- Iveco (R3D TH) +2.4%
- KNDS, BAE Systems Looking at Iveco Defense Unit: Corriere
- BAE (BSP TH) +2%
- Watch European Defense Stocks on German Spending, Israel Strikes
- Thyssenkrupp (TKA TH) +1.6%
- Novo (NOV TH) +1.6%
- OMV (OMV TH) +1.4%
- OMV Raised to Buy at Berenberg; PT 56 euros
- Saipem (SPEA TH) +1.4%
- Rolls-Royce (RRU TH) +1.3%
- Stellantis (8TI TH) +1.3%
- ASML (ASME TH) +1.1%
- Leonardo (FMNB TH) +1.1%
- Watch European Defense Stocks on German Spending, Israel Strikes
- Kongsberg (KOZ TH) -0.9%
- Santander (BSD2 TH) -1.2%
- Rubis (BYN TH) -1.8%
- Rubis Cut to Hold at Kepler Cheuvreux
- CTS Eventim (EVD TH) -2.3%
- CTS Eventim Cut to Neutral at Redburn; PT 104 euros
Please find attached Makor’s Europe Monthly Share Class Report.We now split our focus lists in 2 categories:
- RYAAY US - RYA ID
- LISN SW - LISP SW
- VOW3 GY - VOW GY
- VOLVA SS - VOLVB SS
- SHBA SS – SHBB SS
- SSABA SS - SSABB SS
- INVEA SS – INVEB SS
- HEN3 GY - HEN GY
- RO SW - ROG SW
- UHRN SW - UHR SW
Indian billionaire Mittal weighs up increasing his BT stake
Bharti founder has privately suggested he could expand his position in UK telecoms group
Indian billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal has indicated that he is considering increasing his holding in BT after taking a 24.5 per cent stake in the UK telecoms company last year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mittal, who bought the BT stake from Patrick Drahi’s Altice in August last year, has privately suggested that he could expand his position in the company — held via his Bharti Enterprises conglomerate — as it continues to restructure and cut costs under chief executive Allison Kirkby.
The billionaire is in the process of converting his 24.5 per cent stake, which was partly taken via derivatives contracts, into equity, said people familiar with the situation. Mittal took an initial 10 per cent holding last year, which is being increased to 24.5 per cent after securing national security approvals in December.
Mittal, who in Bharti Airtel created one of the world’s biggest network providers and owns stakes in a number of other telecoms and technology groups around the world, has signalled clearly to BT that he sees himself as a long-term investor.
James Ratzer, analyst at New Street Research, estimates that Mittal has converted about 16 per cent of his stake in total into equity. Mittal would not look to increase his BT holding until that process was finished, said people familiar with the matter.
“There is very compelling logic to [Mittal] increasing his stake at the current valuation as BT continues its fibre rollout, which continues to add value for the company,” Ratzer said.
A spokesperson for Bharti said the company “currently has no plans to buy any further stake above the 24.5 per cent already disclosed”. BT declined to comment.
Bharti said in August last year that it did not intend to make an offer for the whole of BT. Under UK takeover laws, the company was barred from bidding for BT for six months after that statement, a prohibition that expired last month.
Should the Indian billionaire’s stake increase to 30 per cent or more, he would be required to make an offer for the whole of BT under UK rules. Were he to increase his stake to 25 per cent or more, the investor would have to seek renewed national security clearance.
Mittal has taken a hands-on approach to his investment so far, discussing the business and its strategy with BT’s head and senior team in a series of meetings. The billionaire has referenced his feeling of a shared history with the UK telecoms operator, which was a minority shareholder in Bharti Airtel in the late 1990s, said the people.
One person familiar with the matter said that Mittal was “open” about his desire to be closely involved with the company, in a shift from the approach adopted by Drahi.
Kirkby in May last year announced a plan to make additional cost savings of £3bn by the end of BT’s 2029 financial year. The company has also said it will cut jobs from 130,000 in 2023 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030. Those plans are on track, according to people close to the company.
Since Kirkby started as chief executive in February last year, BT’s share price has risen more than 50 per cent, in a vote of confidence from investors.
