U.S. chip giant Intel has agreed to buy Israeli driverless technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion, the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli high-tech company.
The $63.54 per share cash deal is the world’s biggest purchase of a company solely focused on the autonomous driving sector. Mobileye accounts for 70 percent of the global market for advanced driver-assistance and anti-collision systems.
Intel said it expected the transaction to close within the next nine months and to immediately boost its non-GAAP earnings per share, as well as its free cash flow.
The two companies are already collaborating with German automaker BMW on a project to put a fleet of around 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.
For a decade, Mobileye has relied on Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics to produce chips which the Israeli company sells to many of the world’s top automakers for its current, third-generation of driver-assistance systems.
However, while it was working with BMW, Mobileye also teamed up with Intel for its fifth-generation of chips that aim to be used in fully autonomous vehicles and are scheduled to be delivered around 2021.
Founded in 1999, Mobileye made its mission to reduce vehicle injuries and fatalities. After receiving an investment of $130 million from Goldman Sachs in 2007, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. It has a market value of $10.6 billion.
Last October, Qualcomm announced a $47 billion deal to acquire NXP, the largest automotive chip supplier, putting pressure on other chipmakers seeking to make inroads into the market for autonomous driving components, including Intel, Mobileye and rival NVIDIA.
The Qualcomm-NXP deal, which will create the industry’s largest portfolio of sensors, networking and other elements vital to autonomous driving, is expected to close later in 2017, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Mobileye, which employs around 600 people, had adjusted net income of $173.3 million in 2016.

We are proud to announce that Aktürk AB becomes a member of world’s leading law firm directory, HG.org.

We are proud to announce that Aktürk AB becomes a member of world’s first and only ship arrest network, ShipArrested.

We are proud to announce that Aktürk AB joined the international independent network of law firms, IR Global. Our firm is accepted as exclusive Foreign Direct Investment, IP – Trademark & Copyright and IP – Patents Member in Turkey. We believe that this membership will increase the international service capacity of our firm.

You can reach the announcement done by IR Global through the link given below:

https://irglobal.com/article/akturk-ab-joins-ir-as-the-exclusive-foreign-direct-investment-ip-trademark-copyright-and-ip-patents-member-in-turkey-de2f

Commodity trader Glencore Plc and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy a 10.2-billion euro ($11 billion) stake in Russia’s largest oil producer from the state in a triumph for President Vladimir Putin over sanctions imposed by the West.

The surprise deal gives the buyers a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft PJSC, which the U.S. and European Union have targeted with punitive measures, and is the biggest foreign investment in Russia since the crisis in Ukraine. It also marks a stunning return to deal-making for Glencore Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg a little more than a year after his company was forced to raise cash from shareholders.

Glencore said in a statement Wednesday it would commit 300 million euros in equity, with the rest coming from the Qatar Investment Authority — itself Glencore’s largest shareholder — and bank financing. Glencore said the deal was still in “final-stage negotiations” and would likely close in mid-December. The QIA declined to comment. Putin, who announced the deal on television with Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin, put the total deal value at 10.5 billion euros. It wasn’t immediately clear why the figures differ.

‘Santa Claus’

Bringing in buyers for Rosneft, especially a trader like Glencore, probably makes “Putin smile all the way to when Santa Claus comes around in Moscow,” Steen Jakobsen, the chief investment officer of Saxo Bank A/S, said on Bloomberg Television on Thursday. Putin “was under pressure because the privatization program in Russia has been very stale and it has been almost impossible to find them a deal partner.”

Rosneft, which pumps almost 5 million barrels a day, held talks with more than 30 potential buyers from Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East, Sechin told Putin on state television. “The deal became possible only thanks to your personal contribution.”

The price was the “maximum possible with the minimum discount,” Sechin said. “One of the largest European banks” will provide financing, he added, without specifying which one.

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA agreed to provide financing for Glencore, according to two people familiar with the deal who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the matter. Intesa, which worked for the Russian government as its consultant on the Rosneft privatization sale, declined to comment, as did Rosneft. A Glencore spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached.

