Management & Leadership

AIA’s new boss starts from position of strength

28 Jul 2017

Booming sales in China and Hong Kong helped the Asian life insurer report a 42 pct surge in new business. New CEO Ng Keng Hooi has a $11 bln surplus to play with. Even if he can’t run all of that down, that still leaves a lot of firepower to fund growth, deals, and dividends.

AstraZeneca drug flop is bad, not terminal

27 Jul 2017

A cancer treatment failed to live up to high hopes, wiping as much as $14 billion off the company’s value. The outlook for the UK drugmaker and its boss Pascal Soriot is suddenly more uncertain. But there are other areas of growth – and Astra is now an easier takeover target.

ITV takeover is increasingly plausible plot twist

26 Jul 2017

The UK broadcaster, which recently named easyJet’s Carolyn McCall as its next CEO, is 15 pct cheaper than three months ago. A bidder like Liberty Global could now make a decent return – but would have to brave the risk of a further slowdown in the free-to-air TV ad market.

C-suite stasis hurts India’s non-performing banks

26 Jul 2017

While New Delhi has ditched bosses of some flailing state banks, private lenders with lots of bad loans have stuck with the status quo. Axis and ICICI have each had their chief since 2009 and significantly lagged rivals. A lack of movement at the top holds back corporate India.

Bolloré’s grand media plan for Vivendi takes shape

25 Jul 2017

The French group’s TV arm has proposed a joint venture with Telecom Italia to buy content rights. Building a media network that is able to compete with U.S. giants may trim Vivendi’s conglomerate discount. Vincent Bolloré will have to find more synergies to close the gap further.

Akzo adds new gloss to disdain for investors

25 Jul 2017

The Dutch paint maker has to convene an emergency meeting to formally appoint Thierry Vanlancker as the new CEO. Its timing is designed to prevent irate activists from forcing a vote on Chairman Antony Burgmans’ future. This is an ill-advised disregard for shareholder democracy.

Akzo’s misguided strategy will weather CEO change

19 Jul 2017

The Dutch paint maker’s new boss Thierry Vanlancker inherits his predecessor’s fanciful mid-term targets. The goals are backed by Chairman Antony Burgmans, a key opponent of a deal with PPG who may now find his position strengthened. Real change at Akzo is even less likely.

Mayo board’s exodus sets spicy governance example

18 Jul 2017

Hampton Creek may have used dodgy methods to boost sales of its eggless mayonnaise. Now most of the Silicon Valley startup’s directors have quit after they clashed with the co-founder and CEO. It’s a last resort, but boards at Theranos and Uber, for example, might have tried it.

EasyJet can afford a spell on autopilot

17 Jul 2017

Losing its chief executive to broadcaster ITV is manageable for the UK airline, one of the FTSE-100’s best performers this year. While Carolyn McCall did a good job – and bagged easyJet a higher valuation than Ryanair – what she leaves behind has structural advantages over rivals.

AstraZeneca’s 3 billion pound CEO is overvalued

13 Jul 2017

That is how much was wiped off the drugmaker’s market value after a website reported Chief Executive Pascal Soriot will join Teva. Any such exit would hardly inspire confidence, coming after another senior departure and before a key medical trial. But the reaction is excessive.

EasyJet’s McCall has choice of turbulence at ITV

6 Jul 2017

The airline boss is tipped to pilot the UK broadcaster, according to a newspaper. A digitally savvy outsider would be useful at a company that faces slowing ad revenue and costly content wars. But steering an incumbent rather than a disruptor will be more challenging.

Altice discount a dubious buying opportunity

30 Jun 2017

A float of its U.S. arm has made the Dutch telco’s discount to the sum of its parts more visible. It’s a good time to invest in the parent if founder Patrick Drahi can succeed at running it more as an integrated group. Limited synergies and questionable governance raise doubts.

Video offers thinning ray of hope for LeEco

29 Jun 2017

Worsening cash problems have pushed the Chinese tech conglomerate to focus increasingly on smart televisions and online streaming, as it sells other assets. Even if mounting financial and legal woes are surmounted, squeezing more profit out of Chinese television will be tricky.

UGGs could be cozy fit for buyout barons

28 Jun 2017

A pushy investor in $2.2 bln Deckers, owner of the trendy sheepskin-lined boots, issued an odd ultimatum to the board: sell the company or face a fight at the ballot. The numbers may stack up for private equity. It's a question of whether valuation and retail risk are too high.

Head-office heave shows Tesco’s weak hand

28 Jun 2017

The British supermarket is cutting a quarter of staff at its headquarters. This should help with plans to remove 1.5 billion pounds of costs and hit an ambitious 3.5 pct-4 pct margin target. Job losses are an unfortunate symptom of Tesco's limited pricing power.

Silicon Valley reinvents avoidable sexism scandals

26 Jun 2017

Binary Capital is imploding amid claims of predatory behavior. Uber is belatedly tackling similar issues. Venture-capital doyen Reid Hoffman wants an industry “decency pledge.” That's fine, but the tech world could have learned long ago from experience, including on Wall Street.

Bolloré clan’s deal sums don’t add up

23 Jun 2017

Vincent Bolloré’s Vivendi is buying ad group Havas, run by his son Yannick. The younger Bolloré says it may create at least 390 mln euros of value, justifying the premium. That’s dubious: the premium is arguably bigger than he claims, and the return on investment still looks low.

New app: Uber, but for an Uber CEO

21 Jun 2017

Co-founder Travis Kalanick has quit under a cloud of business and cultural troubles that threaten the ride-hailing service's eye-popping $68 bln valuation. He leaves a dearth of senior managers and a void at the top. Breakingviews imagines an Uber-like widget that helps fill it.

Governance coup caps first leg of Uber’s journey

21 Jun 2017

Travis Kalanick quit as CEO amid pressure from the ride-hailing app's investors. His stewardship had become a distraction. For a private firm to jettison its controlling shareholder suggests a modicum of market discipline in startup land – if he really does take a back seat.

Li Ka-shing’s successor faces big disruptions

20 Jun 2017

The retirement of the 88 yr old would signal the end of an era for Hong Kong's tycoons. His eldest son is waiting in the wings to inherit the empire topped by CK Hutchison. He faces daunting challenges from the inevitable departure of his father’s trusted lieutenants to Brexit.