>>> US Close Dow+1,17% S&P+0,92% Nasdaq+1,27% Russell+1,07%

Closing Market Summary: Nasdaq Composite Leads Stocks Higher

The stock market began the week on an upbeat note with the S&P 500 (+0.9%) erasing the bulk of its decline from Friday. The benchmark index reclaimed its 50-day moving average (2,086) at the start and spent the remainder of the day near its early high while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.2%) and Nasdaq Composite (+1.3%) outperformed.

Global equity markets enjoyed a strong start to the week after the People's Bank of China lowered the reserve requirement ratio for all banks to 18.5% from 19.5%. The 100-basis point cut was the largest such move since November 2008 and was implemented in hopes of avoiding a slowdown in China's economic growth.

The easing news from China helped markets in Europe register broad gains with investors overlooking the latest Greece-related developments. Specifically, the Greek government has requested local governments to transfer their cash balances to the Bank of Greece as the troubled sovereign continues scrambling for funds ahead of the next IMF payment deadline. That being said, the euro slid about 0.7% to 1.0735 against the dollar while the Dollar Index (97.93, +0.41) advanced 0.4%.

All ten sectors registered solid gains with five groups adding more than 1.0%. The top-weighted technology sector (+1.8%) ended in the lead after climbing throughout the session with large cap components fueling the move. To that point, Apple (AAPL 127.60, +2.85), Google (GOOGL 544.53, +11.79), Facebook (FB 83.09, +2.31), and Microsoft (MSFT 42.90, +1.28) rallied between 2.2% and 3.1% while Dow component IBM (IBM 166.16, +5.49) jumped 3.4% ahead of its earnings report.

Speaking of earnings, investors received just a small batch of reports this morning, but the floodgates will open as the week continues. The consumer discretionary sector (+1.1%) ended among the leaders with an assist from Hasbro (HAS 74.16, +8.27), which surged 12.6% in reaction to better than expected earnings and revenue.

Elsewhere, the industrial sector (+1.1%) also displayed relative strength with transport stocks doing some heavy lifting. The Dow Jones Transportation Average spiked 1.7% with all 20 components ending in the green. Railroads stood out with CSX (CSX 34.89, +1.59) soaring 4.8% while Kansas City Southern (KSU 107.37, +2.88) jumped 2.8% ahead of tomorrow's earnings report.

Another cyclical sector—financials (+0.5%)—could not catch up to the broader market even though Morgan Stanley (MS 36.96, +0.21) reported better than expected results. Shares of MS climbed 0.6% while other major financials posted comparable gains.

Treasuries spent the day in a slow retreat from their overnight highs with the 10-yr yield rising two basis points to 1.88%.

Today's participation was on the light side with fewer than 670 million shares changing hands at the NYSE floor.

Investors did not receive any economic data today and tomorrow's session will also be free of noteworthy releases.
  • Nasdaq Composite +5.5% YTD 
  • Russell 2000 +5.0% YTD 
  • S&P 500 +2.0% YTD 
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +1.2% YTD

(BN) Starwood Gives Activists Reason to Check In: Real M&A (Correct)


Starwood Gives Activists Reason to Check In: Real M&A (Correct)
2015-04-20 16:07:25.137 GMT


(For a Real M&A column news alert: {SALT REALMNA <GO>}.
Corrects title of Wyndham’s Conforti in the 15th paragraph.)

By Tara Lachapelle
(Bloomberg) -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. may
need to accommodate activist shareholders with a merger or
buyout.
Starwood, which owns high-end hotel chains such as W and
Westin, has one of the worst stock-return and growth outlooks in
the industry. It’s also entering the second month of searching
for a chief executive officer as pressure builds for the $14
billion company to buy some lower-cost hotel brands to keep up
with rivals.
Activists tend to sniff around when leadership is in flux,
and there’s already speculation that one is targeting Starwood.
Analysts say the end result could be one of several deal
scenarios, such as selling to Wyndham Worldwide Corp. or
structuring a tax inversion with InterContinental Hotels Group
Plc.
“Something is going to happen in the lodging sector,”
Patrick Scholes, a New York-based analyst for SunTrust Robinson
Humphrey Inc., said in a phone interview. “Starwood needs some
help.”
Starwood shares jumped 3.9 percent on March 26 after the
Federal Trade Commission gave clearance to an unspecified deal
between Starwood and Senator Global Opportunity Offshore Fund
Ltd., which is a unit of Senator Investment Group LP and owns a
stake in the hotel chain.
While Senator doesn’t typically take activist positions
itself, it seeks to profit from corporate mergers and
restructurings -- the type of situations that are often prompted
by activist investors. The hedge fund’s involvement in Starwood
is fueling bullishness for a stock that analysts otherwise see
little upside to owning over the next 12 months, forecasts
compiled by Bloomberg show.