General Dynamics urged to sell Spanish armoured vehicle business
Madrid-backed military contractor Indra has attacked US defence giant’s ownership of Santa Bárbara Sistemas
Spain’s aspiring defence champion Indra has triggered a transatlantic war of words by declaring it wants to acquire a Madrid-based arms manufacturer owned by General Dynamics, the US defence giant.
Indra, which counts the Spanish state as its largest shareholder, has taken the unusual step of going public with its desire to purchase Santa Bárbara Sistemas, which makes armoured vehicles, while simultaneously attacking General Dynamics’ management of the business.
Its move comes as Europe scrambles to re-arm itself in response to President Donald Trump’s demands that the region shoulder the burden of defending itself rather than relying on America.
Ángel Escribano, Indra’s executive chair, told Spanish lawmakers that Santa Bárbara’s armoured vehicle technology — the group’s jewel — was “property of the Spanish people” and belonged in their hands.
Asked if Indra, known mainly for its radars as well as tools for electronic warfare, was ready to purchase a Santa Bárbara factory, he said “of course” in an interview with the Nueva España newspaper. “I think Indra would be the right company to drive that whole industry.”
Escribano also criticised General Dynamics’ ownership of Santa Bárbara. “There has been no investment. It has not grown. Rather it has destroyed almost all the industrial fabric that Santa Bárbara, a once great company, had in its day,” he said.
General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defence groups, owns 100 per cent of Santa Bárbara and has rebuffed Indra’s blunt overtures, signalling it remained committed to the business.
The US contractor also hit back at recent criticisms, saying comments made about its European arm and Santa Bárbara were “misguided and misinformed”, though it did not specify which ones it was referring to.
It said it had made “significant and consistent investments in [Santa Bárbara] and the broader Spanish defence industry,” including nearly €500mn of investment in capital expenditure, export programmes and R&D since 2010.
The Spanish government is Santa Bárbara’s single biggest customer but GD said that under its ownership the business now exported 60 per cent of its products to international customers.
Europe’s governments are under pressure to build-up national defence champions as part of a move to boost resilience in the face of uncertainty over America’s traditional defence role in the region. The war in Ukraine has also turbocharged the fortunes of some national champions, notably German tank and ammunition maker Rheinmetall.
Santa Bárbara, whose factories include one that originated in the 16th century, was state-owned until 2001, when it was sold to General Dynamics for €5mn at the end of a privatisation process.
But Escribano argued that Spanish taxpayers had paid for the development of Santa Bárbara’s technology, which was ultimately purchased by the Spanish military. “That technology belongs to the Spanish people . . . and I think it makes perfect sense for it to be back in our hands,” he told a parliamentary hearing last week.
Indra is valued at €5bn and the Spanish state owns 28 per cent of the company. As the country’s largest defence contractor, Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist-led government wants to turn it into a European champion.
The Spanish state’s Indra stake is one of the largest in any listed company in percentage terms, and Sánchez has called for Spanish industry to “be at the vanguard in Europe and the world” on defence and security.
Under Escribano, who became executive chair in January when the government moved his predecessor Marc Murtra to Telefónica, Indra has struck a deal to take control of Spanish satellite operator Hispasat, agreeing last month to pay €725mn for a 90 per cent stake.
The Spanish government has also made Indra its co-ordinator for the Future Combat Air System, Europe’s flagship project to build a new fighter jet.
General Dynamics said it was “committed to serving the government of Spain and we believe this is best achieved through a company that brings access to international capital, markets and technology”.
The Spanish government declined to comment.
Short sellers make $16bn profit from Tesla’s share price plunge
Payday follows years of pain for hedge funds that bet against Elon Musk’s electric carmaker
Hedge fund short sellers have made $16.2bn betting against Tesla’s shares as the value of Elon Musk’s electric car company has halved over the past three months.
Traders positioned to make money from falls in the share price have accumulated the paper profits since the stock’s closing high on December 17, according to data provider S3 Partners. Tesla’s market value has plunged by more than $700bn over the same period, wiping more than $100bn from Musk’s net worth.
