>>> Dassault Aviation may be asked by Indian government to enter into JV with lo

Dassault Aviation may be asked by Indian government to enter into JV with local partner to make Rafale aircraft 

The Indian government may ask France-based Dassault Aviation to form a Joint Venture (JV) with a local partner to make the Rafale aircraft as a condition for allowing Dassault to execute an order for additional delivery of Rafale aircraft to the Indian air force, The Economic Times reported.

The report cited sources with knowledge of the situation as saying that the Indian government has already held initial talks on a proposal to possibly request for Dassault to rope in an Indian JV partner, with the local partner owning up to a 51% stake in the new venture.

The report also noted that the JV would be able to execute orders for additional Rafale aircraft, on top of the Indian government's off-the-shelf purchase last week of 36 Rafale planes from Dassault.

The list of potential JV partners for Dassault would include, but would not be limited to, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics.

Earlier, the Indian government in 2012 had ordered 126 Rafale aircraft from Dassault, but this transaction was stalled for various reasons. Although the Indian government recently agreed to purchase 36 Rafale planes from Dassault, the government's purchase of additional planes from Dassault may be contingent on the foreign company roping in a domestic JV partner.

The Economic Times 

>>> BMPS reaches agreement to sell 10.32% stake in Anima Holding to Poste Italia

BMPS reaches agreement to sell 10.32% stake in Anima Holding to Poste Italiane - report

BMPS, the listed Italian bank, has sold a 10.32% stake in listed Italian asset management company Anima Holding to Poste Italiane, Italian language daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

The deal was reached yesterday 14 April. The deal value was likely to be in the EUR 6-EUR 7 per share range, although BMPS was believed to have been asking EUR 8.5 per share, the unsourced article noted.

Anima's shares closed at EUR 7.75 yesterday. The company has a market cap of EUR 2.3bn, the item added.

Il Sole 24 Ore

(GS) Energy : Oil &Gas - E&P : Tullow & Africa Oil upgraded to Buy

M&A to be a key driver for the E&Ps; Tullow & Africa Oil up to Buy

* We continue to believe M&A will be a key theme in the E&P space
We continue to believe that M&A will be a key driver for the industry, and more specifically for the E&Ps, as highlighted in our report of February 24, 2015, “Scaling up production and FCF yield; reiterate CL-Buy on Dragon
Oil”. We expect well-funded majors and NOCs to scrap high-cost, highcomplexity projects and focus on gaining exposure to low-cost projects via M&A. We see potential for 5-10mnbls/d of low-cost projects to move from
E&Ps/independents to majors/NOCs, substituting less attractive developments. We upgrade Tullow Oil and Africa Oil to Buy from Neutral, believing that both offer exposure to strategic assets which sit low on the cost curve. We also flag Buy-rated Genel and Dragon Oil, which screen well on an M&A basis

* Tullow up to Buy; diversified and strategic portfolio
We upgrade Tullow to Buy from Neutral with an updated 12-month price target price of 411p (from 416p), implying 21% upside. We believe the stock offers exposure to a strategic asset base, given its materiality, oilphase
and positioning towards the bottom of the cost curve in Western and Eastern Africa. In our view, Tullow’s full-cycle portfolio offers diversification and a cash flow uplift driven by the TEN developments in Ghana (due on-stream in mid-2016); on our estimates, Tullow will turn FCF positive from 2017. We continue to believe Tullow is fully funded for this development, particularly given its successful credit facilities renegotiation.

* Africa Oil up to Buy; Lokichar basin exposure in Kenya
We upgrade Africa Oil to Buy from Neutral with an updated 12-month price target of Skr17.2 (from Skr18.40) implying 18% upside. We believe the stock offers exposure to a strategic asset (Lokichar basin) given its onshore
location, oil phase and positioning at the bottom of the cost curve; on our estimates the Lokichar basin breaks even at c.US$27/bl. We believe Africa Oil screens as an attractive M&A target (see, “Scaling up production and
FCF yield; reiterate CL-Buy on Dragon Oil” for details of our M&A framework) at the corporate/asset or farm down level given the industrywide focus on lower cost curve. Being conservative, we assume a CGT rate of 37.5%, payable by Africa Oil on its Kenyan assets, within our M&A valuation of the stock. We would expect any reduction in this tax rate to be taken positively as it would increase the likelihood of M&A in our opinion.

>>> Alcatel-Lucent / Nokia : comment in the street this morning

GS, UBS, Barclays

UBS GLOBAL I/O® - European Technology Hardware Voulez-vous? Would you?
We have attempted to answer Nokia-Alcatel-Lucent (NokAlu) investor questions. We don’t have all the right answers at this stage so we launch two interactive models sensitising both a full merger as well as a purchase of just the wireless asset - Financial merger model and UBS interactive merger model. Our conclusion results in average take-over valuation scenario of €4.8/share (€4.1- 6.5/share range) for Alcatel-Lucent. For Nokia, a range of €6.8-9.3/share (average €7.9) subject to share and size of synergies. We maintain our view that the deal is positive for the mobile infrastructure sector including Ericsson.