Business of Fashion : H&M Tests New Store Concept

H&M Tests New Store Concept
At a spruced-up pilot store in Stockholm, the chain is testing new concepts that mark a break with its past, and partly echo some tactics already deployed by rivals to attract shoppers.


STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Step into one of the more than 4,300 H&M budget fashion stores around the world and you often know what to expect: clothes racks crammed with tops, trousers and skirts in a spartan and sometimes cluttered environment.

H&M executives say that's no longer good enough. Sales have stagnated for years, the company's shares have lost nearly two-thirds of their value since 2015 and more nimble rivals have adapted faster to the rapidly shifting retail landscape.

Now, at a spruced-up pilot store in H&M's home town of Stockholm, the chain founded in 1947 is testing new concepts that mark a break with its past — and partly echo some tactics already deployed by rivals to attract shoppers.

The H&M store in the upmarket Karlaplan neighbourhood of the Swedish capital offers a smaller range of selected clothes, displayed on airy shelves and tables in colour-coordinated sections — as well as espressos and invitation-only events.

H&M planned the layout and ranges with affluent local customers in mind, marking a shift from offering relatively standardised ranges across its stores to catering more for local tastes and means.

"It's an appealing store, visually, and also the range feels appealing to me. I'm more inclined to head here first rather than to the other stores," said Josefin Klegard, 38, sipping sparkling wine at an event for local loyalty club members with a pop-up beauty parlour and H&M designers talking about trends.

In Karlaplan, there's a high concentration of clothes from H&M's more upmarket lines such as "Trend" and "Premium Quality", which is usually only available online. H&M's Swedish website sells "Premium Quality" leather coats for 3,499 crowns ($397) while most H&M coats are priced well below 1,000 crowns.

"We have to raise the entire quality level: to have fewer items in, a nicer presentation of the goods," said chief executive Karl-Johan Persson, the grandson of H&M's founder.

"That is a task, to be able to sell more with less, and to do that in a cost-efficient way," he told Reuters.

Sluggish sales

After decades of rapid expansion, H&M had 4,801 stores in 69 countries at the end of May, making it the world's second biggest fashion retailer after Spain's Inditex, which owns the Zara brand. But more than two years of sluggish sales had left H&M with $4.1 billion of unsold stock.

A recovery in sales in H&M's third quarter suggests it might have stopped the rot, but analysts suspect the improvement was largely due to price cuts to shift stock, at the expense of profitability.

Full third-quarter figures are due on September 27.

Majority-owned by the founding Persson family, H&M finally admitted in January it had a problem for a while with its H&M branded stores, which make up the bulk of its business.

Company executives admit they neglected the health of H&M stores as they focused on building online sales and developing eight new, mostly higher-end brands, such as Cos and Arket — even though the H&M brand accounts for over 90 percent of sales.

It was the crowds and clutter at H&M's store in New York's Times Square that turned off 21-year-old student Nicole Archie, who now prefers online sites such as Boohoo or Fashion Nova.

"I remember the line being so long that I went to go sit on a bench near the shoes," she said. "There were laces and strings all over the floor and tangled. If I wanted to purchase a shoe, I wouldn't be able to because everything was so stuck together."

Those kinds of shortcomings allowed rivals to steal a march on H&M as customers started to look for so-called destination stores with more attractive layouts and other things to do besides shopping.

Inditex has shut smaller Zara outlets to focus on large, sleek stores in prime shopping areas that are well integrated with its website, helping to keep sales powering ahead.

US department store Nordstrom has opened in small neighbourhood locations in Los Angeles, offering everything from handbag repair to juice bars to manicures.

Rival US retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has closed unprofitable locations and is investing in smaller but more open stores, with bigger fitting rooms complete with phone chargers and adjustable lighting.

'Luxury brand'

The pilot store in Stockholm shows H&M is finally getting the message.

"After talking to the customers, we've been wanting to create a warmer and more personal feeling," Anna Tillberg, head of H&M's innovation think-tank the Laboratory, which is developing the new concept.

H&M invites loyalty club members from the area to yoga classes and mingle events in a store that has been refurbished with wooden floors, lush greenery, broad aisles, a cafe corner and spacious changing rooms.

"It's a total change. This is like a concept store. It's much better now. There's no garbage or plastic or packaging anywhere," Mathilda Moncetti, 27, said at a recent event. "The interior feels like a luxury brand."

