# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/0211720084061-nestle-veut-remettre-a-plat-son-organisation-en-france-2059531.php

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ft.com/content/22971970-e0b2-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
McDonald's Corp. plans to sign an agreement as soon as Monday to sell 80 percent of its operations in China and Hong Kong to a consortium of Citic Group Corp. and Carlyle Group LP, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The deal, which includes 20-year mass franchise rights, values the business at about $2 billion including debt, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Citic, the Chinese state-backed conglomerate, plans to take a 52 percent stake while Carlyle would hold 28 percent, according to the people.

McDonald's will retain a 20 percent shareholding in the venture, the people said. The sale could be announced this week, according to the people.

Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's is revamping its ownership structure in markets such as China, and as the world's biggest restaurant chain attempts to streamline its sprawling global operations. Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook is pursuing a turnaround plan to revive the company as it faces the fourth straight year of in the U.S., its largest market.

Terms of the deal could still change, according to the people. A Shanghai-based spokeswoman for McDonald's didn't immediately answer a phone call and e-mail seeking comment, while representatives for Carlyle and Citic declined to comment.

The months-long auction process from international private equity funds and local companies. In October, people with knowledge of the matter TPG Capital had exited the race, leaving its erstwhile partner, Chinese grocery operator Wumart Stores Inc., to compete against Carlyle and Citic. Bain Capital had also teamed up with Chinese hotelier GreenTree Hospitality for a bid, the people said at the time.

McDonald's in March it's seeking strategic partners to help it add more than 1,500 restaurants in China, Hong Kong and Korea over the next five years. It has more than 2,800 restaurants in those locations, the majority of which are company-owned. Its long-term target is to have 95 percent of its international outlets owned by franchisees.

U.S. restaurant chains have seen their market lead in China by a growing line-up of Asian competitors such as Ting Hsin International Group's Dicos eateries. The seller of Big Macs is also playing catch-up to Yum China Holdings Inc., its main fast-food competitor in Asia's largest economy. The Chinese KFC operator spun off from its U.S. parent Yum! Brands Inc. Nov. 1, and has a carte blanche opportunity to and add 600 restaurants a year in the country, Chief Executive Officer Micky Pant has said.

To continue reading this article you must be a Bloomberg Professional Service Subscriber.

Read this article on the Terminal Request a demo to learn more

If you believe that you may have received this message in error please let us know.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
McDonald's Said to Sign Deal Monday on China Franchise Sale

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
McDonald's Corp. plans to sign an agreement as soon as Monday to sell 80 percent of its operations in China and Hong Kong to a consortium of Citic Group Corp. and Carlyle Group LP, people with knowledge of the matter said.

# data[].attributes.headline
Essilor – Luxotica :Essilor made a 50 billion bet. The French group merges with the Italian giant of luxury sunglasses that has the Ray-Ban brand. Essilor-Luxotica will have a turnover over 15 billion Euros and 140000 employees. The stock exchange reacted positively to the news. It is the merge of the technical glasses and the fashion and market glasses.Source: Les Echos, 17/01/2017, front page

# data[].attributes.subject
Essilor – Luxotica :Essilor made a 50 billion bet. The French group merges with the Italian giant of luxury sunglasses that has the Ray-Ban brand. Essilor-Luxotica will have a turnover over 15 billion Euros and 140000 employees. The stock exchange reacted positively to the news. It is the merge of the technical glasses and the fashion and market glasses.Source: Les Echos, 17/01/2017, front page

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/report-kate-spade-attracts-interest-from-coach-michael-kors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
£11.7bn acquisition of Sky by Mr Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox 

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.challenges.fr/high-tech/internet/netflix-poursuit-sa-success-story-malgre-la-concurrence-croissante-d-amazon-et-youtube_448913

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ft.com/content/22971970-e0b2-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-23/mcdonald-s-profit-beats-estimates-as-turnaround-gathers-steam

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lesechos.fr/13/09/2016/lesechos.fr/0211282464755_benoit-potier-----airgas-est-la-piece-qui-manquait-a-air-liquide--.htm

# data[].attributes.body
Yahoo

# data[].attributes.headline
British American Tobacco  (GONG Xiao 52224)

# data[].attributes.subject
British American Tobacco  (GONG Xiao 52224)

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21714979-bat-already-owns-42-reynolds-now-it-buying-rest
“BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (BAT) announced on January 17th a final deal to buy Reynolds American for $49bn. BAT already owns 42% of Reynolds; buying the rest of it will create the world’s largest listed tobacco company by sales and profits. It will peddle brands such as Dunhill, Camel and Newport. The casual observer might imagine the deal to be a frantic bid to revive an ailing industry. On the contrary. Cigarettes may kill you, but the big companies that make them are rather healthy.“

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/0211705518874-le-duff-lance-gourming-une-place-de-marche-destinee-aux-professionnels-de-la-restauration-2058423.php

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Goldman Sachs is considering moving half of its London-based jobs to Frankfurt and other financial centres because of concerns over Brexit, German newspaper Handelsblatt has reported.

