(BFW) EU Commission’s New Plan Sees Extending Greek Aid to Sept: FAS

BN 06/20 15:47 *EU COMMISSION PLAN LINKED TO GREECE ACCEPTING CONDITIONS: FAZ
BN 06/20 15:47 *EU COMMISSION GREEK PLAN SEES GRANTING EU6 BLN ESM BRIDGE: FAZ
BN 06/20 15:47 *EU COMMISSION NEW PLAN SEES EXTENDING GREEK AID TO SEPT: FAZ
EU Commission’s New Plan Sees Extending Greek Aid to Sept: FAS
2015-06-20 16:01:16.870 GMT


By Brian Parkin
(Bloomberg) -- Greece may gain extension of current aid
program to at least Sept as well as a EU6b transfer of ESM funds
to tide it over provided the Tsipras govt agrees to EU
Commission reform proposals, the Frankfurter Allgemeine
Sonntagszeitung says citing no one.

* Greece agreement would unlock ESM fund money plus EU3.7b
outstanding in current aid package: FAS
* Commission proposal entails Greece acceding to extra EU4.5b
-- worth 2.5% of GDP -- in blend of spending cuts and VAT
rate changes: FAS
* EU1.8b -- equal to 1% of GDP -- must derive from pension
payment cuts and higher VAT receipts: FAS
* Athens proposes VAT changes worth 0.75% of GDP but balks at
pension savings in favor of seeking revenue from other taxes
and fees worth about 2% of GDP: FAS
* 3 institutions reject proposal to substitute pension reform
by tapping other revenue sources: FAS


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To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Brian Parkin at +49-30-70010-6229 or
bparkin@bloomberg.net

NY Post : Email exposes ‘climate of fear’ at Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg is facing a near-revolt by frustrated employees at his financial news and data giant — his biggest challenge yet since returning as the boss of the company he founded almost 34 years ago.
After retaking the reins last year, the former New York mayor has shaken up his eponymous company, bringing in top editor John Micklethwait to oversee content across all divisions and unite the notoriously fractious newsroom.
But instead of putting an end to low-level infighting at Bloomberg LP, the new regime has exposed rifts within the newsroom.
Tensions spilled into full view Thursday when a scathing, 3,222-word email from a senior reporter in Bloomberg’s Washington bureau laid bare the crisis in the newsroom.
Dawn Kopecki described a “climate of fear” at the company’s news operations, where tone-deaf editors pit reporters against one another, stifle reporting on major issues and cause staffers to trip over unnecessary hurdles placed in their way by a bloated management.
“I’ve personally been at Bloomberg News for seven years now, three of which have been in DC, and I’ve never seen morale lower,” Kopecki wrote in the email to the two senior editors of the news operation.
“I’ve never seen the organization more bloated, never seen more redundancy and unnecessary overlap on beats, among editors and across platforms,” she wrote.
Tensions are reaching the boiling point as Micklethwait has tried to put his stamp on the organization he joined six months ago.
In April, he sent two top lieutenants — Josh Tyrangiel and Marty Schenker — to “straighten out the DC bureau,” where staffers were both fearful and frustrated at being overshadowed by beefed-up political coverage out of New York, according to one insider.
The insurrectionist email came just two days after Bloomberg News, at its New York headquarters, celebrated its 25th anniversary. At the fete, the former mayor, Micklethwait and Editor Emeritus Matt Winkler gave high-flying speeches and broke out the bubbly for afternoon toasts.
Little did they know as they raised the flutes that the festering unrest was about to burst into the open.
The morale was made worse when Bloomberg brass shunted aside some of its top Washington reporters, like Annie Linskey and Jeanne Cummings, as the former mayor pressed for an expansion of a New York-based politics team.
The reporters there resented that they had to answer to two of the editors who were seen as instrumental in pushing out their colleagues.
“My very capable friend’s out and now you want me to bare my soul to you? No way,” another Bloomberg employee said, summing up the DC bureau’s frustration.
Tyrangiel, a favorite of the former mayor, is catching much of the blame for the unrest.
“People are starting to make bets on how long he’s going to last,” a Bloomberg veteran told The Post, estimating that he’d last around two years. “You can’t be so universally hated among the rank and file and last long.”

>>> Monsanto could refine offer for Syngenta

Monsanto could refine offer for Syngenta 

Monsanto, the US agri-group, could refine its offer for Swiss rival Syngenta, Basler Zeitung reported. The Swiss daily said an unnamed PR advisor has stated in the media Monsanto could refine its offer.

The Syngenta share closed this week slightly up (0.4%) which the paper said could be an indicator that an increasing number of investor believe Monsanto will be successful. During the week Pierre Landolt, Chairman of the Sandoz foundation and former Syngenta director, said he believes Monsanto will prevail in the end, the report noted.

