>>> Wolford to be sold by end of 2017; Mei-Pochtler reportedly interested (trans

Wolford to be sold by end of 2017; Mei-Pochtler reportedly interested

Wolford [VIE:WOL], an Austrian lingerie and stockings manufacturer, will have a new majority owner by the end of the year, Trend reported. The German-language magazine quoted Axel Dreher, the Chief Executive Officer of Wolford. The report noted that the Austrian Palmers and Wilhelm families recently hired Deloitteto find a buyer for their combined majority stake in Wolford.
Without naming sources, the magazine revealed that Antonella Mei-Pochtler, until recently the supervisory board chairman of Wolford, is interested in acquiring the aforementioned stake.
Wolford has a market cap of EUR 90m.

>>> Merck KGaA Consumer Health business could draw interest of GlaxoSmithKline,

Merck KGaA Consumer Health business could draw interest of GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, J&J, Bayer
Potential buyers of Merck KGaA's (MRK:DE) Consumer Health business include GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK), Sanofi (EPA:SAN), and Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Euro am Sonntag reported, without citing sources. The German weekly said German Bayer (ETR:BAYN) is another possible buyer but is thought to have other priorities with the ongoing takeover of Monsanto (NYSE:MON). Merck last week announced it is preparing strategic options for its Consumer Health business, including a potential full or partial sale of the business as well as strategic partnerships, the report stated.
Swiss bank Credit Suisse valued the unit at around EUR 3bn, the report stated.

FT : Goldman Sachs to take on UK retail banks

Goldman Sachs to take on UK retail banks
Investment bank plans consumer loan and savings push as it widens search for deposits

Goldman Sachs is looking to expand its retail banking business to the UK, replicating its mass-market offering in the US, as it continues a steady march from Wall Street to Main Street.

The New York-based investment bank began to pivot in the US about 18 months ago, offering high-interest online savings accounts for a deposit of as little as $1. Last October it took a step further by launching Marcus by Goldman, a digital consumer-lending platform that seeks to rival the San Francisco trio of Lending Club, Prosper and SoFi.

Now Goldman is taking it international, aiming to launch an online deposit business in the UK about the middle of next year. According to Stephen Scherr, the bank’s head of strategy, the lender plans a greenfield start in the UK under the Marcus brand, but could look to buy a book of deposits — as it did in the US — if the opportunity came its way.

“Much like in the US, we’re aiming to offer consumers easy-to-use and higher-returning savings options than [they] might have elsewhere,” said Mr Scherr.

Over time, he added, the bank could look to add a consumer-lending arm in the UK, taking on the likes of Zopa, RateSetter and Funding Circle.

In its first six to eight months of operation Marcus originated about $1bn of loans, and Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein has given orders to generate another $1bn by the end of this year, according to Harit Talwar, head of Goldman’s online lending and deposit businesses, who joined the bank as a partner in May 2015.

The deeper push into retail banking comes as some of Goldman’s traditional business lines are struggling, crimped by new rules on risk-taking. The core debt-trading unit, for example, has had two lacklustre quarters in a row, while the equity business has been seen as relatively slow to adapt to the rise of quantitative, computer-driven trading.

Late in July Goldman’s market capitalisation slipped below that of Morgan Stanley, its closest rival, for the first time in more than a decade.

Goldman’s key hire so far in the UK is Des McDaid, a former Lloyds TSB director who joined the bank in London as a managing director in July. Mr Scherr said Goldman was looking to expand Mr McDaid’s group from about 15 to “upwards of 30 to 50,” including a call centre in the capital, by the middle of next year.

Mr Scherr stressed that the key attraction for Goldman was the stickiness of deposit funding, which is seen as less likely to vanish during times of market turmoil. Since the crisis regulators worldwide have been urging banks to bolster their balance sheets by diversifying their sources of funds.

A British-based financial services banker at a rival to Goldman said it was easier to organically grow a deposit book by offering a rate near the top of the savings product tables than by acquiring one. The banker added that UK retail lenders could now view Goldman as a rival and be deterred from using its investment banking services.