The Tesla chief executive’s public interventions in European politics including support for far-right parties have contributed to falling car sales across Europe, while the swingeing cuts he is making to federal government spending as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have also sparked a backlash.
“Tesla had a very strong brand value and Elon has managed to totally destroy it,” said Per Lekander, managing partner of $1.5bn hedge fund Clean Energy Transition, who first went short on Tesla several years ago. “[Musk] is on the wrong side of his buyership. It’s not people with cowboy boots who buy Teslas.”
JPMorgan last week lowered its end-of-year Tesla target price to $120 from $135, writing in a note: “We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly.” Shares closed at $238.01 on Monday.
The recent profits for short sellers mark a partial reversal of what has been a highly painful trade for them in recent years, with many hedge funds forced to give up on their negative bets as losses mounted. Paper losses for short sellers total $64.5bn since Tesla went public in 2010, even after accounting for the recent gains.
The number of Tesla shares being shorted has ticked up 16.3 per cent over the past month to 71.5mn or 2.6 per cent of the company’s total shares according to S3, amid a broader US stock market sell-off fuelled by fears over the potential economic damage caused by US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs.
The recent plunge in Tesla’s share price has erased its post-election gains, when investors had piled in on hopes the stock would benefit from Musk’s proximity to Trump.
Tesla’s fourth-quarter results in late January missed expectations, and the company last week warned in a letter to a US trade representative that Trump’s trade war could leave it exposed to retaliatory tariffs that would raise the cost of making vehicles in the US.
For years the carmaker ranked among the US stock market’s most popular shorts, with around 300mn shares shorted in spring 2020.
But a rally of more than 1,500 per cent in the two years to mid-2021 shattered those negative bets, even as some investors maintained the company’s valuation was becoming increasingly detached from economic reality.
Musk has a history of taunting Tesla short sellers big and small. Last year he said anyone with a short position would be “obliterated” once the company “fully solves autonomy”.
In 2020, in response to short seller David Einhorn’s criticism of Tesla’s accounting methods, Musk said “mental illness is tragic & did you know that Einhorn means unicorn?”
Trump’s second term is proving a wild ride for Tesla longs and shorts alike. Hedge fund Bridgewater Associates opened a new long position in Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2024, while ClearBridge, DE Shaw and Norges Bank all added to their existing stakes, according to 13F filings. Bridgewater declined to comment. ClearBridge, DE Shaw and Norges Bank did not respond to requests for comment.
“A lot of these momentum stocks [like Tesla] have become glorified memecoins,” said Marc Cohodes, a California-based short seller who does not have a position in Tesla. “When they went up, everyone buying thought they were smart. Now they’re falling, they’re causing huge damage.”
Europe courts US scientists fleeing Trump crackdown
Cambridge university among institutions seeing chance to hire talent unsettled by US spending cuts
Science institutions in Europe and beyond are racing to hire researchers from the US looking to flee the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on research agencies.
Cambridge university is among a clutch of top research institutions seeking to entice experts in fields from biomedicine to artificial intelligence as Washington pushes for big funding cuts and suppresses some areas of inquiry.
Researchers and top institutional officials in several European countries said they had been approached by US counterparts at varying levels of seniority about possible moves.
Deborah Prentice, vice-chancellor of Cambridge university, said it had “certainly begun organising”, pointing to possible funding injections for groups that “have somebody from the US who they’d very much like to recruit”.
Nations including China and France were also “gleefully” trying to attract US-based researchers to work in their universities, laboratories and industries, said Joanne Padrón Carney, chief government relations officer at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“There are other countries that are recognising this is an opportunity they could use in their favour,” she said.
The Trump administration has already sought to slash billions in funding from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, though a federal judge issued an injunction this month against the biggest tranche of cuts.
The political climate in the US is “discouraging for independent investigator-driven research” and causing anxiety for European colleagues who may be able to offer a haven, said Maria Leptin, president of the EU’s European Research Council.
