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: Now, let's take a look at some of these stocks
Speaker 3: on the move today here in Europe. I'm Caroline Hepga
Speaker 3: and we joined by Bloomberg reporter Climbala. Good morning, Chloe,
Speaker 3: So let's wade through all of these earnings in Europe.
Speaker 3: What stands out to you this morning, Cloe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the big standouts for me this morning
Speaker 1: was Standard Chartered, after you know, a week of very
Speaker 1: very busy week of bank earnings, and so for Standard Chartered,
Speaker 1: we had record a first quarter profit way ahead of
Speaker 1: analyst estimates, and that was fueled primarily by really strong
Speaker 1: inflows in its wealth business, and so that helped to
Speaker 1: set higher charges that were linked to the tensions in
Speaker 1: the Middle East. So it booked a credit impairment charge
Speaker 1: of almost three hundred million dollars, which included almost two
Speaker 1: hundred million in precautionary management overlays that were tied to
Speaker 1: the Middle Lease situation in particular. So that is one thing.
Speaker 1: But the wealth inflowers was so good that that really
Speaker 1: offset that and investors on our really looking towards next
Speaker 1: month when the bank is scheduled to unveil some new
Speaker 1: medium term at targets. As well, it's been very busy
Speaker 1: with other banks as well. Today we had SoC GEN,
Speaker 1: we had BNP, we had BBVA as well, seeing really
Speaker 1: strong lending which offset the impact of provisions as well.
Speaker 1: So now that we're coming to the end of this
Speaker 1: bank reporting season, it seems that the main takeaways are
Speaker 1: that there are a lot of charges and provisions related
Speaker 1: to the Middle East intentions, that trading is good, but
Speaker 1: maybe not as good as it was on Wall Street,
Speaker 1: and that there's still this continued uncertainty on the impact
Speaker 1: of inflation going forward on both loan demand and on
Speaker 1: provisions as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely. So that then on the banks, what about
Speaker 3: Whitbread embarking all overhaul. What does that look like for them?
Speaker 1: Yeah, very tough morning for Woodbridshares are down quite significantly,
Speaker 1: and that is after announcing a new five year plan.
Speaker 1: So it's cutting capital spending, it's cutting thousands of jobs
Speaker 1: as well, and the aim of all of that is
Speaker 1: to return two billion pounds to shareholders by twenty thirty one.
Speaker 1: So it plans to cut about thirty eight hundred jobs
Speaker 1: in the Yeken Island, so that's thirteen percent of its workforce.
Speaker 1: That's quite significant. And it also plans to reduce the
Speaker 1: proportion of its properties that it owns outright, so essentially
Speaker 1: it will sell some freehold properties and then sign long
Speaker 1: term rental agreements instead, so there will free up some
Speaker 1: cash and that will be used to fund more shareholder returns,
Speaker 1: So that is the plan. It also plans to terms
Speaker 1: some of its branded restaurants into hotels as well, into
Speaker 1: which means more hotel rooms and therefore better margins. But
Speaker 1: in versus are questioning a little bit this lease hold
Speaker 1: strategy instead of the freehold and also the fact that
Speaker 1: this is a lot of investment short term with maybe
Speaker 1: unclear benefits in the medium term. And then there's the
Speaker 1: added challenge of this higher inflation in this week, consumer
Speaker 1: confidence hurting travel demand and therefore tomant for hotel rooms.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so that's wirdbred Stillantis managed to turn a profit,
Speaker 3: but it hasn't turned its fortunes around as far as
Speaker 3: investors are concerned.
Speaker 1: Why. Yeah, it was quite interesting because recently Stillantas said
Speaker 1: that I had seen a surge in shipments to North
Speaker 1: America and so and list had really seen this as
Speaker 1: a sign that this market was really back on track,
Speaker 1: especially given that North America is such an important market
Speaker 1: for Stillantis. But then today there was actually weaker than
Speaker 1: expected performance in that region and a lower than expected margin,
Speaker 1: and also a one term gain of around four hundred
Speaker 1: million euros for expected future teriffory funds. So some of
Speaker 1: that took the shine off the return to profit. And
Speaker 1: excuse me. The CEO is now about to finanze a
Speaker 1: review of the operations and then will present the results
Speaker 1: in May so next month. And so we have already
Speaker 1: seen Silantis invest billions of dollars in the US and
Speaker 1: walking back its electrification plans and then also stashing some
Speaker 1: prices to win back market share. So there's already some
Speaker 1: parts of this review that are known, but we'll see
Speaker 1: what else is in store and whether or not that
Speaker 1: is investorized enough to turn things around for Silantis.
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