Fixed income

Pharma industry leaders, including Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez and Merck & Co. chief Kenneth Frazier, got their marching orders from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning. Lower your prices, deliver "better" innovation and "move your companies back" to the U.S.

In a "pharma" meeting in the Oval Office, the President told executives from companies that they have done a "terrific job over the years" but that prices for drugs must come down.

"Our trade policy will prioritize that foreign countries pay their fair share for U.S.-manufactured drugs, so our drug companies have greater financial resources to accelerate development of new cures, and I think that’s so important," Trump said.

The Volkswagen Group has become the world’s top-selling car company for 2016, despite making headlines for all the wrong reasons – chiefly its dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.

VW has reported global annual sales of 10.31 million vehicles for 2016, overtaking Toyota’s annual total of 10.17 million, ending the Japanese company’s global sales hegemony of recent years.

A spokesman for VW said: "2016 was a very challenging year for us." The company "made strides in resolving and overcoming the diesel crisis" and initiated fundamental change in the company’s long-term strategy, he said.

Johnson & Johnson will buy Swiss drugmaker Actelion in a $30 billion deal that both secures promising research and bolsters the product portfolio controlled by the U.S. health care giant.

The deal between the world’s biggest producer of healthcare goods and Actelion, a leader in medicines treating high blood pressure, will create a new Swiss-listed firm called R&D NewCo focusing on the research and development of new drugs, the two companies said in a joint statement.
The U.S. conglomerate will then buy Actelion’s seven drugs that are currently on the market and two potential treatments in late-stage testing. The acquisition gives J&J access to the Swiss group’s line-up of high-price, high-margin medicines for rare diseases, helping it diversify its drug portfolio as its biggest product.

Barclays has settled on Dublin for its main hub inside the EU after Brexit, and is planning to add about 150 staff here if UK-based finance companies lose easy access to the trading bloc, according to Bloomberg sources.
It is believed the bank started scouting the city for office space this month, and has been in contact with regulators here about expanding its operations.

Swiss bank UBS reported net income of 738 million Swiss francs (US$736 million) in the fourth quarter, compared with 949 million a year earlier, due in part to tax effects, but says rising investor confidence in the United States could boost its wealth management business.

"Despite a very challenging market environment in 2016, we achieved solid results, thanks to our balanced business and geographic mix, as well as our strong focus on executing our strategy," said CEO Sergio Ermotti.

UBS also recorded more than 1 billion francs in negative income due to cash-flow hedges, citing a drop in unrealized gains from hedging derivatives as long-term interest rates increased.

Novartis may spin off its struggling Alcon eye care business and is to launch a share buyback programme worth up to $5 billion, the Swiss drugmaker said on Wednesday in reporting fourth-quarter results that lagged market expectations.

Its sales were flat in the fourth quarter while posting a $120 million operating loss, forcing a critical look at whether to sell eye care division. "We’ve not ruled anything out, all options are on the table," Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said on a results news conference call.

Yahoo says its closing its Verizon deal in the second quarter instead of in the first quarter, which is when it initially said the deal would close. The $4.8 billion deal was originally slated to close in the first quarter, but that was before Yahoo reported two massive data breaches that analysts say may scrap the entire deal.

Although Yahoo continues to work to close the acquisition, there’s still work required to meet closing the deal’s closing conditions, the company said in an earnings statement, without elaborating.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Britain should look to Switzerland on how to handle relations with the European Union, for a post-Brexit model of "close co-operation", according to Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) on Sunday.

"Britons should take as an example how cleverly Switzerland has linked national sovereignty and close cooperation with the European Union," he said, Britain needed a "wise political solution" to Brexit added.
A series of bilateral deals have been struck between Switzerland and the EU meaning it accepts free movement of people and certain rules on trade.