>>> HSBC eager for acquisitions; Synchrony Financial, US credit card companies c

HSBC eager for acquisitions; Synchrony Financial, US credit card companies could be targets
HSBC [LON:HSBA] is seeking acquisitions, the new chairman of the UK-based lender has told investors, The Sunday Times reported. Mark Tucker assumed the role of chairman last month and outlined his plans in shareholder meetings, the report said. Shareholders are understood to be sceptical, the item reported.
City sources cited in the piece identified Synchrony Financial [NYSE:SYF], a Stamford, Connecticut-based credit card company, as a possible target for HSBC. Other acquisitions are believed to be under consideration too, the item reported.
An investor who recently met Tucker said HSBC believes credit cards to be one of only a few markets where the bank can expand, a second Times item reported.
A City banker cited in the initial article pointed out that US-based credit card companies are very lucrative and as a prime lender HSBC would be likely only to target businesses unconnected with sub-prime assets.
The original report appeared in The Sunday Times, Business & Money section, page 1

Barron's : Face ID Specialist AMS Is Still Looking Good

Face ID Specialist AMS Is Still Looking Good
Stock of the iPhone X supplier, which has tripled so far this year, may have even more room to run.

The facial-recognition feature in Apple’s newest iPhone has drawn all sorts of attention, with at least one reviewer moaning about missing the fingerprint sensor that’s in older models.

One group that shouldn’t be complaining: shareholders in AMS (ticker: AMS.Switzerland), whose sensor technology helps power the iPhone X’s Face ID feature. The Austria-based chip company’s stock has roughly tripled so far this year for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index’s biggest advance by far, helped by bets that it’s into something good with Apple (AAPL). AMS—known at its 1981 founding as Austria Mikro Systeme —is promising strong revenue gains (compound annual growth of more than 40% from 2016 through 2019) and solid profit margins (an adjusted core margin of 30% starting in 2019).

AMS shares still have a charge left, according to a Morgan Stanley analyst team led by Francois Meunier. The bank has an Overweight rating on the Swiss-listed stock and a price target of 125 Swiss francs ($125), implying a rally of about 30% from its recent CHF95 price. That’s well above the average analyst target, which comes in around CHF92, according to FactSet data.

Too optimistic? Well, the bulls have been right in a big way this year on AMS, whose headquarters are in a chateau in the village of Unterpremstätten. So, Morgan Stanley’s take shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

Just as Apple’s TouchID feature was introduced in a limited fashion but then spread to multiple versions of the iPhone and iPad, facial recognition looks set to make its way into a number of Apple gadgets and help AMS shares head higher, Meunier says. Users who have been unlocking their phones via a fingerprint sensor increasingly will get access by just looking at their handsets.

The 3-D sensor module that enables Face ID also could get a spot on the back of future iPhone models, near the main camera, rather than just on the screen side. That might allow for other augmented-reality functions, such as letting people make measurements as they buy apparel online. There are also possible new applications for AMS’ 3-D-sensing technology in self-driving cars and automation-minded industries that already have been among the company’s clients. The health-care sector might be a promising vein, too.

“They’ve got a portfolio of sensors that are really interesting, including one that you could potentially use for a glucose-level reading for blood without being really invasive,” Meunier tells Barron’s, referring to a product that bounces infrared light off blood vessels in the wrist. “It’s not shipping in volumes yet, but it’s something that could be big, as well.”

Over the next couple of years, though, it could be all about Apple. The Cupertino, Calif., colossus, which also buys ambient-light sensors for other devices from AMS, will provide about 70% or 75% of AMS’ revenue by 2019, up from roughly 40% in recent periods, Morgan Stanley reckons.

THAT TYPE OF RELIANCE on a single company is a risk, with various analysts noting that AMS bulls would like to see it get more traction in smartphones that use the Android operating system. There is also a chance that Apple could develop similar technologies on its own, cutting AMS out of the picture. This potential problem can be tough to sidestep.

“It’s the same for every supplier to Apple. You always have this risk,” the London-based Meunier says.

