Reuters - VW expected to offer to buyback U.S. diesel vehicles

VW expected to offer to buyback U.S. diesel vehicles

Volkswagen AG and U.S. officials have reached the framework of a deal ahead of a Thursday court deadline, to remedy problems caused by hundreds of thousands of vehicles that are emitting up to 40 times legally allowable pollution, two sources briefed on the matter said Wednesday.

The German automaker is expected to tell a federal judge in San Francisco Thursday that it has agreed to offer to buy back up to 500,000 2.0-liter diesel U.S. vehicles that used sophisticated software to evade U.S. emission rules.

Volkswagen may also offer to repair polluting diesel vehicles if U.S. regulators approve the fix as workable at a future date, the sources said. But it is not certain if those vehicles will be deemed fixable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Separately, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported Wednesday that the deal to settle the case would involve it paying each affected customer $5,000.

>>> VW to hike dieselgate provisions to double digit bln amount - sources - Reut

VW to hike dieselgate provisions to double digit bln amount - sources - Reuters News


BERLIN, April 20 (Reuters) - Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE will raise its provisions to pay for an emissions cheating scandal to a double digit billion euros amount, from 6.7 billion euros at present, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Regulators and prosecutors around the world are investigating Volkswagen after it admitted installing software in its cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests.

"The 6.7 billion euros will be substantially changed. For the full year it will be a double-digit billion amount," one the people, who declined to be named, said on Wednesday.

"It could be that there will be no dividend or it could be a small dividend but it will be under one euro," the source further said.

Volkswagen declined to comment.

(TechCrunch) FreedomPop expands to Spain, adds in zero-rated WhatsApp voice and


FreedomPop expands to Spain, adds in zero-rated WhatsApp voice and text to its free plan

FreedomPop — the startup that has built a mobile service based on the premise of a free basic tier of voice and data services — has announced plans to launch its services in Spain, its second market in Europe after the UK. And to woo users in one of the world’s most competitive and saturated markets, it’s throwing in something new: usage of WhatsApp will be zero-rated for FreedomPop users.

And on top of free basic voice and data and WhatsApp access, FreedomPop is also offering free roaming to 31 countries, including the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Portugal and Italy, among others.

Users interested can sign up for the beta here.

Zero-rating apps has caused controversy in some markets, specifically around Facebook and its Free Basics (nee Internet.org) service violating net neutrality rules. But if it flies, it could be a key way of picking up users.

Aside from Spain already being overcrowded with existing mobile services, messaging apps are massive, for both text and voice services, and WhatsApp currently reigns supreme among all messaging apps in the country. At the same time, the popularity makes these apps one of the bigger drains on users’ data allowances, so giving users free access to it will help further differentiate FreedomPop from the rest of the carriers out there, the company believes.

“WhatsApp is huge in Spain, accounting for over 90% of all texting and over 70% penetration,” said CEO and co-founder Stephen Stokols in a interview. “So ‘free texts’ is worthless but ‘free WhatsApp’ is meaningful.” FreedomPop is projecting that it will pick up betwee 500,000 to 1 million Spanish users in the next two years.

WhatsApp in Spain will be the first time that FreedomPop zero-rates a third party app as part of its free tier, it won’t be the last. Stokols added that it is setting up a template for further roll outs, especially “in lower ARPU markets and markets like Spain that have really embraced OTT.”

“We are looking to roll out zero-rating in conjunction with other apps, e.g. Line in Korea,” he said. “This helps us prove the capability and puts FreedomPop in a position to lead the charge, given Internet.org has struggled to get carriers on board, particularly in developed markets.”

He sees FreedomPop as having a broader mission here, too: to sway carriers to free up how they use their networks for free services as a way of winning more wholesale business from software-based companies like his.

“We are hoping we can not only show that zero rate models can be profitable but also force other carriers (starting in Spain) to embrace this model versus resist it,” he said. “Carriers don’t like the thought of cannibalising their voice and text revenues, but ultimately can’t stop it.”
The developments today come on the heels of FreedomPop raising an additional $50 million from an un-named financial investor earlier this year (taking the total to $109 million), and the startup itself toying with taking more investment from a company that happens to be trying to acquire it.

He didn’t name the company, but M&A has been rumored for a while now. “Hmmm, it isn’t fully off the table,” he said. “We have a formal offer but unlikely we will take it given the valuation of that offer not significantly higher from $50 million round we just closed. That said, we may take strategic investment there.”

