Food & Beverages

Unilever finds better recipe with new growth focus

22 Oct 2020

The Magnum maker’s sales jumped in the third quarter. CEO Alan Jope hopes price cuts and higher spending on marketing will ensure this is not a one-off. Sacrificing a goal of lifting the operating margin is the right thing to do. But more guidance would inspire more confidence.

Virus tests faith in food delivery economics

21 Oct 2020

The $285 bln industry is split between companies that connect restaurants with customers online, and those that also deliver the food. The former has better margins, but the latter has expanded the market. With demand for takeouts surging, it’s time to see who’s more profitable.

Nestlé without KitKats is logical next step

21 Oct 2020

The $340 bln Swiss giant’s food and drink business is shrinking, while CEO Mark Schneider is bulking up in pet care and health science. Covid-19 is accelerating the shift. Selling or spinning off confectionery, worth say $30 bln, could unlock value and sidestep a sugar backlash.

Remy’s Chinese premium may leave sour aftertaste

20 Oct 2020

The Cointreau maker’s shares are up over 40% this year while rivals have struggled. The main difference: it’s more exposed to China, whose economy is dealing with Covid-19 better. Yet its valuation premium doesn’t leave much space for geopolitical surprises.

Danone shakeup needs bigger ESG splash

19 Oct 2020

The French dairy group is reviewing assets to restore its flagging growth. Yet disposals covering just 2% of sales look lacklustre. Selling the shrinking water unit would give CEO Emmanuel Faber cash for deals and boost the 37 bln euro company’s appeal with sustainable investors.

Deliveroo’s IPO is a dish best served soon

7 Oct 2020

The UK food delivery app is mulling a float in the public market next year. Using its peers’ multiples, Amazon-backed Deliveroo could fetch more than $5 bln. But with the pandemic-induced boost to its top line not guaranteed to last, it can’t afford to dawdle.

Daniel Kretinsky’s grocer grab has sliver of sense

1 Oct 2020

The Czech billionaire has bought $1.5 bln worth of shares in European supermarkets like J Sainsbury and Casino. Anaemic growth and low margins suggest that’s unwise. But if his targets can slash costs and take advantage of an online boom, his bet may begin to look shrewd.

Corona Capital: NYC

30 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: New York City’s economic reboot comes up against a new outbreak.

Corona Capital: U.S. sports’ virus-bubble success

29 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Professional hockey and basketball associations scored victories keeping infection rates low or at zero in spectator-free games. And less traveling and more sleep helped players up their game. Wall Street take note.

Corona Capital: Playboy, Mondelez

21 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The owner of perhaps the most famous adult magazine is hoping a SPAC can give it a new lease on life; Mondelez wants to expand its range of healthy snacks – but they’re not always the best money spinners.

New lockdowns will amp up next phase of booze war

21 Sep 2020

Alcohol is in the cross hairs as Britain eyes harsher measures to stem infections. Outright prohibition is unlikely but even temporary bar closures will add to the pain of Diageo, Bud and others. As other countries may follow, their buoyant shares are heading for a hangover.

Moutai ladles out value from its punch bowl

18 Sep 2020

China’s liquor titan is issuing $2.2 bln of bonds to help buy a highway operator from a struggling local government. The ludicrous diversification erased $10 bln from its enormous market cap. It’s a sobering reminder of how the country’s listed companies can be called to serve.

Corona Capital: Newspaper rivals, College football

17 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: the Wall Street Journal hits up the New York Times’ printing presses; U.S. college football’s Big Ten makes a comeback.

Corona Capital: Kraft Heinz, U.S. poverty

15 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The food giant is boosting advertising outlays, even as it continues cutting costs; and the poverty rate in the United States hit a low at the end of 2019, according to new data, only to run into a Covid reversal.

Corona Capital: Amazon, NYC and Trump

14 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Amazon’s hiring boom highlights its weakness, and U.S. President Donald Trump could throw New York City a bone.

Corona Capital: Testing, Flights, Football

10 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. lab-testing group Quest announces speedy growth; IAG’s gloomy horizons have a silver lining; and NFL football comes charging back.

Corona Capital: Bumble IPO, SPACs

2 Sep 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: The Blackstone-backed dating site may be eyeing an $8 bln valuation if it goes public next year, more than twice its pre-virus price tag. Ex-MGM exec Harry Sloan adds online gaming to his blank-check company empire.

Nestlé’s $2.6 bln peanut hedge boosts health creds

31 Aug 2020

The $348 bln Swiss giant is buying allergy treatment firm Aimmune. It makes the first approved product for food allergies to the nut. The ingredient isn’t prominent in its portfolio, so CEO Mark Schneider will essentially get a lift from making rivals’ products more accessible.

Chinese beverage IPO turns water into beer

31 Aug 2020

Nongfu Spring, the country’s answer to Evian, is being valued at about $31 bln, or a bubbly 41 times profit. That’s less akin to its closest consumer peers and more like brewers such as Tsingtao. Markets and China are recovering, but there’s also some glass-half-full thinking.

Delivery Hero M&A feast is DAX-doubtful

27 Aug 2020

The $18 billion food delivery company is buying its way into new, unproven businesses. It just replaced the fraudulent Wirecard in the German blue-chip index, not usually the home of unprofitable and highly acquisitive startups. Expect some adventures.