TheChek News Flow

MainFirst
*SIEMENS-Planning to list 15-25% of healthcare unit in F/Furt......+1%

*BSCH-Takes €600m goodwill charge in Q4 on US Auto Lender..........-0.5%

*AIR FRANCE-To enhance co-op with Jet Airways, mulls fuel jv........U/C

*ASR NEDERLAND-9M OP 550m,GWP 3.10b,Solvency II 193%...............U/C

*THYSEEN-Kloeckner interested in Thyssen's materials bizz..........+0.5%

*PHILIPS-To sell 17.1m shs of Philips Lighting at €32(32.975)......-3%

*CINEWORLD-In talks to acquire Regal Entertainment for $3.6b.......-5%

*MUNICH RE-Ergo ends talks concerning the sale of Germ Life Ins....-0.25%

*KERING-Barbizet to leave Pinault’s Artemis Group says Figaro......-.0.5%

*DAIMLER-Said to reject Geely's bid to buy 5% stake, poss EV jv.....+0.5%

*POSTNL-Jan Bos to step down as CFO in Q2 2018.....................+1%

*BBVA-To form Real Estate jv with Cerberus(BBVA sells 80% of shs)..+1%

Investec
UK

• BREWIN DOLPHIN-FY. FuM through £40b.#'s sml beat. Div +15%................+2-3%

• BRITVIC-FY.#'s in line. Sees further progress next yr.....................+1%

• CINEWORLD-Possible offer for RGC US,$23/sh. Debt & material equity raise.-3-5%

• FAROE PETROL-Iris/Hades exploration well commences. Result due in 90 days. unch

• HSS HIRE-Q3.Trading remains in line, debt better. FY on track............unch

• LSL PROP-Update. Sees FY EBITDA ahead of current exp's. Cautious for FY18...+1%

• PENNON-H1.PBT&EPS ahead, offset by EBITDA miss. ODI slightly ahead.........+1/2%

• RPC GROUP-H1-In-line,H2 started well, Letica integration on track..........+2%

• SOFTCAT-Q1 T/U-Demand cont's to be strong,FY18 expects remain unch......unch

• TELFORD HOMES-H1 Profit light(devel't timings),on track to meet FY exp's..-2%

• TULLOW OIL-Secures $2.5b debt refinancing(Key objective for Fy 17)......+2-3%

• ZPG-FY Record rev',acq'n of Calcasa, comfortable with FY18 expectations....+2%

Europe

• ASR-9m premiums +3.2%, CR falls (good), solvency ratio flat...............U/C

• BBVA to transfer Spanish real estate business to JV w/ Cerberus...........+1%

• CAIXABANK has hired KPMG for real estate sale (Confidencial)..............+1%

• COLONIAL-capital increase-selling 42.85m new shares (10.9%)...............-??

