BT与Verizon合资、BAT裁员、Prosus盈利翻倍

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The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.

Now, let's take [music] a look at some of the stocks on the move today in Europe. I'm Lizzie Burden in London with Stephen Carroll in Brussels, and we're joined by Bloomberg's Tiwa Adebayo. Good morning, Tiwa. So, you're here with a British theme today, starting off with BT.

Yes, well, we received the news this morning that US firm Verizon Communications and of course the UK's BT have agreed to create this joint venture, which is for their international businesses. It's set to have a combined yearly revenue of about $4 billion. So, quite a big deal, but as part of it, interestingly, Verizon has agreed to this equalization payment of $625 million to BT. That's according to a statement from the companies today. an earlier Bloomberg report, and it says that the companies will continue to hold equal voting rights in the venture.

It is subject to regulatory approval still, but this balancing payment from Verizon does imply quite a generous sale multiple for BT. It's more than 10 times EBITDA. That's according to some research which has come out. One analyst saying that the deal looks like a neat and attractive exit for BT. It does come after BT has been looking for options for its international business for quite some time now. That international business has been weighing on its growth for years.

It does offer a service to multinational corporations in about 180 countries. But in terms of investor reaction, a positive reaction so far today in terms of BP BT, up as much as 2.3% this morning on the news. Verizon also closed up just over 1% yesterday uh, in the US. But BT has cut its sales guidance after announcing this deal and it says that's because the international business and other divestments will be treated as non-core assets.

So, a positive reaction, uh, for this deal for BT this morning.

Okay, so next to British American Tobacco and news of big job cuts.

Yes, looking at British American Tobacco, it is reducing its workforce, um, by about 1/5. That's part of a sweeping plan to bring down costs and also simplify operations. So, we're looking at by the end of this year, uh, BAT slashing 5,000, over 5,000 actually, jobs and outsourcing a further 3,500. That's according to an internal notice. Our Bloomberg has seen these numbers and I can tell you they don't include BAT's US business.

That's operated through a subsidiary, but nevertheless, we're seeing shares falling on this news, down just under 2%. So, a bit of a change because we've seen BT, um, BAT, rather, do pretty well. It's up uh, nearly 13% since the start of the year through Friday's close, but it is contending with this falling demand that we're seeing in the sector for traditional cigarettes and this need to invest in and develop more sustainable alternatives.

We're seeing, uh, the likes of vapes, for example, soaring in popularity, people looking to quit smoking. Um, and we're also seeing this change or this shift from rivals like Philip Morris, as well. Um, like BAT, they also want to generate more than half of their revenue from smoke-free nicotine products. Um, we've seen BAT partner with Accenture to outsource a number of their functions as they look to make this broader shift.

That's including service centers, which typically employ quite a big proportion of the workforce. So, it's likely we'll see further cuts before the end of the year there from BAT.

Just finally, T, well, some insight into the much-talked-about tech trade with moves for investor Prosus. I was speaking to the CEO earlier. Yes, the process one of the biggest winners on the stock 600 this morning. That's the global consumer and internet investor. They've revealed today that profit has more than doubled in the last fiscal year. That's ahead of analyst estimates and primarily this is due to an increase in the value of the stake that it has in Tencent in China.

So that's really boosted earnings. Adjusted EBIT was over 1 billion in the 12 months through March. So investors are reacting well to this news. Shares up just under 4%. A positive move this morning. We saw a new CEO come on board in 2024 Lizzy. You mentioned you spoke to him this morning. He's really working to drive up the company's growth rate. So he's made large investments in companies including Just Eat and just last week as well 400 million euro investment in French health tech company Allen.

So it's certainly one to watch especially as we see the tech story continuing to make these twists and turns specifically in Asia. Of course the news this morning that South Korea is orchestrating those investments into chips and data centers as it tries to drive the digital infrastructure. So one to watch in the coming weeks and months.

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