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: Well, let's take a look at some stocks on the
Speaker 3: move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined
Speaker 3: by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Louise.
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 3: Let's start with banking then and Sosage General in France
Speaker 3: and encing a one billion euro buyback.
Speaker 1: Indeed, so this will begin this month, so November seventeenth,
Speaker 1: and it's being well received, been seeing as a bit
Speaker 1: of a boost for investors. They've been holding out for
Speaker 1: more payments. That's after Sostchen had their third quarter results
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago and they didn't outline fresh payments
Speaker 1: within those results. And that was even though its capital
Speaker 1: buffer was comfortably above a level that had set at
Speaker 1: a threshold to then return more money, but it didn't
Speaker 1: announce it in those quarter results. And so today has
Speaker 1: been seeing as quite a boost. Been doing very well
Speaker 1: at share prices, more than doubled since the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year. Has been one of the best performers among
Speaker 1: lenders in Europe. So as I say, shares edging slightly
Speaker 1: higher this morning on a bit of positivity for that
Speaker 1: one billion share buy back.
Speaker 3: Indeed, shares also writing higher too in Total Energy in
Speaker 3: France after a new m and a deal announced from them.
Speaker 3: What should we learn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they're buying a fifty percent steak that's in
Speaker 1: a portfolio of assets of power generation assets from an
Speaker 1: energy holding company called EPH. So it's a joint venture,
Speaker 1: so fifty to fifty for these assets in Western Europe.
Speaker 1: So this will be things like power plants and batteries
Speaker 1: across a whole host of countries, so Italy, the UK
Speaker 1: and others. They're buying that for five point one billion euros.
Speaker 1: EPH that their now their JV partner is owned by
Speaker 1: check billionaire general Daniel Kritinski. Interestingly, and in exchange for
Speaker 1: the deal, they'll get a four point one percent steak
Speaker 1: in Total, so they'll become one of Total's largest shareholders.
Speaker 1: So an interesting deal in that space. It kind of
Speaker 1: comes as Hotel is continuing to expand more in the
Speaker 1: power sector as part of their diversification. Some of their
Speaker 1: rivals are getting more sales from things like fossil fields,
Speaker 1: but they're focusing on electricity. So as you say, shares
Speaker 1: tick tire on the back of that, they didn't gain that.
Speaker 1: They weren't, you know, kind of soaring this morning. They
Speaker 1: only slight ticked Tire potentially held back by them saying
Speaker 1: that as a result of this new deal they're lowering
Speaker 1: their KAPEX guidance by a billion dollars a year, so
Speaker 1: potentially holding back those gains. But yeah, an interesting deal
Speaker 1: in that space this morning.
Speaker 3: Okay, And then we're turning to advertising now. Shares in
Speaker 3: WPP and London up three point four percent, a potential takeover.
Speaker 1: Target potentially, Yes, there were reports over the weekend, so
Speaker 1: the Times in London reported that there'd been some takeover
Speaker 1: interest for WPP. So this is from a French advertising
Speaker 1: agency and they say they're in. They've held advanced takeover talk.
Speaker 1: So nothing's been confirmed yet from either side, so we're
Speaker 1: waiting to see if anything will come. But as you say,
Speaker 1: WP shares reacting quite positively to that. They've had quite
Speaker 1: a bad run. If you look at their share price,
Speaker 1: they're down almost seventy percent so far this year. They
Speaker 1: cut their growth guidance last year. They've been that they
Speaker 1: used to be as you'll know they used to be
Speaker 1: one of the world's largest ads agencies, but more recently
Speaker 1: they've been battling kind of a reduction spending from clients,
Speaker 1: the rise of AI, more competition, and that's really been
Speaker 1: hammering their share price. So potential takeover for them and
Speaker 1: will be keep you a close eye on that one.
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