• DAIMLER-rejects Geely offer to take 5% stk, doesn’t want dilution(Rtrs)..+1.5%

• ENGIE-wins 2 major contracts with private energy agency(L'Echo)..........+1%

• MUNICH RE-Ergo unit ends talks concerning sale of German life unit........U/C

• PHILIPS LIGHTING-17.1m shs(12%) sold by PHILIPS at €32,now holds 29%......-3%

• SANTANDER-taking $711m charge on US lending...............................-1%

• SIEMENS-plans Frankfurt listing for long awaited heath unit spin off(DJ).U/C

CS
ASR -1% Top line light, op profit inline

Banks +1-2% Fed chair nominee Powell said too-big-to-fail is over

Britvic -1-2% Revs £1.54bn vs cons £1.54bn, outlook inline

Daimler +1% Said to have rejected Geely's offer to buy 3-5% stake

IMB -1-2% May see £160m charge, Palmer & Harvey enter administration

LSE -1-2% CEO Rolet agrees to step down with immediate effect

Miners +0.5% Copper +0.40%, Brent -0.50%, Iron Ore +2.20%, China -0.35%

Norsk Hydro +1-1.5% US started a probe into Chinese imports of aluminium

Oils -0.5-1% US API - build of 1.8m barrels vs a draw of 6.4m last week

Pennon M/P H1 EBITDA 1% light, PBT a 3% beat

RPC +1-2% Adj EBITDA 296.1m vs cons 294m, trading encouraging

Santander +0.5-1% Board changes and 2 one off impacts for Q4 result

Siemens +0.5-1% Said to be planning Frankfurt listing for its Health Unit

Tullow +3% 2.5bn refinancing of the RBL

MS Calls

ZPG LN +2% ZOOPLA FY REV GBP244.5M VS BLOOMBERG ESTIMATES GBP241.5M,REMAINS COMFORTABLE WITH CURRENT MARKET EXPECTATIONS FOR FY18,ACQUISITION OF CALCASA,LEADING PROVIDER OF AUTOMATED PROPERTY VALUATION AND STATS IN NETHERLANDS

PNN LN +1-2% PENNON 1H REV GBP727.1M ,GROUP ON TRACK TO DELIVER EXPECTATIONS FY 2017/18

LIGHT NA -2.5% PHILIPS IS SELLING 12% STAKE

IMB LN -1% ONE OF KEY UK DISTRIBUTORS, P&H ENTERS ADMINISTRATION. ONE-TIME IMPACT IS £160M OR c.4% OF EBIT.

TLW LN +3-5% TULLOW OIL SECURES $2.5B DEBT REFINANCING,

EKTAB SS +2-3% ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH NHS TO DELIVER SCANNING AND ANALYSIS EQUIPMENT. TOTAL VALUE £22M WILL BE BOOKED FOR 3Q 18

CINE LN -5-10% CINEWORLD IN ADVANCE DISCUSSIONS TO MAKE OFFER FOR REGAL ENTERTAINMENT $3.6 BLN US$23.00/SHARE,WOULD FUND THROUGH INCREMENTAL DEBT AND SIGNIFICANT EQUITY RAISE

RPC LN +2-3% RPC 1H REV GBP1.88 BLN,TRADING WAS ENCOURAGING IN 1H

Abertis' Hispasat close to unblocking sale to REE (translated)

Red Electrica de Espana [BME:REE] (REE) proposal to acquire Hispasat could be unblocked imminently, Expansion reported.

The Spanish Minister for Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda, Alvaro Nadal, confirmed yesterday (28 November) that talks between the ministry and REE were very advanced, the paper said.

As Minister of Digital Agenda, Nadal must authorize the shareholding changes of Hispasat, Expansion noted.

Yesterday, the minister noted that he is working with REE on some rules so that, should it acquire Hispasat, the regulated electric business will not be affected by satellites.

Nadal added that REE has the monopoly of the high voltage network, satellite activity has to go through its own path without affecting the regulated electricity business, which has to be stable.

REE proposed to acquire the 90.7% of Hispasat owned by Abertis (57.05%) and France’s Eutelsat (33.69%). So far, Nadal has blocked all capital movements in Hispasat - a key asset for the Spanish government - including the agreed sale of Eutelsat’s stake to Abertis. That gave the minister the key to the two offers for Abertis, currently the target of an offer from its Italian counterpart Atlantia [BIT:ATL], and a counter offer from ACS [BME:ACS] via its German unit Hochtief [HOTG:DE].

Sepi, the state’s industrial holdings entity that owns 7.41% of Hispasat, depends on the Ministry of Finance headed by Cristóbal Montoro, who is in favor of REE’s purchase. Luis de Guindos, Minister of Economy, on which the CDTI organism depends, is also in favor. CDTI has another 1.85% stake in Hispasat. María Dolores de Cospedal, Minister of Defense, for whom Hispasat manages numerous services, also approves REE’s bid, Expansion said.

As reported, REE’s offer values Hispasat at about EUR 1bn.

Britain agrees to total liabilities worth €100bn but will aim to pay less than half

Britain has bowed to EU demands and agreed to fully honour its financial commitments as identified by Brussels, removing one of the biggest obstacles to a Brexit divorce settlement.

