Business Of Fashion : Audemars Piguet Launches Collab with Travis Scott in Lates

Audemars Piguet Launches Collab with Travis Scott in Latest Culture Play
A limited-edition Royal Oak watch and co-branded merch line are set to be revealed Friday.

Swiss luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet is set to renew its longstanding ties to American pop culture with the release of a watch collaboration with hip-hop star Travis Scott and his label Cactus Jack Records.

In partnership with Scott, Audemars Piguet will release a limited-edition version of its Royal Oak watch Thursday in a new ceramic, as well as putting out a capsule collection of co-branded merchandise from the Swiss watchmaking house and Cactus Jack.

The new watch will be formally unveiled this evening and will feature a number of motifs from Scott’s Cactus Jack label, including a moon phase decorated with a luminous version of the hip brand’s logo — a smiley face with its mouth sewn shut.

“Travis could raise an army,” said Audemars Piguet’s chief executive François-Henri Bennahmias in an exclusive interview with The Business of Fashion. “He’s got such a power. People follow him in a major way.”

Scott, 32, is one of the most successful hip-hop artists of his generation. His fourth studio album Utopia, released in July, had more than 650 million global streams in its opening week, making it the most commercially successful hip-hop album of the year.

The collaboration is likely to be remembered not just for a wristwatch co-designed by Scott, but for the collection of hoodies, T-shirts, jackets, pyjamas, shorts and caps sold through Scott’s own e-commerce platform.

“People will go nuts when they know that AP and Travis have made merch together,” said Bennahmias. “It breaks pretty much every code. Is it going to be successful? We could have multiplied the quantity by at least 10 times and still been successful.”

Audemars Piguet, Bennahmias said, would make “zero” profit from the clothes and accessories, which instead will fund charities including the Cactus Jack Foundation, which grants scholarships to disadvantaged young people.

The collaboration will also be remembered as François-Henri Bennahmias’s swan-song before he retires from the role of Audemars Piguet’s chief executive at the end of this year, a post he took up in 2012 having joined the company almost 30 years ago.

Bennahmias is recognised as one of the watch industry’s most disruptive and influential figures, transforming the family-owned company from a dusty high-end watchmaker into one of the most recognised and in-demand names in luxury.

It was Bennahmias who, while running the company’s US operations, brought it together with Muhammad Ali and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Time To Give auction in the year 2000, and then forged an unlikely alliance to street culture with the Royal Oak Offshore Jay-Z 10th Anniversary in 2005, a watch collab widely considered by industry observers to be a tipping point for the typically conservative Swiss watch industry.

AP has since continued to align itself with popular culture, nurturing high-profile relationships with stars of film, music, sports and the arts, including LeBron James, Kevin Hart and Ed Sheeran, powering rapid sales growth for its watches which have an average price of 42,000 Swiss francs ($47,970).

Bennahmias said he expects Audemars Piguet’s 2023 revenues to grow by around 200,000 Swiss francs to top 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion).

The partnership with Scott might have been announced sooner. In June this year, a Texas grand jury declined criminal charges brought against Scott after 10 people, including a nine-year-old girl, were killed in a crush at a festival he founded in 2021. Scott was widely criticised for his response to the Astroworld Festival disaster. Bennahmias declined to comment on the incident, but said that Audemars Piguet had waited until the jury’s decision before activating the collaboration, having first met Scott in 2020 when he was a client.

>>> Johnson & Johnson lowers its FY23 earnings outlook due to the previously ann

Johnson & Johnson lowers its FY23 earnings outlook due to the previously announced acquisition of Laminar; will reduce FY24 earnings by $0.15 (154.66 +2.54)
  • Co noted that as a result of its previously announced acquisition of Laminar, it will adjust its expected adjusted EPS for FY23, reducing it by $0.17.
  • Co issues lowered guidance for FY23 (Dec), sees EPS of $9.90-9.96 (down from $10.07-10.13), excluding non-recurring items, vs. $10.09 FactSet Consensus.
  • Additionally, the asset acquisition is expected to have an approximate negative $0.15 EPS impact in fiscal year 2024.