AMS shares don’t look cheap, similar to how the iPhone X isn’t exactly a steal with its starting price tag of $999. But Meunier suggests gazing further out “because you basically have loads of growth in 2018 and 2019.” While the mid-cap stock trades at a relatively high multiple relative to this year’s earnings, looking at the near term “doesn’t give you the full picture of the earnings power,” he says.

“It’s 43 times ’17, but it’s 18 times next year,” he adds. “Then 2019, it’s 12 times.”

By comparison, a popular U.S. benchmark for chip companies—the PHLX Semiconductor Sector index—trades at 24 times earnings and 18 times forward-year estimates, according to FactSet data.

Morgan Stanley’s team gets its CHF125 price target for AMS by assuming that one valuation metric—enterprise value (stock market value plus net debt) to earnings before interest and taxes—stays around 15 times, within its historical range. The key is expected huge growth, with the bank estimating that AMS’ total Apple revenue (mostly from 3-D and light sensors) could jump to $1.8 billion by 2019, up from about $570 million this year and just $110 million in 2016.

IN EUROPEAN MARKETS last week, the main equity benchmarks largely lost ground, weighed down in part by earnings-driven selloffs in companies such as high-end apparel and accessories seller Burberry (BRBY.UK), conglomerate A.P. Møller-Maersk (MAERSKB.Denmark), and wind-turbine maker Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE.Spain). Germany’s DAX and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 finished down from their early-November record closes, but are still up by about 15% and 5%, respectively, year to date.

Reuters - Exclusive: Equity Commonwealth approaches Forest City about merging -

Exclusive: Equity Commonwealth approaches Forest City about merging - sources

(Reuters) - Equity Commonwealth (EQC.N), a U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on office space and chaired by property mogul Sam Zell, has approached Forest City Realty Trust Inc (FCEa.N) to discuss a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said.
Combining the two companies would create an office- and apartments-focused REIT worth more than $10 billion, making it one of the biggest mergers in the sector this year.

Forest City Realty is considering the proposal for an all-stock merger with Equity Commonwealth as part of a process it has been running to explore its options, including selling itself, the sources said this week. There is no certainty that any deal will occur, the sources added.
Forest City declined to comment, while Equity Commonwealth did not respond to a request for comment.

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Forest City is primarily focused on office and apartment buildings in core urban markets, such as New York and San Francisco, as well as mixed-use urban developments. It has market capitalization of $6.6 billion.
Forest City has been reviewing its strategic alternatives in recent months following pressure from activist shareholders Scopia Capital Management and Land & Buildings. It has scrapped its dual-class share structure, shaken up its board and sought to shed some non-core assets.
In recent years, Forest City has also been unwinding what was once a sprawling corporate structure that included hotels, military housing, retail centers, and a stake in the Brooklyn Nets.
Meanwhile, Equity Commonwealth, which has a market capitalization of $3.8 billion, has also transformed itself in response to activist pressure, changing its name, hiring new management, and selling off billions of dollars of properties.
Chicago-based Equity Commonwealth changed its name from Commonwealth REIT in 2014 after activist investors Corvex Management and Related Fund Management LLC shook up the company’s board, adding Zell as chairman, and replaced its management team.
Commonwealth REIT had previously been managed by an outside company, Reit Management & Research, an arrangement that the activists blamed for incentivizing asset growth at the expense of shareholder returns.

Since then, Equity Commonwealth has sold nearly $5 billion in assets, streamlining its once sprawling portfolio and sharpening its focus on U.S. office spaces.
Zell, whose net worth is pegged by Forbes at $5 billion, is the founder of Equity International, a private investment firm spanning sectors including homebuilding, warehousing, office, self-storage, senior living and specialty finance sectors.

>>> Toshiba considering measures to raise as much as JPY 800bn - report (transla

Toshiba considering measures to raise as much as JPY 800bn
Toshiba Corp. [TYO:6502] is considering measures to raise as much as JPY 800bn (USD 7bn), as a back-up plan in case the planned sale of its memory chip subsidiary does not complete by the end of March, the Jiji Press reported.
The plan is to raise JPY 600bn to JPY 800bn, and is expected to be a new share placement to companies, investors and financial institutions, the report said, without citing sources.
Toshiba is discussing specific measures for the plan with securities houses, according to the report.