By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Anirban Sen

(Reuters) -Morgan Stanley has hired senior investment banker Marco Caggiano from JPMorgan Chase & Co, where he led the bank’s North America mergers and acquisitions (M&A) business, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Caggiano, a veteran investment banker who spent 23 years with JPMorgan, will join Morgan Stanley as vice chairman of M&A, the sources said. JPMorgan has not yet named a replacement for Caggiano, the sources said.

The sources requested anonymity because the matter is confidential. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Morgan Stanley’s global M&A franchise is currently led by John Collins, who previously served as global head of healthcare investment banking at the bank. In the Americas, Morgan Stanley’s M&A franchise is led by veteran dealmakers Tom Miles and Brian Healy.

At JPMorgan, Caggiano had worked on several high-profile situations, including advising Twitter Inc on its $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, Take Two on its $12.7 billion acquisition of mobile video game maker Zynga, and toy maker Hasbro Inc on its board fight with hedge fund Alta Fox.

Caggiano trained as a lawyer and worked at Paul Hastings before he joined JPMorgan. He was co-head of North America M&A before Chris Roop, the other co-head, exited JPMorgan last year to join Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Several top bankers have recently left firms such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Barclays to either join direct competitors or smaller peers, amid a global slowdown in dealmaking that has forced top Wall Street banks to trim their investment banking groups and accelerate other cost-cutting moves.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Rhode Island and Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Andrea Ricci)

By Tim Hepher

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) – Europe’s Airbus inaugurated a new assembly line for its A321neo jetliner in southwest France on Monday, granting a new lease of life to the deserted home of the defunct A380 superjumbo as it basks in record demand for smaller jets.

Speaking in the cavernous Jean-Luc Lagardere plant outside Toulouse, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire hailed the rebirth of an “industrial cathedral” as President Emmanuel Macron pursues policies of boosting manufacturing employment.

Airbus says the new line will create 700 jobs by 2026, about half the full-time total when the world’s largest jet was built there, while supporting a fabric of thousands of suppliers.

The plant’s makeover highlights a shift in the industry’s attention from its largest and boldest creations like the double-decker A380 to stalwart single-aisle designs, which are enjoying a second wind due to their increased performance and efficiency.

The A321neo is the largest version of the A320 series of jets, which was relaunched with new engines in 2010 – just in time for a boom in demand stoked partly by low interest rates.

It is the eighth assembly line for the A320 family, with previously announced expansion plans in the United States and China due to bring the worldwide total to 10. The first plane is due to be completed in late 2023 for delivery next year.

Its opening comes as competition between Airbus and arch-rival Boeing shifts towards production strategy, with both companies struggling to deliver on bulging order books.

The new line sits along one edge of the world’s second-largest building by usable space, supported by automated stores where robotic pickers will select parts and tools for workers. Other robots will be used to join part of the upper fuselage.

HIGHER OUTPUT

The facility is part of efforts to lift total A320-family output to 75 a month in 2026 from an estimated 45 now. Some suppliers have called the target ambitious.

In an effort to expand automation and cut costs, an existing A320-family line is expected to move to a vacant bay in the Lagardere hall from its nearby current facility, where Concorde was built. Boeing too is reallocating space to small jets.

Monday’s ceremony came days after Airbus posted data showing the A321neo had become its most-sold model with more than 5,000 orders, surpassing the original A320 sister version.

Environmental critics say burgeoning sales of the current generation of jets will make it harder to meet climate goals.

Le Maire told Reuters aircraft like the A321 still offered significant savings in emissions compared to jets they replace.

Monday’s ceremony contrasted with the lavish sound-and-light show in front of European leaders in 2005, when the A380 was unveiled to huge fanfare as a symbol of European economic might.

Almost 20 years on, smaller medium-haul workhorse jets generate the bulk of industry profits. Production of the A380 superjumbo ended two years ago, followed by Boeing’s 747.

The ghost of the A380 is not entirely laid to rest, however.

A walled-off area in the rest of the plant is being re-used for an 18-month programme of A380 inspections and repairs after cracks emerged in some wing parts, Reuters reported on Friday.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Richard Lough and David Evans)

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) – Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta Platforms and OpenAI for allegedly using their content without permission to train artificial intelligence language models.

The proposed class action lawsuits filed by Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden in San Francisco federal court Friday allege Facebook parent company Meta and ChatGPT maker OpenAI used copyrighted material to train chat bots.

Meta and OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday.

