P&G set for showdown with Wella minorities 30 Jan 2004 The German shampoomaker s minorities will turn up the heat on the US consumer products giant at next week s annual meeting. But even if P&G wins the day, it will have to tread very carefully to avoid further brawls.
Iliad pops up 35% on market debut 30 Jan 2004 As the first big French float for two years, the ISP was priced for success. Failure would have killed the prospect of an IPO renaissance. Huge demand for the tiny float has seen Iliad s value hit its original E1bn price tag. But the old exuberance isn't back just yet.
Closer Iberian ties a spur to Spanish M&A 30 Jan 2004 Portugal and Spain have never got on. Yet that seems to be changing. As it does, the possibility of crossborder M&A rises too. Speculation is already rife of energy and banking deals. Many of them make industrial sense too. It is surely only a question of time.
Adecco says problems are minor 30 Jan 2004 The Swiss staffing company has found no major fraud in a preliminary enquiry of North American accounting irregularities. Adecco s stock may close its discount once a full report is issued. But its former premium is history due to management botches.
Hollinger rebuffs Barclays’ $18 a share bid 29 Jan 2004 The UK billionaire brothers are going to have to stump up more than that if they want to bid for the whole group. Hollinger is worth closer to $24 a share. But shareholders would probably settle for anything with a 2 in front of it.
Banks give up on Argentina’s debt talks 29 Jan 2004 Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have thrown in the towel, and other investment banks will surely follow. The talks will fail. Argentina s offer of a 75% write down was never going to wash anyway. It s time to start afresh. The IMF should take a haircut too.
IPO business picks up steam 29 Jan 2004 The stage is set for another IPO boom. But not because investor demand is pushing valuations through the roof. It is because sellers have become more flexible about the prices they'll take for their stock.
Where’s Lazard in the Sanofi/Aventis battle? 29 Jan 2004 The firm has worked for both drugs makers in the past. So its absence in a hostile fight is puzzling. Lazard s strong relationship to Pfizer may offer an explanation. The company makes a surprisingly strong candidate for a white knight.
Vodafone has ball in Europe and nightmare in Japan 28 Jan 2004 The mobile operator is reaping its investment in dataenabling technology in Europe. But it has fallen behind the curve in Japan. These ups and downs with technology may influence whether Vodafone bids for AT&T Wireless in the US.
BBC needs more than just a new chairman 28 Jan 2004 The UK publicsector broadcaster, which has been rocked by its reporting of the Iraq war, needs a cultural revolution. It is doubtful it can totally transform itself so long as it relies on easy money from the taxpayer.
Ryanair dives on profit warning 28 Jan 2004 Rock bottom fares are starting to make a dent on the nofrill carrier s profits. An adverse ruling from Brussels on subsidies won t help. That will bring Ryanair back down to earth. But its business model is still robust.
Bond market crash anniversary a warning 28 Jan 2004 Next week, it will be ten years since the Fed unexpectedly increased interest rates, and the bond market and dollar collapsed. Perhaps this year will turn out to be different. But the similarities between then and now are startling and scary.
Is NTT DoCoMo bluffing over AT&T Wireless? 27 Jan 2004 The Japanese mobile group is giving every impression that it wants to buy the $30bn US wireless group, in which it already has a stake. That s certainly the right tactic to force a good price from other bidders. But DoCoMo must be careful not to fall for its own propaganda.
L’Oreal gloss comes off 27 Jan 2004 The French cosmetics group owns a big chunk of Sanofi and has been hit by fears the drugs group will have to overpay to win Aventis. L Oreal would have to strip out Sanofi s fastergrowing earnings after a merger, highlighting a couple of blemishes in its core business.
Bird flu hasn’t infected investors yet 27 Jan 2004 That is just as well given the financial adage about Hong Kong sneezing and the rest of the world catching cold. But any sign that the flu is spreading fast could hit Asian stocks hard, given that they re 70% higher than when the Sars panic peaked.