As many as 1,000 staff will move from London to Frankfurt, with other key operations moving to New York, France, Spain and Poland the paper reported, citing financial sources.

In total, the US investment bank could reduce its London staff from 6,000 to 3,000 under the plans, Handelsblatt said.

Staff moving to Frankfurt would reportedly include traders and managers responsible for regulation and compliance, the paper's sources said. Back-office personnel would move to Warsaw and investment bankers who advise French and Spanish companies would move to those countries.

The reports come a day after the US investment bank posted surging profits, in part thanks to volatile trading in the wake of Donald Trump's US election victory.

On Wednesday, UBS chairman Axel Weber said that about 1,000 of the Swiss bank's 5,000 employees based in London could be affected by Brexit, while Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive, said the bank could relocate 1,000 staff to Paris.

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs said: "We continue to work through all possible implications of the Brexit vote. There remain numerous uncertainties as to what the Brexit negotiations will yield in terms of an operating framework for the banking industry. As a result we have not taken any decisions as to what our eventual response will be."

Cities across the EU have been vying to attract London financial jobs since the June vote to leave the trading bloc, with Frankfurt and Paris among the leading contenders.

Leaving the EU's single market is likely to result in banks losing crucial passporting rights, which allow them to sell their services freely across the rest of the EU and give firms based in Europe unfettered access to Britain.

Loss of the passport could be devastating to the City unless a deal offering similar levels of access is secured. Nearly 5,500 firms registered in the UK currently use the rights to operate in other European countries.

Reuse content

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Goldman Sachs 'considering moving half its London jobs abroad' because of Brexit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Goldman Sachs is considering moving half of its London-based jobs to Frankfurt and other financial centres because of concerns over Brexit, German newspaper Handelsblatt has reported. As many as 1,000 staff will move from London to Frankfurt, with other key operations moving to New York, France, Spain and Poland the paper reported, citing financial sources.

# data[].attributes.body
“BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO (BAT) announced on January 17th a final deal to buy Reynolds American for $49bn. BAT already owns 42% of Reynolds; buying the rest of it will create the world’s largest listed tobacco company by sales and profits. It will peddle brands such as Dunhill, Camel and Newport. The casual observer might imagine the deal to be a frantic bid to revive an ailing industry. On the contrary. Cigarettes may kill you, but the big companies that make them are rather healthy.“

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-01-17/can-snapchat-s-culture-of-secrecy-survive-an-ipo

# data[].attributes.body
CROSSJECT NEW Strategy (Pharmaceutical Industry) - Restructuration

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/09/12/bmws-electric-strategy-lineup/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heineken Sets Sights on Brazil - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/conso-distribution/0211720173898-groupe-bertrand-veut-renover-lesprit-brasserie-2059365.php

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-services/air-defense/0211708532282-pourquoi-le-rachat-de-zodiac-par-safran-etait-inscrit-dans-les-astres-2058502.php

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.wsj.com/articles/super-mario-run-signals-new-era-for-nintendo-1481175000

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/business/dealbook/luxottica-essilor-merger.html

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.inverse.com/article/26735-tesla-will-upgrade-12-months-elon-musk
Planning to release a new car every 12-18 months, Elon Musk makes his car manufacturing company look a lot more like Apple and its few-upgrades-every-year iPhone. This strategy intents Tesla's wealthiest customers to change their Tesla often, making the value of each model decrease faster. This might boost its sales just like it worked for Apple, and spread electric mobility around the world. But cars are not basic consumption goods and such strategy might also damage the image of Tesla.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - Italy's Luxottica () and France's Essilor () have agreed a 46 billion euro ($49 billion) merger to create a global eyewear powerhouse with annual revenue of more than 15 billion euros.

The all-share deal is one of Europe's largest cross-border tie-ups and brings together Luxottica, the world's top spectacles maker with brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley, with leading lens manufacturer Essilor.

"Finally ... two products which are naturally complementary -- namely frames and lenses -- will be designed, manufactured and distributed under the same roof," Luxottica's 81-year-old founder Leonardo Del Vecchio said in a statement on Monday.

Shares in Luxottica were up by 8.6 percent at 53.80 euros by 1405 GMT (9:05 a.m. ET), with Essilor up 12.2 percent at 114.60 euros.

