>>> Pernod Ricard could make further acquisitions and brand disposals

Pernod Ricard could make further acquisitions and brand disposals – MD

Pernod Ricard [EPA:RI] will “keep on actively managing its brand portfolio”, which would include making further acquisitions and asset disposals, MD Finance & Operations Gilles Bogaert told this news service on the sidelines of the company’s 2016/2017 half year sales and results presentation in Paris on 9 February.
The company could make bolt-on acquisitions of strategic beverage brands with a “modest” size, he said, without elaborating.
The company debt burden leaves limited room for manoeuvre on potential large deals, this news service reported in September 2016. As of 31 December 2016, Pernod Ricard’s net debt stood at EUR 8.9bn, implying a net debt/EBITDA ratio below 3.4x, according to the company’s half-year financial documentation. In December 2015, the company’s net debt/EBITDA ratio stood just below 3.6x.
The company’s cash and cash equivalents position increased by 39% to EUR 728m on 31 December 2016.
Following its recent acquisition of a majority stake in West Virginia-based distiller and bourbon producer Smooth Ambler Spirits Co., Pernod Ricard will keep on exploring the US market, Bogaert said.
The US is an important geography for Pernod Ricard, as the local market is showing interesting growth and “premiumization” trends, CEO Alexandre Ricard said during the results presentation.
During 2H16, the company’s sales in the US grew by 5%, while its overall sales worldwide registered a 4% organic growth. Pernod Ricard posted sales of EUR 5.1bn for the first half of FY16/17.
Potential asset disposals
Disposals of non-core brands could also be on the cards, Bogaert said, declining to specify further.
Likely disposal candidates would include small local brands, a Paris-based sector analyst covering the stock suggested. Pernod Ricard could be interested in selling its Czech digestif producer Becherovka, the analyst said, adding that this unit has been rumoured to be a sale candidate in the past.
In December 2016, Pernod Ricard sold its Domecq brandies and wines business to Bodega Las Copas. In September 2016, the company sold Fris Vodka to Sazerac.

FT : Monte dei Paschi posts €3.4bn loss in 2016

Monte dei Paschi posts €3.4bn loss in 2016

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, swung to a loss of €3.38bn in 2016 as it set aside larger provisions for bad loans, the company said on Thursday.

Italy’s third-largest bank by assets logged a loss of €2.53bn in the fourth quarter, following a €1.15bn loss in the third — which offset profits in the first six months of the year.
MPS said it set aside €2.6bn “due to the revision of methodologies” and for the evaluation of non-performing loans last year. Its common equity tier 1 ratio (CET ratio), a key measure of financial strength, declined to 8 per cent at the end of December, compared with 12 per cent at the end of the previous year.
MPS said in December that it would need government funds to help prop it up, after it failed to raise new capital demanded by regulators from private investors.
The bank said overall revenues fell 18.4 per cent from a year ago to €4.5bn in 2016.
MPS’s shares fell 88 per cent last year and have declined every year for the past decade.

FT : Airbnb poised to buy exclusive vacation villas specialist

Airbnb poised to buy exclusive vacation villas specialist
Prospective $200m-plus deal for Luxury Retreats would be one of company’s biggest

Not content to rent out apartments and guest bedrooms, Airbnb is in advanced talks to acquire Luxury Retreats, a Canadian company that specialises in high-end vacation villas, in a deal expected to be worth more than $200m.

The proposed deal, a mix of cash and shares according to a person close to the transaction, would be one of the largest yet for the Silicon Valley accommodation company that has disrupted the travel and accommodation industry.

With deluxe houses such as the “Chateau Petit Versailles”, a 14-bedroom mansion that rents for $27,000 a night and includes a chef, concierge and housekeeping staff, Luxury Retreats would bring a new class of lodging to Airbnb’s site.

Montreal-based Luxury Retreats was founded in 1999 and lists more than 3,000 properties around the world, each individually vetted by the company. Among those featured is Richard Branson’s Necker Island, which can accommodate 34 guests and costs $80,000 per night for the whole island.

The deal would also help Airbnb tap the experience of the executives at Luxury Retreats, who would stay on with Airbnb but still be based in Montreal and retain the company’s Canada-based staff.

