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 with Caroline Hepger
Speaker 1: and we're joined by Bloomberg reporter Chloe Melee.
Speaker 2: Chloe, good morning.
Speaker 1: Let's start with some m and a news in the
Speaker 1: European banking sector. UniCredit making a bid for commerce Bank.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this UniCredit Commas Bank saga that started in late
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four had gone a little bit quiet recently,
Speaker 3: but now it's very much back. So UniCredit, as you said,
Speaker 3: has made a thirty five billion euro takeover bid for
Speaker 3: Commas Bank, although it is not expected that it would
Speaker 3: gain full control, but essentially just push that stake above
Speaker 3: thirty percent. And as we remember, it is not the
Speaker 3: first time that UniCredit has tried to get that deal
Speaker 3: done with Commos Bank. The CEO at first disclosed the
Speaker 3: stake in the bank in twenty twenty four, and then
Speaker 3: he went on to expand that stake more and more.
Speaker 3: But throughout this entire time, the German government has been
Speaker 3: really opposed to a takeover by UniCredit and has made
Speaker 3: it very clear. And since then, the commers Bank share
Speaker 3: price has risen a little bit more strongly than UniCredit,
Speaker 3: which is making a bit more expensive. But since the
Speaker 3: beginning of this year of twenty twenty six, commers Bank
Speaker 3: has struggled a little bit more. It's one of the
Speaker 3: worst performers in that European banking sector and that might
Speaker 3: have led to UniCredit to try and pounce once again.
Speaker 3: Right now, UniCredit shares are down at a little bit.
Speaker 3: Of commerce Bank shares rose also actually quite a bit
Speaker 3: on the back of that deal, but we'll just have
Speaker 3: to wait and see if this happens this time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, so that on the UniCredit commas Bank deal,
Speaker 4: I mean it, it's sort of notable, isn't it. At
Speaker 4: a time as such flux in markets that you're seeing
Speaker 4: potentially a major banking m and a bit of activity.
Speaker 4: There's also some buzz about another merger acquisition Amplify.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there's been. It's actually been quite a busy
Speaker 3: m and a day this morning. So it's a similar
Speaker 3: dynamic here with Amplophon and gin Store Nord, which where
Speaker 3: we see the shares in the target rising and then
Speaker 3: shares in the acquirer falling, though here the movements are
Speaker 3: actually even wilder. So gin Store Nord shares a surge
Speaker 3: more than forty percent, which was actually the most on record,
Speaker 3: after it had agreed to sell its hearing aid business
Speaker 3: to Ampliphon, and that is a deal that is valued
Speaker 3: at about two point six billion a dollar. So that
Speaker 3: deal will make Amplifon a much larger competitor in that
Speaker 3: hearing aid business, which is an area that where a
Speaker 3: lot of bigger players are trying to get into it,
Speaker 3: so Eslo Luxotica for example. But the Ampliphon stock actually
Speaker 3: felt quite a lot on the back of this announcement,
Speaker 3: and some of it it might have to do with
Speaker 3: the costs related to the acquisition. So it estimates integration
Speaker 3: costs of around eighty million euros in the next two
Speaker 3: to three years, and that might have been actually the
Speaker 3: focus for investors explaining of that weakness in the shares
Speaker 3: this morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, shows down over six percent today. And let's
Speaker 1: bring you then to the defense sector next and handsold.
Speaker 1: What's the news from them this morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple of things Driving handsold this morning,
Speaker 3: so it was raised to a hold rating by KEPRA
Speaker 3: Shover analysts. There's also a cooperation agreement between Hensolt and
Speaker 3: Ammovio to open up career opportunities for Amovia employees, so
Speaker 3: essentially kind of creating a pipeline for employees in the
Speaker 3: auto industry, which has been, as we know, quite struggling
Speaker 3: quite a bit, to transition into the defense industry where
Speaker 3: there's definitely a lot more demand and a lot more activity.
Speaker 3: And then it's also a handsol is also benefiting from
Speaker 3: that broader defense trade of course, which has obviously been
Speaker 3: very relevant over the last few weeks as the conflict
Speaker 3: in the Middle East shows really no sign of abating.
Speaker 3: So we've seen other names in that sector also in
Speaker 3: the green this morning, including Ryan Mettal and Rent Group.
Speaker 3: And you know, we've entered the third week now of
Speaker 3: that conflict. There's really no clarity on win. Trump will
Speaker 3: be ready to call the end of it, given he's
Speaker 3: the person in the best position really to stop that conflict,
Speaker 3: to bring it to an end. But in the in meanwhile,
Speaker 3: the defense is really benefiting from this given the expectation
Speaker 3: that they will need to be more military spending, more
Speaker 3: defense spending in the geopolitical environment that is so tense
Speaker 3: at the moment.
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