>>> Up
* Alcoa Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT $50
* Alcoa Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT $50
* Anglo American Raised to Outperform at BNPP Exane
* Freeport Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT $62
* Huhtamaki Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 44 euros
* Moderna PT Raised to $150 from $115 at Argus
* Severn Trent Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 2,700 pence
* United Utilities Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan
* Vale ADRs Raised to Neutral at BNPP Exane; PT $12.70
>>> Down
>>> Down
* ABB Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank; PT 45 Swiss francs
* Atlantic Lithium Cut to Neutral at Macquarie; PT 21 pence
* Immofinanz Cut to Reduce at Erste Group; PT 22.50 euros
* Ivanhoe Mines Cut to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; PT C$19.50
* Mondi Cut to Underweight at ABSA Securities; PT 1,475.90 pence
* Mondi Cut to Underweight at ABSA Securities; PT 1,475.90 pence
* Nike Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer; PT $120 (+)
* Ryanair Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 18.50 euros
* Wizz Air Cut to Underweight at Barclays; PT 1,950 pence
* Zug Estates Cut to Market Perform at ZKB (+)
>>> Initiation
>>> Initiation
* Barratt Rated New Hold at Stifel; PT 460 pence
* Bellway Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 2,750 pence
* Berkeley Rated New Hold at Stifel; PT 4,630 pence
* Couche-Tard Rated New Buy at Jefferies; PT C$91
* DiscoverIE Rated New Outperform at Davy; PT 915 pence (+)
* Herantis Pharma Rated New Accumulate at Inderes; PT 2.20 euros
* MJ Gleeson Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 640 pence
* Persimmon Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 1,650 pence
* Taylor Wimpey Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 155 pence
* Vistry Group Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 1,290 pence
>>> Call
* Vistry Group Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 1,290 pence
>>> Call
* B&M Cut, PT to Street-Low at Morgan Stanley on Weaker Growth
* Rolls-Royce Re-Rating Can Continue, Citi Boosts Price Target
* Rolls-Royce Re-Rating Can Continue, Citi Boosts Price Target
* Varta’s Revenue Guidance Cut Isn’t a Surprise, Says Warburg (+)
Copper Producer Aurubis Appoints New CEO After Metal Theft
Metals supplier named Toralf Haag to replace Roland Harings following cases of metal theft at a plant in Germany
Aurubis NDA 5.49%increase; green up pointing triangle, one of the world’s largest copper producers, named a new chief executive in a sweeping restructuring of its executive board following cases of metal theft at a plant in Germany.
The metals supplier named Toralf Haag to replace Roland Harings at the helm of the company, and Tim Kurth to succeed Heiko Arnold as chief operations officer for custom smelting, with both appointments effective Sept. 1. Steffen Alexander Hoffmann will take over as chief financial officer from Rainer Verhoeven on Oct. 1.
Earlier this year, Aurubis decided to part ways with Harings, Arnold and Verhoeven by mutual agreement, saying the three executives were taking accountability in light of what it called serious cases of fraud and theft at the Hamburg plant and incidents in occupational safety.
Aurubis last year said it had identified discrepancies in its inventories and shipments of metal, leading the group to conclude that it had been the target of theft. In its financial report for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the group said it took a hit of roughly EUR169 million from criminal activities.
German judges recently sentenced an undisclosed defendant to five years and ten months in relation to the metals theft. A former Aurubis employee was handed three years and six months in jail, while all other co-defendants were given penalties of up to four years.
Thursday’s appointments underscore Aurubis’s efforts to turn the page on the theft chapter with a fresh executive board. Aurubis shares in Germany closed 5.5% higher at EUR76.80.
However, the group said its strategic direction and implementation of its growth initiatives will continue unchanged under Haag, who is currently CEO at German manufacturing company Voith Group.
Luxury Bug Repellant Is Here—and $65. We Tested It in the Woods.
