European Corporate Roundup for Monday
October 23 2017 - 9:27AM
Dow Jones News
Pharmaceuticals were in focus Monday, with AstraZeneca and
Novartis receiving approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. RBR Capital also revealed its plan for a shake-up
of Credit Suisse.
---
AstraZeneca received FDA approval for a new formulation of its
type-2 diabetes treatment option Bydureon.
Bydureon BCise, a single-dose autoinjector device that is used
once a week, reduces blood-sugar levels and has the added benefit
of aiding weight loss, the company said.
AstraZeneca said the drug will be available to U.S. patients
from the first quarter of 2018.
The European Medicines Agency has also accepted an application
for the autoinjection, it added.
---
Novartis said that it received breakthrough therapy designation
from the FDA for a skin-cancer treatment that uses a combination of
its Tafinlar and Mekinist drugs.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company said its treatment received the
FDA's breakthrough designation after a phase 3 study showed the
survival rate for patients treated with the drug combination was
58%, compared with 39% for patients who received a placebo. The
combination is used to treat patients with stage-three melanoma
following surgical removal.
The FDA awards breakthrough designation to drugs that treat
serious or life-threatening diseases and show significant
improvement over existing treatments.
---
RBR Capital Advisors, the activist investor which last week
bought a stake in Credit Suisse, revealed late Friday its plan for
the Swiss bank, which includes a shakeup of its conglomerate
structure and IT platform.
The investment firm said Credit Suisse should focus on wealth
management and split off its investment-banking and
asset-management divisions into independent companies.
Specifically, RBR wants to merge and concentrate the Swiss
Universal Bank, Wealth Management International and Wealth
Management Asia divisions into a new structure whose value it said
would exceed the current value of the entire group.
---
In other corporate news, GKN shares top the list of FTSE 100
gainers on renewed speculation the automotive and aerospace
supplier will split in two. Investors have long felt the automotive
business was a drag on aerospace. With new management coming in,
investors seem to hope the split may be coming.
Talk of a GKN split isn't new, however, and may have been
rekindled as much by a shock profit warning that sent shares
sharply lower this month as by reality.
---
Gold Fields said that gold production rose in the third quarter
from the second quarter and reaffirmed its full-year guidance
despite two fatalities affecting production at its South Deep mine
in South Africa.
The mining company produced 567,000 ounces of gold in the three
months to Sept. 30, up from 550,000 ounces in the previous quarter.
Third-quarter production was up 6% on year.
---
Koninklijke Philips reported a 15% fall in third-quarter net
profit on sales that declined slightly, but backed its guidance for
the year.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the Dutch technology company
reported net income attributable to shareholders of 315 million
euros ($370.6 million) compared with EUR370 million a year earlier,
while sales slipped to EUR4.15 billion from EUR4.16 billion.
The company's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and
amortization margin improved by 140 basis points to 12.8% of sales
compared with 11.4% for the comparable period in 2016.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 23, 2017 09:12 ET (13:12 GMT)
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