That’s it! A Brexit is no longer a speculation on paper. It is a reality, a fact. The U.K. has officially voted to remove itself from the European Union. As expected, the pound suffered. Measures are being taken to avoid a crash in the U.K. financial system, but investors and traders have already abandoned the pound and flocked to safe havens including the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar and the Swiss franc. This weekend will be packed with Brexit news, but there are other important stories as well, which you can find here at Sentifi.
1/ GBP: Falls to the lowest level since 1971 [6,503 messages in the last 24h]
The U.K. is no longer in the EU, and the pound is no longer its former self. It fell to the lowest level since 1971. The U.K. now has to prepare whole new trading agreements with the bloc and with other countries outside Europe as well. The Bank of England has stepped in to ensure the financial stability in the fallout of Brexit and the resignation of David Cameron.
2/ Blackberry: First-quarter revenue drops by a third [1,662 messages in the last 24h]
Revenue in the first quarter of the struggling company dropped 39% to $400 million. Its hardware user base is shrinking, prompting it to consider more job cuts. The problem is it can only let so many employees go before losing its competitive capability when Microsoft and Apple are its main competitors.
3/ SolarCity Corp: Rumor has it Tesla is bailing out SolarCity [1,390 messages in the last 24h]
Tesla’s investors are not siding with Elon Musk’s decision in acquiring SolarCity, as they are speculating he might be trying to bail out his struggling company. The demand for solar power has been dying off due to the extension of solar investment tax credit since late 2015. In fact, the solar industry is seeing the worst growth in a decade. Borrowing costs to fund solar power systems are increasing as well, and the companies and banks that finance solar systems are starting to have second thought about their investments. Tesla acquiring SolarCity seems like a nice bailout.
4/ Tesco: Recovery is on track [666 messages in the last 24h]
The company put an end to its five years of decline thanks to the rebranding of its fresh produce and meat using fake farm names and price cuts. Quarterly sales increased by 5% against the backdrop of the company selling its assets to pair down its business portfolio and refocus on core operations. Analysts believe the company will do it again with the possibility of an offload of its coffee-shop business Harris + Hoole.
5/ Grexit: Being discussed in relation to Brexit [573 messages in the last 24h]
As the votes of the EU referendum are being counted, the crowd is talking about Brexit and other possible exits of EU countries. And Grexit is one of them, as Greece remains one of the popular candidates to leave the bloc.
6/ Bombardier: To receive investment from Quebec [398 messages in the last 24h]
The aircraft-maker said it has signed a deal with Quebec for $1 billion of investment in the company’s struggling CSeries aircraft program. The company now can focus on talks with the Canada’s federal government for a possible investment. It will also move assets, liabilities and obligations of the program to a new limited partnership which it will hold 50.5% of equity stake and Quebec will hold the rest.
7/ Sun Pharma Industries: Share buyback plan approved by board [376 messages in the last 24h]
India’s largest drug maker proposed to its board a plan to buy back 7.5 million shares at the price of Rs 900 each, which is almost 20% above the last traded price. Yet, the board has given its approval. The ultimate goal of the program is to return the surplus funds to shareholders and enhance the overall returns for them.
8/ Toshiba: Long road to recovery [321 messages in the last 24h]
Satoshi Tsunakawa, the new president of Toshiba Corp., exercised his caution that the road to recovery is still long, and the company will face a long and tough turnaround process. He made it clear that they are not even at the halfway point. Last year, the company suffered a 51% plunge in its share price. To improve the condition, Tsunakawa aims to win back shareholders by increasing the shareholder-equity ratio from 6.1% to more than 10% by fiscal 2018.
9/ Red Hat Inc: Acquires Spain-based company [302 messages in the last 24h]
The company just announced the acquisition of Barcelona-based 3scale to improve its API management capabilities to the existing integration features. 3scale currently handles API’s for Orange, Decathlon, GSMA and the Telegraph.
10/ Bed Bath & Beyond: Shares recover after yesterday plunge [293 messages in the last 24h]
The company’s shares recovered lightly, about 1.50%, after plunging 5% yesterday after it earnings missed estimates. The company is facing tough competition from e-retailers. The company’s shares have fallen more than 9% year-to-date.
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