Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:
- PPDF -6.4%, GIS -5.9%, AIR -4.5%, RKDA -1.6%
M&A news:
- JWN -2.7% (Nordstrom's Special Committee terminates discussions with Nordstrom Family Group regarding potential going private transaction)
- CRM -2.7% (MuleSoft will be acquired by Salesforce for an enterprise value of ~$6.5 bln)
Other news:
- TSLX -4.1% (launches public offering of 3.75 mln shares of common stock)
- VYGR -3.8% (indicated lower on block trade pricing)
- CISN -3.2% (prices offering of 5.75 mln shares of common stock by selling shareholders at $10.75 per share)
- XNCR -1.9% (prices offering of 7.3 mln shares of its common stock at $31.00 per share)
- DBVT -1.5% (launches offering of $150.0 mln of new ordinary shares)
- FB -1.5% (continued weakness)
- WYNN -1.5% (Steve Wynn in amended 13D discloses that he intends to sell all or a portion of the Common Stock controlled by him pursuant to one or more registered public offerings)
Analyst comments:
- GBT -2.8% (downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley)
- LOXO -2.5% (downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley)
- SRPT -2% (downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley)
- CBOE -1.9% (downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
- MTCH -1.6% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim)
- EQM -1.0% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill)
Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:
- LAUR +4.8%, DXPE +3.8%, AKTX +3.8%, SCS +3.2%, WGO +1.7%
M&A news:
- MULE +5.7% (MuleSoft will be acquired by Salesforce (CRM) for an enterprise value of approx. $6.5 bln)
Other news:
- PRTA +21.9% (Prothena announces a global collaboration with Celgene (CELG) for novel therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases)
- FENC +13.4% (announces that the FDA has granted PEDMARK Fast Track designation for prevention of cisplatin-related ototoxicity in pediatric patients with standard risk hepatoblastoma)
- PTI +9.9% (withdraws equity offering of 9,000,000 shares of its common stock due to market conditions)
- SBBP +1.8% (USPTO issued second method of use patent for RECORLEV)
- AMD +1.4% (AMD releases technical assessment of CTS Labs Research; AMD is in the process of developing and staging the deployment of mitigations)
Analyst comments:
- MYGN +2% (upgraded to Equal-Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley)
- QEP +1.7% (initiated with a Buy at Johnson Rice)
- PLCE +1.7% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
- KMI +1.5% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill)
- WLL +1.0% (initiated with a Buy at Johnson Rice)
Early premarket gappersGapping up:
- PRTA +22.6%, PTI +18.2%, LAUR +4.8%, MULE +3.9%, FENC +3.2%, SCS +3.2%, SBBP +1.8%, AMD +1.7%, AKCA +0.7%, FSCT +0.5%, MON +0.5%
Gapping down:
- TSLX -4.2%, VYGR -3.8%, AIR -3.6%, CISN -3.2%, CRM -2.8%, JWN -2.2%, FB -1.8%, XNCR -1.6%, WYNN -1.6%, RKDA -1.6%, ARNA -1.1%, DBVT -1%, FDX -0.6%
AB InBev sets out new goals for environmental shift
Brewer aims to have all of its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2025
AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, has set out a series of sustainability goals that will see all of its beer sold in returnable or recycled packaging and all of its electricity coming from renewable sources by 2025.
The new goals build on targets the group behind Budweiser and Stella Artois has published since 2009, but extend for the first time to external partners, including entrepreneurs whose ideas AB InBev hopes to tap through a start-up accelerator.
The initiative marks the latest attempt by a global brand owner to stay ahead of consumers’ demands for big businesses to make a positive contribution to society, at a time when brands such as Budweiser have lost market share to smaller rivals branding themselves as natural or artisanal alternatives to bland consumer staples.
Companies from Coca-Cola to McDonald’s have set out similar goals to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging in recent months, and groups including General Motors and Walmart created an alliance in 2016 to put their weight behind renewable energy investments.
“Sustainability is not necessarily something we have to do that will have a cost that doesn’t help the business. Sustainability is our business. If there’s no water, there’s no beer; it’s that simple,” said Carlos Brito, chief executive. “Our consumers and our people also want to know where we stand on those [issues].”
He declined to put a figure on how much AB InBev would spend to hit the new targets, saying: “There are costs everywhere but because they make business sense, you can say it’s a cost [and] I can say it’s an investment; I can say it’s part of the business anyway.”
But Mr Brito said its goal of having 100 per cent of its electricity contracted from renewable sources by 2025 — up from 17 per cent now — would require an investment of “around $2bn” by its suppliers.
Last September AB InBev signed an agreement with Enel Green Power to buy enough renewable energy from its Thunder Ranch wind farm in Oklahoma to meet up to half of its annual US electricity purchases. From next month, Budweiser bottles in the US will feature a battery-like symbol when the beer has been brewed using renewable electricity.
Its targets for reducing carbon emissions will be audited by the Science Based Targets initiative, a partnership including the UN Global Compact and World Wildlife Fund, said Greg Belt, who leads AB InBev’s sustainability work.
Entrepreneurs working with the accelerator were more interested in how AB InBev could help them reach consumers than in cash investments, Mr Brito said. “People have ideas but they don’t know sometimes how to get those ideas to fruition. We have brands, we have scale. What we learnt many years ago is that they need companies like us to test those ideas.”
The accelerator is run by ZX Ventures, an incubator and venture capital unit of AB InBev which it has used to bring craft beers, small premium brands, home-brew supply companies and a beer rating site into its portfolio.
