(BFW) United Technologies’ Rolls-Royce Takeover ‘Highly Unlikely’: RBC

United Technologies’ Rolls-Royce Takeover ‘Highly Unlikely’: RBC
2015-05-11 13:39:52.106 GMT


By Rachel Layne
(Bloomberg) -- Acquisition possibility by owner of Pratt &
Whitney jet engines of rival Rolls-Royce has barriers including
UK “golden share” rule, marine, energy and nuclear unit
disposition, “strong union” opposition and a new CEO,
Bernstein analyst Doug Harned (UTX outperform, RR/ LN market
perform) writes in note.
* Possibility has “provided support for Rolls’ share price";
‘‘realizing value will be difficult and would occur over a
long time period”
* Potential combination of technologies, lower cost
sourcing, “complimentary engine portfolios” and
“leverage of UTX operational capabilities”
* Potential combination of technologies, lower cost
sourcing, “complimentary engine portfolios” and
“leverage of UTX operational capabilities”</li></ul>
* Rolls-Royce +18% YTD, UTX +3% vs peer GE +8.3%
* NOTE: May 8, Rolls-Royce Mulls United Technologies as Short-
Haul Engines Ally
* NOTE: March 12, United Technologies Sikorsky Split Is
Prelude to Deals: Real M&A

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--With assistance from Julie Johnsson in Chicago.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Rachel Layne in Boston at +1-617-210-4634 or
rlayne@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Arie Shapira at +1-212-617-1488 or
ashapira3@bloomberg.net

FT : Big banks finalise $5bn-plus settlements on foreign exchange

Big banks finalise $5bn-plus settlements on foreign exchange
Five of the world’s biggest banks are finalising agreements to collectively pay more than $5bn for allegedly rigging foreign exchange markets, with an announcement expected as soon as Wednesday.
Barclays is expected to agree to pay about £2bn to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and to the US’s Department of Justice, Federal Reserve, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the New York Department of Financial Services.

It is the only bank that will announce a UK fine this time round. The others were all part of a $4.3bn November settlement between six banks and the FCA, the CFTC and Swiss regulators.
JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup are all expected to pay as much as $1bn each to the DoJ, which was not part of the earlier settlement. Subsidiaries of all three banks, as well as Barclays, are likely to plead guilty to US criminal charges, according to people familiar with the matter.
The fine for Switzerland’s UBS is unclear, and the bank and DoJ are still talking about possible criminal charges. HSBC and Bank of America, which were among the banks to settle in November, will not be part of the latest settlement, people familiar with the matter said. All seven banks declined to comment.
One added complication for Barclays and UBS is that the DoJ could decide to reopen its earlier criminal cases against both banks for manipulation of Libor interest rate benchmarks as a result of the coming forex settlements with them.
The DoJ could revoke the agreements it reached with the two banks in 2012 that allowed them to avoid prosecution for Libor manipulation if it finds they have committed crimes in the forex markets since then.
The latest fines for rigging the $5.3tn-a-day foreign exchange market come after a lengthy inquiry into alleged collusion among banks to share information and co-ordinate their trading to manipulate exchange rates in ways that favoured the banks’ books.

Securing agreements with the DoJ would mark a milestone for the banks, which have endured years of big fines for everything from interest rate rigging to money laundering, but there is still a long road to go.
The DoJ’s criminal investigation into individuals is continuing and charges are not expected to be filed this week. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office also has a parallel criminal inquiry open into individuals. DFS is also still investigating some aspects of the foreign exchange scandal.

Sources familiar with the matter stressed that while banks now had a good idea of their fines from the DoJ, the figures could still change. Equally, the DoJ is keen to make an announcement on Wednesday, but the date could slip a day or two if the final negotiations are protracted.
To join this week’s settlement, Barclays has agreed with New York’s Department of Financial Services to carve out the regulator’s investigation into algorithms in the bank’s forex trading platform from the overall agreement. Barclays pulled out of the November settlement because it wanted to settle with all regulators at once and the DFS was not ready to be part of that deal.
The five banks have already made substantial provisions for the fines. Barclays has taken slightly more than £2bn of total provisions, which are primarily for forex investigations and litigation.
Sergio Ermotti, UBS chief executive, said on May 5 that he expected UBS’s existing provisions to be “enough to accommodate for any resolution” of the issues.
In the past two quarters, RBS has set aside provisions of $1bn to cover the cost of foreign exchange settlements. In a post-results conference call on April 30, Ewen Stevenson, RBS finance director, said he was confident that amount was “adequate for all of the discussions we can foresee in the US”, although Ross McEwan, the bank’s chief executive, said its forex fine would not be as high as $1bn.

>>> US Gapping down

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance: FXCM -10.7%, NSPR -5.3%, PLUG -4.5%, FMC -4.4%, MGIC -4.1%, EVEP -3.3%, ARKR -1.7%, VRTS -1.5%, RBC -1.3%, FRM -1%, INO -0.7%


Other news: LACO -49.5% (disclosed conference call transcript from Thursday night; says merger with Sartini Gaming is anticipated to close later this year, possibly as early as August), FTR -7.7% (still checking), GEVO -7.5% (pulling back following Fridays advance), NBG -6.8% (reports IMF is making contingency plans for Greece default), GFI -4.9% (announced that a contractor at the South Deep project in South Africa lost his life in a tramming accident ), MGIC -4.1% (still checking), AKRX -2.9% (discloses a delay in filing form 10-Q), NXTD -1.8% (files for ~2.1 mln share common stock offering by selling shareholders), QGEN -1.4% (still checking), HLT -1.1% (secondary offering, by selling stockholders affiliated with the Blackstone Group (BX), for 90 mln shares of common stock), BBRY -1% (still checking), SUNE -0.7% (it and Wacker Chemie AG entered into a Settlement and Release Agreement)

Analyst comments: AMZG -32.5% (downgraded to Hold at Johnson Rice ), ETSY -8.9% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Wedbush), TNK -4.3% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank), MNKD -2.1% (downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan), DYAX -1.6% (downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer), CRM -1.2% (removed from Best Ideas List at Morgan Stanley), HCLP -1% (downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse), OUTR -0.8% (downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at First Analysis Sec)

>>> US Gapping up

Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: NVRO +35%, RNF +12.9%, RTK +9.3%, VGGL +9.3%, W +8.8%, KBIO +8%, CGA +7.7%, NES +5.2%, DF +5.2%, MBLY +2.8%, GORO +2.7%, TICC +2.7%, ACT +2.6%, ENDP +2.6%, ENDP +2.6%, GWPH +1.8%, BDSI +1.4%, AU +1.2%, KNDI +1.1%, SSYS +0.5%

M&A news: ROSE +32.8% (to be acquired by Noble Energy (NBL) in an all-stock transaction valued at $2.1 billion, or an implied value of $26.62/share), CBK +2.4% (Christopher & Banks considering sale of the company, according to NY Post), SYT +0.9% (Monsanto (MON) considering raising bid for SYT, according to Reuters; also upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS)

Select metals/mining stocks trading higher: SSRI +11.1%, RIO +2.6%, VALE +2.2%, GOLD +0.9%, BHP +0.9%

Other news: CALI +38.8% (China stocks strong overnight after PBOC rate cut), ZU +20.9% (Alibaba (BABA) disclosed Friday night in a Form 4 filing that it purchased 11.5 mln shares of ZU), CANF +15.1% (announces it recently received clearance from the EMA to commence dosing patients in Europe in its global Phase II trial for CF102 in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma),MYOS +12.7% (announces the initiation of a dose response clinical study of Fortetropin), RXII +6.3% (announces new data for self-delivering RNAi compounds), SFUN +4.3% (China stocks strong overnight after PBOC rate cut), GIGM +3.8% (announces that CFO Dirk Chen has resigned for personal reasons; also reported earnings), TOUR +2.6% (appoints COO Alex Yan as President), ENDP +2.5% (acquires a portfolio of branded and generic injectable products focused on pain, anti-infectives and cardiovascular applications from Aspen Holdings for $130 mln)

Analyst comments: ADRO +4.9% (initiated with a Outperform at Leerink Partners; initiated with a Buy at BofA/Merrill), Z +3.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Sun Trust Rbsn Humphrey), GDDY +2.8% (initiated with a Overweight at JP Morgan, among others), CDTX +2.1% (initiated with a Outperform at Wedbush), WWWW +1.8% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank ),MNST +1.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup), SFM +1.2% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital), CSCO +1.2% (upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at Pacific Crest), CAT +0.8% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird), JOY +0.8% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird), SBH +0.8% (upgraded to Outperform from Mkt Perform at Raymond James), NOK +0.7% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Exane BNP Paribas)

(BFW) Crashed Airbus A400M Had Engine Failure, Spiegel Reports

MORE: Crashed Airbus A400M Had Engine Failure, Spiegel Reports
2015-05-11 11:44:41.641 GMT


By Stuart Metzler and Todd White
(Bloomberg) -- Aircraft suffered multiple engine failures
shortly after takeoff, Spiegel reports, citing details given to
authorities by unidentified survivor.
* Reason for failure still unclear, Spiegel reports
* Report called false by Spanish Defense Ministry spokesman
Miguel Morer, who said the two survivors were too injured to
speak, in response to Bloomberg News
* A400M test flights to continue until clear evidence of
mechanical failure is presented, Airbus spokesman said on
Sunday
* Link to Spiegel Online report (in German only)
* Note May 10: Airbus A400M Stays on Ground Across Europe
After Fatal Crash Link

Story Link:NSN NO6AJY6K50XW<GO>

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To contact the reporter on this story:
Todd White in Madrid at +34-91-700-9604 or
twhite2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Paul Dobson at +44-20-3525-2041 or
pdobson2@bloomberg.net

>>> Sotheby's beats by $0.09, beats on revs

Sotheby's beats by $0.09, beats on revs
Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.11 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.02; revenues fell 0.7% year/year to $155.7 mln vs the $151.73 mln consensus.
  • Co reported an 8% increase in auction commission revenues, attributable to improved auction commission margins, and 3% growth in Net Auction Sales. The improvement in auction commission margin is primarily due to the change in the buyer's premium rate structure enacted on 1 February 2015 and a lower level of buyer's premium shared with consignors.