- 06-Sep-2018 12:50:59 - ITALIAN GOVERNMENT TALKING TO INVESTMENT BANKS IN PREPARATION FOR FIRST DOLLAR-DENOMINATED BOND SINCE 2010 -SOURCES
EXCLUSIVE-Italy preparing for first dollar bond in eight years, talking to banks - Reuters News
06-Sep-2018 12:55:13
To view this story on Eikon, click here
- Italy in talks with banks to finalise swap arrangements
- Amended rules would open access to dollar markets
- Economy ministry source says aims for steady dollar issuance
- Deal will only come if funding costs favourable
By Giuseppe Fonte, Virginia Furness and Abhinav Ramnarayan
ROME/LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Italy is making preparations to issue its first dollar-denominated bond in eight years and is talking to investment banks about setting up swap infrastructure for the deal, several sources told Reuters.
Rome is keen to diversify its funding sources away from the euro zone bond market, especially as its sovereign borrowing needs are likely to rise to meet the election promises of the ruling coalition. Italy's public debt is large and second only to that of Greece as the highest in the euro zone relative to its economic output.
An Italian economy ministry official said the government was working with banks to update rules on how it would post collateral on derivative trades linked to the new issue.
In the wake of the financial crisis, lenders are under regulatory scrutiny to better manage the risk on their books and the amendments aim to make it easier for banks to manage a dollar issue and for Italy to sell bonds in foreign currencies.
"The Treasury is defining the contract scheme, all the specialists are involved," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said the Treasury aimed for the steady issuance of dollar bonds under a new bond programme. But Italy will only return to issuing dollar bonds if its cost of funding is cheaper than for euro-denominated BTPs.
Italy had 2.26 trillion euros ($2.63 trillion) in government debt outstanding at the end of 2017, according to Eurostat.
This includes two dollar issues maturing in 2023 and 2033 IT004622596=, IT016409294= and worth $3.5 billion and $2 billion respectively.
A three-year dollar bond issued in September 2010 has already matured.
The new dollar issues are likely to be governed by New York law, which some investors feel offers stronger protection against debt restructuring, including a currency redenomination, than euro issues under Italian law.
Both the existing dollar bonds outperformed their Italian-issued, euro-denominated peers during May's bond rout. (Full Story).
Two primary dealers in London told Reuters the process had been in the works for a while. The government said in February it planned to issue dollar bonds by mid-2019.
"It has been on the agenda for much of this year in Italy, and it is a bit of a priority for the Treasury to regain access to the dollar markets," said one of the bankers.
But the second banker was unsure the deal would get off the ground just yet because of Italy's political situation. The country will present a 2019 budget plan in October that investors fear could breach EU spending limits.
"I would strongly recommend them or any other issuer to diversify if they can, but certainly not Italy at the moment -- I would wait until this current situation stabilises and the dust settles," the banker said.
"I wouldn't rule out this year but next year is more realistic."
($1 = 0.8600 euros)
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in ROME, Virginia Furness and Abhinav Ramnarayan in LONDON; Additional reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Catherine Evans)
(( Abhinav.Ramnarayan@thomsonreuters.com ; 0044 777 555 1499; ))
(
Republican anger boils up into fresh political threat for Big Tech
Rightwing criticism of social media groups has become a powerful tool for politicians
For just a moment, it looked like Big Tech was having a good day.
For three hours, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, carefully managed questions from US senators on how their platforms have become tools for manipulating voters.
Neither company has managed to solve the problem, which now looms over the November midterm elections, with Facebook admitting that it expects “bad actors” to try to stir up division.
But Ms Sandberg was composed, Mr Dorsey was thoughtful and, more importantly, their examiners were divided: Republicans looked just as likely to resist regulation in this fourth and final hearing, as they were in the first.
However as the pair left the room, they walked straight into another political storm. Criticism that social media companies are censoring rightwing views has been bubbling among Republicans all summer, and Alex Jones of Infowars, the rightwing polemicist, was waiting to heckle Mr Dorsey as he left the hearing.
US president Donald Trump, in an interview on Wednesday, accused social media companies of rigging political debate against him. “The truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton’s side,” he said.
The argument has been a powerful tool for Republicans to rally support to their base.
The accusations then became a full-blown political crisis, and a potential legal threat, when Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, announced that he would discuss with some state attorneys-general whether social media platforms “may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas”.
The announcement was a worrying development; until now, while many have accused Big Tech of anti-competitive practices, only the EU has taken significant action, recently applying a €4.3bn fine to Google over its mobile operating system Android.
Matthew Buck, a researcher with the anti-monopoly Open Markets Institute welcomed a US justice department investigation, but warned that it should not become politicised.
“Generally the concern is that Google can stifle voices both on the left and the right, regardless of where you stand. That’s not a good thing for democracy generally,” he said.
The justice department under Mr Sessions has already taken up free speech issues championed by Conservative activists.
It has intervened in the ongoing battle in US universities between progressives and conservatives about what speech should be allowed on campus. In June, the DoJ joined a lawsuit against the University of Michigan that sought to strike down its free speech code, which prohibits “harassment” and “bullying”.
In a speech last year, the attorney-general decried what he called an effort by protesters on US campuses “to silence voices that insufficiently conform with their views”.
But legal experts were surprised by the approach of linking competition law to free speech — and were not convinced it will work.
Amy Ray, an antitrust partner at Orrick, said it was unlikely that the companies would violate competition law by restraining speech on their platforms, even if they co-ordinated to suppress certain voices.
“The only antitrust theory that comes to mind right now is if there’s some allegation of co-ordination among the platforms [to suppress speech], but even then it’s difficult to understand how you would describe that as a harm to competition,” she said.
Any action by the justice department would also have to contend with the fact that private companies do not have any obligation under the constitution to protect free speech. The Supreme Court has generally ruled that the government cannot force citizens or companies to publish speech they disagree with.
“It seems like antitrust would just be a Trojan horse for censorial efforts,” said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University. “That’s not the way it is supposed to work and it is pretty much exactly what the first amendment was designed to stop.”
Nevertheless, by the end of the day Twitter’s share price had fallen 6.06 per cent to $32.73, Facebook had dropped 2.33 per cent to $167.18 and Alphabet, the parent of Google, which drew criticism by declining its invitation to appear before senators, had dropped 1.01 per cent to $1199.10.
Early premarket gappersGapping up:
- EYPT +17.5%, CLDR +15.2%, VRNT +12.3%, NVCR +9.9%, GIII +6.1%, AVAV +5.7%, SPPI +4.5%, CTRP +3.8%, MXWL +1.5%, MBUU +1.5%, LHO +1.4%, FUN +1.0%, CBS +0.7%, IDCC +0.7%, DVMT +0.6%, TIF +0.5%
Gapping down:
- LE -16.2%, PRQR -13.7%, REVG -9.5%, GWRE -8.2%, IOVA -6.8%, ZS -6.4%, TENB -6%, KALV -5.1%, TLRY -4.9%, CRON -4.8%, DRNA -4.7%, CGC -4.2%, MDB -2.7%, DOCU -2.1%, FHB -1.8%, VIAB -1.5%, OLLI -1.2%, INFN -0.6%
After 25,000 Stores in 78 Countries, Starbucks Turns to Italy
Company to open first location in Milan, where it will forgo Frappuccinos and focus on espresso, pizza and made-to-order ice cream
MILAN— Starbucks Corp. opens a coffee shop on average every four hours somewhere in the world. But this store is different. It is in Italy.
On Friday, the Seattle-based chain will start selling its American take on coffee in the home of espresso. After amassing more than 25,000 coffee shops in 78 countries, Starbucks is coming to Milan with a “reserve roastery” in a converted post office on a central square near the city’s famous Gothic cathedral.
It will be only Starbucks’s third roastery after Seattle and Shanghai. In a sign of the expected difficulty in winning over tradition-obsessed Italians, there will be no Frappuccinos or other blended drinks on offer. It will be as much about theater as coffee. Customers can speak to a Starbucks employee manning a large custom-built roaster in the middle of the cafe, sip alcoholic drinks in the evening in a nod to Milan’s traditional aperitivo, and eat pizza and pastries made in a wood-fired brick oven by noted Milanese baker Princi.
“It’s a reflection of the fact that we come here with great respect for the Italian coffee experience,” Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson said in an interview.
It is that experience that inspired Howard Schultz, who after a visit to Milan 35 years ago began the transformation that would turn Starbucks into the behemoth it is today.
Starbucks has been focusing on expanding abroad, especially in China, to offset stagnant sales in the U.S., where Starbucks is closing stores.
The Milan Starbucks is opening during a moment of ferment for the coffee industry. Coca-Cola Co. last week announced it would buy British coffee-shop chain Costa for $5.1 billion while Nestlé SA this year bought the rights to sell Starbucks products in retail stores.
Milanese coffee drinkers will have to wait a little to get their first local Caramel Cocoa Cluster Frappuccino. Starbucks plans to open its first normal coffee shops in the city by the end of year. Mr. Johnson said the sites have been identified and work on them has begun. He declined to say how much had been invested in the first Milan roastery or how many of the traditional Starbucks cafes would be opened.
The multilevel Milan roastery features a bar with a 30-foot countertop cut from a single piece of Tuscan marble. Other draws include outdoor seating in one of Milan’s most central squares, a glass ceiling and an entire wall depicting the company’s history engraved in brass.
Later this year, Starbucks will inaugurate a similar roastery in New York near Chelsea Market with openings in Tokyo and Chicago planned for 2019.
For Italians who like to knock back their €1 ($1.16) shot of espresso at speed—while standing at a crowded bar, naturalmente—the American way of lingering in a Starbucks could be a tough sell.
Even tougher might be getting Italians, and Milan’s tourists, to swallow the €1.80 price of an espresso and the €5 cappuccino, more than three times the going price in hundreds of other bars in Milan. And toughest of all could be getting the Italians to accept that a cappuccino can be “short,” “tall” or “grande.”
“It’s going to be difficult to draw us away from our usual bar, but we’ll definitely go see what Starbucks is offering,” said Antonella Mazzei as she and two colleagues emerged from a cafe two blocks away from the new Starbucks. “Anything new is welcome and good for Milan.”
Ms. Mazzei said she can imagine going to Starbucks occasionally for something special, but she can’t see herself paying €1.80 for a Starbucks espresso. Her regular bar, across from her office, sells 10 prepaid espressi for €9.
For one euro more, the new Starbucks cafe will offer a global debut, the €10 “Pantheon Blend Cream Affogato.” It’s a riff on a popular Italian dessert, made by pouring espresso over a scoop of ice cream. The Starbucks version includes ice cream made to order using liquid nitrogen. Alternatively, there will be the €10 “whiskey barrel-aged cold brew,” sweetened with vanilla syrup aged in casks.
Local bar workers are relatively sanguine about the arrival of Starbucks.
“We aren’t worried about losing business because Starbucks is offering a completely different concept,” said Marilena Muzzolini, who manages a cafe near the Starbucks. “I like Starbucks and I’ve been in Paris and London, but I don’t go there for an Italian espresso and I don’t think very many other Italians will either. You go to Starbucks for different things.”
FBI Investigating American Express Foreign-Exchange Pricing - Link : https://on.wsj.com/2Q9rgLD
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also looking into the matter
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a probe into pricing practices within American Express Co.’s AXP -1.24% foreign-exchange unit, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investigation is in its early stages and is focused on whether the foreign-exchange international payments department misrepresented pricing to clients in order to win their business, the people said.
The FBI began its investigation in August, the people said, after The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former employees, reported that AmEx’s foreign-exchange unit had recruited business clients with offers of low currency-conversion rates before raising prices without warning.
An AmEx spokeswoman declined to comment on the FBI investigation. In July, AmEx said it took the allegations very seriously and would conduct a review. The unit’s employees have been instructed to avoid deleting emails, people familiar with the instructions said.
The FBI is in the fact-gathering stage of the investigation, the people familiar with the matter said. The bureau is communicating with AmEx and is waiting for the company to answer a list of questions, they said.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also is looking into how AmEx disclosed pricing to customers, including what the customers were told about potential rate increases and who knew about the practice within the company, according to a person familiar with the inquiry. AmEx declined to comment on the OCC.
On July 30, the Journal reported that AmEx’s foreign-exchange international payments department routinely increased conversion rates without notifying customers, to boost revenue and employee commissions. The practice occurred until early this year and dated back to at least 2004, current and former employees told the Journal.
AmEx’s forex business, which largely serves small and midsize businesses, accounts for less than half of a percentage point of the company’s total revenue.
Sales representatives would approach potential customers with an offer to beat the prices they were paying banks or other financial institutions to convert currency and send money abroad, according to current and former employees. The representatives didn’t inform customers that the margin, a markup that AmEx adds to the base currency exchange rate, was subject to increase without notice, they said.
Employees in the unit would later increase the margin without telling customers, the current and former employees said.
Managers instructed sales representatives to keep the details of the payment arrangements vague when speaking with potential customers and to avoid putting pricing terms in writing, the current and former employees said.
Banks are Italy’s Achilles heel in battle to lift feeble sentiment
Coalition’s budget plans have intensified volatile trading for stocks and bonds
As Amazon and Apple have helped propel Wall Street higher, European equities have languished. Dominated by sluggish bank stocks, they have been out of favour for months.
The region’s stock markets face multiple challenges, from the economic risks around Brexit to rising anti-EU sentiment to the winding down of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme.
But, for now, it is hard for investors to look beyond Italy. The anti-EU stance of the country’s coalition government, made up of the populist Five Star Movement and the League, has helped drive bond yields sharply higher and weighed on the country’s stock market since May.
“Sentiment on the region remains feeble,” said Ritu Vohora, equities director at M&G.
In a sign of how sensitive investors are towards the eurozone’s third-largest economy, soothing words this week from deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini over the government’s budget plans have been enough to trigger a sharp rally in Italian bonds and send shares of the country’s banks higher over the past few days.
Investors’ anxiety in recent weeks has been driven by the prospect that the coalition’s debut budget extends Italy’s fiscal deficit, setting up a clash with both Brussels and the country’s finance minister Giovanni Tria, who is widely seen as a moderating force within the government.
Camille De Courcel, an interest rate strategist at BNP Paribas, said Italy’s budget plan would leave its deficit closer to 2 per cent of gross domestic product than 3 per cent.
The spread between Italian bond yields over German, the benchmark for the eurozone, remains near the highest level since 2014.
“If we do see that 2 per cent number, we would expect some compression in Italian spreads,” said Ms de Courcel.
Whether Rome can craft a budget that keeps spending under control matters to Italy’s banks, given their close links and exposure to Italian government debt.
The fall in Italian bank shares since late April is closely connected to its stressed government debt, said Paola Toschi, global market strategist at JPMorgan, because about 18 per cent of the country’s sovereign bonds are held by its lenders.
“This creates a direct relationship between how the government bonds move and how the Italian banks perform in the equity markets,” said Ms Toschi.
Italian government bonds have suffered a sharp sell-off this year and last week the government paid the most in four years to raise debt in a €7.75bn bond sale.
Salvatore Rossi, the Bank of Italy’s deputy governor, warned last week that the “vicious link” between sovereigns and banks had not been cut.
At the same time, a lacklustre Italian economy lacking fiscal stimulus will do little to help Italy’s banks reduce their large burden of non-performing loans.
The fate of bank shares helps shape that of the wider Italian stock market as financials account for a fifth of the weighting of Milan’s FTSE MIB index, according to Bloomberg data.
Of the FTSE MIB’s 10 worst-performing stocks since the start of May, five are banks. In turn, the MIB is 4.4 per cent lower over the same period.
“Italian banks look most vulnerable,” said Ms Vohora, “and by comparison with Brexit and UK domestic banks, they look to suffer a similar fate.”
The weakness in emerging markets is also a headwind for some lenders. Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit, has been caught up in Ankara’s economic firestorm thanks to its 40.9 per cent ownership of Turkish bank Yapi Kredi. Shares in the Italian lender are down 26 per cent since the start of May.
Yet some analysts reckon financials are now too cheap to ignore. Ms Vohora said that Italy’s biggest lender, Intesa Sanpaolo, at a deep discount and an 8 per cent yield, had a “compelling valuation”.
Ms Toschi of JPMorgan said “investors were much more captured by the negative headlines”, and “we are pretty optimistic”.
