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Takes guts
European companies slam Chinese antitrust probes
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European companies have lashed out at the Chinese government’s renewed crackdown on alleged violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, saying that they have been subject to “intimidation tactics” by officials who have unfairly targeted foreign businesses.
In a rare public backlash, the Beijing-based European Chamber of Commerce in China on Wednesday issued what it described as a “consolidated stance” from member companies that had been targeted by antitrust investigations during the past year, the Financial Times reported.
“The European Chamber has received numerous alarming anecdotal accounts from a number of sectors that administrative intimidation tactics are being used to impel companies to accept punishments and remedies without full hearings,” the group said.
Chinese authorities had warned companies “not to challenge the investigations, bring lawyers to hearings or involve their respective governments or chambers of commerce”, the group said.
Last summer, China’s National Development and Reform Commission fined multinational baby powder manufacturers for alleged pricing violations.
The NDRC struck again last month when it raided the Shanghai offices of Daimler, the German company that manufactures Mercedes-Benz sedans, and said it would punish Audi for allegedly overcharging dealers and repair shops for spare parts.
US technology companies such as Qualcomm and Microsoft have also confirmed that they are the subject of competition investigations by Chinese authorities.
– Contact us at english@hkej.com
Yes, I was talking about the phenomenon of certain people repeating destructive behavior time after time. Loading the dice against themselves. Some such people are investors, and some are professional money managers.
A string of investment successes may be luck, Buffet notwithstanding, but a string of losses is definitely not luck - it's hard wired in the individual.
I know from self observation.
WSJ
COAL HOLE
Coal mines in Mozambique have proved so difficult to make profitable that miner Rio Tinto is offloading them.
In 2011, when Rio got hold of the mines through a $3.7 billion takeover of Riversdale Mining Ltd., prices were rocketing. Coal-hungry Asia was demanding more and more, and supplies had been disrupted in major producing countries.
But since then, the market has tanked.
New mines, planned during the boom times, have come online. U.S. coal, which no longer needs to be burned at home because shale gas has displaced it, has flooded the international market. China has slowed down.
In Mozambique, Rio Tinto had planned to ship the coal along the Zambezi River, writes The Wall Street Journal’s Rhiannon Hoyle. But dredging the river, and getting the government onside, proved too hard. The coal also needed expensive processing.
Rio’s sale of the mines to an Indian investment group comes at the same time that other companies—including BHP Billiton, Glencore and Anglo American—are reviewing their operations, cutting staff, halting expansion plans and selling or closing mines.
The Street.com
) -- Shares of Unilever (UL_) are down -0.39 to $45.42 in pre-market trade as the consumer goods company reported second quarter revenue growth that missed estimates as Asian emerging markets continued to slow and the struggling food business posted another sluggish result, Bloomberg reports.
Underlying sales were up 3.8% in the period ended June 30, the company said today.
The median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 4.3% increase.
Merrill.
I do not get the underlying discussion, just the announcement. I no longer have an account with ML.
Note: AbbVie has been added to the US 1 list today. Theravance (THRX) has been removed. Today’s closing prices will be the addition/removal prices for the stocks.
Very faint praise.
EXEL calls are horribly expensive.IV's over 100
Interesting, thanks
1.8MM shares available to short at Fidelity
RVNC "hard to borrow" at Schwab.
I’m not sure if RVNC is shortable,
London-listed drugmaker Shire Plc succumbed to an increased 31 billion pounds takeover offer from Abbvie Inc on Monday, signalling the conclusion to a long-running courtship largely motivated by tax.
Shire said it was ready to recommend the deal, the latest in a list of mergers proposed by U.S. firms seeking to cut their tax rates, and which comes less than seven weeks after the collapse of Pfizer Inc's $118 billion bid for AstraZeneca Plc, also motivated in part by tax factors.<snip>
At least the problem is not Greece
I wish the Espiritu Santo had inspired me nor to buy NBG yesterday.
It's been mooted before, but it may gain some traction.
FT
China is expanding plans to establish a global financial institution to rival the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which Beijing fears are too influenced by the US and its allies.
In meetings with other countries, Beijing has proposed doubling the size of registered capital for the proposed bank to $100bn, according to two people familiar with the matter.<snip>
More.
From FT
Royal Dutch Shell has announced an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange for its Shell Midstream Partners pipeline business, the FT's Guy Chazan writes.
Shell said the offering was scheduled for the second half of the year.