For those with sensitive skin—or a penchant for Instagram bragging—there’s a new way to keep mosquitoes away.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
As a fashion editor, I’m drawn to buzz. As a trail runner, though, I desperately avoid it, especially the buzzing of bite-happy mosquitoes and black flies.
Traditional sprays, while effective, make my eyes water and skin itch, thanks to harsh chemical formulas and noxious odors. Would the new, pricey “bug spray perfumes” deter pests and rashes while attracting compliments?
I tested five on long runs in New York parks and forests.
Heretic Parfum Entomologist Spray, from $45
This woodsy blend of cedar, thyme and sugar-cane alcohol smelled more like a creative director on a first date than a bug repellent. Shockingly, it kept the mosquitoes off my bare legs on a 5k, without irritating skin or leaving greasy residue. A fellow runner asked if I was dating someone new after getting a whiff of the formula.
A repellant-slash-perfume with quite the pedigree: Its creator is Princess Ala von Auersperg, and its publicist is a former Chanel exec. Though gentle on my skin, its fruity top notes conjured the Bath & Body Works sprays of a junior high sleepover. I got just two mosquito bites on my evening run through Central Park, but I smelled so much like the mall that I craved an Auntie Anne’s pretzel by mile three.
Created by a Hudson Valley botanist and former chef, this solid moisturizer-and-bug-spray combo is the only insect repellent Sephora sells. It smelled faintly like a citronella candle and felt like Crisco, though after a mile on a state park trail, my legs felt buttery soft instead of coated in butter. I came home with several gnat bites on my shoulder, but zero mosquito damage, and the supple-skin effect lasted a full 24 hours.
This spray evoked a Creamsicle melted into a cauldron full of lemongrass and citronella oil. Its sweet-smelling formula feels like suntan oil, which made it easy to spread the concoction across my whole body—but tricky when I went to open my front door and realized my hands were sliding off the knob. The aesthetic effect, however, was gorgeous: My legs appeared shiny and slightly bronzed. I got three mosquito bites by mile six, but zero skin hives, and the scent was nostalgically sweet.
PHOTO: FREE PEOPLE
If I were to give this bug spray its own performance review, I would say it hit its main key performance indicator—keeping bugs away during a 10k race—but did the bare minimum in all other categories. It smelled a bit like lemon soap, which made my eyes tingle, and left an oily sheen on my thighs for a little too long. On the plus side, it didn’t irritate my skin, likely because the main ingredients are flax oil and sunflower-seed oil. But given its $22 price, I’ll just buy two bottles of my trusty $9 Herbal Armor from Whole Foods and call it a day.
SoftBank Chief Rues Selling Nvidia Stake and Missing Out on $150 Billion
Masayoshi Son calls the 2019 sale of stake in chip maker ‘the fish that got away’
TOKYO—SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son on Friday lamented what turned out to be a $150 billion blunder: selling shares in Nvidia years before the chip maker became one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Son, known for some of the most successful investments in technology history, recalled one of his less-cherished moments at SoftBank Group’s annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo.
“It’s frustrating to remember the ones that I missed,” Son said. “I had to tearfully sell the shares” of Nvidia, he said, because at the time SoftBank’s Vision Fund investment vehicle felt it needed to lock in returns.
“The fish that got away was big,” Son said.
In 2019, the Vision Fund sold its entire 4.9% stake in Nvidia and booked a $3.3 billion return on its investment.
It seemed like a big win, since SoftBank had spent about $700 million for its stake. But Nvidia was just getting started in its rise to the top, powered by demand for its chips in artificial-intelligence applications.
This past week, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable listed firm, before falling back Thursday into second place behind Microsoft. As of Thursday’s close in the U.S., Nvidia was valued at about $3.22 trillion, just behind Microsoft at $3.31 trillion.
Had SoftBank’s fund held on to its Nvidia stake, it would be worth around $160 billion today, meaning SoftBank missed out on a gain of more than $150 billion by selling in 2019.
