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Philips (PHG) to pay $1.1B to settle U.S. litigation over recalled sleep apnea devices. (00:26) Turkey in talks with Exxon (XOM) over multibillion dollar LNG supply deal – FT. (01:53) Skydance makes ‘best and final’ offer for Paramount Global (PARA) – Bloomberg. (02:54)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
Philips (NYSE:PHG) has reached an agreement to pay $1.1 billion to resolve personal injury and medical monitoring class action litigation in the U.S.
This is related to the global voluntary recall of ventilators used to treat sleep apnea.
The company said it does not admit any fault or liability, or that any injuries were caused by its Respironics’ devices. The settlement addresses the claims filed in U.S. courts and potential claims submitted to the census registry.
The settlement payments are expected in 2025 and will be funded from Philips’ (PHG) cash flow generation, resulting in a €982 million provision recognized in Q1 2024.
There’s also an agreement with insurers to pay Philips (PHG) €540 million to cover Respironics recall-related product liability claims. This income is expected to be recognized in Q2 2024 and payment is expected this year.
Philips (PHG) Respironics recalled millions of breathing devices and ventilators used to treat sleep apnea in 2021, over potential health risks. Earlier this month, the company announced a consent decree with the DOJ and FDA over the recalled devices.
The Turkish government is in talks with Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) over a multibillion dollar deal to buy liquefied natural gas.
This is an effort to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.
The Financial Times reported Sunday that Turkey would secure up to 2.5M metric tons/year of LNG through the long-term deal under discussion with Exxon (XOM).
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told FT that the agreement could last for a decade.
The minister said the commercial terms of the deal are still under discussion, but 2.5M tons of LNG shipped to Turkey would currently cost ~$1.1B, according to pricing assessments by Argus.
Russia is by far Turkey’s biggest natural gas supplier, accounting for more than 40% of its consumption last year, which mostly arrived by pipelines.
Exxon (XOM) has ambitious plans to expand its LNG portfolio to 40M tons/year by 2030, roughly double the amount in 2020.
Skydance Media has made its “best and final” offer in its bid to merge the company with Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA).
According to a Bloomberg report late Sunday, which cited a person familiar with the matter, the Redstone family and David Ellison have made concessions to make a change in control at Paramount (PARA) more amenable to smaller investors.
The person told Bloomberg that Ellison is offering to purchase a block of Paramount (PARA) shares at a premium to their current price. The Redstones, who own a majority of the company’s voting shares, have agreed to let non-voting shareholders have a say on whether a transaction should be allowed.
According to the report, Paramount’s (PARA) special committee is still undecided about agreeing to a deal with Ellison given the opposition from other investors.
We told you Sunday on Wall Street Lunch with Kim Khan that Paramount (PARA) plans to fire its CEO Bob Bakish as early as this morning. The company is scheduled to report its Q1 2024 financials today and Bakish will not join the earnings call, according to the CNBC report.
The exclusivity period on that deal to negotiate with Skydance expires on Friday.
Other articles on Seeking Alpha:
IPO watch: Cruise line operator Viking to go public as it looks to cash in on baby boomer buzz
Japanese yen rebounds on suspected intervention from Tokyo
Earnings week ahead: Amazon, Apple, Pfizer, AMD, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and more
MicroStrategy stands to flourish if it implements new accounting rules, analyst says
Catalyst watch:
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Atlassian (TEAM) co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar will be speakers at the company’s Team24 conference.
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Riot Platforms (RIOT) will participate in the AIM Summit in London.
Wall Street ended solidly higher on Friday.
The S&P 500 (SP500) climbed 1.02%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq (COMP:IND) surged 2.03%, its best day since February 22. The Dow (DJI) lagged the other two indexes in terms of gains, but still rose 0.40%.
Of the 11 S&P sectors, six ended in the green. Communication Services saw an outsized jump of nearly 5%, boosted by Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL).
Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 0.1% at more than $83 per barrel. Bitcoin is down 1.7% more than $62,000.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.6% and the DAX is up 0.1%. Market in Japan was closed for a holiday.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is up 7.7% following reports of a partnership agreement between the automaker and Baidu to deploy the EV maker’s Full-Self Driving technology, with Baidu providing support for mapping and navigation.
On today’s economic calendar:
