(BFW) Hikma Founder Samih Darwazah, 85, Dies

Samih Darwazah is holding a 28.75% stake int he company if bbg is up to date
BN 05/18 09:30 *HIKMA FOUNDER DARWAZAH DIED MAY 15
BN 05/18 09:30 *HIKMA HIK HIKMA FOUNDER SAMIH DARWAZAH PASSES AWAY
Hikma Founder Samih Darwazah, 85, Dies
2015-05-18 09:33:35.124 GMT


By Gaurav Panchal
(Bloomberg) -- Died May 15.
* Statement:Link
* Samih Darwazah owns 5.5% stake in co.: Bloomberg data

Link to Company News:{HIK LN <Equity> CN <GO>}

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To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gaurav Panchal at +44-20-3525-0511 or
gpanchal2@bloomberg.net

>>> Sika: FINMA Takeover Committee reviews Gates/Cascade appeal against opt-out

Sika: FINMA Takeover Committee reviews Gates/Cascade appeal against opt-out

In response to a request made by William H. Gates III, Melinda French Gates (as trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust) and Cascade Investment, L.L.C., the Swiss Takeover Board (TOB) concluded in its decision 598/01 of 1 April 2015 that the opting out clause set out in Article 5 of Sika AG's articles of association does apply to the transaction between Schenker-Winkler Holding AG (SWH) and Compagnie de Saint-Gobain (Saint-Gobain) whereby SWH, Saint-Gobain, or any persons acting in concert with them, are not obliged to present a public takeover offer to the Sika AG shareholders. The appeal lodged by William H. Gates III, Melinda French Gates and Cascade Investment, L.L.C. against this decision is currently being reviewed by the FINMA Takeover Committee.

On 18 May Sika announced the shareholder group of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and Cascade Investment has today filed an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court:

The shareholder group of William H. Gates III and Melinda French Gates as trustees of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and Cascade Investment has today filed an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court against the decision of FINMA of May 4, 2015 (see press release of May 4, 2015 for more information).

(UBS) FFP : Cautious on PSA Peugeot and hence on FFP

Cautious on PSA Peugeot and hence on FFP

* Downside risks prevail on Peugeot (46% of NAV)
We reiterate our Neutral rating on FFP. Despite the remarkable quality of FFP's portfolio
we see it as fairly valued (listed stakes’ value up 40% year-to-date, UBSe). The value of
the shares of PSA Peugeot have notably gained c70% year-to-date and now account
for 46% of the NAV of FFP. UBS has a Sell rating and a DCF-derived PT of €12 (30%
downside) on PSA Peugeot. We also don't see any upside potential for another c24%
of the portfolio (SEB, Zodiac, DKSH, …all Neutral rated) and therefore have a Neutral
rating of FFP. All in all, we see a 7% downside potential in the NAV per share of FFP in
a twelve month view.

* FFP shares trading at a still wide 44% discount to the spot NAV
Such a discount level is wide in absolute terms but is consistent with the 46% average
discount at which FFP shares have traded over the last 5 years (35-55% range since
2010). The modest liquidity of the shares (20% free float) indeed justifies a relatively
wide discount. Given the lack of upside potential in the NAV in a twelve-month view, a
wider discount could also be justified. FFP shares trade at 40% discount to our 12-
month forward NAV of €122, that implicitly assumes that (1) equity markets will remain
supportive and (2) that FFP will continue to smartly manage its portfolio.

* Portfolio rotation: some new investments are likely
Despite the value appreciation of several stakes, we doubt that FFP will sell much of its
existing assets (good quality, long term view). We believe on the contrary that FFP will
look for some new investments. FFP's loan-to-value has indeed decreased to less than
10%, which is very healthy and supports some re-leveraging. We estimate FFP could
invest up to €160m and keep a loan-to-value ratio below 15%. We expect new
investments either in listed or unlisted assets.

