Mergers and acquisitions

Grab, the ride-hailing company competing with Uber in Southeast Asia, has pulled in $2 billion of new financing from existing investors Didi Chuxing, the company that defeated Uber in China, and SoftBank.

The latest round of funding comes from Japan’s Softbank and China’s top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing. Grab said Monday that it expects another $500 million will come from other existing and new investors. Its last announced cash injection was in September when it raised $750 million led by Softbank, whose chief executive Masayoshi Son is Japan’s richest person and a self-styled tech visionary.

Cartier owner Richemont has sold its Chinese luxury brand Shanghai Tang to Cassia Investments, the Consumer-focused Private Equity fund, in partnership with Italian fashion entrepreneur, Alessandro Bastagli, the company said on Monday.

No value for the deal was given but Richemont, which also owns jewellers Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget, but "The transaction will have no material impact on Richemont’s balance sheet, cash flow or results for the year ending 31 March 2018," Richemont said in a statement. The Swiss luxury group first acquired a stake in the retailer in 1998 before taking full ownership a decade later.

Glencore has sharply raised the stakes in the bidding war for Rio Tinto’s Hunter Valley coal mines by delivering a fresh $2.675 billion offer for the assets. In an announcement in London, Glencore said it would increase its offer by $125 million in an attempt to trump Yancoal’s $2.45 billion bid, which had been selected by Rio Tinto.

However, in a major sweetener Glencore said it would expedite payment to Rio Tinto with a cash settlement once the deal is completed.

Billionaire activist investor Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC hedge fund has taken $3.5 billion stake in Nestlé. The stake amounts to about 1.25% of swiss company’s shares.

The hedge fund is proposing Nestlé set a formal profit margin target of 18-20 per cent by 2020, boost its debt to buy back shares, put up for sale non-core products in its portfolio, and sell its 23 per cent stake in cosmetic maker L’Oréal, a stake with a market value of about $27 billion. Nestle’s current operating margin is about 15 per cent. Nestlé did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Warren Buffett’s company is lending $1.5 billion to Home Capital and spending roughly $300 million to purchase nearly 40 percent of the troubled Canadian lender’s stock.

Berkshire said Thursday that the credit line will carry a relatively hefty 9 percent interest rate once Berkshire completes its initial stock investment later this month. The rate is similar to what Berkshire charged on loans it made during the financial crisis to companies including Goldman Sachs and General Electric.

Nestle has acquired a minority stake in US online meal-kit service Freshly, the latest investment a packaged food major has made in the category.

The world’s largest food maker did not disclose the size of stake it has bought in Freshly but said it was "the lead investor in the $77mln round of new funding" that was announced by Freshly on Monday.

Swiss agriculture company Syngenta, which is in deal to be bought by China National Chemical Corp., known as ChemChina, announced Friday that it has entered into an agreement to sell global Sugar Beet seeds business to DLF Seeds. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

The transaction is subject to customary approval requirements and expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2017. DLF Seeds is a seed company dealing in forage and turf seeds, and other crops.

Spain’s Banco Santander said Wednesday it will take over struggling Banco Popular Espanol for the symbolic price of 1 euro, creating the country’s largest bank by lending and deposits, according to a press statement.
"This means that Banco Popular will operate under normal business conditions as a solvent and liquid member of the Santander Group with immediate effect," the board said.