TheChek News Flow

DAX:

MDAX:

SDAX:

- Sanofi anticipates that the review process for the ongoing US regulatory review of tolebrutinib in non-relapsing secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (nrSPMS) will extend beyond the previously communicated US target action date of December 28, 2025, and expects further guidance from the FDA by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

- In response to an FDA request, Sanofi has submitted an expanded access protocol for tolebrutinib in nrSPMS, underscoring the company's commitment to providing eligible patients with access to this investigational therapy. Sanofi strongly believes in the risk-benefit profile of tolebrutinib for the treatment of nrSPMS.

Rocket-and-satellite maker will interview bankers this week to advise it on its initial public offering

SpaceX executives are starting the process to select Wall Street bankers to advise it on its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investment banks are scheduled to make their initial pitches this coming week in what is known as a bake-off, according to people familiar with the matter, representing the most concrete steps the rocket maker has taken toward what would be a blockbuster IPO.

On Friday, SpaceX told employees it is preparing for a possible public offering next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen told SpaceX staff in a message that, “The thinking is that if we execute brilliantly and the markets cooperate, a public offering could raise a significant amount of capital.”

Johnsen also wrote that whether a listing will happen and when it might take place remain “highly uncertain.”

The rocket-and-satellite maker’s decision to pursue an IPO has surprised some people close to the company. SpaceX is more than two decades old and has grown into an essential contractor for the U.S. government, launching satellites and astronauts. Its valuation has also grown over time and has been bolstered more recently by customer gains at its Starlink satellite-internet business.

Earlier this month, the Journal reported that SpaceX is also pursuing a secondary share sale that would value the company at roughly $800 billion, up from $400 billion this summer.

The U.S. IPO market is picking up momentum after several years of relative quiet, and bankers are optimistic headed into 2026 with or without the possible blockbuster listing by SpaceX.

The Chinese miner’s revised offer values the U.K.-listed company at $1.13 billion

Chinese state-owned miner Jiangxi Copper 600362 -0.82%decrease; red down pointing triangle has won the support of SolGold’s SOLG -8.69%decrease; red down pointing triangle board, after making a sweetened bid for the U.K.-listed company backed by BHP BHP -3.17%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Newmont.

After two prior bids were rejected, Jiangxi’s revised takeover offer has cleared the board hurdle, bringing it one step closer to the finish line.

Jiangxi upsized the deal terms to 28 pence per share of the mineral exploration company, a 7.1% premium to the stock’s price before the initial proposal was disclosed, and an increase from the 26 pence offered previously.

The nonbinding offer values the U.K.-listed company at 842 million pounds, or about $1.13 billion, Jiangxi and SolGold said in a joint statement Friday.

SolGold’s board said it “would be minded to recommend” that shareholders vote in favor of the deal if Jiangxi makes a firm offer by the Dec. 26 deadline.

So far, shareholders holding nearly 41% of SolGold have said they intend to support the deal.

These include BHP Billiton—a unit of mining giant BHP Group—and gold miner Newmont. SolGold’s co-founder, Nicholas Mather, is also backing the revised proposal, Friday’s statement showed.

Jiangxi currently owns 12.2% of the issued shares of SolGold, which specializes in gold and copper mining, and has operations in Latin America.

The development comes after SolGold’s board rejected Nanchang-based Jiangxi’s previous two proposals in November.

SolGold’s London shares last closed 8.7% lower at £25.75. Jiangxi’s Hong Kong- and Shanghai-listed shares were up 1.4% and 0.7%, respectively, in early trade on Monday.

There has been a flurry of dealmaking in the mining sector, fueled in part by companies’ push to secure supplies of copper, a key component in sectors from data centers to electric vehicles.

In September, Anglo American and Teck Resources agreed to a merger that will create one of the world’s biggest copper producers in one of the largest-ever deals in the mining industry.

Vanke is one of China’s largest real-estate companies

China Vanke’s 000002 -1.99%decrease; red down pointing triangle shares fell after its bondholders rejected a proposal to extend a bond payment, fueling fears that authorities may not offer support to keep the developer afloat.

The company’s shares fell 3.8% in Hong Kong to 3.54 Hong Kong dollars as of midday Monday, equivalent to 45 U.S. cents, while its Shenzhen-listed shares fell 2.2% to 4.91 yuan.

The property developer said early Monday that it failed to secure bondholder support for a one-year extension of a bond payment due Monday.

Vanke, one of China’s largest real-estate companies, said its three proposals to extend bond payments were rejected. The proposal to extend principal and interest payments was rejected, with 76.7% of holders rejecting it. Two other proposals that included credit-enhancement measures won some backing but all three were short of the over 90% threshold support needed.

