France to open the way for London-style urban tolls - source - Reuters News

France to open the way for London-style urban tolls - source - Reuters News

21-Sep-2018 15:43:15

PARIS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - France plans to make it easier for Paris and other big cities to introduce London-style urban vehicle tolls in a bid to reduce pollution and congestion, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

Under legislation introduced in 2015, French cities have the right to introduce urban tolls, but only on an experimental basis and for a maximum of three years.

"No city will invest in congestion pricing infrastructure on those terms. The legislative framework is too constraining, it needs to evolve," said the source.

The Transport Ministry is preparing a decree on congestion pricing as part of a new law on mobility that will be presented this autumn, he said.

Singapore, London, Stockholm and Milan have all introduced congestion pricing systems, but no French city has done so, although France has an extensive toll system on its highways.

In October 2017, Paris's deputy mayor for urban planning, Jean-Louis Missika, said the idea of urban tolls was worth considering, but mayor Anne Hidalgo said she did not want a financial barrier to entering the city.

The city has, however, increased parking fees and introduced a sticker system to keep the most polluting cars off its roads on days when pollution levels are high. Hidalgo also said last year that Paris wants to ban petrol- and diesel-fuelled cars from its roads by 2030.

Sources close to the city government say Paris transport officials are still studying the idea of tolls, although they are unlikely to be introduced before municipal elections in 2020.

>>> Sky owner Fox has edge over Comcast in close auction, sources say

Sky owner Fox has edge over Comcast in close auction, sources say
MergerMArket
Twenty-First Century Fox [NASDAQ:FOX] holds the upper hand over Comcast [NASDAQ:CMCSA] if both US media groups end up submitting very close bids for Sky [LON:SKY], three sources familiar with the matter said.

With an auction looking to determine the outcome, Fox, which already holds 39% of Sky, does not necessarily have to outbid Comcast to win, the first source said.

The auction does not determine who wins the business, it determines the highest prices the bidders are willing to pay, this source said. The offers, to be operative, need to meet minimum conditions. If those conditions aren't met, there is no completed deal, this source pointed out.

Even if there’s some price differential, Sky’s board would have to make a judgement around the ability of one party over the other getting over the acceptance threshold and getting the deal completed, this source continued.

Philadelphia-based Comcast and New York-based Fox have been trading bids for Sky, with Comcast now sitting with the highest bid at GBP 14.75 per share. Fox’s offer currently stands at GBP 14 per share. Sky shares in London this morning were trading at GBP 15.86, valuing the group at GBP 27.19bn.

Already owning a 39% stake in Sky, effectively lowers the percentage of independent shareholders Fox needs to back its offer in order to win the deal, the three sources said. Fox’s offer is currently conditional on 75% acceptances from independent shareholders as it is aiming to delist Sky. However, it has the option to lower its threshold to 50% plus one share of overall shares.

For Comcast to win, it has to line up 50% plus one of all outstanding shares. Without Fox’s 39% stake, Comcast needs over 82% of independent shares to support its bid, whereas Fox only needs to secure 18% of independent shares. As such, if Fox and Comcast table the same or very close bids, Fox holds a procedural advantage in securing approval and could be favored to prevail, the sources said.

The parties have today, 21 September, to offer any further bids, after which the bidding war is set to go to a one-day auction administered by the UK takeover panel on Saturday. The auction runs in three rounds: the lower bidder will first table a bid; the higher bidder will then table its own bid; then, in the third round, both companies will make their best and final offers.

Separately, Comcast engaged in a bidding war with the Walt Disney Company [NYSE:DIS] throughout the summer for the majority of the assets of Fox. Disney ultimately prevailed, reaching a USD 71.3bn deal that includes Fox’s 39% stake in Sky.

If Comcast puts in a bid that significantly exceeds the value that Disney anticipates that it can extract from the asset, Disney will have to consider pushing Fox into tendering its stake into Comcast’s offer, the first source said.