>>> Marvell beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (

Marvell beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs in-line (55.73 -0.37)
  • Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.41 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the FactSet Consensus of $0.40; revenues fell 7.7% year/year to $1.42 bln vs the $1.40 bln FactSet Consensus.
    • Data Center segment sales fell 11% yr/yr but rose 21% sequentially to $555.8 mln, this is above guidance of growth in the mid-teens sequentially.
    • Enterprise Networking segment sales fell 28% yr/yr and fell 17% sequentially to $271.1 mln. The company had expected a low-teens sequential decline in Q3.
    • Carrier Infrastructuresegment sales grew 17% yr/yr and grew 15% sequentially to $316.5 mln. Co had guided to CI segment revs growing low single-digits sequentially, driven by wireless.
    • Consumer segment revenue fell 5% yr/yr but rose 1% sequentially to $168.7 mln.
    • Automotive/Industrial segment revenue rose 26% yr/yr but fell 3% sequentially to $106.5 mln.
  • Co issues in-line guidance for Q4 (Jan), sees EPS of $0.41-0.51, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.49 FactSet Consensus; sees Q4 revs of $1.349-1.491 bln vs. $1.46 bln FactSet Consensus.
  • "Revenue from our datacenter end market grew over 20% sequentially in the third quarter, and we expect growth of over 30% sequentially in our fourth quarter," said Matt Murphy, Marvell's Chairman and CEO. "The diversification of our portfolio is serving us well, with strong growth from AI and cloud carrying us through a softening demand environment in other end markets. These dynamics are reflected in our forecast for overall revenue to be flat sequentially in the fourth quarter at the midpoint of guidance."

>>> Ambarella beats by $0.11, beats on revs; guides JanQ revs in-line; expects r

Ambarella beats by $0.11, beats on revs; guides JanQ revs in-line; expects revenue growth in FY25 (58.71 +1.37)
  • Reports Q3 (Oct) loss of ($0.28) per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.11 better than the FactSet Consensus of ($0.39); revenues fell 39.1% year/year to $50.6 mln vs the $50.01 mln FactSet Consensus.
  • Co issues in-line guidance for Q4 (Jan), sees Q4 revs of $50-53 mln vs. $50.35 mln FactSet Consensus.
  • Co added, "Our customers appear to be making progress with their inventory reduction efforts and we expect to return to revenue growth in Fiscal 2025."

>>> Dell beats by $0.42, misses on revs (75.94 +0.90)

Dell beats by $0.42, misses on revs (75.94 +0.90)
  • Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $1.88 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.42 better than the FactSet Consensus of $1.46; revenues fell 10.0% year/year to $22.25 bln vs the $23.01 bln FactSet Consensus.
    • Infrastructure Solutions Group delivered third quarter revenue of $8.5 billion, flat sequentially and down 12% year-over-year. Servers and networking revenue was $4.7 billion, with 9% sequential growth driven by AI-optimized servers. Storage revenue was $3.8 billion, down 8% sequentially with demand strength in unstructured data solutions and data protection. Operating income was $1.1 billion.
    • Client Solutions Group delivered third quarter revenue of $12.3 billion, down 11% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Commercial client revenue was $9.8 billion, and Consumer revenue was $2.4 billion. Operating income was $925 million.
    • "Our servers and networking business was up 9% sequentially fueled by customer interest in generative AI. And heading into FY25, we expect revenue growth given the tailwinds to our business." Dell continued to expand its broad portfolio to help customers meet their performance, cost and security requirements across clouds, on premises and at the edge.

>>> Walt Disney announces a cash dividend of $0.30/share in respect of the secon

Walt Disney announces a cash dividend of $0.30/share in respect of the second half of fiscal year 2023; company had suspended its dividend in the spring of 2020 (93.69 +0.19)
  • "This has been a year of important progress for The Walt Disney Company, defined by a strategic restructuring and a renewed focus on long-term growth," said Mark Parker, Chairman of the Board. "As Disney moves forward with its key strategic objectives, we are pleased to declare a dividend for our shareholders while we continue to invest in the company's future and prioritize meaningful value creation."

