The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
CRH said it has agreed to buy Barrette Outdoor Living, an Ohio-based maker of residential fencing, for an enterprise value of $1.9 billion. CRH is buying Barrette from TorQuest Partners and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. It is paying $1.85 billion in cash, plus taking on $40 million in capitalised lease liabilities. Barrette, which will be added to CRH’s Architectural Products business, reported $79 million in pretax profit in the financial year that ended January 1. CRH said the price it is paying represent a multiple of 10 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Barrette was founded in 1975 and now distributes its fencing, railing and outdoor decking for homes in the majority of US states and several regions in Canada.
----------
Melrose Industries said it has agreed a $650 million deal to sell the final asset belonging to 2016 acquisition Nortek. The industrial turnaround specialist said it has agreed to offload its Ergotron business to funds managed by Sterling Group. Completion of the sale is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2022 and is conditional upon customary US antitrust approvals. On or before completion, Melrose will announce how it intends to use the net proceeds, the FTSE 100 listing added. Ergoton is a manufacturer of ergonomic products such as computer mounts, stand-up desks, and mobile carts. Ergoton achieved an adjusted operating profit of £58 million in 2021.
----------
The London Metal Exchange is being sued by activist investor Elliott Management for more than $456 million over its move to suspend and cancel nickel trades earlier this year after dramatic swings in the metal’s price. Elliott filed the claim in England’s High Court of Justice on June 1 against the London Metal Exchange and its subsidiary LME Clear. The US hedge fund alleges that the cancellation of nickel contract trades on March 8 was ‘unlawful on public law grounds and/or constituted a violation of the claimants’ human rights’, according to a statement from LME owner Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing. HKEX said that the claim was ‘without merit and the LME will contest it vigorously’.
----------
GSK said the US Food & Drug Administration has approved its Priorix treatment for active immunisation for the prevention of measles, mumps and rubella in individuals 12 months of age and older. Priorix is currently licenced in more than 100 countries worldwide, including all European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with more than 800 million doses distributed to date. ‘We’re proud to make Priorix available in the US for the first time, adding a choice for providers to help protect patients against these highly contagious diseases and to further strengthen offerings in our paediatric vaccine portfolio,’ said Judy Stewart, head of US Vaccines for GSK.
----------
AstraZeneca said its jointly developed breast cancer drug Enhertu showed improved overall survival in a phase III trial, while its leukaemia treatment Calquence showed a sustained survival benefit in another phase III trial. The Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical company said Enhertu improved median overall survival by more than six months compared to chemotherapy in all patients evaluated in the Destiny-Breast04 trial. Enhertu, whose generic name is trastuzumab deruxtecan, is a specifically engineered HER2-directed antibody drug conjugate being jointly developed by AstraZeneca and Tokyo-based peer Daiichi Sankyo. AstraZeneca also said results from the Elevate-TN Phase III trial showed that Calquence, whose generic name is acalabrutinib, maintained a progression-free survival benefit, and a safety and tolerability profile.
----------
Fiat Chrysler pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $300 million in penalties in the long-running case over the automakers efforts to cheat diesel emissions tests, the US Justice Department announced. The auto giant was accused of installing ‘defeat devices’ on cars to evade emissions standards and in January 2019 agreed to a $515 million US civil settlement in the case. FCA has now admitted guilt to one criminal felony count of conspiracy to defraud the US, commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act, according to the Justice Department statement. FCA parent company Stellantis said in a statement Friday that it had set aside about $300 million last year for this litigation process.
----------
MARKETS
----------
‘Many of us might be nursing a bit of a hangover but the FTSE 100 got a post-Jubilee bounce on Monday morning,’ said Russ Mould investment director for AJ Bell in London. ‘Appropriately following a platinum-themed celebration, the move higher was powered by the mining sector as investors look for a rebound in demand for metals now China is relaxing its Covid restrictions.’ Anglo American was up 3.2%, Rio Tinto 2.8% and Glencore 2.9%. Wall Street also was called to open higher on Monday, led by technology stocks.
----------
CAC 40: up 1.2% at 6,561.06
DAX 40: up 1.0% at 14,607.14
FTSE 100: up 1.4% at 7,635.40
----------
Hang Seng: closed up 2.7% at 21,653.90
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.6% at 27,915.89
S&P/ASX 200: closed down 0.5% at 7,206.30
----------
DJIA: called up 0.8%
S&P 500: called up 1.1%
Nasdaq Composite: called up 1.5%
----------
EUR: up at $1.0744 ($1.0719)
GBP: up at $1.2567 ($1.2489)
USD: down at JP¥130.73 (JP¥130.82)
GOLD: flat at $1,851.70 per ounce ($1,851.30)
OIL (Brent): down at $120.04 a barrel ($121.29)
(currency and commodities changes since previous New York equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
Beijing will gradually lift Covid-19 restrictions this week, city officials said. After some easing in recent days, the Chinese capital – which reported 19 new infections Sunday – announced residents would start returning to work from Monday and schools would reopen from June 13. From Monday, restaurants will be able to welcome customers again – if they have tested negative in the previous three days – and public transport will operate normally, the city’s government said in a statement. In Shanghai, most of the city’s 25 million inhabitants have been able to move freely since Wednesday.
----------
Service sector companies in China increased prices in May, as cost pressures continued to remain high and backlogs of work grow, due to disruption from the lockdowns imposed by Beijing to combat the spread of Covid-19. The Caixin general services purchasing managers’ index rose to 41.4 points in May from 36.2 in April, a reading that had marked a 26-month low. However, the PMI score remained well below the neutral 50-point mark, indicating that activity continued to shrink last month. Total new business fell for the fourth month in a row, Caixin Insight Group reported. Although it remained ‘sharp’ overall, the rate of reduction in business activity ‘eased’ from April’s 26-month record. The Caixin China general composite PMI rose to 42.2 points in May from 37.2 in the previous month. The composite PMI is a blend of the service and manufacturing scores. Last week, the manufacturing PMI was reported at 48.1 points in May, up from 46 in April.
----------
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a vote of no confidence by Tory MPs amid anger across the party at the disclosures over lockdown parties in Downing Street. Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, confirmed in a statement that he has now received the 54 letters from Conservative MPs needed to trigger a vote. The vote – by secret ballot – will take place at Westminster on Monday between 1800 BST and 2000 BST, with the count to take place immediately afterwards. In order to oust the prime minister however the rebels will need 180 MPs, and allies of Johnson made clear he is determined to fight to stay on.
----------
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow will hit new targets if the West supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The battle for the control of the strategically important eastern city of Severodonetsk also raged on, with regional governor Sergiy Gaiday saying Ukrainian forces now control ‘half of the city’. Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24. The Russian leader said long-range missile supplies being sent to Ukraine meant that ‘we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms...to strike targets we haven’t hit before’. He did not specify which targets he meant.
----------
US President Joe Biden has pushed back a possible trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, US media reported. Biden reportedly planned to go ahead with the long-rumoured Saudi stop during an upcoming overseas tour at the end of June. But according to CNN and NBC, he has postponed the visit back to July. The White House declined to comment on the potential delay. Biden confirmed Friday he was considering a trip to Saudi Arabia, which would be a stark reversal after he called for the kingdom to be made a pariah state.
----------
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