‘Bias for Action’

A representative for Senator declined to comment. A
representative for Stamford, Connecticut-based Starwood didn’t
respond to a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.
“For what it’s worth, I’m someone who has a bias for
action,” Adam Aron, the interim chief executive officer of
Starwood, said in February after the abrupt departure of Frits
van Paasschen. “In taking on this challenge, even on an interim
basis, I have no intention of merely being a caretaker.”
Starwood shares fell 0.7 percent to $81.89 on Friday in New
York.
The company’s other brands include St. Regis, Sheraton, Le
Meridien and the Luxury Collection. In a merger with Denham,
England-based InterContinental, Starwood would also gain Holiday
Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Crowne Plaza, rounding out its
portfolio. Companies have also been structuring deals with firms
abroad in an attempt to lower their tax bills.
A representative for InterContinental declined to comment.

Pricey Proposition

While InterContinental’s 6.4 billion pound ($9.6 billion)
market value is smaller than Starwood, the company is more
expensive relative to sales and profit, which would pose a
challenge for any deal.
“Starwood has a lot of concentration at the high end of
the hotel segment, but that’s not where the growth is, so they
need some balance,” Nikhil Bhalla, an analyst for FBR & Co.,
said in a phone interview. “But in this stage of the cycle,
they’re going to have to pay up to acquire any brands and that
may not be accretive. So I think the best route for Starwood
would be a sale of the company.”
SunTrust’s Scholes said it might be a good fit for Wyndham,
which at $11 billion is slightly smaller than Starwood. Wyndham
lacks higher-end brands, which is a drawback because customers
that are loyal to certain hotels like to have options depending
on their type of travel, he said.
Wyndham Chief Financial Offer Thomas Conforti has said the
company is looking for acquisitions. Small transactions are more
likely, but “should a big deal come up that’s compelling and
helps us achieve our objectives, we wouldn’t shy away from it,”
Conforti said last month during an analyst conference. A
representative for Wyndham declined to comment.

Cleaner Target

Starwood’s plan to spin off its timeshare business may also
make it a cleaner target. The move is part of an industry trend
in which hotel operators are cutting their real estate holdings
to focus on property management and franchising. Conforti says
Wyndham is “religiously a franchising model,” owning just two
of the 7,500 hotels it operates.
To help facilitate a deal, Starwood could shift its
remaining properties into a real estate investment trust,
SunTrust’s Scholes said.
With interest rates still so low and the capacity to add
debt at Starwood, a leveraged buyout is an option, FBR’s Bhalla
said. And there’s precedent for LBOs in the hotel industry.

Good Time

Blackstone Group LP acquired Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
for $26 billion in 2007 and took it public in 2013. Blackstone’s
gain in the deal is now about $14.8 billion. Blackstone, which
provided seed money to Senator when it opened in 2008 and bought
a minority piece of the business last year, also bought out the
La Quinta chain in 2005 and still owns a chunk of the company.
The other hotel operators aren’t under the gun to make an
acquisition right now, so a sale to a private-equity firm may
make the most sense, Bhalla said.
“It’s Starwood that needs to find a way to realize
value,” he said. “For any company to go private, this is
probably the best point to do it.”

For Related News and Information:
New Starwood Hotels CEO Faced With Expansion to Catch Rivals
Starwood Hotels CEO Van Paasschen Resigns as Board Seeks Growth
Starwood Jumps Most in Three Years on Timeshare-Unit Spinoff
Real M&A columns: NI REALMNA <GO>
Top deal stories: DTOP <GO>
Merger calculator: MRGC <GO>

--With assistance from Beth Jinks in San Francisco.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Tara Lachapelle in New York at +1-212-617-8911 or
tlachapelle@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Beth Williams at +1-212-617-2307 or
bewilliams@bloomberg.net
Elizabeth Wollman

WSJ: Belgium Could Signal Liberty’s Change of Heart


Belgium Could Signal Liberty’s Change of Heart
Liberty Global has agreed to acquire Belgian wireless operator BASE

Liberty Global is finally dipping a toe into mobile. That means one of the last holdouts is succumbing to the lure of convergence.

The cable conglomerate’s Belgium subsidiary Telenet Group on Monday agreed to acquire the nation’s third largest wireless operator BASE Company from Royal KPN. If completed, the transaction would be Liberty Global’s first major mobile asset purchase in Europe.

As early as last year, Liberty chief executive Mike Fries suggested that the highly competitive environment for mobile companies made acquisitions in that sector unattractive. But the company’s long-held view that it could better compete as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)—which piggybacks on other companies’ networks to offer wireless services—is evidently changing. At least in Belgium, Liberty now wants to own mobile assets and is willing to pay a healthy price for the privilege.