* Valuation: PT upgraded to €73 from €57
We have raised our 12-month forward NAV to €122ps from €114 to reflect the higher
market value of SEB and Lisi. Our PT, raised by 28% to €73, now assumes a discount of
40% (50% previously) to our forward NAV. A narrower discount looks indeed justified
to us given the stronger equity markets and good management of the portfolio.

WSJ : Shell Deal Puts BG Gas Holding at Risk

Shell Deal Puts BG Gas Holding at Risk

Kazakhstan Could Exercise Right to Buy Out Stake in Karachaganak Field

LONDON—Buried deep in BG PLC’s annual report is a little-noticed risk for its $70 billion merger with Royal Dutch Shell PLC: The deal could cost Shell a huge Kazakhstan gas field.

In the event of a change in BG’s ownership, the company said in its 2014 report, the Kazakhstan government may claim it has the right to buy out a BG stake in a natural-gas field called Karachaganak that has been a cash cow. It accounted for about 15% of BG’s total production volume and 9% of its $19 billion in revenue in 2014.

The Kazakh government hasn’t disclosed whether it would seek to take over the field or let the Anglo-Dutch energy company keep it after the tie-up’s expected closure in 2016. But the Central Asian nation has exercised its so-called pre-emption rights over resources in the past.

Kazakhstan’s potential rights are among several regulatory risks to Shell’s takeover of U.K.-based BG, which would vault it far ahead of its competitors in the production and sale of liquefied natural gas. Shell also faces potential objections in China, Australia and Brazil, where it could face competition questions as a dominant player in those markets.

BG executives said Shell was handling regulatory approvals for the deal. Asked whether Shell was concerned about Kazakhstan claiming the field, a Shell spokeswoman said that the deal was “pro-competitive” and that the company was confident it would receive the necessary approvals.


A spokesman for Shell said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden traveled to Kazakhstan last month, but the spokesman declined to provide any details.

Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry said Shell and BG hadn’t provided any information about the matter. “Therefore currently, the ministry has no update on the transaction and the existing agreements between the companies,” Kazakhstan’s first deputy energy minister, Uzakbai Karabalin, said in a written statement.

Karachaganak, in northwest Kazakhstan, is one of the world’s largest gas-condensate fields, with estimated resources in place of nine billion barrels of condensate and 48 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Only 10% of those resources have been produced from the field and significant development opportunities remain, BG said in the report.

Last year, production from the onshore field net to BG was 85,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Condensate is a type of valuable ultralight crude oil that is mostly a gas when it is in the ground, but condenses into a liquid when pumped to the surface.

“Karachaganak has been a good cash cow for BG,” said Brendan Warn, senior oil-and-gas analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

Analysts have valued BG’s 29.25% stake in the Kazakh gas field at roughly $4.4 billion based on an oil price of $80 a barrel. An additional 22 years remain on the concession.


“It’s meaningful, but it’s probably not a deal breaker for Shell,” said Jefferies equities analyst Jason Gammel.

In 2013, Kazakhstan’s government exercised its pre-emption rights at the Kashagan oil field, buying ConocoPhillips’ stake in the project for about $5 billion before selling it on to China’s National Petroleum Corp. Conoco had initially planned to sell its interest in Kashagan to India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp.

Kazakhstan’s oil and gas company, KazMunaiGas, currently holds the smallest stake in Karachaganak among several partners: 10%, acquired in 2012.

(Barron's) L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon Sells Beauty to the World

L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon Sells Beauty to the World

Jean-Paul Agon, chief executive of French cosmetics and beauty giant L’Oréal, is used to smoothing out wrinkles. He’s good at handling other crises, too.
Agon was running L’Oréal’s German business in 1994 as Germany struggled with reunification. He headed Asian operations in 1997, when the Thai baht’s collapse provoked a regional economic meltdown. He took charge of L’Oréal USA in the summer of 2001, just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “It became a bit of a joke that wherever I sent him, there was going to be a crisis,” says the former CEO, Lindsay Owen-Jones, who quickly identified his flexible young protegé as a candidate for the executive suite.