Russia is selling assets to raise money after the collapse in oil prices sapped government revenue. Putin had said in October that, in the absence of buyers willing to pay an acceptable price, Rosneft might buy back its own shares and sell them on later.

‘Major Win’

“This is also a major win for Rosneft that avoids going through a ridiculous self-privatization exercise,” Luis Saenz, head of equity sales and trading at BCS Financial Group in London, said in a note. “Most importantly, a massive positive for Russia that’s moving closer to breaking the sanction/isolation regime.”

Rosneft shares jumped 6.2 percent to a record 378.15 rubles as of 12:04 p.m. Moscow time.  Contracts on the company fell 5 basis points on Thursday to 304 basis points, the lowest in more than a month, the data show. A decrease signals improvement in perceptions of credit quality.

Glencore shares added 0.5 percent to 298.20 pence. Credit-default swaps insuring Glencore’s debt against losses for five years were little changed at 170 basis points, near the lowest since July 2015, according to data compiled by CMA.

Mining Footprint

The deal marks the third big acquisition for Glasenberg after he led the takeover of mining company Xstrata and grain merchant Viterra. Glasenberg has transformed Glencore, which he floated only five years ago, into a commodities trader with a huge mining footprint and, now, a large oil production base.

Glencore is a longtime investor in Russia, with a blocking stake in mid-sized oil producer in RussNeft PJSC, as well as substantial agricultural holdings and shares in aluminum giant United Co. Rusal. It also participated, along with Vitol SA, in a $10 billion prepayment deal with Rosneft for crude supplies in 2013.

But in a sign of the political sensitivity of dealing with Rosneft, which is subject to financial and technical sanctions, Glencore said it would be “fully ring-fenced” from exposure to the Russian state company, outside of a 0.54 percent “indirect equity interest.” The bank financing in the deal will not include recourse to its balance sheet, Glencore said. The agreement also includes a new five-year supply deal with Rosneft for 220,000 barrels a day of crude, a boost for Glencore, which last year lost its status as the top trader of Russian crude.

The supply deal could deliver annual trading profits of about $80 million, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts led by Jason Fairclough wrote in a note. They said the view the deal “positively.”

Qatar, OPEC

On Qatar’s part, the deal marks a rare venture of an OPEC member into Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer. Moscow has joined forces with OPEC, saying last week it will cut output by 300,000 barrels a day to add onto the 1.2 million barrels a day that the oil-producers group announced. Qatar played a key role in the OPEC cut, acting as a go-between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq and hosting meetings including oil ministers from Riyadh and Moscow.

The Rosneft sale was the keystone of the government’s privatization program this year to help narrow the budget deficit. Rosneft played a key role in the second-biggest deal in Russia this year, buying the state’s stake in oil company Bashneft PJSC for $5 billion in October. Sechin, Putin’s longtime ally, persuaded the government that selling Rosneft shares after gaining control of the smaller producer would attract foreign buyers and boost the price. Russia will retain a controlling stake in Rosneft and BP Plc owns 19.75 percent.

Putin contributed to boosting Rosneft shares in recent weeks as he helped to negotiate a pioneering deal with OPEC on cutting output, which has lifted oil prices.

The transaction is so big that Putin specifically asked Sechin to work with the Finance Ministry and central bank to ensure that it doesn’t destabilize the currency market when the proceeds are converted into rubles. The ruble gained against the dollar in late trading after the deal was announced, before weakening Thursday.

China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. agreed to buy Genworth Financial Inc. for $2.7 billion in cash, pledging to help the U.S. firm manage its debt and strengthen life insurance units after it was hurt by higher-than-expected losses tied to long-term care coverage.

A China Oceanwide investment platform will pay $5.43 per share, the companies said Sunday in a statement. That’s 4.2 percent more than Genworth’s closing price of $5.21 Friday. The buyer also promised to provide $600 million to Genworth to address debt maturing in 2018, as well as $525 million to strengthen the life insurance businesses.