Under the terms of the €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) deal, BASE is valued at about 8 times estimated 2015 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. This is in line with the sector, though slightly more than analysts thought the business would fetch. Citi estimates that cost savings, mainly from MVNO payments, could add 13% to Telenet’s free cash flow: Expected savings of about €150 million are nearly double the estimated €80 million that Telenet might have to pay rival Mobistar annually to continue using the latter’s network.

Telenet’s contract with Mobistar is ending, and any new agreement would likely involve an increase in fees. Furthermore, data usage among customers is growing rapidly, making it increasingly expensive for virtual operators who often can’t recover the additional costs. The same factors that led Liberty to buy mobile assets in Belgium may become more apparent elsewhere in Europe. Liberty also operates MVNO partnerships in other major markets including the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands.

For now, the company says it will continue to focus on existing setup. But that could change as mobile network arrangements become less profitable for virtual operators, particularly in the more advanced 4G services. Under such circumstances, Liberty may be pushed to build or, more likely, buy additional wireless assets. The volte-face in Belgium could be an indication of a more seismic continental shift.

>>> Publicis - Busy week end for Media agencies... OMC, IPG & FB reporting this

>>> Publicis - Busy week end for Media agencies... OMC, IPG & FB reporting this week

OMC tomorrow
IPG on the 24th
FB on the 22nd & GOOGL on the 23rd


see more pressure on this business with biggest part of business coming from digital and going directly to FB or GOOGL

I still think PUB is a short here, could see some consolidation, I will start to cover around 67.50...still 2 gaps open lower... (67.73/ 68 ) & (67.57/68.83)

>>> Altice acquisition of PT Portugal cleared by European Commission, subject to

Altice acquisition of PT Portugal cleared by European Commission, subject to conditions

The European Commission has authorised under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of the Portuguese telecommunications operator PT Portugal by the multinational cable and telecommunications company Altice. The decision is conditional upon the divestment of Altice's current Portuguese businesses ONI and Cabovisão. The Commission had concerns that the merged entity would have faced insufficient competitive constraint from the remaining players on the market for fixed telecommunications. This could have led to higher prices for clients. The divestments offered by Altice address these concerns. The Commission has also rejected a request to refer the examination of the transaction to the Portuguese competition authority.

EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said: "Telecoms play an essential role in our digital society. My wish is to ensure that the merger will not lead to higher prices and less competition for Portuguese consumers. The commitments offered by the parties address this concern".

Altice operates via two subsidiaries in Portugal, Cabovisão and ONI. Cabovisão provides pay TV, fixed internet access and fixed telephony services essentially to residential customers. ONI provides services to business customers, including fixed telecommunication services, in particular voice, data and internet access services as well as IT services.

PT Portugal is a telecommunications and multimedia operator with activities extending across all telecommunications segments in Portugal. It offers fixed, mobile voice and data services; broadband internet access services and pay TV services to residential customers. PT Portugal’s offer for business customers includes fixed and mobile voice services data services and IT services, comprising data centre solutions, virtualisation services, cloud, business outsourcing process and other additional value-added services.

The Commission had concerns that the merger, as initially notified, would have reduced competition in a number of telecommunications markets in Portugal. These markets include the wholesale markets for leased lines and for call transit services, the provision of fixed voice services, fixed internet access services and pay TV services to residential customers and the provision of telecommunication services to business customers. The merger would have removed a strong competitor from these markets, with the risk of leading to higher prices and less competition in Portugal.

In order to remove these concerns, Altice offered to sell its Portuguese subsidiaries Cabovisão and ONI.

These clear-cut structural commitments completely remove the overlap between the activities of Altice and PT Portugal within Portugal and are therefore appropriate to address the initial competition concerns identified by the Commission. The Commission concluded that the transaction, as modified by the commitments, would raise no competition concerns. The decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments.

The Commission cooperated closely with the Portuguese competition authority in the assessment of the proposed transaction.

Rejection of referral request

In parallel, the Commission has today also rejected a request from Portugal to refer the merger to the Portuguese competition authority ("PCA") for assessment under Portuguese competition law.

On 5 March 2015, the PCA submitted a referral request pursuant to Article 9(2)(a) and (b) of the EU Merger Regulation.

Article 9(2)(a) allows the Commission to refer all or part of the assessment of a case to a Member State provided that the competitive effects are restricted to national markets. In deciding whether to refer a case to a Member State under Article 9(2)(a), the Commission particularly takes into account which authority is better placed to deal with the case. The Commission concluded that, given its extensive experience in assessing cases in this sector and the need to ensure consistency in the application of merger control rules in the fixed telecommunications sector across the European Economic Area (EEA), it was better placed to deal with this case.