Sitting by the in-store espresso machine, Daniel Claesson, head of business development and online at H&M, said the revamp had increased both the store's sales and footfall. H&M declined to give figures.

"We've learnt loads," he said. "Here we've seen proof of the results of being more relevant for the customer we have right here."

The company said in February that it expected sales in stores open one financial year or more to return to growth in 2019. Besides the new store concept, H&M also plans to adapt ranges to local tastes in many more stores.

The company, which rents its store space, is shutting underperforming H&M stores faster than usual, sometimes swapping the budget brand for one of its better-performing ones. It has also turned some regular H&M stores into discount outlets.

But some investors fear it could all be too little too late.

Norwegian investment fund Odin Fonder has sold all its H&M shares, saying it was unsure Persson was the best person to steer the chain through the industry's rapid transformation.

"We think it needs to close at least 1,000 stores, and that just as many need to be refurbished," the fund said.

WWD : How Michael Kors Will Grow Versace

How Michael Kors Will Grow Versace
The Versace family will maintain a role in the company, sources said.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. appears to be taking a major step to becoming a global luxury fashion group with its purported deal to buy Versace for about 2 billion euros. And if Kors follows its usual playbook, the focus in growing the iconic Italian brand will be on accessories.

The deal could close as early as today, sources said.

The Versace family will maintain a role in the company, sources said, although it could not immediately be learned what will be the exact nature of their involvement.

Kors buying Versace confirms a report in WWD Monday that the Italian fashion brand was close to being acquired by the American fashion house, which generated $4.97 billion in revenues last year.

The stock market didn’t react well to reports of an impending deal, with Kors shares closing Monday at $66.71, down 8.23 percent.

Versace is run by Donatella Versace, creative director, and her brother Santo Versace, chairman, who own 20 percent and 30 percent of the firm, respectively. According to sources, the private equity firm Blackstone, which owns 20 percent of Versace, is planning to sell its stake in the deal. The remainder of the company is owned by Allegra Versace Beck, Donatella’s daughter and the niece of the house’s late founder, Gianni Versace, who died in 1997.

Versace posted revenue of 686 million euros in 2016 and returned to profitability in 2017.

If Kors follows a similar playbook, it is believed the company will want to build up the accessories portion of the Versace brand, similar to what management has done with the Kors brand.

When John D. Idol, along with Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll, acquired Kors in 2003, they looked to expand the brand, which had a “cult following,” to a global and multinational clientele. In 2004, Kors was a $20 million business and was losing money. Today, Kors has a market cap of $10.04 billion. Stroll and Chou are no longer investors in Kors and aren’t involved in a potential Versace deal.

While Kors had his initial success designing apparel, the new team saw white space in accessible luxury accessories, which became a windfall for the brand. The luxury space was crowded with brands such as Prada and Louis Vuitton, and Kors saw opportunity for a secondary line that could compete with Coach, Kate Spade and Marc Jacobs. Over time, the bulk of Kors’ business was generated by shoes, bags, eyewear and watches. The company went public in 2011, with shares opening at $25, up 25 percent from their $20 offering price, and closed at $24.20. The initial public offering raised $944 million. All of the IPO proceeds went to designer Michael Kors and other selling shareholders, including Chou, Stroll and Idol. At the time, IPO investment adviser Renaissance Capital said it was the largest fashion IPO since the firm started collecting data in 1995.

Several years later, when Kors experienced a slowdown in handbags in the North American market, saturation and overexpansion (eventually closing stores and pulling back on wholesale), Idol set his sights on such areas of growth as e-commerce, men’s, Europe, Asia and watches. He also signaled his desire to become a portfolio of brands.

Last year, Kors acquired Jimmy Choo for $1.2 billion and started prepping it for ambitious growth. At that time, Idol said the plan was to grow Choo’s store base to a range of 200 to 250 doors, up from the roughly 150 locations it had at the time of the acquisition. Much of that expansion would take place in Asia. It also looked to broaden Choo’s accessories offering, expanding beyond smaller evening bags. A third move was to fund the quickly growing men’s business.

At the time, Idol emphasized that Choo “doesn’t need to be reengineered. It’s a company that needs to have additional resources to grow more quickly.” He said, “We are creating a global luxury fashion group. Our focus is on international fashion luxury that are industry leaders.”

