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BFW 06/04 20:32 *STICHTING PREF. SHARES MYLAN `CONCERNED' ABOUT TEVA BUYING SHRS

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Stichting Pref. Shares Mylan Concerned About Teva Buying Shrs 2015-06-04 20:40:17.397 GMT

By Andrea Snyder (Bloomberg) -- Stichting Preferred Shares Mylan learned of the acquisition by Teva of ~1.82% of shrs in Mylan NV, and Teva’s intention to acquire more.

* "The Stichting expresses its concern about Teva’s intentions related to this (intended) acquisition, among others in light of the Mylan shareholders’ meeting to obtain shareholder approval for its transaction with Perrigo Company plc, which Mylan announced will be held early in the third quarter of this year’’ * Stichting to closely monitor situation, developments, it says in e-mailed statement * NOTE: The Stichting was set up to attend to and to promote and safeguard the interests of Mylan, incl. businesses maintained by Mylan and its subsidiaries, and all stakeholders, as set out in the articles of association of the Stichting

Link to Company News:{PRGO US <Equity> CN <GO>} Link to Company News:{MYL US <Equity> CN <GO>} Link to Company News:{TEVA IT <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>} First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrea Snyder at +1-202-624-1831 or asnyder5@bloomberg.net

Closing Market Summary: S&P 500 Slides Below 50-Day Average

The stock market finished the Thursday session on a lower note following a daylong retreat that sent the S&P 500 (-0.8%) below its 50-day moving average (2,100). As a result, the benchmark index will enter Friday down 0.5% for the week.

Equity indices struggled from the start as continued uncertainty surrounding Greece weighed on investor sentiment in Europe and the U.S. To that point, International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, voiced confidence that the troubled sovereign will make tomorrow's debt payment to the IMF. However, that contrasted with reports indicating Greece has requested permission to bundle all of its debt payments due this month into a single payment of about EUR1.60 billion to be paid on June 19. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to address the Greek parliament tomorrow evening.

In addition to commenting on Greece, Ms. Lagarde discussed the U.S., urging the Federal Reserve to delay its first rate hike until the first half of 2016. A lowered growth forecast was cited to support that argument with the IMF now expecting 2015 GDP growth of 2.5%, down from the previous forecast of 3.1%.

Treasuries marked fresh highs following the outlook change at the IMF, and built on their gains in the afternoon with the 10-yr yield falling six basis points to 2.31%. On a related note, the Dollar Index (95.49, +0.02) ended flat after erasing its overnight decline.

All ten sectors ended in the red with most growth-sensitive groups showing relative weakness. Energy (-1.2%) and materials (-1.3%) spent the bulk of the session behind other groups with energy pressured by a 2.8% drop in crude oil, which ended the pit session at $58.00/bbl ahead of tomorrow's semiannual OPEC meeting.

Elsewhere among cyclical sectors, industrials (-1.1%) and technology (-0.9%) also lost close to 1.0% apiece while the consumer discretionary sector (-0.7%) stayed ahead of the broader market thanks to mixed action among retail names. Teen apparel names rallied after Five Below (FIVE 37.77, +2.67) reported a one-cent beat and raised its guidance for the fiscal year. The stock spiked 7.6% while SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 99.85, -0.09) shed 0.1%. Also of note, Dish Network (DISH 74.25, +3.44) jumped 4.9% after the Wall Street Journal reported the company has engaged in merger talks with T-Mobile US (TMUS 39.34, +1.01).

Moving to the countercyclical side, consumer staples (-0.8%), health care (-0.7%), and telecom services (-0.8%) settled near the broader market while the utilities sector (-0.2%) finished ahead of other groups thanks to today's drop in Treasury yields. The rate-sensitive sector extended this week's decline to 2.9%.

Today's participation was relatively strong when compared to recent averages as more than 710 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.

Economic data was limited to Initial Claims, Productivity/Unit Labor Cost Data, and Challenger Job Cuts:

* The initial claims level declined to 276,000 for the week ending May 30 from an upwardly revised 284,000 (from 282,000) for the week ending May 23 while the consensus expected a drop to 280,000  * Nonfarm productivity in the first quarter was revised down to -3.1% from an originally reported -1.9% in the advance release while the consensus expected a revision to -2.9% 

* As expected from the negative revisions in second estimate of first quarter GDP, output growth was revised down to show a decline of 1.6% in Q1 2015, down from a previously reported 0.3% decline  * Hourly compensation was revised up to 3.3% from 3.1%. Combined with the decline in output, this caused a 6.7% increase in unit labor costs, up from the 5.0% reported in the preliminary reading 

* The Challenger Job Cuts report for May showed a 22.5% year-over-year decline to follow the previous 52.8% spike 

Tomorrow, the Nonfarm Payrolls report for May (consensus 225K) will be released at 8:30 ET while the Consumer Credit report for April (consensus $16.80 billion) will cross the wires at 15:00 ET.

* Nasdaq Composite +6.8% YTD  * Russell 2000 +3.9% YTD  * S&P 500 +1.8% YTD  * Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.5% YTD

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Greece Defers IMF Payment as Merkel Says Resolution Far Away (1) 2015-06-04 18:39:01.865 GMT

(Updates with market reaction in fifth paragraph.)

