>>> Dollar General beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY16 guidance

Dollar General beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; reaffirms FY16 guidance

Reports Q2 (Jul) earnings of $0.95 per share, $0.01 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.94; revenues rose 8.1% year/year to $5.1 bln vs the $5.13 bln consensus. Reports same store sales growth of 2.8%.
  • Co reaffirms guidance for FY16, sees EPS of $3.85-3.95 vs. $3.95 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate. Total sales are expected to increase 8-9%, vs. consensus expectations for +8%, with same-store sales expected to increase 3 to 3.5 percent.
    • Considering sales performance to date and the current operating environment, co sees same-store sales likely to be closer to the low-end of the range.

FT : Abbott lines up $25bn bid for St Jude


Abbott Laboratories, the US pharmaceutical and healthcare company, is preparing a takeover bid for St Jude Medical that is likely to value the medical device maker at $25bn, people familiar with the matter have said.
Illinois-based Abbott has been working with advisers — thought to include JPMorgan and Citi — for several weeks, the people added, lining up the financing for a cash and shares offer.

Sources nevertheless cautioned that a bid has not yet been tabled and may not materialise. Abbott declined to comment. St Jude did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Abbott and St Jude, which is based in St Paul, Minnesota, already have a strong alliance in the field of cardiovascular devices, and sell their portfolio of products jointly to hospitals. A full merger would potentially give the enlarged company greater leverage in negotiating with all healthcare providers.
If a bid materialises, it would add to the wave of mergers and acquisitions that has swept the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sectors over the past two years as drugmakers scramble for growth assets and greater scale. About $400bn worth of transactions have been announced since January — the largest value of dealmaking in such a period ever seen in the sector, according to Thomson Reuters.
St Jude Medical, which has a market capitalisation of about $19bn, recently agreed to acquire US-listed Thoratec for about $3.4bn in cash.
Abbott is believed to have considered moving on St Jude earlier in the year, but was waiting for clarity on the future of Mylan, the generic drug specialist in which Abbott has a 15 per cent stake. Abbott’s holding dates from a deal 12 months ago, when Abbott sold Mylan its developed market generic drugs business for $5.3bn in stock.
Mylan, in turn, has had to wage an aggressive defence against a takeover by Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals, which finally abandoned its pursuit at the end of July.
While Abbott supported Mylan’s determination to remain independent, a takeover by Teva would have replenished Abbott’s cash war chest. Nevertheless, Abbott is said to be confident it can now fund a full offer for St Jude.

>>> Fed's George (non-voter, hawk): FOMC has signaled that every meeting is live

Fed's George (non-voter, hawk): FOMC has signaled that every meeting is live for rate hikes; my view for some time has been that the US can handle rate hikes - CNBC interview 
- The US is prepared for rate normalization
- This week's events in markets complicates the picture for the Fed, too soon to say what market volatility might mean for the US
- US economy is in a fundamentally in a good place, have not seen anything that would change economic outlook- Inflation expectations are relatively stable

(BN) Heard of China’s Fake Rolexes? Now There’s a Fake Goldman Sachs

Heard of China’s Fake Rolexes? Now There’s a Fake Goldman Sachs
2015-08-27 02:25:59.801 GMT


By Shai Oster
(Bloomberg) -- China has been accused of pirating movies,
handbags, Rolexes -- even cars. Add Goldman Sachs to the list.
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co. has been
operating in the city just across the border from Hong Kong
using a nearly identical English and Chinese name as the New
York-based financial institution, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. It
claims on its website to be one of the city’s largest financial
leasing firms.
A receptionist answering the phone at the Shenzhen company
who declined to give her name said it’s not affiliated with the
U.S. bank and wouldn’t offer how it got its name, emphasizing it
includes Shenzhen. It’s the first time she’s been asked the
question, she said.
A filing with the Shenzhen government indicates the company
has been operating since May 2013. The company uses the same
Chinese characters, gao sheng, as the real Goldman Sachs, and
its English font is evocative of the U.S. bank’s.
Connie Ling, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Goldman
Sachs, confirmed there are no ties between the U.S. investment
bank and the Shenzhen company and said Goldman is looking into
the matter.
It’s not the only bank facing brazen name-borrowing. In a
more extreme example, a 39-year-old man in eastern China’s
Shandong province was arrested earlier in August after setting
up a fake branch of China Construction Bank, including card
readers, teller counters and signs, according to the Xinhua news
agency.
Shenzhen’s Goldman Sachs came to light through a letter
sent by a U.S. casino workers union to Chinese officials. The
International Union of Operating Engineers said it sent a letter
to Wang Qishan, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is spearheading the
biggest anti-corruption crackdown in decades.

Money Laundering

The letter called on China’s government to investigate
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen), which it said is a financial services
company linked to a group of gambling companies controlled by
the family of Cheung Chi-tai. Prosecutors in at least two other
court cases alleged he has ties to Chinese organized crime
gangs, known as triads. Cheung is awaiting trial and his next
court appearance is scheduled for September.
Cheung is a prominent figure in Macau junkets, which
facilitate loans to Chinese high rollers in the only Chinese
territory where gambling is legal. Casino revenue has fallen as
China’s anti-corruption drive has affected junkets.
“Macau’s current gambling regulatory structure we believe
is ill-equipped to monitor and adequately regulate a junket’s
outside partnerships and financing arrangements,” Jeffrey
Fiedler, the U.S. union representative, said in the Aug. 25
letter.

Possible Ties

The union has been trying to pressure Chinese and U.S.
regulators to investigate Macau, where American casinos such as
Las Vegas Sands Corp. have big operations, for possible ties to
organized crime and money laundering.
Three phone calls to the office of the CCDI in Beijing went
unanswered. An operator with CCDI’s hotline for public reporting
said she’s not familiar with the case.
The company’s office is located in a relatively new
gleaming high-rise office park along a tree-lined street on the
western fringe of Shenzhen, a former fishing village turned
global manufacturing powerhouse.

Gold Control

The union said the Shenzhen company is controlled by a Hong
Kong-based gold trader unaffiliated with the investment bank.
Its connection to Cheung is through relatives, the letter said.
The Shenzhen Goldman Sachs’s website was inaccessible as of
Wednesday, though it could be viewed in screen grabs captured by
the union.
“There have been quite a few cases where Chinese
individuals or organizations have registered in China the
trademark of an existing and established overseas brand,” Paul
Haswell, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Pinsent Masons,
said in an e-mail.
If history is any guide, Goldman doesn’t have much chance
of changing its Shenzhen doppelganger. Basketball legend Michael
Jordan lost a case against a Chinese sportswear company that
used the Chinese version of his name.
Apple Inc. paid $60 million to settle a trademark dispute
with a Chinese company that had applied to block the sale of
iPad computer tablets in 2012.
“It’s notoriously difficult for an overseas claimant to
persuade the Chinese courts that there has been trademark
infringement,” said Haswell. “There’s still a practice of
whoever registers first wins.”

For Related News and Information:
Apple Pays $60 Million to End China IPad Fight With Proview
Michael Jordan’s Trademark Loss In China Shows Need to Protect
Brands
Kering’s Gucci Wins Order Barring Alibaba Merchants’ Fake Goods
Top Stories:TOP<GO>

--With assistance from Keith Zhai in Beijing.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Shai Oster in Hong Kong at +852-2977-4615 or
soster@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Peter Elstrom at +81-3-3201-3532 or
pelstrom@bloomberg.net
Sheridan Prasso, Stephanie Wong