>>> US Close Dow +1.47% S&P +0.38% Nasdaq -0.23% Russell +0.29%

Closing Stock Market Summary
Today's price action was somewhat mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was a relative outperformer, climbing 1.5%, due in part to a big gain in Salesforce (CRM 251.90, +21.55, +9.4%) after impressing with its earnings results and outlook after yesterday's close.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, spent most of the session pinned in negative territory due to lagging mega cap constituents. The Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK) closed with a 0.1% loss and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2%.

An uptick in buying activity in the last half hour of trading left the S&P 500 near its high of the day with a 0.4% gain. The equal-weighted S&P 500, which outperformed the market-cap weighed index throughout the session, rose 0.9% today.

The S&P 500 sectors also reflected the underperformance of mega cap stocks. Communication services (-1.0%), consumer discretionary (-0.2%), and information technology (-0.1%) were the only sectors to register a decline today. The health care (+1.3%), industrials (+1.1%), financials (+1.0%), and materials (+1.0%) sectors all climbed at least 1.0%.

The outperformance of the broader market comes in the wake some economic data today that featured a moderation in income and spending, and disinflation in the PCE Price Indexes in October, a much stronger-than-expected Chicago PMI for November, and a relatively low level of initial jobless claims.

Treasury yields backed up some in response to the data, which kept some buyer enthusiasm in check in the stock market. The 2-yr note yield, at 4.61% before 8:30 a.m. ET, settled four basis points higher at 4.70%. The 10-yr note yield, at 4.27% before the data, settled eight basis points higher at 4.35%. Still, yields have come down a lot since the start of November. The 2-yr note and 10-yr note declined 38 basis points and 53 basis points, respectively, this month.

In other news, WTI crude oil futures fell 2.4% today to $75.96/bbl after briefly climbing past their 200-day moving average (78.15). On a related note, several OPEC+ countries confirmed additional voluntary cuts to the total of 2.2 million barrels per day, beginning January 1 through the end of March 2024.
  • Nasdaq Composite: +35.9%
  • S&P 500: +19.0%
  • Dow Jones industrial Average: +8.5%
  • S&P Midcap 400: +5.5%
  • Russell 2000: +2.7%

Reviewing today's economic data:
  • October Personal Income 0.2% (consensus 0.2%); Prior was revised to 0.4% from 0.3%; October Personal Spending 0.2% (consensus 0.2%); Prior 0.7%; October PCE Prices 0.0% (consensus 0.1%); Prior 0.4%; October PCE Price - Core 0.2% (consensus 0.2%); Prior 0.3%
    • The key takeaway from this report is the disinflation seen in the PCE Price Indexes, which is good; however, the 3.5% increase in core PCE, which is what the Fed focuses on, remains well above the 2.0% target. It's moving in the right direction fortunately, but that isn't the type of reading that will move the Fed to think about cutting rates soon.
  • Weekly Initial Claims 218K (consensus 215K); Prior was revised to 211K from 209K; Weekly Continuing Claims 1.927 mln; Prior was revised to 1.841 mln from 1.840 mln
    • The key takeaway from the report is that layoff activity remains relatively subdued, which is a good thing. The bad thing, and what fits with a softening labor market, is that it is becoming more difficult to find a job after a layoff.
  • November Chicago PMI 55.8 (consensus 45.0); Prior 44.0
  • October Pending Home Sales -1.5% (consensus -2.3%); Prior was revised to 1.0% from 1.1%

Friday's economic calendar features:
  • 9:45 ET: Final November S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI (prior 49.4)
  • 10:00 ET: November ISM Manufacturing Index (consensus 47.5%; prior 46.7%) and October Construction Spending (consensus 0.3%; prior 0.4%)

FT : Ex-Goldman analyst and lawyer brother go on trial for insider dealing

Ex-Goldman analyst and lawyer brother go on trial for insider dealing
The FCA alleges the pair used confidential information from the Wall Street bank to boost returns

A former Goldman Sachs analyst and his brother, an ex-Clifford Chance lawyer, committed insider dealing using confidential information obtained from the elite Wall Street bank, according to the prosecution at a London trial.

