TheChek News Flow

Meta and Blue Owl, the private-credit firm, raised $27 billion to finance the buildout of a Louisiana data center

BlackRock BLK -2.59%decrease; red down pointing triangle was among the biggest investors in the $27 billion private-debt deal backing construction of Meta Platforms’ META 0.15%increase; green up pointing triangle data center in Louisiana, highlighting the scale of the artificial-intelligence buildout and its insatiable demand for capital.

BlackRock bought more than $3 billion of bonds issued last week to finance the data center, which is called Hyperion, according to people familiar with the matter. The project is 80%-owned by private-credit manager Blue Owl Capital OWL 2.22%increase; green up pointing triangle, while Facebook parent Meta owns the remaining 20% stake, according to S&P Global Ratings. The bond sale was arranged by Morgan Stanley.

The deal stood out for its size—the largest private-debt offering ever—and for the investment grade it was assigned by S&P. The credit-ratings firm gave the bonds an A+, recognizing Meta’s role in backing for the project. But the debt yielded 6.58% at issue, a level more common in junk bonds.

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager in part because of its postcrisis bet that ETFs, which trade on exchanges like a stock and have certain tax advantages, would supplant mutual funds as the investment vehicle of choice for deep-pocketed and individual investors alike. It was the right call; BlackRock’s iShares funds alone manage more than $5 trillion in assets.

A slice of BlackRock’s bond purchases went to its ETFs. An active high-yield ETF bought Hyperion bonds last week valued at $2.1 million by Monday, making it the fund’s largest investment by far, according to fund disclosures. A BlackRock total-return ETF holds about $1.2 million of the debt and a loan ETF owns about $651,000.

Pimco, the giant bond manager, was the biggest buyer, accounting for $18 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The bonds were priced at face value of 100 cents on the dollar last week. By Monday, BlackRock’s funds had valued them at 110.2 cents, implying large paper gains for investors that initially participated in the transaction.

By issuing the debt through its venture with Blue Owl, Meta was able to finance the deal off of its balance sheet, people familiar with the transaction said. Intel used a similar off-balance-sheet arrangement last year with Apollo Global Management to finance an $11 billion chip factory in Ireland.

Luxury group says Grace Wales Bonner has developed a contemporary and innovative approach to menswear over the last 10 years

Hermes appointed Grace Wales Bonner as its new creative director of men’s ready-to-wear collections amid a wider creative reshuffle in the luxury industry.

Her appointment at the French company makes her the only Black woman to lead design for a major European luxury house. The Birkin bag maker said Tuesday that Wales Bonner, 35, will present her debut show in January 2027. “Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men’s RMS 1.44%increase; green up pointing triangle style,” the brand’s general artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas said in a press release.

After graduating from London’s prestigious Central Saint Martins fashion school, she founded her line, Wales Bonner, in 2014. There, Wales Bonner racked up awards and plaudits for an approach to menswear that braids British tailoring and sportswear with Black history and art-world flair.

In a bid to win back shoppers amid shrinking demand for luxuries, a number of high-end fashion houses including Dior, Chanel and Gucci have reshuffled their creative teams and appointed new leaders. Wales Bonner’s name was often floated by industry observers as a possible candidate for a top job. Almost all of them were filled by male designers.

Earlier this year, Wales Bonner dressed a number of attendees, including F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, at the 2025 Met Gala celebrating the exhibit “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” In recent years, she curated exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and London’s Serpentine Galleries. “Grace’s appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès’ creative mindset and approach,” Dumas said.

Her clothes, while high-minded, are deeply wearable. Staples of her collections include track jackets and retro-inspired knitwear. Since 2020, she has worked with Adidas on collections of clothing and footwear. Her takes on the Samba sneaker—with touches like studs, animal print and visible stitching—helped turn the classic silhouette into a lusted-after trendsetter. This year, the sneaker resale site StockX said the shoes have sold at a 25% premium over their retail price. This fall, she dipped into classic American surf gear in a partnership with Stüssy. Hermès declined to say whether Wales Bonner will continue producing her own line.