So what is Shell Midstream Partners? Shell said:
Shell Midstream Partners was formed as a vehicle to own, operate, develop and acquire pipelines and other midstream assets. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Shell Midstream Partners' initial assets are expected to consist of ownership interests in four onshore and offshore pipelines located primarily in Texas and Louisiana.
A roll up takeover?
FT
China’s sovereign wealth fund is shifting its focus to invest in agriculture and global food supplies in a significant strategic move that reflects the priorities of the country’s new leadership.
In an opinion piece in the Financial Times, Ding Xuedong, chairman of China Investment Corp, said the country’s $650bn sovereign wealth fund wants to invest more in agriculture around the world and “across the entire value chain”.
<snip>
another tax related deal.
Medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. MDT -0.15% is in advanced talks to combine with rival Covidien COV -0.03% PLC in a deal valued at more than $40 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal, which could be announced Monday, would be structured as a so-called tax inversion, according to one of the people. In such deals, acquirers buy companies domiciled in countries with lower corporate tax rates than their own as a means of reducing their overall rate. Covidien is based in Ireland, which is known for having a relatively low tax rate: its main corporate tax rate is 12.5%. In the U.S., home to Medtronic, the 35% rate is one of the world's highest.
WSJ yesterday
EU Governments Back Overhaul of Rules for Biotech Crops
National Capitals to Get More Control Over Whether to Allow GMOs
By
Matthew Dalton
June 12, 2014 8:27 a.m. ET
The European Union appears poised to allow member states to decide whether to allow the engineered crops. European Pressphoto Agency
BRUSSELS—European Union governments approved an overhaul of the bloc's system for regulating biotech crops, giving more power to national capitals and allowing governments that want to restrict them for nonscientific reasons to do so.
None of the 28 EU governments opposed the decision at a meeting of environment ministers on Thursday. The new system must still be approved by the European Parliament, though observers didn't expect major changes to the proposal.
The move is likely to result in more biotech crops being grown in the EU, since countries that want to approve biotech crops for cultivation would be allowed to do so if EU scientific authorities deem them safe. EU biotech approvals usually stall under the current system, since the EU can only approve a crop for the entire bloc.
But the proposal drew criticism from industry giants such as Monsanto because it allows bans for purely political reasons.
"This decision would be tragic-comic if it didn't send such a bad signal to the rest of the world that it is OK to ignore science and ban things for populist purposes," said Monsanto spokesman Brandon Mitchener in a statement.
The proposal reflects fundamental disagreements over biotech crops that have divided the EU for years. The public in most EU countries is strongly opposed to the technology, but a few nations, such as Spain, the U.K. and the Netherlands, are more open. Only one biotech crop, a corn developed by Monsanto, is approved for cultivation in the EU.
Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com
In hindsight, going long oil yesterday was a no brainer that I did not have the brains to take.
Has this news been posted? Admittedly not in the same league as the multibillion $ deal they spurned.
LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca has struck a deal worth up to $232 million in milestone payments to acquire rights to a drug from Synairgen for treating respiratory tract viral infections in patients with severe asthma.
Britain's second-biggest drugmaker - subject of a $118 billion bid by Pfizer that failed last month - said on Thursday it would pay UK-based Synairgen a $7.25 million upfront fee and potential development, regulatory and commercial milestones of up to $225 million for rights to the drug, codenamed SNG001.
The deal, which sent in shares in Synairgen surging 46 percent by 0740 GMT, marks a continuation of AstraZeneca's strategy of striking bolt-on product licensing deals in key therapeutic areas, such as respiratory medicine.<snip>
Thank you. I couldn't think of anything else that would move the stock 60 points in five days.
GERN up 16% after a strong day yesterday.
I assume that there are rumors of the FDA lifting the hold but can't find anything.
I have some in my Aqueduct portfolio.
WSJ. Seems to me the proviso in the last para could be important
Ironing Out Mining's Yield Opportunity
Biggest Miners Remain Attractive Despite Falling Iron Ore Prices
By
Helen Thomas
June 4, 2014 12:00 p.m. ET
This is where the rubber on those great big mining-truck tires meets the road.
Miners have been cutting costs, slashing investment spending and promising that improving cash flow will be used for payouts to shareholders. But the price of iron ore is sliding, down about a third this year to around $90 a metric ton.
This vital steelmaking ingredient accounts for the bulk of Rio Tinto's earnings and about 45% of operating profit at BHP Billiton. But the two are also expected to be first among the sector to increase payouts to investors. Buying into the mining sector is now largely a bet on increasing cash distributions bolstering share prices even as commodity prices stay flat or weaken.
