FILE PHOTO: The Mattel company logo is seen at the 114th North American International Toy Fair in New York City, U.S., February 21, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith/File Photo
(Reuters) – Mattel Inc (MAT.O) will close a factory in Canada after shutting down two plants in Asia, as the toymaker reduces its manufacturing footprint to cut costs, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.
The maker of Barbie dolls closed its manufacturing sites in China and Indonesia last year and will shut a facility in Canada sometime this year, the newspaper said.
The closure of the Mega Bloks factory in Montreal, Canada would affect about 580 workers, the journal reported, citing a company spokeswoman.
The manufacturing overhaul is said to be a part of Chief Executive Officer Ynon Kreiz’s plan to turn around and stabilize Mattel, which has struggled in recent years from weak sales, the newspaper added.
Mattel did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The El Segundo, California-based company is scheduled to report its earnings later in the week.
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
(Reuters) – Beleaguered Boeing Co (BA.N) is placing its future within the fingers of a turnaround veteran who has led a number of firms in disaster, minimize his enamel at engine maker Common Electrical Co (GE.N) and has spent a decade on the board of the world’s largest planemaker.
Newly appointed Chief Government David Calhoun, 62, was made Boeing’s chairman two months in the past within the midst of the disaster that has rocked the corporate since airliner disasters in Indonesia and Ethiopia led to the grounding of its best-selling 737 MAX.
This isn’t his first style of company upheaval.
Calhoun grew to become chairman of the Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) board shortly after federal brokers raided its headquarters in 2017, headed a Common Electrical unit that included jet engines after the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults, and turned spherical media analysis firm Nielsen to go public. He has additionally been a longtime government at Blackstone non-public fairness group.
“Having seen him run GE’s aviation enterprise after 9/11, I do know he can execute below stress,” former GE chief government Jeff Immelt instructed Reuters by electronic mail when requested about Calhoun, including that Calhoun would restore buyer belief in Boeing.
As Calhoun tackles the MAX disaster, he additionally faces questions from European regulators over a deal to purchase the industrial arm of Brazil’s Embraer in a serious strategic transfer.
Calhoun, who has co-written a ebook on enterprise, “How Firms Win,” says being candid is a part of being a pacesetter, an strategy which many critics say was absent from Boeing’s initially guarded strategy to considerations in regards to the 737 MAX.
“The second you get into the workplace til the second you allow, each interplay is judged,” he stated in a video printed in 2014 by the Jack Welch Administration Institute.
“You attempt to cover something from everyone and I feel your physique language turns into completely obvious.”
But in his quick time as Boeing chairman, Calhoun has confirmed his potential to power adjustments behind the scenes, as seen by his position within the departure of Kevin McAllister as chief government of Boeing’s planemaking arm in October. The removing was silent and swift, foreshadowing Dennis Muilenburg’s ouster this week.
Some insiders noticed McAllister – one other GE veteran – as a scapegoat for the MAX disaster. Others say he paid the value for distractions together with extensively publicized cracks within the firm’s older 737NG jets, which caught the board off guard. The 737 MAX was not impacted by the cracking problem.
The reckoning got here at a casual board dinner in Texas led by Calhoun in late October. As administrators wound up a two-day summit a day later, Calhoun and Muilenburg took McAllister apart and instructed him he was out, two individuals briefed on the assembly stated.
FILE PHOTO: Nielsen CEO David Calhoun (C) is congratulated after his firm’s IPO opened, on the ground of the New York Inventory Alternate January 26, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
In an indication that the board was already claiming a brand new voice below just lately appointed chairman Calhoun, having break up the CEO and chairman roles, the decisive dinner dialog that led to the shake-up came about with out Muilenburg, the individuals stated.
Boeing declined touch upon confidential board discussions.
McAllister and Muilenburg couldn’t be reached.
PRESSURE FOR CHANGE
Now, Calhoun should restore frayed relations with regulators, proceed to handle a money squeeze from the disaster and produce to market the brand new 777X jet at a time of powerful regulatory scrutiny.
His expertise on the Boeing board will permit Calhoun to “take the reins in brief order with out the necessity for an extended interval of familiarization,” stated Timm Schulze-Melander, industrials specialist at European analysis home Redburn.