In a landscape dominated by conglomerates, Hermès remains family-controlled and has found enormous success by staying true to its roots as a saddle-making house. Changeover in the design ranks is rare: Nadège Vanhée, the brand’s artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear, has held the job since 2014. Wales Bonner’s predecessor, Véronique Nichanian, started working at Hermes in 1988.

“A dream of mine would be to work with a tailoring brand, as that is at the core of what I am doing,” Wales Bonner told System magazine in a 2019 interview. Asked to pick one, she said, “Maybe a brand like Hermès.”

Hedge fund Lone Pine launches long-term fund to combat market volatility

The $19bn stockpicker will begin taking in outside capital for its ultra-concentrated fund in January

Hedge fund Lone Pine Capital is launching a concentrated and long-term fund in response to how aggressive “multi-strategy” hedge funds and passive investors are rewiring the stock market.

The $19bn hedge fund, founded by Stephen Mandel, is investing $500mn of its own money in the new fund, which will begin to take in outside capital from January, according to investor documents seen by the Financial Times.

The new Lone Mountain Pine strategy would “focus less on companies that may be experiencing momentary acceleration” and more on stocks that “can compound value consistently over many years”, the hedge fund’s management committee wrote in a letter to investors last month.

So-called long-short equity hedge funds — which buy stocks they think will do well and bet against companies they think will underperform — often hold positions in hundreds of public companies. But Lone Pine’s new fund will only own upto 20 stocks at a time, and plans to hold them for five years or longer, according to the letter.

Mandel is among the most successful of the so-called “Tiger cubs” that emerged from the Tiger Management hedge fund started by famed stockpicker Julian Robertson.

Stockpicking has changed dramatically since he started Lone Pine in 1997, however. Trillions of dollars have flowed out of traditional, actively managed investment funds and into cheap index trackers, while high-frequency trading expertise has helped the likes of Citadel, Millennium and DE Shaw evolve into huge players in the markets.

Lone Pine is betting that those market forces unmoor companies’ share prices from their fundamental financial performance and create trading opportunities for investors able to hold stocks for years, according to the documents.

Other big hedge fund managers have pursued similar strategies, among them Bill Ackman, who has combined concentrated bets on a handful of stocks with raising permanent capital.

But Lone Pine’s launch comes at a time of renewed interest in alternative investment strategies. Hedge funds took in more than $37bn of net flows in the first half of 2025, already the biggest haul in a decade, according to data from Hedge Fund Research. 

Long-short hedge funds’ fortunes have started to improve after suffering one of their worst periods of performance in 2022, shedding billions of dollars and leading to years of net outflows for the strategy.

Despite the buy and hold strategy of Lone Pine’s new fund, investors will be allowed to redeem all of their money from the fund on a quarterly basis, according to a person familiar with the matter, meaning that it could be forced to dispose chunks of its holdings in a short period of time if investors pull their cash.

The hedge fund has owned shares in Amazon, Meta and Microsoft for more than a decade, according to regulatory filings. All three tech companies are still among Lone Pine’s biggest holdings. 

Mandel’s long-short fund gained 23 per cent between the start of the year and the end of September, and 26 per cent in its long-only fund, according to a person familiar with its performance.

Advent International exploring $2bn sale of Parfums de Marly business

Potential deal comes as fragrance sector outperforms broader beauty market

Private equity group Advent International is in early talks about a possible sale of its Parfums de Marly business, in the latest sign of a dealmaking frenzy in the fast growing fragrance market.

Advent is considering options including a sale of the group, which also owns the Initio Parfums Privés brand, as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter. An eventual deal could value the business at more than $2bn, they said.

The investment firm has not yet appointed bankers and no final decision on the sale has been taken, the people cautioned, adding that the business could attract interest from a mix of buyout investors and other companies in the sector.

Advent is aiming for a strong return after acquiring a majority stake in the group in 2023 from its founder Julien Sprecher. The initial deal valued the company at more than $700mn, WWD reported at the time.

Sprecher remained a “large” minority shareholder of the group after the deal, and stayed on as executive chair and creative director.

Patrice Béliard joined the group this month as its new chief executive, succeeding Julien Sausset who had held the job for nearly a decade.

The potential sale of Parfums de Marly comes on the heels of Kering’s €4bn sale of its beauty operations to L’Oréal this week, in which the French cosmetics company acquired perfumer House of Creed. L’Oréal also got 50-year licences to develop and sell fragrances under the Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga labels.

Consumer companies have been attracted to the luxury fragrance sector, which has outperformed the broader beauty market.

Last month, beauty group Coty said it would explore the sale of some beauty brands including Max Factor and Rimmel so that it could focus on its high-end perfume divisions.

Founded in 2009 with headquarters in Paris, Parfums de Marly’s name derives from the former French Royal residence Château de Marly.

Advent said at the time of the 2023 deal that the company had “grown rapidly to become a leading niche perfumery house in the attractive niche luxury fragrance segment”.

Advent declined to comment.

US and Qatar issue energy and trade threats to EU over climate rules

Fossil fuel exporters claim investment and security of supply will be imperilled

The US and Qatar have warned the EU its trade, investment and energy supplies will be harmed unless the bloc walks back tough new climate and human rights rules.

Washington and Doha said the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive poses an “existential threat” to the growth, competitiveness, and resilience of the European economy and will imperil its energy security.

The two countries said the rules — set for debate by EU legislators as early as Friday — would hurt their exports of liquefied natural gas, which became a lifeline for the bloc after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“This comes at a critical moment when our countries and companies are striving not only to sustain but to significantly increase the reliable supply of LNG to the EU,” reads a joint letter to EU leaders signed by the US and Qatari energy ministers, seen by the Financial Times.

The letter suggested that the EU rules could also damage the recent trade deal struck in July between the bloc and President Donald Trump, which committed EU states to buying $750bn of US energy by the end of 2028.

“Beyond the direct energy security risks, the CSDDD also threatens to disrupt trade and investments across nearly all the EU’s partner economies. Its implementation could jeopardise existing and future investments, employment and compliance with recent trade agreements.”   

The intervention marks a significant potential break between two of the world’s major fossil fuel producers and consumers in the EU, which has tried to accelerate a transition to cleaner energy.

The EU receives about 16 per cent of its gas from the US and 4 per cent from Qatar. On Monday European energy ministers agreed to phase out the remaining 19 per cent of its gas that it buys from Russia by the end of 2027, leaving the bloc in need of alternatives.

The due diligence law is due to be phased in from 2027 and will allow EU members to fine companies whose supply chains harm the environment or human rights up to 5 per cent of global turnover.

EU states and the European parliament are scheduled to start negotiations later this week over potential revisions of the law, which in its current form would apply to non-EU companies with more than €450mn net turnover within the bloc.

This negotiations have sparked a wave of lobbying by industry and governments, with the US arguing that the law’s extraterritorial reach could expose its companies to litigation.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries his administration accuses of erecting “non-tariff trade barriers”. He has railed against climate change policies and in February ordered a halt to enforcement of a US anti-corruption law barring Americans from bribing foreign government officials.

US energy secretary Chris Wright told the FT last month that EU climate rules could rupture US-EU trade relations. Last week, Qatar’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters that LNG powerhouse QatarEnergy, which he leads, would not be able to do business in Europe without further changes to the bloc’s sustainability rules.

Some European heads of state, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, have also called for the due diligence rules to be shelved.

US oil and gas companies have opposed the directive’s requirement that businesses provide plans outlining how they will cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement.

The joint letter from Wright and Kaabi said the EU and member states must act swiftly to address their “legitimate concerns” over the directive, including its extraterritorial reach, penalties, civil liabilities and energy transition plans.

“We urge EU leaders to take immediate, decisive action by reopening substantive dialogue with your global partners, including the US and Qatar . . . to address these critical provisions in the CSDDD.”

US pharma price probe raises threat of new drug tariffs

Trump administration plans trade assault in attempt to drive down cost of medicines including weight-loss pills

Donald Trump’s administration is stepping up attacks on US trading partners over drug pricing, preparing a new probe that would lay the ground for a fresh barrage of tariffs.

