(BFW) German Economy Ministry Confirms Talks With K+S on Potash

BN 07/29 08:15 *GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTRY DECLINES TO DISCUSS CONTENT OF TALKS
BN 07/29 08:14 *GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN COMMENTS IN E-MAIL
BN 07/29 08:14 *GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTRY CONFIRMS TALKS WITH K+S ON POTASH
German Economy Ministry Confirms Talks With K+S on Potash
2015-07-29 08:17:59.409 GMT


By Birgit Jennen
(Bloomberg) -- German Economy Ministry has held
“numerous” talks with those involved in the takeover offer, a
ministry spokeswoman says in e-mailed statement.

* Ministry declines to discuss the content of the discussions

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NYPost : Stubborn hedge fund titans continue making bets on gold

Most fund managers have finally thrown in the towel on gold — but not hedgie titans John Paulson and David Einhorn.
Money managers are “net short” gold for the first time since 2006, according to a weekly Bank of America Merrill Lynch report released Monday.
That means most hedgies and mutual fund managers are bearish on the yellow metal, which has been tanking in recent weeks on dollar strength — and is down more than 7 percent this year.
On Tuesday, gold closed at $1095.10 an ounce, down by $1.80.
But Paulson and Einhorn are two of the big names staying the course — and paying a steep price for it.
Paulson, who is one of the top shareholders of South African mining company AngloGold Ashanti with a 6 percent stake, is barely breaking even in his Advantage fund.
Advantage, which holds his gold equities, is up only 0.7 percent year to date as of mid-July, according to an investor. As of mid-July, Advantage was down 0.26 percent for the month, he said.
AngloGold Ashanti is down 27 percent this year — and 29 percent this month.
Paulson famously calls gold a “currency,” but Einhorn has gone one better by housing gold bullion in a Queens storage locker.
Gold remains one of the top six positions in Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital hedge fund, which The Post previously reported was down 3 percent this year through June.
Shares of Greenlight Re, the publicly traded reinsurance vehicle that invests alongside Einhorn’s fund, have fallen 16 percent this year. Ten percent of the fund was invested in bullion as of March 31, per filings.
In April, Einhorn touted gold at an investment conference. Both he and Paulson think that central bankers’ easing will lead to inflation.

NY Post : New Yorkers are literally freezing themselves to burn off calories

It’s 6 o’clock on a recent Tuesday night, and Steven Evans, 38, a dapper British investment banker clad in an open robe, gray Tommy Hilfiger briefs, midcalf tube socks and wooden-soled clogs, stands in a sterile Midtown waiting room. He fidgets alongside his pal, a nervous-looking Alex Silver, 39, until their names are called and they’re led into a closet-size room.
Within seconds, Evans’ screams can be heard through the closed door.
“They’re euphoric,” says Joanna Fryben, the owner of KryoLife, with a big, satisfied smile.
It may sound like a torture chamber, but KryoLife is actually a spa catering to the latest beauty trend overtaking Manhattan: cryotherapy.

During the three-minute sessions, clients are placed in a 6-foot-tall tubular machine pumping out air hovering between an icy minus 184 and minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s the treatment du jour for people who want to boost their metabolism, loosen their muscles, flatten their stomachs, reduce cellulite and allegedly burn up to 800 calories without moving a muscle.
Oh, and get a little natural high, too.
“I left feeling like I drank four Red Bulls and was a Prozac-ed out Disney employee,” says one New York-based magazine editor who tried full-body cryotherapy in May (and asked not to be named).
“It’s a good complement to a healthy lifestyle,” says Salvatore Buscema, owner of Elite Total Body Cryotherapy in Wayne, NJ. “We want to look good, feel good and we want it to be done yesterday, right?”
As hot as cryotherapy is, the notion of extreme cold being good for your health isn’t new. Hippocrates wrote about the pain-relieving benefits of ice thousands of years ago, and athletes have long been using ice baths to reduce swelling and increase performance.
But in recent months, whole-body cryotherapy — which was developed in Japan in 1978 to treat arthritis — has exploded thanks to celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Derek Hough and Mandy Moore, who’ve been Instagramming their sci-fi-looking treatment pics. Makeup maven Bobbi Brown, Yoko Ono and Daniel Craig are devotees, and the New York Knicks have two cryo-saunas installed in Madison Square Garden. Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo is such a fan, he bought his own $50,000 device.

