Breakingviews

Target shortage feeds desperate Mideast telco M&A

By Una Galani

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

A scarcity of takeover targets is feeding a desperate scramble in Middle East telecoms M&A. Bahrain’s incumbent operator Batelco is eyeing a stake in the enterprise unit of India’s Reliance Communications. It comes just months after agreeing a deal worth $1 billion to buy assets spanning 12 markets, including Monaco and the Channel Islands, from Cable & Wireless. Batelco’s pick-and-mix takeovers are symptomatic of a market where too many big telcos are chasing too few assets.

China retailers stumble in pursuit of growth

By John Foley

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

China’s growth can be disruptive as well as lucrative. GOME and Li Ning, two of the country’s biggest retail brands, have both reported slumping sales and losses in a market that seems to be expanding. Shifting consumer habits have made competition fierce and profitability elusive.

Blackstone, Icahn likely to stub toe on Dell

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

Blackstone and Carl Icahn are likely to stub their toe on Dell. Both are offering more for the computer maker than the $24.4 billion from its eponymous founder. But the new bids rely on existing investors keeping a small public stake. In theory that obviates the need to get Michael Dell’s support. In practice, the downsides of such stub equity make it a long shot.

U.S. oil billionaire’s divorce is no private affair

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

American oil billionaire Harold Hamm’s impending divorce is not simply a private affair. Investors swiftly stripped half a billion dollars from the market value of Continental Resources on Thursday following news that founder and 68 percent owner Hamm and his wife are splitting. That may not do the threat justice. Any division of the tycoon’s $11 billion fortune leaves Continental exposed to hefty stock sales or a feud at the top.

Maybe “Gucci” didn’t work. But “Kering”: really?

By Quentin Webb

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

It sounds like caring, there’s a hint of Breton, and it comes with an owl. PPR is becoming “Kering”. Renaming the parent company will hardly deter buyers of the French group’s illustrious brands, such as Gucci or Bottega Veneta. But this latest corporate offence against language hints at worrying groupthink within PPR – sorry, Kering – HQ.

Review: Seeing through bankers’ woolly thinking

By George Hay

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

How much capital do banks need? Ask the Basel Committee of global banking supervisors, and it will recommend 3 percent of total bank assets. Ask tougher observers like the UK’s banking commission, and you’ll hear 4 percent. But ask Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig, the economists behind The Bankers’ New Clothes, and you’re in for a shock: they’re after 30 percent.

Besieged boards need updated defender-in-chief

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

America’s corporate boards could use a Martin Lipton 2.0. Over a long career, the New York lawyer has become synonymous on Wall Street with takeover defense. But with shareholder activism ascendant and often on target, his contrarian screeds sound increasingly dated. This week’s M&A confab in New Orleans could put them further to the test.

Maybe SAC should forget about other people’s money

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

Maybe SAC Capital should forget about managing other people’s money. Steve Cohen’s $15 billion hedge fund firm is paying a whopping $616 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading charges. It would be an ignominious time to follow legends like Stanley Druckenmiller, but Cohen is already losing over a quarter of some $6 billion of outside investor funds this year. It could be time to focus mainly on looking after his own cash.

Review: Bending over backwards to lean in

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

Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” isn’t a self-help guide, corporate charter or memoir. The Facebook chief operating officer claims it’s not a feminist manifesto, either. It’s more of an amalgamation of all these genres. It ranges from intensely personal and insightful to didactic and methodical. Quoted research into how women measure themselves in the workplace and at home underpins a central Sandberg proposition – that women need to be more ambitious and men more accommodating.

Orcel bonanza shows how far banks must go on pay

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

Andrea Orcel’s signing-on package shows the scale of the pay pickle facing banks. UBS stumped up $26 million to prise its investment-bank head from Bank of America Merrill Lynch last year, making a mockery of so-called retention packages designed to stop employees jumping ship. True, Orcel received no new cash or shares for joining his Swiss rival: the award simply replaces three years’ worth of pay he forfeited for leaving BAML. And the award can still be clawed back. But it shows how aggressive behaviour by just one bank can reinforce the industry’s pay problem.