According to several diplomats familiar with the talks, the UK would assume EU liabilities worth up to €100bn although net payments, discharged over many decades, could fall to less than half that amount.

Prime minister Theresa May is expected to formally present the breakthrough offer next week as part of package deal if agreement can be reached on the other issues of citizen rights and the contentious question of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Sterling jumped 0.7 per cent against the euro and the dollar in a matter of minutes on the news, reversing losses over the course of Tuesday’s European session. The pound was trading back above $1.33 and and €1.12.

The overture on the bill was made by Olly Robbins, the British prime minister’s lead official on Brexit, in discussions with the commission last week.

Negotiators are working on how to present the settlement as a net estimate, with the UK side pressing for an implied figure of between €40-45bn once UK receipts and other deductions are taken into account. “They have promised to cover it all, we don’t care what they say their estimate is,” said one senior EU diplomat. “We’re happy to help them present it.”

Intensive negotiations are continuing, with the aim of reaching a declaring “sufficient progress” next week on the financial settlement, citizen rights and Northern Ireland. Discussions are delicately poised and negotiators have warned that a hold-up on any one element of talks could scupper a December deal to open trade talks.

Both sides say no final figure will be agreed on Britain’s exit settlement next week. Significantly the UK plans to avoid a lump-sum settlement and instead will develop a system for regularly calculating payments in years to come, when specific liabilities come due.

Under this model, pensions of EU officials, for instance, could be paid on the basis of annual costs, meaning there will be no final figure for the so-called “Brexit bill” until the final eligible EU pensioner is dead, many decades from today.

The political compromise engineered between London and Brussels aims to guarantee to the other 27 EU member states that there will be no Brexit gap in the discharge of the current EU budget, while allowing the UK to point to much lower estimates of net payments and contingent liabilities.

Mrs May won the backing of her cabinet to break the deadlock in Brexit talks with an increased financial offer, but on the condition it was tied to a good trade agreement. British ministers have made clear that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.

The prime minister’s original offer in her Florence speech in September covered around two years of transition payments, worth approximately €20bn in net terms. She added that Britain would meet other commitments, but until now had not clarified what that covered in discussions with the EU.

Since the start of talks, the main objective of the EU side has been for the UK to commit to meeting its share of gross EU liabilities accrued while Britain was a member state. A payment schedule for this “global settlement” would then be fixed in the second phase of talks.

According to commission estimates circulated to member states, these include €582bn of unpaid spending commitments in the 2014-2020 long-term budget, around €83bn of obligations such as pensions, and around €88bn of contingent liabilities, such as outstanding loans.

If a 13 per cent share is applied, as the commission initially estimated, Britain’s gross share comes to around €100bn.

Several EU diplomats told the Financial Times the UK had said to commission negotiators it was willing to honour this full range of commitments under an agreed payment mechanism. France, Germany and other member states appear satisfied by the broad outlines of the deal.

Net estimates that the UK share would take account of receipts worth around €28bn, including agricultural payments to UK farmers and structural funds for investment projects in Britain. Actual payments for structural funds could be made years from now.

British officials are working on other potential methods to bring down the net estimate, which the EU originally put at around €60bn. This includes using a higher rate for cancelled investment projects, the receipt of €3.5bn of UK capital at the European Investment Bank — potentially decades from now — and the payment of Britain’s 2018 budget rebate.

The mechanism for determining payments, once applied in future years, may take account of the fall in sterling and decline in the relative size of Britain’s economy, thereby reducing the UK’s share from 13 per cent.

A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said: “Intensive talks between the UK and the European Commission continue to take place in Brussels this week as we seek to reach an agreement.

“We are exploring how we can continue to build on recent momentum in the talks so that together we can move the negotiations onto the next phase and discuss our future partnership.”

Chinese group to seek Swiss listing for Gategroup after being rapped over disclosures

HNA Group has signalled that it is kicking into reverse its $40bn global buying spree, as the Chinese conglomerate finds itself under the microscope by mainland regulators.