As a long-time board member who discovered the trade at GE, Calhoun shares the qualities of each an insider and outsider – worrying some who query whether or not he’s the recent blood Boeing must overhaul what typically appears a smug company tradition.
“Boeing wants a revamp of its company governance. The board must be fired,” stated Paul Njoroge, a Toronto-based funding skilled who misplaced his household within the Ethiopia crash.
“I don’t suppose (Calhoun) goes to vary the tradition of Boeing,” he added.
A former Nielsen government referred to as Calhoun a “hard-nosed” chief who doesn’t heat to dissent, however who can encourage.
“(Boeing) may want somebody as powerful as Dave. I don’t suppose he can be a great supervisor over a protracted time frame. As a disaster supervisor, he may have the ability to get it carried out,” the individual stated.
Regardless that Calhoun sat on Boeing’s board all through the event of the MAX, some argue he has the tenacity to drive by reform.
FILE PHOTO: Nielsen CEO David Calhoun (2nd L) is congratulated after his firm’s IPO opened on the ground of the New York Inventory Alternate, January 26, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
“It’s onerous to usher in someone who doesn’t know aviation or have credibility with airways,” stated Lundquist Group managing director Jerrold Lundquist, a advisor who first met Calhoun within the 1990s and who believes he’s what stricken Boeing wants.
“It’s powerful to return in chilly. To a point that could be a trade-off they need to make,” Lundquist stated.
Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Allison Lampert in Montreal and Kenneth Li in New York. Further reporting by Chibuike Oguh and Ankit Ajmera; Writing by Peter Henderson and Tim Hepher; Enhancing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool
MILAN/ROME (Reuters) – London Inventory Change (LSE.L) has given assurances to Italy that it plans to proceed investing in its Italian buying and selling platforms and doesn’t intend to maneuver them in another country, a Financial institution of Italy supply stated on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: Signage is seen exterior the doorway of the London Inventory Change in London, Britain. Aug 23, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Picture
LSE Group owns Italian inventory trade Borsa Italiana, which in flip controls the MTS platform on which Italian authorities bonds are traded.
The Financial institution of Italy supply was responding to a Reuters story that stated LSE was contemplating shutting down a bond buying and selling platform referred to as BondVision and transferring the administration capabilities of Italian securities’ clearing operations from Milan to London.
LSE Chief Government David Schwimmer held talks with officers from the Italian central financial institution and market regulator Consob in Rome on Thursday.
“Within the assembly as we speak LSE gave ample reassurance about its willingness to proceed to put money into the Italian market infrastructures and that it has no intention to alter (their) location,” the Financial institution of Italy supply informed Reuters, talking on situation of anonymity.
“LSE has assured its full dedication to extend the effectivity of MTS and BondVision,” the supply stated, including that the LSE could be conveying the identical message to Italy’s economic system minister.
Two Italian sources with information of the scenario had earlier informed Reuters the LSE was mulling an overhaul of MTS forward of a possible merger with knowledge supplier Refinitiv.
LSE declined to touch upon Schwimmer’s go to to Italy and the content material of the discussions.
The British group is transferring forward with a $27 billion plan to purchase Refinitiv after Hong Kong’s bourse scrapped an unsolicited $39 billion bid for the London trade operator.
Thomson Reuters, an expert data firm that’s the mum or dad of Reuters Information, holds a 45% stake in Refinitiv.
The sources stated Italian authorities had been involved that the rumored overhaul could be a primary step towards centralizing precise clearing and post-trading operations exterior Italy and would ultimately result in MTS being dismantled.
Italy, which has the world’s third largest public debt, considers the Milan inventory trade and its authorities bond buying and selling unit MTS a strategic asset. Final month, it permitted a regulation giving the federal government particular powers to guard the Milan trade from potential exterior menace.
The BondVision buying and selling platform is utilized by institutional buyers, together with the Financial institution of Italy, and largely trades Italian authorities bonds, with a each day quantity of 5-6 billion euros.
The sources who spoke concerning the potential overhaul stated the plan the LSE was contemplating envisaged shutting down BondVision as a result of Refinitiv has an analogous bond buying and selling platform, Tradeweb TWO.O.
