TheChek News Flow

Baseball team has also spoken with Altice USA and RedBird Capital about buying remaining 80% stake from Disney

The New York Yankees are in talks with Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.63% and broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. SBGI -0.49% about partnering to bid for the team’s regional sports network YES, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network LLC, which carries Yankee baseball and Brooklyn Nets basketball, is among the 21st Century Fox Inc. FOX 0.46% assets that Walt Disney Co. DIS 0.65% is required to sell for the government to approve its purchase of the majority of the company.

The Yankees own 20% of YES and have first dibs on acquiring the remaining 80%. The team has been talking to a variety of potential partners to purchase the network, for which Disney is seeking a valuation of $5 billion to $6 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The talks are still in early stages and a partnership with either Amazon or Sinclair isn’t guaranteed, executives close to matter said.

The Yankees have also approached cable operator Altice USA , ATUS -1.28% which has systems in the New York City region, about joining the team’s effort to acquire 80% of YES, people with knowledge of the matter said. Altice USA is a unit of Altice NV.

As the primary TV home for one of the most popular franchises in the number-one media market, YES is seen as one of the most valuable sports properties in the country.

For Amazon, a stake in YES would give it entry into another realm of the sports business. It already streams National Football League games on Thursday nights live on its Prime platform and has talked with other leagues in recent years about other partnerships to widen its subscription media offering.

Should it join with the Yankees, Amazon isn’t likely to immediately begin streaming games on its own platforms, a person close to the team said. In addition, Major League Baseball restrictions would likely prohibit Amazon from streaming games outside the Yankees market. Furthermore, the MLB’s streaming deals with the bulk of regional sports networks expired after this season and needs to be renegotiated, which could also complicate potential streaming opportunities for Amazon.

In another possible hurdle for Amazon, pay-TV distributors that currently carry Yankee games—including Altice, Charter Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and DirecTV—would likely balk at games being carried by the retail and streaming giant as well.

The private-equity firm RedBird Capital Partners LLC is working closely with the Yankees and has been in discussions with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co. about investing in YES, according to a person familiar with the matter. RedBird managing partner Gerry Cardinale, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who led the bank’s earlier investment in YES, sits on the network’s board.

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire acquired a majority stake in YES through two transactions, in 2012 and 2014, that valued the network at more than $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The sellers included Goldman and Providence Equity Partners.

Fox also owns 21 other regional sports channels in major markets across the country, including Los Angeles and Detroit. The other outlets, taken together, have been valued at more than $15 billion by the sellers.

21st Century Fox and the Journal’s parent News Corp share common ownership.

Sinclair is also interested in the 21 regional channels and is working with the private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP on a bid for them, people close to the matter said. Baltimore-based Sinclair, which is a large owner of local TV stations, has said it is interested in expanding further into the cable business through local sports networks.

Other suitors for the networks beyond private-equity firms include Major League Baseball itself, Commissioner Rob Manfred has said. The “New Fox” company that will be comprised of assets Disney doesn’t acquire from 21st Century Fox is also considering a bid for some or all of the channels, people close to the process said.999

Britain’s top law-enforcement body examining allegations that translator was paid to tip off target of investigation

LONDON—The U.K.’s top law-enforcement body is examining allegations that an employee leaked information to a suspect in exchange for money, undermining a probe into a suspected network of European insider traders, according to people familiar with the matter.

The internal corruption unit of the National Crime Agency, the U.K.’s equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is assessing whether a government translator who had access to wiretap recordings tipped off the target of an insider-trading investigation. This person may have worked with others in the agency to attempt to disrupt the probe, the people said.

If confirmed, the breach could become a black eye for U.K. investigators, who have had a patchy record prosecuting white-collar crimes since the 2008 financial crisis.

The U.K. government set up the NCA in 2013 in part to improve investigations of financial crimes in the years after the financial crisis. Such cases are split among multiple agencies in the U.K., including the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Conduct Authority. The NCA often works with the FBI while the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, its lead financial regulator, works closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A National Crime Agency spokesman said: “We do not routinely confirm or deny the existence of investigations.”

U.K. law enforcement has devoted more attention to financial crime in recent years, with limited outcomes. The FCA has opened 172 insider-trading cases since the 2014 financial year, and only three have resulted in regulatory action, according to FCA data. Insider-trading cases typically take years; the FCA’s biggest recent case against two bankers resulted in a conviction in 2016 over trading that took place between 2006 and 2010.

The FCA declined to comment.

The leaking allegations that the NCA is examining have their roots in an investigation begun in 2013 that grew to include monitoring a network of people allegedly involved in using illegal tips to trade stocks, the people familiar with the matter said. That underlying investigation has led to at least one prosecution.

The name of the translator couldn’t be learned, nor was it apparent whether she is still working for the agency or has been disciplined in any way. It couldn’t be determined when exactly the leaks happened.

