from RTT - Earnings https://ift.tt/31ZMnVy
via IFTTT
Deal between Italian- and French-run firms creates industry’s fourth-biggest carmaker
The boards of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and PSA Peugeot, which also owns the Vauxhall and Citroën brands, have approved a €40bn (£35bn) merger of the two companies that will create the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker.
The Italian and French companies said the 50-50 merger will create a company with annual car sales of 8.7m vehicles, revenues of €170bn (£146bn) and operating profits of more than €11bn. It is expected to generate cost-savings and other benefits of €3.7bn – without any factory closures, the companies said.
Continue reading...Deal between PSA Group and FCA would create one of world’s biggest carmakers
The French owner of the Peugeot and Vauxhall brands is in talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) pursuing a merger that would create one of the world’s biggest carmakers.
PSA Group on Wednesday confirmed the existence of the talks, which come only months after a failed merger attempt between FCA and PSA’s French rival Renault.
Continue reading...Sir Richard Branson beat Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos by listing his venture in New York
Publicity-hungry billionaires must have a space venture, and here’s Sir Richard Branson’s: Virgin Galactic is now a stock market-listed company with a $2.4bn valuation. Actual space tourists won’t depart until next year, but Branson has beaten Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in getting his business floated in New York.
Galactic, despite the whizzy-looking planes, is quite a simple financial bet. It’s a punt that multimillionaires can be persuaded in droves to part with $250,000 – the price of a ticket to ride from New Mexico to 50 miles above the Earth’s surface and back. Galactic is projecting revenues of $590m and top-line earnings of $270m in 2023, by which time it expects to have flown 3,242 passengers. Who are they all supposed to be?
Related: The Just Eat takeover battle is promising a delicious showdown
Continue reading...LVMH bid for jeweller Tiffany is latest attempt to target China’s new wealthy generation
Two of Europe’s wealthiest families, and one from South Africa, are fighting it out for control of the world’s most-sought after luxury goods brands, and with them, the pounds, euros, dollars and yuan the richest 1% are spending on trying to make themselves look good.
The attempt by France’s richest person, Bernard Arnault, to snap up the US jeweller Tiffany for $14.5bn (£11bn) via his LVMH group is the latest in a wave of consolidations in the luxury goods industry that is tilting towards the “Fuerdai” – a new generation of wealthy Chinese consumers.
Related: Luxury goods group LVMH makes $14.5bn Tiffany & Co approach
Continue reading...French conglomerate has held preliminary discussions with US jeweller
The French luxury group LVMH has confirmed it has made a takeover approach for Tiffany & Co, reportedly valuing the famous US jeweller at $14.5bn.
LVMH said it had held preliminary discussions with Tiffany, known for its diamond engagement rings, after reports said it had made a $14.5bn bid.
Continue reading...With two big rival offers on the plate the food delivery giant can afford to sit back and await another helping
It’s still feels slightly odd that Just Eat, which only recently seemed to be a smartphone app plus a few blokes on mopeds, is a FTSE 100 company. But it’s time to acknowledge modern munching habits. Just Eat is now the target of two takeover bids, the latest being £4.9bn in hard cash. That definitely makes it a grown-up business.
The gatecrashing bidder is Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed offshoot of South African giant Naspers, and it must start as a favourite to prevail. A cash bid normally beats an all-share offer, which is all that is being pitched by Takeaway.com, also out of the Netherlands. As the saying doesn’t quite go, a pizza in the hand is worth two in the oven.
Related: WeWork boss to walk away with $1.7bn after SoftBank rescue deal
Continue reading...Bid rejected as online food delivery firm presses ahead with merger with Takeaway.com
A £4.9bn takeover battle has broken out for the food delivery group Just Eat as the investment group Prosus launched an all-cash offer in an attempt to break up Just Eat’s merger with its Dutch rival Takeaway.com.
Prosus, which is part of South Africa’s Naspers, a large tech investing group, has held talks with Just Eat but has yet to reach an agreement on terms, so said it had decided to go direct to the shareholders.
Continue reading...CMA will decide if investment seriously lessens competition in UK food delivery market
British regulators have launched an inquiry into whether a large investment by Amazon into the online takeaway delivery company Deliveroo breached competition rules.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had begun the first phase of an investigation, after the US technology firm revealed that it was the lead investor in a $575m (£452m) funding round in Deliveroo.
Continue reading...John and Irene Hays have also reopened 186 of collapsed tour operator’s 555 high street shops
The husband and wife team who bought Thomas Cook’s network of high street travel agencies out of liquidation say they have offered nearly 2,000 of the company’s former staff a job and reopened 186 of its shops.
John and Irene Hays, who run the Sunderland-based Hays Travel, bought the collapsed tour operator’s 555 shops in a surprise deal this month that promises to rescue up to 2,500 jobs.
Continue reading...Details such as fair purchase prices and effect on foreign investment are what really need explaining
The Confederation of British Industry is barking up the wrong tree when it howls about the “eye-watering” cost of Labour’s nationalisation plans, which it puts at almost £200bn. Of all the arguments against nationalisation – and there are many strong ones – the claimed upfront cost is the weakest.
The CBI skips over the fact that the companies on Labour’s list generate profits and cash. Viewed through a pure mergers and acquisitions lens, one could even regard a £200bn takeover as cashflow-enhancing for the state since the CBI itself puts the additional interest costs at £2bn, a sum that might be covered comfortably by the newly acquired companies. Severn Trent and United Utilities made post-tax profits between them of almost £700m last year, and they are only two of 10 major water companies.
Continue reading...It’s a surprise that supermarket group did not recruit internally after Dave Lewis jumped
If you want to wind up Dave Lewis, point to Tesco’s share price. It was 230p when he arrived in September 2014 and, after five years of effort that have prompted the chief executive to want to “recharge my batteries”, it has reached only 240p. All that struggle to go sideways?
Lewis resents the share price comparison as much as he dislikes his “Drastic Dave” label and, actually, he has a point. The full horror of Tesco’s accounting scandal hadn’t emerged when he walked into Tesco HQ, so, as he suggests, 170p, seen a few weeks later, is probably a fairer starting point. In lean times in supermarket-land, Tesco investors have done OK. Lewis hit all his cost-saving and cash-generation targets, which is what he was paid to do.
Continue reading...Retail partnership’s cull of 1 in 3 top managers seems risky but there could be some easy wins
If the big re-organisation of the John Lewis Partnership falls flat, who would incoming chair, Sharon White, fire?
Well, it won’t be the chief executive since the partnership doesn’t employ anybody with that title. But nor, from next year, will there be managing directors – one for the department stores and one for Waitrose. Instead, White will chair an executive team comprising seven directors with responsibilities across both halves of the business.
Continue reading...