Analysts said the retail business could be a solid bet to boost profits. Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo in New York, noted that loans made so far on the Marcus platform have returns-on-assets about four or five times higher than those of the overall group.

Mr Talwar told a Goldman-hosted event in New York last week that he was determined to attack the $1tn or so of revolving debt held on credit cards across the US. Goldman says it can offer consumers a better deal: lower rates, flexible terms, and no fees.

“Borrowing on a credit card is like eating mac and cheese — very satisfying, but best to do it in small doses,” Mr Talwar said. “We’d like to be more like an easy Greek yoghurt or a cashew bar.”

WSJ : Why You Might Spend a Grand on a Smartphone

Why You Might Spend a Grand on a Smartphone
On their smartphones for three hours a day or more, many Americans delay upgrades of other big-ticket items so they can buy a better device

Prepare for smartphone sticker shock.

A decade into the smartphone era, Apple Inc. AAPL -1.63% and Samsung Electronics Co. are betting they can increase sales by jacking up the price of their flagship products—bucking the usual downward arc for prices of consumer electronics in the years after introduction.

Apple on Tuesday is expected to unveil a more-advanced iPhone—also known as the anniversary iPhone, the iPhone 8 or iPhone X—which analysts predict will carry a starting retail price of about $1,000. That would be about 50% more than the cheapest version of the iPhone 7 Apple introduced last year at $649, and about 30% more than the larger iPhone 7 Plus, at $769. (On Tuesday, Apple also is expected to show off updated versions of those phones with prices similar to last year’s models.)

Apple’s new iPhone debut follows Samsung’s launch last month of its new high-end phone, the Galaxy Note 8, which hits shelves Sept. 15 starting at around $950.

Prices approaching $1,000 are more often associated with durable kitchen appliances than with pocket-size devices people tend to replace every few years. Yet Apple and Samsung think they will be able to sell tens of millions of smartphones at the higher price points, in part because of how vital the devices have become. Many users are willing to pay a premium for a handset that functions as not only a mobile phone, but also a personal computer, a video player, a gaming device, a GPS system, a music player, a reader, a flashlight and a wallet.

U.S. consumers now spend more than three hours a day on average on their mobile devices, according to research firm eMarketer. Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy, said people are postponing upgrades to their other gadgets so they have more to spend on their smartphones.

“The utility value of these products is so, so high,” said Horace Dediu, an industry analyst at Asymco and a former Nokia Corp. business development executive.

The companies believe their prices are justified to pay for innovations such as longer battery life, larger displays and voice assistants. Apple’s newest iPhone is expected to have components that cost about 80% more than the components in the iPhone 7, including an edge-to-edge, organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, display, wireless charging and new sensors, according to brokerage firm Susquehanna International Group.

If consumers take the new price points in stride, Apple and Samsung could widen their advantage over hundreds of smartphone rivals, many struggling to break even. Apple and Samsung claim nearly all the industry’s combined annual profits, with about 79% for Apple and 15% for Samsung, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.


The two are defying the gravity that usually pulls consumer prices downward as innovation wanes and manufacturing costs fall. For example, average prices for TVs and laptops have fallen about 50% from their respective peaks over the past 15 years, to $467 for TVs and $598 for laptops, according to trade group Consumer Technology Association. Average smartphone prices have fallen 32% to $303 in the decade since the iPhone’s introduction.

The average iPhone selling price rose about 2.5% to $645 in Apple’s fiscal 2016, up from $629 in fiscal 2009. Last year’s pricier iPhone 7 Plus with a dual-lens camera outsold its predecessor, the iPhone 6s Plus—a sign consumers are willing to pay up for performance.

Samsung had to pull the Galaxy Note 7 from shelves last year due to overheating batteries, but the Galaxy S7 model went on to become its top-selling phone ever. Unlike Apple, Samsung, the world’s largest phone maker by shipments, also sells hundreds of millions of lower-cost handsets, such as the “Z series” in India, which retails for around $90.

