Investing.com — Shares of British Land (LSE:LON:BLND) fell 1.5% after the company announced the sale of a 50% stake in Broadgate REIT, which is developing the 2 Finsbury Avenue scheme in London.

The stake was sold to Modon, an Abu Dhabi-listed developer, leaving British Land and GIC each with a 25% interest.

The transaction involves the 2 Finsbury Avenue (2FA) office development, a significant project in the City of London, which is currently 33% pre-let to Citadel, with options to increase this to 50%. The completion of 2FA is projected for 2027, with British Land continuing as the developer and asset manager for the project.

Despite the stock’s decline, analysts see the disposal in a positive light. Bernstein analysts commented on the deal, stating,

“British Land’s (BL) announced disposal of 50% of Finsbury Avenue at a c.10% premium to book value is not only positive for the company but also a positive read-across for the wider London office market. The disposal should also help alleviate recent investor concerns of a potential double-dip in London office values in 2025.”

The sale appears to be a strategic move for British Land, allowing the company to realize a profit on the development while still maintaining a significant stake and management control. Additionally, the deal with Modon brings a new international partner into the Broadgate estate, potentially adding to the project’s prestige and financial stability.

The market’s reaction, as reflected in the decline of British Land’s stock, may encompass concerns over the company reducing its direct exposure to the London office market, which is currently showing signs of resilience. However, the analyst’s perspective suggests that the transaction could be beneficial in the long term by providing liquidity and reducing risk exposure for British Land.

Investors and market watchers will be keeping an eye on the development of 2FA and British Land’s future transactions to gauge the health of the London office market and the company’s strategic positioning within it.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com — Universal Music Group (AS:UMG) and Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) have announced a new multi-year deal for recorded music and publishing, the companies announced in a Sunday statement.

The agreement includes a direct license between Spotify and UMG, spanning the US and several other countries, they said.

“Under the new agreements, UMG and Spotify will collaborate closely to advance the next era of streaming innovation,” the statement writes.

“Artists, songwriters and consumers will benefit from new and evolving offers, new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content, and a richer audio and visual content catalog.”

UMG shares jumped 5% in European trading while Spotify’s US-listed shares fell 3% in premarket trading Monday.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analysts said the early renewal of the UMG-Spotify partnership represents “a positive catalyst” for the world’s largest music label “and a broader affirmation of the music industry’s alignment to improve monetization throughout the value chain.”

“We see the early renewal of the deal, along with heavily-trailed prospects for super-premium tiers at digital streaming platforms (DSPs), as helping to underpin the average revenue per user (ARPU) element within UMG’s guidance for 8-10% subscription growth.”

Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek said that the partnership would drive innovation, enhancing the appeal of music subscriptions to audiences worldwide.

Over the past year, the Swedish streaming giant has reduced its workforce, scaled back its podcast offerings, and cut marketing expenses as part of efforts to improve profitability.

Moreover, it has increased the prices of its US subscription plans to leverage strong demand for its premium services.

Earlier this month, UMG announced that Pershing Square, led by billionaire Bill Ackman, has requested a US secondary listing for the record label. In November, Ackman expressed plans to relocate both his investment firm and UMG, but his earlier request to delist from Euronext (EPA:ENX) Amsterdam was denied.

Pershing Square, which reduced its UMG stake to 7.48%, can request a US listing if it sells at least $500 million worth of shares. However, UMG argued this does not require delisting from Amsterdam or a US relocation.

By Giulia Segreti and Valentina Za

ROME/MILAN (Reuters) – Shares in Monte dei Paschi (MPS) fell again on Monday, extending Friday’s losses, signalling lingering investor doubts over the bailed out Tuscan bank’s bid for bigger rival Mediobanca (OTC:MDIBY).

On Friday, the state-backed lender launched a surprise 13.3-billion-euro all-share ($13.9 billion) bid for Mediobanca, whose board meets on Tuesday to start reviewing the offer.

Based on Italian takeover rules, the board will be able to express a proper opinion and give advice to shareholders only once the bid’s prospectus is public, in a few months’ time.

In a letter to employees at the weekend, Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel said the offer had not been previously agreed and the bank would decide how to best protect the interests of its stakeholders.

Shares in MPS, which has returned to profits and dividends after a bailout in 2017, fell 1.5% by 0832 GMT, extending a 7% drop on Friday.