Genworth Chief Executive Officer Tom McInerney has been selling assets to ensure the insurer has sufficient liquidity after it was hit by losses on its long-term care coverage, which pays for home-health aides and nursing home stays, and as low interest rates crimp returns. China Oceanwide plans to let Richmond, Virginia-based Genworth operate as a standalone company after the takeover with senior management still in place, according to the statement.

“Genworth is an established leader in both mortgage insurance and long-term care insurance, which are markets that present significant long-term growth opportunities,” China Oceanwide Chairman Lu Zhiqiang said in the statement. “We are providing crucial financial support to Genworth’s efforts to restructure its U.S. life insurance businesses.”

Minsheng Bank

China Oceanwide spans real estate, energy and finance. It was founded in 1985 by Lu, who is a Communist Party secretary, as well as a member of the standing committee of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to the company’s website.

Lu is also one of the founding shareholders of China Minsheng Banking Corp., and earlier this year boosted his stake in the Chinese lender through China Oceanwide. Lu’s purchases of about $1.1 billion in Minsheng’s stock in July reflected his confidence in the Beijing-based lender, he said at the time. He dismissed speculation at that time that his moves may signal a looming tussle for ownership with the bank’s biggest shareholder, Anbang Insurance Group Co.

Genworth isn’t likely to see higher bids because of the struggles at its long-term care operation and China Oceanwide’s agreement to add more capital, according to BTIG LLC analyst Mark Palmer.

“GNW’s rationale for agreeing to sell itself likely was rooted in the challenges faced by its LTC unit, as the company in conjunction with the sale announcement disclosed that as a result of its annual review of its LTC claim reserves it would increase such reserves,” Palmer wrote in a note to clients.

Asset Sales

Genworth writes mortgage insurance in the U.S., and has stakes in a Canadian and an Australian home-loan guarantor. Mortgage insurers cover losses for lenders when homeowners default and foreclosure fails to recoup costs. This deal gives China Oceanwide the chance to benefit from gains in the U.S. housing market.

McInerney has been seeking to free up capital to pay bonds coming due, and has also been boosting capital by selling assets. He struck a deal in 2015 to sell a European mortgage unit to AmTrust Financial Services Inc. and also agreed to have Axa SA buy a European unit that offers customers protection against the financial impact of major illness, accident or death. He’s also been working to restructure the business units in a way that’s acceptable to regulators, and won approval from bondholders earlier this year to reorganize some of its units.

The deal will help give Genworth the finances to separate a life and annuity operation from another life insurance arm, according to the statement. Lu said the transaction was structured to make it easier to obtain regulatory approval.

‘Ideal Owner’

Genworth shares have slumped from as high as $15.53 at the end of 2013 as the company dealt with its long-term care operations. The insurer has also been seeking in recent years to boost rates on old long-term care coverage as medical costs increased and more people than expected held on to those policies. The Chinese buyer has no intention or obligation to add more capital to support those legacy obligations, according to the statement.

“We believe that this transaction creates greater and more certain stockholder value than our current business plan or other strategic alternatives,” McInerney said in the statement. “China Oceanwide is an ideal owner for Genworth. They recognize the strength of our mortgage insurance platform and the importance of long-term care insurance in addressing an aging population.”

Overseas buyers have been seeking to enter the U.S. insurance market to expand in a large market and counter some challenges at home. Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co.agreed in 2014 to buy Birmingham, Alabama-based Protective Life Corp., and Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. agreed to purchase Symetra Financial Corp. last year. China’s Anbang agreed to a deal for Des Moines, Iowa-based Fidelity & Guaranty Life that same year, but has hit a roadblock, pulling an application for regulatory approval from New York to buy the firm. Anbang has renewed discussions with regulators about the transactions, people with knowledge of the talks said in September.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire Time Warner in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at $107.50 per share. The agreement has been approved unanimously by the boards of directors of both companies.

The deal combines Time Warner’s vast library of content and ability to create new premium content that connects with audiences around the world, with AT&T’s extensive customer relationships, world’s largest pay TV subscriber base and leading scale in TV, mobile and broadband distribution.