Agon, 58, laughs off the notion that he was unlucky. “On the contrary, it was good training,” he says in an interview at L’Oréal’s headquarters, in a former soap factory in a Paris suburb. “Challenges make you discover strengths or talents or skills that you didn’t even think you had.”
Agon’s battle scars left him especially well prepared to assume L’Oréal’s helm in 2006, on the eve of the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. While most companies retrenched, L’Oréal (ticker: OR.France) continued to invest in its dozens of makeup, skin-, and hair-care brands, which range from Maybelline, Garnier, and L’Oréal in the mass-market category to prestige names such as Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, and Kiehl’s. The strategy, which Agon first tried successfully during the Asian downturn, paid off handsomely, helping L’Oréal secure its position as the world’s largest beauty-products seller based on annual revenue, ahead of Unilever (UL) and Procter & Gamble (PG).
L’OREAL’S SPENDING ON research, development, and marketing also laid the foundation for rapid growth, and positioned the company to potentially double its customer base in coming years. Sales are forecast to rise almost 14% this year, to 25.6 billion euros ($29.12 billion) while earnings could climb 13%, to €3.6 billion, or €6.30 a share. Analysts are projecting earnings of €6.80 a share in 2016, on revenue of €27 billion.
In Agon’s first year on the job, L’Oréal netted €1.8 billion, on revenue of roughly €16 billion.
L’Oréal’s sales are geographically diverse, with Western Europe accounting for 36% of annual revenue; North America contributing 25%; and Asia-Pacific, 21%. The remainder comes from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The company claimed 12.5% of the global market for cosmetics and beauty products in 2014.


L’Oréal Luxe, which sells prestige makeup, skin-care, and fragrance brands through department stores, is doing particularly well. It generated more than a quarter of last year’s revenue, or €6 billion.
Customers haven’t been the only beneficiaries of L’Oréal’s growth. The company’s shares, which fetched €170.15 late last week, have returned an average of 14% a year for the past decade—and 21.7% in each of the past five years, including dividends. L’Oréal pays an annual dividend of €2.70 a share, for a yield of 1.6%. At a ratio of 27 times this year’s expected earnings, the stock looks expensive, but investors have been willing to pay up for consistent performance.
L’ORÉAL WAS FOUNDED in 1909 by Eugène Schueller, a French chemist of German descent. Schueller developed hair dyes from chemical compounds and produced a range of colors that were more subtle than other dyes then available. Parisian hairstylists were persuaded to use the dyes, originally called Aureale, which evolved into L’Oréal, and Schueller hired representatives to sell them through France. Even before the outbreak of World War I, use of L’Oréal’s dyes had spread through Europe and even reached the U.S.
As more women joined the workforce after the war, they had more money to spend on beauty care, and the company flourished. But Schueller’s reputation was tarnished during World War II, when he founded and funded an extreme right-wing group that collaborated with the Nazis and supported France’s Vichy government. After the war, L’Oréal hired some of the movement’s members as executives, and Schueller’s only daughter, Liliane, married one.

Liliane Bettencourt, as she is known, inherited her father’s stake in the company on his death in 1957. L’Oréal went public in 1963, but Bettencourt retained a majority holding. In 1974, fearful that the French government might nationalize the company, she exchanged almost half of her stake for shares in Swiss foods giant Nestlé (NESN.Switzerland).


