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 3: Let's take a look at some stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today in Europe. I'm Stephen Caralworth, Caroline Hepker, and we're
Speaker 3: joined by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moon. Luise, good morning.
Speaker 3: Someone is looking to be the new boss of Hugo.
Speaker 1: Boss, indeed, and it is Mike Ashley's Frases Group in London.
Speaker 1: Here in London, so they offered two billion euros to
Speaker 1: buy the remainder of Hugo Boss. Obviously, over in Germany,
Speaker 1: they already own about twenty six percent of Hugo Boss,
Speaker 1: but they want to buy the rest out so they
Speaker 1: currently sell so obviously, Frases Group is the owner of
Speaker 1: sports Direct and a host of other brands as well,
Speaker 1: and they sell Hugo Boss already online and in stores.
Speaker 1: But full ownership will obviously give it control of a strategy,
Speaker 1: capital allocation, etc. For Hugo Boss. It comes as it's
Speaker 1: trying to turn itself around. They've seen softer demand in China,
Speaker 1: quite a bit of weakness in their women's wear sector,
Speaker 1: and then for Frasers Group, it's you know, partly they've
Speaker 1: been turning slightly more premium or a bit more of
Speaker 1: a focus on premium, and it's also part of their
Speaker 1: kind of ongoing playbook that we've been seeing over the years.
Speaker 1: They've got quite a reputation of growing steakes and businesses
Speaker 1: trying to buy out other retailers. There's frequent clashes. You've
Speaker 1: seen them class recently, for example, with Boohoo quite a lot,
Speaker 1: and actually with Hugo Boss over the past year or so,
Speaker 1: there have been quite a few clashes. They're not convinced about,
Speaker 1: you know, some of their decisions. So for example, last
Speaker 1: year they threatened to vote against the proposed dividend, arguing
Speaker 1: that cash should instead be invested for growth, for longer
Speaker 1: term growth. Says they've already seen some clashes and now
Speaker 1: trying to take that full ownership. An interesting note from
Speaker 1: bluemogon intelligencying it's not that obvious what phrases could do
Speaker 1: to make that recovery for Hugo Boss faster, and also
Speaker 1: saying on on a kind of a separate point that
Speaker 1: it seems a bit opportunistic and it's unlikely that shareholders
Speaker 1: will accept it given the small premium in terms of
Speaker 1: the offer price. Hugo Bos shares up as much as
Speaker 1: seven percent in Germany, phrases actually falling in London. So
Speaker 1: we'll keep an eye that if this happens. But as
Speaker 1: I say, it's quite a Mike Ashley kind of playbook
Speaker 1: to put pressure on brands to try and buy them up.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm surely opportunistic. Is kind of is very much
Speaker 4: part of the brand, isn't it for for Mike Ashley?
Speaker 4: And in terms of yeah, style of business. But look
Speaker 4: what about Wizair. I've been thinking a lot about oil
Speaker 4: prices today and how this is affecting well, so many industries,
Speaker 4: but including airlines.
Speaker 1: What's been happening, Yeah, so withz I mean kind of
Speaker 1: again just demonstrating that, really demonstrating how much the war,
Speaker 1: the rise and oil prices, the rise and fuel costs
Speaker 1: is upending the aviation sector. So if you look at
Speaker 1: their profits, they slumped down to two point two million euros.
Speaker 1: That's compared to two hundred and twenty five or two
Speaker 1: hundred twenty six almost million euros a year earlier, So
Speaker 1: a massive slump there has to be said, though it
Speaker 1: is better than expected. They were expected to come in
Speaker 1: profits were expected well, it was about to have a
Speaker 1: big loss essentially, so they've missed that, but but profit's
Speaker 1: still slumped, so showing that impact. Obviously, you know, as
Speaker 1: it's been said many times, fuel costs are higher high affairs.
Speaker 1: As a result, bookings, people are kind of holding off bookings,
Speaker 1: particularly in the peak summer season. And obviously no resolution
Speaker 1: yet in the Middle East, so there's no end in
Speaker 1: sight to and there's kind of a lack of visibility,
Speaker 1: and that's what WIZ has been saying this morning, saying
Speaker 1: that because of that that lack of visibility, they're not
Speaker 1: giving an outlook for the full year, the next full
Speaker 1: year coming. Despite you know, that kind of bad news
Speaker 1: that negativity shares actually rose this morning. It's as much
Speaker 1: as five percent. Focus being that they didn't hit they
Speaker 1: didn't make a loss, They made that profit, even if
Speaker 1: it was a small profit, particularly compared to last year,
Speaker 1: so focusing on that. Analysts are saying also that there's
Speaker 1: signs of normalization in consumer confidence. They gave some solid
Speaker 1: revenue guidance for the first quarter of next year, despite
Speaker 1: not giving a full outlook, and the CEO is on
Speaker 1: bloombog TV this morning kind of vowing to take advantage
Speaker 1: and push for growth in the market. So it's still
Speaker 1: lots of risks ahead, but some glimmers there that shares
Speaker 1: are reacting.
Speaker 3: On okay, and just briefly then on ASML cutting back
Speaker 3: on jobs.
Speaker 1: Yes, they are cutting back on jobs, but now fewer
Speaker 1: job cuts than planned before of negotiations with trade unions.
Speaker 1: So in January they announced plans to cut about thy
Speaker 1: seven hundred jobs, which is about four percent of their
Speaker 1: overall staff. The new figure isn't exactly known, but they're
Speaker 1: saying it's going to be a lot less than a thousand,
Speaker 1: so shares reacting on the back of that into the
Speaker 1: green leading tech gings across Europe.
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 Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
Speaker 2: with the Bloomberg Business app.