Buyout firm Lone Star Funds is in the early stages of exploring a sale of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG nearly two decades after investing in the German lender, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The sale is attracting early interest from potential bidders including France’s Credit Agricole SA , one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. ...
Buyout firm Lone Star Funds is in the early stages of exploring a sale of IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG nearly two decades after investing in the German lender, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The sale is attracting early interest from potential bidders including France’s Credit Agricole SA , one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. IKB, one of the European banks hit badly by the subprime crisis almost two decades ago, was rescued by a consortium including Germany’s state-owned development bank. Lone Star acquired a more than 90% stake in the German lender in 2008. IKB now provides financing for midsize German companies. Among more recent troubles, the German bank was among a list of lenders exposed to Market Financial Solutions Ltd. , the UK mortgage-finance company that collapsed into a UK form of insolvency this year. Lone Star has made several attempts to exit the German lender over the years. IKB Chief Executive Officer Michael H. Wiedmann told Bloomberg News in 2021 that the bank was considering an initial public offering or a sale within two years. The current deliberations are preliminary and may not result in a transaction, the people said. Representatives for Lone Star and Credit Agricole declined to comment. IKB couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Lone Star has been active in financial services deals in Europe in recent years. It sold Portugal’s Novo Banco SA to France’s Groupe BPCE last year, earning the private equity firm a huge windfall from the bet it made on the sector’s recovery almost a decade ago. It was also among potential buyers of Ireland’s third-largest bank, Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc., before Bawag Group AG won the a process in a €1.6 billion deal.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is drawing little fresh upside after its latest earnings beat because traders may already be heavily positioned in the stock. NVDA stock dipped 1% on Thursday opening trading. Nvidia delivered stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, lifted its outlook and expanded its capital return plan, but shares were barely moving in premarke...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is drawing little fresh upside after its latest earnings beat because traders may already be heavily positioned in the stock. NVDA stock dipped 1% on Thursday opening trading. Nvidia delivered stronger-than-expected first-quarter results, lifted its outlook and expanded its capital return plan, but shares were barely moving in premarket trading. Goldman Sachs said the muted reaction likely reflects how crowded the trade has become. Nvidia has been widely owned across retail investors, mutual funds and hedge funds, but Goldman's trading desk said positioning may now be close to saturated. Bloomberg reported that Nvidia positioning was near the top of a 1-to-10 scale, and the stock may no longer be viewed as a max long by many investors. Nvidia may also be seeing less price reaction because of options activity. Dealers are said to be long gamma from heavy call overwriting, which can dampen swings and keep volatility lower than many traders expect even after a strong report.
Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their biological sex. The Equali...
Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their biological sex. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) document sets out how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond in practical terms to April 2025’s landmark supreme court ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex. The guidance will be seen as an incremental victory for gender-critical campaigners, who have long argued that trans women specifically should be excluded from women-only services. But critics fear it will consolidate a chilling effect as trans people avoid public places altogether. Trans advocacy groups had hoped that amendments made to the code by the EHRC in April, after feedback from the government, as well as consultation responses and extra legal advice, might result in a less blanket exclusion. The guidance does suggest it is feasible for clubs and associations to remain trans inclusive, by making themselves open to several protected characteristics at once, for example women or men and trans people. But in healthcare, where mixed-sex accommodation is not available, trans patients must be accommodated on the single-sex ward that accords with their biological sex. But the code also states it would not be proportionate to exclude a trans man from obstetrics and gynaecology outpatient services based on the objections of female patients. The guidance is clear that if a service provider admits a trans person to a service that aligns to their lived gender, that service can no longer be described as single sex and the provider is “very likely” to be at risk of legal challenge. The chair of the EHRC, Mary-Ann Stephenson, said...
Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares fell fractionally in midday trading on Thursday after The Information reported that Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) is in discussions with the Satya Nadella-led company about using its artificial intelligence processors. Talks are said to be at an early stage, the news outlet added , citing sources familiar with the matter. CNBC also reported that the two companies were in discussio...
