TheChek News Flow

Bang & Olufsen [CPH:BO] has entered a strategic technology partnership with LG Electronics regarding the development and production of Bang & Olufsen’s future TVs, according to a stock exchange annoucement.

Strategic partnership

As previously announced, Bang & Olufsen a/s ("Bang & Olufsen") initiated a review to identify strategic and structural options to increase scale and further reduce complexity within Bang & Olufsen.

As a result of this review, Bang & Olufsen has entered a strategic technology partnership with LG, one of the world’s largest producers of TVs and a technological frontrunner with its leading OLED technology and WebOS. The agreement entails that Bang & Olufsen will focus on its unique competencies within design, acoustics and smart home integration within TV development, and combine this with LG’s technological leadership within OLED technology.

“This partnership with LG will enable Bang & Olufsen to stay at the forefront of innovation in the TV category, a category which is currently undergoing significant change and which is very important to Bang & Olufsen. The partnership will address Bang & Olufsen’s key challenges related to scale and complexity,” says CEO Tue Mantoni.

The partnership will help solve a key strategic challenge as Bang & Olufsen will achieve technological capabilities and scale needed to improve the long-term profitability of the company. The partnership will allow Bang & Olufsen to focus on core competencies within acoustics and design, while further optimising the company’s supply chain, development, production and service.

The first OLED TV produced by LG for Bang & Olufsen as a result of the partnership is expected to be launched in 2017. Further, the partnership involves collaboration in other areas such as license and product bundle activities.

As a consequence of the partnership, Bang & Olufsen expects to improve gross margins and reduce capacity costs. The agreement has an annual savings potential of DKK 150m-DKK 200m (EUR 20.1m-EUR 26.8m) when fully implemented over the next three years. As such, the partnership is an important step towards achieving the financial targets set out for 2017/18 of an EBIT-margin of approximately 7% and a positive free cash flow.

As a result of the partnership Bang & Olufsen expects to realise restructuring costs of DKK 10m-DKK 15m, of which up to DKK 5m will be realised in the fourth quarter of 2015/16. The restructuring costs have not been included in the current outlook for the 2015/16 financial year.

Dialogue regarding a potential launch of a takeover offer

In continuation of company announcement no. 15.07 dated 26 November 2015, Bang & Olufsen can inform that a dialogue is ongoing with one potential offeror that may or may not lead to an offer for the whole or part of the issued share capital of Bang & Olufsen.

At present, Bang & Olufsen has not entered into any binding commitments, and uncertainty remains as to the outcome of the dialogue with the potential offeror.

*BUDGET MIN. COMMENTS BEFORE TALKS WITH CATALONIA'S JUNQUERAS

The Stuttgart carmaker Daimler received the probably largest order in its history. The American taxi service Uber would decrease over a six-digit number of S-class limousines, manager magazine reported in its latest issue (release date: March 18).

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick have so agreed, according to circles of both companies. However, the order still hang in diverse conditions.

Thus Kalanick interested initially only for autonomously controlling versions of the Mercedes flagship. The will, however, likely to give it until after 2020, according to Stuttgart.

Even the business context of the possible large order is not clear. Daimler announced to having only about new mobility models can be thought of collaborations with various partners.

The value of a deal in the dimension discussed would certainly be huge: calculated carefully, likely 100,000 autonomously controlling S-classes cost around ten billion euros.

18-MAR-2016 13:15:33

PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - The planned takeover of Spanish wind power group Gamesa GAM.MC by Siemens SIEGn.DE will not include Gamesa partner Areva's AREVA.PA offshore wind turbine technology nor its plans to build a turbine factory in France, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Gamesa and Siemens said in January they were in talks over a merger that would create the world's biggest wind power firm, but the plan has stalled over what to do with the French commitments of Gamesa-Areva joint venture Adwen. (Full Story)

Adwen is part of two consortiums, one for 1000 megawatt with Engie ENGIE.PA and one for 500 MW with Spain's Iberdrola IBE.MC - to build offshore wind parks on the French coast.