Adam Tan, HNA chief executive, said HNA would exit investments in industries that had been banned by the government, including real estate.

It was the first public acknowledgment by the company — which has for months been under scrutiny in China over an aggressive spending spree — that it was considering divesting any of the assets it has acquired in recent years.

“I will do my best to exit investments that were allowed in the past but are no longer allowed,” Mr Tan said in Beijing late on Tuesday at a forum hosted by Caixin Magazine, according to a transcript provided by the magazine. A Financial Times reporter was barred from attending the session with Mr Tan.

There have been other indications in recent days that HNA was looking to exit some investments.

Switzerland’s Gategroup, which HNA bought last year for SFr1.4bn ($1.4bn), said on Tuesday that it was exploring a public offering. Earlier this month, HNA agreed a sale and repurchase deal for a hotel group in Spain to improve liquidity.

HNA is among a group of companies including Dalian Wanda, Anbang Insurance, and Fosun International facing scrutiny in China after a flood of aggressive overseas investment, as Beijing looks to stem capital flight from the country.

The companies have cut back sharply on dealmaking, and Wanda already has sold nearly $10bn of property assets in China.

Analysts have flagged concerns about HNA’s continued access to affordable debt funding, given a broad crackdown in China on riskier lending. They pointed out that HNA recently paid a nearly 9 per cent yield to sell a 363-day bond — a high interest cost for such short-term debt.

The announcement that Gategroup is evaluating a potential return to public markets comes just days after the Switzerland’s takeover watchdog censured its Chinese owner HNA for providing “untrue or incomplete” information when it acquired the air-services company in 2016.

Gategroup added it could give no details on the proportion of shares that would be listed on the Swiss exchange, SIX, nor on the timing of the listing.

The Swiss Takeover Board, citing several Financial Times articles, late last week said the original information the company provided in May 2016 when acquiring Gategroup had been “untrue or incomplete”.

Asked whether the Swiss takeover panel’s ruling would be a problem for a new listing, a SIX spokesman declined to comment.

Hainan-based HNA, whose roots lie in running a domestic Chinese airline, took the Swiss aircraft-catering company private as part of its push into global aviation and logistics. The deal came amid a $40bn sprawling overseas acquisition binge over the past three years, which has seen HNA emerge as the single biggest shareholder in Deutsche Bank and Hilton Worldwide.

But questions about HNA’s true ownership continue to plague its prospects, and its aggressive financing techniques have also drawn investor concerns.

Gategroup is one of the two Swiss aviation services assets owned by HNA — it acquired Swissport at the start of 2016. Swissport recently started providing short-term loans to companies linked to the HNA Group, raising concerns among investors about the intermingling of the Swiss airline services company’s funds with its Chinese parent.

Investors, traders like bitcoin’s volatility in a low-interest-rate market

Bitcoin crossed the $10,000 mark for the first time in its nine-year history, the latest burst in a rally that has transformed the virtual currency from a curiosity to a hot topic for mainstream investors.

On Tuesday at around 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, the digital currency passed the threshold to trade at $10,025.96 and is up 21% just since Friday, according to research site CoinDesk. For the year, it is up 933%, having started 2017 at $968.23.

It is one of most notable surges in a generally positive year for asset prices. Through trading Tuesday, the S&P 500 is up 17% in 2017 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has jumped 21%. The Nikkei 225 is up 18%. Gold has added about 13% and copper is up 23%.

In recent months, investors have set aside doubts about bitcoin’s use by criminal elements and focused instead on the potentially transformative technology behind it and the prospect that it could replace gold as an investment to hold when faith ebbs in fiat currencies.

“We now have millions of active users,” said Peter Smith, chief executive of bitcoin services firm Blockchain.info. “We didn’t have a million last year.”

Big institutions such as CME Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have stoked enthusiasm about bitcoin’s place in the world by exploring products based on the virtual currency. CME, the world’s biggest exchange group, is expected to launch a futures contract based on bitcoin as soon as the second week of December.