Sanofi/Aventis merger would be good for Total 27 Jan 2004 Some shareholders fear that the French oil giant will recycle its E10bn investment in Sanofi into an acquisition splurge. It's more likely that Total management, which has established an investorfriendly reputation, will recycle the funds into share buybacks.
Aventis is worth more than Sanofi’s bid 27 Jan 2004 Sanofi's bid values the FrancoGerman drugs maker at a 11% discount to its standalone fair value that is before counting any synergies. This leaves scope for a valuebased defence.
Axa convertible investors fret over Mony 27 Jan 2004 Shareholders in Mony are becoming increasingly aggressive in their opposition to Axa s recommended offer for the US insurer. That s making investors who bought a special Axa bond to finance the offer worry that it may have to pull out. Such fears look misplaced.
Dresdner’s bad bank offloads E2bn of loans 27 Jan 2004 The sale pushes the German bank well ahead of its target for scaling back its unwanted loan exposures. But it was several separate transactions, all involving US loans. And getting shot of its German problem loans will not be so easy.
French companies learn to eat or be eaten 26 Jan 2004 Sanofi s bid for Aventis is easier to understand in the light of Pechiney s surrender to Canada's Alcan. French companies have become vulnerable to foreign bidders. Size matters if they want to keep control of their destiny.
Deutsche showed poor judgment over Parmalat 26 Jan 2004 The bank became a key cog in Parmalat s finances last year after it employed a former Parmalat employee to head its Italian advisory team. Did it probe Parmalat deeply enough before doing deals or was it lulled into false sense of security because of personal relationships?
Hollinger poisons the Barclays’ bid 26 Jan 2004 The independent directors are looking to sell a pile of shares at a 50% discount to all shareholders except for Black. This would stop the Barclays' bid in its tracks provided it goes through. But that's still an open question.
Sanofi’s sighting shot short of target 26 Jan 2004 The French drugs maker has made a E48bn hostile bid for competitor Aventis a measly 4% premium to Friday s close. Based on promised synergies, Sanofi could raise the bid by another 6%. But hostile paper bids are notoriously difficult to pull off. The French drugs maker has made a E48bn hostile bid for Aventis a 15% premium to its prespeculative price.
Parmalat’s black hole widens 26 Jan 2004 PWC's draft report on the group's finances reveals E14.3bn of debt. That's especially shocking given how wildly inflated its earnings were. On the basis of PWC's estimate of Parmalat earnings, creditors will be lucky to walk away with anything close to 10 cents on the euro.
Barclays vs Hollinger: two wrongs make a right 26 Jan 2004 Tactics like poison pills and crown jewel defences are normally disreputable. But in this case, the Barclay twins aren't treating the minorities well. So Hollinger's independent directors are entitled to play tough.
Chelsfield MBO is harsh but fair 26 Jan 2004 The buyout consortium has appeased the property group s independent directors by adding a smidgen more cash plus an equity piece too. But what really tipped the balance was having a big proportion of shareholders itching for an exit.
Malone sneaks up on News Corp 23 Jan 2004 John Malone's Liberty Media has bought a 9.1% voting stake in News Corp without warning its biggest voting shareholder Rupert Murdoch. It's not clear what the US cable mogul is up to, but he appears to be hedging his bets on the future of News Corp.
Aventis scores early blow against Sanofi 23 Jan 2004 The two European drugs companies are squaring up for a scrap, picking advisors and quietly slinging mud. Judging by the slide in Sanofi's stock price, Aventis looks to have won the first salvo in what could be Europe's largest drugs merger.
Morgan Stanley cowed by LVMH 23 Jan 2004 That's one response to the US investment bank's decision to drop analyst coverage of the luxury goods group. But it's the wrong one. Morgan Stanley hasn't been muzzled by LVMH, it has been muzzled by itself. The bank is being cowardly.
Were Grant Thornton’s global bosses asleep? 23 Jan 2004 This was quite a big potential conflict. Shareholders in the Parmalat auditor were coinvestors with with Emilio Gnutti, a convicted insider dealer, while the firm was his auditor.