Whether EM’s woes deepen or not, Italy faces the challenge of selling some €63bn in fresh debt this year to meet its remaining annual financing needs at a time when the ECB is winding down its bond purchases.
Indeed, last month Giancarlo Giorgetti, the Italian cabinet undersecretary, indicated that he would like the ECB to continue buying fresh bonds. But at the same time, the ECB maintaining low interest rates remains a major barrier to banks’ profitability.
“What Italian banks are missing is top-line growth,” said Claudia Panseri, European equity strategist at UBS Wealth Management, which recommends that investors cut back their exposure to financials across the eurozone.
For Ms de Courcel, “[bond] issuance returning to the market and declining QE flows” means yields on Italian debt will rise between now and the end of the year.
It amounts to a testing backdrop for the government’s first budget as well as the shareholders in the country’s banks.
S Korea plans tougher penalties for carmakers that hide defects
BMW engine fires spark proposal to increase fines, impose higher punitive damages
The South Korean government plans to strengthen penalties on carmakers that cover up manufacturing defects and expand punitive damages for consumers affected by delayed recalls, amid growing criticism over BMW’s response to dozens of engine fires this year.
The move came after the German carmaker began recalling about 106,000 vehicles in South Korea from August 20 amid mounting public safety concerns. More than 40 BMW cars have caught fire in the country so far this year, raising alarm among drivers of the premium vehicles.
“A series of fires in BMW vehicles has fuelled safety concerns among local consumers,” the transport ministry said on Thursday. “The government has come up with strengthened measures to keep carmakers from delaying recalls and to urge them to solve problems in a timely manner.”
Under the new proposal, the government will impose a penalty equivalent to 3 per cent of an affected model’s sales if an automaker conceals defects, plays them down or delays recalls.
Carmakers would be required to pay more than five times the cost that an owner incurred for a defective vehicle if they failed to take steps to resolve the problems. Carmakers now have to pay about three times the cost in punitive damages.
Currently, executives at automakers responsible for concealing or playing down defects can face a prison sentence of up to 10 years or a Won100m ($89,000) fine. The company has to pay a penalty equivalent to 1 per cent of an affected model’s revenue in the case of delayed recalls.
The ministry said the penalties were strengthened as BMW had come under fire over its allegedly slow response to engine fires. The German company blamed the fires on defects in the exhaust gas recirculation system and was replacing parts in the recalled cars, which covered 42 models produced between 2011 and 2016.
BMW owners in the country are seeking compensation through a collective lawsuit against the carmaker.
The transport ministry said the proposed penalties were enough to put pressure on carmakers, although the amount could increase during the legislation process.
Analysts said the proposed measures were still not strong enough compared with other advanced countries such as the US, where carmakers had to pay up to 10 times the cost for a defective vehicle in punitive damages.
Altice France’s BFMTV in talks to acquire TLM – reports (translated)
06 SEP 2018
BFMTV, the French TV station owned by the Altice [EPA:ATC] media and telecoms group, is understood to be in talks to acquire French regional Télévision Lyon Métropole (TLM) based in Lyon, French weekly Challenges reported.
The report cited one TLM shareholder, whose name was not disclosed, as confirming the news, adding that no deal had been signed yet.
This development was also reported in daily Le Figaro, for which several sources cliamed that that the two parties were conducting exclusive negotiations. TLM is owned by several local entrepreneurs, the report noted.
Europac/DS Smith deal not an obstacle for potential IP bid - bankers - Merger Market
- DS Smith acquisition could give IP exposure to Europe
- DS Smith's offering more sophisticated than that of Smurfit - banker
- Price for potential deal in question, given DS Smith's high valuation - banker
DS Smith’s [LON:SMDS] pending acquisition of Europac [BME:PAC] is unlikely to make the UK-based packaging group a less attractive candidate for its US rival International Paper [NYSE:IP], which is looking to expand its footprint in Europe, according to three sector bankers.
Purchasing DS Smith even after the deal would give IP access to Europe, deliver cost synergies and add a sophisticated portfolio of corrugated packaging products to the US company's offering, these bankers said. Growth in earnings and a dilutive capital raise could even make DS Smith cheaper than previously, according to Dealreporter analytics.