The arrangement provided a firm foundation for L’Oréal that has lasted more than 40 years. The two companies began to unwind the cross-shareholding last year when Nestlé sold an 8% stake in L’Oréal back to the French company. Nestlé’s stake currently stands at 23%, while the Bettencourt family own 33%. Liliane, 92, has no role in the company, although her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson sit on the board.
“L’Oréal’s success is linked to the excellent relationship that has always been between management and the Bettencourt family,” says Agon.
Continuity of management arguably has been as important as a stable shareholder base. Agon is only the fifth CEO in L’Oréal’s history. He says he has no plans to retire soon—his mother worked until she was 85—and that his eventual successor will be a L’Oréal insider.
The company’s mission, based on product innovation, quality, and safety, hasn’t changed much, either. “I strongly believe that I am continuing the legacy of my predecessors on the essentials, but the essentials are almost 90% of what is important,” Agon says.
The CEO sees his role as ensuring that L’Oréal adapts to a changing world. He hopes to make his mark by building a robust digital presence for the company, and promoting environmental sustainability.
Agon believes that digital technology can transform the relationship between consumers and brands, not only by offering a sales platform but also educating potential buyers about products before they go shopping. They need help understanding how to use the products, too, he says, noting that L’Oréal has responded by providing online tutorials.
Agon is equally committed to reducing L’Oréal’s carbon footprint—by 60% from 2005 levels. The company also aims, by 2020, to create new products using raw materials only from sustainable sources.
AGON GREW UP in Paris, where his father was a manager in the pharmaceuticals industry and his mother worked as an architect. An only child, he attended the prestigious École de Hautes Études Commerciales, or HEC Paris, a business school whose alumni include French President François Hollande and numerous captains of French industry. Agon studied finance, mainly to please his parents, but it didn’t interest him. “I was terribly bored,” he says. “I didn’t find it intriguing at all.”
He discovered a passion for marketing, however. “My head teacher said, ‘Jean-Paul, you are definitely very gifted [in] marketing,’ because, for every finance case, I found a marketing solution,” Agon says.
He was recruited from business school in 1978 by L’Oréal, and chose the job, in part, because of the opportunity for international travel. As a child, he had decorated his bedroom with maps of the different countries he dreamed of visiting, including Brazil, India, and China. A globe sits next to his desk in his office.
Agon’s passion for travel is well known among his colleagues. When traveling for business, he likes to visit countries for a minimum of a week to soak up the culture. Owen-Jones recalls a year in which Agon spent most of his time on the road, but used two weeks’ vacation at the end of it to take his family on a long-distance holiday. “I said, ‘What, are you crazy? Haven’t you taken enough planes already?’ ”
L’Oréal also gave Agon an opportunity to put his marketing talents to good use. The company is the world’s third-biggest spender on advertising, behind P&G and Unilever.
Sipping coffee, Agon suddenly grows animated when the subject turns to marketing beauty products. “If you do marketing for food products or detergents, it is pretty rational,” he says. “With beauty, you have some rationality, but you have a large part of emotionality. It is very cultural. It is linked to the image you have of yourself, or of the community. It is very much about imagination, intuition, taste.”
CHARLES REVSON, THE founder of Revlon (REV), called beauty products “hope in a jar.” Behind that hope is technology, a key focus of L’Oréal’s endeavors. L’Oréal spends 3.4% of annual revenue on research and development—equivalent to €760 million last year. Out of a workforce of 78,600, it employs 3,500 people in advanced research, focusing on areas such as the biology of skin and hair, and stem cells.
R&D has taken L’Oréal in some unlikely directions. In 1970, it acquired control of the French pharmaceuticals company Synthélabo to advance its research into dermatology. After several drug-industry mergers, that investment has evolved into a 9% stake in the pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi (SAN.France), a holding that is now worth more than €11 billion. L’Oréal views the investment as financial, and it could be sold if the company needs the money to pursue other opportunities. “We will be ready to use it if we need it,” Agon says.
Acquisitions have been an important part of L’Oréal’s growth story. Of the company’s 25 international brands, only the L’Oréal brand was developed in-house. The company’s acquisition strategy is simple, if not always easy to achieve. “The L’Oréal way is to acquire small businesses that can become very big,” Agon says.
Agon points to Maybelline as an example. It was a Memphis, Tenn.–based, predominantly U.S. brand with $300 million in annual sales when L’Oréal bought it in 1996. Under the L’Oréal umbrella, it has become the No. 1 cosmetics brand worldwide, with estimated sales of about €2 billion.
Agon sees strong potential for other L’Oréal brands, including Redken, in hair care; Kiehl’s, in skin care; and the makeup line Urban Decay. Brands like these could help push the company into new markets and realize Agon’s ambitious goals. L’Oréal sells six billion products a year, and had an estimated one billion customers in 2009. The CEO is aiming for two billion customers in the next 10 to 12 years.
THE FIRST BILLION were mostly in Europe and North America, with some customers in Latin America and China. The next billion, he says, will come primarily from Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Their needs will be different, and will force L’Oréal to adjust its R&D, marketing, and production. The company must adapt products from region to region to cater to different skin and hair types, climates, traditions, and beauty regimes.
“You can’t just invent a [beauty] product and sell the same product to everyone,” says Agon. “It is not like Coca-Cola. You cannot just globalize one product, one taste, one performance.”
Yet, while the breadth and scope of L’Oréal’s business have changed, Agon reckons that the company has changed little in the past half-century. “It is much bigger,” he says. “We are at a different stage of the adventure. But it is still the same adventure with the same goal, the same vision, and the same ambition.”

(Citi) Changes to Citi Focus - Volvo Added to Citi Focus list - see below

Adding Volvo — We believe Volvo presents the strongest European recovery story within capital goods — driven by self-help and volume recovery. 
In a separate note published today (European Machinery - Give Me a New Super Cycle) we increase the target price on Volvo shares to SKr142 (from SKr109) and reiterate our Buy rating. Our 2015-16 EPS estimates increase by 28%and 16%, respectively ; leaving the new forecasts c13% and 17% above consensus. We see volumes not only supported by “macro”, but for replacement to drive FY16-17E 8% growth alone for Europe. Volvo shares sit on an 11.7x and 8.8x FY15-16E EV/EBIT, at a 20% discount to the sector. 
We highlight why we continue to like Volvo: 
1) cost savings are coming through and earlier price/mix issues are starting to unwind; 
2) European Trucks is showing the best upwards momentum of any end-market in cap goods (we see upside to Volvo’s guide from replacement); 
3) Brazil EBIT likely to improve from here with layoffs to take place from 2Q onwards; 
4) little impact from indirect O&G effects; 
5) NA volumes more resilient ahead of any looming downturn given increased shares of captive components that have substantially increased the aftermarket; and finally; 
6) the pending CEO change. Following the recent pull-back in the share price, we take the opportunity to add Volvo to Citi Focus List Europe.

L'Espress : Le témoignage qui dynamite l'affaire Kerviel

Selon Mediapart, la commandante de police chargée de l'affaire Kerviel à la brigade financière a témoigné à visage découvert, faisant basculer le dossier vers un "scandale Société Générale".

Les nouvelles révélations de Médiapart sur l'affaire Kerviel sont une bombe. Il n'y a pas d'autres mots. Selon le site d'information en ligne, la commandante de police de la brigade financière au coeur du dossier, celle qui a mené toutes les investigations depuis 2008, a été convoquée le 9 avril dans le bureau du juge d'instruction Roger Le Loire. Le témoignage qu'elle a livré à visage découvert est accablant pour la Société Générale et l'appareil judiciaire.

En 2008, lorsque l'enquêtrice de la brigade financière boucle son enquête et rédige son procès-verbal de synthèse, elle est convaincue de la culpabilité de Jérôme Kerviel. Elle n'a alors aucune raison de douter de la fiabilité des témoins, ni des documents que la banque a bien voulu lui fournir. C'est plus tard, bien plus tard, raconte Mediapart, lorsqu'elle sera saisie des plaintes déposées cette fois par Jérôme Kerviel contre la Société Générale, qu'elle aura accès à des éléments supplémentaires et de nouveaux témoignages, que le doute, lentement, s'immisce dans son esprit.