One of many sources stated that LSE was additionally contemplating transferring the administration capabilities of clearing home unit Cassa di Compensazione & Garanzia (CC&G) and settlement home Monte Titoli from Italy to London.
In London the LSE operates LCH, one of many world’s largest clearing homes.
Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Giuseppe Fonte, further reporting by Giselda Vagnoni in Rome and Huw Jones in London, modifying by Silvia Aloisi, Jane Merriman and Andrew Heavens
FILE PHOTO: A person walks previous a Deutsche Financial institution workplace in London, July 8, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Financial institution’s (DBKGn.DE) deal to switch its prime brokerage enterprise to BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) may see the transfer of as much as 1,000 workers from the German lender to the French financial institution, a spokeswoman for BNP stated on Monday.
The 2 banks introduced on Monday that they’d reached an settlement that goals to smoothe the switch of the enterprise, which serves hedge funds.
Underneath the settlement, Deutsche Financial institution will proceed to function the platform for international prime finance and digital equities purchasers till the purchasers will be migrated to BNP.
Deutsche Financial institution stated in July it had struck a preliminary settlement with BNP masking the enterprise as a part of its 7.four billion euro ($8.16 billion) overhaul.
Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva in Paris, Tom Sims in Frankfurt; Further reporting by Riham Alkousaa in Berlin; Enhancing by Tassilo Hummel and Thomas Escritt
NEW YORK (Reuters) – OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP filed for chapter safety Sunday evening, succumbing to stress from greater than 2,600 lawsuits alleging the corporate helped gasoline the lethal U.S. opioid epidemic.
Purdue’s board met Sunday night to approve the long-expected chapter submitting, which the corporate is pursuing to restructure below phrases of a proposal to settle the widespread litigation.
Purdue, which filed for Chapter 11 safety in a federal chapter courtroom in White Plains, New York, reached a tentative deal to resolve lawsuits with 24 states and 5 U.S. territories, in addition to lead legal professionals for greater than 2,000 cities, counties and different plaintiffs, the corporate mentioned.
Two dozen states stay opposed or uncommitted to the proposed settlement, setting the stage for contentious authorized battles over who bears accountability for a public well being disaster that has claimed the lives of almost 400,000 individuals between 1999 and 2017, in accordance with the most recent U.S. knowledge.
Hundreds of cities and counties, together with almost each state, have sued Purdue and, in some circumstances, its controlling Sackler household. The lawsuits, in search of billions of {dollars} in damages, declare the corporate and household aggressively marketed prescription painkillers whereas deceptive docs and sufferers about their dependancy and overdose dangers.
Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the allegations.
Opposing states, together with Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut, need the Sacklers to ensure extra of their very own cash will go towards a settlement, and have questioned Purdue’s calculations valuing the general deal at greater than $10 billion.
The Sacklers, who would cede management of Purdue within the proposed settlement, have supplied $three billion in money and an extra $1.5 billion or extra by way of the eventual sale of one other firm they personal, known as Mundipharma, in accordance with the corporate and folks aware of the phrases. The Sacklers have declined to revise their supply.
“That is the fork within the highway. There are solely two methods to go from right here,” mentioned Purdue Chairman Steve Miller in an interview with Reuters.
Miller mentioned Purdue plans to argue to opposing states that preventing the proposed settlement will doubtless end in protracted litigation, growing authorized charges and depleting worth that might be steered to U.S. communities reeling from opioid abuse. He described chapter proceedings because the “finest hope for finalizing and implementing a worldwide decision to this litigation.”
In an announcement, members of the Sackler household controlling Purdue mentioned they hoped these opposing the present settlement supply would ultimately change their minds.
FILE PHOTO: Bottles of prescription painkiller OxyContin tablets, made by Purdue Pharma LP, are seen on a counter at an area pharmacy in Provo, Utah, U.S., April 25, 2017. REUTERS/George Frey
“It’s our hope the chapter reorganization course of that’s now underway will finish our possession of Purdue and guarantee its property are devoted for the general public profit,” the household mentioned.
The result of Purdue’s tried chapter reorganization and settlement negotiations will assist decide how a lot cash U.S. communities obtain from the corporate and the Sacklers to deal with hurt from opioids. A reorganization and settlement would in the end should be permitted by a U.S. chapter choose.