“It’s a sign that the Chinese government may have decided to give up on rescuing Vanke,” Daiwa analyst William Wu said, adding that the outcome has been priced in by markets.

A lot of Vanke’s bondholders are state-owned, Wu said, adding that the developer’s largest shareholder, Shenzhen Metro, also faces cash flow pressures.

The three-day vote ended Friday, with Vanke given a grace period of five working days to pay 2 billion yuan, equivalent to US$283.5 million, on the onshore bond, according to a filing on Monday to the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors.

Vanke said Monday that it will hold a bondholder meeting on Thursday to discuss next steps for the 2 billion yuan note.

Vanke’s bondholders may demand more credit enhancement or earlier repayment of some principal for the bonds due Dec. 15, said Morningstar analyst Jeff Zhang. That is close to being approved, “so we are hopeful that a deal could be reached in the next five days,” Zhang said.

The developer had been the outlier among its privately owned peers that have undergone restructuring or liquidation since the yearslong downturn in China’s property sector began. It had managed to stay afloat with the support of state-owned Shenzhen Metro.

In early November, Vanke said it could borrow up to 22 billion yuan from Shenzhen Metro before June 30, 2026, with 2.29 billion yuan still available for withdrawal.

Industry watchers have long viewed Vanke as a barometer of how much pain Chinese authorities could tolerate amid the real-estate slump.

However, officials’ stance toward the property sector seemed to have cooled somewhat following the implementation of stimulus last year, while stronger-than-expected exports have supported the economy’s around 5% growth target.

“Policymakers have this year pivoted back to a relatively cool stance towards the sector, even downgrading property from a growth driver to a livelihood issue in their ‘recommendations’ for the next five-year plan,” Gavekal Dragonomics analyst Xiaoxi Zhang wrote in a recent note.

Vanke’s bondholders rejecting its proposal isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the property sector, Daiwa’s Wu said.

“In the medium term, it may remind policymakers that the property sector still needs some kind of policy support,” he added.

Average price of a home coming to market in the four weeks to December 6 fell to £358,138, says Rightmove

Asking prices for UK homes are £2,000 lower than at the end of last year following uncertainty around property tax rises in the lead-up to the Budget.

The average price of a property coming to market in the four weeks to December 6 was £358,138, which is 0.6 per cent — or £2,059 — lower than the same period a year ago, Rightmove said on Monday. In contrast, last year ended with the average asking price £5,000 higher than at the end of 2023.

It comes after a larger than usual fall in asking prices between November and December of 1.8 per cent. While there is usually a dip in December, this year’s price fall was higher than the average drop over the past 10 years of 1.4 per cent.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget on November 26 introduced a “mansion tax” surcharge on properties worth more than £2mn as well as a 2 percentage point increase in rates of property income tax.

But speculation of upcoming property tax rises was already circulating in August, contributing to more subdued activity throughout the second half of the year, Rightmove data showed.

Claire Reynolds, UK head of sales at property consultancy Strutt & Parker, said: “The weeks of speculation leading up to the autumn Budget certainly cooled the property market, especially for those making discretionary moves.”

The number of new sellers coming to market in the second half of 2025 was 4 per cent below the same period last year, having been 9 per cent ahead year on year in the first half.

Similarly, the number of prospective buyers contacting estate agents was 6 per cent lower in the second half of the year than in 2024, after being 3 per cent higher in the first six months.

Four-bedroom detached houses and properties with at least five bedrooms registered the largest month-on-month fall in prices, Rightmove said, dropping 2.4 per cent to an average of £642,131 in December.

Asking prices for properties with two bedrooms or fewer fell by a smaller 1.4 per cent.

The figures are based on about 66,000 asking prices for properties that were put on sale by estate agents and advertised on the Rightmove portal.

However, financial markets believe there is a high probability that the Bank of England will cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75 per cent on Thursday, which would help reduce mortgage rates.

Improved buyer affordability and plenty of choice for buyers also suggest a rebound in activity in 2026, according to Rightmove, which predicts new seller asking prices rising by 2 per cent over the year.

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said: “With market conditions supporting higher levels of activity, and a hopefully more certain economic environment, we forecast a better year for price growth in 2026, with a strong rebound in activity to kick-start the year.”

Deepening decline and weakest retail sales growth in 3 years underline challenge for Beijing

China’s investment fell for the third straight month in November, official data showed, just days after President Xi Jinping called on officials to reverse a decline that threatens to undermine growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Fixed asset investment for the year to date to November 30 declined 2.6 per cent on a year earlier, a steeper fall than the 2.3 per cent decline forecast by a Bloomberg survey of analysts and October’s fall of 1.7 per cent.

The decline is expected to drive calls from China’s top leadership to “stabilise” investment in an economy that for decades has relied heavily on state financing for growth, particularly in infrastructure and property as well as high-end manufacturing.