“What we can do is to make clear to our US-based colleagues that the European research community and its funders offer a welcome in Europe to those, regardless of nationality, who find their options for independent scientific work threatened,” Leptin said.
Sten Linnarsson, a dean at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute for biomedical research, said the organisation was likely to start announcing vacancies earlier and was looking at ways to help US researchers seeking a bolt-hole.
“Our colleagues are telling us that they have colleagues in the US who are looking for somewhere,” he said. “Just to give them a place to land and find their way, we can give them six or 12 months sabbatical here — that’s very easy.”
The turmoil has led researchers in the US and overseas to ask whether the country is shifting away from its post Second World War model of strong state support for wide-ranging scientific discovery as a motor for innovation and economic growth.
The chaos in US science has offered an opening to recruit researchers with connections to China, according to the Global Times, a Communist party tabloid newspaper.
“Under the pretext of ‘national security’, Washington has unsettled the field of scientific research,” read a commentary published last week.
“Facing mounting pressure, many [Chinese-American scientists] are reassessing their career trajectories and turning their attention to China, a country that is more open, inclusive and full of opportunities.”
US science faces a pincer movement from two aims of the Trump government: to cut state spending and to curb research relating to diversity, some vaccines and human causes of climate change.
Leading US scientists and administrators say that the endpoint of the process remains unclear, because of a lack of transparency, continual adjustments and legal challenges to some proposed changes.
But the uncertainty is in itself highly damaging, they add, since researchers including many younger scientists pursuing PhDs don’t know if they will receive funding.
The potential transatlantic talent shift was “on the . . . radar” of leading UK scientific institutions, said Cambridge’s Prentice.
“Obviously it’s front of mind for me because many of my friends and former colleagues from the US are writing saying, ‘how do you get to Britain?” said Prentice, a psychologist who was formerly Princeton University’s provost.
For Cambridge, she added, “it’s really about trying to make resources available for departments and units that have an opportunity to hire”.
France’s minister for higher education and research Philippe Baptiste has written to leading research institutions urging them to send proposals for priority areas to attract US-based science and technology talent.
“Many well-known researchers are already questioning their future in the US,” Baptiste wrote. “We would naturally wish to welcome a certain number of them.”
Southern France’s Aix-Marseille university has announced a programme for US-based scientists who may feel “threatened and hindered”, particularly by cuts in fields such as climate change.
After Hours Summary: HROW +16.9% up big on earnings; STLD -0.9% ticks lower following lowered Q1 EPS guidance
After Hours Gainers:
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: HROW +16.9% (also to delay 10-K filing), KODK +12.2%, SOC +6.1%, MRP +2.2% (also announces inaugural dividend), GETY +0.5%, QTRX +0.4%
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: NBTX +6.2% (amends licensing agreement for JNJ01900), TTEC +3.4% (strategic partnership with Verint), VERI +3.2% (to delay 10-K filing), WFC +0.4% (termination of 2021 OCC loss mitigation consent order), TEAM +0.3% (receives FedRAMP authorization at Moderate level), APA +0.1% (oil discovery in Alaska), CCI +0.1% (appoints new CFO)
After Hours Losers:
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: HNRG -11.1%, SGMO -3%, STLD -0.9%
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: BKKT -29.1% (BAC and Webull Pay not renewing commercial agreements; also to delay 10-K filing), QXO -4% (raises $830 mln in private placement), ELAN -3.6% (reducing Board size), ETR -3.5% ($1.3 bln stock offering), DDD -1.6% (to delay 10-K filing), BBIO -1.2% (appoints new CFO), BLNK -1% (to delay 10-K filing), CPAY -0.6% (appoints interim CFO), RCEL -0.4% (exclusive manufacturing and distribution agreements with Stedical Scientific), MBC -0.2% (up to $50 mln for repurchases), AIR -0.1% (to enable Cathay Pacific's digital transformation), LMT -0.1% (awarded $213 mln U.S. Army contract mod)
Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's trade featured a positive bias through the entire session, reflecting an ongoing buy-the-dip mentality after the S&P 500 entered correction territory last week. Losses in the mega cap space limited index performance in the early going, but market breadth reflected more buying interest under the index surface. Advancers had a 4-to-1 lead over decliners at the NYSE and a 5-to-2 lead at the Nasdaq.