While analysts expressed concern that Kors overpaid for Choo, the chief executive officer noted that having the two together under one umbrella helped the firm diversify from a brand and product standpoint, as well as geographically with greater exposure in Asia and Europe.

Last year, when discussing the desire for acquisitions, Idol said Kors produces cash flow of close to $1 billion a year that can help pay down any debt. It also has a $1 billion revolving credit facility, which the ceo pointed to as a potential source of deal capital. “It’s there for us to use so we can make sizable acquisitions even on our existing financing structure, not having to even go to the debt market if we don’t need to,” Idol said.

A Kors deal for Versace will bring to an end what has been feverish pursuit of the brand over the last few months. According to one source, Donatella Versace herself made overtures to potential investors since the spring, rather than pursue a formal process via investment banks.

It is understood that Kering was among the first to submit an offer a few hundred million euros shy of 2 billion euros. Such a big number extinguished interest from most potential strategic buyers, including Tapestry, save for Kors, which pulled out a bigger checkbook and pursued exclusive negotiations in recent weeks, the source said.

In July, Versace identified accessories “as an important opportunity” it is pursuing with a development strategy. In 2017, Versace’s apparel sales decreased 0.4 percent at retail (220.7 million euros) and 10.9 percent at wholesale (112.8 million euros), while accessories grew 3.5 percent at retail (186 million euros) and 9 percent at wholesale (67 million euros). At the end of 2017, Versace had 218 stores, compared with 239 at the end of 2016. Thirteen of them were full price. In June, Versace said it planned to grow the European and American markets to the level of success the brand has achieved in Asia.

Despite the steep drop in Kors’ share price on Monday, analysts reacted positively to the potential Versace acquisition.

Oliver Chen, an equity analyst at Cowen, said Kors has a big opportunity with Versace, although just how good the deal is for the company also depends on how much it ultimately pays for the business.

“Versace has a big handbag opportunity,” Chen said, noting the deal could ultimately be “more meaningful” for Kors than last year’s Choo transaction.

Kors also has expertise across many of the disciplines necessary for luxury brands to thrive today — from wholesale to e-commerce to logistics to creating connect that connects with consumers online.

“They know what they’re doing across categories and they understand what really sells,” Chen said. “It’s a commercial company that understands how to merchandise. And Versace is ready-to-wear, it’s handbags, it’s purses, it’s jewelry, and I think the collection has been not necessarily focused enough. Digital is a big catalyst for the change that you’re seeing because it’s very expensive to invest in your digital flagship” as well as stores and the rest of the business.

“This is going to happen more and more,” the analyst said. “Brands can’t necessarily stand alone.”

In a research note to clients, Chen quoted Gianni Versace from 1994, when the designer described the brand as influenced by “life, music, movie, people, street.” The analyst argued that this puts the brand’s DNA in sync with broader changes in the luxury industry, which is more streetwear influenced by the day.

“New Luxury is about brands becoming ‘community platforms’ which interplay with all walks of life and allow customers to be the best versions of themselves,” Chen said.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, in New York, finds Kors’ decision to acquire Versace an interesting move, considering the American firm’s desire to become a luxury goods house. But he said the benefits of a potential deal could take years.

“That Michael Kors should court Versace is no great surprise. The American company has long desired to transform itself into a house of luxury brands, a process it started with last year’s acquisition of Jimmy Choo. Versace comes with a much bigger price tag of $2.35 billion, almost double the $1.2 billion price that Michael Kors paid for Jimmy Choo. However, it would also put a big-hitting brand with true global status into Michael Kors’ stable,” Saunders said.

“Other than the desire to become a bigger conglomerate, the rationale for buying another luxury label is perhaps less sound. In our view, while progress has been made, Michael Kors has not rebuilt its core brand to the same extent as other players like Coach: its offer is still confused and is nowhere near as rounded nor polished as many other luxury players,” he said. “This shows up in the company’s sales figures where growth has been driven by an upswing in U.S. consumer sentiment and spending, rather than because the brand is generating much better traction.”