The lawsuits underscore the legal risks developers of chat bots face when using troves of copyrighted material to create apps that deliver realistic responses to user prompts.

Silverman, Kadrey and Golden allege Meta and OpenAI used their books without authorization to develop their so-called large language models, which their makers pitch as powerful tools for automating tasks by replicating human conversation.

In their lawsuit against Meta, the plaintiffs allege that leaked information about the company’s artificial intelligence business shows their work was used without permission.

The lawsuit against OpenAI alleges that summaries of the plaintiffs’ work generated by ChatGPT indicate the bot was trained on their copyrighted content.

“The summaries get some details wrong” but still show that ChatGPT “retains knowledge of particular works in the training dataset,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuits seek unspecified money damages on behalf of a nationwide class of copyright owners whose works were allegedly infringed.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

By Mayank Bhardwaj and Sumit Khanna

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian court rejected PepsiCo Inc’s appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for the New York-based company’s popular Lay’s potato chips.

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Authority in 2021 revoked intellectual protection granted to PepsiCo’s FC5 potato variety, saying that India’s rules do not allow a patent on seed varieties.

The authority removed PepsiCo’s patent cover after Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers’ rights activist, argued that the company cannot claim a patent over a seed variety.

PepsiCo petitioned the Delhi High Court against the revocation of the patent cover.

In its order dated July 5, Delhi High Court judge Navin Chawla dismissed PepsiCo’s appeal against the authority’s decision.

“We are aware of the order … and are in the process of reviewing the same,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said in a statement.

The U.S. snacks and drinks maker, which set up its first potato chip plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 seed variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

PepsiCo has maintained that it exclusively developed the FC5 variety and registered the trait in 2016. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

In a statement, Kuruganti said: “It is good that the judgement of Justice Navin Chawla upheld the revocation order . . .”

In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Indian farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, accusing growers of infringing its patent. The company also sought more than 10 million rupees ($121,050) each for alleged patent infringement.

Within months, PepsiCo withdrew lawsuits against farmers.

In its order, the Delhi High Court did not uphold accusations of any public interest violation by PepsiCo.

PepsiCo is the second large U.S. company to face patent infringement issues in India.

After a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India.

($1 = 82.61 rupees)

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj and Sumit Khanna; Editing by Kim Coghill)

By Matteo Allievi and Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) -European shares inched higher on Monday with the travel & leisure sector leading gains, helping to limit the impact of weak inflation data from China that highlighted sluggish demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended 0.2% higher after recording its worst weekly performance in almost four months on Friday.

European travel & leisure stocks gained 1.3%, attempting to rebound from falls of over 4% last week. The index was among top decliners last week.

“Equities recover in Monday trading,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.

“Friday’s gloomy atmosphere has faded to an extent today and stocks have attempted to regain some lost ground.”

Data on Monday showed China’s producer prices fell at their fastest pace in over seven years in June, while consumer prices teetered on the edge of deflation, adding to the case for more stimulus to revive demand.

China-exposed miners slid 0.6% as metal prices dipped. [MET/L]

“While inflation shows signs of stubbornness in other economies, disinflationary forces are at work in China,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The initial pent-up demand after the pandemic restrictions were lifted is fizzling out.”

Also pressuring the main STOXX 600 was a 1.1% decline in shares of Novo Nordisk.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is investigating the company’s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Saxenda after Iceland’s health regulator flagged three cases of patients thinking about suicide or self-harm.

European stocks have been recently pressured by hawkish messages from central bank policymakers and resilient U.S. economic data fuelled concerns that interest rates will remain elevated for a longer period.

U.S. consumer prices data scheduled for Wednesday is expected to show a slowdown in June inflation.

Traders will also monitor the kickoff of the U.S. earnings season later this week. The reports from big banks such as JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup will provide a snapshot of the health of the economy.

Bayer rose 1.6% following a report that the German drugs-to-pesticides giant could spin off and list its CropScience unit.

Wihlborgs Fastigheter fell 7.8% after the Swedish real estate firm reported its first-half results and noted an uncertain outlook for Sweden’s economy.

Scout24 dropped 3.1% after UBS downgraded the online property platform to “sell”, citing pressure on the German housing market.

(Reporting by Matteo Allievi in Gdansk and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Shinjini Ganguli and Nick Macfie)

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) -The value of top cryptocurrency bitcoin could reach $50,000 this year and $120,000 by the end of 2024 Standard Chartered said on Monday, predicting the recent jump in its price could encourage bitcoin “miners” to hoard more of the supply.