“If Demi Moore does it, it’s good enough for me,” says Sarah, a 38-year-old lawyer, who asked that her last name not be used for professional reasons. She’s spent more than $1,000 visiting KryoLife 15 times in the past three months.
“I think it’s awesome. My friends think it’s absolutely insane,” Sarah admits.
Insane? Maybe. Popular? Definitely.
Since opening the city’s first stand-alone cryotherapy center on 57th Street in November 2013, Fryben’s seen her clients, whom she describes as “open-minded . . . usually with greater-than-average income,” jump from 10 per day to 70.
One 180-second-long treatment costs $90, a five-minute cryofacial, $45. Business is firing up so quickly that Fryben, 40, and her partner are opening a second location in Flatiron this October, complete with a cryochamber, a multi-person room filled with ice and cold air.
“Our customers are going to love it,” says Fryben, who first tried cryotherapy during a visit to Europe in 2011 before bringing it back to Gotham.
According to Fryben, 30 percent of KryoLife’s clients come in solely for the beauty benefits.
Brittany Byrd, 21, one of LiLo’s close friends and a fellow cryotherapy aficionado, says the “Mean Girls” star does it “as much as she can. She’s a maniac!”
“When she came to New York she was doing it every day,” says Byrd, who first tried the treatment in June with Lohan in Monaco.
“Lindsay said it gave her more energy,” says Byrd, marketing director at event-planning company Studio Six Point Six. “And she lost a ton of weight from it.”
Once users are hooked, it can be hard to stop.
“Since I started, I go at least four times a week,” says Amy Heart, the 37-year-old host of the podcast Sports With A Heart. “I took a break because I was traveling, and I really noticed a difference in my energy level.”
Nutritionist Tricia Williams is so devoted to her thrice-a-week freezing habit that she says she felt like she had “lost my bionic power” during a recent two-week stay in the Hamptons sans cryosauna.

“I love it … I always tell people it should be the new happy hour. Who needs to drink?” Williams asks. “You come out feeling so great.”
Experts warn, though, that cryotherapy isn’t a miracle worker.
“The cooling of the body has an anti-inflammatory benefit,” says Park Avenue plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Levine. “But cryotherapy as you’re talking about it, is akin to a medical fad,” he says, pointing fingers at the industry’s claims that a person can burn hundreds of calories during one speedy session.
“If there was a way to burn 800 calories in three minutes it would be a whole lot more popular than it is,” says Levine, “and a whole lot more than the $90 that they’re charging for it.”

(GS) HeidelbergCement to buy 45% of Italcementi for €1.67 bn --> Buzzi

HeidelbergCement to buy 45% of Italcementi for €1.67 bn --> +ve for Buzzi see attached note on Europe cement & Buzzi

* HeidelbergCement to buy 45% stake in Italcementi at 61% premium
HeidelbergCement has announced that it has entered into a purchase
agreement with Italmobiliare SpA to acquire its c.45% stake in Italcementi
at €10.60 per share, a 61% premium to the last close price (July 28). On our
2015 forecasts, this would imply an EV/EBITDA multiple of 9.8x (excluding
synergies). The proposed deal, which would subsequently trigger a
mandatory public offer for the rest of Italcementi, is expected to close in
2016.

* Complementary fit, cyclical potential and synergies drive deal
HeidelbergCement management cited its key rationales for the proposed
deal as being (1) a complementary geographical fit with Italcementi, (2) the
right point in the cycle to benefit from cyclical recovery in some of
Italcementi’s markets such as Spain and Italy, (3) potential synergies.
Management is targeting a minimum run-rate of €175 mn synergies by
2018 and believes that it can achieve c.30% of synergies in 2016, mainly
from operational and SG&A savings. It will also be targeting capex savings
of €1.3 bn pa over five years and working capital savings of €100 mn
through 2016.

* Minimal impact to industry structure, in our view
The combined group would have cement capacity of c.190mta, making it the
global number two. While we do not take a view on the outcome of the deal,
the proposed acquisition would be largely complementary in terms of
geographical overlap (see Exhibit 1) and as such, we believe impact to
industry structure would be limited. There is no geographical overlap in
Europe, overlap in just two US states and limited regional overlap in India
and Canada (see Exhibits 3-4). We therefore do not see an obvious impact to
what is a very local business. While there is also an overlap in Kazakhstan,
we note this has no implication for other companies within our coverage.

* Positive read-across for assets exposed to recovery, such as Buzzi
Given the agreed deal with Italmobiliare, we view rival bids as unlikely;
however, we note the announced offer premium vs. the current share price
for Italcementi. Also, as market recovery potential was cited as one of the key
drivers of the proposed deal, we think this announcement provides positive
read-across for similar assets – we highlight Buzzi (CL-Buy, €14.58).

(BFW) France Authorizes ADP to Raise Its Tariffs, La Tribune Says

BN 07/29 06:08 *FRANCE AUTHORIZES ADP TO RAISE ITS TARIFFS, LA TRIBUNE SAYS
France Authorizes ADP to Raise Its Tariffs, La Tribune Says
2015-07-29 06:18:31.918 GMT


By David Whitehouse
(Bloomberg) -- The French govt. has validated a plan for
2016-2020 under which Aeroports de Paris will see its tariffs
frozen ex. inflation in the first year and then be allowed to
raise rates ex. inflation by 1% in the four following years, La
Tribune reports.

* Airlines had been seeking a cut: La Tribune
* Newspaper does’t say where it got the information
* Link to story: {http://bit.ly/1SMcm7B}

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(BFW) Tullow Oil Loss Narrows; FY Guidance Remains at 66-70Kbopd

Tullow Oil Loss Narrows; FY Guidance Remains at 66-70Kbopd
2015-07-29 06:02:59.767 GMT


By James Cone
(Bloomberg) -- 1H op. profit $97m vs $36m y/y, says mainly
due to lower exploration write-off of $88m

* Loss after tax $68m vs $95m loss y/y
* 1H capex $783m; FY forecast remains $1.9b
* Net debt at end 1H $3.6b, with facility headroom, free cash
of $2.3b
* Says restructuring incl. job cuts and other cost savings
will save $500m over 3 years starting from 2H
* 1H West Africa oil production avg. 66.5kbopd with Jubilee
avg. 105kbopd
* Maintains FY guidance for 66-70kbopd, although gross Jubilee
avg. production now seen reverting to previous guidance of
100kbopd after S/T production constraints
* Avg. realized oil price after hedging for 1H $70.6/bbl vs
$106.7/bbl y/y
* Says TEN project on target, on budget for first oil in
mid-2016; ~65% complete
* 2H exploration campaign focused on Suriname (Spari), Norway
(Salander), Kenya (Cheptuket)
* Statement: NSN NS8JG03HHEDC<GO>

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>>> What to look at today - 29th of July 2015

