People

Next Novo Nordisk CEO’s best cure may be mega-M&A

16 May 2025

The $281 bln obesity-drug maker is searching for a new boss. Its key shareholder, a nonprofit, stepped in after a share-price slide. The twin problems are an overreliance on just two diseases and a looming patent expiration for star product Ozempic. A big deal would solve both.

Value investing is poised to rise from the dead

15 May 2025

Warren Buffett has announced his retirement. The investment style championed by the Oracle of Omaha has fallen out of fashion as buyers chase growth stocks and passive funds. However, history suggests the prospects for value investors are brightest when the world loses faith.

Gates can fill only so much of humanitarian void

8 May 2025

Microsoft’s co-founder vowed to give away $200 bln by 2045, twice as much as his foundation spent in its first 25 years saving some 80 mln lives. It’s a welcome antidote to all the aid Donald Trump and Elon Musk are slashing. Billionaires closing the gap is a charitable notion.

Buyout barons struggle to heed Buffett doctrine

8 May 2025

Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and KKR aped some of the Oracle of Omaha’s ideas, including industrializing his use of insurance premiums to invest. With $440 bln to deploy now, they’re in a similar bind as Berkshire Hathaway. Private equity, however, cannot afford to be as patient.

Buffett’s $350 bln parting gift is double-edged

8 May 2025

The Sage of Omaha is preparing to step down, handing the reins of Berkshire Hathaway over to Greg Abel. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists debate the challenge of putting an enviable cash pile to work in the shadow of an investing legend’s track record.

LVMH’s opaque succession merits investor discount

15 Apr 2025

The $300 bln luxury giant wants shareholders to raise the retirement age for chair and CEO Bernard Arnault to 85, perhaps giving him another decade in charge. Lack of clarity about who takes over, or how his five children will share control, weighs on the group’s enviable record.

Marine Le Pen election ban worsens French chaos

31 Mar 2025

The right-wing leader was handed a jail sentence and banned from standing for public office in an embezzlement trial. Her party’s anger could push the hung parliament into further disarray. France will find it even harder to take crucial decisions on the budget and defence.

Bankers may not welcome UK rainmaker’s legal win

14 Mar 2025

Ian Hannam will get over $2 mln from a former client he sued for being ‘pushed out’ of an $18 bln mining merger. For M&A bankers, the dealmaker’s case makes it likelier CEOs pay for advice. But legal blowback risk will also make companies warier of who they consult on big deals.

Interests partly align behind Hong Kong bourse CEO

26 Feb 2025

One year into Bonnie Chan’s tenure at HKEX a push to streamline listings and tweaks to fees look well-timed as a $450 bln rally whets appetite for China stocks. The exchange remains tied to Chinese tech’s mast but Beijing’s pro-business messaging provides ample tailwinds for now.

White House plays with Social Security fire

19 Feb 2025

Cost-cutter-in-chief Elon Musk claimed to uncover massive fraud, citing 20 mln people over 100 years old in government files. Such histrionics and other clumsy administration meddling make it all too easy to fear that legit payments to seniors are a disaster waiting to happen.

BP’s overhaul can start with a new Chair

14 Feb 2025

Activist Elliott Investment Management now has 5% of the $93 bln UK group and wants to sell off its green assets. That might make sense. But investors are more likely to back structural reform if it's overseen by a chair other than current incumbent Helge Lund.

Andrea Orcel’s M&A hunt homes in on Italy

11 Feb 2025

The UniCredit boss pledged bold returns, even as lower rates squeeze banks’ lending margins. Solid performance, and a whirl of rival deals, make his bid for $14 bln Banco BPM increasingly realistic. That’s just as well, since his pursuit of Commerzbank looks ever more distant.

Why Elon Musk is a headache for broadband bosses

11 Feb 2025

The SpaceX founder’s Starlink business has about 5 mln users of its satellite internet service. It’s a big risk for telecom firms in developing countries with few fixed-line connections, like India. But Western incumbents, particularly in the US, should also be concerned.

Telefónica ouster flags need for a Spain discount

20 Jan 2025

Madrid has used its stake in the $22 bln telco to abruptly replace boss José María Álvarez-Pallete. Spain’s fast growth means it borrows more cheaply than France. But if the government keeps throwing its weight around, domestic companies may warrant a governance markdown.

Trump and Musk’s ally-bullying weakens the West

13 Jan 2025

The US president-elect’s talk of military force against Greenland and Panama weakens the case against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Tesla boss’s support for far-right politicians threatens European unity. Even if the threats prove empty, Beijing and Moscow will be happy.

Warnings and worries haunt best-read views of 2024

31 Dec 2024

This year our readers fretted about imploding stocks, regulatory shocks and Washington’s new status quo, even as the S&P 500 Index hit record highs. Incoming President Donald Trump, Tesla boss Elon Musk, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Britain’s royal family all added to the drama.

India’s reformist ex-PM warrants some imitation

27 Dec 2024

Manmohan Singh, who unshackled the country’s economy and lifted many out of poverty, has died aged 92. Current leader Narendra Modi would benefit from channelling his zeal for change amid slowing growth. Singh’s legacy, marred by corruption, is a reminder of the challenges ahead.

India starts resembling China in unflattering ways

19 Dec 2024

Growth is slowing and allegations of interference in the West’s affairs are rising. Part of the narrative weighing on the world’s second-largest economy is applicable to its fifth largest. Even if similarities are exaggerated, the connection poses a threat to India’s moment.

Donald Trump will meet his match in bond markets

18 Dec 2024

The president-elect’s bullying and bluster may steamroll any political resistance to tax cuts and tariff hikes. Like many world leaders before him, though, he’s about to feel the punch that debt buyers pack. They’ll beat back an inflationary agenda that imperils US finances.

Oil will aid rather than hinder Trump-MbS bromance

16 Dec 2024

Both the US president-elect and the Saudi crown prince want to pump more crude in 2025. Yet US drillers aren’t certain to do so. And Mohammed bin Salman may be able to extract a quid pro quo in return for deploying spare oil capacity should Donald Trump crack down on Iran.