One hope for the sector is that higher-cost producers of iron ore stop digging as the price of the commodity tumbles. It is approaching the nadir hit in the summer of 2012 amid jitters about economic growth in China, where two thirds of the world's traded iron ore is consumed.
But this selloff has been slower, stretched over six months rather than a few weeks; it owes more to mounting supply than activity at China's steel mills. Iron ore shipments from the four biggest producers rose 18% in the first quarter, notes Chris LaFemina at Jefferies, whereas underlying consumption rose just 4%. This suggests that even as higher-costs mines shut down, the type of bounce-back seen two years ago is unlikely.
But there are signs that miners' commitment to spending discipline and bolstering returns is providing support. Rio and BHP have, perhaps unsurprisingly, outperformed their mid-capitalization peers. An index of the big London-listed miners is broadly flat for the year, only slightly underperforming the FTSE 100.
More important, miners' share prices are near levels which should spark the interest of yield-seeking investors. Rio's and BHP's stocks offer a forward dividend yield of more than 4%, a premium to the market of about 15%. The imminent prospect of share buybacks from BHP could boost its capital return closer to 7%, notes Jefferies.
Both companies are already paying down debt and their low-cost operations should help protect dividends from further commodity price weakness. Citi estimates Rio could still increase its dividend even with iron ore prices at $70 a metric ton.
In a world of rock-bottom interest rates, such yields should prove appealing—provided shareholders have faith in the companies' ability to defend their payouts and invest sensibly for longer-term production increases. It won't excite those harking back to mining as a supercharged bet on Chinese growth. But for those after defensive, high-yielding market-performers, Rio and BHP offer some reasons to back up the truck.
GMOs Are a Key Tool to Addressing Global Hunger
That's not going to work. Whether it's drawing the only the direst conclusions from Fukushima (ignoring that Fukushima should never have been built where it was), Merkel eliminating nuclear from Germany's energy future, denying Keystone though it's hard to see that this "dirty oil" won't get through to US markets (probably by rail, much more dangerous than pipe,) making it an article of faith that fracking is an unproven and dangerous technique, the greens have reduced themselves to delivering unscientific fatwas.
Which is wrong because the anthropogenic hypothesis is compelling, but the "science is settled" nuts actively impede the search for a solution. And we're left with good old oil for our energy needs.
(I am aware there are big strides being made in solar, BTW.
PFE-AZN post-mortem
I think that the AZN/PFE well has been so thoroughly poisoned that resuscitation would would be highly unlikely, but if it were to happen PFE would be tempted to undertake a major cleaning out of the AZN executive suite.
The fact that Shell is ready to give up that protection could auger well.
I know what a well auger might be, but what's an auger well?
PML retains its power to terrify investors.
FT
So much for US oil producer Hess spinning off its network of gas stations and convenience stores along the east coast of the US. It's gone and sold them instead.
Marathon Petroleum has agreed to buy Hess Retail Holdings, which also includes Hess's transport operations, for $2.87bn, the company said on Thursday.
ICPT could prove to be an exception
The zipjet argument - the lipids data is troublesome, but it's better than the alternative?
Good buy. I sold my puny 100 shares at 242. At the very least, the company does not seem committed to disclosure, judging from the excerpted emails.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT_) knew last January that abnormal cholesterol levels in patients contributed to the early stopping of a clinical trial involving its liver disease drug obeticholic acid, or OCA, but the company chose not to tell investors and lobbied government scientists conducting the trial to downplay the potentially worrisome safety finding, according to newly released emails.
These emails, made public through the Freedom of Information Act, provide a behind-the-scenes look at the days before Intercept's Jan. 9, 2014 announcement about the OCA clinical trial in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. <snip>
http://www.thestreet.com/story/12714549/1/intercept-pharma-government-scientists-spar-over-negative-safety-of-liver-drug-emails-show.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Thank you.
I bought some, not many, June 11's.
Do you have an idea of what the judge might do once he has been notified?
- do nothing?
- inform TEVA and only TEVA?
- inform everybody?
With a blanket release, they will have told TEVA, and everybody else.
Market agrees - PFE up over 1%
Minor irony - PFE wants the deal for tax reasons, you don't, for tax reasons.
AZN down 10% on rejection of PFE's "final" offer.
Article in FT suggests considerable shareholder unhappiness but does not suggest those discontented could do much about it. AZN board has certainly embarked on a gamble.
quite bizarre since it had no discernible effect on the trading.
Since the applications themselves are different they might well be impacted differently by the FDA's new information as transmitted to MYL
Yes, that's what I thought too.