By Nikos Chrysoloras and Andrew Mayeda (Bloomberg) -- Greece became the first country to defer a payment to the International Monetary Fund since the 1980s as its game of brinkmanship with creditors goes down to the wire. With Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras getting ready to address parliament on Friday after receiving a list of creditors’ demands, the step underscores the state of the country’s shriveling finances. While international officials have reported some progress in recent days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “we’re still far from reaching a conclusion.” The current phase of Greece’s crisis is nearing its conclusion as the country runs out of money after four months of deadlock. Stocks and bonds have whipsawed this week amid a flurry of political activity starting with a late-night meeting in Berlin between European leaders and the IMF on Monday. Greece rejected the latest proposal from Greece’s international creditors, with the Finance Ministry saying the plan “can’t solve the riddle” and an agreement requires “immediate convergence of the institutions to more realistic” proposals. The euro fell 0.3 percent against the dollar to to $1.1241 at 2:19 p.m. New York time, after rising to $1.1318 following a report that Greece requested the IMF payment delay.

Parliament Address

Tsipras, who met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels Wednesday, will address the Greek parliament at 6 p.m. local time on Friday, a Greek official said, with the euro region pressing for an agreement to be wrapped up by June 14. A European official said Greece will study the offer from its creditors and come back to them on Monday. Greece on Thursday told the IMF it would delay a debt payment of about $339 million (301 million euros) due Friday, submitting a request to the fund to bundle payments totaling about $1.7 billion due this month into one lump-sum payment. “The Greek authorities have informed the fund today that they plan to bundle the country’s four June payments into one, which is now due on June 30,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in an e-mailed statement. “Under an Executive Board decision adopted in the late 1970s, country members can ask to bundle together multiple principal payments falling due in a calendar month.” Only one country, Zambia, has used the procedure to bundle payments, which happened in the mid-1980s, another IMF spokesman, William Murray, said last week.

For Related News and Information: For top economic news: TOP ECO <GO> Global economy watch: GEW <GO>

--With assistance from Rebecca Christie in Brussels, Birgit Jennen in Berlin, Corina Ruhe in Amsterdam and Eleni Chrepa and Christos Ziotis in Athens.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Athens at +30-210-7419022 or nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net; Andrew Mayeda in Washington at +1-202-624-1947 or amayeda@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at +1-202-624-1862 or cwellisz@bloomberg.net; Alan Crawford at +49-30-70010-6237 or acrawford6@bloomberg.net Scott Lanman, Mark Rohner

Monsanto plots pricey Syngenta comeback amid growing scepticism

U.S. agrochemicals firm Monsanto Co and its advisers are working flat out to accommodate Syngenta's qualms about regulatory hurdles to a deal whose perils may well outweigh the rewards. Investment bankers and analysts expect Monsanto to increase its bid by about 10 percent, to just short of 500 SFr, while others say Monsanto cannot afford to be scorned by the target again and would be ready to offer potentially close to 550 SFr. But chances that antitrust regulators will block the deal remain high since the combined entity would control more of 40 percent of the U.S. seeds market. "The deal may not happen," said a source close to Syngenta, speaking on condition of anonymity. He mentioned growing scepticism among Syngenta's board that antitrust hurdles could be overcome. Driven by regulatory concerns, Monsanto said on May 20 it would make the deal "really clean" and "really easy to get done," in the words of the U.S. group's Chief Operating Officer Brett Begemann, by selling Syngenta's entire seeds business and certain crop chemical assets. Yet the deal is anything but easy. Sources said Monsanto has recently made changes to its team of external legal advisers in an effort to win Syngenta's support, which it needs to follow the deal through. Antitrust advisers of both companies have met twice in New York, the most recent a week ago, a person familiar with the matter said, but it remains unclear whether there has been any agreement. Selling Syngenta's seeds business, which accounts for about 30 percent of the group's sales and which commands an 8 percent global market share, means unravelling Syngenta's "integrated" strategy of managing the seeds and pesticides product lines as one, in place since 2011. Syngenta's board, led by Michel Demare, wants a "safe deal" and is unwilling to share the risk of the deal falling apart after months of regulatory scrutiny. The Swiss firm, the world's largest agrochemical maker by market share, expects regulators to consider the combined group's dominance of the broader agricultural inputs market and not look just at seeds and chemicals markets separately, said people with knowledge of the industry. Even excluding Syngenta's seeds business, the combined group would still command roughly 30 percent of the global seeds and pesticides market. That figure would be much higher in North and South American markets, where Monsanto generates about 80 percent of the group's revenues. MANAGERS IN A BIND Beside undertaking a radical change of strategy, Syngenta would also face reputational risks as Monsanto's key products are challenged by regulatory scrutiny and a consumer backlash in Monsanto's top market, the United States. Syngenta will find it hard to weigh up any substantial breakup fee, which sources say will be a key element of any bid, against management attention diverted by a futile merger project. But if Syngenta continues to reject Monsanto's or any rival bidders' advances, the onus will be on management to create the same value going it alone. Analysts on average expect earnings per share at the Swiss group, created from the agribusinesses of Novartis and AstraZeneca in 2000, to grow an average 6-7 percent per annum over the next three years, according to Thomson Reuters data. Syngenta's integrated business model of folding seeds into its pesticides business has missed expectations in core markets such as Western Europe and the United States, analysts say. Monsanto first tested Syngenta's appetite for a deal in 2014. Last month it offered to buy the business for $45 billion with a 45-percent cash offer. But the bid, which valued Syngenta at 449 SFr, was rebuffed. The St. Louis-based group is now pressured by industry rivals who may step in to derail its takeover plans. On Thursday Reuters exclusively reported that BASF (BASFn.DE) is discussing a potential counter-bid with investment banks. A combination of BASF and Syngenta would also face major anti-trust issues, especially in fungicides and in Europe, analysts say. (Additional reporting by Mike Stone in New York; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Reuters Business: Monsanto plots pricey Syngenta comeback amid growing scepticism reut.rs/1KH4ZLN 2015-06-04 18:18:57.646 GMT

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