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 1: Well, let's take a look at some stocks on the
Speaker 1: move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Bloomberg reporter Chloe Malei Choch. Good morning. Let's start
Speaker 1: with two companies that could form the world's biggest miner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Saria Tinto and Glencore are in talks to create
Speaker 3: the world's largest mining company. This is coming a little
Speaker 3: over a year after initial talks had actually failed between
Speaker 3: those two companies, and it also comes at a really
Speaker 3: interesting time in the mining industry where companies are wanting
Speaker 3: to do more and more deals because they want to
Speaker 3: gain more and more access to copper. So copper is
Speaker 3: metal that's really really in demand at the moment because
Speaker 3: it's really really essential to the energy transition to the
Speaker 3: AI boom as well, and it has been hitting a
Speaker 3: new record highs lately because they are growing concerns about
Speaker 3: whether or not there will be enough supply. So this
Speaker 3: potential deal between glen Core and Reintindo would mean creating
Speaker 3: this kind of copper mining giant. But they are big
Speaker 3: hurdles to consider as well, and that might be explaining
Speaker 3: why we had some weakness in Rio's shares actually this morning,
Speaker 3: even though glen Core shares arose quite impressively. So the
Speaker 3: three kind of big challenges to think about are the
Speaker 3: core of business from glen Core, so that's the business
Speaker 3: that's really important for glen Corbert Reatinto has actually exited
Speaker 3: its coal business to refocus on iron ore and copper,
Speaker 3: so there's a little bit of a difference there. There's
Speaker 3: also the need to get regulatory clearance across more than
Speaker 3: eight jurisdictions, and then there's also the problem of Rio
Speaker 3: having a dual listed company structure, which is really complicating
Speaker 3: at the potential for an all share transaction. So there's
Speaker 3: a few things to consider here, some details to be
Speaker 3: ironed out, and analysts have said that also the ultimate
Speaker 3: size of the deal be a little bit smaller than
Speaker 3: expected because this all asset combination that's being talked about
Speaker 3: appears a little bit more unlikely because of those challenges.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot more developments to keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, and the share price movement of interest to
Speaker 1: gancre oup a eight point six percent, Riotento down one
Speaker 1: and a half percent in London. Let's turn next to
Speaker 1: some interesting upgrades that have come from BMP.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so BNP a Paraba has been kind of been
Speaker 3: investors in analysts good graces lately, so JP Morgan upgraded
Speaker 3: the company today, saying it is likely to see improved
Speaker 3: profitability and saying also that there are fewer concerns now
Speaker 3: about the capital level at the French bank and that's
Speaker 3: company that needs that capital to cover some litigation risks.
Speaker 3: And JP Morgan analyst said that this is all thanks
Speaker 3: to recent management initiatives and that it's really time to
Speaker 3: kind of get in on what they called the cheapest
Speaker 3: bank in Europe. And this is also be bnp second upgrade
Speaker 3: this week. We also had UBS upgrading the stock just
Speaker 3: a couple of days ago, saying that the evaluation was
Speaker 3: really cheap at the moment and also noted the same
Speaker 3: as JP Morgan analysts that the capital situation was improving
Speaker 3: for BNP. So those two upgrades come a quite interesting
Speaker 3: time for the bank, given that it has just lost
Speaker 3: a bid to throw out a verdict against it which
Speaker 3: essentially accused it of funding a regime in Sedan that
Speaker 3: committed human rights abuses, and that means that now BNP
Speaker 3: is actually more likely to have to pay a big settlements,
Speaker 3: which is where that stronger capital comes in. But it
Speaker 3: seems that from analyst perspective, those litigation risks are not
Speaker 3: they're not they're not going to be too bad for BNP,
Speaker 3: and that that profitability is going to be much better
Speaker 3: and therefore we've got those upgrades.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, staying in France, let's turn to Loreal. Let's
Speaker 1: shairs are five percent higher this morning, investors deciding they're
Speaker 1: worth it.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, and that's because Ubs upgraded Loreal this morning,
Speaker 3: saying that the sales are expected to grow quite strongly
Speaker 3: going forward. And this is a company that has seen
Speaker 3: quite a lot of ups and downs over the last
Speaker 3: year over twenty twenty five. It's part of the cosmetics industry,
Speaker 3: of course, which obviously had to deal with a few
Speaker 3: challenges last year, including tariffs, but also really quite muted
Speaker 3: consumer confidence. But analysts seem a lot more optimistic about
Speaker 3: Loreal's prospects for this year, and Bloomberg Intelligence as well,
Speaker 3: for example, said that the company's expansion in emerging markets
Speaker 3: and a lot of product innovation as well would be
Speaker 3: a big boost for twenty twenty six, and also saying
Speaker 3: that there's going to be a renewed focus on affordability
Speaker 3: going forward because of course the consumer confidence a problem
Speaker 3: hasn't really gone away and will continue for this year.
Speaker 3: But it seems that analysts and investors are quite optimistic
Speaker 3: that Loreal will be able to stand out in this
Speaker 3: industry this year.
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