“This is a perfect match of two companies with complementary strengths who can bring a fresh approach to how the media and communications industry works for customers, content creators, distributors and advertisers,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “Premium content always wins. It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen. We’ll have the world’s best premium content with the networks to deliver it to every screen. A big customer pain point is paying for content once but not being able to access it on any device, anywhere. Our goal is to solve that. We intend to give customers unmatched choice, quality, value and experiences that will define the future of media and communications.

“With great content, you can build truly differentiated video services, whether it’s traditional TV, OTT or mobile. Our TV, mobile and broadband distribution and direct customer relationships provide unique insights from which we can offer addressable advertising and better tailor content,” Stephenson said. “It’s an integrated approach and we believe it’s the model that wins over time.

“Time Warner’s leadership, creative talent and content are second to none. Combine that with 100 million plus customers who subscribe to our TV, mobile and broadband services – and you have something really special,” said Stephenson. “It’s a great fit, and it creates immediate and long-term value for our shareholders.”

Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said, “This is a great day for Time Warner and its shareholders. Combining with AT&T dramatically accelerates our ability to deliver our great brands and premium content to consumers on a multiplatform basis and to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities created by the growing demand for video content. That’s been one of our most important strategic priorities and we’re already making great progress — both in partnership with our distributors, and on our own by connecting directly with consumers. Joining forces with AT&T will allow us to innovate even more quickly and create more value for consumers along with all our distribution and marketing partners, and allow us to build on a track record of creative and financial excellence that is second to none in our industry. In fact, when we announce our 3Q earnings, we will report revenue and operating income growth at each of our divisions, as well as double-digit earnings growth.

Bewkes continued, “This is a natural fit between two companies with great legacies of innovation that have shaped the modern media and communications landscape, and my senior management team and I are looking forward to working closely with Randall and our new colleagues as we begin to capture the tremendous opportunities this creates to make our content even more powerful, engaging and valuable for global audiences.”

Time Warner is a global leader in media and entertainment with a great portfolio of content creation and aggregation, and iconic brands across video programming and TV/film production. Each of Time Warner’s three divisions is an industry leader: Turner consists of U.S. and international basic cable networks, including TNT, TBS, CNN and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and has sports right that include the National Basketball Association, NCAA Men’s Championship Basketball Tournament, and Major League Baseball; HBO, which consists of domestic premium pay television and streaming services (HBO Now, HBO Go) featuring such original series as Game of Thrones, VEEP, and Silicon Valley, as well as international premium & basic pay television and streaming services; and Warner Bros. Entertainment, which consists of television, feature film, home video and videogame production and distribution. Film franchises include Harry Potter, DC Entertainment, and LEGO; TV series produced include The Big Bang Theory, The Voice, and Gotham. Time Warner also has invested in over-the-top and digital media properties such as Bleacher Report, Hulu and Machinima.

Customer Benefits

The new company will deliver what customers want — enhanced access to premium content on all their devices, new choices for mobile and streaming video services and a stronger competitive alternative to cable TV companies.

With a mobile network that covers more than 315 million people in the United States, the combined company will strive to become the first U.S. mobile provider to compete nationwide with cable companies in the provision of bundled mobile broadband and video. It will disrupt the traditional entertainment model and push the boundaries on mobile content availability for the benefit of customers. And it will deliver more innovation with new forms of original content built for mobile and social, which builds on Time Warner’s HBO Now and the upcoming launch of AT&T’s OTT offering DIRECTV NOW.

Owning content will help AT&T innovate on new advertising options, which, combined with subscriptions, will help pay for the cost of content creation. This two-sided business model — advertising- and subscription-based — gives customers the largest amount of premium content at the best value.

Summary Terms of Transaction

Time Warner shareholders will receive $107.50 per share under the terms of the merger, comprised of $53.75 per share in cash and $53.75 per share in AT&T stock. The stock portion will be subject to a collar such that Time Warner shareholders will receive 1.437 AT&T shares if AT&T’s average stock price is below $37.411 at closing and 1.3 AT&T shares if AT&T’s average stock price is above $41.349 at closing.

