Breakingviews

Prestige and power fuel Qatar’s frantic shopping

By Una Galani

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

Investors searching for financial logic to Qatar’s raft of high profile foreign investments risk coming unstuck. Within recent weeks the tiny Gulf state’s sovereign fund has made moves on France’s Total, conglomerate Lagardere and luxury house LVMH. The Qataris’ rapidly expanding pick n’ mix portfolio has led bankers to compare the strategy to the one that led Dubai into crisis.

Corporate cash surplus will be easy to misspend

By Chris Hughes

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Everyone knows that companies worldwide are sitting on cash, generating cash, and have the capacity to borrow yet more. But where will it go? The optimistic answer would be into the real economy. The reality is probably into M&A and buybacks.

Avon’s hapless board opened door to Coty’s bid

By Agnes T. Crane and Rob Cox
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Coty needs another dash of powder to win over Avon shareholders with its $10 billion bid. But thanks to years of flawed stewardship by the iconic American cosmetics group’s board and management, attracting Avon’s shareholders shouldn’t be impossible for the privately-held maker of Playboy and Chupa Chups fragrances. It just needs to be more creative to seal the deal.

Int’l Power non-execs have some leverage over GDF

By Quentin Webb

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The stock market has already done half the job for International Power’s independent directors. Two months of rumours of a full buyout from 70-percent owner GDF Suez have added something of a premium to the power generator’s shares. But now there’s official confirmation of a likely 6-billion-pound bid, IPR non-executives still have some power to push for a little more.

BP has yet to deliver its positive Macondo legacy

By Kevin Allison

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Two years after BP’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the UK oil major has yet to convince investors it is undergoing the radical corporate change it promised to achieve. There is no sugar-coating the financial, human and environmental toll of Macondo. But the catastrophe prompted a needed bout of soul-searching and some long-overdue restructuring at the company. A new strategy emerged – to shed stodgy, mature assets and create a smaller, higher-returning company focused on its core competence in exploration. That was the right response. Still, BP’s road to renewal is proving a long one.

Sweat-free iPads come at a price worth paying

By Wayne Arnold

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Apple scores points for pushing to improve conditions for workers in China churning out its iPhones and iPads. But change was inevitable. Yes, Apple commissioned the probe of Foxconn. But the problems uncovered at the Taiwanese company’s factories in mainland China were already well-publicised. Apple may have also jumped before it was pushed. It should now sidestep any crackdown on abuse by Beijing by prompting Foxconn – at long last – to comply with China’s labour laws.

Obama backs healthcare defender – until he doesn’t

By Reynolds Holding 

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Donald Verrilli may have had a Billy Martin moment. Despite the U.S. solicitor general’s stumbling effort defending President Barack Obama’s healthcare law before the Supreme Court this week, the White House gave him a vote of confidence. That’s what Martin, the volatile New York Yankees manager, used to get just before he was fired. Verrilli’s miss may not change the case’s outcome, but it costs him credibility – if not his job.

Taiwanese money can’t save Japan from Samsung

By Wayne Arnold

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Taiwanese money can’t save Sharp from Korea’s Samsung. Foxconn’s $1.6 billion investment buys Japan’s electronics company time. The deal gives Sharp cash and the promise of wider sales too, but does nothing to reduce a global glut in flat-panel screens. Like Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba, Sharp has for too long insisted on fighting for cutthroat markets where it’s no longer competitive. As Hitachi has shown, withdrawal may be the best option.

North Sea blowout hardly justifies Total meltdown

By Kevin Allison

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Two years after BP’s deep sea Gulf of Mexico disaster, Total is facing an underwater emergency of its own. The French oil major said on March 27 that it could take up to six months to stem the flow of gas from a leaking well off the Scottish coast. That sent shivers down the spines of investors who watched BP lose about half its market value as the Deepwater Horizon disaster turned from bad, to worse, to catastrophic.

Dodger blue outshines gold after $2 bln deal

By Christopher Swann and Martin Hutchinson
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

The $2 billion deal for the Los Angeles Dodgers is a home run for sports owners everywhere. The near five-fold rise in the value of the West Coast baseball team since it last changed hands in 2004 underlines a surge in the value of top sports franchises. Only gold comes close to keeping pace as an investment. Rising television revenue is bringing in more cash. But it’s the swelling ranks of the ultra-rich in search of trophy investments that’s stoking prices.

These new owners usually stem from the ranks of high finance. Last year, Apollo co-founder Joshua Harris bought basketball’s 76ers in Philadelphia while Tom Gores and his buyout firm Platinum Equity snapped up the Detroit Pistons. And only last month, hedge fund manager Steven Cohen bought a 4 percent slug of the Mets.