Standard Chartered published a $100,000 end-2024 forecast for bitcoin back in April on the view the so-called “crypto winter” was over, but one of the bank’s top FX analysts, Geoff Kendrick, said there was now 20% “upside” to that call.

“Increased miner profitability per BTC (bitcoin) mined means they can sell less while maintaining cash inflows, reducing net BTC supply and pushing BTC prices higher,” Kendrick said in a report.

Bitcoin’s price has leapt 80% since the start of the year but its current level of just over $30,200 is still less than half the $69,000 it peaked back in November 2021.

Trillions of dollars were wiped from the crypto sector in 2022, as central banks hiked rates and a string of crypto firms, such as the FTX exchange, imploded. This year’s collapse of a number of traditional-style banks though has fed the rebound.

Standard Chartered said the rationale for its predicted price rise was that miners who mint the 900 new bitcoins produced each day around the world would soon need to sell fewer to cover their costs – mostly electricity to power super-computers.

Kendrick estimated that miners have recently been selling 100% of their new coins. If the price hits $50,000 though, they would probably only sell 20-30%.

“It is the equivalent of miners reducing the amount of bitcoins they sell per day to just 180-270 from 900 currently.”

“Over a year, that would reduce miner selling from 328,500 to a range of 65,700-98,550 – a reduction in net BTC supply of roughly 250,000 bitcoins a year.”

Next April or May the total number of bitcoins able to be mined each day is also set to halve due to an inbuilt supply and issuance mechanism that gradually limits supply to maintain its appeal.

Predictions of sky-high valuations have been commonplace during bitcoin’s past rallies. A Citi analyst said in November 2020 that bitcoin could climb as high as $318,000 by the end of 2022. It closed last year down about 65% at $16,500.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Amanda Cooper and Sharon Singleton)

By David Milliken and Andy Bruce

LONDON (Reuters) -Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Monday the British central bank had to “see the job through” on bringing down an inflation rate that is running higher than in any other major rich economy.

Bailey, under pressure from politicians and some economists over the surge in inflation, said price growth had proved to be stickier than the BoE had expected.

“It is crucial that we see the job through, meet our mandate to return inflation to its 2% target and provide the environment of price stability in which the UK economy can thrive,” Bailey said in the text of a speech he was due to deliver later on Monday to finance executives at London’s Mansion House.

Bailey’s comments largely echoed previous remarks which have convinced investors that more interest rate hikes are coming.

Interest rate futures on Monday pointed to a peak in Bank Rate of between 6.25% and 6.5% in early 2024 which would be the highest in 25 years and up from 5% now.

The BoE has raised rates at each of its past 13 meetings. Bailey said “some” of that tightening was yet to be felt as mortgage-holders gradually have to refinance.

While Britain’s economy had barely grown in comparison with its pre-pandemic level, Bailey said there had been unexpected resilience in the labour market and a recession had been avoided so far.

“This is a good thing in many ways. No one wishes to see unemployment higher or growth weaker,” Bailey said.

But this had also resulted in stronger inflationary pressures, he added.

BoE officials are closely watching data from the labour market and on services price inflation ahead of their next policy announcement on Aug. 3, Bailey said.

“Both price and wage increases at current rates are not consistent with the inflation target,” Bailey said. “Currently at 8.7% in the latest data, consumer price inflation is unacceptably high, and we must bring it down to the 2% target.”

Bailey used most of his speech to address issues around rules for Britain’s financial sector.

He said the BoE was reviewing a record 50,000 responses to its public consultation on a potential central bank digital currency, before a joint decision with the finance ministry on whether to go ahead.

Bailey said the aim was to provide a digital equivalent to cash rather than require the public to rely entirely on services provided by banks or other companies for online payments.

The BoE wanted to preserve the current mix of sources of money in the economy rather than allow banking services provided by the BoE to supplant those of commercial banks, he added.

“I don’t think we should be using enhanced digitalisation materially to shift the mix of commercial bank and central bank retail money towards the latter,” Bailey said.

He also said more clarity was needed for bank depositors about what would happen to savings above the 85,000 pounds ($109,000) which are currently guaranteed in the event of a bank collapse, like that of Silicon Valley Bank this year.

“It should be no surprise that the authorities are thinking carefully about this issue. It doesn’t automatically mean all money is guaranteed, but we must ensure the rules keep up to date,” Bailey said.

(Reporting by David Milliken and Andy BruceEditing by William Schomberg and Christina Fincher)