Last week, the central economic work conference, the Communist party’s top meeting on the economy presided over by Xi, said “China will work to stabilise and revive investment, [and] appropriately increase the scale of investment within the central government budget”.

Analysts believe this was the first official acknowledgment from China’s leadership of the investment slowdown.

Last month’s retail sales growth, meanwhile, was the weakest in three years, reflecting flagging domestic consumption and low household confidence amid a property sector slowdown now entering its fifth year.

The IMF last week called on Beijing to take stronger measures to stimulate domestic demand and reflate its economy, which has suffered persistent deflation.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimated that about 60 per cent of the falls in fixed asset investment up until October was due to statistical corrections of previously over-reported data.

But they said that 40 per cent of the decline could be attributed to the property market slowdown, infrastructure-related fiscal spending and Beijing’s “anti-involution” policies. These are measures by the top leadership to rein in sectors with severe price competition, which economists say is usually caused by overcapacity.

The National Bureau of Statistics also reported on Monday that retail sales grew 1.3 per cent last month on a year earlier, the slowest pace of growth since December 2022 and short of Bloomberg’s analyst forecasts of 2.9 per cent, which would have been in line with October’s figure.

Industrial production rose 4.8 per cent year on year, trailing analyst forecasts of 5 per cent growth and October’s rate of 4.9 per cent.

“November activity data broadly missed market expectations, especially for retail sales,” Goldman Sachs said in an analyst note. It said fixed asset investment growth “remained depressed”, with a year-on-year decline of 10.7 per cent in November on a single-month basis against 11.4 per cent in October.

But Goldman Sachs cautioned against over-interpreting the slump, as “recent study suggests that the NBS statistical correction of previously over-reported data has played at least as large a role as fundamental factors”.

Unlike other major economies, China does not publish full quarterly breakdowns of GDP under what is known as the expenditure approach, which include investment, consumption and net exports.

Instead, it publishes its own monthly data series, such as fixed asset investment and retail sales, which are closely watched in the absence of more detailed GDP data.

Since 2018, the statistics bureau has also stopped reporting sectoral breakdowns of fixed asset investment by value, leaving only growth rates across different sectors.

Chinese authorities have set a full-year growth target of about 5 per cent for 2025. In the third quarter, data showed the economy expanded 4.8 per cent, the slowest pace in a year. Economists expect China to hit the 5 per cent target this year.

Owners of UK’s two biggest roadside recovery businesses expected to exit next year

The AA, the UK’s biggest roadside recovery business, has been sounding out potential buyers ahead of a potential £5bn sale as its rival RAC steers towards a potential London listing as soon as next year.

The AA, owned by a consortium including TowerBrook Capital Partners, Warburg Pincus and Stonepeak, is working with advisers at Rothschild and JPMorgan on options for the business.

The business is valued at £5bn and has had expressions of interest around that level from private equity firms and strategic buyers, said three people close to the situation. A potential London listing is an option, the people added.

TowerBrook, Warburg Pincus and Stonepeak all declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the RAC is working on a potential stock market listing and is also targeting a £5bn valuation, said two people familiar with the situation. It is owned by CVC Capital Partners, GIC, Singapore’s investment fund, and Silver Lake Partners. A sale is also a possibility, even if an initial public offering is the more likely exit route, the people added.

CVC, GIC and Silver Lake all declined to comment.

City advisers have commented on how unusual it is to have two very comparable businesses, with similar valuations in the market at the same time. One banker said it would test the boundaries of investor appetite if they were both to opt for listing shares on the London Stock Exchange.

The AA was taken private in 2020 for just £219mn after six rocky years as a listed company, when it struggled with the debts heaped on it by previous private equity owners, CVC and Permira. It was listed with a £1.4bn valuation and £2.6bn debt pile.

As well as poor performance and profit warnings, it was also embroiled in a boardroom drama in 2017 when its former executive chair, Bob Mackenzie, was fired for punching a colleague.

The AA now claims to have transformed itself by reducing its debt to 4.1 times earnings, compared to 6.7 times when it was a public company.

It posted a 5 per cent increase in revenue to £623mn in the first half of 2025, and an 8 per cent increase in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to £243mn.

It has 17mn customers, making it the largest in the sector and has recently signed a deal with OpenAI alongside its insurance, driving schools and mobile repair vans.

The RAC has 15mn members. Its revenues rose 8 per cent in the first half to £411mn and it posted a 12 per cent increase in earnings to £152mn.

Both companies are expected to highlight to prospective new owners and investors the growth opportunities from the rising adoption of electric vehicles, which require extra technical maintenance when they break down.

EVs typically break down because of faults with their 12-volt batteries and because of tyre damage. This is caused because they are typically heavier than cars with combustion engines.