Close Dow+1.09% S&P+1.24% Nasdaq+0.98% Russell+0.82% VIX 13.44 (-13.85%)
US Market closed higher after 5day losing streak. Chinese mkt rebound fueled european & US indexes. energy sector surged 2.9% after sliding 4.3% over the past five days helped by BP better numbers, Crude oil rose 1.3% to $47.98/bbl. Materials bounced back also. Volume were ahead of average today @ 900mil shres. US After Hours STLY +19.8%, NGD +17%, PNRA +8.2%, GILD +3.4%, APC +0.9% YELP -16.7%, TWTR -11.2%, AKAM -10.4%, X-4.1% following earnings/guidance...Asian indices are trading mixed but with more upbeat overtones following US mkt.Shanghai Composite oscillated between gains and losses in the opening morning session, rising over 1.5% in the opening minutes, falling by as much as 1.1%, and finally entering its break down 0.2%. Outsized leverage fanning that volatility continued to subside, with total margin debt falling for the 3rd straight day to CNY1.38T v CNY1.43T yesterday - also the lowest level in over 4 months.PBoC also remained active in supporting sentiment, with reports the central bank has encouraged foreign investors - including global central banks, sovereign wealth funds and foreign financial institutions - to invest in interbank market. Asian Movers Fanuc LTD 6954.JP -11.9% (Q1 result), Hitachi Metals 5486.JP +4.6% (Q1 result), Murata 6981.JP -3.4% (Q1 result speculation), Xinyi Glass Holding 868.HK +2.9% (H1 result, spin-off); China Aviation Opt. 002179.CN +5.6% (H1 result), Tokyo Electron 8035.JP -11.3% (Q1 result), Toshiba Corp. 6502.JP -2.2% (speculation that more executives to resign), Mincor Res. MCR.AU -8.3% (Q3 result), Kobe Steel 5406.JP -2.2% (Q1 result), Huaxin Cement 600801.CN +5.2% (H1 guidance); Yueyang Forest & Paper Co 600963.CN -3.4% (H1 result), Xinyi Solar 968.HK +3.6% (H1 result)


Nikkei-0.21% Hang Seng-0.10% Shanghai-0.60%

Eur$1.1049 JPY 123.41 GBP 1.5605 EURCHF 1.0640 RUB $60.2668 WTI $47.78 (-0.42%)

S&P -0.12% EuroStoxx+0.22% Dax+0.27% SMI+0.43%

Macro :
- MSCI May Potentially Consult on Greece Index Reclassification
- VDA Says China Turmoil Affects German Car Industry: Tagesspiegel

Keep an eye on :
- AENA SM : Aena 1H Net EU275.6m vs EU153.1m
- ATC NA : Altice Sees France Improving, Restructuring on Track in Portugal
- AREVA FP : Areva, EDF Reach Compromise on Reactor Unit Sale: Figaro
- STS IM : Ansaldo STS Sees ’15 Orders EU1.3b-EU1.7b; Saw EU1.6b-EU2b
- ATO FP : Atos 1H Rev. In Line; Raises 2015 Cash Flow Forecast
- BAYN GY : Bayer 2Q Ebitda Ex-Items, Core EPS Beat; Adjusts Outlook for FX, Says 2Q HealthCare Rev. +28%; Updates Units Outlook
- CON GY : Continental AG Plans Significant Investment in Virginia Plant
- FGR FP : Eiffage 1H Total Sales Advance 1.4% to EU6.6b; Order Book Rises
- EDL FP : Euro Disney Probed by EU Over Pricing at Disneyland Paris: FT
- ETL FP : Eurotunnel Site Overrun By About 2,200 Migrants, Figaro Reports
- ELE FP : Euler Hermes 1H Net EU172.4m vs EU173.2m Y/y
- FCA IM : Fiat Chrysler Directors to Review Tie-Ups: Detroit News (Yday)
- FNC IM : Finmeccanica, Hitachi Take Steps to Accelerate Ansaldo STS Deal
- GEA GY : GEA 2Q Sales Rise 3%, Op. Ebitda Up 9%; Confirms 2015 Outlook
- HEI GY : HeidelbergCement to Fall on Italcementi Deal, Berenberg Says
- HOLN VX : Holcim Sees Overall Flat Development for Europe, Sales Miss Est.
- IT IM : HeidelbergCement 2Q Ebitda EU752m vs Est. EU752.3m
- SDF GY : K+S Seeking German Government Aid to Rebuff Potash: Handelsblatt
- KPN NA : KPN 2Q Strengthens Outlook, Sees Adj. Ebitda In Line w/ 2014
- LG FP : Lafarge Would Have Missed FY Ebitda Target on Standalone Basis
- LIN GY : Linde Cuts 2015 Sales Forecast
- MC FP : LVMH 1H Organic Sales Growth Beats Ests.
- MC FP : LVMH Says Vuitton 2Q Sales Fell in Hong Kong, Macau, China
- MELE BB : Melexis 2Q Net EU24.9m; Est EU25.3m; Maintains FY Forecasts
- MMT FP : M6-Metropole Television 1H Net EU58.3m vs EU64.6m Y/y
- NUM FP : Numericable-SFR 2Q Sales Match Ests., Adj. Ebitda Margin Climbs
- NOK1V FH : Baidu still keen on acquiring Nokia’s Here - Kauppalehti Online
- OSR GY : Osram 3Q Sales, Adj. Ebita Rises; Confirms Full-Year Outlook
- 1913 HK : Prada -5.2% in HK
- UG FP : Peugeot 1H Revenue In Line; FY Profit Forecast Reiterated
- QED LN : Quintain Said to be Nearing GBP650m Deal With Lone Star: Sky
- RXL FP : Rexel Confirms FY Targets at Low End of Guidance
- RSA LN : Zurich Says Any Offer For RSA Will Be Solely in Cash
- RWE GY : RWE, Eon Nuclear Provisions at Risk, Study Finds: Sueddeutsche
- SKG ID : Smurfit Kappa 2Q Revenue, Ebitda In Line With Estimates
- SRG IM : *SNAM 1H REV. EU1.84B; EST. EU1.83B
- SPM IM : Saipem 2Q Net Loss EU997m; Sees Full-Yr Loss, Job Cuts
- SU FP : Schneider Cuts Full-Year Sales, Adj. Ebita Target on Oil & Gas
- SEV FP : Suez Environnement 1H Ebitda in Line With Est., Confirms Targets
- SOLVB BB : Solvay 2Q Adj. Ebitda EU500m vs est. EU494m; Forecast Affirmed
- O2D GY : Telefonica Deutschland 2Q Adj. Oibda Rises 13.5%; Confirms Goals
- TIT IM : Telecom Italia to Name Labriola as COO at Brazil Unit: Reuters
- FP FP : Total 2Q Adj. Net $3.09b vs Est. $2.67b; Div. EU0.61/Share
- UCG IM : UniCredit’s Decio May Exit as Part of Reshuffle Plan: Repubblica
- ZEL SM : Zeltia 1H Net EU3.34M Vs EU16.8M a Yr Earlier

>>> Europe : Brokers Upgrades & DOwngrades - 29th of July 2015

>>> Up
*BANKINTER RAISED TO BUY VS NEUTRAL AT CITI
*CIRCASSIA RATED OVERWEIGHT VS NOT RATED AT JPMORGAN
*GERRESHEIMER RAISED TO OVERWEIGHT VS NEUTRAL AT JPMORGAN
*HIKMA RAISED TO BUY AT JEFFERIES
*PGS RAISED TO NEUTRAL VS SELL AT CITI

>>> Down
*LEONTEQ CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT BERENBERG
*MOBISTAR CUT TO NEUTRAL VS BUY AT CITI
*NEXTRADIOTV CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT HSBC
*PFEIFFER VACUUM CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT HSBC

>>> PT Change


>>> Initiation
*CAMBIAN RATED NEW EQUALWEIGHT AT BARCLAYS, PT 305P
*GALENICA ASSUMED NEUTRAL AT UBS; WAS SELL
*GREENE KING REINSTATED BUY AT GOLDMAN

>>> Call