It’s not clear what FreedomPop’s valuation is but Stokols has told us in the past that he’s aiming to build a $1 billion company.

One strategic investor that FreedomPop already has on the books is Intel, which invested in a previous round and is working with FreedomPop on rolling out a Wifi-based phone service. Stokols gave me an update on this: he says the “Intel phone is coming, and it will be a pretty solid phone with Intel tech, working globally and well below a $99 price point.”

Stokols would not say which carrier FreedomPop is working with in Spain, except to note that it is one of the major national carriers that will be revealed at launch.

Further afield, FreedomPop growth is “above target in US and UK,” Stokols said. The UK is approaching 100,000 users on its U.K. service. Over 50 percent of current users do not pay anything, and heavier users pay a fraction of what competitive plans cost.

As we’ve described before, FreedomPop says that it is not your run of the mill MVNO, using a software-based model to allocate mobile data for consumer services in a cost-effective way, and it also makes money from incremental value-added services, both of which appear to rely ultimately on economies of scale. That makes for an interesting future ahead for the startup.


MOBILE FOR LESS
  • Wifi calling and texting from anywhere
  • Free Unlimited calling & texting between FreedomPop phones
  • Free international calling from over 60 countries
  • Access over 8 Million hotspots with nationwide roaming
  • Get virtual number from anywhere in the world
  • Earn free 4G LTE data every month by adding friends
  • Earn unlimited free data by completing partner offers

>>> Mercedes-Benz Cote d'Azur put up for sale, approached by four bidders - repo

Mercedes-Benz Cote d'Azur put up for sale, approached by four bidders 

Mercedes-Benz Cote d'Azur, a France-based vehicles distributor, has been put up for sale by the German automotive group, French news portal Autoactu reported.

The unsourced piece noted that the target has been approached by French peers Groupe Como, Groupe LG Automobiles and By My Car as well as Chinese car dealer Lei Shing Hongn. The target is valued at circa EUR 40m, the report said.

Mercedes-Benz Cote d'Azur operates three dealerships in Nice, Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet that employ 238 and generated EUR 106m revenues in 2014, the report said.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: CAMP -12.2%, ANGI -7%, WWD -3.5%, USB -2%, INTC -1.9%, (also announces restructuring, reducing 11% of workforce; CFO Smith taking new role in sales/operations), KO -1.6%, FLS -1.1%, TXT -0.7%, ARMH -0.6%, SAP -0.5%


Select oil/gas related names showing early weakness: BT -2.4%, PBR -1.7%, MRO -1.5%, WLL -1.5%, TOT -1.4%, BP -1.3%, CHK -0.8%

Other news: AMGN -1.7% (announces that The Lancet published results from a Phase 3 study of Nplate; study met the primary endpoint of durable platelet response), JASO -1.1% (JA Solar sued by Hemlock Semiconductor in the Supreme Court of the State of New York), JD -1% (Shanghai down over 2% last night)

Analyst comments: DV -2.8% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill), BA -2.2% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill), REGN -1.6% (downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo), EAT -1.2% (downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays), EOG -0.8% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank) 

