>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: JOUT +1.4%

M&A news: GMCR +74.8% (to be acquired by a JAB Holding Company-Led Investor Group for $92/share in cash), WIBC +11.1% (to be acquired by BBCN Bancorp (BBCN) for $13.00/share , or ~$1.0 bln in a 'merger of equals'), HMIN +5.7% (to be acquired by BTG Hotels for $35.80 per ADS), DATE +2.9% (to be acquired by Parent for $7.56/share)

Other news: NETE +37.9% (cont pre-mkt vol), SODA +14.8% (spikes in response to buyout of peer Green Mountain), GAI +13.6% (announces "Golng Private" transaction for $8.85 per share), ASTI +10.8% (cont pre-mkt vol), CTIC +9.5% (reports Phase 3 results treatment with Pacritinib support the effectiveness of pacritinib across intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis patient subgroups analyzed ), BLCM +9.2% (reports results BPX-501; significant reductions in time to hospital discharge and re-hospitalizations), IDRA +6.8% (reports positive data from ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of IMO-8400), ARWR +6.3% (presents data showing that in chronically HBV-infected chimpanzees treated with ARC-520 in combination with nucleoside analogs, 78% exhibited signs of immune reactivation), SWHC +4.8% (NY Post discusses recent surge in gun sales following California shootings), TGTX +4.1% (reports combination of TG-1101 plus TGR-1202 continues to demonstrate a favorable safety profile), XLRN +3.7% (Acceleron Pharma and Celgene (CELG) New Results from an Investigational Study with Luspatercept; increased hemoglobin levels and generated transfusion independence), AA +1.4% (Barron's profiles positive view on Alcoa (AA)), BUD +1.4% (cont pre-mkt vol), QGEN +1.2% (still checking), SGEN +1.2% (provided study updates at ASH)

Analyst comments: ISLE +4.6% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel), MCC +2.5% (upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Keefe Bruyette), LLY +1.3% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank), ABT +1.2% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies
)

>>> SodaStream (SODA): Color on being a sympathy play on GMCR getting acquired

SodaStream (SODA): Color on being a sympathy play on GMCR getting acquired
Earlier we mentioned SodaStream (SODA) as a potential sympathy play on GMCR. We wanted to provide a bit more color. SodaStream, which makes home beverage carbonation systems, is a possible sympathy play on GMCR being acquired at a huge premium this morning (see 8:00 comment for details). SODA has been trying to make the purchase of two-liter soda bottles and soda cans a thing of the past. While its carbonation systems are fairly popular in Europe, and especially in Switzerland, SODA has had difficulty cracking the all-important US market.
It's worth noting that in February 2014 Coca-Cola (KO) took a 10% stake in Green Mountain Coffee (GMCR), which makes the popular Keurig one-cup coffee brewer. Coke is now SODA's largest shareholder. KO recently helped launch Green Mountain's new cold drink machine, called Keurig Kold. It's basically a home soda fountain. And that's mainly why SODA could be seen as a sympathy play on GMCR getting bought as that's what SODA focuses on.

FT : Hedge funds lick wounds after tough year

Hedge funds lick wounds after tough year

What was meant to be the big comeback year for the beleaguered hedge fund industry has instead been one of its toughest since the financial crisis.
Wrong footed by central banks and sudden bouts of market volatility, some of the world’s best known hedge fund managers such as Bill Ackman and David Einhorn have suffered stinging losses, while other large funds, like Mike Novogratz’s Fortress Macro Fund, have closed down altogether.