Les certitudes de l'enquêtrice vacillent

Le site d'information en ligne raconte comment, au fil des mois, les certitudes de cette enquêtrice pourtant chevronnée vont vaciller. Comment elle a eu "le sentiment d'avoir été instrumentalisée par la Société Générale", la manière dont la banque lui a "dirigé tous les témoins", le manque d'effectifs qui l'ont empêchée d'exploiter tous les scellés. Toujours selon Mediapart, l'enquêtrice relate au juge les témoignages qu'elle a reccueillis laissant entendre que la banque connaissait les agissement de Jérôme Kerviel. Enfin, elle évoque, détails à l'appui, l'attitude du parquet qui a tout fait pour enterrer l'affaire

Lorsqu'on termine, stupéfait, la lecture de l'article de Médiapart, les images il y a un an de l'ancien trader au poste frontière de Menton reviennent brutalement à l'esprit. Souvenez-vous, quelques heures avant son interpellation par les policiers de Menton (à lire le récit exclusif des 100 jours de de prison), lorsque Jérôme Kerviel passe la frontière à Vintimille sous une nuée de caméras de télévision, il interpelle François Hollande. Il lui demande alors, non pas une grâce présidentielle comme certains ont bien voulu le dire, mais l'anonymat des personnes prêtes à témoigner. A ce moment, il sait que ces témoins s'ils étaient entendus et protégés feraient tomber l'accusation. Que l'affaire Kerviel se transformerait instantanément en affaire Société Générale. Une enquête fouillée de Médiapart - déjà !- ne venait-elle pas de révéler des dysfonctionnements graves dans son dossier ?


On ose imaginer, les années de doutes, d'angoisses, de cauchemars, de culpabilité aussi qui ont dû broyer la vie de cette femme avant qu'elle ne se décide à briser le mur du silence. En sortant du pôle financier, il y a quelques semaines, cette femme a rejoint le cercle restreint des lanceurs d'alerte. Une espèce encore insuffisamment protégée dont on ne saluera jamais assez le courage.

>>> CarrefourSA interested in acquiring Tesco Kipa (translated)

CarrefourSA interested in acquiring Tesco Kipa

CarrefourSA, the Turkish retailer, is interested in acquiring the Turkish retailer Tesco Kipa, according to a report in HaberTurk.

The Turkish-language report cited CarrefourSA GM Mehmet Nane as saying that there are more than 300 supermarket businesses looking to sell in the market, and CarrefourSA would talk to Tesco Kipa as well if they would be interested in selling.

CarrefourSA posted TRY 3.1bn (USD 1.203bn) in turnover in 2014 with a 20% increase on 2013, and was expecting to post a 30% increase in 2015. The recent acquisition of the Kiler Group will add TRY 1bn to its turnover.

Link to the original source

HaberTurk

>>> Ryanair must clarify intentions on Aer Lingus before Ireland will make decis

Ryanair must clarify intentions on Aer Lingus before Ireland will make decision

The Irish government will not make a decision on selling its 25.1% Aer Lingus stake until it knows Ryanair’s intentions regarding the rival Irish airline, the Irish Independent reported. Senior sources within the government confirmed that Ryanair will have to reveal its hand before the Irish cabinet takes a decision on the matter, the report said.

The Anglo-Spanish listed airline operator IAG offered to acquire Aer Lingus six months ago, the report noted.

The Tanaiste (deputy prime minister) Joan Burton was quoted as stating that the way Ryanair decides to approach the 29.8% Aer Lingus stake it owns will play a “very significant” part in the government’s decision regarding its own stake.

Ryanair has appealed an order from UK regulators to cut its Aer Lingus stake to 5% and earlier this year indicated it might consider making its own offer for the rival airline, the report said. It is not known whether Ryanair would turn down or accept a formal bid from IAG for its stake, and the company has said only that any offer would be considered on its own merits, the item added.

Paschal Donohoe, the transport minister, said yesterday (17 May) that he had not yet been given a final report by the steering group set up to consider the Aer Lingus/IAG situation, the item reported. This means the deal will not be discussed by the cabinet this week, the report said.

The original article appeared in print; page 7.

Source Irish Independent