LE Monde : Alerte aux certificats falsifiés dans le nucléaire

--> could be -ve for BVI FP

Alerte aux certificats falsifiés dans le nucléaire

L’Autorité de sûreté nucléaire (ASN) française est inquiète. Un mouton noir a été repéré dans la filière. Un fabricant de pièces métalliques qui, dans une soixantaine de cas au moins, a fourni à ses clients comme Areva des produits présentant des malfaçons, accompagnés de certificats falsifiés. L’ASN a demandé à toutes les entreprises du secteur de vérifier les pièces qu’elles utilisent en provenance de cette PME, pour pouvoir stopper les équipements en cas de besoin, a-t-elle annoncé lundi 18 avril.
En 2012, un scandale du même type avait été découvert en Corée du sud. Des fournisseurs avaient contrefait les certificats de sûreté de milliers de pièces : fusibles, commutateurs, etc. Deux réacteurs avaient été arrêtés pour des inspections.
En France, l’histoire débute en octobre 2015. Un industriel du nucléaire tique en consultant le certificat assurant que la pièce qu’il vient de recevoir est conforme à la commande et aux normes. Le fabricant, SBS, une PME de Boën (Loire), a beau travailler pour le nucléaire depuis la construction des premiers réacteurs, ce client a un soupçon. Il prend donc contact directement avec Bureau Veritas, la société qui a émis le certificat. Le pot aux roses est découvert. Selon le document original de Veritas, la pièce forgée n’était pas conforme. Un tour de passe-passe, et elle l’est devenue dans l’exemplaire remis à l’acheteur.
Un salarié licencié, un autre suspecté
Faux, usage de faux : Bureau Veritas a très vite porté plainte, suivi en mars par Areva et le Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA). Certaines pièces en cause étaient en effet destinées au réacteur de recherche Jules Horowitz, qu’Areva bâtit pour le CEA à Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône).
Lors de l’enquête, SBS, une filiale du groupe Genoyer, a reconnu les faits. En cause, un de ses salariés, licencié depuis. Il était en charge du contrôle qualité. Lorsque les analyses effectuées par Bureau Veritas ou Apave montraient que les pièces n’étaient pas conformes, pour un taux de chrome trop élevé par exemple, il lui arrivait de transformer leurs rapports sur son ordinateur, de changer quelques chiffres, afin que les produits puissent être livrés malgré tout sans que les clients renâclent. Une soixantaine de rapports maquillés a été identifiée.
« Cela portait sur des points mineurs, affirme Ludovic Malgrain, l’avocat de l’entreprise. Quand il y avait des sujets importants, il ne modifiait pas les certificats. »
A ce stade de l’enquête, il semble que ces tricheries répétées n’entraînent pas de problème de sûreté sur des installations en service.
« Défaillance dans le processus de contrôle »
La direction de SBS est néanmoins dépitée. « Il y avait une défaillance dans le processus de contrôle, admet Me Malgrain. Cette personne n’aurait pas dû pouvoir faire cela. » Un autre salarié est suspecté d’être impliqué. La société a informé tous ses clients, et assure avoir pris des mesures correctrices.
Bureau Veritas, de son côté, prépare des solutions pour fournir des documents numériques à valeur probante qui ne puissent plus être dénaturés. Apave a également porté plainte, la semaine dernière.
Peut-on avoir confiance dans les pièces des centrales nucléaires, et dans les certificats assurant leur conformité ? « Ce dossier reste heureusement exceptionnel, assure Julien Collet, directeur général adjoint de l’ASN. Depuis l’affaire coréenne, la falsification des certificats est néanmoins un sujet sur lequel toutes les autorités de sûreté se penchent, pour mieux déceler ces fraudes. »

WSJ : Why Mitsubishi Motors’ Emissions Problem Won’t Clear Quickly

Why Mitsubishi Motors’ Emissions Problem Won’t Clear Quickly
Shares of car maker Volkswagen have yet to recover since the emissions-test scandal broke in September

It might have made the stock 15% cheaper, but an emissions problem of unknown proportion at a second-tier Japanese auto maker isn’t the entry point a value investor should be looking for.

Eight months after Volkswagen, Mitsubishi Motors became the latest global car maker to become ensnared in emissions problems when it said Wednesday that its fuel-economy tests were “improper.” The company’s shares plunged on the news. So far, four models are involved, all minicars, a type of vehicle especially diminutive in size, and all sold in Japan.

Japan’s sixth-largest auto maker supplied two of these models to bigger peer Nissan Motor, and says it will discuss compensation with Nissan, meaning Nissan’s shares should be spared. Of the 625,000 vehicles affected, most were supplied to Nissan, though Mitsubishi directly sold 157,000. That smaller number is roughly 40% of all the cars it sold in Japan since then. This isn’t just some niche model at stake.

Mitsubishi has a long history of run-ins with the law. In the early part of the previous decade, the company’s truck affiliate admitted that it concealed defects in vehicle parts, which at times caused the wheels to come off the vehicle, for instance.

Investors will then be right to ask what other wheels come off if the current issue progresses. Regulators in other markets could commence investigations into Mitsubishi nameplates. Asia, excluding Japan, accounts for one in three of Mitsubishi’s vehicles sold; North America one in eight.

The bigger unknown: Mitsubishi hasn’t explained to what extent its tests were “improper” compared with regulatory requirements, and whether this was willful fraud or plain incompetence. That makes it hard to predict the extent of potential fines or lawsuits.

Meanwhile, the broader global economy isn’t any kinder to the firm. Mitsubishi is exposed to slowing economies in Asia. An appreciating yen especially hurts since the company manufactures heavily at home, and exports most of those cars abroad.

Shares in Volkswagen, with its mighty brand and engineering prowess, still haven’t recovered from their fall in September. If that’s the model, investors shouldn’t place much hope in a quick restart for Mitsubishi.