For all its appreciation among investors, bitcoin is still controversial. South Korea’s prime minister on Tuesday warned that the lure of fast money could prove detrimental and encourage crime.

The manic rally “has led to cases where young people and students get involved with cryptocurrencies to earn money,” Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said in remarks at a Tuesday cabinet meeting released by his office. “If we let things continue, I feel that it will lead to some serious distorted or pathological phenomenon.”

Most individual investors aren’t making much money from the rally. About 75% of bitcoin addresses, also known as wallets, have less than 0.1 bitcoin in them, according to research site BitInfoCharts.

Pete Ferro, a 66-year-old small-business owner who resides in Brick, N.J., said he started researching cryptocurrencies in the spring before ultimately diving in. “When I first learned about it, I thought it was too sketchy, too uncertain, too risky,” he said. “Then I saw it creeping up higher and higher. I didn’t invest a lot, but I’m learning as I go along.”

With advice and guidance from his daughter’s 34-year-old boyfriend, he plunked $3,000 in June into ripple and litecoin, two smaller virtual currencies. He avoided bitcoin because he thought it was expensive. “I kick myself for not going in then because now it skyrocketed.”

Investors and traders have been attracted by bitcoin’s volatility in a low-interest-rate market where stocks and bonds have plodded to slower gains. While technology stocks have rallied sharply, few have jumped 10-fold like bitcoin has this year, or even more than that in the case of the smaller virtual currencies, ethereum, ripple and litecoin.

Bitcoin was introduced in 2008 by a pseudonymous actor calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto. His vision was for an online currency that could be exchanged between peers, without governments or banks standing in the middle.

The concept has gained fans among those who believe that “unbanked” residents of poorer countries can use bitcoin and other mobile money options to participate more fully in the financial system.

But the currency’s growth has also attracted critics like J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. CEO James Dimon and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, who have argued that governments likely will ultimately crack down, crushing bitcoin’s price.

“Bitcoin is a speculative bubble that will pop at some point,” wrote Michael Oliver, a market analyst at Momentum Structural Analysis in North Carolina. Much like the dot-com bubble, however, the sector will become more mature after its reckoning, he says.

Much of this year’s growth has come from Japan. On April 1, Japan’s Financial Services Agency put in place new rules for bitcoin, which recognized it as a legitimate payment method. Japan quickly became one of the largest markets for bitcoin, currently representing about 60% of all trading.

While bitcoin’s $166 billion market value now rivals that of General Electric Co. or the monetary base of Venezuela, the use of its network isn’t keeping pace. The number of bitcoin transactions on a daily basis has been consistent in 2017. In January, daily transactions averaged between 250,000 and 300,000. It fell during the summer, then regained near-peak levels in the fall.

Partially in response to such fees, some bitcoin market participants wanted to expand the network’s capacity, but their efforts have fallen short. That makes bitcoin less useful as a means of exchange, leaving it as more of a store of value.

In other words, coffee-shop customers may no longer be interested in paying for their morning order in bitcoin instead of with a credit card. But if they invested in bitcoin, they could probably afford to buy a cup for all their friends.

Move builds closer ties between two firms seeking to expand reach on both sides of the Atlantic

French investment house Eurazeo is buying a stake in New York private-equity shop Rhône Group, in a move that knits closer ties between two firms seeking to expand their presence across Europe and the U.S.

Nikkei +0.49% Hang Seng -0.04% CSI -0.22% Shanghai -0.06% Shenzen -0.12%

Eur$ 1.1860 CNH 6.6031 CNY 6.6012 JPY 111.50 GBP 1.3383 VHF 0.9847 RUB 58.4655 WTI$ 57.72 -0.47%

S&P -0.02% EuroStoxx +0.50% FTSE -0.38% DAX +0.57% SMI +0.45%

Macro :

