The UK’s biggest private hospital provider, Spire Healthcare, is in talks about a sale to private equity that could lead to it being delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The company, which owns the Claremont hospital in Sheffield and St Anthony’s hospital in south London, said on Monday that Bridgepoint Advisers and Triton Investments Advisers were “amongst the parties” with which it was in ta...
The UK’s biggest private hospital provider, Spire Healthcare, is in talks about a sale to private equity that could lead to it being delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The company, which owns the Claremont hospital in Sheffield and St Anthony’s hospital in south London, said on Monday that Bridgepoint Advisers and Triton Investments Advisers were “amongst the parties” with which it was in talks. Its shares jumped 18%, making Spire the top riser on the FTSE 250 on Monday and valuing the company at nearly £850m. Spire said talks were at an early stage, adding: “There can be no certainty that any offer will be made.” It first announced a strategic review of its operations in September, saying it was in discussions with several parties to explore options including a potential sale of the business. The private healthcare provider runs 38 hospitals and more than 50 clinics, medical centres and consulting rooms across England, Wales and Scotland. It was founded in 2007 with the acquisition and rebranding of 25 Bupa hospitals, and floated on the stock market in 2014. Spire acquired a string of other sites, and also built two new hospitals, in Manchester and Nottingham. It has come under pressure from investors, led by Harwood Capital Management, which told the Times last September that it felt Spire’s share price failed “to reflect the company’s value, most notably its unencumbered hospital portfolio worth in excess of £1.4bn, and its occupational health business”. The board, which is chaired by the former Kingfisher boss Sir Ian Cheshire, responded by launching the review of the business. The company said in December that annual adjusted core profit would be at the bottom end of its guidance range of £270m to £285m. While more people have been paying for private treatments out of their own pockets, and there has been an increase in patients with health insurance, work it carries out on behalf of the NHS has slowed. Shire blamed budgetary restrictions at integrated ca...
Investors can look at options markets to see what traders expect from stocks after earnings reports. The most aggressive investors can even take bets on what the market thinks about post-earnings volatility. Having an options straddle position means simultaneously buying a call option, which gives the holder the right to buy shares of a company at a fixed price at a date in the future, and a put o...
Investors can look at options markets to see what traders expect from stocks after earnings reports. The most aggressive investors can even take bets on what the market thinks about post-earnings volatility. Having an options straddle position means simultaneously buying a call option, which gives the holder the right to buy shares of a company at a fixed price at a date in the future, and a put option, which gives the holder the right to sell shares at a date in the future.
Despite the fact that AMD's next-gen desktop CPU architecture, Zen 6, isn't expected to appear until towards the end of this year, we were expecting at least two new desktop chips to arrive at CES this month. But no, all we got was a single Ryzen 7 9850X3D announcement and no mention whatsoever of the vaunted dual-CCD 3D V-Cache chip. But a new EEC listing from AMD before the weekend has listed a ...
Despite the fact that AMD's next-gen desktop CPU architecture, Zen 6, isn't expected to appear until towards the end of this year, we were expecting at least two new desktop chips to arrive at CES this month. But no, all we got was a single Ryzen 7 9850X3D announcement and no mention whatsoever of the vaunted dual-CCD 3D V-Cache chip. But a new EEC listing from AMD before the weekend has listed a new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor alongside the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and a bunch of Threadripper chips. To bring you up to speed, 3D V-Cache is AMD's bespoke technology which underlays an extra chunk of L3 cache underneath the processor cores in a Zen 5 CPU package. The benefit of this is that games in particular benefit from all that extra on-die memory, reducing the number of times programs have to dip into slower system memory and therefore boosting frame rates. On chips, such as the Ryzen 9 9800X3D, and the upcoming 9850X3D, that means all eight of the CPU cores get access to a whole lot more cache. But for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D chips, which have multiple core complex dies (CCD) to accommodate their higher core counts, only one CCD gets the extra cache. With the proposed Ryzen9 9950X3D2, however, the expectation is that both CCDs come with a layer of L3 cache under their cores for a combined total of 192 MB. This isn't the first official notice we've had for the chip, with Alienware China presumably a little premature with its announcement of an Area-51 desktop sporting the new chip, and SI Systronic also listing a new workstation machine with it, too. But aside from a casual "stay tuned" to a few journalists at CES when they asked after its whereabouts, this is the first official AMD posting about the beefy, though potentially unnecessary CPU. I mean, AMD itself, in a conversation with HardwareLuxx last year has said that while there were no technical limitations preventing it from creating a 3D V-Cache chip with both core complex dies (CCD) given an extra dollop of ...
