Fixed income

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the U.S. government’s annual list of "notorious markets" that sell pirated goods. The listing carries no penalties but will likely be an embarrassment for Alibaba, which has been trying to burnish its image in international markets.

On Wednesday, the Office of the United States Trade Representative dumped Alibaba back on its Notorious Markets List, which “highlights prominent online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting.” This comes four years after the USTR had removed the Chinese e-commerce company from the list after it made some progress in combating fakes.

Starting from next January Lidl in Switzerland will not give receipts to customers. The German giant explains that in this way it will produce 30 million in less paper waste. Receipts will be issued only upon customer request.

"30 million of waste is equivalent to 96,000 rolls for cash registers" noted Alexander Wolf, the Lidl sales manager in Switzerland, Saving costs, among other things, Lidl will apply even more competitive prices, after having already put in serious difficulty the direct competitors. The policy of not issuing receipts is feasible in Switzerland, where there are no controls on the issuance of the receipt.

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant that owns Alcon, is buying Encore Vision, a privately-held company in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, focused on the development of a novel treatment in presbyopia.

Novartis said Tuesday that the acquisition would add a “first-in-class” treatment to its ophthalmology pipeline, “providing a potentially disruptive innovation to patients in a new therapeutic area of high unmet need and high prevalence.” Terms were not disclosed.

The European Commission is accusing Facebook of providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission’s investigation into its merger with WhatsApp back in 2014, opening the company to a possible fine of 1% of its turnover. It centers around the fact that Facebook told the Commission that it would be unable to reliably automate matching between separate accounts on the messaging app and the social network.

"Companies are obliged to give the Commission accurate information during merger investigations. They must take this obligation seriously," Ms Vestager, the European Union’s Competition Commissioner, said.

The 47th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will focus on five critical leadership challenges in 2017: strengthening global collaboration, restoring a sense of shared identity, revitalizing economic growth, reforming capitalism and preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The WEF will take place on 17-20 January 2017 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, under the theme Responsive and Responsible Leadership. More than 2,500 participants from nearly 100 countries will meet and participate in over 300 sessions.
The theme of the meeting calls on global leaders to renew the systems that have supported international cooperation in the past by adapting them to today’s complex, multipolar world in ways that foster genuinely inclusive and equitable growth.

Novartis announced an agreement for the acquisition of Ziarco Group Limited, a privately held company focused on the development of novel treatments in dermatology. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition adds UK-based Ziarco’s once-daily oral H4 receptor antagonist, ZPL389, that is being developed for the chronic, itchy inflammatory skin condition to Novartis’s existing portfolio of approved and investigational dermatological drugs.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena has until next Thursday to raise private capital. The government, which has already scheduled a meeting for Thursday December 22, could be able to open a public parachute before holiday break. Yesterday, as Consob was preparing to clear the prospectus of the recapitalization and the bond-to-equity swap (the ok came around midnight), the board of the bank approved the €5 billion capital increase.

Twenty-First Century Fox has formally reached an agreement with Sky for a total takeover to the tune of $14.8 billion.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Sky shareholders will be entitled to receive £10.75 in cash per share, which represents a pretty healthy premium of 40 percent above December 6, 2016’s closing price. Twenty-First Century Fox already owns just over 39% of Sky.

The price reflects a valuation of £10.75 per share, according to Reuters, who, along with the BBC, claimed that some investors were unhappy with the valuation but did not go into specifics.
Reuters reported that the offer represented a 40% premium on the share price from the day before Fox’s initial proposal was received.