Basler Zeitung

Barrons : Can Adidas Rebound?


Can Adidas Rebound?

Dow Jones Global Indexes | Global Stock Markets
Germany’s Adidas has struggled to find a new game plan after sharp competition reduced its share of the sportswear market, and a series of profit warnings last year caused some investors to lose faith in its previously impressive management team.


That may be changing. The stock has climbed steadily this year, recovering much of the 40% it lost when earnings stumbled in 2014. Some of those gains are attributable to Europe’s broad market upswing, but they also reflect the attempt by Adidas (ticker: ADS.Germany) to reposition its business. The shares are still 10% below their level a year ago. (Adidas’ American depositary shares trade under the symbol ADDYY.)
Kevin Kelly, chief investment officer of New York-based Recon Capital Partners, describes Adidas as a great turnaround story. He says key investors, such as activist funds, see value in it. One of them, Southeastern Asset Management, owns about 3% of the company. Last month, Adidas—the world’s No. 2 sportswear maker, behind Nike (NKE)—hired Perella Weinberg Partners to watch for hostile activity.
In March, Adidas said it would focus on a handful of big cities: Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo. L.A. and New York are key launch pads for the company’s drive to rebuild its U.S. presence. Its North American market share has plunged to around 7% from 18% over the past nine years.
Apart from facing competition from Nike, Adidas also must deal with upstarts, such as Under Armour (UA), which has sneaked into second place in the U.S.
Some investors want CEO Herbert Hainer to resign, despite his sterling success until 2014. The pressure on him fell slightly in May, when Adidas reported first-quarter sales had jumped 28% in North America, year-over-year. Kelly attributes most of that to the cheaper euro, but observes that, even without the favorable currency boost, sales rose 7%, a figure he views as impressive. And he argues that improved consumer confidence in Europe will boost sales, as will the increasingly blurred line between fashionable athletic gear and everyday apparel. He also notes that, compared with Nike and Under Armor, Adidas has a higher dividend, lower price/earnings ratio, and similar growth. And the German company plans to spend €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) on share buybacks by the end of 2017.


Downside risks include the stalemate over Greece’s latest bailout, and allegations of corruption at FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, with which Adidas has long-running sponsorship ties. Kelly is confident the Greek crisis will be resolved, but says the brinkmanship between Greece, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Union is likely to continue until month’s end, when failure to reach a deal would otherwise cause Athens to default on its debt. As for the FIFA scandal, he sees a limited effect because Adidas has a closer involvement with individual teams than it does with the parent organization.
Still, some analysts are skeptical. One is Berenberg’s Zuzanna Pusz, who has Adidas at Sell with a €65 price target. “In our view, changing dynamics in the global sporting goods market will make incremental market share gains even more difficult for Adidas [with the] global expansion of Under Armour and the return of Puma (PUM.Germany) as a sports performance brand,” she says. Convincing distributors in North America to shift space from Adidas’s rivals will take both time and the right products, she warns. Adidas stock closed at €68.85 Friday, down 1.8% on the week.

>>> US Close Dow-0.55% S&P-0.53% Nasdaq-0.31% Russell-0.01%

Closing Market Summary: Stocks End Week on Cautious Note With Greece in Focus

The stock market ended an upbeat week on a lower note as participants showed reluctance to step in ahead of a weekend that will be filled with uncertainty related to Greece. The S&P 500 lost 0.5% on Friday, but gained 0.7% for the week.

Despite frequent—and short-lived—rumors to the contrary, the entire week passed without a deal between Greece and its creditors. That lack of progress caused more than EUR3.00 billion in outflows from the Greek banking system this week alone, which prompted the European Central Bank to increase Greece's Emergency Liquidity Assistance by EUR1.80 billion to EUR84.90 billion.

European indices ended the Friday session near their flat lines while Germany's 10-yr bund rallied, sending its yield lower by 11 basis points to 0.75%. For the week, Germany's benchmark yield fell ten basis points. Similarly, the U.S. 10-yr note rallied today with its yield dropping seven basis points to 2.26%, which extended this week's decline to 13 basis points.

All ten sectors ended the day in negative territory with the consumer staples sector (-0.1%) losing its slim gain during the final hour. The countercyclical group displayed relative strength thanks to ConAgra (CAG 43.37, +4.25), which spiked 10.9% after Jana Partners disclosed a 7.2% active stake in the company and announced plans to seek representation on the company's board of directors.

Similar to the staples sector, consumer discretionary (-0.3%) and health care (-0.1%) ended the day with slimmer losses than the broader market. The discretionary sector displayed relative strength thanks to gains among homebuilders after KB Home (KBH 16.37, +1.41) beat earnings estimates. Shares of KBH soared 9.4% while the broader iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB 27.40, +0.35) gained 1.3%. To be fair, retail stocks also fared better than the broader market with SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 100.40, -0.11) ending little changed.