Although the annual bookings of Luxury Retreats are just a fraction of Airbnb’s, having access to the luxury market could help the Silicon Valley company boost its appeal to elite travellers who are likely to spend more on high-touch services. The company has recently branched out into guided tours for travellers, which range from surf lessons in California to Korean embroidery classes in Seoul.

Airbnb’s yearly bookings are around $3bn, while Luxury Retreat’s bookings are about $150m, according to estimates from Santosh Rao, an analyst at Manhattan Venture Partners. Airbnb has raised more than $3bn from investors who recently valued the company at $30bn; its backers include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global.

Mr Rao expects that the deal will be accretive to Airbnb’s margins as well as to its revenue. “The margins for high-end [accommodation] always end up being higher,” he said. Based on his calculations, Airbnb broke even in 2016 based on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

The talks between Airbnb and Luxury Retreats were first reported on Thursday by Bloomberg.

Nick Papas, a spokesman for Airbnb, declined to comment specifically on Luxury Retreats. “We are always looking to provide our community with access to new and different options, but we have no announcements to make,” he said in a written statement.

Luxury Retreats did not respond to a request for comment.

Joseph DiTomaso, chief executive of AllTheRooms, an accommodation search engine, pointed out that Airbnb is paying a premium for the luxury homes that will be added to its network — the deal works out to about $53,000 per property on Luxury Retreats.

“Longer term, this upscaling of Airbnb is therefore a threat for hotel-based online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia,” he said.

Airbnb’s move will also raise the heat on high-end vacation home rentals sites such as London-based Onefinestay, which was acquired by Accor last year, and HomeAway, which is owned by Expedia.

FT : Reckitt target faces lawsuit over whistleblower claims

Reckitt target faces lawsuit over whistleblower claims
Ex-compliance chief at Mead Johnson sues for unfair dismissal over baby formula affair

Mead Johnson, the US baby foodmaker that is the target of a $16.7bn takeover bid by the Reckitt Benckiser, is being sued by a former employee alleging she was unfairly dismissed after raising safety issues over bottles of infant formula.

In the lawsuit filed on Thursday in an Illinois district court, Linda O’Risky, Mead’s former global product compliance director, alleges that in 2015 she learnt that the company intended to destroy 1m units of its ready-to-use formula because of leaking seals on the bottles.
The complaint alleges that Ms O’Risky, who had worked at Mead for more than 25 years, believed that a greater number of potentially defective bottles might still be in the market because the batches in question had been manufactured several months earlier.
Ms O’Risky argued that a defective seal could allow micro-organisms into the bottles, even if the seal was not obviously broken.
She claims that, after trying for seven months to persuade her managers to contact the Food and Drug Administration over the issue, her employment was terminated. She alleges that Mead Johnson contacted the FDA only after she lodged employment claims against the company.
Debra Katz, of Katz, Marshall & Banks, who is representing Ms O’Risky said: “It is unconscionable to allow infants, the most vulnerable among us, to be exposed to life-threatening risks. People like Ms O’Risky, who speak up about these dangers, shouldn’t suffer as a result.”
In a statement, Mead Johnson said: “Mead Johnson Nutrition is aware of the lawsuit filed by a former employee and denies the allegations in the complaint.
The company’s main focus is — and has been for more than a century — the quality and safety of our products. The packaging matter cited in the suit was thoroughly reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration, and no action was required. Mead Johnson also places a high value on maintaining an environment for our employees of openness, respect and high performance, and denies engaging in retaliation against the complainant.”
Reckitt, the UK households products group whose brands include Nurofen painkillers, Durex condoms and Finish dishwasher tablets, declined to comment.
Mead Johnson is one of the biggest exporters of infant formula to China, where demand for foreign products has boomed after a string of safety scandals over the past decade involving domestic producers.

(Der Spiegel) Schulz euphoria in the SPD : Three themes three dangers


Schulz euphoria in the SPD : Three themes three dangers
Martin Schulz inspires the SPD: The polls are rising, the union is getting nervous. But the election campaign is still long - and full of risks for the chancellor candidate.
DPA
Designate SPD chancellor candidate, Martin Schulz
Thursday, 2/9/2017 18:52

The comrades can hardly grasp their own fortune. Since they depend for years firmly in the poll Keller, Angela Merkel smiles sympathetically and unreachable from the top floor down. Then comes Martin Schulz .