TSLA dipped slightly in pre-market trading on Monday. Binance will launch a Tesla equity perpetual contract on its futures platform on Wednesday, allowing traders to speculate on Tesla Inc. stock (TSLA) with up to 5x leverage, according to a recent announcement. The TSLAUSDT contract tracks Tesla’s Nasdaq-listed common stock and settles in USDT. Trading will be available 24/7 with a minimum trade ...
TSLA dipped slightly in pre-market trading on Monday. Binance will launch a Tesla equity perpetual contract on its futures platform on Wednesday, allowing traders to speculate on Tesla Inc. stock (TSLA) with up to 5x leverage, according to a recent announcement. The TSLAUSDT contract tracks Tesla’s Nasdaq-listed common stock and settles in USDT. Trading will be available 24/7 with a minimum trade amount of 0.01 TSLA and a minimum notional value of 5 USDT. Multi-asset mode is supported, enabling users to trade using alternative margin assets like Bitcoin, according to Binance. The exchange noted that it may adjust contract specifications based on market risk conditions, including funding fees, tick size, maximum leverage, and margin requirements. TSLA saw a small decline in Monday’s pre-market session, Yahoo Finance data shows. The stock’s value has increased by approximately 9% in the past year.
Oil traders seeking to plot the path for prices this year are juggling sharply different assessments of the supply-demand outlook, from a huge surplus to a broadly balanced market. The world’s three main forecasting agencies — the International Energy Agency, the US Energy Information Administration and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — have all updated their forecasts and th...
Oil traders seeking to plot the path for prices this year are juggling sharply different assessments of the supply-demand outlook, from a huge surplus to a broadly balanced market. The world’s three main forecasting agencies — the International Energy Agency, the US Energy Information Administration and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — have all updated their forecasts and the differences remain as stark as ever, split between the views of the two consumer-side groups and the very different outlook of the producers. The IEA sees the biggest surplus, exceeding 4 million barrels a day in the first half of 2026 and averaging more than 3.7 million barrels day for the year as a whole. The EIA isn’t so far behind. It sees supply running ahead of demand by more than 2.8 million barrels a day this year, with the excess peaking above 3.5 million barrels a day during the current quarter. Estimates based on OPEC figures, in contrast, suggest a market that’s much closer to being balanced, with supply exceeding demand by about 600,000 barrels a day on average this year. The latest forecasts reaffirm the positions of the three agencies, which have long held widely differing views on oil market balances. Neither OPEC nor the IEA forecasts OPEC production, so those future imbalances require assumptions to be made. In its report, the IEA uses the current OPEC+ output agreement as a proxy for future supply, and the same basis has been applied to OPEC figures to generate the chart above, assuming production for the three countries outside the agreement — Iran, Libya and Venezuela — remain steady at about the 5.4 million barrels a day seen in December. Demand Growth A large part of the different outlooks can be attributed to the agencies’ views on oil demand and growth. At just under 105 million barrels a day, the IEA’s demand forecast for 2026 is about 1.5 million barrels a day below that of OPEC. The gap has slowly narrowed since August, with the IEA increasing ...
Authorities in Batam have begun sending hazardous electronic waste back to the United States , a tentative breakthrough in a case that has clogged one of Indonesia ’s busiest ports with hundreds of suspect containers and tested the country’s ability to police such illegal imports. Four containers of electronic waste classified as hazardous and toxic materials were shipped out last week from Batu A...
Authorities in Batam have begun sending hazardous electronic waste back to the United States , a tentative breakthrough in a case that has clogged one of Indonesia ’s busiest ports with hundreds of suspect containers and tested the country’s ability to police such illegal imports. Four containers of electronic waste classified as hazardous and toxic materials were shipped out last week from Batu Ampar Port under the supervision of Batam Customs, according to Indonesian media reports. The move follows a blunt warning from Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq that Indonesia would not tolerate being turned into “a dumping ground” for illegal foreign waste. Advertisement The head of Batam Customs, Zaky Firmansyah, said re-export was mandatory once cargo had been confirmed to contain banned waste, leaving importers with no alternative but to send it back. “All containers carrying hazardous and toxic waste must be re-exported. There is no other option,” he said, as quoted by local outlet iNews Batam in a report published on Thursday. Advertisement Customs identified the four containers as belonging to Esun Internasional Utama Indonesia and said they contained used electronic components such as computer parts, hard disks, printed circuit boards and other discarded equipment deemed hazardous under Indonesian law.
(RTTNews) - Penske Automotive Group (PAG) has signed an agreement to acquire Lexus of Orlando and Lexus of Winter Park, both located in the Orlando metropolitan area of Central Florida. The acquisition is expected to add $450 million in annualized revenue. The company expects to fund the purchase price using cash flow from operations and availability under U.S. credit agreement. North American Ope...