One of the suspects in the alleged insider-trading ring wrote a letter to himself that he hid under a carpet in his home before his arrest. In the letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, he described how another suspect told him of a joint NCA investigation with the FCA into their trading.

The other suspect told him he had “three people working for him at the agency,” according to the letter, referring to the NCA.

That suspect told him that a translator working with investigators contacted him through a party known to both of them, according to the letter and people familiar with the matter. The translator tipped him off about the investigation and subsequent discoveries by investigators, including what the other suspect was saying on the phone, the letter and people said.

The other suspect said that they could pay off NCA officers working on the case by transferring money to a bank account in Macau, according to the letter.

In recent years, British authorities have faced setbacks in several high-profile cases involving financial crimes. This year a court rejected the SFO’s effort to bring criminal charges against Barclays following an investigation into the bank’s loan practices. Like its peers in the U.S., U.K. law enforcement has also struggled to prosecute high-ranking officials inside companies, according to Jonathan Fischer, a visiting professor of financial crime at the London School of Economics.

“Those failures give the impression that the U.K.’s response to financial crime is very weak,” he said. “For bigger cases, they are narrowly focused and lack resources.”

- Sells €2.0B vs. €1.5-2.0B indicated range in 2.45% Oct 2023 BTP bonds; Avg Yield: 1.79% v 2.35% prior; Bid-to-cover: x v 1.34x prior

- Sells €1.511B in 2.8% Dec 2028 BTP bonds; Avg Yield: 2.70% v 3.24% prior; Bid-to-cover: 2.03x v 1.41x prior

Results: http://www.dt.tesoro.it/en/debito_pubblico/emissioni_titoli_di_stato_interni/risultati_aste/

Asian stocks put in a mixed performance Friday, limping toward a modest weekly advance at the tail end what’s been the worst year since 2011. The yen led gains against the dollar as traders looked for havens from a remarkable bout of volatility.

Japanese shares declined, while stocks in China, Hong Kong and Korea saw modest gains. Futures on the S&P 500 Index saw another roller-coaster session, swinging between gains and losses. The American benchmark erased a drop of almost 3 percent in an afternoon recovery Thursday -- the biggest upward reversal since 2010. It’s been a week of superlatives for stock traders, after U.S. shares climbed the most in more than nine years on Wednesday. Elsewhere, 10-year Treasury yields held under 2.8 percent, Japanese yields dipped below zero and oil traded around $46 in New York. Gold rose.

US After Hours APHA +22% on takeover interest

Nikkei -0.31% Hang Seng +0.04% CSI +0.67% Shanghai +0.44% Shenzen +0.29%

Eur$ 1.1450 CNH 6.8674 CNY 6.8539 JPY 110.44 GBP 1.2661 CHF 0.9848 RUB 69.5570 TRY 5.2792 WTI$ 45.64 +2.31%

S&P -0.40% EuroStoxx +0.68% FTSE +0.62% Dax +0.43% SMI +1.13%

Macro :

- German Ministry Defines Diesel Upgrade Requirements, Bild Says

- VIX's Push Higher Looks Worse Than February Spikes

Keep an eye on :

- AEVS SW : Baloise Buys 20% Stake in Aevis Victoria’s Infracore

- AIR FP : Airbus, Leonardo Sign Spain Deal for 23 Helicopters: La Tribune

- ARM SM : Arima Acquires, Commits to Invest in 4 Real Estate Assets

- BALN SW : Baloise Buys 20% Stake in Aevis Victoria’s Infracore

- B8F GY : Biofrontera Confirms Court Barred Use of Some Docs in DUSA Suit

- DEB LN : Debenhams PT Slashed at Jefferies, But Sees Recovery Potential

- ENG SM : Trans Adriatic Pipeline Makes 1st Drawdown on Financing Facility

- ENX FP : Euronext Exceeds 50% Threshold for Oslo Bourse Takeover

- HOFI SS : Hoist’s Former CEO Olsson Sold 78,000 Shares in Company

- HOFI SS : Hoist Finance Share Drop Overdone, Offers Upside: Morgan Stanley

- LUPE SS : Swedish Prosecutor Raids Lundin’s Stockholm Offices Again: DI

- MAIL LI : Mail.ru Signs Option for 80% Stake in UMA

- RDSA LN : Shell Completes Sale of NZ Operations to OMV for $578M

- SGE LN : Times says Visa’s purchase of Earthport raised expectations for further consolidation in sector

- SREN SW : Swiss Re CEO Keen to Profit From Market Weakness for M&A: FT

- TLGO SM : Talgo, CAF Are Looking at Siemens, Alstom Trains: Expansion

- VWS DC : Vestas Receives 22 MW Order in USA

- XAR LN : Xaar Sees FY Rev. Below Estimates as Ceramics Sales Decline

* Hoist Finance Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley