Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.
Speaker 3: So let's take a look at sam stocks on the
Speaker 3: mod today in Europe. I'm Jacksoners with Stephen Carroll. We
Speaker 3: are joined by Bloomberg's Breaking news editor Louise Moon. Morning,
Speaker 3: Louise wh Smith finding out if you say the words
Speaker 3: Leo Quinn, you will share price grows up.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, So they've named a new chairman, Leo Quinn.
Speaker 1: That's from April. As you say, shares have been rallying
Speaker 1: this morning on the back of that. Last time I
Speaker 1: checked up over about nine percent. So Leo Quinn was
Speaker 1: most recently CEO of Balfour Beatti, the construction firm in
Speaker 1: the UK. And the reason that shares are really rallying
Speaker 1: on his name on this new appointment is the woes
Speaker 1: that wh Smith have been through since about August. They
Speaker 1: announced a accounting eraor in their North American unit that
Speaker 1: triggered a stock slump. Also their CEO to resign and
Speaker 1: they're currently being investivated by the financial watchdog. So in
Speaker 1: the release, the company noted his history of what they
Speaker 1: call significant business transformation, so he's obviously the expectation there
Speaker 1: is to return wh Smith to stability and deliver on
Speaker 1: their growth strategy, their longer term growth strategy. So as
Speaker 1: I say, shares arising on the back of that, they
Speaker 1: were leading the thirty two fifty, but if you do
Speaker 1: look back at a more kind of historical level, they're
Speaker 1: still way off their level prior to that stock stump
Speaker 1: from August, so there's a long way to go. So
Speaker 1: they'll be counting on leo Quin to deliver that.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's w H. Smith turning them to Workspace
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: Another CEO change.
Speaker 1: Yes, so Workspace obviously the flexible workspace landlord. They have
Speaker 1: a new CEO, so their outgoing CEO, Lawrence Hutchings, he
Speaker 1: had just over a year in the role, so somewhat
Speaker 1: of a surprise announcement this morning given that time period,
Speaker 1: but it comes after a very turbulent period for Workspace.
Speaker 1: Their shares if you look back over the past year
Speaker 1: or so, they've been very rocky down about ten over
Speaker 1: the past year, and that's their second straight drop on
Speaker 1: an annual basis. So they've got a new CEO Charlie Green.
Speaker 1: He's called he's for the founder of a company that's
Speaker 1: now known as Fora, which obviously also the Flexible Workspace Group.
Speaker 1: It also follows a new CFO just before Christmas. And
Speaker 1: this is all coming in the context of Workspace warning
Speaker 1: last year of rising vacancies that would dent profits. Comes
Speaker 1: on the back of a lot of smaller businesses struggling
Speaker 1: with the wider kind of economic situation. They've been facing
Speaker 1: calls from Access investor Saba Capital to wind down the company.
Speaker 1: So these changes are being seen as a bit of
Speaker 1: a signal that the board isn't prepared to do that,
Speaker 1: and it's a bit more of an operational reset with
Speaker 1: these new appointments, particularly with Green. This morning and blue
Speaker 1: Og Intelligence had a note saying that this full cell
Speaker 1: is kind of unlikely to achieve or if it were
Speaker 1: to happen, would be unlikely to achieve good prices with
Speaker 1: risk desjoy the value of company. So yeah, being seen
Speaker 1: as a bit of a reset there for Workspace.
Speaker 3: And BMW one of many automakers this morning wishing then
Speaker 3: that they had never heard the word tariff.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yeah, the big news obviously today as you have
Speaker 1: been speaking about of Trump's threat to hike tariffs, isn't
Speaker 1: it if a deal isn't reached over Greenland really hitting
Speaker 1: automakers across Europe. Essentially the plan is to all the
Speaker 1: plan would be to add additional duties of ten percent
Speaker 1: on imports, and this is really hitting You see BMW
Speaker 1: down about seven percent, Mercedes Volkswagen, a lot of these
Speaker 1: German manufacturers that really rely on the US as a
Speaker 1: big source of sales of profits and they're already under
Speaker 1: massive pressure that they've got tariffs already of fifteen percent.
Speaker 1: On top of that, there's slumping sales in China, you know,
Speaker 1: slow the expected transition to electric vehicles. They're facing a
Speaker 1: lot of headwinds and this, if it came through, would be,
Speaker 1: you know, the latest headwinds. So there was an interesting
Speaker 1: statistic from BI predicting that these latest tariffs, if they
Speaker 1: were to come through, would hit German, UK and Swedish
Speaker 1: carmakers their underlying earnings by about three billion euros on
Speaker 1: an annualized basis, So it would be a big hit
Speaker 1: to them. And we're seeing this across the board. So
Speaker 1: Silantis also falling in Milan, as the martin In the UK,
Speaker 1: TATO mootism, and biosurreal global impact on MACFA.
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