Mohammed Zina, 35, and his brother Suhail Zina, 36, appeared in the dock before a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday for the opening of their trial.

The men are accused of six counts of insider dealing between July 2016 and December 2017, as well as three counts of fraud related to loans they obtained from Tesco Bank to fund their trading. They deny the charges.

The case is the most high profile criminal trial of insider trading brought by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in over four years.

The brothers made profits in the region of £140,000 from their dealing, according to prosecutor Peter Carter KC, acting for the FCA.

The brothers used the price-sensitive information “to give, not a guarantee, but to increase the chances really significantly that when they sold the shares they wouldn’t simply get their money back, they would get more than they invested,” Carter told the jury.

The FCA alleges that the offences took place when Mohammed Zina was working in Goldman’s London conflict resolution group, which is privy to inside information. The jury was taken through Goldman’s policies on confidentiality and rules against trading on non-public information.

Their first trade, in semiconductor designer Arm, was the only trade out of the six that resulted in a loss, according to the FCA.

The jury heard that Mohammed Zina used three bank accounts for the trading, one of which was opened in his brother Suhail’s name, and the other two in the name of their sister, Shenaz Chunara.

Carter told the jury that Mohammed Zina oversaw his sister’s accounts, and that messages will show Mohammed sometimes got “impatient” with her “because he got some inside information and he had to trade while the information was still inside before there was a risk of it becoming public.”

The accounts were funded using the Tesco Bank loans, which the lender was told were obtained for ‘home improvements’. The brothers paid back the first two loans quickly but were arrested before the third one could be repaid.

The alleged insider dealing in question carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, while fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The trial is due to run until the end of February 2024.

Event details and information
Future of Asset

Le Monde : Immobilier à Paris : les prix passent sous la barre symbolique des 10

Immobilier à Paris : les prix passent sous la barre symbolique des 10 000 euros le mètre carré
D’après les indicateurs avancés des notaires, le prix des appartements dans la capitale devrait s’établir en janvier 2024 à 9 760 euros le mètre carré, en recul de 6,3 % sur un an.

Le prix du mètre carré va bel et bien passer sous la barre des 10 000 euros à Paris. Pressenti à maintes reprises depuis que le marché immobilier s’est grippé, et déjà annoncé par plusieurs réseaux d’agences immobilières, le franchissement de ce seuil symbolique apparaît désormais dans les chiffres des notaires. Il s’agit là d’un retour « au niveau de prix constaté au printemps 2019, il y a quatre ans et demi », constatent les Notaires du Grand Paris, à l’occasion de la publication, jeudi 30 novembre, des statistiques trimestrielles du marché immobilier ancien en Ile-de-France.

Nous n’y sommes pas encore tout à fait puisque, au troisième trimestre, les prix au mètre carré s’établissent à 10 090 euros dans la capitale. Le mouvement de baisse enclenché devrait toutefois se prolonger, « et l’on attend un prix de 9 760 euros en janvier 2024 (– 6,3 % en un an) d’après nos indicateurs avancés sur les avant-contrats, affirment les notaires. Par rapport au point haut enregistré en novembre 2020 (10 860 euros), le prix a reculé de 1 100 euros et de 10 % ». Plus qu’un ajustement, il s’agit là d’une baisse forte.

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Désormais, tous les arrondissements de la capitale enregistrent une diminution de leurs prix, comprise entre 2 % et 7 % en un an. Les plus forts reculs sont recensés dans le 16e (– 6,4 %), le 13e (– 6,6 %), le 11e (– 6,7 %) et les 19e et 20e arrondissements (– 6,5 %). A La Chapelle (18e), le quartier le plus abordable de Paris, les prix atteignent 7 540 euros le mètre carré.

Disparités selon les arrondissements
Le coup de frein reste moins marqué à Paris Centre (– 2 %), dans les 5e et 6e (respectivement – 2,3 % et – 2,5 %) ou dans le 8e (– 2 %), secteur qui abrite le quartier le plus cher de la ville, celui des Champs-Elysées, où les prix s’affichent à 19 150 euros le mètre carré. Charles Flobert, l’un des porte-parole de la Chambre des notaires du Grand Paris, l’explique par « des produits très haut de gamme et une nombreuse clientèle étrangère. Les Français non résidents et les étrangers représentent désormais 15 % de la clientèle qui achète à Paris, c’est le taux le plus élevé depuis que nous réalisons des statistiques ».

