1. Rolls-Royce: – British engineering company Rolls-Royce (OTC:RYCEY) has put its Norwegian maritime engine unit Bergen back on the block, less than two months after Norway blocked a previous deal for it to be bought by a Russian company.
“The sale process has restarted,” a source close to the matter said on Monday.
Norway in March stopped Rolls-Royce from selling Bergen for 150 million euros to a company controlled by Russia’s TMH Group on national security grounds, in a blow to the British company’s disposal programme.
Rolls-Royce is aiming to raise 2 billion pounds ($2.82 billion) from disposals by 2022 as part of plans to repair finances which have been battered by the pandemic, as airlines stopped flying during the pandemic.
2. CHEVRON: – Chevron posted a profit of US$1.4bn in Q1 2021, which is still down from pre-pandemic levels a year ago of US$3.6bn, despite the recovery in energy prices. The difference is mainly driven by benefits of asset sale last year, along with weaker refining margins and production losses in this quarter due to a severe winter storm in the US. The company is right in holding back in capital spending to boost production as its current priority remains in creating a strong balance sheet and generating free cash flow, says Global Data, a leading data and analytics company.
3. AMAZON: – Pentagon officials are considering pulling the plug on the star-crossed JEDI cloud-computing project, which has been mired in litigation from Amazon.com Inc. and faces continuing criticism from lawmakers.
The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract was awarded to Microsoft Corp. in 2019 over Amazon, which has contested the award in court ever since.
A federal judge last month refused the Pentagon’s motion to dismiss much of Amazon’s case. A few days later, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the department would review the project.
“We’re going to have to assess where we are with regard to the ongoing litigation around JEDI and determine what the best path forward is for the department,” Ms. Hicks said at an April 30 security conference organized by the nonprofit Aspen Institute.
4. Johnson & Johnson: – Germany is to make Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s COVID-19 vaccine available to all adults, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday, adding that they will be able to receive the shot on the advice of a doctor.
Europe’s drug regulator backed J&J’s vaccine last month after examining cases of a rare blood clotting issue in U.S. adults who received a dose. But it left it up to the European Union’s member states to decide how to use it.
Germany’s move to offer the J&J single-dose vaccine widely follows the lifting of restrictions last week on the AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) vaccine.
The AstraZeneca shot had been earmarked for people aged over 60 following similar reports of very rare but sometimes fatal clotting events in younger people, with women disproportionately affected.
5. Ford Motor: – Ford Motor Co is recalling 661,000 Explorer sport utility vehicles in North America at the request of U.S. regulators because retention pins could loosen and allow roof rail covers to detach from the vehicle.The recall covers 2016 through 2019 model year vehicles. Dealers will install push-pins and replace any damaged rail clips and roof rail covers.
The second-largest U.S. automaker said in documents posted Sunday that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration first inquired about the issue in early 2020 following 11 reports of roof rail cover detachment. In April, it requested Ford issue a recall, which the carmaker had initially said was not necessary because the low likelihood of a roof rail detaching, its small weight and the fact drivers would likely detect a loose roof rail cover, according to the documents.