- Britain, EU Agree Brexit Divorce Bill: Telegraph

- European Industrials Most Upbeat Since 2013, Goldman Sachs Says

- Tax Bill, Brexit Progress Offset Geopolitics: Macro Squawk Wrap

- EuroStoxx 600 Changes : + Konecranes, Homeserve, NMC Health, BE Semiconductor, Siltronic, Delivery Hero, Remy Cointreau, Pirelli and Altran - Hikma Pharmaceuticals, NCC B, Unipolsai, Provident Financial, Mediaset Espana, Postnl, JM, Deutsche Europshop, AA PLC

Keep an eye on :

- AF FP : Air France-KLM Expands Partnership with India’s Jet Airways

- AAPL US : Apple Is Said to Lease Land to Test Autonomous Cars: Jalopnik

- CINE LN : Regal, Cineworld in Talks, Whitman Sees Tipping Point: TMT Wrap

- COL SM : Colonial Announces Capital Increase Via Private Placement

- GTO NA : Millennium Intl Mgmt Lifts Gemalto Short Position to 1.23%: AFM

- IIA AV : Immofinanz 9M Net Income From Continuing Ops EU116.3 Mln

- IHG LN : InterContinental Franchise Fees, Pipeline Strong: Morgan Stanley

- IMP LN : Imperial Brands May See GBP 160M Effect on P&H Decision

- KER FP : Barbizet to Leave Pinault’s Artemis Group, Figaro Reports

- LBTYA US : Liberty Global Is Said to Explore Swiss, Austria Exit: Telegraph

- LIGHT NA : Philips Launches Sale of 12% of Philips Lighting

- MS IM : Mediaset proxy advisor stands against proposed changes to restrict minority shareholders to two seats on board

- PHIA NA : Royal Philips Total Proceeds EUR 547M on Lighting Stake Sale

- RGC US : *CINEWORLD IS SAID TO APPROACH REGAL ON MERGER, REUTERS SAYS

- SIE GY : Siemens Is Said Planning Frankfurt Listing for Health Unit: DJ

- SNCF : SNCF Is Said to Prepare Sale of Real Estate Assets: Les Echos

- UBER IPO : Uber Is Said to Lose $1.46B on $9.71B in Q3 Gross Bookings

It’s not just SoftBank and Dragoneer that are looking to buy Uber shares from the employees and other shareholders when the tender offer launches, likely later today.

Sources tell us that Sequoia Capital is looking to increase its stake in Uber this way. The other investors on the list include Tencent and TPG.

SoftBank has made an offer to purchase the shares at $32.96. This is a steep discount to the $48.77 from the latest Series G round.

The group of investors are looking to buy about $8 billion in shares. If they do not find enough sellers to meet the $8 billion, it’s possible that they will increase the offer price.

There’s also a $1 billion direct investment in Uber, which would value the company at its last private valuation of nearly $70 billion.

Sequoia has previously invested in Uber through its “scout” program, which involves covertly finding deal opportunities through its network. Alfred Lin, a partner in Sequoia, also made an angel investment at the seed stage. He previously lamented that Sequoia overlooked Uber.

Sequoia declined to comment. Uber declined to comment.

For many Uber shareholders, the secondary offering will give them the opportunity to turn paper riches into cash. These include current and former employees, venture capitalists and angel investors.

But they’re only eligible to sell if they have at least 10,000 shares. They also need to be “accredited investors,” which means that Uber employees who make less than $200,000 in salary will also need to have $1 million in assets (this includes the value of the shares).

The $1 billion investment in Uber will also help the company continue to fuel its growth as it prepares to go public in 2019.

This is a big moment for Uber, in what has otherwise been a very difficult year. Uber has had countless legal battles, including a patent lawsuit with Alphabet’s self-driving car division.

There’s also been public outcry about its company culture. Co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick was pressured to step down in June.

If the deal is completed, investor and board member Benchmark Capital plans to drop its lawsuit against Kalanick. The suit is related to Kalanick’s power to appoint three board seats, including his own. Kalanick recently named Ursula Burns and John Thain to those seats. If one of them gives up their spot, Kalanick will require a board vote to appoint a replacement, as long as the SoftBank deal is finalized.