Any outcome for Disney can be perceived as a win, this source said. It will either succeed at a price it is comfortable with or will extract a high price from Comcast for its stake.

The outcome is difficult to call, but both parties are locked in and seem serious in their pursuit of Sky, the second source familiar said.
It is technically possible that both parties could put in equal bids and shareholders could fail to give either party enough support, the first source said. It is also possible that Sky’s board of directors could recommend one offer, but shareholders go for the other, he said.

There is also a long-shot possibility that, given the relatively concentrated independent ownership of Sky, a small number of holdout shareholders, believing in the possibility of a higher offer in a future bid, refuse to support either deal and kill a transaction, this source said.

Given the uncertainty for Sky as a standalone entity and the likelihood of a steep fall in the company’s share price absent a deal, this would be a high-risk decision to make, the second source said.

Following the auction, the parties have until mid-October to reach the minimum acceptance threshold necessary from shareholders.
Fox and Comcast declined to comment.

FT : Paulson launches gold investor alliance with Egypt’s Sawiris

Billionaire hedge fund magnate John Paulson is leading a consortium of investors determined to reverse the lacklustre performance of gold miners, in the latest sign of growing investor frustration with the sector.

New York hedge fund Paulson & Co, which is famed for making billions betting against subprime mortgages in the financial crisis, has put together the 16-strong group calling themselves the Shareholders’ Gold Council.

The group, which also includes Egyptian telecoms billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s La Mancha Group and a host of fund managers, says it aims to promote “best practices” in the industry.

“Its ultimate aim is to promote constructive engagement between the gold mining industry and the investment community,” the group said in a statement.

The group’s formation comes following a widespread drop in shares of gold miners, which have fallen by 25 per cent this year, according to the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs index. That’s a worse performance than the gold price, which is down 9 per cent year-to-date to $1,206 a troy ounce.

Paulson is one the largest holders of gold and mining companies, with stakes in Randgold, AngloGold Ashanti, Goldcorp and NovaGold, according to the most recent filings.

At a gold conference last year Marcelo Kim, a partner at Paulson, said investors in gold miners had “rubber stamped” mergers, soaring chief executive pay packages and behaved like “sheep being led to the slaughter” over the past seven years.

This year Mr Sawiris’s La Mancha Group launched a new gold investment vehicle headed by Andrew Wray, a former executive at Acacia Mining. In August, it paid $125.7m for a 30 per cent stake in Golden Star Resources, a gold miner based in Ghana.

La Mancha already owns significant stakes in Australia-based Evolution Mining and west African producer Endeavour Mining.

WP : China’s interference in U.S. politics is just beginning

China’s interference in U.S. politics is just beginning

The Trump administration is publicly calling out China for attempting to influence U.S. politics ahead of the midterm elections. Privately, the U.S. government is looking past November as Beijing expands its already significant capability to interfere in American democracy over the long term. The United States must be aware of the growing threat and mount a response.

As the trade war between Washington and Beijing escalates, China is using economic leverage to exert pressure on the U.S. political system. Tactics already deployed include pressuring U.S. companies trying to do business with China and punishing U.S. exporters, especially in locations where President Trump’s political base resides.

Trump, taking this activity personally, tweeted this week that China is “actively trying to impact and change our election by attacking our farmers, ranchers and industrial workers because of their loyalty to me.” Trump threatened unspecified retaliation and escalated the trade dispute by announcing additional tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.


While the trade war rages in public, behind the scenes the U.S. government is preparing for the possibility that the Chinese government will decide to weaponize the influence network inside the United States that it has been building for years. Although Beijing has not yet employed Russian-style “active measures,” it has these capabilities at the ready.

“We’ve seen a lot of preparatory work by the Chinese, and we understand what the realm of possibilities would be,” an administration official told me. “Our position now is to make folks aware of the danger that exists. These Chinese activities are all about influencing our democratic processes.”