The French government had awarded these contracts to Areva at above-market prices on the condition that Areva would develop its own 8 MW jumbo wind turbine and build it in France, with the aim of starting an offshore wind industry in France.

"Siemens has no need for Areva's technology, it is developing its own big turbines," one source said. The other source said that Siemens, undisputed EU market leader in offshore, cannot build a French factory for just two contracts.

As the French contracts had been conditional on manufacturing in France, the government could cancel the two tenders, which have a combined value of nearly 6 billion euros, one source said.

Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, who met with French Industry Minister Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Paris, declined to comment on the Gamesa deal on a conference call on Friday.

Areva and Engie also declined to comment.

AlpInvest-Led Group Seals $1.2 Billion Secondary Deal with Tom Lee Firm

Group also pledged about $300 million to a new fund Lee Equity Partners is trying to raise

The group, which also includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, HarbourVest Partners, Pantheon among others, purchased investor stakes in the firm’s debut fund, the $1.1 billion Lee Equity Partners Fund, in a roughly $900 million secondary deal, four of the people said.

As part of the transaction, the consortium also pledged approximately $300 million to Lee Equity Partners Fund II, a new fund the firm is trying to raise.

This deal, known as a stapled secondary transaction, provided existing investors with an early way out of the older fund and allowed the firm to raise capital for its successor fund.

AlpInvest was the largest player in the deal, news of which was previously reported by trade publication Buyouts Insider. AlpInvest put in about 60% of the capital for the total transaction, one person said. Park Hill Group advised Lee Equity on the deal.

Fund I had roughly 10 companies remaining in its portfolio, which were shifted into a new pool called the Lee Equity Realization Fund. Investors who chose not to sell have rolled over their stakes into the new vehicle and will invest in Realization Fund on the same terms they had for Fund I.

Lee Equity was launched in 2006 by Mr. Lee after he departed from the namesake Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, which was founded in 1974. Mr. Lee is seen as a pioneer in the leveraged-buyout business.

Lee Equity’s first fund struggled to deploy all of its capital in time. At the end of 2013, the Fund I received an 18-month extension to its commitment period, which is the time during which the firm can call on investors to release capital for new deals, one person said. That extension ended on June 30, 2015.

Lee Equity’s investments through Fund I include Skopos Financial Group, a Dallas-based lender which specializes in loans to people with weak credit scores, and Deb Shops, a retailer of plus-size clothing for women that went into liquidation in 2015.

Lee Equity had been considering raising a second fund for at least 2½ years and Dow Jones reported in 2013 that he was weighing a stapled-secondary structure.

Lee Equity completed two exits from Fund I in 2015, along with four new investments and seven companies acquired as add-on acquisitions. In December, the firm sold PDR Network, an information provider for health-care and drug companies, to Genstar Capital. In October, it sold a controlling stake in wealth manager Edelman Financial Group to Hellman & Friedman in a deal that valued the company at more than $800 million.

- Equities: $4.3bn inflows (3 straight weeks) (note divergence between $7.2bn ETF inflows & $2.9bn mutual fund outflows)

- Bonds: strong $7.7bn inflows (largest since Apr’15)

- Precious metals: $0.7bn inflows (10 straight weeks)

- Money-markets: big $39bn outflows (largest since Apr’15)

- Europe: $4.0bn outflows (6 straight weeks = worst since Oct’14)

- Japan: $0.4bn outflows

- EM: $1.4bn inflows (2nd straight week)

- US: $3.8bn inflows (2nd straight week)

- By sector: healthcare outflows in 10 of past 11 weeks (big $1.1bn outflows this week); first outflows from utilities in 10 weeks; chunky $0.8bn outflows from financials

$2.9bn inflows to HY bond funds (largest 4w inflows in 4 years)

$3.8bn inflows to IG bond funds (largest since Jun’15)

$0.8bn inflows to EM debt funds (4 straight weeks)

5 straight weeks of inflows to TIPS ($0.4bn)

2nd straight week of inflows to bank loan funds ($0.2bn) (following from 18 straight weeks of outflows)

26 straight weeks of inflows to Munis ($0.5bn)

$1.2bn outflows from Govt/Tsy funds (4 straight weeks)