(Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc had been turning out about 2.7 million barrels of oil each day until the novel coronavirus took hold of the world. Demand for oil, the company’s core product, dropped almost a third in April, and the price of West Texas Intermediate briefly dipped into negative numbers for the first time.It’s not easy to run an oil major when people suddenly stop needing oil. Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden responded by slashing spending and cutting Shell’s dividend for the first time since World War II. And, as critics warned, the company remains saddled with debt from its $53 billion acquisition of BG Group in 2015.This precarious moment for oil makes van Beurden’s push to establish a post-fossil fuel identity for the 113-year-old company more essential—and difficult. He’s not even sure he wants to be known as someone who runs one of the largest oil producers...
Shares in Macy’s, Inc. (M) spiked 15% in Monday’s after-hours trading after the company announced the closing on approximately $4.5 billion of new financing.This included its previously announced $1.3 billion of 8.375% senior secured notes, as well as a new $3.15 billion asset-based credit agreement.In addition, the company has amended and substantially reduced the credit commitments of its existing $1.5 billion unsecured credit agreement. Macy’s intends to use the proceeds of the notes offering, along with cash on hand, to repay the outstanding borrowings under the existing $1.5 billion unsecured credit agreement.With the closing of these financings, M now expects to have sufficient liquidity to address the needs of the business, including funding operations and the purchase of new inventory for upcoming seasons, resolving its accrued payables obligations, and repaying upcoming debt maturities in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021.“We are pleased with the strong demand from new investors in our notes...
(Bloomberg) -- Occidental Petroleum Corp. is reviewing options for its Middle Eastern assets as it seeks ways to reduce its debt pile, people familiar with the matter said.Houston-based Occidental is considering reducing its stakes in oil and natural gas fields in Oman, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Its holdings in the Gulf sultanate could be valued at more than $1 billion, the people said.The company is also open to divesting other assets in the Middle East, though it isn’t formally soliciting interest, the people said. Outside of Oman, it has a presence in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.Occidental was saddled with about $40 billion of debt after its purchase of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. last year. It has gone from being a steady, diversified producer to a shale-focused driller that has seen its shares fall more than 40% this year. A...
Shares in online personal styling service Stitch Fix (SFIX) sunk 7% in after-hours trading on Monday after the company posted disappointing earning results for the fiscal third quarter.Specifically, Q3 GAAP EPS of -$0.33 missed Street expectations by $0.19 while revenue of $371.73M dropped 9.1% year-over-year, and fell $42.81M short of consensus estimates due to COVID-fulfillment challenges.However active clients of 3.4M represented 9% year-over-year growth, and net revenue per active client also increased 6% year-over-year to $498.The company did not provide FQ4 guide, though expects positive net revenue year-over-year adjusting for the extra week in FQ4:19, positive EBITDA (ex. SBC) and FCF, and 200-300 bps of Q/ Q Gross Margin expansion.Following the results, RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated his SFIX buy rating while ramping up his price target from $23 to $27. “Q3 was a disappointment. That said, we believe looking past the severe supply disruption, there is a good fundamental story to look...
(Bloomberg) -- European stocks and U.S. futures edged lower, as momentum slowed in risk assets after a historic rally. Treasuries advanced.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index opened with declines in banks undercutting gains in travel shares. Asian shares continued higher, just hours after investors pushed the S&P 500 Index back into positive territory for 2020. The dollar strengthened for the first day in nine sessions.With global equities rebounding to their levels in February, concern that the bounce back has far overshot the economic recovery continues to weigh on investors. The World Bank warned the global economy will contract the most since World War II this year, reducing incomes and sending millions of people into poverty in emerging and developing nations.“There are a lot of unknowns that we are dealing with despite the fact that normalizations of economic activities are still on track,” Frank Tsui, a senior fund manager at Value Partners, said...
Gilead Sciences (GILD) has now filed for conditional marketing authorization (CMA) of its antiviral medicine remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).The EMA reports that it has now formally started its evaluation of remdesivir under a reduced timeline and an opinion could be issued within weeks. The speed will depend on the robustness of the data and whether further information is required, says the EMA.Such a short timeframe will only be possible because some data have already been assessed during the first cycle of a rolling review, which started on 30 April and ended on 15 May. Following this, Gilead was invited to submit further data together with a CMA application.Should the additional data show that the benefits of remdesivir outweigh its risks, the EMA will work with the European Commission to support fast-tracking of the decision-making process and granting of a marketing authorization by the European Commission.Remdesivir is a viral...