(RTTNews) - Penske Automotive Group (PAG) has signed an agreement to acquire Lexus of Orlando and Lexus of Winter Park, both located in the Orlando metropolitan area of Central Florida. The acquisition is expected to add $450 million in annualized revenue. The company expects to fund the purchase price using cash flow from operations and availability under U.S. credit agreement. North American Operations Officer, Rich Shearing said, "The acquired dealerships will expand the company's scale in one of the fastest growing states in the country while leveraging the Company's existing infrastructure in Central Florida." In pre-market trading on NYSE, Penske Automotive shares are down 0.5 percent to $158.50. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Key Points Eli Lilly has made several moves to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) capacity. It could help complement its strong innovative capabilities. There are multiple reasons to hold the stock through the next 20 years. 10 stocks we like better than Eli Lilly › Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't just a gimmick or a fad. The technology is changing the lives of individuals, reshaping entire...
Key Points Eli Lilly has made several moves to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) capacity. It could help complement its strong innovative capabilities. There are multiple reasons to hold the stock through the next 20 years. 10 stocks we like better than Eli Lilly › Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't just a gimmick or a fad. The technology is changing the lives of individuals, reshaping entire businesses and industries, and, by some estimations, the industry will grow rapidly in the coming years, providing investors with plenty of opportunities to capitalize by investing in top AI companies. While many (perhaps most) of the leaders in the field belong in the tech sector, corporations in other sectors, including healthcare, are looking to cash in on AI as well. And one of the best AI healthcare stocks to buy is none other than Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY). Here's why the company is worth sticking with through the next two decades. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » Multiple AI initiatives Eli Lilly is doubling down on AI, far more than most of its similarly sized peers in its sector. Here are three moves the company has made. First, in September, it announced it was launching TuneLab, an AI drug discovery platform, and making it available for free to smaller biotech companies to help accelerate drug discovery. Many small drugmakers don't have the funds or data needed to train their own AI models, so that TuneLab will be useful to them. In exchange, they will provide Eli Lilly with even more data to train its own models. Then, in October, Eli Lilly announced it was partnering with Nvidia to build the most powerful AI supercomputer in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, earlier this month, Eli Lilly announced it was building an AI drug discovery lab in the San Francisco Bay Area, also in partnership with Nvidia. This lab will bring together Eli Lilly's team of researchers...
(RTTNews) - Synthesia, a UK-based AI video platform, on Monday said it has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the company at $4 billion. The round was led by existing investor Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG). Other participants included Evantic and Hedosophia, alongside returning investors NVentures, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Asso...
(RTTNews) - Synthesia, a UK-based AI video platform, on Monday said it has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round, valuing the company at $4 billion. The round was led by existing investor Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG). Other participants included Evantic and Hedosophia, alongside returning investors NVentures, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, PSP Growth, Air Street Capital, and MMC Ventures. As part of the transaction, the company will also facilitate an employee secondary share sale in partnership with Nasdaq at the same $4 billion valuation, providing liquidity to long-tenured employees while allowing them to remain shareholders. The company said proceeds will be used to build a category-defining AI business focused on enterprise learning and development, knowledge sharing, product marketing, and sales enablement, with a growing emphasis on agent-based AI systems. The company also mentioned that it is developing conversational AI agents designed for organizational learning and upskilling, enabling employees to interact with company knowledge through questions, role-play, and tailored explanations rather than static training content. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Pony Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, has teased a new artificial intelligence-powered social feature in the company’s latest push to keep pace in China’s intensifying AI race. In an internal address to staff, Ma said Tencent was beta testing a new social tool inside its AI assistant app Yuanbao, and encouraged employees to try it out and help debug the feature, ...
Pony Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, has teased a new artificial intelligence-powered social feature in the company’s latest push to keep pace in China’s intensifying AI race. In an internal address to staff, Ma said Tencent was beta testing a new social tool inside its AI assistant app Yuanbao, and encouraged employees to try it out and help debug the feature, according to Tencent staff who attended the meeting. The feature, known in Chinese as Yuanbao Pai, integrates AI with online social groups, allowing users to interact and collaborate with friends – Tencent’s latest experiment as it expands the capabilities of its consumer-facing AI app. Advertisement Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tencent’s move comes as competition among China’s Big Tech groups and AI start-ups continues to heat up, with the Shenzhen-based firm still playing catch-up to front runners such as ByteDance and DeepSeek. Advertisement ByteDance-owned Doubao remained the mainland’s top consumer AI app in December, with 155 million weekly active users in the second week last month, according to data from QuestMobile.