1.AMAZON : Amazon.com Inc’s India arm is in talks with several domestic players in film and media distribution including cinema chain Inox Leisure Ltd for a potential stake, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
Inox, however, said the report was “factually incorrect” and there were no discussions between the company and Amazon India.
Shares of the Mumbai-headquartered company jumped as much as 14.3% to 346.20 rupees after the report, but pared some gains to last trade 6% up.
Amazon India is planning to expand its content streaming platform Prime Video and is evaluating three to four deals, according to the report.
India has been a hotbed of competition for companies like Amazon, Netflix Inc and Walt Disney Inc, all of which have been investing significantly to ramp up original streaming content in regional languages.
The e-commerce giant in January had launched a lower priced mobile-only subscription plan for its video streaming service in India, undercutting a similar plan by Netflix to woo price-sensitive subscribers.
Prime Video had marked its foray into Indian film production in March and counts the south Asian nation as one of its fastest growing markets.
Inox, India’s second-largest multiplex chain, has reported a net loss for at least five consecutive quarters since March 2020, when a nationwide coronavirus lockdown was imposed.
2.STARBUCKS:- Starbucks Corp said on Monday it will exit any direct ownership in South Korea, its fifth-largest market, selling the 50% stake it owns in a joint venture to local partner E-Mart Inc and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC.
E-Mart, which currently owns 50% of Starbucks Coffee Korea, said it would acquire an additional 17.5% stake that would be worth 474 billion won ($411.89 million).
That also suggests a $2.35 billion valuation for Starbucks Coffee Korea, Reuters calculations showed.
GIC will own the remaining 32.5% of the venture, Starbucks said.
The U.S. coffee chain operates more than 1,500 stores across 78 cities in South Korea, where 2020 revenue rose 3.2% to 1.93 trillion won despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a long-term investor, GIC is confident that Starbucks Coffee Korea will play an important role in setting retail coffee trends and further driving industry growth,” said Choo Yong Cheen, GIC’s chief investment officer of private equity.
Starbucks said the deal is expected to be completed over the next 90 days.
3.TESLA:-Tesla reported Monday blowout second-quarter earnings as record deliveries and cost-cutting measures bolstered results.
Tesla shares gained 3.5% in after-hours trade following the report.
Tesla announced earnings per share of $1.45 on revenue of $11.96 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of 93 cents on revenue of $11.53 billion.
Regulatory credit revenue fell 17% to $354 million.
Earlier this month, Tesla reported deliveries of 201,250 electric vehicles, and production of 206,421 total vehicles, during the quarter ending June 30.
Vehicle average selling price declined by 2% year-on-year, but automotive margins continued to improve, rising to 28.4% in Q2 from 26.5% in Q1, and up 298 basis points from the same period a year earlier.
“In the second quarter of 2021, we broke new and notable records. We produced and delivered over 200,000 vehicles, achieved an operating margin of 11.0% and exceeded $1B of GAAP net income for the first time in our history,” the company said.
The company’s foray into bitcoin proved a drag in the second-quarter, as the slump in the price of the popular crypto since its May record high, led to $23 billion impairment.
Tesla flagged the ongoing shortage in chip supply during the quarter. “Supply chain challenges, in particular global semiconductor shortages and port congestion, continued to be present in Q2.”
Looking ahead, component supply will take added importance at time when EV demand remains at record levels. “With global vehicle demand at record levels, component supply will have a strong influence on the rate of our delivery growth for the rest of this year,” Tesla added.
A slew of headwinds including increasing electric vehicle competition, China safety issues negatively impacting demand, and the chip shortage have weighed on the share price this year, Wedbush said ahead of the Tesla’s quarterly report. “With all of these headwinds, Tesla still impressively hit 200k+ deliveries in the June quarter and appear to be on a trajectory to possibly hit 900k for the year with a stronger 2H on the horizon in our opinion.”
4.BioNTech:– BioNTech stock rose more than 3% Monday following the launch of the company’s ‘Project Malaria’ which aims to develop a vaccine to prevent malaria in Africa.
The vaccine will be developed on the company’s mRNA platform, the basis for its highly successful Covid-19 vaccine.
BioNTech will assess multiple vaccine candidates featuring known malaria targets such as the circumsporozoite protein, as well as new antigens discovered in the pre-clinical research phase.
The most promising mRNA vaccine candidates will be selected for clinical development. The start of the clinical trial for the first vaccine candidate is planned for the end of 2022.
The second objective of the company is to develop sustainable vaccine production and supply solutions on the African continent. BioNTech is exploring possibilities to set up state-of-the-art mRNA manufacturing facilities, either with partners or on its own, a note by the company said.
The German company is also working on developing vaccines against dreaded diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis.
According to the WHO, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2019, with 409,000 estimated to have died.
.5.CREDIT SUISSE –Credit Suisse on Tuesday appointed Goldman Sachs’ David Wildermuth as its new chief risk officer, as it seeks to turn the corner on the Archegos and Greensill scandals that have rocked Switzerland’s second-biggest bank.
“I am delighted to welcome David to Credit Suisse , where he will help shape the Group’s enhanced risk management framework, an essential part of the bank’s strategic realignment currently underway,” Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio said in a statement.
Switzerland’s second-biggest bank has cut risk after its prime brokerage business lost more than any other competitor from the collapse of family office Archegos, and as its asset management division scrambles to return some $10 billion of client investments linked to insolvent supply chain finance firm Greensill.
Those scandals have prompted a swathe of sackings, executive changes and regulatory investigations, as well as a planned strategic overhaul which Horta-Osorio has said is to place risk and cultural change as a top priority.
Former Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Lara Warner was one of the high-level casualties, replaced on an interim basis by Joachim Oechslin, who the bank said will resume his role as strategic advisor to the CEO.
Wildermuth, a 24-year veteran of the U.S. financial giant, was appointed deputy chief risk officer at Goldman Sachs in 2015 and has been a partner since 2010.
“David joins with an impressive track record, underlining our firm commitment to further enhance our risk management across the bank,” Credit Suisse CEO Thomas Gottstein said in the statement. “He is the right person to lead and further strengthen our risk organization.”