This purchase price implies a total equity value of $85.4 billion and a total transaction value of $108.7 billion, including Time Warner’s net debt. Post-transaction, Time Warner shareholders will own between 14.4% and 15.7% of AT&T shares on a fully-diluted basis based on the number of AT&T shares outstanding today.

The cash portion of the purchase price will be financed with new debt and cash on AT&T’s balance sheet. AT&T has an 18-month commitment for an unsecured bridge term facility for $40 billion.

Transaction Will Result in Significant Financial Benefits

AT&T expects the deal to be accretive in the first year after close on both an adjusted EPS and free cash flow per share basis.

AT&T expects $1 billion in annual run rate cost synergies within 3 years of the deal closing. The expected cost synergies are primarily driven by corporate and procurement expenditures. In addition, over time, AT&T expects to achieve incremental revenue opportunities that neither company could obtain on a standalone basis.

Given the structure of this transaction, which includes AT&T stock consideration as part of the deal, AT&T expects to continue to maintain a strong balance sheet following the transaction close and is committed to maintaining strong investment-grade credit metrics.

By the end of the first year after close, AT&T expects net debt to adjusted EBITDA to be in the 2.5x range.

Additionally, AT&T expects the deal to improve its dividend coverage and enhance its revenue and earnings growth profile.

Time Warner provides AT&T with significant diversification benefits:

Diversified revenue mix — Time Warner will represent about 15% of the combined company’s revenues, offering diversification from content and from outside the United States, including Latin America, where Time Warner owns a majority stake in HBO Latin America, an OTT service available in 24 countries, and AT&T is the leading pay TV distributor.
Lower capital intensity — Time Warner’s business requires little in capital expenditures, which helps balance the higher capital intensity of AT&T’s existing business.
Regulation — Time Warner’s business is lightly regulated compared to much of AT&T’s existing operations.
The merger is subject to approval by Time Warner Inc. shareholders and review by the U.S. Department of Justice. AT&T and Time Warner are currently determining which FCC licenses, if any, will be transferred to AT&T in connection with the transaction. To the extent that one or more licenses are to be transferred, those transfers are subject to FCC review. The transaction is expected to close before year-end 2017.

Deal Will Add Cataract and Refractive Eye Surgery to J&J’s Vision Care Portfolio
Hub City healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on September 16 it will spend $4.33 billion in cash to acquire Abbott Medical Optics (AMO), based in Santa Ana, California.

J&J said the deal will help “strengthen global leadership in eye health adding cataract and refractive eye surgery to [our] vision care” holdings and consumer eye health units.

The investment will include eye care products in cataract surgery, laser refractive surgery and consumer eye health, said J&J.

AMO, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories, and global leader in ophthalmic surgery reported gross sales of $1.1 billion last year.

“Eye health is one of the largest, fastest growing and most underserved segments in health care today,” said Ashley McEvoy, Company Group Chairman at J&J Vision Care.

“With the acquisition of [AMO] … coupled with our world-leading ACUVUE contact lens business, we will become a more broad-based leader in vision care. With this acquisition we will enter cataract surgery – one of the most commonly performed surgeries and the number one cause of preventable blindness.”

The World Health Organization estimates that about 20 million people are blind from age-related cataracts and that there are at least 100 million eyes with compromised visual acuity caused by cataracts, said J&J.

The company said those “numbers are steadily rising due to population growth and increasing life expectancy.”

AMO’s consumer eye health products, including over-the-counter drops for dry eyes and multi-purpose solutions, will go to J&J in the deal, it said.

Abbott’s optics unit is “a self-contained business and had very little synergy with anything else in their device portfolio,” Debbie Wang, an analyst at Morningstar, told Bloomberg News.

And Abbott wants to steer its medical device unit “down the path of these more sophisticated products,” Wang told Bloomberg.

St. Jude Medical Inc., the leading manufacturer of devices to treat heart failure, and a company Abbott is currently purchasing for $25 billion, could surely drive that objective.

