EMEA

EQT defers exit brainteaser with school deal

22 Oct 2024

Swedish firm EQT is reinvesting in education group Nord Anglia alongside Neuberger Berman for $14.5 bln, instead of a sale or listing. It highlights how buyout groups are keeping assets for longer. In this case, that comes with rising regulatory risks, and limited exit options.

New CEO clicks HSBC Rubik’s cube into right place

22 Oct 2024

The $160 bln lender’s new boss is tackling the bank’s unwieldy structure. Separating the top performing UK and Hong Kong units from everything else globally looks smart. But it may one day invite questions about why these retail units are inside HSBC in the first place.

Why brewers are betting big on alcohol-free beer

22 Oct 2024

Consumers are shunning booze due to health concerns and shifting tastes, forcing beermakers to adapt. In this episode of the Big View podcast Louise Fitzpatrick, an executive at the Dutch brewer Heineken, explains the opportunities and challenges of selling suds without alcohol.

JAB’s pricy coffee shot is not as dumb as it looks

21 Oct 2024

The German investment group scooped up a 18% stake in JDE Peet’s, which it listed in 2020, from Mondelez at a fat 32% premium. That eliminates a share overhang and risk of an interloper. And, with the $12 bln Douwe Egberts seller’s stock cheap, the markup is easy to swallow.

Swiss finish would take shine off UBS’s M&A gift

21 Oct 2024

The bank’s $3.8 bln takeover of Credit Suisse was described as the 'deal of the century'. But $19 bln of extra capital charges so far, and another looming hit from local regulators, will lower the returns. The next time a bank rescues a rival, it may push for even sweeter terms.

BHP’s dam disaster dealings leave a bad taste

21 Oct 2024

The miner and partners are offering Brazilian authorities $23 bln in damages for a 2015 catastrophe, but with most of it paid over 20 years. And BHP was in hot water trying to hinder a related $47 bln lawsuit in London. Both take the argument of protecting shareholders too far.

UK’s bad tax on share trading looks hard to kill

18 Oct 2024

Britain’s stamp duty on equity transactions hampers and distorts investment. Yet abolishing it probably won’t revive the fortunes of the country’s shrinking stock market. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has little cash to spare, and cheaper ways to boost domestic share ownership.

Inflation is not dead, it’s just resting

18 Oct 2024

Annual price increases are returning to the subdued 2% level targeted by many central banks. Official interest rates are falling too. Yet there’s a long history of policymakers prematurely celebrating the end of inflation. The experience of the 1970s offers a cautionary tale.

Lagarde struggles to dispel market’s gloomy vibes

17 Oct 2024

The European Central Bank lowered its key interest rate to 3.25% but didn’t commit to further cuts. Markets fear a recession and expect borrowing costs to be below 2% in 12 months. President Christine Lagarde may be forced to loosen policy faster – and reassure investors of that.

Nestlé’s CEO needs to ride two horses at once

17 Oct 2024

Laurent Freixe, the new boss of the $260 bln KitKat maker, inherits a group with stalling sales growth. Longer term he will have to shuffle an outdated food portfolio. But right now he needs a splurge on marketing, or risk Nestlé’s market share withering on the vine.

Growth-hungry EQT boss faces an M&A puzzle

17 Oct 2024

The $40 bln buyout group’s CEO Christian Sinding is practically shouting from the rooftops that he wants to buy a private-markets peer. So-called secondaries targets, the biggest of which is Ardian, make sense. But it’s a sellers’ market and EQT’s Swedish stock may be a turnoff.

Luxury’s China wobble will accelerate M&A

16 Oct 2024

LVMH lost 7% of its market value after revealing bleak consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy. The broader sell-off will make small players more vulnerable. But this will create a big opening for cash-rich giants to pounce on already battered stocks like Kering.

Measured UK tax hike can avoid dealmakers’ Brexit

16 Oct 2024

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has to raise money in her Oct. 30 Budget and may up capital gains tax from 28% to 35%. That would require 2,000 buyout barons to pay $120,000 extra on their funds’ profits. Such a small hit would probably stave off a threatened private equity exodus.

EU champions’ hope will slam into hard M&A reality

16 Oct 2024

Brussels bigwigs, like new antitrust boss Teresa Ribera, want to create US-style corporate giants. Yet possible options, like a 160-bln-euro Orange-Deutsche Telekom deal, make no industrial sense. The risk is that even if politicians get on board, shareholders won’t.

ASML’s weakness flags limits of the AI boom

15 Oct 2024

The 260 bln euro chip-machine maker’s shares plunged again amid flaky demand from smartphone customers. ASML already has separate issues with Intel and China. The struggles of a key sector stock are a timely reminder that the AI wave doesn’t lift all boats.

CD&R $17 bln French deal may hinge on big retreat

15 Oct 2024

Paris is concerned about the future of critical medicines if the private equity firm buys a stake in Sanofi’s consumer unit. CD&R can promise bigger investment and still get a decent return. Giving up control by bringing in a Gallic co-investor might also soothe the government.

Putin’s economic resilience rests on war addiction

15 Oct 2024

Sanctions and the fall in oil prices have hit the Russian economy. But growth has outpaced expectations since the 2022 Ukraine invasion thanks to high military spending, now at more than 6% of GDP. The reliance on ongoing conflict hides President Vladimir Putin’s vulnerability.

UK tax threat revives gambling stocks’ M&A saga

14 Oct 2024

Entain and Evoke shares fell over 10% on reports of a 3 bln pound tax hike on the sector. After a troubled few years in which it was a target for MGM, debt-laden Entain had looked on the mend. If Britain turns the fiscal screw, smaller players may need to bulk up.

Nobel prize brings global inequality back in focus

14 Oct 2024

Economist Daron Acemoglu and two colleagues shared the Swedish award for showing why some countries are rich and others poor. Their findings – democracy and rule of law matter – are a reminder that huge disparities in income among, and within, nations remain a festering issue.

Old theories offer new insight into global rivalry

14 Oct 2024

The geographer Halfold Mackinder in 1904 proposed that future strife would revolve around control of Eurasia. Though the modern world is very different, it’s one way to understand conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and the showdown between the United States and China.