States suing the Sacklers, together with a number of over the previous week, allege the household improperly reaped billions of {dollars} from opioid gross sales regardless of information of their dangerous results. The Sacklers, a few of whom beforehand served on the Purdue’s board and are well-known rich philanthropists, have denied the allegations.
Purdue’s proposed settlement envisions it changing into a belief that might contribute to U.S. communities, at little or no value, tens of thousands and thousands of doses of medicine the corporate developed to fight opioid overdoses and dependancy, the corporate mentioned.
Purdue values the medication at $4.45 billion over a decade, the individuals aware of the matter mentioned. Underneath the proposal’s phrases, the restructured Purdue could be completely sure by so-called injunctive aid, which incorporates restrictions on the promotion and sale of opioids.
States opposing the settlement supply have vowed to battle makes an attempt by Purdue and the Sacklers to make use of chapter proceedings to comprise the litigation.
On Friday, New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James mentioned she uncovered roughly $1 billion in wire transfers “between the Sacklers, entities they management and completely different monetary establishments, together with those who have funneled funds into Swiss financial institution accounts.”
The knowledge, in information an unnamed monetary establishment produced in response to a subpoena from James’s workplace, detailed monetary transfers involving former Purdue board member Mortimer D.A. Sackler, in accordance with courtroom paperwork her workplace filed.
He allegedly used shell firms “to shift Purdue cash by way of accounts world wide after which conceal it in no less than two separate multimillion-dollar actual property investments again right here in New York, sanitized (till now) of any readily-detectable connections to the Sackler household,” a lawyer in James’ workplace mentioned in one of many courtroom filings.
“There’s nothing newsworthy about these decade-old transfers, which had been completely authorized and acceptable in each respect,” a spokesman for Mortimer D.A. Sackler mentioned in an announcement.
“This can be a cynical try by a hostile AG’s workplace to generate defamatory headlines to attempt to torpedo a mutually useful settlement that’s supported by so many different states and would end in billions of {dollars} going to communities and people throughout the nation that need assistance,” the assertion added.
FILE PHOTO: Bottles of prescription painkiller OxyContin tablets, made by Purdue Pharma LP sit on a counter at an area pharmacy in Provo, Utah, U.S., April 25, 2017. REUTERS/George Frey/File Photograph
Purdue, in the meantime, plans to ask a chapter choose to halt lively litigation so it could negotiate a closing settlement, the individuals mentioned. However the firm is making ready for states to argue their lawsuits can’t be halted by a Chapter 11 submitting as a result of their authorized actions had been delivered to implement public well being and security legal guidelines – exempting them from the standard chapter guidelines that might cease their complaints.
One other thorny authorized query entails the Sacklers and below what circumstances Purdue may use chapter legislation in an try and additionally halt lawsuits in opposition to them.
These authorized skirmishes may take a while to develop, as Purdue initially should search courtroom approval to proceed paying workers and tackle routine working bills.
Reporting by Mike Spector; modifying by Edward Tobin and Stephen Coates
FILE PHOTO: PG&E works on energy strains to restore harm attributable to the Camp Hearth in Paradise, California, U.S. November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photograph
(Reuters) – Energy producer PG&E Corp (PCG.N) mentioned on Friday it’s evaluating a proposal from hedge funds Knighthead Capital Administration and Abrams Capital Administration to offer fairness capital commitments supporting a plan to reorganize the corporate.
“The Firm has acquired the financing proposal from Abrams and Knighthead and is evaluating it, together with the backstop dedication letters and associated supplies, in session with the Firm’s advisors. The Firm will reply to the proposal sooner or later,” PG&E mentioned in a press release.
Shareholders Knighthead Capital and Abrams in a letter to PG&E on Thursday proposed elevating $15 billion in fairness to fund a deliberate reorganization of the facility producer, which is going through big liabilities from California wildfires.
The proposed fundraising, a rights providing of latest shares, is the most recent effort to rescue PG&E, which sought Chapter 11 chapter safety earlier this 12 months after extreme wildfires in 2017 and 2018 resulted in additional than $30 billion in liabilities.
Knighthead and Abrams pledged to buy a portion of the provided fairness if shares are left unsold by way of a so-called backstop dedication.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Modifying by Leslie Adler