“We’ve been actively and strategically shaping our portfolio, which has recently focused on developing leadership positions in cardiovascular devices and expanding diagnostics,” said Miles White, Abbott Chief Executive.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, said J&J, indicating that “the closing is subject to antitrust clearance and other customary closing conditions.”

“Following the expected closing, sales will be reported in the Medical Devices segment as a separate platform within Vision Care.”

The improved takeover offer of $66 billion, including debt, is the largest cash bid on record

German drugs and crop chemicals company Bayer has won over U.S. seeds firm Monsanto with an improved takeover offer of $66 billion including debt, ending months of wrangling after increasing its bid for a third time.

The $128 a share deal announced on Wednesday, up from Bayer’s previous offer of $127.50 a share, is the biggest of the year so far and the largest cash bid on record. The transaction will create a company commanding more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in a fast-consolidating farm supplies industry.

However, competition authorities are likely to scrutinise the tie-up closely, and some of Bayer’s own shareholders have been critical of a takeover plan which they say is too expensive and risks neglecting the company’s pharmaceutical business.

“Bayer’s competitors are merging, so not doing this deal would mean having a competitive disadvantage,” said Markus Manns, a fund manager at Union Investment, one of Bayer’s top 12 investors, according to ThomsonReuters data.

He said few people had expected a deal to be agreed at less than $130 a share, but that there were regulatory risks and the acquisition would also leave Bayer with less scope to invest in healthcare, where rivals are consolidating too.

Break-fee

The transaction includes a break-fee of $2 billion that Bayer will pay to Monsanto should it fail to get regulatory clearance. Bayer expects the deal to close by the end of 2017.

The details confirm what a source close to the matter told Reuters earlier.

Baader Helevea Equity Research analyst Jacob Thrane, who has a “sell” rating on Bayer shares, said the German company was paying 16.1 times Monsanto’s forecast core earnings for 2017, more than the 15.5 times ChemChina agreed to pay for Swiss crop chemicals firm Syngenta last year.

He also said there was uncertainty over what the combined company would look like as regulators might demand asset sales.

Some analysts said the deal could face a rough ride from U.S. politicians opposed to a key supplier of U.S. agriculture falling into foreign hands and from farmers concerned a reduction in competition could lead to higher prices.

Bayer said it needed approval from antitrust authorities in 30 jurisdictions, but its initial feedback from both regulators and politicians was encouraging.

The German firm said it expected the deal to boost core earnings per share in the first full year following completion, and by a double-digit percentage in the third year. It is targeting $1.2 billion in annual cost synergies and $300 million in sales synergies after three years.

Bayer’s move to combine its crop chemicals business, the world’s second largest after Syngenta, with Monsanto’s industry leading seeds business, is the latest in a series of major tie-ups in the agrochemicals sector.

The German company is aiming to create a one-stop shop for seeds, crop chemicals and computer-aided services to farmers.

That was also the idea behind Monsanto’s swoop on Syngenta last year, which the Swiss company fended off, only to agree later to a takeover by China’s state-owned ChemChina.

Elsewhere, U.S. chemicals giants Dow Chemical and DuPont plan to merge and later spin off their respective seeds and crop chemicals operations into a major agribusiness.

“The combined business will be ideally suited to cater to the requirements of farmers … because we have equal and meaningful strength in both crop protection, seeds and traits, and digital and analytical tools,” Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann said on a call with analysts.

The deal will be the largest ever involving a German buyer, beating Daimler’s tie-up with Chrysler in 1998, which valued the U.S. carmaker at more than $40 billion. It will also be the largest all-cash transaction on record, ahead of brewer InBev’s $60.4 billion offer for Anheuser-Busch in 2008.

44 per cent premium

Bayer said it was offering a 44 per cent premium to Monsanto’s share price on May 9, the day before it made its first written proposal.

It plans to raise $19 billion to help fund the deal by issuing convertible bonds and new shares to its existing shareholders.

Here are some key points in the deal:

Bayer agrees $128 per share cash bid to buy Monsanto
Deal includes a $2 billion break-up fee
Bayer says expects deal to close by end-2017 (Repeats to fix formatting. No change to text)