The Chinese government denies all accusations of political interference abroad and typically paints such reporting as anti-Chinese, Cold War thinking. The Chinese government complained after national security adviser John Bolton listed China as one of four countries that interfere in our political processes on ABC News on Aug. 19. The Trump administration responded to the complaints by asking Beijing to confirm that it does not engage in such activities. The Chinese government changed the subject.


Economic coercion is only one Chinese interference tactic. Another is propaganda through media manipulation. This week, the Justice Department ordered two Chinese state-owned media outlets operating in Washington to register as foreign agents. This recalls action taken against Russian state-owned media outlets after the U.S. intelligence community reported that Moscow used them in its 2016 interference campaign.

The Chinese Communist Party and its allies have also bought up several Chinese-language media outlets inside the United States as part of an effort to influence overseas Chinese. That effort includes government officials building relationships with Chinese Students and Scholars Associations to help snuff out criticism of China on campuses.

Finally, Beijing interferes through co-opting American elites and persuading them to push Chinese Communist Party messages. Under President Xi Jinping, the party has been ramping up its comprehensive foreign influence operations strategy, known as “united front” work. Still described in Maoist terms — to mobilize the party’s friends to strike at the party’s enemies — the system is overseen by the party’s United Front Work Department.


“The UFWD directs ‘overseas Chinese work,’ which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese individuals and communities living outside China, while a number of other key affiliated organizations guided by China’s broader United Front strategy conduct influence operations targeting foreign actors and states,” says a report released last month by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The report reveals the internal structure of Beijing’s foreign influence machine, the web of foreign organizations tied to the united front system and their extensive financial relationships with U.S. organizations, academic institutions and think tanks.

In March, the United Front Work Department largely absorbed three other Communist Party departments, including the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. That synergy allows the party to seamlessly repress Uighurs inside China while threatening their family members abroad. For Beijing, it’s all one strategy.


Add to that China’s traditional espionage and hacking, which FBI Director Christopher A. Wray called the “broadest, most pervasive, most threatening challenge” our country faces in counterintelligence. The potential for Beijing to disrupt American politics is far beyond what we are prepared to deal with.

Looking at Russia’s situation, Beijing may calculate that the costs of a massive, obvious political interference campaign are too high. But as tensions continue to rise, Beijing’s cost-benefit analysis may change. Meanwhile, the ongoing, quieter Chinese interference continues largely unaddressed.

The U.S. government should communicate clearly to Beijing that political interference won’t be tolerated, while raising the costs higher, inoculating our systems and preparing countermeasures. China must be compelled to operate inside our borders in a transparent manner consistent with U.S. laws and values.

The lesson of the 2016 election is that we must confront foreign interference in American politics before it becomes a full-blown crisis. China’s growing capabilities to undermine our democratic systems can no longer be ignored

>>> US Gapping down


Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:

  • PIR -17.1%, UNFI -11.2%, MU -4.2%

Other news:

  • MDXG -10.5% (determined previously announced separations of four senior executives will be treated as terminations 'for cause')
  • TLRY -5.9% (ongoing volatility)
  • WMC -5.3% (announces public offering of 6.5 mln shares of common stock)
  • SGH -4.8% (files for $150 mln mixed securities shelf offering and files for approx 9.3 mln ordinary share offering by selling shareholders)
  • FATE -4.5% (prices underwritten public offering of 9,259,260 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $13.50 per share)
  • CRSP -3.1% (prices underwritten public offering of 4,210,526 common shares at a public offering price of $47.50 per share)
  • CRON -2.6% (ongoing volatility)
  • SKY -2.1% (prices upsized underwritten public offering of 10 mln shares at a price to the public of $29.25 per share)
  • SRPT -1.9% (announces that the EMA's CHMP has confirmed its May 31 negative opinion for a Conditional Marketing Application for eteplirsen)
  • SJT -1.7% (Hilcorp revised 2018 capital expenditures plan; now estimates Q4 CapEx of $662k)
  • CGC -1.5% (ongoing volatility)
  • EVOP -1.3% (prices upsized underwritten offering of 7,022,225 shares of Class A common stock at a price to the public of $24.50 per share) .