Mr Brito said AB InBev was working with retailers such as Walmart in Brazil to increase the proportion of returnable containers it uses. “Everything’s driven by the consumer,” he said: “The consumer said, ‘if the big guys don’t do it, I’m going to go to the small guys who have returnables’. Then the big guys decided to be competitive, so they opened up their doors.”
Vivendi sells 19.87m shares in Ubisoft at EUR 66 per share
21 MAR 2018
Vivendi [Paris:VIV] announced yesterday that it had entered into agreements to sell for EUR 2bn the interest it had acquired in Ubisoft [Paris:UNI] for EUR 794m, representing 27.27% of the company’s share capital.
Out of the 30,489,300 shares owned by Vivendi, 19,868,088 shares were sold to qualified institutional investors at a price of EUR 66 per share through a private placement by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process following a 1,500,000 share increase in the private placement offering in response to the strong demand from institutional buyers.
The completion of this offering allows Vivendi to sell, at the same price per share and in two tranches, the balance of its remaining interest as follows:
Out of the 30,489,300 shares owned by Vivendi, 19,868,088 shares were sold to qualified institutional investors at a price of EUR 66 per share through a private placement by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process following a 1,500,000 share increase in the private placement offering in response to the strong demand from institutional buyers.
The completion of this offering allows Vivendi to sell, at the same price per share and in two tranches, the balance of its remaining interest as follows:
- 3,030,303 shares to Guillemot Brothers SE for cash; and
- 7,590,909 shares to Ubisoft at the end of the six-month term of the forward sale commitments entered into by Crédit Agricole CIB for the benefit of Ubisoft so that it may buyback and cancel these shares.
The settlement of the private placement and the sale to Guillemot Brothers is to take place on March 23, 2018.
Upon completion of these transactions, Vivendi will no longer be a Ubisoft shareholder and has agreed to refrain from purchasing Ubisoft shares for a period of five years.
Bookbuilding has been managed by J.P. Morgan Securities plc as Sole Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner, and by Crédit Agricole CIB as Joint Bookrunner.
Link to original source.
Upon completion of these transactions, Vivendi will no longer be a Ubisoft shareholder and has agreed to refrain from purchasing Ubisoft shares for a period of five years.
Bookbuilding has been managed by J.P. Morgan Securities plc as Sole Global Coordinator and Joint Bookrunner, and by Crédit Agricole CIB as Joint Bookrunner.
Link to original source.
Alpiq Intec unit close to being sold; buyer could be foreign group - report (translated)
21 MAR 2018
Alpiq [SWX: ALPH], the Swiss energy group, is close to selling its Alpiq Intec building technology and facility management unit, Der Bund reported. The Swiss daily cited an unnamed Alpiq manager who said the sale breaks his heart. The buyer is thought to be a foreign group, the report added.
Alpiq declined to comment. BKW [SWX: BKW] Chief Suzanne Thoma yesterday stated she is not interested in the unit.
Former Newell director may bid for the company’s brands
A former director at Newell Brands said Tuesday he may bid to acquire some of the manufacturer’s assets, including Yankee Candle, Mr. Coffee and Crock-Pot.
Financier Martin Franklin — who sat on Newell’s board until January — confirmed his interest in the brands on Tuesday, a day after billionaire Carl Icahn struck a deal with Newell’s board to fend off an attack by activist hedge fund Starboard Value.
Franklin had been working with Starboard to overhaul Newell’s board, sitting on its proposed slate of new directors, as the company’s stock has plunged more than 40 percent over the last year.
But when Icahn won seats on Newell’s board Monday, Franklin dropped his bid to rejoin the board under the Starboard umbrella. Starboard, meanwhile, has put it proxy fight on hold.
“Given the circumstances, we plan to focus on other opportunities but fully support Starboard in their deliberations,” Franklin said in a statement early Tuesday.
It didn’t take long for Franklin — who joined Newell’s board after Jarden, the company he co-founded, was acquired by Newell in April 2016 — to identify those opportunities.
“We are literally on the hunt and we will look at some of the Newell assets. I know those assets well and why shouldn’t we look at them. Our money is as green as anyone else’s,” Franklin told Reuters Tuesday.
Starboard did not respond to requests to comment. Newell reps declined to comment.
Cromwell Property sounding out investors on up to EUR 250m CB
21 MAR 2018
Cromwell Property Group [ASX:CMW] is sounding out investors on a potential EUR 200m-EUR 250m convertible bond offer, it is understood.
Credit Suisse spoke to several market participants on Tuesday (20 March) about the potential deal, with a 2.125% coupon at a 12% premium, it is understood.
Terms and structure of the potential deal are still being finalized, this news service was told.
Other banks are also trying to get a piece of the deal, it is understood.
The Brisbane-based real estate company last issued a EUR 150m CB in January 2015 in a deal arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Cromwell Property declined to comment.
Telenor, the Norwegian telecoms company, will sell its assets in central and Eastern Europe to the PPF Group, a Czech Republic-based financial investment group, for a total of €2.8bn.
Telenor will be divesting from its mobile operations in Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia. The transaction will also include the technology service provider Telenor Common Operation.
Last year these assets contributed 9 per cent of Telenor Group’s revenues and 8 per cent of its earnings.
Telenor’s board of directors will ask its AGM for authorisation to distribute a special dividend for NKr4.40 per share.
If the transaction is successful, Telenor will be left with mobile operations in the Nordics, and strong presence in Asia.