The company, best known for its armored vehicles and munitions production, said Thursday that sales this year should come in between 7.4 billion and 7.6 billion euros ($7.83 billion-$8.04 billion). Rheinmetall has secured a number of contracts to supply ammunition, reconnaissance systems and other military hardware to Ukraine, including a recent order for 300,000 rounds of 35-millimeter ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft tank. The company is adding capacity to produce the ammunition at a plant in Germany and is increasing headcount, though it didn't provide a specific figure.
Couche-Tard to Acquire Europe Assets From TotalEnergies in EUR3.1 Billion Deal
Canadian convenience-store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has made an offer to acquire retail assets in Europe from energy company TotalEnergies SE for 3.1 billion euros ($3.28 billion).
Under the proposed deal, Couche-Tard will take over TotalEnergies' retail networks in Germany and the Netherlands, comprising more than 1,500 service stations, the companies said in news releases on Thursday.
Rentokil Initial Upgrades Midterm Views on Back of Terminix Acquisition
Rentokil Initial PLC upgraded its medium-term guidance on Thursday on the back of the acquisition and integration of Terminix, after reporting a worse-than-expected pretax profit fall in 2022.
The pest-control, hygiene and work-wear services provider currently expects organic revenue growth of at least 5% compared with the previous range of 4.0% to 5.0%.
Air France-KLM Shares Surge After Repayment of French State Loan
Shares of Air France-KLM jumped in Thursday morning trading after the Franco-Dutch carrier group repaid the remaining tranche of a 4 billion-euro ($4.23 billion) loan it had received from a consortium of banks and the French state at the height of the pandemic.
At 0830 GMT, Air France-KLM shares traded 3.3% higher at EUR1.61.
DP World Posts 2022 Net Profit Rise, Sees Uncertain 2023 Outlook
DP World on Thursday posted a 37% rise in its net profit in 2022 as it said its performance for the year beat views, but expects growth rates to soften in 2023 given the uncertain outlook.
The Dubai-based supply-chain solutions company reported $1.23 billion in net profit for the year ended Dec. 31 from $896 million in 2021 as it focused on high-margin cargo and supply-chain optimization.
Deliveroo 2022 Revenue Rose as Pretax Loss Narrowed Amid Efficiency Gains
Deliveroo PLC on Thursday said that its revenue rose and pretax loss narrowed in 2023 as the company optimized consumer fees, made efficiency gains in the rider network and efficiently targeted marketing spend.
The food-delivery company reported a pretax loss for the period ended Dec. 31 of 230.6 million pounds ($278 million) compared with a pretax loss of GBP281.8 million in 2021.
BHP Says New Claimants Added to U.K. Class Action Over Dam Collapse
BHP Group Ltd., the world's biggest miner by market value, said roughly 500,000 new claimants have been added to a class action in the U.K. over a catastrophic dam failure in Brazil in 2015 that killed 19 people and polluted hundreds of miles of rivers in Brazil.
The Melbourne, Australia-based mining company said it would continue to defend the U.K. class action, which it said it believes is unnecessary because it duplicates legal proceedings in Brazil and work being undertaken by the Renova Foundation, established in 2016 to manage repairs and compensation following the sudden collapse of the Fundão Dam.
G-7 Opposes Lowering Russian Crude Price Cap From $60 a Barrel
The Group of Seven advanced democracies want to keep the price cap on Russian crude at $60 a barrel, according to people familiar with the matter, thwarting hopes in some European capitals of tightening the Western sanctions this month.
European Commission officials warned the bloc's member states about the G-7 position, saying that President Biden had told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the Oval Office of the White House last week there was no appetite in Washington for adjusting the oil sanctions, according to the people familiar with the matter.
GLOBAL NEWS
Tech Stocks Appear to Be a Haven From the Banking Crisis, for Now
Technology stocks have remained relatively insulated from the turmoil rattling financial markets. How long that lasts is anyone's guess.