DS Smith and Europac were separately reported to be logical takeover candidates for International Paper after the would-be acquirer’s bid for European packager Smurfit Kappa [LON/ISE:SKG] ended without target engagement earlier this year. An analyst report has since speculated that DS Smith could be open to a deal.
Two for One
If International Paper is seeking is exposure to Europe, then an acquisition of both DS Smith and Europac would make sense, the first banker said. The rationale for the deal would be the cost synergies that would be generated through the growth in scale, he said. IP declined to comment.
IP’s previous foray into Europe proved unsuccessful. The company in June walked away from making a firm offer for Smurfit, citing lack of engagement from the Irish packaging company, ahead of a 6 June “put up or shut up” (PUSU) deadline imposed by the Irish Takeover Panel.
Given the Smurfit offer, the market recognises that IP has its buying boots on, the second sector banker said.
It’s clear that IP wants to grow in Europe, the third sector banker remarked. IP may still be eager to grow through acquisitions in view of recent consolidation in the industry such as that wrought by rival WestRock’s [NYSE:WRK] acquisition of KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp [NYSE:KS], a banker previously told this news service.
Europe represented less than 10% of IP's industrial packaging business in the second quarter ended 30 June. Industrial packaging is IP’s largest business. The company also has a smaller global cellulose fibers unit, besides a printing papers business.
DS Smith meanwhile derives nearly all of its revenue from Europe.
DS Smith makes for a better target than Smurfit for IP because DS Smith’s products are more sophisticated than Smurfit’s commoditized paper packaging items, the third banker said.
The second banker agreed that DS Smith’s acquisition of Europac makes it attractive to a pure-play paper, cardboard and packaging company like IP.
DS Smith’s acquisition of Europac should not be a hurdle because that deal does not change the nature of DS Smith’s business, a third sector banker said.
DS Smith is a corrugated packaging company that also makes plastic packaging. The company’s recycling business collects used paper and corrugated cardboard, from which its paper manufacturing facilities make the recycled paper used in corrugated packaging. International Paper, on the other hand, makes fiber-based packaging, pulp and paper.
A Package Deal?
In any case, DS Smith cannot revoke its offer for Europac, according to two sources familiar with the matter. If DS Smith were to receive an offer before it submits its Europac offer documentation to Spain’s National Securities Market Commission, the company would have to amend the prospectus, the sources said.
DS Smith’s offer for Europac has already met all its conditions, said the second source familiar. As a voluntary offer, it cannot be withdrawn, this source said, adding that it could be delayed.
Both the second and first bankers agreed that a deal between DS Smith and IP would depend on price.
DS Smith management “would engage with IP if it came ‘knocking’ with an appropriate valuation for the business, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a recent research note to clients.
The deal would have to be at a “generous price,” the second banker said, noting that most UK transaction’s unlike those in the US are done at a 30% premium.
DS Smith is trading at a standalone EV/EBITDA multiple of 11.1x, which represents a high “starting point”, the banker said.
Adjusting for DS Smith’s rights issue, which raised GBP 1bn in proceeds, net of the EUR 1.7bn (GBP 1.5bn) Europac deal value and combining the two companies’ trailing-12-month EBITDA, the effective multiple falls marginally to 10.6x.
After factoring in a premium, the deal would land in the mid teens in EV/EBITDA terms, making it expensive for a packaging deal, he said. At a 30% premium, a takeover offer would value DS Smith, including Europac, at 13.0x EBITDA, according to Dealreporter analytics.
International Paper’s EUR 37.54 final offer for Smurfit valued the business at 10.5x EBITDA
Given IP’s conduct during the Smurfit approach, the company can be expected to be very disciplined when it comes to price, the second banker said.
IP needs to offer DS Smith the right price, because the UK company has a lot going on internally, the first banker said. The company is reviewing options for its plastics unit and is also focused on integrating an acquisition it made in 2017 - that of Interstate Resources, a corrugated packaging business, which DS Smith bought to enter the American market.
The analysts at Jefferies said DS Smith and IP’s combined footprint in the US might prove an obstacle. However, the first sector banker said that because there’s comparatively less consolidation in the paper packaging sector, unlike the metal and glass packaging sectors, there wouldn’t be many antitrust concerns.
Europac did not respond to requests for comment. DS Smith declined to comment on market speculation.