Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, The.
Speaker 2: Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in
Speaker 2: the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at some stocks on the move
Speaker 1: today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll with Anna Edwards, and
Speaker 1: we're joined by Bloomberg's Breaking news editor Louise Moon. Louise,
Speaker 1: good morning. Let's start then with that big move that
Speaker 1: we've seen in Universal Music Group shares up almost thirteen
Speaker 1: percent this morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is after Bill Lackman's Pershing Square Holdings, obviously
Speaker 3: listed in London, has proposed a merger with Universal Music Groups.
Speaker 3: So Universal Music Group is the world's largest such company.
Speaker 3: You know, represents the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake and
Speaker 3: other huge artists.
Speaker 4: So thank you for listening those. That was a true
Speaker 4: question we all had earlier. Exactly who is saying he
Speaker 4: was signed to Universal Music Group. The answer is almost everyone,
Speaker 4: almost everyone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Pershing essentially has proposed to merge with UMG,
Speaker 3: and in that proposal is nine point four billion euros
Speaker 3: in cash plus shares in the new company, So it
Speaker 3: merge with it with a blank check company and move
Speaker 3: its listing to New York. So U and g's currently
Speaker 3: listened at AMSAMS, so that would result in a shift of listing.
Speaker 3: This offer values it at a seventy eight percent premium
Speaker 3: to the last closing price, and as you say, shares
Speaker 3: did rise and ups down. There rose as much as
Speaker 3: twenty four percent earlier, so quite a jump, but still
Speaker 3: trading well below the offer price. It all comes after Acman,
Speaker 3: he's he's already a shareholder, he's got about four point
Speaker 3: five percent shareholding in UMG, and he's being kind of
Speaker 3: pushing for a lot of change recently, and then in
Speaker 3: his letter this morning saying that you know, it's stock price,
Speaker 3: in his words, has languished due to a combination of
Speaker 3: issues unrelated to the performance of its music business, and
Speaker 3: he thinks that this deal can essentially solve all of
Speaker 3: those issues. Now, the real kind of hurdle is to
Speaker 3: get past the other major shareholder, so one of them
Speaker 3: being French billionaire media billionaire Belore.
Speaker 4: So there's doubts over whether Hill support that.
Speaker 3: So there's quite a few hurdles to get through, So
Speaker 3: it would be an interesting one to keep track of.
Speaker 3: But yeah, a potential huge deal there from pershing towards
Speaker 3: Universal Music Group and Louise.
Speaker 5: We're also watching energy markets, of course, ahead of the
Speaker 5: US deadline to Iran they want to sign some sort
Speaker 5: of deal and reopening the straight ORFORAR moves part of that.
Speaker 5: So how are we watching energy markets today? The oil
Speaker 5: price itself is actually paired earlier gains.
Speaker 3: It yeah has yeah, Shell and BP, so focusing on
Speaker 3: those who are on the foot Sea hundred.
Speaker 4: They're kind of tracking that.
Speaker 3: They're they're among the top stocks that are kind of
Speaker 3: adding the most to gains on the foot Sea one hundred.
Speaker 3: This morning, both higher but not by huge amounts. They
Speaker 3: were of about one percent slightly that they are still
Speaker 3: higher but at a lower amount now going through the morning.
Speaker 3: Of course, as you say, this is all kind of
Speaker 3: tracking what's going on and as the deal nears, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously the expiry is is the end of this evening
Speaker 3: a US time. For Shelle and for BP, they i
Speaker 3: mean their shares have have had huge gains so far
Speaker 3: this Yes, this kind of adds to that. BP's up
Speaker 3: about forty percent, Shells up about thirty one percent, both
Speaker 3: on track for the strongest yearly performance since twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: and then tomorrow morning, actually we're going to get Shell's
Speaker 3: first quarter production updates, so we'll see how how it's
Speaker 3: actually been faring, you know, in that sense tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3: But yeah, as you say, tracking those those energy moves
Speaker 3: and both both higher today.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're also looking at the moves in the shares
Speaker 1: for JC Deco.
Speaker 3: Yes, the outdoor French advertising company. So they've had another upgrade.
Speaker 3: They've had a few recently, this time from t D
Speaker 3: Cowen from a buy to a hold, and that's prompting
Speaker 3: its shares to rise up almost six percent this morning. Essentially,
Speaker 3: the analyst is saying that it's seeing a clear inflection
Speaker 3: point as China, the Chinese market returns to growth, so
Speaker 3: that's on the back of stronger travel, better demand from advertisers,
Speaker 3: and then kind of more widely, not just China, but
Speaker 3: this global shift in advertising budgets away from kind of
Speaker 3: traditional channels and towards out of home, and that's also
Speaker 3: been noted by other analysts that have upgraded the company recently.
Speaker 4: So for example, JPMorgan upgraded in March.
Speaker 3: So now if you look at the overall analysts ratings,
Speaker 3: they've got nine buys five holds and no cells. So
Speaker 3: there's the analysted eighty accounts were saying, you know, the
Speaker 3: scope for more upside because if you look back at
Speaker 3: their at their share price in terms of historical levels,
Speaker 3: they're still at quite a low level historically, but it
Speaker 3: has been taking higher recently.
Speaker 4: So another upgrade for them.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
Speaker 2: us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies
Speaker 2: making news on Wall Street and for the latest market
Speaker 2: moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube,
Speaker 2: Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with
Speaker 2: the Bloomberg Business app.