Market chatter: Pharma romance, Apple historic bond sale and much more

In the last twelve months,the pharmaceutical sector has moved over $144bn. Latest moves were Valeant taking over Allergan for $45bn and asset transfer between Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline y Eli Lilly.  This is going to be a complicated week, analysts warn.

AstraZeneca turned down an approach in January but “in view of the recent market evolution, Pfizer contacted them again last April 26 to get back to conversations”. The American company is considering offering “an irresistible prime to AstraZeneca’s stockholders”.

The resulting holding would be established in the UK taxed at 20% instead of 35%. Pfizer urges an irrevocable commitment of the top management and the satisfactory accomplishment of the due dillingence.

Apple keeps on expanding its share repurchase, which will rise €30 million more, to €90 million. Besides, the company will increase quarterly dividend by 8% to $3.29. Apple’s cash has expanded to $151 million and most of it is outside the US to avoid taxes. Hence the unavailability of this amount to give money back to investors. Holding just $18 million in the US, Apple may need to resort to debt markets to finance next investors retribution.

In Spain, Bankia made 17.4% higher profits after taxes and BBVA executive Director stated “ECB political lack of definition punish credit upturn.”

ACF. Chief Executive of Santander Works on a plan based on commercial transformation to reach a 15-18 % ROE, increase customers engagement and improve current synergies, yielding a cost saving with €1.5bn.  Apart fromSingle Supervisory Mechanism requirements, a net profit above €9bn is necessary for such ROE levels.

SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE. Spanish banking system is presenting its quarterly figures. The crucial issue is profitability. Between 1972 and 2010, Spanish entities had an average ROE 9.8%. We won’t get back to this levels before 2018.

TELEFONICA outperforms competitors with the deployment of fiber. The company will migrate customers from ADSL to fiber. 4 million households would add up to 7 by the end of this year. Orange gets the pressure and watches moves closely as it aims to become the second largest telecom operator.

BANKIA. Santander is releasing 1Q14 results tomorrow. Bankia forecast a 3.5% net profit increase. This year, Santander will integrate financial business of El Corte Inglés. Market consensus expects €6.465 M (-2.8 % y/y) net interest income and Earnings per Share.

About the Author

The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.

Be the first to comment on "Market chatter: Pharma romance, Apple historic bond sale and much more"

Leave a comment