Hints and tips:
...We also lowered our local currency (LC) sovereign credit ratings on Cameroon to ‘CCC+/C’ from ‘B-/B’. The outlook on the LC long-term rating is stable....
...Fitch Ratings upgraded Italy by a notch to a BBB last week, while S&P improved its outlook for the country from stable to positive in October based on the government’s reform agenda....
...Consumer grew 11% LC on a pro-forma, basis, vs. flat LC PF performance last quarter....
...Used extensively by traders, LCs are issued on behalf of a buyer and act as a guarantee of payment to a seller. Once the trade is completed, the buyer repays the bank....
...AbbVie borrowed $30bn from investors this month to fund its takeover of rival pharmaceutical company Allergan....
...“Given that this arrangement has become the norm for a growing majority of S&P 500 companies and is generally accepted as a corporate best practice, such a request would hardly seem controversial,” Mr Tepper...
...New York-listed shares in the Ireland-based drugmaker fell 7.4 per cent to $146.93 and were the biggest decliner on the S&P 500....
...This was all happening back when Teva had just bought Allergan’s generics business for $40.5bn, which marked peak drug insanity....
...The sum is enough to buy all but a few dozen of the companies in the S&P 500, yet billionaire Warren Buffett, below, hasn’t yet been tempted to use that cash to buy a new glittering prize....
...AbbVie, the pharma company, issued $30bn of new debt on November 12 to fund its takeover of Allergan....
...So far this year, more than $700bn worth of transactions have been agreed in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, according to Refinitiv, including AbbVie’s decision to buy the maker of Botox, Allergan...
...The boom in debt issuance by corporate America has been good to S&P Global, the largest credit rating agency. Its shares have jumped a fifth in 2020, far outpacing its namesake S&P 500 index....
...In recent days, pharmaceuticals companies such as Novartis, Pfizer and Allergan have all warned investors about their inability to charge more for their drugs....
...On average, S&P 500 chiefs earn well over double those in the FTSE....
...“Italy is even more vulnerable to a turn in the economic and interest rate cycle than before,” said Lorenzo Codogno, a former chief economist in Italy’s Treasury and founder of LC Macro Advisors....
...Trading in the days after Christmas has remained volatile with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq having their biggest one-day gains on December 26 since 2009....
...But before we do, let’s note that Pfizer’s shares are up 170 per cent versus about 150 per cent for the S&P 500 during Read’s tenure....
...Examples include Allergan, where activist Bill Ackman demanded such a meeting during a hostile takeover battle....
...Hours after the company rejected a £42.4bn takeover offer from Japanese rival Takeda, Botox-maker Allergan disclosed it was considering a run at the company....
...Allergan, another large drugmaker, jumped 2.9 per cent to $210.98....
...He was quick to anger P&G in the fight, too — by claiming the white ballot card....
...The heavyweight stocks of Pfizer, Allergan and Merck suffered smaller losses percentage wise, but their heft meant that they were all among the bigger contributors to the S&P 500’s 0.3 per cent loss....
...The group is rated in the single A range by S&P, Moody’s and Fitch....
...For example, when Teva Pharmaceuticals acquired Allergan's generics drug unit for an eye-popping $40.5bn two years ago, its share price rose more than 10 per cent as shareholders blessed the deal....
...The S&P 500’s healthcare index fell 0.1 per cent, while the index as a whole rose 0.1 per cent to 2,294....
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