Elsewhere, the health care sector spent the day near its flat line, locking in a 2.0% gain since last Friday, which helped the group finish the week ahead of the remaining sectors. Biotechnology was at the forefront of the weekly move with iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 377.40, -0.48) spiking 3.7% for the week.

On the downside, the energy sector (-0.9%) trailed throughout the session with crude oil contributing to the weakness. The energy component lost 1.3%, ending the pit session at $59.64/bbl. Similar to the energy sector, financials (-1.0%) struggled throughout the session. For the week, the financial sector slipped 0.1%.

It is worth noting that earlier this week, the financial sector was among the top-performing groups of the month with the strength predicated on the expectation that interest rates will continue rising. However, Wednesday's FOMC policy statement indicated the Fed is determined to stay on its current path for the time being, which pressured the financial sector as the week drew to its close.

Also of note, the top-weighted technology sector (-0.7%) struggled throughout the day, which prevented the market from stringing together a rebound rally. Large cap sector components like Apple (AAPL 126.60, -1.28), Microsoft (MSFT 46.10, -0.62), and Oracle (ORCL 41.59, -1.15) lost between 1.0% and 2.7% while chipmakers fared a bit better with the PHLX Semiconductor Index falling 0.3%.

Today's trading volume was well above average, which was due to quadruple witching. As a result, nearly two billion shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Monday's data will be limited to the 10:00 ET release of the Existing Home Sales report for May (consensus 5.26 million).
  • Nasdaq Composite +8.0% YTD 
  • Russell 2000 +6.7% YTD 
  • S&P 500 +2.5% YTD 
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.1% YTD 

>>> Parkway Properties seen considering sale, sector advisors say

Deal Reporter

Parkway Properties seen considering sale, sector advisors say

Parkway Properties (NYSE:PKY) is expected to pursue a sale or major divestiture in light of a stock that trades at a persistent discount to the REIT’s net asset value, three sector advisors said.

The most likely bidders would be peer office REITs such as Highwoods Properties (NYSE:HIW), Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM), and Cousins Properties, several other sector advisors said.

The Orlando, Florida-based office REIT has explored potential deals in the past that have included discussions of potential mergers with at least some of those REITs, two advisors said was their understanding.

Representatives for Parkway did not respond to requests for comment.

Any of the three REITs above would likely take an interest in Parkway due to similarities in the quality and type of the companies’ real estate and significant geographic overlap, the advisors added.

Parkway may also consider divesting its Texas properties, said one of the first three sector advisors, which comprise about 30% of its portfolio by square footage, according to Parkway’s most recent 10-K.

Parkway’s major investor, TPG Capital, which owns about 20% of its stock and has several members on the board, may also be ready to see the company put up for sale, said one of the first three sector advisors.

The private equity firm enjoyed a successful run with Parkway, injecting capital in 2012 when the stock was trading at about USD 10 per share, but may wish to cash out now that Parkway has been on a steady downward slide from its 2014 high of about USD 21 per share, he explained. The stock currently trades around USD 17 per share.

The REIT, which has about 23% exposure to the Houston, has suffered a persistent discount to net asset value, partly because the collapse in oil prices last year slammed the city’s real estate market, said two of the advisors.

The performance of Parkway’s stock price may also result from a weaker-than-expected rebound in office properties, especially outside of the urban core, a different sector advisor said.

Despite headwinds from cheap oil, the company’s Houston exposure may be seen as an asset to potential acquirers wishing to bulk up on holdings in a major urban center that may be excessively discounted in the public markets, one of the sector advisors said.

At a panel during NAREIT’s annual REIT Week conference, CEO David O’Reilly described prices in many of Parkway’s other core markets as “expensive” and anticipated a slowdown in additional acquisitions.

He added that the company could benefit from selling properties but that “we don’t have that many assets to sell that aren’t core strategic assets … so if I wanted to dispose of more it I probably would have to think about exiting a city.”

O’Reilly also noted that he considers the stock “way undervalued relative to our assets” and that “everything is on the table” when considering ways to realize that value.

In the year following the injection of USD 200m in capital from TPG, Parkway purchased nearly USD 1bn in office assets and merged with private real estate firm EOLA Capital, which took over management of the REIT following the merger.

The company’s portfolio has seen about 90% turnover since the new management came in.

In September 2013, Parkway acquired Thomas Properties, a publicly traded real estate company, in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at about USD 1bn, according to Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm.

>>> Tom Tom - US appeals court reverses and remands patent ruling in appeal brou

US appeals court reverses and remands patent ruling in appeal brought by an individual against TomTom Appellant Dr. Michael Adolph appeals the claim construction of several terms of U.S. Patent No. 6,356,836 (the 836 patent), for which he is the inventor, by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. For the reasons set forth below, this court reverses and remands.