Elon Musk secures $46.5bn to buy Twitter in hostile bid – business live | Business
Elon Musk secures $46.5bn to buy Twitter
Elon Musk has lined up $46.5bn in financing to buy Twitter, and is trying to negotiate an agreement with the company, according to regulatory filings.
Last week, the Tesla boss launched an audacious bid to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, valuing the company at $43.4bn (£33bn). He said he wants to release its “extraordinary potential” to boost free speech and democracy across the world.
According to documents filed with US securities regulators, Musk is exploring what’s known as a tender offer to buy all of the social media platform’s common stock for $54.20 per share in cash.
Under a tender offer Musk, who already owns about 9% of Twitter shares, would take his offer directly to other shareholders, bypassing the board. (The entrepreneur hasn’t decided yet whether to do that.) Twitter has not responded to Musk’s proposal, according to the filings.
Last week Twitter’s board adopted a “poison pill” defence that could make a takeover attempt prohibitively expensive. It announced a limited-duration shareholder rights plan that could thwart the billionaire’s attempts to take over the company.
The filing states that “entities related to [Musk] have received commitment letters committing to provide an aggregate of approximately $46.5bn.”
Manchester United shares dipped 0.6% when they opened in New York. The Premier League club confirmed that the Ajax coach Erik ten Hag will be their new manager on contract to June 2025, with the option to extend for a further year, but the announcement had little impact on the share price.
Bank of England policymaker Mann: interest rates to go up ‘a little bit’
UK interest rates will probably have to go up “a little bit” further, said Bank of England monetary policymaker Catherine Mann, adding that in some ways Britain’s economy is already suffering from stagflation.
Answering questions after delivering a speech today, she said:
We want to avoid inflation getting out of control. And it may mean that interest rates go up a little bit. We’ll just have to see where we are in May.
Asked about the risk of stagflation – a combination of slow economic growth (stagnation) and high inflation – Mann said “in some senses, we could say we’re already there” because of the recent jump in energy prices and slowing retail sales.
But… it’s premature to kind of hearken back to the 1980s or the 1970s, in the US context in particular, and use that vocabulary.
The Bank of England is widely expected to lift interest rates again next month, although the size of the rate hike (a quarter or half point) is uncertain. Markets are eagerly waiting for further clues when the central bank’s governor Andrew Bailey speaks at 5.30pm BST today, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank based in Washington, DC.
Consumer confidence in the eurozone improved in April, after a sharp decline in March (following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February) – but remained far below its long-term average.
The European Commission said its confidence indicator rose by 1.8 points to -16.9 in the eurozone, and by 2 points to -17.6 in the wider European Union.
Shares in Tesla jumped nearly 11% when Wall Street opened, after the electric carmaker smashed Wall Street estimates for revenue and profit in another record quarter– despite a tumultuous few months for its CEO, Elon Musk, and ongoing supply chain concerns.
This brought some respite to Nasdaq, which was dragged down by Netflix yesterday. The tech-heavy index is trading 1.6% higher.
More Brits went shopping and dined out in the run-up to the Easter holiday weekend, and bookings at restaurants rose to a seven-month high, according to official figures.
In the latest week the number of UK seated diners was 138% of the equivalent week in 2019, the highest level since early September 2021, the Office for National Statistics said. Visits to “retail and recreation” locations increased by 8% in the latest week to 91% of pre-coronavirus levels.
The latest economic activity and social change data show
▪️UK seated diners were at 138% of the equivalent week in 2019, its highest relative level since early Sept 2021
▪️Retail and recreation trips rose 8% in the latest week to 91% of pre-COVID levelshttps://t.co/BEVDD8fyph pic.twitter.com/nkFB4sirwA
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 21, 2022
Here is a bit more on the latest 26 UK sanctions against Russian generals and defence companies, announced today.
The companies include:
- Kalashnikov Concern, a Russian developer and manufacturer of army Russian equipment whose weapons have been used by Russian armed forces during the invasion of Ukraine
- Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, who build amphibious armoured personnel carriers that have been used in the invasion of Ukraine
- Military Industrial Company, a major supplier of arms and military equipment to the Russian armed forces
- GTLK, Russia’s largest leasing company which operates in different types of transport and special equipment for Russian companies in the transport industry
You can read the government announcement here.
NEWS: Today I announce new sanctions on those with Ukrainian blood on their hands including the commander of the unit which occupied Bucha and other individuals and businesses supporting Putin’s military.
We are relentless in support of Ukraine.https://t.co/kUMdnKjJ5D
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) April 21, 2022
KitKat maker Nestlé ups prices by 5.2%
Nestlé, the owner of KitKat, Häagen-Dazs and Felix cat food, raised its prices by 5.2% in the first three months of this year and has said rising costs will force another increase soon, reports our retail correspondent Sarah Butler.
Mark Schneider, Nestlé’s chief executive, said: “Cost inflation continues to increase sharply, which will require further pricing and mitigating actions over the course of the year.”
Nestlé is the latest major brand owner to issue a warning about the impact of rising prices of raw ingredients combined with higher energy, fuel, labour and transport costs. Greggs the bakers, the consumer goods maker Unilever and the fashion chain Next are among those who have said more inflation is on the way.
Here is our full story on the Lukoil president stepping down today.
The multibillionaire Russian oligarch Vagit Alekperov has stepped down as the president of the London-listed firm Lukoil after sanctions were imposed on him by the UK and EU, writes my colleague Rob Davies.
In a statement to the stock market, Russia’s second-largest oil company said Alekperov, who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin, had formally notified the company of his decision to resign on Thursday.
Lukoil is among 27 companies whose shares were suspended by the London Stock Exchange early last month in order to avoid market turmoil. The Moscow-headquartered firm is not subject to sanctions.
However, the UK government has said Alekperov was targeted because of his role in the Russian energy sector, including an 8.5% equity stake in Lukoil that was worth £3bn before the shares were suspended.
“Through his directorship of Lukoil, Alekperov continues to obtain a benefit from and/or continues to support the government of Russia by working as a director […] trustee, or equivalent, of entities carrying on business in sectors of strategic significance to the government of Russia, namely the Russian energy sector,” the official sanctions list states.
Globalisation is not working – in an age of insecurity, we need more local solutions, writes our economics editor Larry Elliott.
Elon Musk to collect $23bn bonus
Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest person, is set to collect a $23bn (£17.6bn) bonus after the California electric car company’s first-quarter results exceeded performance targets, reports our wealth correspondent Rupert Neate.
Musk, who is already sitting on an estimated $249bn fortune, is in line for the bonus share payout after Tesla hit share price and financial growth milestones in its earnings on Wednesday night.
Tesla made an adjusted profit of $5bn on revenue of $18.8bn in the first quarter of the year – an 81% increase on the same period a year earlier. The results, combined with the growth in Tesla’s share price performance, mean Musk has hit targets that should lead to a bonus share payout worth about $23bn.
The company outlined an extraordinary deal for Musk in 2018 that would pay him an unprecedented $55.8bn (£40bn) bonus if he built the business into a $650bn company within a decade.
Here is our full story on THG.
The online shopping group THG has dismissed “numerous” takeover approaches as “unacceptable”, saying they undervalued the company.
Manchester-based THG (formerly known as The Hut Group), which runs beauty and nutrition websites including Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and Myprotein, confirmed there had been interest from third parties, but said the company was not currently involved in any talks.
UK government sets out 26 new sanctions against Russia
The UK government has set out 26 new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, including on military figures and defence companies.
This comes on top of hundreds of other sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans on Russian oligarchs and companies.
The latest sanctions include Colonel General Nikolay Bogdanovsky of the Russian army, who is the first deputy chief of the general staff, the manufacturer Military Industrial Company and the industrial group Promtech-Dubna.
Lukoil president Alekperov resigns
Vagit Alekperov has resigned as president and as a director of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, the company said.
It did not disclose the reasons behind the 71-year-old’s resignation. Lukoil shares fell 3.3% in Moscow. Its London-listed shares have previously been suspended. Alekperov is one of a number of Russian businessmen who have been sanctioned by the UK government and the European Union, while Lukoil is not subject to sanctions.
The multi-billionaire, who has frequently been pictured with Vladimir Putin, controls an 8.5% stake in Lukoil (3.1% directly, for which he has voting rights, and a further 5.4% through family trusts or mutual funds, without voting rights) but is not a controlling shareholder, the group said.
A Russian oil tanker that was impounded by Greek authorities this week will be released, Reuters is reporting, citing a government source.
Greek authorities said on Tuesday that the Russian-flagged Pegas (renamed Lana in March), with 19 Russian crew members on board, was seized off the island of Evia, as part of EU sanctions.
The government source told Reuters:
The coastguard has been ordered by the anti-money laundering authority to release the vessel.
The coastguard said the ship’s oil cargo has not been confiscated. The vessel is managed by Russia-based Transmorflot.