The merger between the top players in the 95 billion eyewear market is aimed at helping the businesses to take full advantage of expected strong demand for prescription spectacles and sunglasses due to an aging global population and increasing awareness about eye care.

Jefferies analysts estimate that the market is growing at between 2 percent and 4 percent a year, while Luxottica and Essilor say that at least 2.5 billion people in the world still suffer from uncorrected vision problems.

The deal also removes -- for now at least -- uncertainty over succession at Luxottica, which has lost three CEOs since 2014 because of rifts with Del Vecchio.

"The strategic rationale is strong," JPMorgan Cazenove analysts said in a note, adding that the deal defuses the risk of growing competition between two groups that had been encroaching on each other's areas of expertise in recent years, with Essilor buying online retailers and Luxottica investing in lens manufacturing.

ONLINE FOCUS

Both companies have been grappling with slowing sales growth, hit by weakness in North America, and face rising competition from cheaper rivals and the challenge of online distribution.

While Asia and Latin America are seen by the companies as potential growth markets, e-commerce will also be a top priority.

Luxottica's third-quarter results had showed revenue from its online platforms grew by 18 percent, with the company stating that e-commerce had been targeted as an area for accelerated growth in 2017. The third-quarter e-commerce growth far exceeded that for overall sales, which rose by 1.4 percent at constant exchange rates.

The merger is expected to boost operating profit by up to 600 million euros in the medium term, the companies said.

It will also leave smaller rivals lagging even further behind. Dutch retailer GrandVision () and Italy's Safilo Group () had revenue of 3.2 billion euros and 1.3 billion euros respectively in 2015.

Though advisers on the deal have presented it as a merger of equals, Del Vecchio will be the biggest shareholder of the combined group with a stake of between 31 percent and 38 percent through his family holding company Delfin. Voting rights will be capped at 31 percent.

Analysts said that Essilor shareholders are getting a good deal because the share exchange ratio implies a 5 percent discount to Luxottica's closing price on Friday, which was down 27 percent from its 2015 peak.

Delfin will contribute its 62 percent stake in Luxottica at a ratio of 1 share in the Italian group for every 0.461 Essilor shares. The French lens maker will launch a mandatory exchange offer on all remaining Luxottica shares at the same ratio, with the aim of delisting Luxottica's shares.

TWIN BOSSES

The merged EssilorLuxottica will have 140,000 staff and will be headquartered and listed in Paris. It will also have a complex governance structure, with Del Vecchio and Essilor Chairman and CEO Hubert Sagnieres effectively sharing the driving seat, while the 16-strong board will have an even split of Essilor and Luxottica executives.

A source close to the deal said no arrangements had been made at this stage for when Del Vecchio will retire.

Del Vecchio, who returned to the helm of Luxottica two years ago after taking a back seat for the previous 10 years, will be CEO and executive chairman of the merged group. Sagnieres, 61, will serve as executive vice-chairman and deputy CEO, but he and Del Vecchio will have the same powers.

In a conference call with analysts, the two sought to play down concerns over the co-leadership.

"We have and share the same values, we have and share the same vision, we have and share the same interest in the product ... If we really want to provide consumers with the best product, Leonardo and I will have to co-manage," Sagnieres said.

Del Vecchio, who grew up as an orphan but is now Italy's second-richest person, said he had long dreamed of such a merger.

"This marriage will take place and will work," he said.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and Del Vecchio said he is confident there will be no problems gaining approval from competition authorities.

Luxottica and Essilor, which have a market value of about 24 billion euros and 22 billion euros respectively, had explored a possible tie-up a few years ago.

Luxottica said in September 2014 that discussions had taken place in 2013 but were dropped for a number of reasons, including shareholding governance issues.

A source close to the deal said that the two companies' business models, operations and strategy have converged since then and that the merger makes more sense now, given growing competition. The source said the tie-up had been agreed in the past six weeks.

Mediobanca advised Delfin on the merger, with Essilor advised by Rothschild and Citi.

Delfin's shareholders are Del Vecchio's six children and his second wife.

Additional reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Claudia Cristoferi in Milan; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by David Goodman

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
medical equipment : supplies and distribution (trbc)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Luxottica and Essilor in 46 billion euro merger to create eyewear...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MILAN/PARIS (Reuters) - Italy's Luxottica () and France's Essilor () have agreed a 46 billion euro ($49 billion) merger to create a global eyewear powerhouse with annual revenue of more than 15 billion euros. The all-share deal is one of Europe's largest cross-border tie-ups and brings together Luxottica, the world's top spectacles maker with brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley, with leading lens manufacturer Essilor.