Analyst comments:

  • VNTR -2.2% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
  • BZH -1.9% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
  • JCI -1.7% (downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
  • MTH -1.7% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
  • PHM -1.4% (downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at JP Morgan)
  • IAC -1% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim)
  • BLUE -1% (removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman)
  • ROP -0.8% (downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan)
  • PAG -0.8% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim)

>>> US Gapping up


Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:

  • SCS +13.9%

M&A news:

  • MZOR +9.8% (to be acquired by Medtronic (MDT) for $58.50/share in cash)

Other news:

  • OASM +27.7% (confirms the EMA's CHMP adopted a positive opinion recommending approval of Apealea in combination with carboplatin for treatment of adult patients with first relapse of platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer and fallopian tube cancer)
  • NBEV +16.2% (continued strength after closing up 80% on the day)
  • AGEN +4.8% (enters into royalty purchase agreement with XOMA (XOMA))
  • ACAD +4% (confirms FDA issues statement reaffirming the positive benefit-risk profile of NUPLAZID for patients with Parksinon's disease psychosis)
  • ADT +3.1% (continued strength)
  • VKTX +2.4% (prices public offering of 9,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $18.50 per share)
  • TXN +0.8% (raises quarterly dividend to $0.77/share from $0.62/share; authorizes repurchase of additional $12 bln of common stock)
  • RDS.A +0.7% (Royal Dutch Shell may sell Gulf of Mexico assets to Focus Oil, according to Bloomberg sources)

Analyst comments:

  • ADVM +7.8% (initiated with Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald)
  • HLIT +5.8% (initiated with Buy at Loop Capital)
  • NTLA +4.1% (initiated with a Mkt Perform at Raymond James)
  • LASR +2.4% (upgraded to Strong Buy from Outperform at Raymond James)
  • CARA +1.9% (initiated with Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald)
  • UAA +1.9% (upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan)
  • EDIT +1.8% (initiated with a Outperform at Raymond James)
  • AYI +1.6% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo)
  • IPGP +1.5% (upgraded to Strong Buy at Raymond James)
  • T +1.3% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS)
  • LGIH +1% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)

WSJ : Drugmakers’ Free Services Spur Government Scrutiny

Drugmakers’ Free Services Spur Government Scrutiny
Companies say the services, such as nurses and copay assistance, help doctors and patients

Federal prosecutors are probing whether big drugmakers including Sanofi SA, SNY 0.57% Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD 1.29% and Biogen Inc. BIIB 0.69% potentially violated laws by providing free services to doctors and patients, according to a Wall Street Journal review of securities filings.

Drug companies say the services, such as nurses and reimbursement assistance, help doctors and patients. But the practices, which have become more prevalent as drugmakers have introduced more complex and expensive drugs, are drawing scrutiny over whether they serve an illegal commercial purpose: inducing sales.

Amgen Inc., AMGN 0.94% Bayer AG and Eli Lilly LLY 0.31% & Co. face whistleblower lawsuits alleging the services are illegal kickbacks. Meanwhile, California’s insurance commissioner this week sued AbbVie Inc., ABBV 1.82% accusing the company of providing kickbacks in the form of nursing support and insurance assistance to prompt doctors to write prescriptions for its arthritis drug Humira.

AbbVie’s share price has declined about 3% since the lawsuit was filed. The North Chicago, Ill., company said the California allegations, as well as a previous whistleblower lawsuit, are without merit, and that it complies with state and federal laws. It said it provides services for patients once they are prescribed Humira.

Bayer and Lilly said the whistleblower lawsuits against them have no merit, and Amgen declined to comment.

The lawsuit against AbbVie could have broader implications for the industry because the practices it describes “are similar to what other biopharma companies have also used to help patients start and stay on medications that their doctor prescribes,” Credit Suisse analysts said in a research note.

