TheChek News Flow

Brenntag AG, a German chemical distribution company, has acquired a 51% stake in Trychem FZC, a distributor of solvents serving the paint, ink and coatings companies based in the UAE. Following the transaction, Brenntag will hold 51% while Tri Star Transport LLC/JRA Holding 49% stake. Trychem distributes solvents mainly in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and East Africa.

Iovine, who helped launch the career of Eminem, believes a generation of youngsters didn’t get turned on by live music, but rather by the first time they play “f–king ‘Mortal Kombat.’ ”

Those youngsters, now grown up, work at tech companies “like Google, Spotify and Pandora,” he said in a recent interview.

“You know, the services you use to listen to music,” Iovine lamented.

The music industry veteran, working with colleague and musician Dr. Dre at Apple and trying to lift its nascent Apple Music streaming service to success, said these tech companies are “culturally inept.”

“The last 15 years of the record industry allowing itself to get pounded and not moving the ball forward, I think it’s going to affect popular music,” said Iovine, who launched predecessor Beats Music in January 2014, while still employed at Universal Music.

The streaming service flopped after signing a reported 300,000 subscribers, even after buying several Super Bowl spots. It was acquired by Apple last August, along with Beats Electronics hardware for an eye-popping $3 billion.

Amazingly, Dr. Dre, who just released a new album, “Compton,” via Apple Music to 25 million streams in its first week, noted: “I don’t feel like there’s exciting stuff happening now. A lot of the real artists are not motivated to go into the studio.”

Iovine said that music was one, two and three for anyone between the ages of 15 and 25. “It’s not anymore,” he added.

Allen Kovac, who runs independent record label Eleven Seven Music Group had some poignant words for Iovine.

“Jimmy is always in the Jimmy business and he’s doing a good job of that.” He continued: “Jimmy should go back to when artists made records and not commercials and people would buy albums again.” Kovac argues there isn’t time to invest in the growth of artists because of consolidation and “everyone following a stock price.”

Kovac, who works with Motley Crüe and Nelly Furtado, said he has a positive outlook on the music business and has seen exponential growth. “Fifty percent of my income is from streaming. It’s a huge positive. You don’t have manufacturing or distribution.” He claims the right artist, like Adele, for instance, can still sell millions of albums.

Russ Crupnick, managing partner with MusicWatch, a consumer insights company, interpreted the duo’s comments as a characterization of the amount of change happening.

“The reality is for most people, if you want to be a rock ’n’ roll star, you want to be signed to Universal or Sony. I think there’s still that enthusiasm.”

Reuters, Beijing, August 18 - China's central bank orderly capital account convertibility is expected to be down a move. Three sources said on Tuesday, the central bank consider replicated Shanghai FTA debt management approach adopted to the country, that the abolition of foreign debt for approval, in accordance with a certain percentage of corporate capital to the discretion of foreign bonds gold.

"Conditional gradually promote FTA debt management approach to the country, to broaden the extent of capital account convertibility, can also be included in SDR (Special Drawing Rights) corresponding institutional basis for the renminbi." A source said.

He also said, which reflects the foreign debt financing and risk prevention of domestic institutions to facilitate regulatory reform ideas.

Reuters China's central bank has been contacted on the matter, yet to get their comments.

Sources said that Shanghai FTA pilot has accumulated a certain amount of risk management experience to be considered timely promotion, and with the interest rate and exchange rate market to further accelerate the pace of reform, capital account convertibility coordinate the promotion of internal demand is also appropriate upgrade.

At the same time, interest rates are now expected appreciation of the US dollar, relatively speaking, a rational enterprise, may not have foreign currency debt of the impulse, even relaxed the amount, it is not willing to dollar financing, debt liabilities surge and the possibility of runaway debt risk are relatively small ʱ??

The source also said, to strengthen management at the real trade background, to prevent false trade arbitrage, the need to strengthen the monitoring, if the liabilities of the foreign currency, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations may occur arbitrage trading.

The central bank Shanghai headquarters released in February this year, Shanghai FTA split accounting business overseas financing and cross-border capital flows prudent macroeconomic management implementation details (Trial), which allows companies and financial institutions can independently carry out activities outside financing, and increase economic agents from the region leverage foreign financing, financing scale enterprises from the capital to expand to twice doubled.

The rules and regulations, local corporate and non-banking financial institutions may optionally apply a pattern in foreign debt and foreign borrowing under the existing management model and rules of prudent macro management mode.

For a long time, China has been implementing the scale of foreign debt management, foreign debt can not exceed the size of "poor bets" (registered capital and total investment balance range), domestic enterprises and foreign debt and foreign financial institutions need to get the country approved by the NDRC or SAFE External debt indicators. May this year, the NDRC has canceled debt of corporate issuers credit approval.