Son said Friday he once had a plan to make Nvidia part of his technology conglomerate. The month after SoftBank bought U.K. chip designer Arm in 2016, he sat down with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang in the yard of Son’s home in California and had a four-hour talk about a potential acquisition, Son said.
“There was one theme: ‘I bought Arm. Now I want to buy you, Nvidia,’ ” Son recalled.
Son wanted to acquire Nvidia and privatize the company while keeping Huang as the leader, but the deal didn’t work out, he said. An Nvidia representative declined to comment.
Son also said he planned at one point to inject funds into OpenAI, maker of AI chatbot ChatGPT, but OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman eventually chose to accept an investment from Microsoft.
In 2022, his plans to sell Arm to Nvidia also didn’t go through owing to antitrust concerns.
“There are other fish that got away but there is no point in talking about them,” Son said.
Son has enjoyed many investing successes over decades, including a $20 million investment in Chinese internet company Alibaba that ultimately produced tens of billions of dollars in return.
Arm has also turned into one of Son’s greatest hits. SoftBank owns about 90% of Arm, which listed its shares in the U.S. last year and had a market value of $168 billion as of Thursday’s close.
If given a second chance to choose between Arm and Nvidia, “I would choose Arm without a second of hesitation,” Son said. “I believe in the future of Arm that much.”
Most smartphones use chips designed by Arm, and its designs are also going into the next generation of chips that power AI applications.
The Arm stake is currently SoftBank’s biggest asset. SoftBank’s net asset value increased by $126 billion in about a year to $214 billion as of Thursday.
Son said Friday he wanted to realize “artificial super intelligence,” which he said would be 10,000 times smarter than human intelligence. He said ASI would be widely used in about 10 years, helping humans cope with disease, car accidents, wars and even a meteor crash.
“I seriously believe the reason why Masayoshi Son was born is to make ASI come true,” he said.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son says past investments ‘just a warm-up’ for AI bet
Tech founder tells shareholders he was ‘born to’ make artificial superintelligence a reality
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son told shareholders on Friday that investments the technology group had made in the past were “just a warm-up” for his grand ambition to create an era of artificial intelligence.
An energised Son told SoftBank shareholders at the group’s annual meeting that his mission was to bring about so-called artificial superintelligence, technology that he says could be significantly smarter than humans.
“This is what I was born to do, to realise ASI,” said Son, without providing more details of his plan. He outlined opportunities in AI robotics, data centres and autonomous driving, while explaining that SoftBank would need partners to support his vision.
Son told shareholders earlier on Thursday that the group needed “to look for our next big bet, without fear of whether it’ll be a hit or miss”.
After a self-declared period in “defence mode”, following a string of painful losses at its tech-heavy Vision Funds, SoftBank now has a strong balance sheet and billions of dollars in its war chest.
In May, chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto described the group’s loan-to-value level as “maybe too low to be honest, too safe”.
Son wants to pursue AI deals that can keep the group relevant in what he considers to be the next stage of humanity and support the company’s crown jewel, UK-based chip designer Arm.
SoftBank this month led an investment of more than $1bn in UK self-driving car start-up Wayve, marking Europe’s largest AI deal to date.
But while Son seeks to deploy capital in search of deals, others are trying to push the group to return it to shareholders.
The Financial Times reported this month that Elliott Management had rebuilt a substantial stake in SoftBank and was pushing for Son to launch a $15bn share buyback.
Son on Friday downplayed the question of buybacks, saying his AI vision was the priority. He also warned that he had not ruled out privatising SoftBank in the future due to the gap between the group’s market capitalisation and the soaring value of its assets, including Arm.
“To be honest, I thought about that before, and I might think about that in the future again. Our stock price is too heavily discounted . . . the so-called Masa Son discount,” he said.
“Nobody knows what will happen, no promises at all,” he added. “Share buyback or not, privatisation or not . . . realising ASI is my only focus.”
SoftBank’s shares fell more than 3 per cent in Tokyo on Friday.