraising had been permitted to invest, according to several people close to the matter.
Musk wrote on X in November 2023 that X investors would own 25 per cent of xAI, but did not give further details.
People with knowledge of the matter said X investors had been granted a quarter of the equity in xAI across both fundraising rounds. Their stake was not diluted by the new shares issued following the close of the latest fundraise, they added.
While proving to be lucrative, the connected deals create a complex set of considerations for investors in Musk’s companies.
“It’s hard to manage conflicts of interest on this sort of stuff,” said an investor in one of the companies. “You have to be a fiduciary and you’re on both sides.”
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
SoftBank builds its OpenAI stake with $1.5bn investment
SoftBank is buying up $1.5bn worth of stock in OpenAI, bolstering its position in the $150bn artificial intelligence company as Masayoshi Son looks to make the Japanese group a central player in AI.
SoftBank is buying up shares in a tender offer, a mechanism to allow current and former OpenAI employees who have held their stock for more than two years to sell, according to two people familiar with the arrangement. The deal is set to close early next year.
The tender offer, first reported by CNBC, prices employee stock according to OpenAI’s last funding round, completed last month. That $6.6bn fundraise valued the company at $150bn. SoftBank invested $500mn into the company during that round.