A security guard walks past logos of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) inside the BSE building in Mumbai, India, May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Niharika KulkarniRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comBENGALURU, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) (LIFI.NS) reported a 20.4% rise in June-quarter premium income on Friday, as easing COVID-19 restrictions boosted sales of policies for the insurer that largely depends on its agents.The company, which drives its business mostly through an army of 1.3 million sales agents, was hit by pandemic-led lockdowns last year that disrupted the work of its agents who focus on in-person engagement.”As the COVID situation normalises, we are seeing a larger activity on the ground, therefore bringing us back closer to our model of having ‘feet on street’,” Chairperson M R Kumar said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comLIC, India’s biggest insurer, said net premium income rose to 983.52 billion rupees ($12.34 billion) from 817.21 billion rupees a year earlier, with nearly a 60% jump in the number of policies sold.The company’s gross value of new business (VNB), which measures expected profit from new premiums and is a key gauge for future growth, stood at 18.61 billion rupees, while VNB margins came in at 13.6%.We don’t see much market volatility going forward that could impact results, Kumar said in a press briefing, adding that the insurer sees VNB margin at over 15% by the end of the year.The company, synonymous with buying protection policies in India, listed in May following a record $2.7 billion initial public offering. It commands a market share of over 60% in terms of overall premiums.LIC’s profit for the three months ended June 30 stood at 6.83 billion rupees, compared with 29.4 million rupees in the COVID-hit quarter a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.Shares of LIC have fallen about 22% since its May listing, compared to a 23% rise in no. 2 rival SBI Life Insurance (SBIL.NS) over the same period.($1 = 79.6830 Indian rupees)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Nupur Anand in Mumbai; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .
AppLovin offers to buy video game software maker Unity in $17.5 bln deal
People play “Pokemon GO” on the Pokequan GoBoat Adventure Cruise in the Occoquan River in the small town of Occoquan, Virginia, U.S. August 14, 2016. REUTERS/Sait Serkan GurbuzRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comAug 9 (Reuters) – Gaming software company AppLovin Corp (APP.O) made an offer on Tuesday to buy its peer Unity Software Inc (U.N) in a $17.54 billion all-stock deal, threatening to derail Unity’s announced plan to acquire AppLovin’s smaller competitor ironSource .AppLovin has offered $58.85 for each Unity share, which represents a premium of 18% to Unity’s Monday closing price. Unity will own 55% of the combined company’s outstanding shares, representing about 49% of the voting rights.AppLovin hired advisors to work out an offer after Unity last month said it would buy ironSource in a $4.4 billion all-stock transaction, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Unity’s board will have to terminate the ironSource deal if it wants to pursue a combination with AppLovin, according to the proposal.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comUnder the proposed deal, Unity’s Chief Executive John Riccitiello will become CEO of the combined business, while AppLovin Chief Executive Adam Foroughi will take the role of chief operating officer.Unity said its board would evaluate the offer. The company is slated to report its earnings after the bell on Tuesday.Both companies make software used to design video games. Game-making software has also been expanding to new technologies such as the so-called metaverse, or immersive virtual worlds.Unity’s software has been used to build some of the most-played games such as “Call of Duty: Mobile,” and “Pokemon Go”, while AppLovin provides helps developers to grow and monetize their apps.AppLovin’s offer comes as game developers and console makers warn of a slowdown in the sector as decades-high inflation and easing of COVID-19 restrictions lead gamers to pick outdoor activities. The company lowered its sales guidance on Tuesday.”The deal comes as surprise to everybody in the business,” said Serkan Toto, founder of game industry consultancy Kantan Games. “It’s a $15 billion company going after a $15 billion company. It’s a desperate attempt to consolidate and the chances of this deal happening are very slim.”Shares of Palo Alto, California-based AppLovin, which went public last year, fell 9.9% while those of Unity rose 1% in the morning trading session. Shares of ironSource were down 9.7%.Foroughi said the combined company will have the potential to generate an adjusted operating profit of over $3 billion by the end of 2024.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Eva Mathews and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru, Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Mike HarrisonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .
Analysis: Brazil risk premium soars after Congress breaks spending cap
BRASILIA, July 22 (Reuters) – Brazilian fixed-income markets are pricing in the highest risk levels in years, raising red flags among investors and government officials who see little relief in sight.While global interest rate hikes and recession risks have put all emerging markets under pressure, Brazil faces special scrutiny after Congress cracked open a constitutional spending cap to allow a burst of election-year expenditures. read more “The problem is the change in the spending cap,” said an Economy Ministry official, who requested anonymity to discuss the situation openly. “It weakens the reading that the fiscal situation will be under control in the coming years.”Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comEven with positive surprises such as strong June tax revenue data on Thursday, the official said Brazil’s yield curve remains under pressure as investors brace for the worst. read more Both major presidential candidates on the ballot in October – leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro – have signaled they plan to extend this year’s boost in social spending into next year.”It’s a fiscal bomb,” said Sergio Goldenstein, chief strategist at Renascença DTVM. “Risk premiums look high, but there is little room for a relevant drop.”The real rate for inflation-linked government bonds has been running at the highest level since late 2016, while Brazil’s five-year credit default swaps are at highs last seen at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.Concerns about Brazil’s credit profile come as commodity shocks from the war in Ukraine rattle the global economy and contribute to inflation, prompting rich nations to start raising interest rates.”All the credit spreads in the world are opening, our bonds are not immune to that,” said Ronaldo Patah, chief strategist at UBS Consenso.In fact, Brazil’s strong exports of grains, oil and iron ore give it some advantages compared to other emerging markets riding out the current surge in commodity prices, independent of the political risks in Brasilia now rattling investors.Brazil’s central bank also got an early start hiking rates compared to most peers, raising its benchmark interest rate from a record low 2% in March 2021 to 13.25% currently, with another hike penciled in for August to curb double-digit inflation.Most of the market has therefore been betting on rate cuts supporting growth from the middle of next year. However, risk premiums now point to rates above 13% in the yield curve for maturities ranging from 2024 to 2033, while mid-2023 vertices indicate an accumulated rate above 14%.”I am struck by this process of (yield curve) flattening that we are seeing at a very high level”, said the chief economist at Ativa Investimentos Etore Sanchez.Roberto Dumas, chief strategist at Banco Voiter, said Brazil is caught between a central bank tightening rates while the government is finding new ways to boost spending.”The more one accelerates, the more the other needs to step on the brakes. Everyone is projecting more and more that the Selic will rise more than expected”, said Dumas, who foresees the benchmark rate at 14.25% at the end of this year.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Marcela Ayres and Jose de Castro
Editing by Brad HaynesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .
Petronas sells Sept Labuan crude at record premium on tight supplies -sources
A logo of Petronas is seen at their office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 27, 2022. REUTERS/Hasnoor HussainRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas has sold a cargo of Labuan crude at a record premium amid tight supplies for sweet crude in the region, several traders said on Thursday.The cargo, loading in September, was sold at a premium of more than $20 a barrel to dated Brent to Vitol, they said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .
EDF shares suspended as France prepares nationalisation plan
View of the company logo of Electricite de France (EDF) on the facade of EDF’s headquarters in Paris, France, July 7, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna GeronRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
- French government aiming to fully nationalise EDF
- State already holds an 84% stake in the group
- Utility grappling with outages and tariff caps
PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) – Shares in debt-laden EDF (EDF.PA) were suspended on Wednesday as the French government prepares to detail its plans to fully nationalise Europe’s biggest nuclear power operator.France said last week it wanted to fully nationalise EDF, in which the state already holds an 84% stake, without explaining how it would do so. In a statement, the finance ministry said it would clarify its plans before the market opens on July 19 at the latest.Taking EDF back under full state control would give the government greater licence to restructure the group that runs the nation’s nuclear power plants, as it contends with a European energy crisis.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comA finance ministry source said the suspension of EDF shares, which was requested by the company, was temporary and trading would resume once the government had made clear how it would fully nationalise the utility.EDF has been grappling with extraordinary outages at its nuclear fleet, delays and cost overruns in building new reactors, and power tariff caps imposed by the government to shield French consumers from soaring electricity prices.Two sources told Reuters this week that the government was poised to pay up to 10 billion euros to buy the 16% stake in the group it does not already own, after including the purchase of convertible bonds and a premium it is expected to offer to minority shareholders. read more That would translate into a buyout price of close to 13 euros per share, a 30% premium to current market prices but still a big loss for long-term shareholders, as the group was listed in 2005 at a price of 33 euros per share.”A 30% premium does not seem unreasonable given the market fluctuations of the share price – we are still talking about a 50% to 60% loss for shareholders,” said Antoine Fraysse-Soulier, head of market analysis at eToro in Paris.The sources said the state wanted to move quickly and would probably launch a voluntary offer on the market rather than push a nationalisation bill through parliament, with the aim of closing the operation in October-November.”The government may want to offer a sufficient premium to avoid legal challenges and resulting delays to the offer,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note.EDF did not give a reason for requesting the suspension of its shares, which have risen 30% since the nationalisation announcement, increasing the cost of buying out minorities. The finance ministry source said the move was “among routine tools to manage financial markets in this kind of situation”.”I would imagine it is to stop the price going up to a point that the French government ends up having to pay over the odds for the remaining shares in issue,” a London trader said.The shares closed at 10.2250 euros on Tuesday.In a sign of how badly reactor outages are affecting the company, which is expected to post a loss this year, EDF said power generation at its French nuclear reactors fell by 27.1% in June from a year earlier after the discovery of stress corrosion took several sites off line.EDF has said it expects an 18.5 billion euro hit to its earnings in 2022 from production losses, and further losses of 10.2 billion euros from the energy price cap.($1 = 0.9964 euros)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comAdditional reporting by Joice Alves in London and Marc Angrand in Paris; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Edmund Blair, Jan Harvey, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .





