Good news from China. Tesla’s shares are up today after it obtained a new loan of 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion dollars) from a Chinese banking consortium for its Shanghai plant, Reuters report.

Synthorx takeover bid begins. Sanofi launched its friendly takeover bid for Synthorx at $68 per share, representing a total consideration of approximately $2.5 billion. The U.S. lead drug candidate, THOR-707, is a variant of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in clinical development for the treatment of solid tumors. The tender offer is scheduled to close on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 just before midnight.

It’s not Boeing’s year. Boeing recovered its Starliner capsule as planned, despite the failure of its docking to the International Space Station due to a navigational error.

Tesco in controversy. Tesco ceased production of Christmas cards in a factory in China after the discovery of a message from prisoners working there.

Google pay. Google (Alphabet) boss Sundar Pichai will receive up to $90 million in performance shares and up to $120 million in other shares depending on the rise in the stock price, in addition to his 2020 salary of $2 million.

Credit Suisse and the audit. The Swiss financial regulator has appointed an independent auditor to look into the Credit Suisse case, which had some of its executives spied on to ensure their loyalty. It will have the onerous task of auditing governance issues within the bank. So far, managing director Tidjane Thiam has been cleared of all suspicion in this affair, which has cost the bank's operations director Pierre-Olivier Bouée and head of security their heads. New press revelations last week have revived speculation about wider ramifications.

Ambitious targets in Europe. Chinese giant Tencent will invest $10bn in Europe in 2020, a third of it in Germany, the head of the group's European cloud computing division said in the Handelsblatt. The group has several projects in the making, especially in autonomous transport.

Nord Stream 2, a strategic challenge. Donald Trump has signed a decree opening the way to sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will allow direct deliveries of Russian gas to Europe and co-financed by Gazprom, OMV, Wintershall, Engie, Uniper and Shell. The EU and Moscow have castigated this interference, despite the fact that the infrastructure is almost complete.

Doubts. The SEC has reportedly opened an investigation into the listing conditions of Slack and other recent large IPOs on the US market. GTS and Citadel Securities had to submit documents to the regulator, Bloomberg learned. In particular, the SEC is questioning the first day of listing of certain "unicorns", as revealed by the Wall Street Journal shortly before.

In other news. BASF has selected the Lone Star fund to sell its construction chemicals division in a €3.2 billion transaction. Italy no longer wants to put public money back into Alitalia, which could disappear for lack of a buyer after the failure of the FS / Delta plan. The former CEO and co-founder of Uber Travis Kalanick recently sold more than 90% of his shares in the company. London validates the takeover of Cobham by the Advent fund. Roche Holding has signed a licensing agreement with Sarepta to acquire the rights to the SRP-9001 gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which could bring in up to $2.85bn for the American company. Washington has reportedly decided not to reactivate tariffs on Brazilian steel and aluminum, according to Jair Bolsonaro. DKSH has taken over the Australian specialty chemicals distributor Axieo.