Article 9(2)(b) provides that the Commission must refer the assessment of a case to a Member state when the relevant markets affected by the transaction can be understood to be a distinct market that and do not constitute a substantial part of the internal market. The Commission concluded that the latter condition was not met, since each of the relevant markets affected by the transaction constitutes a substantial part of the internal market.

The Commission therefore rejected the request.


Merger control rules and procedure

The Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation) and to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it.

The vast majority of notified mergers do not pose competition problems and are cleared after a routine review. From the moment a transaction is notified, the Commission generally has a total of 25 working days to decide whether to grant approval (phase I) or to start an in-depth investigation (phase II).

More information will be available on the competition website, in the Commission's public case register under the case number M.7499.

(BFW) Iran’s Rouhani Tweets No Choice But to Reduce Oil Supply

--> Oil spiking

BFW 04/20 12:20 Iran Urges ‘Collective’ Action by OPEC to Support Crude Prices
MORE: Iran’s Rouhani Tweets No Choice But to Reduce Oil Supply
2015-04-20 14:11:04.302 GMT


By Bruce Stanley
(Bloomberg) -- President Hassan Rouhani says on Twitter
page cuts needed to achieve fair oil prices, market balance, in
meeting with Venezuelan oil minister.
* Iran calls on Algeria, other OPEC members “to launch
collective efforts” with Iran to foil “plot” by
unspecified world powers to push oil prices lower, Fars news
agency reports
* Current prices are contrary both to interests of oil-
producing countries, balance in market, Rouhani says at
meeting in Tehran with Abdel Monem Ahriz, Algerian
ambassador to Iran: Fars
* Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also calls for OPEC
members to act jointly to buttress crude prices, speaking at
Tehran news conference with Venezuelan counterpart Delcy
Rodriguez, Iranian oil ministry’s news website Shana reports
* Coordination among Iran, Venezuela, others in OPEC “is
important for preserving and stabilizing oil market”: Zarif
* NOTE: Iran Joins OPEC Member Libya Calling on Group to Cut
Oil Output
* NOTE: Benchmark Brent crude fell 43% in last 12 mos.


Story Link:NSN NN3UA36S9734<GO>

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

To contact the reporter on this story:
Bruce Stanley in Dubai at +971-4-364-1055 or
bstanley5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Nayla Razzouk at +971-4-3641056 or
nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net
Claudia Carpenter

(GS) Still more Food: GIS up to Neutral; CHD/CL down to Neutral/Sell

* Sticking with our 2015 resolution of more Food
We raised our coverage view of Food to Neutral from Cautious in January on the view that industry challenges were understood and risk of value creating corporate actions was rising (e.g., cost cuts, M&A, restructuring). This remains our view today and we continue to expect management teams to take emboldened steps to create value in the wake of the pending Heinz- Kraft merger. Meanwhile we see risk that the macro drivers of a strengthening dollar and rising rates return to the forefront later this year and see HPC as most susceptible in our coverage universe, making us more cautious on HPC.

* Let the General ride again; GIS up to Neutral
We maintain a guarded stance on US-centric packaged food and see risk the industry suffers a multi-year rebasing of gross margins as portfolios are rebalanced to align with shifting demand patterns. In fresh analysis detailed in a separate report today (Millennials Munching) we detail why we see GIS as further along than peers in shifting to meet the demands of the critical Millennial generation. Our analysis leads us to raise our fundamental forecast and valuation targets for GIS. With added event optionality, we find reason to move off our Sell rating and upgrade GIS to Neutral.

* More cautious on HPC; CL down to Sell, CHD down to Neutral
CL sits in the cross-hairs of some of the largest risks in HPC. Its FX exposure is substantial and we believe the margin implications are underestimated. Our EPS estimates are 3-5% below consensus and we see potential for up
to 11% incremental downside if GS Macro Research forecasts prove correct. And like US-based peers, it faces risk of competitive threats from EU competitors (FX funded flexibility vs. US peers) and local/regional competitors, both of which may limit pricing power outside of LatAm. The exposure is not dissimilar to PG and KMB, but CL has outperformed each and we expect relative underperformance going forward. While the macro backdrop still favors US-centric names, in our opinion, the confluence of limited upside to our price target and emergence of new competitive threats in US laundry cause us to downgrade CHD to Neutral from Buy. The new threat in laundry comes from Henkel and appears positioned as a direct threat to PG’s Tide, but we see risk that PG reacts to stop it in its tracks, putting at risk our view that CHD would benefit from a less competitive laundry environment.