Madrid — Brookfield Asset Management is in exclusive talks with Blackstone to buy its residential real estate company Fidere in Spain, Spanish newspaper Expansion reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified market sources.
Brookfield and Blackstone declined to comment on the report.
The transaction would be one of the biggest in the Spanish property sector this year, with an estimated value of €1bn, Expansion said. Reuters
Paramount sweetens Warner Bros bid
Paramount Skydance has enhanced its Warner Bros Discovery bid by offering shareholders extra cash for each quarter the deal fails to close after this year and agreeing to cover the breakup fee the HBO owner would owe Netflix if it walked away.
Even though Paramount did not raise its per-share offer, the sweeteners mark the company’s latest attempt to woo Warner Bros shareholders in its prolonged battle with Netflix for control of some of the world’s most prized TV and film assets.
Paramount has offered to pay shareholders a 25c per share “ticking fee” that will equal about $650m in cash each quarter between the start of 2027 and the close of a deal with Warner Bros, the company said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be a sign of its confidence in getting a deal done relatively quickly. Reuters
Clear Channel acepts $6.2bn buyout offer
Bengaluru — Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings has to a takeover by Mubadala Capital, in partnership with TWG Global, in a deal that values the US billboard operator at $6.2bn.
Clear Channel Outdoor shareholders will receive $2.43 a share in cash, representing a 71% premium to the company’s unaffected share price, it said.
Equity financing for the transaction will be provided by Mubadala Capital alongside TWG Global, while funds managed by Apollo Global Management have committed to invest preferred equity in the deal. Reuters
Gucci owner still struggling to stabilise
Paris — Kering reported a slightly smaller-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter sales on Tuesday as new CEO Luca de Meo battles to stabilise the luxury goods company, putting its shares on track for their biggest one-day jump in about 17 years.
It was the first quarter under the leadership of former Renault boss, who has promised to restructure the owner of brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, which has come under intense investor scrutiny for its debt load and sliding profitability during a luxury slowdown.
Kering shares rose as much as 13% in early trading on hopes of a turnaround.
“We will see growth in 2026, we will see increase of margin on all the brands,” De Meo told analysts on a call. Reuters
Standard Chartered CFO bids farewell
Bengaluru — Standard Chartered’s shares tumbled on Tuesday after the lender said CFO Diego de Giorgi had resigned.
The bank’s London shares fell 4.1% at the market open while its Hong Kong-listed stock dropped as much as 6.4% before paring losses to stand 1.7% lower, underperforming the benchmark Hang Seng index which was up almost 0.6%.
De Giorgi stepped down from the role at the Asia- and Africa-focused lender after a two-year stint, according to a company statement.
He is joining Apollo as head of the EMEA region, the asset manager said in a separate statement. Reuters
UK seals 6.2GW of renewable energy
London — Britain secured a record amount of solar power in an auction that offered guaranteed price contracts to renewable projects, the government said on Tuesday.
The country has a target to largely decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030, which will require a huge scale-up of renewable power, including wind and solar.
A total of 6.2 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind, solar and tidal power projects won contracts, most of which — about 4.9GW — went to solar. Reuters
Carlyle buys 45% of India’s Edelweiss Financial unit
Bengaluru — India’s Edelweiss Financial said on Tuesday that US-based asset manager Carlyle will buy a 45% stake in the company’s unit Nido Home Finance for 21-billion rupees (about $232m).
Nasdaq-listed Carlyle has $477bn of assets under management. Reuters
ArcelorMittal to build electric furnace in Dunkirk
Paris — ArcelorMittal will build a lower-emission electric furnace at its Dunkirk steel plant in France in a €1.3bn investment after the EU took steps to protect the ailing sector, the group said on Tuesday.
ArcelorMittal and other steelmakers in Europe have held back on investments in low-carbon production, saying such projects have been unviable in the face of huge imports and US tariffs on EU exports.
However, ArcelorMittal said the EU’s plans to slash steel import quotas and the introduction in January of a carbon border tax scheme for imported industrial goods had changed the outlook. Reuters
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