Mediobanca shares were little changed, after Friday’s 7.7% jump. Italy’s banking index fell 0.5%.

MPS’ proposed takeover, the latest move in wave of consolidation in the Italian banking sector, was welcomed by Italy’s conservative government but it has left analysts concerned about the limited scope for cost savings, and the ability to retain Mediobanca investment bankers.

GOVERNMENT ENDORSEMENT

MPS CEO Luigi Lovaglio, a veteran banker for decades at UniCredit, has said the idea was to combine MPS’ branch franchise with Mediobanca products, while preserving both brands and running Mediobanca’s investment banking business separately.

Mediobanca’s operations include wealth management and consumer finance. On the latter it already partners with MPS.

The government, which still owns 11.7% of MPS, has endorsed the offer and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday said everyone should be proud of MPS’ turnaround.

“If the deal is successful, we will have that third major banking group [after Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:ISNPY) and UniCredit] which we always spoke about, a group that could help to protect Italians’ savings,” she said.

Meloni’s government had been working on returning MPS to the private sector, after a previous collapsed sale of MPS to UniCredit in 2021.

After spurning MPS then, late last year UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel derailed government’s efforts to broker a tie-up of MPS and Banco BPM with support from billionaire Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and the holding company of late fellow tycoon Leonardo Del Vecchio.

Caltagirone and the Del Vecchio family’s Delfin holding are also leading shareholders in Mediobanca.

Barclays (LON:BARC) on Monday predicted further volatility in the shares given the lack of clarity and added MPS had room to distribute more of its excess cash.

The bid enjoys unions’ favour given it does not require significant branch closures and job losses.

“MPS’ hostile bid for Mediobanca could reshape the Italian financial landscape, but is subject to high implementation risk due to different business models and difficulties in achieving sustainable synergies,” Scope Ratings wrote.

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(Reuters) – Property developer China Vanke said on Monday its chairman Yu Liang and CEO Zhu Jiusheng had resigned, amid growing concerns over the company’s liquidity as it faces several debt maturity deadlines this year.

Xin Jie, the chairman of its major state-owned shareholder Shenzhen Metro, will become Vanke’s new chairman, signalling increased state oversight amid expectations that the government will step in to contain non-repayment risks.

Yu will remain in the company as executive vice president, while three other people from Shenzhen state-owned firms will join with the same title.

A state media outlet reported earlier this month that Vanke’s CEO had been detained and that the firm could be subject to a takeover or reorganisation. The report was deleted within hours of its publication.

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Fuji Media said on Monday its chairman and the head of its TV unit would step down immediately amidst a probe into alleged sexual misconduct by a celebrity TV host.

The scandal, which has led to an exodus of advertisers and investor calls for a management shake-up, has also raised concerns about the exploitation of women in Japan’s entertainment industry.

In December, Japanese magazines accused Masahiro Nakai, a TV host and leader of the former boy band SMAP, of sexual misconduct. While Nakai has worked for many of Japan’s TV networks, the event at which the incident occurred was reportedly arranged by one of the broadcaster’s executives.

One of the magazines, Shukan Bunshun, has also reported the same executive had in a separate event gathered female TV personalities at a hotel to act as entertainment for Nakai and other celebrities.

Nakai, 52, has apologised for causing “trouble” and announced his retirement from show business. He acknowledged reaching a settlement with another party but has not addressed the allegations directly. Nakai did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Fuji Media said Chairman Shuji Kanoh and the head of its TV unit Koichi Minato would step down effective Monday. Another TV executive, Kenji Shimizu, will lead the TV unit.

According to tabloid magazines Josei Seven and Shukan Bunshun, a woman was invited to a dinner in June 2023 with a Fuji TV executive that Nakai also attended. But the executive backed out at the last minute leaving her alone with Nakai and there was a sexual act against her will, they reported.

“First of all, as a person, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to the woman involved to whom we were unable to show adequate care and awareness of human rights,” Kanoh told a press conference.

A Fuji Media spokesperson said the company became aware of the woman’s complaint that June but did not widely investigate it or report it due to privacy concerns and settlement talks between the parties.

Outrage over the scandal grew after a Jan. 17 news conference by Minato that was closed to most of the press with Minato answering few questions.

