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By Swissquote Analysts
Morning News

LVMH Shares Gain 5.7% After 1Q Sales Beat Hopes

The world's number one luxury goods company LVMH announced on Thursday it had acquired a majority stake in the Platinum Invest group, which includes Orest and Abysse, "the leading jewellery producers based in France", according to a statement. LVMH has ridden a surge in global demand for luxury goods, boosting sales across brands that offer everything from fine wine and jewelry to leather goods and upscale hotels. On Wednesday, the conglomerate reported a sharp rise in quarterly sales, driven by a rebound in China and strong demand for its clothing, handbags and jewelry in Europe and Japan. The figures were an early indication that high-end shoppers in China are once again boosting makers of luxury goods now that Beijing has eased Covid-19 restrictions.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

U.S. Inflation Eased to 5% in March

U.S. inflation eased in March to its lowest level in nearly two years, but underlying price pressures likely keep the door open for the Federal Reserve to consider another interest-rate increase at its May meeting. The consumer-price index, a closely watched inflation gauge that measures what consumers pay for goods and services, rose 5% last month from a year earlier, down from February’s 6% increase and the smallest gain since May 2021, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Consumers saw lower prices last month for groceries, gasoline, medical care and utilities and high prices for shelter, airline fares and insurance, the department said.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Glencore Tweaks Bid for Teck Resources to Allay Coal Concerns

The Anglo-Swiss mining group Glencore sweetened the terms of its offer to buy Teck Resources by proposing to the Canadian group's shareholders a cash premium that would allow them to divest their exposure to the coal sector. Glencore PLC said it would add a cash component to its roughly $23-billion merger proposal for Teck Resources Ltd., as the commodities company seeks to win over the Canadian miner's shareholders for a deal that would create a copper giant. Glencore last week detailed a bid to combine with Teck and create two separate companies for their merged metals and coal businesses. Teck said it had rejected that all-share offer in part because it would expose its shareholders to Glencore's large thermal coal business.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Pioneer Stock Jumps After Report of Talks with Exxon

Exxon Mobil Corp. (-0.4%) has held preliminary talks with Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (+5.8%) about a possible acquisition of the U.S. fracking giant, as the oil major hunts for a blockbuster deal in the shale patch, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions between the two companies about a potential deal have been informal, the people said. But after posting record profits in 2022, Exxon is flush with cash and, according to people familiar with the company's plans, has been exploring options that could reshape a swath of the U.S. oil-and-gas industry while pushing Exxon deeper into West Texas shale. An acquisition of Pioneer, with a market cap of around $50 billion, would likely be Exxon's largest since its megamerger with Mobil Corp. in 1999.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

TotalEnergies and Iraq Agree to Proceed With Delayed Energy Projects

French oil major TotalEnergies SE said Wednesday it would move forward with its partners to invest around $10 billion in Iraqi energy projects, reflecting the greater political stability in the country. The deal, which also brings in a Qatari partner, underscores how international oil companies are again investing in big projects around the globe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed energy security further up the agenda of governments and businesses after supply shocks fueled price swings and record energy-company profits.

By
David VERELST
Morning News

Barry Callebaut Replaces CEO with Immediate Effect

Barry Callebaut is making a unexpected change in its top management. The world's largest chocolate maker has appointed Peter Feld as its new CEO, effective immediately, it announced this morning. Feld joins Barry Callebaut from Jacobs Holding. Feld has more than 30 years of experience in advancing global consumer goods and services companies. Current CEO Peter Boone is stepping down "for personal reasons," according to the release.

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Glencore Returns to Acquisitions With Offer for Teck Resources

Glencore PLC’s around $23 billion bid for Canadian miner Teck Resources Ltd. marks the Swiss-based commodity company’s return to big deal making, potentially creating a copper giant that can capitalize on the rush for energy transition metals. Teck rejected the offer on Monday, which would be one of the largest mining deals in several years, and the family that holds a third of the Canadian company’s voting shares said it won’t back Glencore’s deal.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

ChatGPT Banned in Italy Over Data-Privacy Concerns

OpenAI said late Friday that it disabled ChatGPT in Italy in response to the regulator’s order, published earlier that day, which had said the company must suspend processing data of Italian users. It is one of the first nationwide measures restricting the use of ChatGPT since its popularity exploded globally in recent months. In the U.S. and across Europe, calls have been mounting to regulate the self-generative AI tool over concerns ranging from data protection to disinformation to job safety. Italy’s data protection authority said OpenAI had “no legal basis” for using the data it had amassed “to train the algorithms that power the platform.”

By
Mathieu VILLARD
Morning News

Shop Apotheke enters into an alliance with Galenica in Switzerland

The Switzerland-based Galenica (+0.7%) enters into a strategic partnership with the Dutch Shop Apotheke for the Swiss market. Only recently Zur Rose (+3.8%), a Swiss competitor of Shop Apotheke, decided to withdraw from the domestic market. Shop Apotheke rose by 7.7 per cent, despite a capital increase. According to the company, the increase was company-specific and only served to allow Switzerland's Galenica AG to enter Shop Apotheke. There is also no rights trading, which often weighs on share prices. The business activities of Galenica's specialty pharmacy Mediservice and the online pharmacy shop-apotheke.ch will be combined in a joint venture. This will create the "leading online pharmacy in Switzerland", according to a press release on Thursday. The two partners complement each other well. While Mediservice focuses primarily on the shipment of prescription medicines, Europe's largest mail-order pharmacy focuses on OTC and health products as well as cosmetics. If everything runs according to plan and the competition authorities approve the transaction without objection, the deal is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023. In detail, the agreement provides for Galenica to sell 51 per cent of the shares in Mediservice to Shop Apotheke and to make an additional cash payment of 29 million euros. In return, Galenica will receive an 8 per cent stake in Shop Apotheke, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, as part of a capital increase.

By
David VERELST
Morning News

UK CMA clears Richemont's sale of nearly 50% of YNAP to Farfetch

The British competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has given the green light to Richemont's (+2.4% in Zurich) sale of a stake of almost 50% in the e-commerce platform Yoox-Net-A-Porter (YNAP) to Farfetch. The approval should allow the Swiss luxury group to complete the transaction later this year. Richemont and Farfetch entered into an agreement in August 2022 under which the online marketplace specialising in luxury goods would take a 47.5% stake in YNAP.

By
Mathieu VILLARD