1. VOLKSWAGEN :-Volkswagen Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch will seek re-election at a coming annual general meeting, the carmaker said on Saturday.
Poetsch, 70, became chairman of the supervisory board in 2015, weeks after the start of the diesel emissions scandal – in which Volkswagen in 2015 acknowledged using illegal software to rig diesel engine tests in the United States – and was instrumental in averting a leadership crisis at Europe’s largest carmaker late last year.
A spokesperson said in a statement that the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG “recommends to the upcoming AGM that it elect supervisory board chair Hans Dieter Poetsch” for a full five-year term.” The date of the AGM has not been announced.
2.JP MORGAN CHASE &CO –JPMorgan Chase & Co will resume making political donations to U.S. lawmakers but will not give to Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory, according to an internal memo on Friday seen by Reuters.
The country’s largest lender was among many corporations that paused political giving following the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots when supporters of former president Donald Trump tried to stop Congress from certifying the election.
Just hours later, 147 Republicans, the vast majority of them in the House of Representatives, voted to overturn the Electoral College results which Trump falsely claimed were tainted by fraud.
Following a review, JPMorgan will this month resume giving through its Political Action Committee (PAC) but will continue its freeze on donations to a “handful” of the 147 lawmakers whom it had previously supported, the bank said.
The pause will last through the 2021-2022 election cycle, which includes November’s midterm elections, after which JPMorgan will review whether to resume contributions to the lawmakers concerned on an individual basis, it said.
JPMorgan noted that its PAC is an important tool for engaging in the political process in the United States. PACs are political committees organized for the purpose of raising cash to support or in some cases oppose election candidates.
3. Toshiba Corp: Toshiba Corp said on Monday it will buy back up to 6% of its outstanding shares worth around 100 billion yen ($913 million), in line with its plans to boost shareholder returns.
The Japanese industrial conglomerate will also allocate about 50 billion yen to pay a special dividend as “some shareholders, mainly retail shareholders, prefer dividends”, it said in a statement.
Toshiba, which has been under pressure from activist shareholders, last month promised to return to shareholders a surplus of 150 billion yen against the appropriate shareholder equity level.
4.Tesla:-Production for Tesla Inc’s longest-range Model S Plaid+ is canceled, CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet “Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good.” Musk tweeted.
Model S Plaid+, which would have been Tesla’s highest-end model with a driving range of 520 miles, was unveiled at a battery event last year and Musk said it would adopt its next generation 4680 battery cells. But production was pushed back to 2022 from the end of 2021.
Musk on Sunday called the Model S Plaid the “quickest production car ever made of any kind.”
According to the company’s website the Model S Plaid can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.99 seconds and has a top speed of 200 miles per hour and an estimated range of 390 miles.
“Model S goes to Plaid speed this week,” he said in another tweet, without elaborating.
The Model S Plaid was scheduled to be unveiled at an event on June 3, which has been pushed to June 10.
The Model S Plaid costs $112,990, according to the company’s website.
5. Morgan Stanley – Morgan Stanley has hired former Bank of America banker Luigi Rizzo for a new client-facing role overseeing a drive to win business from a wide spectrum of companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), sources familiar with the move told Reuters.
Rizzo, who was at the helm of Bank of America’s European corporate and investment banking and quit in late 2019, will become Morgan Stanley’s vice chairman of investment banking for EMEA, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Morgan Stanley was not immediately available for comment.
A seasoned dealmaker who started his career at Goldman Sachs in 1993, Rizzo rose through the ranks, becoming a partner in 2008 and working closely with some of Europe’s most prominent dealmakers including Diego De Giorgi, now co-CEO at Pegasus Europe.
In 2013 he joined Bank of America to take on top jobs in both M&A and investment banking for the EMEA region, and moved to Paris after the Brexit referendum to oversee the bank’s rollout across the EU.
In his new role he will advise clients, including consumer and retail companies, financial institutions and TMT (telecoms, media and technology) conglomerates in their efforts to pursue strategic combinations that could speed up their post-COVID recovery.