Dozens of big-name firms including Toyota (NYSE:TM) and cosmetics giant Kao have suspended advertising with Fuji and most of its ads are currently public service announcements.

Fuji Media has promised an independent investigation by a third-party committee. It will be made up of three lawyers and is scheduled to submit a report by the end of March.

Activist investors who have criticised Fuji Media’s handling of the crisis include U.S.-based Dalton Investments, its second-biggest stakeholder at 5.8% based on LSEG data, as well as Zennor Asset Management, a UK-based fund which holds just over 1%.

Zennor said in a statement that the actions of the board showed “the company is finally taking this matter as seriously as they should.”

It added, however, that it thought the broadcaster needed to embark on a thorough review of its governance and that there was a strong case for a new leadership team from outside the Fuji Media group.

After plunging in late December and early January, Fuji Media’s shares regained ground, bolstered in part by hopes for a major corporate shake-up and are now trading some 14% higher since news of the scandal first broke.

The proliferation of scandals involving sexual violence and coercion in Japan in recent years is reminiscent of the #MeToo movement that gained momentum in the United States in late 2017.

In 2023, Japan’s top talent agency, Johnny & Associates, announced it would dissolve after a BBC documentary exposed how its founder Johnny Kitagawa abused members of boy bands for decades.

Among Kitagawa’s biggest creations was SMAP, which launched Nakai and his bandmates into stardom in 1988.

Last week, the Japanese documentary “Black Box Diaries” was nominated for an Academy Award for its depiction of a woman’s search for justice after accusing a high-profile journalist of rape.

Investing.com — A group of Indian digital news publishers, including those owned by billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, have initiated a legal challenge against OpenAI, Reuters reported on Monday, citing legal papers.

They allege that the AI company has improperly used copyrighted content from their platforms, the report said. The outlets, which include Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18, have expressed concerns that their websites might be scraped for content that is then replicated and served to users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool.

The report also added that legal action involves a request to a New Delhi court to join an existing lawsuit against OpenAI. Previously, ANI, a local news agency, had filed a lawsuit against OpenAI last year, marking one of the most high-profile legal actions against the company in the country.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Nasdaq futures slumped and technology shares slid in Japan on Monday as surging popularity of a Chinese discount artificial intelligence model wobbled investors’ faith in the profitability of AI and the sector’s voracious demand for high-tech chips.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down 2.6% and S&P 500 futures slipped 1.4% by the European morning, and shares in Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) supplier Advantest fell 8.5% in Tokyo.

Frankfurt-listed shares of Nvidia slipped about 7%, while those of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta (NASDAQ:META) fell more than 2% in early European trading.

Startup DeepSeek has rolled out a free assistant it says uses lower-cost chips and less data, seemingly challenging a widespread bet in financial markets that AI will drive demand along a supply chain from chipmakers to data centres.

“It’s a case of a crowded trade, and now DeepSeek is giving a reason for investors and traders to unwind,” said Wong Kok Hoong, head of equity sales trading at Maybank. AI-focused startup investor SoftBank (TYO:9984) Group slid more than 8%, on course for its biggest one-day fall since Sept. 30. Last week it announced a $19 billion commitment to fund Stargate, a data-centre joint venture with OpenAI.

Chip-making equipment giant Tokyo Electron fell 5%.

Tech-heavy markets in Taiwan and South Korea were closed.

European tech stocks, especially Dutch computer chip equipment maker ASML (AS:ASML), which counts Taiwan’s TSMC, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Samsung (KS:005930) as its customers, will likely face pressure at the open.

Shares of Nvidia, the poster child of AI, have risen 196% since the start of 2024, outperforming the 35% gain in the Nasdaq.

CAPEX IN QUESTION

Little is known about the small Hangzhou startup behind DeeepSeek, but its assistant leapfrogged rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s App Store in the United States on Monday.

DeepSeek researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million.

H800 chips are not top-of-the-line. Initially developed as a reduced-capability product to get around restrictions on sales to China, they were subsequently banned by U.S. sanctions.

Besides chips, data centres and related companies also took a hit on Monday, with Malaysia’s utility conglomerate YTL Power falling 7% in Kuala Lumpur to its lowest in two months.

“The market is questioning the capex spend of the major tech companies,” said Nick Ferres, chief investment officer at Vantage Point Asset Management in Singapore, noting that positioning had become crowded.

