Thieves steal $370K worth of iPhone X units right off a UPS truck at San Francisco Apple Store
While Apple loyalists camp out around the world in anticipation of the iPhone X, three “husky men in hoodies” took matters into their own hands. According to reports from CNET and local media, the three men stole over 300 iPhone X units directly off a UPS truck outside of an Apple Store in San Francisco…
The report explains that the men were driving a white Dodge van when they broke into a UPS truck that was parked outside the store. The truck was delivering 313 iPhone X units to the retail store, and the men made off with all of them. The UPS driver reportedly had locked the truck after parking and a janitor was the one who saw the thieves snapping up the phones and was able to get a picture.
San Francisco police estimate that the value of the devices was around $370,000. The suspects haven’t been caught as of now.
The total value of the stolen merchandise was estimated to be more than $370,000. The iPhone X, which becomes available in stores Friday, starts at $999 apiece. The suspects haven’t yet been caught.
Each phone was cataloged with a description and serial number, which meant the police report was one of the “fattest” Sgt. Paul Weggenmann had ever seen, he said.
As for what this means for customers in San Francisco, CNET cites a “person familiar with the matter” and says customers who scheduled to pick up their pre-ordered iPhone X at the store will still get their device on time. The fate of walk-in customers, however, remains to be seen.
One small step for range anxiety.
The four big carmakers that joined forces to create a Europe-wide electric vehicle charging network announced on Friday the joint-venture will establish 400 fast-charging stations across the continent by 2020.
The JV, called IONITY, will be based in Munich and led by chief executive Michael Hajesch and chief operating officer Marcus Groll.
The group was created a year ago by BMW, Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen Group, in a rare instance of carmakers coming together rather than competing as they grapple with new challenges in the car industry.
Mr Hajesch, who since 2012 has been a “senior expert” in e-mobility for BMW, said the network would play “an essential role” in establishing the infrastructure necessary for EVs to thrive.
The group will create 20 fast-charging stations this year on major roads in Germany, Norway and Austria, at intervals of 120km. By next year they will have 100 stations up and running, each with multiple charging points.
They are “fast-charging” because they offer a capacity of 350 kilowatts. Anything above 150kW is generally considered high power charging, according to EVgo.
By comparison, the ‘second generation’ Tesla Superchargers have a capacity of up to 145 kW, though Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has talked of creating a third generation of 350 kW or more.
IONITY said the higher capacities would “significantly reduce charging times compared to existing systems.”
The Porsche Mission E, due out in 2019, has long promised it could reach 80 per cent battery capacity within 15m, based on using 800-volt DC fast-charging points with capacity for 350kW.
Credit Suisse CEO dismisses activist investor RBR’s call for break-up, relocation of investment bank
Credit SuisseGroup [VTX:CSGN] CEO Tidjane Thiam has hit back at activist shareholder RBR Capital Advisors’ campaign for an overhaul of the Swiss bank, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Thiam said Credit Suisse believes in its strategy and that its strategy is working.
RBR, in an open letter to Credit Suisse shareholders on 20 October, proposed that Credit Suisse should split off and relocate its investment banking arm First Boston from Zurich to New York City or London due to lower regulatory costs in the US. RBR also urged Credit Suisse to float its asset management business on the Swiss stock exchange.
Thiam said Credit Suisse considers itself better-placed than people external to the company to make such decisions, according to The Daily Telegraph report.
The CEO said he intends to hold a meeting with RBR chief executive Rudolph Bohli next week, the item added.
Credit Suisse published its 3Q17 results on Thursday, 2 November. The bank reported pre-tax income of CHF 400m (EUR 343.5m), an 80% year-on-year increase; and adjusted net revenues of CHF 5bn.
Thiam said the 3Q17 results, which included net profits of CHF 244m, showed “ample evidence” of the success of his strategy, The Daily Telegraph report said.
Credit Suisse’s market capitalisation stood at CHF 41.76bn at the close of trading in Zurich on Thursday.
The Daily Telegraph report appeared on page 4 of the newspaper’s Business section on Friday, 3 November.
Sina repels bid by activist fund to shake up board
Shareholders in Chinese internet group Sina voted to reelect the group’s existing board member on Friday, ending a months-long boardroom proxy battle with activist American hedge fund Aristeia Capital.
Eight-five per cent of shareholders present voted in favour of keeping incumbent board member Yichen Zhang, according to a Sina spokesperson.
The boardroom dispute represented a rare case of foreign shareholders attempting to influence corporate governance at a major Chinese company and could have opened the door to similar corporate reform disputes at other Chinese tech companies, many of which are listed in New York.
Aristeia Capital, Sina’s fourth-largest shareholder, had nominated two candidates to Sina’s five-person board in an attempt to address what it saw as “critical governance failures” that had resulted in a severe undervaluation of the Chinese internet company.
Aristeia has urged a series of proposals to close what it sees as a valuation gap, including having Sina to sell itself to a third-party buyer or attempt a reverse merger in which Weibo, Sina’s popular social media subsidiary, acquired the parent company.
Those proposals were presented to Charles Chao, Sina’s founder and CEO, who promptly “laughed them out of the room,” according to an Aristeia investor present at the meeting.
“We are not an activist hedge fund, but the lack of good corporate governance pushed us to nominate our own candidates to Sina’s board,” said the investor.
Meanwhile, Sina has contended that Aristeia’s proposals would detract value from the company and were not feasible within Chinese regulatory environment.
“Aristeia has played the financial engineering activist playbook without a whole lot of thought,” said a lawyer representing Sina.
Fertiliser maker Yara may build $2 bln Mozambique gas-fired plant
OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian fertiliser maker Yara International is considering building a $2 billion plant in Mozambique and may seek partners to share the cost, the chief executive said.
Mozambique awarded Yara a project in January to make ammonia and urea from the country’s gas output, saying the firm could produce up to 1.3 million metric tons of fertilisers annually.
The fertiliser project has seen limited progress so far and has no construction timeframe but discussions on a development programme were continuing, Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether told Reuters in an interview at a business summit in Oslo.
“The value of the project, if I use industry benchmarks, will be about $2 billion investment,” he said, adding that it was too early to say if Yara would develop the project alone.
“We are working on it and time will tell what the structure will be,” Holsether said.
If developed, Yara would be able to use between 80 million and 90 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to produce ammonia and urea. In addition to making fertilisers, the site would have a power plant with capacity of 50 megawatts (MW).
Mozambique wants to reduce fertiliser imports, which are now vital for its agricultural industry, and replace them with local products made from its natural gas resources.
Yara, which is seeking acquisitions outside Europe, has been considering assets in Africa, Holsether said without giving a timeframe for any purchase.
“Africa is going to be our largest market at some point. I am just looking at the fundamentals -- land availability, climate, water -- tick all the boxes on that. I do believe the fundamentals are in place,” he said.
Yara International already produces fertilisers in Libya and is building a terminal in Tanzania, according to its website. The company is also assessing the viability of a potash mining facility in Ethiopia, it said.
Uniper suitor Fortum claims company aware of bid; refutes offer as being hostile
Fortum [HEL:FORTUM], the Finnish energy group, claimed that the management of the German Uniper [ETR:UN01] was fully aware of the acquisition offer and refuted claims by Uniper about the takeover being hostile, reported Turun Sanomat, citing Fortum CEO Pekka Lundmark, while speaking in a video posted on Youtube.
According to Lundmark, Uniper owner E.On [ETR:EOAN], was trying to sell their Uniper stake over a year ago, and decided to sell to Fortum. The Uniper management was fully aware of this decision, the item reported, quoting the CEO.
Uniper’s management said it was not aware of the takeover offer before it was leaked to the press and claimed Fortum had launched a hostile bid.
The result of the EUR 22 per share takeover offer will be published later this month, the item said. The item further cited Jukka Oksaharju, a strategist from Nordnet, as saying that the takeover attempt by Fortum cannot be considered a bona fide hostile takeover since the owner of Uniper, E.On, has been in discussions with Fortum. However, the resistance by Uniper management could spell trouble for the merger transaction, the item added.
Alitalia suitor Cerberus interested in majority stake, willing to act before elections
Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is only interested in a majority stake in troubled Italian airline Alitalia, Italian-language daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
Earlier this week, Il Corriere della Sera reported Cerberus will put on hold its interest in Alitalia for four months, after Italy's general elections.
Today, Il Sole quoted Jason Ghassemi, chief communications officer of Cerberus, as saying the firm is interested in a majority stake in Alitalia and not a minority holding as previously reported.
He added that the PE firm is willing to act quickly and not wait for the election. The deal will include a significant equity investment in exchange of a controlling stake in the restructured entity.
Evonik rejects speculation of interest in Clariant
Evonik [ETR:EVK] has rejected speculation it could be interested in Swiss chemicals group Clariant [VTX:CLN], Basler Zeitung reported.
The report cited an Evonik spokesperson who said it has looked at Clariant but is not interested.
An unnamed insider yesterday told Reuters Evonik is not interested in individual parts of Clariant, the report stated.
Thursday saw a revival of one of the London market’s more radical merger ideas with veteran analyst Tony Shiret revisiting his proposal that Marks and Spencer and Next should get together.
Mr Shiret — who joined Whitman Howard in the summer, having been a star name in nearly two decades at Credit Suisse — argued that, while an M&S-Next merger remains unlikely, it continues to make a lot of sense.
Both companies need “big picture thinking” to address their excess capacity and manage the decline of the traditional distribution channels, he said.
Combining M&S and Next “would be seen as a more defensive merger” and “a joining of equals” than when the idea was first pitched nine years ago, Mr Shiret said. He also argued that the repair of the M&S pension fund has removed another obstacle to the union.
But with radical solutions unlikely, Next (up 0.6 per cent at £45) is a “sell” due to the deterioration of its Directories business, the Whitman Howard analyst said.
M&S (up 0.2 per cent to 329.3p) is worth buying, he said, for a short-term recovery in non-food profitability.