He said that over the past few quarters, two things have helped push the group onto more solid ground. “The first of these has been the sales contribution from Jimmy Choo, which has flattered sales growth numbers. The second has been a rebuilding of margins which has helped push up profit. In our opinion, these dynamics have given Michael Kors the confidence to look to new corporate deals in order to fuel future growth,” he said. “The choice of Versace is interesting. If the deal goes through it would certainly push the group into the big league in terms of its profile in the luxury space. It also means that the company would be a player in many different categories from fragrance to home to pets, thereby giving the group a true lifestyle position. However, it is also the case that despite its profile, Versace has struggled to grow sales. As such, Michael Kors is not buying a perfectly performing brand, it is buying a brand that needs work and some repositioning.”

He believes that Kors’ past experience with its own brand will help it make the changes that are required, but these shifts will cause short-term disruption, and that the true benefits might take a few years. “We also believe that some of the work required on Versace, which includes toning down some of the brasher elements of the brand [that] are now out of step with the more subtle tone preferred by modern consumers, are precisely the issues with which Michael Kors has struggled and is yet to satisfactorily resolve,” Saunders said.

“Ultimately, we view this deal as an additive one. While it is true that the enlarged group would be able to make savings on central costs, we don’t see the addition of a brand like Versace being about helping to boost the Michael Kors brand, other than perhaps through a more extensive global supply and distribution chain. It is much more a play to give the group a more rounded and defensible proposition that has a number of brands to drive performance across different parts of the market,” he said.

NYT : Instagram’s Co-Founders to Step Down From Company

SAN FRANCISCO — Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of the photo-sharing app Instagram, have resigned and plan to leave the company in the coming weeks, adding to the challenges facing Instagram’s parent company, Facebook.

Mr. Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive, and Mr. Krieger, the chief technical officer, notified Instagram’s leadership team and Facebook on Monday of their decision to leave, said people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger did not give a reason for stepping down, according to the people, but said they planned to take time off after leaving Instagram. Mr. Systrom, 34, and Mr. Krieger, 32, have known each other since 2010, when they met and transformed a software project built by Mr. Systrom into what eventually became Instagram, which now has more than one billion users.

In a statement late Monday, Mr. Systrom said he and Mr. Krieger were “ready for our next chapter,” and hinted that they would create something new.

“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again,” Mr. Systrom said. “Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, praised the Instagram founders in a statement and said that he wished them “all the best and I’m looking forward to seeing what they build next.”

The departures raise questions about Instagram’s future at a time when Facebook faces its most sustained set of crises in its 14-year history. For much of the past two years, critics have railed against Facebook for being careless with user data and for not preventing foreign interference across its network of more than two billion people. The issues have started taking a toll on Facebook’s business, with the company saying in July that growth in digital advertising sales and in the number of its users had slowed down.

Against those problems, Instagram has been one of the jewels of Facebook. The social network acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, when the photo-sharing site was used by around 30 million people. Since then, Instagram’s reach has ballooned and it has widely been seen as one of Facebook’s most successful acquisitions.

Facebook has lost other founders of businesses it has acquired. In April, Jan Koum, a Facebook board member and a founder of WhatsApp, the messaging app that the social network purchased in 2014, said he was leaving. Mr. Koum had grown increasingly concerned about Facebook’s position on user data in recent years, people with knowledge of the situation said at the time.

In Silicon Valley, reaction to the Instagram founders’ resignation was swift.

“Wow,” tweeted John Lilly, a venture capitalist at Greylock, calling the exits “a real moment.” He added, “What an impact they’ve had on all of us.”


Instagram was founded in 2010 and at first was a location check-in app called Burbn. Mr. Krieger, an enthusiastic user of Burbn, met Mr. Systrom at a Stanford University fellowship program and they decided to work together. Eventually, Burbn was retooled and renamed Instagram.

Instagram became popular in Silicon Valley almost immediately. The app heavily emphasized the use of a smartphone camera as iPhones were being widely adopted, turning everyday people into amateur photographers. Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger popularized photo filters and camera lenses, spurring a wave of copycat apps for the iPhone and Android-based smartphones.

The duo worked out of a small office in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco. Instagram spent a lot of money in its early years just trying to keep its app online as its servers struggled under the constant stream of new user sign-ups.

Instagram eventually caught the eye of Mr. Zuckerberg, who realized how powerful Instagram’s nascent photo-sharing network would become, and saw the wealth of photo-sharing activity across his own social network. Mr. Zuckerberg handled the negotiations with Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger largely on his own.

Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock (though the final cost was closer to $715 million because the stock on which part of the deal was based declined in value). It was Facebook’s biggest acquisition to date, and came a month before the social network’s initial public offering.

“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post about the deal. “Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

The deal immediately turned Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger into millionaires many times over. Instagram has since been valued at 100 times that $1 billion acquisition price by Bloomberg Intelligence, a sizable return on investment on paper.

Facebook went on to purchase Parse, a service that provided tools for mobile developers, and Oculus, a virtual reality hardware start-up, branching into new areas beyond the original social network. Mr. Zuckerberg also spent $19 billion to buy WhatsApp.

But Instagram remained Mr. Zuckerberg’s main success story. As Facebook saw a threat in young people departing the network for Snapchat, a rival photo-sharing network, Instagram was quick to shift and recreate one of Snapchat’s key features of online stories. Since then, Instagram has surged further in popularity, while Snapchat’s growth has been inconsistent.

The departures of Mr. Systrom and Mr. Krieger create uncertainty around the app. It is unclear who will lead the company on the founders’ departures, and if that person can continue Instagram’s longstanding success streak. Marne Levine, who was previously Instagram’s chief operating officer, left her role at Instagram earlier this month to return to Facebook and lead partnerships.

FT : Cryptocurrency Wild West is crying out for a principled sheriff

Cryptocurrency Wild West is crying out for a principled sheriff
Bitcoin’s future lies in technical and regulatory integration with mainstream finance

Bitcoin was born nine years ago as an anarchic project — a digital currency detached from any central bank. It promised a revolutionary alternative to the existing international payments system, where a central administrator was replaced by a multitude of decentralised digital verification points. But the future of bitcoin and the technology it uses, blockchain, are drifting towards the mainstream. Regulators have their sights set on bitcoin and other crypto assets it inspired. More than 75 of the world’s biggest banks, meanwhile, are turning to blockchain to fight the threat of new payments rivals.

The regulatory attention had become inevitable after bitcoin’s wild swings in value — which at its peak was yo-yoing by as much as 20 per cent in a day but has slumped from $19,000 last December to about $6,500 today. Bitcoin was followed by other types of cryptocurrency, the creation of exchanges, brokers and providers of wallets, or apps for holding and transacting in cryptocurrencies. There has been alarm, meanwhile, over security breaches and the potential use of such networks for money laundering and terrorist financing activities.

In a sign of authorities waking up to the risks, a UK parliamentary committee last week called the cryptocurrency space a “ wild west” and urged regulation. The New York attorney-general’s office published a report this month denouncing “pervasive” conflicts of interest at many cryptocurrency exchanges and lack of sufficient measures to prevent market manipulation. The EU has included cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets in the fifth iteration of its anti-money laundering directive, due to come into force in 2019. The Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-money laundering organisation, is also looking into the crypto market.

Given the many risks, regulatory attention is overdue. Crypto investors currently expose themselves to unregulated risks that can completely wipe out their investments; values are based largely on sentiment, not fundamentals. But the useful innovation that is associated with the cryptocurrency world should not be overlooked.

Blockchain technology may be a good example. While its application as a payment mechanism on the high street is hindered by limits to the volumes it can handle, and the time and cost of verifying transactions, it has proved useful in cross-border transactions. Hence the decision by more than 70 banks, including Société Générale and Santander, to join a network that JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and ANZ have been trialling to see whether blockchain’s distributed ledger technology can speed up resolution of payments that have errors or require additional compliance checks. Walmart, the US retailer, is starting to use blockchain to track certain products.

Proper regulation of crypto assets will also make it respectable for traditional financial groups to have relationships with them. At present, banks that serve crypto players prefer to keep the links private. While some crypto market participants value the lack of transparency, such as certain coins that offer untraceability, others welcome regulatory scrutiny.

This is a highly complex market. Regulators are still working out how to police it. But as crypto assets and technology move into broader use by growing numbers of people around the world, a co-ordinated and appropriate regulatory framework is needed. The future of the crypto world may be greater technical and regulatory integration with mainstream finance — however much bitcoin’s enthusiastic early supporters may have seen it as a disruptive outsider.