“People have been burnt in so many places,” says one manager of a multibillion dollar hedge fund. “We are living in a new sort of world, where large moves in markets are happening, but they happen very quickly and more abruptly, being condensed into a few days rather than a few months. These moves are very, very difficult to trade.”
Hedge funds are under pressure over fees and lacklustre performance from an increasingly conservative investor base — now more likely to be pension funds rather than yacht-hopping private millionaires. The travails of 2015 have further dented the industry’s reputation.
In January many hedge fund managers that specialise in making big bets on the direction of interest rates and currencies believed that finally, after several years of directionless markets, their time had come.
At the heart of this thinking was the idea that so-called “policy divergence” driven by the idea that the Federal Reserve would inevitably begin to raise interest rates over the course of 2015, while the European Central Bank would continue loosening monetary policy.
Many hedge funds bet big against the euro and in favour of the US dollar and although they were ultimately correct in terms of these currencies diverging, the trading of this relationship has proven painfully volatile. Many hedge funds have been caught off guard by brutal swings and reversals that resulted in a number of them losing their nerve.
“2015 simply hasn’t lived up to expectations,” says Julien Calavia of Aberdeen Asset Management, which invests in hedge funds. “People late last year were expecting a lot from macro hedge funds due to Fed and ECB going in different directions. But the Fed delayed and this led to a choppy market that doesn’t suit macro managers.”
Some of these macro managers will no longer be around to see if their trades finally make money when the Fed meets next week and is widely expected to shift rates higher.
Mr Novogratz, the manager of Fortress Investment Group’s $2bn flagship macro fund had earlier in the year told his investors that the hedge fund industry was “Darwinian”.
“Do well and you raise assets,” he said in a July conference call. “Do poorly and you lose assets.”
By October his fund closed down having lost 17.5 per cent over the year, making it one of the worst performing hedge funds in the world.
Last week BlueCrest, which until last year was one of the largest hedge funds in the world managing $35bn at its peak, decided to close itself to outside investors, arguing that it was no longer worth the trouble of dealing with external clients. While BlueCrest’s flagship funds had performed significantly better than Fortress, it too had struggled alongside its macro peers to generate investment performance over the past three years.
Confusion and uncertainty over the direction of US interest rates spilled over into stock markets, with some of the best known specialised stock pickers suffering some of their worst years of performance in their careers as large concentrated bets went wrong.
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square, which in 2014 was one of the world’s best performing hedge funds, lost more than a fifth of its value up to the end of last month after its outsized position in the US drug company Valeant tumbled.
Another respected stock picker to suffer was David Einhorn, whose Greenlight Capital has lost more than 15 per cent after its “value orientated” portfolio of stocks posted heavy losses, while its short positions did not decline enough to compensate.
Crispin Odey, the outspoken London-based investor, had long warned of a bubble inflating in China and other emerging markets, and had taken out sizeable short positions to benefit from this. However a mistimed currency bet inflicted a near 20 per cent loss in April, and his fund was down 12 per cent in the middle of last month.
While the majority of hedge funds have struggled over the year, some did benefit from well-timed trades against particular stocks. The Mayfair-based Lansdowne Partners saw both of its main funds return over 10 per cent for investors, with its large short position against the commodities group Glencore paying off handsomely.
Marshall Wace, another London fund which this year sold a stake in itself to the private equity group KKR, also managed to be one of the few hedge funds to significantly beat the wider market. Its principal funds, Eureka and MW TOPS Market Neutral, have risen 9 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
After a painful year of trading many hedge funds are now finding cause to be optimistic for the next, arguing that their trades will eventually be proven right by the market. But if they fail, many more hedge funds are likely to close down for good.

>>> US Early premarket gappers

Early premarket gappers
Gapping up: ASTI +17.7%, CTIC +11.4%, SUNE +2.7%, SWHC +2.6%, AA +1.8%, BUD +1.7%, LLY +1.6%, QGEN +1.4%, GM +1.4%, AZN +1%, CCL +0.9%, AVP +0.9%

Gapping down: THLD -70.7%, BLUE -29.5%, TC -27.8%, CMG -10.7%, SDRL -6.1%, MT -4.1%, HMY -4.1%, KMI -3.2%, RDS.A -2.9%, BP -2.8%, TOT -2.7%, OAS -2.6%, BBL -2%, BHP -1.6%, RIO -1.4%, GOLD -1.4%, CHK -1.3%, RIG -1.2%, GDX -1.1%, FCX -1.1%, GG -1%, COP -0.9%

>>> De Longhi could make acquisitions for EUR 1bn – report (translated)

De Longhi could make acquisitions for EUR 1bn 

De Longhi, the listed Italian electrical appliances company, has EUR 1bn to make acquisitions, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Affari e Finanza reported.

The report, which cites financial sources, said that the company, in order to be competitive, has to increase its size and a large acquisition could be the right strategy.

De Longhi forecasts a turnover of EUR 1.9bn in 2015.

La Repubblica

>>> Vallourec potential target for predators; Tenaris, Sumitomo mentioned – repo

Vallourec potential target for predators; Tenaris, Sumitomo mentioned 

Listed French tubular services company Vallourec is being described as a potential takeover target following the difficulties it is currently experiencing, French daily Les Echos reported.