The tech and communication services groups in the S&P 500-home to the likes of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and the parent companies of Facebook and Google-have climbed 2.3% and 2.9%, respectively, in March, extending their 2023 gains.
Why Top Washington Officials Agreed to a Bank Rescue
For more than a decade after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Washington's regulatory watchdogs sought to ensure that they would never again face fraught weekend deliberations about propping up the financial system from a bank failure.
Last weekend, they did.
SVB Collapse Spurs Finance Executives to Re-Evaluate Cash Strategies
Financial officers at companies with money held at Silicon Valley Bank are re-evaluating their cash-management strategies in the wake of the bank's collapse, a reckoning that comes after many firms feared they also would go under without access to their funds.
SVB, which catered to tech, private- equity and venture-capital firms, was taken over by federal regulators last Friday as depositors withdrew tens of billions of dollars over two days amid concerns about the bank's liquidity. While regulators on Sunday unveiled emergency measures to ease fears and said SVB's depositors would get all their money, the experience has served as a wake-up call for many executives.
Bank Crisis Adds a Fresh Crack in Property's Foundations
The relationship between banking and real estate may be about to take a toxic turn.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will likely ripple through the mortgage market to commercial landlords. Signature Bank was one of the top commercial real-estate lenders in the U.S., especially in New York, where it had a 12% market share, according to Matthew Anderson, managing director at Trepp.
Bank Failures, Market Turmoil Fuel Bets on a Pause in Fed Interest-Rate Increases
More investors anticipate that the Federal Reserve's rate increase cycle could be over due to broader financial turmoil from the failure of two U.S. regional banks in the past week.
Investors in interest-rate futures markets on Wednesday saw a nearly 50% chance that the Fed won't increase rates at their March 21-22 meeting, up from 30% on Tuesday, according to data compiled by CME Group. That would leave the federal-funds rate between 4.5% and 4.75%.
Iran Agrees to Stop Arming Houthis in Yemen as Part of Pact With Saudi Arabia
DUBAI-Iran has agreed to halt covert weapons shipments to its Houthi allies in Yemen as part of a China-brokered deal to re-establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Saudi officials said, a move that could inject new momentum into efforts to end one of the region's longest-running civil wars.
For years, Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in the Yemen conflict, fueling a war that has had disastrous humanitarian consequences and spilled beyond the country's borders as Houthi forces have launched missile and drone attacks on the Saudi kingdom.
North Korea Fires ICBM Hours Before Japan-South Korea Summit
SEOUL-North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile hours before the first summit between South Korea and Japan in more than a decade, where leaders of the two countries were expected to discuss deepening military coordination in response to the growing threat from Pyongyang.
The missile was fired eastward around 7:10 a.m. local time from the Sunan area in the outskirts of Pyongyang, Seoul's military said. It was in the air for about 70 minutes, reaching an altitude of more than 3,000 miles. It traveled a distance of about 620 miles before landing west of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, according to Japan's Defense Ministry. North Korea last fired an ICBM from Sunan in February.
South Korea's President Yoon Arrives in Japan for Rare Summit Talks
TOKYO-Japan said it would lift export curbs on South Korea, as the two countries started the first formal summit between their leaders since 2011 and moved to repair ties long strained by historical disputes.
Hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol landed in Tokyo on Thursday, Japan's trade ministry said it would relax restrictions on the export to South Korea of certain chemicals needed in the semiconductor-manufacturing process. Tokyo added red tape on those exports in July 2019 when relations with Seoul were at a low point.
U.S. Threatens Ban if TikTok's Chinese Owners Don't Sell Stakes
WASHINGTON-The Biden administration is demanding that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a possible U.S. ban of the app, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move represents a major shift in policy on the part of the administration, which has been under fire from some Republicans who say it hasn't taken a tough enough stance to address the perceived security threat from TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.
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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-16-23 0702ET
