EasyJet is enduring a very challenging period. The low cost company flew a record 22 million passengers in the three months to Sept. 30, but revenue per seat fell by 8.7% from the same period last year, at constant currency as EasyJet has invested in pricing in order to boost passenger numbers. This included a strong load factor of 93.9%, with passengers benefitting from low fares across its network.
Abellio, british rail operator and swiss Stadler Rail announced on October 5 to have signed the agreement worth more than £600m (CHF 762 mln) to supply 378 multiple-unit cars for the next East Anglia franchise. In this way all existing trains on the Greater Anglia rail route will be replaced within the next four years.
The 300 largest European and American companies have recorded a decrease in revenues in the first half, due to the fall of oil prices and commodities. The performance of Swiss companies has been rather bucking. The European groups have suffered a drop in sales by 4.6% year on year, as indicated by the consulting company EY in a statement today. For American companies the drop was 0.4%, while the 23 Swiss companies included in the ranking registered 9.5% up. Glencore and Nestlé set out in the European top ten, respectively in fifth and ninth.
Google has already been named as a potential bidder for Twitter, Bloomberg reported, citing "a person familiar with the arrangement," that Alphabet subsidiary Google is working with financial advisers Lazard to explore a bid for the social media company. Nonetheless, its spokeswoman Gina Scigliano refused to comment on the situation. A Lazard representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Facebook announced on Monday it is launching Marketplace, its version of the local rummage sale. With its 1.71 billion users, it’s trying to capitalize on the e-commerce potential of its massive user base. According to company, more than 450 million people already visit Facebook groups that have items to buy and sell each month.
The new marketplace allows users to find things to buy from users nearby, list items quickly, and through Facebook messenger, users can communicate to negotiate deals and arrange a meet up.
Nestle and Britain’s R&R Ice Cream have completed the transaction to create their new Froneri ice cream and frozen food joint, Nestlè said on Monday.
The 50/50 joint venture will combine Nestle and R&R ice cream businesses across Europe, the Middle East, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa. Froneri will also include Nestlé’s European frozen food business (excluding pizza and retail frozen food in Italy), as well as its chilled dairy business in the Philippines. Operational headquarters will be located in the UK. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
US drug giant AstraZeneca said on Monday that it has signed a deal with Allergan through its global biologics research and development unit MedImmune, where the latter will pay up to $1.52B for rights to MEDI2070, an antibody for Crohn’s disease.
Allergan pays $250mln up front, but it might also make payments worth up to $1.27bln over a period of up to 15 years, tied to potential sales of the antibody, MEDI2070, a treatment that is currently undergoing clinical trials for moderate to severe Crohn’s disease.
The Swiss market mergers and acquisitions declined in Q3 2016. Compared to Q2, the number of transactions increased from 107 to 80 while the volume fell to $ 9.3 billion from 22.2 billion.
If compared with the same period last year, which had been strongly influenced by the $28.3 billion-deal, US Chubb’s acquisition by Zurich-based american insurer ACE, the volume of transactions fell by 32.2 billion, KPMG writes in a statement released yesterday.