>>> What to look at today - 25th of September 2018

Stocks traded mixed in Asia Tuesday as investors pondered concerns about the outlook for global trade and American politics. The dollar ticked higher as 10-year Treasury yields consolidated above 3 percent, and oil traded at a four-year high.
Equities climbed to the highest since February in Japan as traders returned from a holiday, though Chinese shares headed in the opposite direction after a long weekend. Australia was little changed. Hong Kong -- where stocks fell Monday on escalating trade tensions -- and South Korea are shut Tuesday. European equity-index futures flagged a muted open to trading there. The pound pared some of the gains made on Monday when the currency was buoyed by increasing talk of a second U.K. referendum on the final Brexit deal.
US After Hours ASNA +14% following earnings/guidance, BAS +6% on KEG merger proposal news

Nikkei +0.29% Hang Seng -1.62% CSI -0.91% Shanghai -0.57% Shenzen -0.52%

Eur$ 1.1759 CNH 6.8633 CNY 6.8644 JPY 112.94 GBP 1.3116 RUB 65.70 CHF 0.9662 TRY 6.1024 WTI$ 72.34 +0.36%

S&P +0.02% EuroStoxx +0.15% FTSE -0.07% Dax +0.05% SMI +0.12%

MAcro :
- Barrick Buys Rival, BofAML Sees Gold Over $1,300: Materials Wrap

Keep an eye on :
- AF FP : Air France-KLM CEO May Be Proposed as Interim AF CEO: Tribune
- BAYN GY : Bayer Sues Apotex Over Generic Version of Stivarga Cancer Drug
- BWO AV : Buwog First Quarter Recurring FFO EU34.1 Mln
- CAPIO SS : Capio Proposes Cash Return After Capio France Sale
- CARD LN : Card Factory Sees FY Adjusted Ebitda GBP89 Mln To GBP91 Mln
- CBG LN : Close Brothers Full Year Adjusted Operating Profit GBP278.6 Mln
- DASNKE DC : Swedish Authorities to Keep Danske as Banking Provider, DI Says
- DHER GY : Amazon Is Said to Have Made Approaches for Deliveroo: Telegraph
- ENGI FP : Belgian Energy Minister Says She’s ‘Shocked’ by Electrabel Move
- EVK GY : Evonik Says RAG-Stiftung Placed 16.3m Shares at EU30.65/Shr
- FUR NA : Fugro Appoints Mark Heine CEO, Succeeding Oystein Loseth
- GLEN LN : Glencore Increases and Extends Share Buyback Program by $1B
- GMM GY : Grammer Executives to Depart Following Takeover by Ningbo Jifeng
- HMB SS : H&M Tests Self Check-Out System in a Swedish Store: DN
- ILD FP : Italy 5G Auction Bids Reach EU4.74b: Ministry
- IMB LN : Imperial Brands Says Tobacco Business Having ‘Much Stronger’ 2H
- INTER NA : Blackstone Places 7.7 Million Shares of Intertrust at EU15.65/Sh
- LTG LN : Learning Technologies Sees FY Profit Ahead of Expectations
- LWB LN : Low & Bonar FY Profit To Be ‘Significantly’ Below Expectations
- LUPE SS : Lundin Petroleum Sees Alta Resource Estimate to Increase
- LONN SW : Lonza Confirms 2022 Mid-Term Guidance, Positive Outlook Beyond
- MEKO SS : Mekonomen Says Rights Issue Subscription Price SEK79/Shr
- PHM SM : PharmaMar Says Lurbinectedin Study Shows Favorable Results
- PIX FP : Pixium Reports Positive Review of Bionic Eye in Feasibility Test
- SSE LN : SSE Buys Full Control of Seagreen Wind Energy Venture
- SOON SW : Sonova Starts CHF1.5b Share Buyback on Oct. 10
- SRCG SW : Liberty Global’s Fries Sees Sunrise as Possible Swiss Partner
- TEF SM : Telefonica Is Said in Talks to Sell Mexican Unit: El Economista
- TIT IM : Tel. Italia Continues Analysis of Investment, Sale Opportunities
- TIT IM : Italy 5G Auction Bids Reach EU4.74b: Ministry
- TIT IM : Telecom Italia Is Said to Discuss Nextel Bid at Board Meeting
- TRN IM : Terna Signs Back-up Revolving Credit Line Worth EU900m
- TNG FP : Transgene Reports Individualized Immunotherapy for Solid Tumors
- VELO DC : Veloxis Pharma’s CFO Marott Steps Down After Less than One Year
- WPP LN : WPP’s Wunderman Buys Majority Stake in Emark

