Dear reader, hope you had a good start to the year.
Investing in Europe is back after the holiday break. Markets had some volatile days but it has been a relatively quiet period overall, as you would expect.
This is a quick recap of a few things that happened since the last edition.
Company news and results
Novo Nordisk, the market leader in diabetes care with a value market share of approx. 30%, is having supply issues for its chronic weight management medicine Wegony. The supply challenges will not impact the previously communicated financial outlook for 2021, they commented.
Bakkafrost, the salmon farming company, issued an update on the biological problems they are facing at its Scottish operation, which caused exceptional mortality in October and November.
The overall biological situation improved during November and stabilised further in December.
In a separate update at the beginning of the new year, they reported harvest volumes of 25,800 tons in Q4.
Ryanair lowered its full-year guidance from a previous net loss range of €100m to €200m to a new range of €250m to €450m. The restrictions related to Omicron have impacted traffic.
Next, the British clothing, footwear and home products retailer, issued a trading update for the eight weeks to 25 December: full-price sales were up +20.0% versus two years ago.
They also issued guidance for the year ending January 2023:
Our initial guidance for the year ending January 2023 is for full price sales to be up +7.0% versus the current year (year ending January 2022). We estimate that profit before tax will be up +4.6% at £860m.
Greggs, the British food-on-the-go chain, closed the financial year 2021 with total sales of £1,230m (2020: £811m, 2019: £1,168m). Two-year sales growth was 5.3% (like-for-like sales down 3.3%, up 0.8% in the fourth quarter).
B&M, the variety goods value retailer, reported flat growth (+0.1%) in the third quarter. They expect full-year 2022 group adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of £605m to £625m.
Deals and IPO
Delivery Hero Acquires Majority Stake in Glovo (link)
BNP Paribas to exit US retail market with $16.3bn Bank of the West sale ($link)
MSC makes surprise €5.7bn bid for the jewel in Bolloré’s African crown (link)
Sanofi to buy cancer immunotherapy biotech for $1B (link)
Other news
EU drafts plan to label gas and nuclear investments as green (link)
Amazon’s tech is headed to millions of Stellantis vehicles in 2024 (link)
Adyen launches Android POS in multiple regions (link)
If you had a bad start:
JP Morgan's Guide to the Markets, Europe, 1Q 2022 (link)
Nice update. On Novo Nordisk, any thoughts on California governor Gavin Newsom's announcement this week that the state will "explore" sourcing their own insulin?