Elliott launches campaign to boost PepsiCo shares
Elliott Management on Tuesday disclosed a $4bn stake in PepsiCo, launching a campaign to restore growth and boost the beverage maker’s share price.
The stake in PepsiCo, one of Elliott’s biggest holdings, comes as the company tackles choppy demand for its snacks business and pursues a shift to healthier drinks and sodas to address changing consumer preferences.
The company’s stock jumped 6% in early trading, after losing about a quarter of its value since hitting a record high in May 2023.
Elliott singled out Pepsico’s North America beverages unit as an underperformer, saying growth and margins were lagging peers due to strategic missteps, share losses in soda and the introduction of new brands and products that has “strained focus and execution”. Reuters
UK borrowing costs hit highest since 1998
London — Britain’s 30-year borrowing costs rose to their highest levels since 1998 and sterling slid over 1.5% on Tuesday, highlighting growing investor anxiety about the UK’s ability to keep its finances under control.
The sell-off in British bonds, known as gilts, coincided with selling across other major bond markets, where the focus is firmly on rising debt levels. But weakness in sterling pointed to vulnerability in UK markets at a time of increasing concern about the Labour government’s ability to exercise fiscal constraint.
Thirty-year gilt yields rose to 5.723%, their highest since May 1998, and sterling was by far the day's weakest performing G10 currency against the dollar, down over 1.5% at one point.
It was last off 1% at $1.34, its biggest daily fall since June, and at 86.98p/€, 0.6% softer. Reuters
Anthropic valuation more than doubles
Mexico City — Artificial-intelligence company Anthropic said on Tuesday it is now valued at $183bn, more than twice as much as its earlier valuation, as investor enthusiasm towards AI start-ups stays strong despite some doubts over tech industry spending.
The new valuation is a jump from the $61.5bn valuation in March this year, where it raised $3.5bn. Anthropic said it raised $13bn in a Series F round led by investment firm ICONIQ.
The “investment will expand our capacity to meet growing enterprise demand, deepen our safety research, and support international expansion as we continue building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems”, Anthropic said in a blog post.
The start-up, backed by Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com, has distinguished its work, in part, by building AI models that excel at coding. Reuters
Angola’s new oil refinery plans output by year-end
Bengaluru — Angola’s planned 30,000 bpd Cabinda oil refinery, the first to be built since independence a half-century ago, will begin producing fuel by the end of the year, the country’s oil and gas minister said on Monday.
The project, Angola’s second oil refinery, will help make Sub-Saharan Africa’s No 2 crude producer less dependent on costly fuel imports amid government efforts to eliminate fuel subsidies that have triggered deadly protests.
“We can confirm the Cabinda refinery is entering its decisive phase and that by the end of the year, Angola will have the first commercial derivatives produced at the unit,” oil & gas minister Diamantino Azevedo said at an inauguration ceremony attended by Angola’s president.
Gemcorp, a London-based emerging markets investment firm, is the largest shareholder in the plant and previously said the first phase would supply 5% to 10% of the country’s fuel needs.
State-owned oil company Sonangol holds the remaining 10% shareholding and supplies the refinery with feedstock. Reuters
Egypt’s net foreign assets jump to a record $18.5bn
Cairo — Egypt’s net foreign assets rose by $3.54bn in July to a record $18.5bn, central bank data showed, as Gulf investments, a currency devaluation 18 months ago and strong remittances from workers abroad help boost deposits, analysts say.
Net foreign assets were $14.96bn at the end of June. Almost all of the increase was due to higher assets at commercial banks.
Remittances from Egyptians abroad have surged since Egypt sharply devalued its currency in March 2024, jumping to $26.4bn in the nine months to end-March from $14.5bn in the year-earlier period, the central bank said in July.
Commercial banks' foreign assets rose by $3.28bn in July to $39.49bn while their liabilities fell by $166.2m to $31.50bn, according to the central bank data. Reuters
Indian tax panel calls for steep tariffs on luxury EVs
New Delhi — An Indian tax panel has proposed steep increases in consumer levies on luxury electric cars priced above $46,000, a government document shows, a move that could affect sales of carmakers such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and BYD.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is aiming to reform India’s tax system and is pushing Indians to buy more domestic goods just when relations with the US have soured due to high tariffs.
The panel recommended raising the goods and services tax rate to 18% from 5% for EVs priced between 2-million and 4-million rupees ($23,000-$46,000). It also proposed hiking the tax to 28% for cars priced above $46,000, saying that such vehicles cater to the “upper segment” of society and are largely imported rather than manufactured domestically. Reuters
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