New features on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 include a dual-lens camera and a mammoth 6.3-inch OLED screen. The Note 8’s component costs rose about 20% over the prior year, according to an estimate by IHS Markit , a market researcher.

Many consumers are balking at a $1,000 handset. A recent survey of wireless consumers by Barclay’s found only 11% of respondents would spend more than $1,000 on a smartphone, with respondents on average saying they would spend only about $580.

Apple and Samsung have financing plans that can obscure the full cost of new phones. Apple’s upgrade program last year offered the iPhone 7 for $32 a month over 24 months—about $120 more than the retail price but with an extended warranty and the option for an upgrade after a year. Samsung offers a similar, no-interest financing plan.

Wireless carriers, which have largely eliminated phone subsidies in recent years, also offer monthly payment plans

Rivals say the steep price tags could spell opportunity. Juno Cho, head of LG Electronics Inc.’s mobile division, the No. 3 player in the U.S., believes there will be a “sizable number” of consumers who find the pricing of certain premium handsets to be “simply out of reach.” He hopes to grab part of Apple and Samsung’s combined 60% U.S. market share with lower-priced, feature-rich phones.

Winning over loyal Apple consumers won’t be easy, says Don Scott Carpenter, a 47-year-old executive at a nonprofit organization and an Apple die-hard. He upgrades to the newest iPhone every year and said his $179 AT&T bill is still less than he pays a month for cable, TV and internet.

“I won’t flinch,” he said of higher prices. The phone is “part of life. You keep it with you 22 hours a day.”

WSJ : Saudi Arabia on Saturday suspended all contact with Qatar after the first

Saudi Arabia on Saturday suspended all contact with Qatar after the first known conversation between leaders of the two countries failed to defuse tensions between the U.S. allies.
Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Friday evening spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time since Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries broke diplomatic ties with Qatar in June, blaming it for having alleged ties to terror groups.
The phone call came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump offered to serve as a mediator to help resolve a dispute that has created more instability in a volatile region and complicated the joint fight against Islamic State.

But hopes the phone call marked a turning point in the monthslong diplomatic crisis were quickly dashed, with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry accusing Qatar’s state media of distorting its account of the conversation between Sheikh Tamim and Prince Mohammed. The disagreement is essentially about protocol: Saudi Arabia says the phone conversation was requested by Qatar, not vice versa.
“What was published by the Qatar News Agency is a continuation of the distortion by the Qatari authority of the facts,” said a statement attributed to a Saudi Foreign Ministry official carried in the official Saudi Press Agency. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia declares that any dialogue or communication with the authority in Qatar shall be suspended until a clear statement explaining its position is made in public.”

Qatar’s official state news agency said the phone call between Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Tamim was facilitated by Mr. Trump and that during their conversation the two leaders “stressed the need to resolve this crisis by sitting down to the dialogue to ensure the unity and stability of the GCC countries,” a reference to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional bloc whose members are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

Sheikh Tamim also welcomed an initiative by Prince Mohammed to assign two envoys in a bid to “resolve controversial issues in a way that does not affect the sovereignty of states,” the statement added.


A Qatari official said the angry Saudi response was an effort to make Sheikh Tamim look weak.

Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Bahrain and Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting regional extremist organizations and terrorist groups, and want the country to change its policies as a condition for dialogue.

Qatar denies it supports terrorism and says it has the right to pursue an independent foreign policy, including by maintaining links with Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Doha rejected a list of 13 demands issued by the four countries, which included curbing diplomatic ties with Iran, severing links with the Muslim Brotherhood and closing the Al Jazeera television network. Mediation efforts by neighboring Kuwait and the U.S. have so far struggled to break the deadlock.

Widespread speculation Saudi Arabia is pushing for regime change in Qatar has further complicated matters. Last month, the kingdom pushed into prominence an obscure Qatari royal called Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al-Thani, an effort many in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar saw as a first step toward promoting leadership change in Qatar.