*PAULSON: XI HAS UNLEASHED REFORM AGENDA BEYOND THE ECONOMY

*PAULSON: CHINA FACING ENORMOUS STRUCTURAL ISSUES

*PAULSON: XI UNDERSTANDS IMPORTANCE OF FIXING ECONOMY

*PAULSON: CHINA AWARE IT'S TOO EXPORT RELIANT

*PAULSON: KEY FOR CHINA IS FINDING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH LEVEL

*PAULSON: CHINA NEEDS TO OPEN UP TELECOM, FINANCE, ENERGY

*PAULSON: CHINA-U.S. MOST CONSEQUENTIAL BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP

*PAULSON: XI, CHINESE LEADERS UNDERSTAND COUNTRY'S PROBLEMS

*PAULSON: CHINA NEEDS TO SPEED UP MARKET, REGULATION REFORMS

*PAULSON: CHINA STOCK INTERVENTION IS UNDERSTANDABLE

*PAULSON: INTERVENTION MADE DEALING WITH PROBLEMS MORE DIFFICULT

*PAULSON: LOT OF LEVERAGE ON MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN CHINA

*PAULSON: KEY TO REIN IN EXCESSES BEFORE THEY BECOME TOO BIG

Bearish sentiment helps explain gutsy resilience of stocks to Greece, China, Fed and HY. FMS cash levels remain high + Fed hike priced-in = new stock market highs/risk rally before Sept hike. Late-summer pain trade = rally in EM, energy & commodities with US$ “crowded” & “overvalued.” By contrast, banks most at risk if recession fears grow.

...according to 2 out of 3 investors. Global growth, inflation & bond yield expectations down sharp in August FMS. But just 6% see global recession, GDP forecasts for US (2.4%) & China (6.5%) stable and majority expect Fed to hike in September.

Cash down from post-Lehman 5.5% July peak but still high. Investors stay long stocks, long cash, & short bonds. Investors “aggressively” UW commodities at record high.

Investors long “strong-US$” markets (Eurozone & Japan – Chart 1), short “rate-hike” markets (US & UK). Yen most “undervalued” since Oct ’08; sterling most “overvalued” since Nov ’08. All-time high UW of EM, higher than during China debt scare (Mar’14), Lehman (Dec’08) & Lula (Oct’01).

Sector allocation remains biased to US-led “deflationary recovery” view (S5HOME at new cyclical highs). In Aug investors reduce banks & tech, take energy sector weighting to all-time low, rotate to telecoms (3-year high), utilities, healthcare (2-year high).

August trades: long EM, short DM; long commodities, short cash; long energy, short utilities/telcos; July trades: long energy/EM/commodities, short banks/Japan/cash wrong; long staples, short discretionary, long large-cap, short small-cap worked well.

(after being weak in 2014 already) and are now close to 50% below the early March level and

at a 10-year low. As a consequence we believe GEA´s share price has come under pressure,

down c22% from its mid-April peak. We believe this share price reaction exaggerates

respective risks, as we see the milk price weakness mostly supply driven and hence see limited

impact on mid-term investment decisions in dairy processing (24% of group sales). Direct

implications should be limited to dairy farming (14% of group sales), but here the high degree

of services revenues (close to 50% of dairy farming) should also help limit potential downside.

We continue to consider GEA`s FY 2015 organic revenue growth guidance of moderate (=2-

4%) growth to be ambitious, but see more upside than downside risks in the meantime, as

consensus already forecasts an organic revenue decline of 0.9% y-o-y in 2015 (down from

+2.7% in early May 2015).

… too little focus on mid-term margin upside: While over-emphasizing dairy risks, we

believe the market neglects the potential mid-term margin upside. GEA targets to attain an

operating EBIT margin of 13-16% from 2017 (after 11.4% in FY 2014), which we see

supported by EUR125m of cost savings related to the “Fit for 2020” progamme, but also by

operating leverage and underlying operational improvements (e.g., in the former Food

Solutions segment). Consensus is only forecasting an operating EBIT margin of 13.4-13.6% in

FY 2017, which is not even considering the full amount of net cost savings targeted by GEA,

let alone other supportive drivers. Our FY 2017 margin estimate of 14.6% is 100-120bp ahead

of consensus but still “only” in the middle of the target range.

Upgrade to Buy from Hold as mid-term valuation looks compelling: FY 2015 and to a

lesser extent FY 2016 will be burdened by significant restructuring charges, so that headline

multiples do not look particularly attractive. Beyond 2016 however we believe valuation is

compelling with GEA trading at around 10% average discount to the European capital goods

sector, despite a more attractive end market structure, attractive structural growth potential and

good margins. Our unchanged TP of EUR45.0 implies c24% upside to the current price;

therefore, we upgrade to Buy from Hold.