>>> US After Hours Summary: ASNA +14% following earnings/guidance,

After Hours Summary: ASNA +14% following earnings/guidance, BAS +6% on KEG merger proposal news

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: ASNA +14%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: TLRY +7.5% (announces successful export of medical cannabis from Canada to Australia for distribution to critically ill pediatric patients), BAS +6% (Key Energy Services proposed to combine with Basic Energy Services in an all-stock merger; to be accretive to both sets of shareholders after consideration of cost synergies), ARNA +2.7% (reports phase 2a Results for olorinab in patients with abdominal pain associated with Crohn's Disease ; intends to progress the olorinab clinical program targeting gastrointestinal pain)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: SNDX -17% (announces updated results from ongoing Phase 2 ENCORE 601 trial of Entinosat in combination with KEYTRUDA in NSCLC; ORR results rate failed to meet prespecified endpoint), KMT -9.8% (still checking-light volume), DCPH -5.1% (initiated with Underperform at Leerink Partners), BJ -3.6% (commences public offering of 28.0 mln shares of common stock by stockholders), PETQ -3.3% (commences public offering of 2.0 mln shares of common stock; selling shareholders also intend to offer 3.0 mln shares upon exchange of membership units of PetIQ Holdings), CNP -2.9% ( announces public offering of $1.5 bln in common stock and $750 mln in depositary shares), CTL -2.2% (Chief Financial Officer Sunit Patel has resigned after accepting an executive leadership role at another company), VSTM -0.4% (announces FDA approval for COPIKTRA)


>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & Downgrades - 25th of September 2

>>> Up
* Alfa Laval Upgraded to Reduce at AlphaValue
* Boliden Raised to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley; PT 246 Kronor
* Curasan Upgraded to Buy at Montega; Price Target 1.10 Euros
* Epiroc Upgraded to Buy at DNB Markets; Price Target 109 Kronor
* Euronext Upgraded to Overweight at JPMorgan; PT 65 Euros
* Imerys Upgraded to Buy at Kepler Cheuvreux
* Norsk Hydro Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 59 Kroner
* OPG Power Ventures Upgraded to Buy at Cenkos Securities
* Savills Upgraded to Buy at Peel Hunt
* SSAB Upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 56 Kronor
* Uniqa Upgraded to Accumulate at Erste Group; PT 9.70 Euros
* Vienna Insurance Upgraded to Buy at Erste Group; PT 30 Euros

>>> Down
* Auto Trader Cut to Equal-weight at Barclays; PT 4.60 Pounds
* Beter Bed Downgraded to Sell at ING; PT 4.50 Euros
* BHP Downgraded to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley
* GEA Group Downgraded to Sell at Bankhaus Lampe
* Instalco Intressenter Cut to Hold at SEB Equities; PT 75 Kronor
* J D Wetherspoon Downgraded to Hold at Peel Hunt
* Kinepolis Downgraded to Hold at ING; PT 60 Euros
* Ontex Downgraded to Underweight at JPMorgan; PT Set to 18 Euros
* Randgold ADRs Downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT $68
* Sky Downgraded to Hold at Jefferies
* Smiths Downgraded to Hold at Deutsche Bank

>>> Initiation
* Avast Rated New Buy at Patria Finance; PT 3.33 Pounds
* Bell Rated New Underperform at MainFirst; PT 280 Francs
* DIA Rated Hold at Bankinter Initiating Coverage; PT EU2.01
* Fresenius SE Assumed at Jefferies With Hold; PT 59 Euros
* Fresenius Medical Assumed at Jefferies With Hold; PT 82 Euros
* Mapfre Reinstated at Renta 4 With Overweight; PT 3.12 Euros
* NFON Rated New Buy at Hauck & Aufhaeuser; PT 19 Euros
* Orior Rated New Outperform at MainFirst; PT 105 Francs
* Valora Reinstated at MainFirst With Neutral; PT 280 Francs
* Spire Healthcare Resumed at Liberum With Hold
* Torm Reinstated at Fearnley With Buy; PT 60 Kroner

>>> Call