The imminent investigation, which would come under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, would consider whether any US trading partners are underpaying for drugs, said three people familiar with the matter.

Trump has repeatedly complained other countries pay less than the US for medicines and signalled he would take trade actions against nations that refused to “equalise”.

“In London, you’d buy a certain drug for $130 . . . and in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump said last week, referring to weight-loss pills.

US drug prices are on average almost three times higher than those in many other developed countries, according to research by The Rand Corporation.

Ozempic, the popular weight-loss drug from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, costs $936 for a one-month supply in the US, but only $147 for the same amount in neighbouring Canada and as little as $83 in France, according to data from KFF, a non-profit health group.

The new US investigation could lead to tariffs on any products or goods the White House chooses and will reignite global trade tensions that had calmed for most trading partners after Trump walked back some threatened duties and struck deals with countries.

It also marks another twist in Trump’s volatile trade policy, which has taken the US into a months-long trade war with China and involved steep new tariffs on allies in Europe, North America and Asia.

The probe is the latest in a broader campaign by the president to lower drug prices for American consumers. Earlier this year, he demanded pharmaceutical companies offer the US their best global price for drugs or face unspecified repercussions.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca have both announced recent deals with the Trump administration to lower the prices of some of their products.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have both indicated they have held discussions with the White House over pricing.

But Trump has also rattled the pharmaceutical industry by threatening to apply steep tariffs to imports of branded and generic drugs as part of a national security investigation.

As part of his deal with the EU struck earlier this year, Trump agreed pharmaceuticals imports into the US would be subject only to a 15 per cent tariff, despite his national security investigation.

In an earlier deal with the UK, the US agreed to continue talks around the duty added to British drugs entering the US. British negotiators have held meetings in Washington in recent weeks to try to secure a lower tariff in exchange for London paying drug companies billions of pounds more for medicines.

Last month, Trump escalated his threats and announced he would hit imports of branded drugs with tariffs of 100 per cent unless companies began building manufacturing capacity in the US.

But those particular tariffs have failed to materialise, and US officials have said companies will be given time to demonstrate they are investing in the country and lowering prices.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

LBOs and activists for the corporate have-nots

Activist investors convene at the Pierre Hotel

The marbled hallways at The Pierre hotel in New York buzzed with chatter on Tuesday about a surge in shareholder activism.

It was the marquee annual gathering for activist hedge funds at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit, where investors and advisers swap notes on who’s preying and being preyed on.

Investors’ obsession with artificial intelligence stocks and little else has created a market full of have-nots trading at low valuations and susceptible to calls for activist shake-ups.

“They’re readying the knives,” one adviser at the event told DD’s Oliver Barnes and Amelia Pollard.

Oil and gas equipment supplier Baker Hughes and eyecare group Cooper Companies were among the companies facing the glare of activist investors at the conference.

Starboard Value’s co-founder Jeff Smith took the stage early in the morning. He lobbied for Tripadvisor to sell off its restaurant bookings platform or even put itself up for sale, as well as outlining investments in construction group Fluor and payments company Bill Holdings.

This year is on course to be a record one for shareholder activism, with 191 campaigns launched in the first three quarters, ahead of the same period during 2018, the previous high-water mark, according to a report by Barclays.

Even American football star Travis Kelce is getting in on the action. He’s teaming up with activist hedge fund Jana Partners to push US theme park operator Six Flags to revamp its marketing strategy and customer experience, the firm also unveiled at the event.

Waiting in the wings as activist hedge funds are busy agitating for change are private equity groups, emboldened by abundant financing and ready to pounce on smaller companies unloved by the public markets.

The destination of many of these companies could ultimately be the same as medical technology group Hologic, which was taken private by a consortium in an $18.3bn deal on Tuesday. The company has been a perennial take-private candidate since Carl Icahn became its largest shareholder in 2013.

While Icahn has long since sold his position, Hologic’s noisy corporate structure failed to win a high valuation from shareholders.

Now, with banks offering cheap credit to finance a brewing wave of mega deals, Hologic has found a new home inside the portfolios of Blackstone and TPG.

Other large but middling public companies could soon face a similar fate.