TheChek News Flow

- Too early to discuss if Iran can get indvidual approach 

01-APR-2016 12:49:47

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BORDEAUX, France, April 1 (Reuters) - Orange ORAN.PA Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard said on Friday that there was no particular stumbling block to the acquisition of Bouygues' BOUY.PA telecoms unit but that certain legal and financial aspects needed to be resolved.

The two groups have set Sunday as a new deadline to find an agreement on the sale of Bouygues Telecom to Orange. The deal would cut the number of French telecoms operators from four to three and would make Bouygues the biggest shareholder in Orange after the French state.

"We're working on these aspects as we speak and we can't anticipate at this stage the outcome of the discussions," Richard told Reuters at an event in Bordeaux on the deployment of optic fiber technology in the region.

The eventual stake that Bouygues would have in Orange after the tie-up is not yet fixed, Richard said. The French state, which owns 23 percent of Orange, wants to preserve its influence on the former telecoms monopoly by keeping three seats on the board and a blocking minority at shareholders meetings.

The value of Bouygues Telecom's assets that would need to be sold to French rivals Iliad ILD.PA and SFR NUME.PA to ease competition concerns does not represent a major problem at this stage, Richard said.

Rather, the sharing of the financial risks tied to the execution of the deal is one of the main issues currently being discussed, he said.

The boards of Orange and Bouygues met independently on Wednesday, but concluded that negotiations were not sufficiently advanced.

BERLIN, April 1 (Reuters) - Airbus AIR.PA is sticking to plans to deliver 20 of its A400M military transporter planes this year as it works with engine partners to resolve problems discovered in the propeller gear boxes, it said on Friday.

Two separate problems have been identified in the gear boxes, requiring the aircraft to undergo regular inspections and to have parts replaced if necessary, Airbus said.

One issue was with the material structure and strength of the ring gear in about 14 gear boxes produced in the first half of 2015. The other problem was cracking of a plug that could see small parts of metal released into the oil system of the gearbox, affecting gear boxes that rotate to the right.

However Airbus stressed that the aircraft, which have four propeller engines, can fly normally.

"We continue to aim for 20 deliveries this year, counting on EPI and Avio to bring the adequate solutions to the propeller gear box issue in the necessary timeframe," Fernando Alonso, Head of Military Aircraft at the Airbus Defence and Space Division, said in a statement to Reuters.

EPI is the engine consortium for the A400M and Italy's Avio provides the power transmission for the engine.

The A400M programme has been beset with delays and Airbus is currently working on a revised delivery schedule for this year.

Airbus has already delivered two A400Ms to Britain this year.

LONDON—Hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s investment firm has recruited a new head of its recently-opened London office, as it rebuilds its presence in Europe.

Point72 Asset Management, previously known as SAC Capital Advisors, has hired Will Tovey, who was head of Barclays’ equities distribution business in Europe, to the newly created role, according to an internal memo sent to staff and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Tovey, who was previously a managing director at UBS, will be part of the team planning the firm’s strategy in Europe and will help in the recruitment of investment professionals to the London office, according to the memo.

SAC closed its London office in 2013 as part of a wider restructuring after a landmark agreement to plead guilty to insider-trading charges in the U.S. It also agreed to pay $1.8 billion in penalties and stop managing money for outside clients.

SAC changed its name to Point72 Asset Management LP and is now a family office running assets for its chairman and chief executive, Mr. Cohen—whom Forbes estimates is worth $12.7 billion—and employees, in a range of investment strategies.

It began trading out of its London office, located in St. James’s Square, one of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods, last autumn and has been expanding its presence. It recently hired Stanislas de Caumont, a global macro bond and currency trader who worked at SAC’s London office from summer 2012 until late 2013, from Balyasny Asset Management’s London office.

A spokesman for Point72 declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Barclays didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Tovey couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

BEIJING, April 1 (Reuters) - China, accused of flooding world markets with cheap steel, has imposed anti-dumping duties as high as 46.3 percent on electric steel products imported from Japan, South Korea and the European Union, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

The overseas suppliers include JFE Steel Corp JFEST.UL, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp 5401.T and POSCO 005490.KS, the ministry said in a notice posted on its website (http://www.mofcom.gov.cn).

The ministry did not identify any EU supplier.

China, by far the world's biggest steel producer, still imports relatively small quantities of high-end steel products, including electric steel used in power transformers and generators.

China's huge steel sector has turned to overseas markets to try to ease a huge supply surplus, with product exports reaching a record 112 million tonnes in 2015, up 19.9 percent on the year.

Blaming a flood of cheap Chinese supplies, India's Tata Steel TISC.NS put its British operations up for sale this week.

According to the China Iron and Steel Association, there were 36 anti-dumping investigations into Chinese steel makers last year, double the 2014 number.

The Credit Suisse Research Institute publish their sixth Emerging Consumer Survey covering 16,000 consumers across nine EM countries. From this data we draw five key conclusions for the luxury goods sector:

■ Takeaway #1: The appetite for luxury goods in China has not faded. Both

the purchase actions and intentions of the Chinese have picked up. This is

valid across all product categories with notable strength in leather goods and

apparel (see Figure 1). Momentum in oil-rich countries is overall negative.

■ Takeaway #2: Jewellery penetration keeps rising. This stands out against

other categories whose penetration has stagnated in EM. Globally brands, but

not necessarily Western brands, are preferred among EM consumers. That

said, the Chinese continue to favour Western jewellery brands.

■ Takeaway #3: Affordable watches are faring better. Demand prospects for

watches in EM do not look alarming. However, the preference for low price

point watches has become increasingly marked. In China, purchase intentions

of affordable watches have been stable in the last couple of years against a

drop for high-end products.

■ Takeaway #4: The middle-class seems to be optimistic. Despite becoming

increasingly optimistic with a steady growth in purchase intentions, there has

been little change to the purchasing actions for the EM middle class.

However, this cannot be said for the Chinese, who have recorded an increase

in actual purchases in all categories bar jewellery.

■ Takeaway #5: Gucci, Dior, Hermes score top of our brand scorecard.

This year we rank brands using a scorecard that pulls data from across the

survey. Gucci shows impressive brand strength, retaining its #1 position for

the second year running. While Hermes jumps from #13 to #3.