Before tensions flared up again, Saudi Arabia on Saturday initially struck a more conciliatory tone. The official Saudi Press Agency said Prince Mohammed “welcomed the desire” expressed by Sheikh Tamim “to sit at the dialogue table and discuss the demands of the four countries to ensure the interests of all.”

“There’s a willingness by both parties to talk with each other. That’s progress,” said Lori Plotkin Boghardt, a Gulf States expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “High-level U.S. engagement is critical to making this happen. But it’s going to take a sustained, long-term effort to overcome the damage of the crisis on both sides.”

The White House on Friday said Mr. Trump spoke separately to Prince Mohammed and to the leaders of the U.A.E. and Qatar to convey the message that unity among its Arab partners is essential to promoting regional stability and countering the threat of Iran.

“The president also emphasized that all countries must follow through on commitments...to defeat terrorism, cut off funding for terrorist groups, and combat extremist ideology,” the statement said.

The U.S. president had initially appeared to take credit for the diplomatic rupture, praising the decision of Saudi Arabia and others to cut ties with Qatar as evidence of the success of his visit to the region in May, when he encouraged regional powers to crack down on support for extremist groups.

FT : Christer Gardell, Cevian Capital founder, on clearing out boards

Christer Gardell, Cevian Capital founder, on clearing out boards
Europe’s biggest activist investor forces radical change

He is dressed in the Swedish business-casual outfit of jumper and shirt. He is softly spoken and is not inclined to send angry letters to chief executives. In short, Christer Gardell does not behave like the stereotypical activist investor.

But Mr Gardell, co-founder of Cevian Capital, is Europe’s biggest activist — and one of the most influential in the world. He has shaken up boardrooms across the continent, taking aim at companies from Ericsson to Danske Bank and ThyssenKrupp to ABB, forcing them to make often radical changes.

He is mild-mannered compared with his US counterparts, such as Carl Icahn and Dan Loeb. Yet Mr Gardell is more committed than ever to the cause of activism. He argues that the rise of index funds owning more and more of companies could destroy capitalism.

“We are probably in a period where we will have more activism in Europe. Frankly, in an environment where passive index funds have taken such big market share, it is welcome for capitalism,” he says, sitting in his modest office in central Stockholm.

Cevian, which has about $15.5bn in assets under management, has long had large swaths of northern Europe largely to itself. But there are signs that Cevian’s rivals in the US are looking to Europe. Mr Loeb recently made the biggest move of his career by buying $3.5bn of shares in Nestlé, the Swiss consumer goods group, while Elliott Advisors, another large US activist, has targeted Akzo Nobel, the Dutch paints company.

Mr Gardell says there are enough targets to go around. Strikingly, he argues one of the main reasons for the move is that Europe is more fertile territory than the US.

“Probably the most attractive country for shareholder protection is Sweden,” he says. “I told Carl Icahn once about corporate governance standards in Europe and he replied: ‘This must be the shareholder paradise’.”

This is reflected in the contrasting styles of activism on either side of the Atlantic. Mr Gardell this year took a 5.6 per cent stake in Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms equipment maker, and immediately get a seat on the nomination committee. Such a position is key for Cevian, because it can influence who sits on the board. A few weeks later, one of Mr Gardell’s main targets — Leif Johansson, the chairman — stepped down without Cevian having to make much in the way of public statements.

In the US, by contrast, corporate governance is often protective of management, meaning shareholders have to make a noise. Mr Gardell says: “They have to take a more aggressive approach. It’s not a style; it’s more a product of the US corporate governance approach. We see them come into Europe with a less shouty approach.”

Mr Gardell set up Cevian 15 years ago with Lars Förberg, a former private equity executive whom he first met in the 1990s. Initially, they focused on Scandinavia. For the past decade Cevian has widened its horizons to Germany, Switzerland and the UK.

Wherever it invests, the approach is the same. Cevian buys stakes of between 5 and 20 per cent in companies it believes to be undervalued, holding its shares for about five to seven years. It then works with boards to unlock what it sees as the hidden value in the company, often by splitting the group up.