Drugmakers are drawing scrutiny for an ever-widening array of practices that they say help patients, from defraying copay costs to providing disease education. However, prosecutors and critics say such practices, even if helpful, are intended to encourage continued use of specific drugs over alternatives. Additionally, some critics say that such tactics can boost overall health-care costs by pushing higher-priced drugs on people.

A federal anti-kickback statute prohibits payments to induce drug prescriptions or other medical care that is reimbursed by government health programs.

The Justice Department has probed drug manufacturers’ donations to third-party charities that help pay drug copays for Medicare patients. That practice tends to boost overall sales because Medicare pays the bulk of the cost. Last year, United Therapeutics Corp. agreed to pay $210 million to settle Justice Department allegations related to use of a third-party foundation to pay copays. United Therapeutics didn’t admit liability.

In Sanofi’s case, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York sent the company’s U.S. unit a civil investigative demand in August 2017 requesting documents and information about the company’s “certified diabetes educator program,” Sanofi said in a securities filing in March. Government officials sometimes seek broad information through such demands, but it doesn’t always lead to further action.

The Sanofi program consisted of nurse practitioners and other health-care professionals who answered patients’ questions about diabetes and trained them to use Sanofi’s diabetes products, a Sanofi spokeswoman said. The program is no longer in effect.

Sanofi is cooperating with the investigation into whether it violated the anti-kickback law, the spokeswoman said. A spokesman for the U.S attorney’s office in New York declined to comment.

Gilead Sciences has received state and federal inquiries. In September 2017, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania requested information about Gilead’s “reimbursement support offerings, clinical education programs and interactions with specialty pharmacies” for its hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, the company said in a February securities filing. The U.S. attorney’s office in Pennsylvania declined to comment.

In October 2017, the California insurance department and the Alameda County, Calif., district attorney’s office sent a subpoena to Gilead requesting documents about similar matters, Gilead said. The company said in its filings it is cooperating in both inquiries. A company spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Biogen, which makes several drugs for multiple sclerosis, received a civil investigative demand from the federal government in December 2016 for documents and information about its relationships with “entities providing clinical education and reimbursement support services,” Biogen said in securities filings last year. The company said in filings it is cooperating with the government; a spokesman declined to comment further.

The California lawsuit against AbbVie said the company has sent registered nurses to visit patients to train them how to inject the company’s arthritis drug Humira and provide other assistance. The lawsuit said AbbVie also provided staff to help doctors’ offices with paperwork for obtaining reimbursement for the drug, which can cost more than $50,000 a year.


According to the lawsuit, such services saved doctors time and money, inducing them to prescribe Humira, the highest-selling drug in the world. In 2017, Humira had $18.4 billion in global sales, including $12.4 billion in the U.S. California is seeking monetary damages on behalf of private insurers that have paid $1.29 billion since 2013 to cover Humira prescriptions for California patients.

The state insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, said the nurses deployed by AbbVie were trained to ensure patients stay on Humira and to sidestep questions about Humira’s risk of side effects.

“It’s of particular concern when decisions about medical care are being driven by kickbacks and inducements as opposed to what’s in the best interest of patients,” Mr. Jones said in an interview.

California’s lawsuit against AbbVie updates a prior whistleblower lawsuit filed by Lazaro Suarez, who worked in 2013 and 2014 as a Humira “nurse educator” for an AbbVie contractor, Quintiles, now part of IQVia Holdings Inc. The state joined the case as lead plaintiff and filed a revised lawsuit Tuesday.

Drug companies’ free services to doctors and patients may sound positive, but it “undermines medical decision making,” said Rachel Geman, Mr. Suarez’s attorney.

Mr. Suarez also has filed a lawsuit against AbbVie in federal court in Illinois with similar allegations. Mr. Suarez could collect a share of any money the federal government or California collects via settlements or judgments.

A spokesman for IQVia, which isn’t a defendant in the California lawsuit, said the company adheres to the highest ethical standards.