Buying increased in many areas of the market in the afternoon trade, sending the major indices to session highs. This followed a Bloomberg report indicating that the newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Greer aims for a more orderly rollout of reciprocal tariffs on April 2.
The afternoon rebound was also helped by recovery action in a few mega cap names. Apple (AAPL 214.00, +0.51, +0.2%), which traded down as much as 1.6% at its low of the day, and Microsoft (MSFT 388.70, +0.14, +0.04%), which traded down as much as 0.8% at its worst level of the day, were influential winners in that respect. The two stocks combined comprise 13% of the S&P 500 in terms of market-cap.
Market participants were largely unbothered by this morning's economic releases. U.S. retail sales and retail sales, excluding autos, were weaker than expected in February, yet control group sales (excluding auto, gasoline station, building materials, and food services sales) were up a solid 1.0%. The New York Fed's Empire Manufacturing Survey for March showed a contraction in business activity and a pickup in prices paid and prices received.
Ten of the 11 S&P 500 logged gains, led by energy (+1.7%) amid rising oil prices ($67.58/bbl, +0.39, +0.6%). The move in oil was related to increased geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after President Trump warned Iran after Houthi attacks on US vessels that any further attacks by Houthi rebels will be looked upon as "a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran." Uncertainty in the Middle East translates to higher prices in oil on concerns about supply disruptions.
Elsewhere, selling increased in Treasuries as buying picked up in equities following the pleasing tariff-related headline. The 10-yr yield settled the session unchanged from Friday at 4.31% and the 2-yr yield settled three basis points higher at 4.05%.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: -1.7% YTD
- S&P 500: -3.5% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400: -4.8% YTD
- Nasdaq Composite: -7.8%
- Russell 2000: -7.3% YTD
Reviewing today's economic data:
- Retail sales increased 0.2% month-over-month in February (Briefing.com consensus 0.7%) following a downwardly revised 1.2% decline (from -0.9%) in January. Excluding autos, retail sales were up 0.3% month-over-month (consensus 0.4%) following a 0.6% decline (from -0.4%) in January.
- The key takeaway from the report is that control group retail sales, which exclude auto, gasoline station, building materials, and food services sales, jumped 1.0% month-over-month following a downwardly revised 1.0% decline (from -0.8%) in January.
- The New York Fed's Empire Manufacturing Survey for March showed the General Business Conditions Index declining to -20.0 in March from 5.7 in February. A number below 0.0 denotes a contraction in business activity in the New York Fed region. The Prices Paid Index rose five points to 44.9, its highest level in more than two years, while the Prices Received Index jumped three points to 22.4, hitting its highest level since May 2023.
- The key takeaway from the report is that it plays into some of the stagflation worries that have infiltrated the market.
- January Business Inventories increased 0.3%, as expected, following a 0.2% decline in December.
- The March NAHB Housing Market Index dropped to 39 (consensus 43) from 42 in February.
- 8:30 ET: February Housing Starts (consensus 1.385 mln; prior 1.366 mln), Building Permits (consensus 1.450 mln; prior 1.483 mln), February Import Prices (prior 0.3%), Import Prices ex-oil (prior 0.1%), Export Prices (prior 1.3%), and Export Prices ex-agriculture (prior 1.5%)
- 9:15 ET: February Industrial Production (consensus 0.2%; prior 0.5%) and Capacity Utilization (Briefing.com consensus 77.7%; prior 77.8%)
Nanobiotix amends global licensing agreement for JNJ01900, extends cash visibility to mid-2026
- Co announced the execution of another disciplined step in its financial strategy through the amendment of the Company's global licensing agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) company.
- The amendment removes Nanobiotix's funding obligation for NANORAY-312 and releases Johnson & Johnson from select future potential milestone payments, while safeguarding Nanobiotix's path to sustainable cashflow through significant potential milestone payments.