The report cited an industry expert as saying that Paolo Rocca, head of Argentine competitor Tenaris, is interested in Vallourec; Vallourec's market capitalisation has fallen 75% to EUR 1.3bn since the beginning of the year. The report cited a person in-the-know as saying that an agreement between Vallourec and Tenaris would have a strong impact on the workforce and could raise significant competition issues. The source added that the French government was keen to support the independence of the group and clients from the US could also be opposing such an alliance.

Another option could see Vallourec join forces with Japanese group Sumitomo as the two companies already work together in the US and in Brazil. According to the report, the French government would also be opposed to a tie-up with Sumitomo. A source close to Sumitomo claimed that a possible tie-up with Vallourec was not currently under consideration but he added that the Japanese group would be unhappy seeing it link up with a competitor.

The report cited an analyst at Natixis as saying that Vallourec, with a gearing ratio that amounts to 48.3%, does not have any repayment deadline in 2016 and therefore does not need any recapitalisation next year. Nicolas Dufour, head of French sovereign fund Bpifrance, recently mentioned Vallourec as a company that would need cash in the future and that the fund would “accompany” the French group.

Les Echos

>>> Mota Engil African unit declared unconditional its self-tender process

Mota Engil African unit declared unconditional its self-tender process
S
MOTA-ENGIL, SGPS, S.A. (“MOTA-ENGIL”) informs that MOTA-ENGIL AFRICA N.V. ("MOTA-ENGIL AFRICA") has announced today that it has declared unconditional its self-tender process initially announced on 11 October 2015. Given that the last condition on which the respective completion depended has been fulfilled, it has been announced that the settlement of the self-tender process is expected to occur on 9 December 2015.

MOTA-ENGIL AFRICA further informed that, at 17:40 hours CET on 3 December 2015, the last day of the period for the transmission of orders (as extended), orders had been received related to a total of 5,136,090 shares of MOTA-ENGIL AFRICA.

As it was previously announced, MOTA-ENGIL AFRICA has confirmed the delisting of its shares from Euronext Amsterdam will take place on 10 December 2015, with 9 December 2015 as last trading date.

FT : EU to ease foreign ownership rules for airlines

EU to ease foreign ownership rules for airlines

The European Commission has announced it is prepared to dilute its requirements on foreign investment for European airlines — which cap non-European ownership of EU airlines at 49 per cent — through deals with individual countries.
But the rules will only be loosened for states that agree to abide by stricter regulations on state subsidies, which have become a bone of contention between some EU legacy airlines and carriers based in the Middle East.

The changes come as the EU attempts to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation industry, which has been hit by the rise of lower-cost rivals such as the Gulf airlines and the emergence of rival airport hubs in Asia and Dubai.
Over the past decade, Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways have grown from relatively small players to global challengers on many routes.
This year, the big three US airlines — American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta — asked Washington to review the Gulf carriers’ access to the US market, saying the $42bn in subsidies the state-controlled carriers are alleged to have received in the past 10 years breached international open skies agreements.
The debate has also intensified in Europe, with both Lufthansa and Air France-KLM repeatedly expressing concern about whether they are competing on equal terms with the Gulf airlines.
Violeta Bulc, the commissioner responsible for the EU’s transport policy, called the shift “economic diplomacy”, but she refused to say whether Gulf carriers benefited from “unfair” subsidies from their home states. “There has been lots of hype about that, but strong fair negotiation is a good answer to that,” she said.
All three carriers deny benefiting from state subsidies.
The European Commission will rip up its current rules on state subsidies within the airline industry, arguing that they are “not considered effective”. Although foreign investors are banned from owning a majority of an EU airline, critics in Brussels and in the industry suggest that this rule is widely flouted. Ms Bulc admitted that enforcing such rules was “hard”.
The commission will propose that it leads EU-wide negotiations with countries such as China and the United Arab Emirates. At the moment, these types of deals are done by national capitals. “Part of the negotiation — a strong component — will be an equal playing field and reciprocity,” said Ms Bulc. “If someone wants to play a role in the EU markets, they have to play by European rules.”
Etihad, which owns stakes in the European airlines Alitalia and Air Berlin, said it looked forward to a “pro-aviation” EU strategy that would enhance the competitiveness of European carriers.