Dow +0.39% S&P +0.52% Nasdaq +0.86% Russell +1.02%

US Market Turned positive after opening lower. Early weakness was due to Aug. Empire Manufacturing which was reported much lower than expected (-14.9 vs consensus 5.0). Healtcare was one of sector leading the move, energy (-0.1%) and financials (+0.2%) underperformed while the remaining six groups ended in-line with or ahead of the broader market. Stock-specific news was limited today, but it is worth noting that Zulily (ZU 18.74, +6.17) spiked 49.1% after agreeing to be acquired by Liberty Interactive (QVCA 29.80, -0.46) for $18.75/share. energy sector spent the entire trading day near its flat line as crude oil added to its recent losses, falling 1.5% to $41.87/bbl. Including today's decline, WTI crude is now down 11.9% since the end of July. Volume were below average at 700mil shares. Asian indices are trading softer heading into the afternoon session in spite of the rebound late in the day on Wall St. China's Shanghai Composite is leading the selloff. Although the PBoC set Yuan slightly firmer for the 3rd straight day - effectively ending the Yuan devaluation ripple that spooked investors across the globe last week - traders are monitoring Chinese central bank's latest easing efforts. PBoC injected CNY120B in reverse repos - the highest since early 2014 - but the offering yield was unchanged at 2.5%, leading some to conclude that policymakers will calibrate monetary stance primarily through the open market operations. Those worries are magnified by more reports of a slowdown. PBoC adviser Fan Gang remarked that economic growth would remain low for the next few years, while another press report noted there is some disagreement among the drafters of the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) about whether to target GDP of 6.5% or 7.0% for the upcoming 5 years.China property prices continue to recover as investors disenchanted with the stock market return to more familiar pastures. July prices fell in 29 out of 70 cities m/m - down from 34 in the prior month, and prices rose in 31 vs 27 prior

Nikkei -0.32% Hang Seng -0.77% Shanghai -5.15%

Eur$ 1.1071 JPY 124.39 GBP 1.5573 CNY 6.4005 EURCHF 1.0825 RUB $65.7110 WTI $41.66

S&P -0.15% EuroStoxx -0.29% Dax -0.33% SMI -0.20%

- Russia to Probe Banks’ Assets in Foreign Depositories: Vedomosti

- Moody’s Cuts U.S. 2015 Growth Forecast to 2.4% From 2.8% in May

- AIR FP : Airbus A400M Design Office to Move to Seville From Toulouse: AFP

- AIR FP : Private Equity Said to Dominate Bids for Airbus Defense Assets

- ALKB DC : ALK-Abello 2Q Ebitda Pre-Items Falls; Adjusts FY Outlook

- BMW GY : BMW Says Vehicle Distribution Center Damaged in Tianjin Blasts

- EMMN SW : Emmi Maintains FY Sales Guidance, Raises FY Ebit Target Range

- ENGI FP : Engie Said to Plan Sale of Over $1 Billion in Asian Coal Plants

- FCC SM : Carlos Slim Favors Jarque to Become CEO of FCC: Cinco Dias

- GLEN LN : *GLENCORE SHAREHOLDER HARRIS BOOSTS STAKE TO 4.5% FROM 1.1%

- KCR1V FH : Konecranes Redefines FY Outlook to Include Terex Costs

- LISP SW : Lindt Board Member Franz Peter Oesch Died Unexpectedly Saturday

- LISP SW : Lindt 1H Ebit CHF90.6m, Est. CHF91m; Confirms Forecast

- MLBY US : Mobileye Climbs to Record as Partner Trades at Premium

- PRGO US : Paulson Raises Perrigo Stake to 1.79%

- PSPN SW : PSP FY Ebitda Forecast Improved to CHF230m From CHF225m

- RUSAL FP / 486 HK : Rusal May Pay Out $250m in First Dividend Since 2009: Vedomosti

- SAP GY : SAP Drops Plan for Russia JV; Won’t Disclose Code: Kommersant

- SPOTIFY IPO : Spotify Rival Deezer Said to Seek Funds at $1b Valuation

- VIV FP : Vivendi: Canal Plus Tender to Be Reopened for EU8/Shr

- VOW3 GY : Tesla, VW Stand Out as Takata Airbag Users Without U.S. Recalls

- WDI GY : Wirecard 2Q Net Income EU32.4m vs EU23.7m

- WIE AV : Wienerberger Raises FY Outlook After 2Q Profit Beats Forecasts

- WG/ LN : Wood Group 1H Profit From Ops Ex-Items $156m; Ebita Margin 7.4%

*DELTA LLOYD UPPED TO EQUALWEIGHT VS UNDERWEIGHT: MORGAN STANLEY