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: Let's tickle up now at some stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by
Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moon.
Speaker 4: Luise, good morning.
Speaker 3: Let's start with HSBC, then Europe's largest bank, appointing Brendan
Speaker 3: Nelson as its next chair to replace Mark Tucker.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yeah, so Brendan Nelson. He's been in an interim
Speaker 1: position since October. That's after, as you say, Mark Tucker left.
Speaker 1: He he had been chaired four much of the last decade.
Speaker 1: He was very hands on and he left over the
Speaker 1: summer or the end of summer to be the chair
Speaker 1: of AIA, the insurer. So I've chosen Brendan Nelson to
Speaker 1: replace him. As I say, he's been in the interim position.
Speaker 1: He joined the board in twenty twenty three, but aside
Speaker 1: from that he spent most of his career at KPMG.
Speaker 1: So in terms of the UK, he's well known in
Speaker 1: UK boardrooms, but he's being seen as quite a surprise
Speaker 1: choice and a bit of a safe pair of hands
Speaker 1: in a way. The surprise being that first he's kind
Speaker 1: of indicated that he wouldn't expect to serve a long
Speaker 1: term and that was echoed by the CEO yesterday. You
Speaker 1: know that Nelson doesn't want to do the full six
Speaker 1: to nine years, so potentially a short tenure for him.
Speaker 1: And then also in terms of it being a surprise,
Speaker 1: HBC have had a long process of trying to find
Speaker 1: a chairman. There's been lots of kind of high profile
Speaker 1: external candidates that have been named in various reports, you know,
Speaker 1: people including the likes of George Osborne, the former UK Chancellor.
Speaker 1: So the choice of Brendan Nelson kind of suggests that
Speaker 1: they couldn't find a good external candidate. He also doesn't
Speaker 1: have at least publicly much experience or any experience in Asia,
Speaker 1: and obviously it comes as HSBC is overhauling itself and
Speaker 1: kind of grappling with the tensions that are ongoing between
Speaker 1: the US and China. That will be quite a key
Speaker 1: thing to his role to navigate all that volatility. So
Speaker 1: a bit of a surprise pick there, and yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been seeing a bit of a safe pick just to
Speaker 1: stick with the interim.
Speaker 3: Interesting to see the shares in HSPC gennero one percent
Speaker 3: this morning. Let's turn to Sainsbury's next, the Qatari Sovereign
Speaker 3: Wealth Fund selling a large steak in the supermarket chain.
Speaker 4: Indeed, so the Quitari is Sovereign Wealth fund.
Speaker 1: They've been Sainsbury's largest shareholder for a long time. They
Speaker 1: first invested in twenty in two thousand and seven. That
Speaker 1: was one of their first investments in the UK. But
Speaker 1: they've sold down now about eighty four just under eighty
Speaker 1: four million shares, so that's worth two hundred and sixty.
Speaker 4: Six million pounds.
Speaker 1: So it brings their their almost two decade run as
Speaker 1: the biggest sholder to an end. So now Sainsbury's biggest
Speaker 1: shaholder will be the investment fund that's run by the
Speaker 1: Czech billionaire Daniel Kratinski, so he will now be Sainsbury's
Speaker 1: largest shareholder. Interesting, So since Katar have invested, Sainsbury's shares
Speaker 1: have fallen about forty five percent. They've kind of struggled
Speaker 1: to reshape their business as the competition heats up in.
Speaker 4: The grocery space.
Speaker 1: They have been doing a bit better recently, shared so
Speaker 1: far this year risen about nineteen percent. They're tapping into
Speaker 1: kind of cashtrup consumers wanting promotions, wanting loyalty cards, so
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence. They're saying this morning that that sales growth
Speaker 1: has kind of allowed that sharehold exit and they would
Speaker 1: expect the wealth fund to sell down more of their
Speaker 1: state to sell down the remaining stake. So an interesting one.
Speaker 1: Sainsbury's falling on the news this morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, down three point nine percent at the moment, and
Speaker 3: the latest move in a different direction from Intertext the
Speaker 3: owner of Zara of eight percent in Spain.
Speaker 1: Indeed a better day for Zara, so end of Techsara's owner, Yeah,
Speaker 1: shares soaring the most in five years. That's after their
Speaker 1: sales figures fought November, so sales accelerated, revenue up about
Speaker 1: almost eleven percent.
Speaker 4: Is being seen as kind of a bit of a relief.
Speaker 1: They've had a spell of slightly lackluster sales, so it's
Speaker 1: kind of easing investor concerns of it losing steam. Their
Speaker 1: expansion has cooled quite a lot from their post pandemic
Speaker 1: heart as they've been dealing with a whole host of things,
Speaker 1: including trade frictions softer to consumer demand. But the figures
Speaker 1: this morning are pointing to a bit of resilience despite
Speaker 1: you know, there's still relatively weak consumer sentiment, but.
Speaker 4: Showing some resilience.
Speaker 1: It's coming out above their peers on the back of
Speaker 1: a vast number of reasons, you know, including they've got
Speaker 1: a relatively agile supply chain. The designs are seen as
Speaker 1: being very on trend that kind of thing, so anlessa
Speaker 1: pointing to that, pointing to their strong margins, their strong
Speaker 1: cash flow, and they're expecting upward revisions on the back
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 4: So, as you say, shares accelerating on the back.
Speaker 2: Of the news the Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Check back with us throughout the day for the latest
Speaker 2: roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for
Speaker 2: the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live,
Speaker 2: catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay
Speaker 2: and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app MHM.