European institutions and capitals divided over how far to push back against Washington without hurting Ukraine

Donald Trump’s assault on the EU has opened rifts within the bloc’s executive and set national leaders at odds, threatening to paralyse Europe’s response over fears that standing up to the US will hurt Ukraine.

Trump has lambasted EU leaders as “weak” and issued a security strategy that called for “cultivating resistance” on the continent, reflecting disdain for European institutions that his officials see as “adverse” to US interests and bent on “civilisational suicide”.

The co-ordinated attack on the EU this month, which also drew on long-standing criticism of the bloc’s digital regulations, sustainability laws and approach to migration, prompted widespread shock inside the European Commission and disagreement over how to respond, according to officials.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was urged not to retaliate in Europe’s defence, the people said, in an attempt to smother the conflict and try to maintain US engagement with the Ukraine peace process.

Other senior EU officials were outraged that the Trump administration’s barrage was being met with silence.

That weak response prompted some national leaders to suggest that Brussels be bypassed as a conduit to Trump, challenging the previous united approach that saw the EU negotiate with Washington as a 27-strong bloc.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that if Trump “cannot relate” to the EU institutions, as appeared “quite obvious”, then “at least there are individual member states, including Germany first and foremost, of course, with which such co-operation can continue”.

Other national officials were also discussing how to bypass the Commission and talk to the US president about European issues bilaterally, an EU leader told the Financial Times.

Despite the intensity of the Trump criticism, the ongoing peace talks in Ukraine have complicated the response given Kyiv’s fate is largely dependent on maintaining a working relationship with the US. It has forced the EU to believe it needs to absorb criticism rather than hit back, for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s sake.

“We can hardly tell Zelenskyy: ‘Look we’ve supported you all this way but now we have some more important stuff to focus on like sustainability rules and social media fines,’” said one of the people.

Zelenskyy and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte last week asked von der Leyen not to criticise Trump in response to his attacks, two people briefed on their interactions told the FT.

“We told ourselves in the summer that we were negotiating three different deals with the US,” the EU leader said, referring to a EU-US trade deal, a new Nato spending pledge and a military supply line for Ukraine. “But we were kidding ourselves. It was always just one negotiation: keeping the US in Europe.”

“Now that is crystal clear, but also so is the lack of a clear response,” they added.

Some officials compared the EU’s approach to its strategy around trade negotiations with Trump’s administration this summer. Hit with large tariffs and threatened with more, the bloc chose not to retaliate and instead agreed a deal that imposed 15 per cent levies on its imports and has been widely analysed by experts as pro-American appeasement.

“The text on Europe in the National Security strategy is a scandal. It undermines 80 years of bipartisan policy,” said Anthony Gardner, former US ambassador to the EU. “The Trump administration has declared war on the EU. It has been clear for some time, but now it is official policy. Our friends are now our enemies.”

“The EU’s unbalanced trade agreement with the US is now revealed to have been based on hopelessly naive hopes of buying US commitment to Europe and Ukraine,” he added.

The US president’s assault, and the increased focus on maintaining his engagement with Ukraine, has particularly complicated Brussels’ handling of its tech regulations, which was already a geopolitical minefield for the Commission’s regulatory enforcers.

The Commission has repeatedly stressed that its tech regulations, aimed at opening markets and setting a regulatory framework for Silicon Valley giants, were non-negotiable and objectively applied. But it has struggled over the past year to push ahead with enforcement, partly because of concerns over how Trump and his allies in Silicon Valley would react.

The Commission has opened probes into Amazon and Microsoft’s dominance in the cloud sector, launched investigations into the artificial intelligence models of Google and Meta’s WhatsApp, and last week handed out a €120mn fine to Elon Musk’s X for breaking digital transparency rules.

But those decisions have been carefully balanced in order to avoid drawing the ire of Trump, with new decisions against American tech companies often coinciding with the closing of another case. The Commission has also pressed with high-profile cases against companies from other jurisdictions, such as Chinese online marketplaces Temu and Shein.

Officials involved in the investigations said that striking the balance was hard because there was a constant push from the European parliament and others to enforce its digital rule book without compromise.

“We are not going to accept any kind of subordination on how we play our roles,” said Teresa Ribera, von der Leyen’s vice-president and the Commission’s competition chief told reporters on Tuesday. “On the contrary, we are going to stand up and defend what I think is our duty.”

Ribera’s rhetoric is not expected to be fully matched by Commission action, the officials said, at least while there is still belief that the US can be steered towards a fair peace deal in Ukraine.

“I think they’re weak,” Trump said of Europe’s leaders. “But I also think that they want to be so politically correct.”

“I think they don’t know what to do,” he told Politico. “Europe doesn’t know what to do.”