To be sure, much remains unknown about the details of DeepSeek’s development and the hardware it uses.

“The idea that the most cutting-edge technologies in America, like Nvida and ChatGPT, are the most superior globally, there’s concern that this perspective might start to change,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui (NYSE:SMFG) DS Asset Management. “I think it might be a bit premature.”

Markets reaction in China was also mixed, with a CSI300 index of AI shares down 2.2% but big data stocks up 4%.

By Conor Humphries

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, posted an after-tax profit for the three-month period ended Dec. 31 that beat analysts’ forecasts on Monday, but revised down its passenger outlook on delays in Boeing (NYSE:BA) aircraft delivery.

After tax-profit for the third quarter came in at 149 million euros ($156 million), significantly ahead of the 60-million-euro profit forecast in a company poll of analysts.

That was mainly due to a better-than-expected 1% increase in average fares in the quarter, compared with a fall of 7% during the previous quarter, Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said, citing good last-minute bookings for Christmas and New Year holidays.

Ryanair, which makes most of its profit during the summer season, said it was “cautiously guiding” after-tax profit for the 12 months to March 31 in a range of 1.55 billion euros to 1.61 billion euros.

It is too early to give guidance on the coming summer, but early indications are that bookings are robust and European short-haul capacity is likely to be constrained, Sorahan said.

BOEING DELAYS

Ryanair said it expects to take delivery of nine Boeing 737 MAX aircraft ahead of its peak summer season, fewer than expected, and as a result will cut its forecast for passenger numbers in the 12 months to March 31, 2026, to 206 million from 210 million. An earlier forecast of 215 million was cut in November.

The final 29 aircraft of Ryanair’s 210 MAX order will arrive by March next year, lifting traffic to 215 million passengers in the year to March 2027, he said.

Sorahan, who recently returned from a trip to Boeing’s production facilities in Seattle, said the delays were disappointing but that he had a “strong level of confidence,” that the nine aircraft would arrive on time.

“We can see big improvements in the [Boeing] factory. The quality of the fuselage … have improved greatly, but they’re just not going to get there for this summer,” Sorahan said in an interview.

Ryanair, which has no aircraft orders with any other manufacturer, is not particularly concerned about Boeing’s financial position, and that as a systematically important company to the U.S. economy it would be supported “come what may,” Sorahan said.

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(Reuters) – British autocatalyst maker Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) said on Monday it has implemented plans to significantly increase its cash efficiency and cut its capital expenditure in hydrogen technologies business following pressure from its top investor.

Standard Investments, the largest shareholder in Johnson Matthey, last month had urged the group to initiate a strategic review and overhaul its board.

The “Board fully recognises the need to improve the absolute share price and to deliver increased returns for shareholders,” the London-listed company said in a statement.

Johnson Matthey said it is reviewing the group’s executive remuneration schemes to increase the weighting on cash generation targets and formed a new investment committee, mainly to review cash generation and the initiatives in place to drive cash delivery.

ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss testing and inspection group SGS (SIX:SGSN) has ended talks over a potential $30 billion merger with French rival Bureau Veritas after the two sides failed to reach agreement over the deal, it said on Monday.

“SGS and Bureau Veritas have been exploring a potential combination. The discussions have not resulted in an agreement and have ended,” SGS said in a brief statement.

A spokesperson for the company said it had nothing to add at present about the reasons for its decision.

A source familiar with the matter said minor contractual issues and execution risks had helped scupper talks between the groups, which test and certify new products, ingredients and processes.

SGS said earlier this month it was in discussions to combine with Bureau Veritas in what could have been an all-stock transaction, according to a person familiar with the matter.

That would have meant SGS shares would trade in Paris, a fact that could have led to complications due to tit-for-tat measures imposed years ago during a Swiss-EU stock market row.

Such listings of Swiss shares in the EU are forbidden by protective measures Switzerland issued in 2019 when the bloc withdrew its recognition of equivalence for the Swiss exchange amid a dispute over bilateral trade talks.

Without commenting specifically on the SGS-Bureau Veritas deal, Swiss financial authorities acknowledged that the situation presented potential problems for the tie-up.

Authorities appeared to have noted the potential headache and were taking steps to withdraw the protective measures.

The source said they did not believe the stock market issue had been a significant factor in the merger talks ending.