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By Swissquote Analysts
Morning News

Goodyear Acquires Cooper Tire for $2.8 Billion

The US tyre manufacturer Goodyear is strengthening itself with a multi-billion dollar acquisition. As the company announced, it is taking over Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. The deal values the company at around 2.8 billion US dollars. Cooper Tire shareholders will receive $41.75 per share in cash and 0.907 Goodyear shares. This corresponds to a price of 54.36 dollars per share. Goodyear is paying a 24 per cent premium to Cooper Tire's 30-day volume-weighted average price. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter and is expected to be immediately accretive to Goodyear's earnings per share.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Boeing Backs Grounding Some 777 Jets

Boeing Co. told airlines to stop flying its wide-body 777 aircraft equipped with a type of engine that broke apart during a flight over the weekend near Denver, as the Federal Aviation Administration said it would order immediate inspections of those jets. Boeing's recommendation followed action by regulators in the U.S. and Japan aimed at the Pratt & Whitney engines found on 128 of its 777s. The United Airlines Holdings Inc. flight Saturday was the third failure involving that model plane with those engines in recent years. Safety investigators in the U.S. are trying to determine why the engine failed shortly after the Honolulu-bound plane took off, forcing it to return to Denver International Airport and leaving a trail of debris scattered over a nearby town. United, the only airline in the U.S. that uses that engine type, said earlier Sunday evening that it had taken two dozen planes out of service. Regulators in Japan had already ordered airlines to stop flying aircraft with the same engine type until further notice.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Volkswagen Considers Listing Minority Stake in Porsche

Volkswagen AG is considering listing as much as 25% of its sports car maker Porsche AG, a move that analysts said could boost the market value of the entire Volkswagen group and raise cash needed for investment in electric vehicles and new technology. The idea of listing Porsche or selling a stake in luxury car maker Audi isn't new within Volkswagen's top management, but people familiar with the company's thinking said talks within Volkswagen have taken on greater urgency as the company pivots hard toward electric vehicles and sees its market value dwarfed by technology rivals such as Tesla Inc. The discussions are still at a very early stage, the people said, adding that if Volkswagen decided to move forward with the listing, it might not happen until next year, if at all.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Credit Suisse Posts Loss Despite Boost from Investment Bank

Credit Suisse Group AG said hefty legal charges pushed it to a fourth-quarter loss, even as a rebound in investment banking lifted other parts of the bank's operations. On Thursday, the Swiss bank reported a loss of 353 million Swiss francs, or nearly $393 million, for the fourth quarter. Analysts expected a loss of about 566 million Swiss francs. Even in a difficult year, Credit Suisse fared better than many European rivals because its lending in Switzerland and to the global rich held up in the pandemic. Along with Wall Street competitors, its investment bank booked bumper fees from clients trading in last year's gyrating markets and from companies raising capital or needing deal advice. On Thursday, it said its investment banking arm made a $318 million pretax profit in the fourth quarter, with the biggest revenue contribution coming from stock and bond deals.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Adidas Starts Divestiture Process for Reebok Brand

Adidas AG announced that it has started a formal process to divest its Reebok brand after concluding a strategic assessment. The German sporting-goods company said it will report Reebok as discontinued operations from the first quarter of the year onwards. "After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that Reebok and Adidas will be able to significantly better realize their growth potential independently of each other," it said.

By
Peter Rosenstreich
Morning News

Vivendi shares surge 19,6% on plan to list Universal Music Group

Stock market listing would give UMG firepower to compete with rivals Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Shares in Vivendi surged 19,6% on Monday after the French media group said that it may spin out Universal Music Group business in Amsterdam and distribute 60% of the capital to investors by year end, as it looks to cash in on the rising value of music assets. The listing would give UMG, which is the world's biggest music company and is home to singers including Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Kanye West, the financial firepower to compete with rivals Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony Music Entertainment, amid a boom in music streaming services.

By
Peter Rosenstreich
Morning News

Pfizer, BioNTech to Supply U.S. With Additional 100 Million Doses of Covid Vaccine

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said the U.S. government has exercised its option for an additional 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine. This brings the total number of doses to be supplied by the companies to the U.S. government to 300 million. Consistent with the agreements for the prior 200 million doses, the U.S. government will pay $1.95 billion for the additional 100 million doses. Eligible U.S. residents will continue to receive the vaccine for free. Pfizer's facility in Kalamazoo, Mich., will remain the primary manufacturing site of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S.

By
Peter Rosenstreich
Morning News

Disney+ Streaming Business Gives Disney Profit Surprise

The growing streaming business Disney+ has given the entertainment company Disney a strong profit surprise. The company benefited from people's search for entertainment in the pandemic and increased the number of its subscribers to 94.9 million. However, in other areas of Disney such as the theme parks, business came to a virtual standstill because of the lockdown measures. Disney (DIS) reported a surprise profit of $17 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal first quarter on revenue of $16.25 billion, up from $15.8 billion a year earlier. Adjusted for restructuring and other effects, Disney posted earnings of 32 cents per share, up from $1.53 in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of 34 cents per share on revenue of $15.9 billion, according to FactSet.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Uber Posts Significant Loss due to Corona Crisis

The US ride-hailing company Uber has posted another significant loss due to the Corona pandemic. In the fourth quarter of last year, revenues fell by 16 per cent to 3.2 billion US dollars compared to the same period last year, the company announced. Uber thus posted a loss of 986 million dollars. The company was able to partially offset the loss in the mobility division with growth in its food delivery service Uber Eats. Revenue in the ride-hailing business fell 52 per cent year-on-year, but the delivery division saw strong growth. Last year was a "test of Uber's resilience", said company chief Dara Khosrowshahi. But the company has also been able to "dramatically" expand its capabilities in local commerce.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ
Morning News

Twitter Tops USD 1 Billion in Quarterly Revenue for the Second Time

For the second time in its history, Twitter has closed a quarter with revenues of more than one billion dollars. The short message service increased its fourth quarter revenue by 28 per cent to 1.29 billion dollars, beating the consensus estimate of 1.18 billion. Net income reached $222 million, or 29 cents per share, hitting the Factset analyst estimate exactly. On an adjusted basis, Twitter earned 38 cents per share. Twitter was able to increase the number of daily active users, which is important for increasing advertising revenue, by 27 per cent year-on-year to 192 million, but just missed the consensus expectation of 193.5 million. The share price closed a good 3 per cent up with a 3-month performance of over 27%.

By
Vincent MIVELAZ