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: Look at some individual stocks on the move today. Here
Speaker 3: in I'm Caroline Hepka and I'm joined by Bloomberg reporter
Speaker 3: Chloe Malay. As usual, Good morning, Chloe. Let's begin with
Speaker 3: Burbury putting in a really strong showing today. Is their
Speaker 3: growth here to stay? Is that a question for business
Speaker 3: or is it about whether you're fashion East?
Speaker 1: And maybe I don't know, Yeah, I know, I don't
Speaker 1: own any any Babary, but it seems that they are
Speaker 1: doing pretty well. So they were done to a retail
Speaker 1: sales growth for the first time in two years, and
Speaker 1: that was thanks to really strong them on in particular
Speaker 1: in the region that includes China, which is something that
Speaker 1: echoes what other luxury names have been saying this season.
Speaker 1: So we remember LVMH last month and mentioning that rebound
Speaker 1: in that Chinese market as well. Forbury, this also confirms
Speaker 1: that the turnaround under the new CEO is working, so
Speaker 1: he's refocused on the Burbary classics of trench coats and
Speaker 1: scarfs leaving behind a previous push into handbags that really failed,
Speaker 1: and that seems to be paying off, kind of going
Speaker 1: back to its roots. And he's also made some big
Speaker 1: cost cuts, so earlier this year the company announced plans
Speaker 1: to get rid of about a fifth of its workforce.
Speaker 1: So all of that this kind of refocus on the
Speaker 1: British roots of Burbery, and then also this cost cuts
Speaker 1: seemed to be working quite well and paying off, and
Speaker 1: als have said that all the boxes were ticked, that
Speaker 1: the execution was on track. The strategic plan is looking
Speaker 1: quite robust, and the potential rewards will still outweigh the
Speaker 1: risks for Burbary. So overall, a pretty good print from
Speaker 1: Berbery this morning. We saw that reflected in the shares rising,
Speaker 1: although they've had some of those games now I think.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, up as much as five percent this morning
Speaker 3: for Burbery. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company Merk is yeah, driving
Speaker 3: some conversations why so Yeah.
Speaker 1: The German science Conlomber reported better than expected a profit
Speaker 1: this morning, so that was thanks to strong sales of
Speaker 1: its new tumor drugs, but then also really strong performance
Speaker 1: in some parts of its life science unit, which is
Speaker 1: the biggest division. For Merk, So the parts that did
Speaker 1: particularly well are the ones that provide the equipment to
Speaker 1: manufacture drugs, and that is a part of that business
Speaker 1: that I had seen a little bit of a slow
Speaker 1: down post pandemic because of de stocking, but now it's
Speaker 1: reaccelerating again and the company is trying to revive growth
Speaker 1: across all of its divisions, so that includes healthcare, life sciences,
Speaker 1: and electronics as well, and doing that through acquisitions and
Speaker 1: through a lot of cost control as well. So for example,
Speaker 1: in terms of acquisitions, it recently bought the rare disease
Speaker 1: specialist spring Works and that helped contribute to sales for
Speaker 1: this quarter, so that was a boost there. For the
Speaker 1: electronics division, they said that the demand that was related
Speaker 1: to AI AI related semiconductor materials was still quite strong,
Speaker 1: but that there was a delay in some big projects
Speaker 1: and that was continuing to hurt the growth, which is
Speaker 1: what echoes what we've seen from other companies within that
Speaker 1: semiconductor sector more broadly and providers of equipment to that
Speaker 1: semiconductor sector.
Speaker 3: So that on Merk meanwhile, we are seeing a dop
Speaker 3: for semens. What are the main challenges that they've been
Speaker 3: talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so a lot to digest from Semens this morning,
Speaker 1: so yeah, it actually sets some near end medium term targets.
Speaker 1: It also announced a kind of a broader revamp that
Speaker 1: includes trimming its steak in Semens Health and Airs, which
Speaker 1: is the medical equipment unit that was spun off in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and the goal of that is free up
Speaker 1: capital and invest more in AI and software, and so
Speaker 1: analysts have said that that deconsolidation makes a lot of sense,
Speaker 1: that it's a logical step to simplify the group, given
Speaker 1: that there's very little synergy between Health and Ears, which
Speaker 1: makes MRI scanners, and then Semens, which makes you know,
Speaker 1: software for factory, so you know, those two very different things,
Speaker 1: so simplifying it makes sense. But overall, the results and
Speaker 1: the outlook disappointed a little bit, and we had JP
Speaker 1: Morgan analysts calling the results quite mixed, saying that there's
Speaker 1: pressure on margin, there's currency headwinds really hurting the business
Speaker 1: as well, and that the medium term guidance is actually
Speaker 1: quite opaque, that drag from the currency headwinds is really
Speaker 1: the focus here, it seems. The company said that it
Speaker 1: expects those currency fluctuations to strongly burden profit and sales
Speaker 1: growth in twenty twenty six, so that clouds the outlook
Speaker 1: a little and we saw that reflected in shares a
Speaker 1: little bit weaker this morning as a result.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
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