Microsoft ( MSFT ) shares fell fractionally in midday trading on Thursday after The Information reported that Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) is in discussions with the Satya Nadella-led company about using its artificial intelligence processors. Talks are said to be at an early stage, the news outlet added , citing sources familiar with the matter. CNBC also reported that the two companies were in discussions. Microsoft and Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. The Redmond, WA-based Microsoft unveiled its latest artificial intelligence accelerator chip, the Maia 200, in January. The Maia 200 is built for inference and to improve the efficiency of token generation. The Maia 200 is built with Taiwan Semiconductor's ( TSM ) 3 nm process with native FP8/FP4 tensor cores, a redesigned memory system with 216GB HBM3e at 7 TB per second, and 272MB of on-chip SRAM, plus data movement engines. Microsoft agreed to invest $5B in Anthropic in November 2025, alongside Nvidia ( NVDA ). Anthropic also said at the time it was committed to spending $30B on Microsoft's Azure compute capacity and to contracting additional compute capacity up to one gigawatt, (This story has been updated with additional information.) More on Microsoft and Anthropic Microsoft: A Look At Whether Azure's 40% Growth Justifies The AI Spending Spree Microsoft: Heavy AI Buildout Vs. The Enterprise Moat Microsoft: How Ditching OpenAI Unlocks New AI Growth Catalysts Microsoft, EY to invest over $1B to boost AI adoption in enterprises OpenAI could pull off biggest IPO ever, Deutsche Bank says
Waymo has temporarily halted service in Atlanta over concerns that its robotaxis may attempt to drive on flooded roads, the latest setback over an issue that recently led the company to recall thousands of vehicles. It’s the second city where the autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc. has suspended service following severe weather. Storms swept through Atlanta on Wednesday, during which an unocc...
Waymo has temporarily halted service in Atlanta over concerns that its robotaxis may attempt to drive on flooded roads, the latest setback over an issue that recently led the company to recall thousands of vehicles. It’s the second city where the autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc. has suspended service following severe weather. Storms swept through Atlanta on Wednesday, during which an unoccupied Waymo vehicle drove and got stuck in a flooded road. The car has since been recovered and removed from the scene, a Waymo spokesperson said. The company’s San Antonio service has similarly been on pause since late April, after one of its unoccupied vehicles entered a flooded lane and was swept into a creek. Last week, the company recalled 3,791 vehicles to fix an issue with its software that could cause robotaxis to continue driving and not stop even upon detecting a potentially untraversable flooded lane. Read More: Waymo Recalls Robotaxis After Vehicle Drove on Flooded Road Waymo said it has refined its extreme weather operations after the San Antonio episode. The vehicle in Atlanta encountered the flooded roadway before any National Weather Service alerts about potential flash flooding, which the company monitors to guide its plans when floods occur. The weather agency expects scattered thunderstorms through Saturday in the Atlanta area, including the risk of heavy rainfall. Waymo said it is still working on additional software updates to improve its performance around flooded roadways. It will monitor weather and road conditions to determine whether its safe to resume its robotaxi service in Atlanta, which is offered via the Uber app through a partnership with the ridehailing company. The incidents highlight the challenges for driverless vehicles to adapt to unpredictable weather and other unexpected roadway conditions without a human driver’s judgment. Waymo has been rolling out its robotaxi service in cities across the US in a growing competition with the likes ...
Key Points Walmart beat revenue estimates in Q1. Management was cautious about the state of the consumer. The stock is trading at a forward P/E above 40. 10 stocks we like better than Walmart › Shares of Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) were moving lower on Thursday after the retail giant, which receives nearly 10% of non-automotive retail spending in the U.S., said it was seeing evidence of consumers cuttin...
Key Points Walmart beat revenue estimates in Q1. Management was cautious about the state of the consumer. The stock is trading at a forward P/E above 40. 10 stocks we like better than Walmart › Shares of Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) were moving lower on Thursday after the retail giant, which receives nearly 10% of non-automotive retail spending in the U.S., said it was seeing evidence of consumers cutting back due to higher gas prices and the impact of the Iran war. As of 12:27 p.m. ET, the stock was down 7.6% on the news, even as its results were solid, a unnusually large sell-off for the normally stable stock. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Before digging into whether Walmart is a buy now, let's review the first-quarter results. Why Walmart stock was down Walmart delivered solid results in the quarter, beating top-line estimates and meeting bottom-line estimates. Comparable sales were up 4.1% at Walmart U.S. stores, excluding fuel, and operating income rose 5% in its core segment. Overall revenue increased 7.3%, or 5.9% in constant currency, to $177.8 billion, which topped expectations at $174.8 billion. Adjusted earnings per share rose from $0.61 to $0.66, which matched the consensus. Walmart continued to deliver strong results in grocery and general merchandise, with sales up mid-single digits. Its strength in grocery reflects ongoing momentum in the category, and it said it achieved its highest level of share gains in general merchandise in five years. Walmart maintained its guidance for the full year, calling for a revenue increase of 3.5%-4.5% and adjusted EPS of $2.75-$2.85, though that was below the consensus at $2.92. For the second quarter, it sees revenue growth of 4%-5% and adjusted EPS of $0.72-$0.74. Management also noted financial distress among its lower-income consumers...
Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) earnings have come and gone, and Wall Street is still standing. The tech and semiconductor sector might be a little wobbly though. NVDA is down 0.8% to trade at $221.69, heading for a fourth-straight loss as the overall stellar report wasn't enough for investors. How are options traders reacting? For starters, the world's most valuable company has appeared -- for over two...
Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) earnings have come and gone, and Wall Street is still standing. The tech and semiconductor sector might be a little wobbly though. NVDA is down 0.8% to trade at $221.69, heading for a fourth-straight loss as the overall stellar report wasn't enough for investors. How are options traders reacting? For starters, the world's most valuable company has appeared -- for over two years straight -- on Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of names on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that have attracted the most options volume in the last two weeks. During this most recent timeframe, over 32 million calls and roughly 13 million puts were exchanged. The July 220 call was the top trade, while new positions were being bought to open at the weekly 5/22 255-strike call yesterday leading up to earnings. MAO May 21 Today is more of the same. At last look, the weekly 5/22 230-strike call is the most popular contract changing hands today. Overall though, options volume is subdued, running at only 1.3 times the average intraday amount. On the charts, NVDA is forming what looks like could be a bullish flag pattern with its recent sideways trading. Year-to-date, the shares are up 18.6% and are still not far off their May 14 all-time high of $236.54.
皇后像廣場部分範圍因工程封閉 何文堯：對市民影響有限、4年工期合理 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】中環新海濱3號用地發展商將興建地下行人隧道，連接港鐵中環站，期間皇后像廣場部分範圍要列作工地，包括...
皇后像廣場部分範圍因工程封閉 何文堯：對市民影響有限、4年工期合理 To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 【有線新聞】中環新海濱3號用地發展商將興建地下行人隧道，連接港鐵中環站，期間皇后像廣場部分範圍要列作工地，包括方形噴水池，公園座椅等設施要封閉。海濱事務委員會主席何文堯相信工程對市民影響有限，又認為4年的工程期合理。 何文堯：「大家如果熟悉該處， 知道該處是一個即是我們俗語稱皇后像廣場的『死角位』來的，一般平時多數都是旁邊酒店或者餐飲、市民會『落場』在該處放風、吸煙的地方，所以個人覺得影響相對不是很大。附近有寫字樓（工程）不能大張旗鼓用很多機械一齊趕工，噪音可能會影響附近，所以要取平衡，我覺得4年是穩妥時間。」