Tesla, BlackRock, Stellantis, Volkswagen and Unilever #UKFinance
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Shares in electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla have been on the rise since the US election at the beginning of November, with CEO Elon Musk having been a prominent supporter of president-elect Donald Trump’s campaign.
Trump has nominated Musk to co-lead his newly created Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, as a nod to the billionaire’s favoured cryptocurrency.
In a post on his social media platform X last week, Musk called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting his sights on a regulator that has often clashed with Silicon Valley investors as they’ve attempted to enter the banking space.
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Tesla’s vice president of AI software Ashok Elluswamy said in a post on X on Saturday that version 13 of the EV maker’s full-self driving (FSD) software had “started rolling out to limited external customers”.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that Tesla and fellow EV maker BYD (1211.HK) had been ramping up discounts and incentives in China in an end-of-year sales push.
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock is getting closer to reaching a deal to buy private credit group HPS Investment Partners, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
A deal could be announced as early as this coming week, according to the report.
The Financial Times (FT) had reported last week that the two firms had reached a handshake deal, having agreed on a broad outline of an agreement.
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HPS is said to have been looking into an initial public offering would have valued the firm at around $10bn (£7.9bn) and sources said that a final sale price could be closer to $12bn, according to the FT’s report.
This deal would be latest in a series of recent acquisitions by BlackRock, having completed the takeover of infrastructure investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners last month.
A spokesperson for BlackRock declined to comment, while HPS had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK’s request for comment at the time of writing.
Shares in BlackRock were flat in pre-market trading on Monday morning.
Milan-listed shares in Stellantis, whose car brands include Fiat and Jeep, slid more than 8% on Monday morning, following the news that its CEO Carlos Tavares had stepped down.
Stellantis said in a statement on Sunday that its board of directors had accepted Tavares’ resignation with immediate effect.
The company said that process to find a new CEO was “well under way” and would be concluded within the first half of 2025. Until then, Stellantis said that an interim executive committee would be established.
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Henri de Castries, senior independent director at Stellantis, said: “Stellantis’ success since its creation has been rooted in a perfect alignment between the reference shareholders, the Board and the CEO.
“However, in recent weeks different views have emerged which have resulted in the Board and the CEO coming to today’s decision.”
This comes after Stellantis reported a 27% drop in net revenues in the third quarter, falling to €33bn (£27bn) in the three months to the end of September.
Another carmaker making headlines on Monday was Volkswagena as workers nine of its plants started strikes that were reportedly expected to last several hours.
Reuters reported that demonstrations were taking place at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, as well as Hanover, Emden, Salzgitter and Brunswick, among other plants.
The demonstrations could reportedly escalate into 24-hour or unlimited stoppages if an agreement is not reached in this next round of wage talks.
Thorsten Groeger, negotiator for the IG Metall union, said: “How long and how intensive this confrontation needs to be is Volkswagen’s responsibility at the negotiating table.”
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Volkswagen had reportedly demanded a 10% wage cut, as part of efforts to cut costs and had threatened to close plants in Germany.
IG Metall was said to have put forward measures last week to help the carmaker save €1.5bn, including foregoing bonuses for 2025 and 2026.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen hadn’t responded to Yahoo Finance UK’s request for comment at the time of writing.
Shares in the carmaker were flat on Monday morning.
Hein Schumacher, the CEO of Unilever, told Dutch financial daily FD that the consumer goods giant is looking to sell several of its food brands that have a combined €1bn in sales.
According to Reuters, Schumacher didn’t specify which brands Unliever planned to sell but said that he hoped to slim down the company’s “rather eclectic portfolio of food brands”.
However, he added: “We are not conducting a fire sale. There will always be brands that are not a perfect strategic fit, but that will remain part of Unilever.”
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Schumacher said in Unilever’s third quarter results in October that the company was implementing its “growth action plan at pace — focused on doing fewer things, better and with greater impact”.
In March, Unilever announced plans to spin out its ice cream business, as part of plans to accelerate the growth action plan.
Unilever shares were muted in trading on Monday morning.
Prosus (PRX.AS)
Naspers (NPN.JO)
ZScaler (ZS)
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