Since Sigmar Gabriel has plotted his friend, the ex-president of the European Parliament, the party presidency and the chancellorship, acting SPD as reanimated. Just pissed on. The projection of the CDU and CSU will melt together , a polling firm sees the SPD even front . Even in the chancellor preference, Schulz has already taken over or even overtaken the owner in some surveys.
The election campaign has not even begun, and by September 24th there are still more than seven months. And so far, the top candidate had simply to be a top candidate in order to bring life to the dizzy comrades.
The closer the election day comes, the more it will be about the content of the SPD challenger, not just about his passion and authenticity. So the real work begins - the work on the program. And right here, Schulz knows, lurk the real risks of the election campaign.
What does Schulz stand for, where does he offer attacking territory to the political opponent? Three themes, three dangers:
Europe
AP / dpa
Martin Schulz and EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker (in September 2015)

Who is to show him something? Schulz is Mister Europa, for more than 22 years he was in the Europaparlament, five years he was president. The SPD politician knows everything and everyone in Brussels and Strasbourg, is wired with many heads of state and government.
But that can be a disadvantage in the election campaign. In the federal policy, Schulz may be a fresh face, and in the EU he belonged to the power apparatus. "The ones in Brussels" are not necessarily easy for the ordinary citizen. The Union wants to pull this map, and the CDU is only too happy to be heard as an Europaparte. And Merkel has maintained a good relationship with the Europapolitiker Schulz in the past.
Schulz's credibility could be put to the test by the Greek crisis, which has just returned with power. As the President of the European Parliament, he always opposed the savings policy promoted by the Federal Government. Schulz does not want to know anything about Eurobonds today, but one can not wait to see how much understanding he will bring to overburdened member states, now that he wants to become Federal Chancellor in the Black Zero country.

justice
DPA
Party Conference of the Bocholter SPD (6th February 2017)

The classic of the Social Democracy: "Time for More Justice" is the motto of Schulz 'campaign so far. However, Peer Steinbrück has already tried to lead a ruling election campaign in one of many well-off countries - with a well-known result.
After all, the personal credibility problems of Steinbriick, the high-ranking lecturer, scoffed at cheap wine and demanded more money for the Chancellor, Schulz probably do not threaten. But also the new candidate has to be careful, as the past days have shown.
Schulz complained on all the channels, which would be to pay casualties and bonuses. At the same time, it was announced that ex-VW CEO Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, even a social democrat, should receive twelve million euros after only 13 months' work. The state of Lower Saxony is part of VW, SPD Minister President Stephan Weil is on the Supervisory Board.
Schulz wants to make his mark especially in the fight against tax evasion. Him happy to be his opponent then remember how it once the European Parliament's Duz-mate Jean-Claude Juncker saved a committee of inquiry to the disputed tax practices in Luxembourg. Juncker was a long-time government minister and finance minister of the Grand Duchy, today he is EU Commission President.
How Schulz 'control concept should look in detail is still uncertain. "It's all right," says Schulz. Only so much: He wants to take the rich more into the duty and relieve lower and middle income. He is skeptical about tax cuts. The fact is: In this field, he has with finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble the probably strongest and most respected minister of the government to the opponent.

Internal security
DPA
Police in a search of the Bilal Mosque in Frankfurt (in February 2017)
For years, Sigmar Gabriel has been aware that his party has serious problems in the field of internal security: the SPD lacks a head like the long-time Federal Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, who also had a police helmet, and the citizens in this area Traditionally trust the Union anyway. No wonder, then, that after the Christmas market attack from Berlin, Gabriel published a security paper in the greatest haste to position the SPD: more police, the full severity of the law, better prevention in the fight against extremists.
But Gabriel has retired to the Foreign Office - now the future party chairman and chancellor candidate Schulz has to set the course in the security policy. Only what? Schulz has so far been little concrete, which might in particular be understood by Social Democrats from the left wing as a vacuum, which they now want to fill themselves.

This can already be seen in refugee policy. According to a "World" report, many left-wing SPD Bundestag representatives, who want to enable family reunion also for Syrian refugees who enjoy only subsidiary protection status. In the so-called Asylpaket 2, the Union and the SPD last year agreed to grant family suffers only Syrians with asylum status.
The SPD strategists know: if Schulz really wants to have a chance against Merkel, for which he must pull massive voices from the political middle, the Social Democrat must not be too soft on these issues.