It often does this by encouraging change at board and management level. Mr Gardell points to Volvo Group, the Swedish truckmaker, where it swapped out most directors and the chief executive. Some businesses were sold off and the company focused its core trucks business. “It sounds simple: the focus is to improve the businesses,” he says.

Mr Gardell says he sees no reason to go in the opposite direction to the US as there are plenty of opportunities still in Europe. As well as the $1bn Ericsson stake, two more companies are being targeted, one that Cevian is close to disclosing and the other in which it has just started building a stake.

It is a patient game. Mr Gardell says Cevian had Ericsson under observation for a decade before moving when shares became cheap. Returns for investors have been above average, with Cevian making a total 19.4 per cent last year.

But there have been hiccups, most prominently in its investment in Bilfinger, a German construction group. Mr Gardell says the 29.5 per cent stake — its first investment in Germany — was “a mistake” because Cevian failed to do a thorough analysis. It underestimated the problems of the deals that had built Bilfinger. “If it had been in Sweden we would have known we should have been careful. It was a lesson learnt to get into a new market,” he adds. Cevian retains a 29.5 per cent stake in the company.

It has not stopped Cevian from going into other, seemingly more complicated, situations in Germany such as ThyssenKrupp, the highly traditional steel-to-elevators conglomerate in which it owns a 15.1 per cent stake. Mr Gardell says its corporate governance may not be as straightforward as at Scandinavian or British companies but that “the price level compensated for it”.

Behind this is a belief that activism is a “relatively local” business. “We need to know the people, have networks, have a corporate governance tradition we’re comfortable with,” he says. “In some markets, the language is important,” he adds. “It explains why some US activists may struggle in Europe.”

There are still fights closer to home, however. Mr Gardell is particularly vexed by the system of A and B shares in Sweden, which gives owners of A shares a bigger share of voting rights.

“It’s very difficult to challenge incompetence,” Mr Gardell says. In what could be his motto, he adds: “It’s the basis of capitalism: if something isn’t working, you should fix it.”

NY Post : Facebook tests Tinder-like ‘meet up’ feature

Mark Zuckerberg appears to be getting ready to ape another hot app.

The tech titan’s Facebook has recently started a beta test of a new “meet up” feature that employs some Tinder-like features.

The beta test, in Toronto and New Zealand, sent out notifications to Facebook users asking them if they would be interested in meeting up with a specific friend.

One eagle-eyed Motherboard writer in Toronto received a notification telling him that 15 of his friends might be interested in meeting up.

Following the link in the notification took him to a window that displayed an image of one of his friends and asked if he wanted to meet up with them. He had the option to choose from “Yes” and “No Thanks,” with a disclaimer underneath saying that his response would be confidential unless both selected the “Yes” option.

If both parties demonstrated interest, Facebook said, they would be paired in a Messenger window so that they could make plans.

That sounds a lot like dating apps Tinder and Bumble, the writer noted. Both are fast-growing dating apps.

In recent years, Facebook introduced Newsfeed after Twitter became popular and rolled out Stories and Filters, two Snapchat-like offerings.

Facebook insists the service is not about dating.

“People often use Facebook to make plans with their friends,” a Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard. “So, we’re running a very small test in the Facebook app to make that easier.”

Barron's : Week End Summary : cautious cover story on NKE; positive feature on A

Barrons weekend summary: cautious cover story on NKE; positive feature on AABA, CG; cautious on VIAB 

* Cover story: Shares of NKE have dropped 16% since the end of 2015 and could fall by another 10% as the company loses traction with customers amid a changing e-commerce landscape and a rebound in the U.S. market by Adidas. 