Sur l’ensemble de la capitale, neuf arrondissements ont vu les prix passer sous les 10 000 euros le mètre carré au troisième trimestre, auxquels il faudra ajouter « probablement bientôt le 17e arrondissement », note M. Flobert.

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A l’origine de cette baisse des prix, une chute brutale de 29 % du nombre d’appartements anciens vendus au troisième trimestre par rapport au troisième trimestre 2022. Certes, le marché immobilier fonctionnait alors à plein régime, à la sortie de la crise sanitaire. Mais la baisse du nombre de transactions est également forte (– 14 %) par rapport à la moyenne d’activité des dix dernières années. Et encore ce recul est-il moindre à Paris qu’en petite et en grande couronne.

En Ile-de-France, au troisième trimestre, la chute du nombre de ventes de logements anciens s’accélère en effet, et atteint 34 % en un an. Le niveau d’activité y est désormais inférieur d’un quart par rapport à la moyenne de ces dix dernières années. « Au point que, faute de volumes, certaines données chiffrées sur les prix vont devenir difficilement exploitables », reconnaît Elodie Frémont, également porte-parole de la Chambre des notaires du Grand Paris. Ce décrochage aboutit à retrouver les volumes de 2015.

« Parcours du combattant »
Alors que les années de taux d’intérêt historiquement bas ont porté au plus haut le marché immobilier en solvabilisant massivement la clientèle, la fin du cycle de l’argent « gratuit », qui correspond au relèvement des taux par la Banque centrale européenne et par les banques, a figé les échanges. En octobre, le taux moyen des crédits immobiliers (hors assurance) s’élevait à 4,12 %, contre à peine plus de 1 % en décembre 2021.

De quoi réduire drastiquement le pouvoir d’achat des ménages, qui ont massivement renoncé à se lancer dans un projet immobilier. Les propriétaires, de leur côté, ont davantage hésité avant de vendre pour acheter un nouveau logement : la durée de détention moyenne des biens vendus s’est ainsi allongée, passant pour un appartement de 10,4 ans en 2003 à 12,6 ans en 2023 (et de 13,2 à 15,3 ans pour les maisons).

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Les notaires observent que la retombée de la fièvre immobilière a désormais un impact « sensible » sur les prix, qui reculent de 5,3 % en un an, au troisième trimestre, sur l’ensemble de l’Ile-de-France. « Dans le logement ancien, tout ne se vend plus à n’importe quel prix. Le zéro défaut va dorénavant primer, tandis qu’un rez-de-chaussée ou un premier étage posent des difficultés, tout comme une mauvaise orientation, un quartier en vogue devenu moins attractif ou un diagnostic de performance énergétique dégradé », explique Mme Frémont. Les indicateurs avancés sur les avant-contrats en petite et grande couronne laissent ainsi entrevoir des baisses annuelles de prix des appartements, respectivement de 8 % et 6 % en janvier 2024.

« Les premières baisses de prix ne suffisent toutefois pas à compenser la hausse du taux de crédit et l’augmentation de l’apport demandé : le projet immobilier devient le vrai parcours du combattant », constate Mme Frémont, entre refus de crédit, refus d’instruire et délai d’instruction rallongé. Une acquisition doit « de plus en plus souvent être garantie par une hypothèque et non plus par un simple cautionnement, et elle est souvent cumulée avec d’autres demandes de garanties, allant jusqu’au cautionnement des parents, témoigne-t-elle. Phase pour le moins humiliante quand l’emprunteur est âgé de 50 ans ou plus ».

Une éclaircie s’annonce en revanche de ce côté-là. Le tassement de l’inflation constitue « une perspective encourageante pour les taux qui s’est accompagnée de messages d’ouverture de lignes de crédit par certaines grandes banques », affirment les Notaires du Grand Paris. Un retournement pour des établissements de crédit qui avaient fait preuve ces derniers mois d’une frilosité rare.