* Features: 1) Positive on AABA: Shares of the former Yahoo!, whose 15% stake in BABA is valued at $65B, are a cheap way to play the Chinese e-commerce giant, and aren’t likely to suffer from liabilities related to data breaches at Yahoo; 2) Positive on CG: A number of problems, including an ill-advised move into hedge funds, have left the private-equity giant’s shares looking cheap just as it launches a $100B fundraising effort that could boost fee-related earnings; 3) Cautious on VIAB: Media giant is trying to reinvent itself, but the effort may not be enough to reverse a declining trend in which networks lose ground as consumers embrace new streaming paradigms; 4) Story looks at six things people need to know about Social Security, which is far more complicated than it appears; 5) Health savings accounts, “an oft-overlooked savings tool, can help with what will probably be the biggest cost in retirement—healthcare—and help people save on taxes now and later.” 

* Tech Trader: Positive on AAPL: The next version of the Apple Watch could include a new technology called an embedded SIM that allows the device to access the Internet without being connected to a phone, leaving mobile phone providers out of the loop. 

* Trader: The markets seem unfazed by global turmoil, and investors are looking forward to strong third quarter earnings, a case of good news being celebrated and bad news ignored; A market correction, were it to occur, would start with something small, such as a drop below the S&P 500’s 200-day moving average; Companies are increasingly snubbing activist investors, and some are greeting them with mockery—a major change in attitude from just a few years ago. 

* Interview: Jonathan Atkin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, “is enthusiastic about the prospects for cell-tower and data-center industries,” but cautious on most cellular plays (picks: AMT, CCI, GDS, DLR, EQIX, ATUS, CHTR, TMUS). 

* Profile: Jeffrey Sherman manages DoubleLine Capital’s DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE fund, which gains additional returns via an actively managed fixed-income portfolio that serves as collateral for a strategy that uses total-return swaps to access the S&P 500. 

* European Trader: For investors who think the run-up in FANG stocks appears overdone, European companies such as ASML Holding and SAP might fit the bill, while investors should avoid Nokia and ERIC because of their close ties to the telecom industry. 

* Asian Trader: “Long seen as a laggard in an economically dynamic region, the Philippines has staged a comeback. Its economy is one of the fastest growing in Asia.” 

* Emerging Markets: Positive on Ping An Insurance, Bank of China, Huatai Securities, China Construction: Analysts say taking positions in large, conservative institutions with diverse businesses is a good way to deal with the changes facing China’s banking industry. 

* Commodities: “As the recovery for the energy market in the Gulf of Mexico takes hold, post-Hurricane Harvey, Irma, and other storms promise to fuel volatility for oil and keep gasoline prices high in the weeks ahead.” 

* Streetwise: The Fed faces a difficult task, says Morgan Stanley’s Ellen Zentner, because if it does nothing in the current environment of low unemployment and easing financial conditions, it runs the risk of having to raise rates quickly later on

TechCrunch : And now the names of Apple’s new iPhones look to have leaked…

And now the names of Apple’s new iPhones look to have leaked…

We are but days away from the event of the Apple calendar year when the company pulls the curtain up on new iPhone models. And yet the leaks keep coming.

The latest juicy tidbit is what looks to be the official names of the three models Apple is rumored to be announcing next Tuesday — and they suggest Cupertino is skipping its usual ‘S’ generation convention for this release, as well as throwing in a curve ball christening for the most expensive model of the trio.

The top-of-the-range iPhone, which is expected to ditch the home button to make way for more screen real-estate, replacing the fingerprint-powered Touch ID with a facial recognition alternative, has been referred to as ‘D22’ in a leaked iOS 11 firmware build.

But according to a developer who’s being sifting through the firmware the official name will be the iPhone X.

Which is at least not iPhone Ferrari, as was another of its rumored codenames.

While the other two iPhone models are set to be named the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, according to the leak, meaning Apple is eschewing an iterative iPhone 7s/7s Plus release — underlining how the company wants this release to be interpreted; i.e. not at all iterative.

At this point you do have to wonder whether Apple is retiring the iPhone ‘s’ cycle for good — something TC’s Editor in Chief Matthew Panzarino was calling for back in 2015 at the time of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

After all, when you’re asking people to shell out as much as $1,000 or more for their next smartphone — as has been the rumored price-tag for the incoming iPhone X — there’s rather a lot of perceived value resting on a name.