By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings in a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday said there is “substantial doubt” its cash position will allow it to continue operating for at least the next 12 months.

Days after announcing the layoff of nearly its entire workforce, the launch company said it expects to disclose in a forthcoming filing that its “liquidity condition raises substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern for at least 12 months” from the expected issuance date of its annual 10K filing, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Virgin Orbit’s statement came in a notice explaining why it had yet to file its annual 2022 report. It attributed the delay to “potential fundraising transactions” and limited resources and staff amid an “operational pause and workforce reduction.”

Struggles to raise funds in recent months and a January rocket failure increased pressure on the company to find new funding. The company on March 16 began a furlough of nearly all its 750 employees as it sought a new investment plan.

Unable to secure new funds, Virgin Orbit on Thursday moved to lay off roughly 85% of its workforce, or about 675 employees.

Virgin Orbit, spun off from Branson’s space tourism firm Virgin Galactic in 2017, went public in 2021 through a blank-check deal, where it raised $255 million, less than expected.

“As of December 31, 2022, we have not generated positive cash flows from our operations or generated sufficient revenues to provide sufficient cash flows to enable us to finance our operations, and may not be able to raise sufficient capital to do so,” Monday’s filing said.

It added it expects to report for 2022 roughly $33.1 million in revenue and a net loss of about $191 million.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Anna Driver)

(Reuters) -Top global automakers reported a rise in first-quarter U.S. sales on improving shipments to dealers, with the exception of Toyota Motor Corp, which continued to grapple with parts shortage, data showed on Monday.

General Motors Co, which replaced Toyota as the top U.S. automaker in 2022, posted a 17.6% rise in first-quarter auto sales.

“We gained significant market share in the first quarter, pricing was strong, inventories are in very good shape, and we sold more than 20,000 EVs (electric vehicles) in a quarter for the first time,” GM Executive Vice President Steve Carlisle said in a statement.

Vehicle production took a hit after the pandemic disrupted supply of semiconductor chips and other raw materials, hurting carmakers’ ability to meet the upsurge in demand for personal mobility. The companies have been trying to make up for the lost production ever since as supply chain snags gradually ease.

But rising interest rates and fears of a recession may play spoilsport in an industry where most vehicle purchases are financed with loans, analysts say, as they watch out for signs of plateauing demand. The average transaction price of vehicles, too, has surged over the last one year.

“Consumers are facing credit uncertainty as rapidly rising interest rates have created barriers to entry for even the most qualified buyers,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at auto research firm Edmunds.

GM said on Monday U.S. sales rose to 603,208 units in the first quarter from 512,846 a year earlier. Toyota said sales fell 8.8% to 469,558 vehicles, but added that inventory was improving.

Asian peers Mazda, Honda and Hyundai posted a rise in sales.

“Anyone looking for signs of a recession won’t find it in new-vehicle market, as a number of makers delivered record sales in first quarter,” said Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive.

EV leader Tesla Inc posted record deliveries but its shares fell on Monday on growing margin worries after aggressive price cuts.

Overall, U.S. new vehicle sales in March were 1.37 million units, with an annual sales rate of 14.82 million, according to data released by Wards Intelligence on Monday.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes, Abhijith Ganapavaram, Kannaki Deka and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brent crude oil climbed $5 a barrel on Monday after Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ producers announced new production cuts, and gains in energy shares helped lift world stock indexes.

The Dow and S&P 500 ended higher, with the S&P energy sector rising 4.9% for its biggest daily percentage gain since October.

In a surprise move, the OPEC+ group on Sunday announced cuts to production amounting to about 1.16 million barrels per day.

Brent crude rose $5.04, or 6.3%, to settle at $84.93 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $4.75, or 6.3%, to settle at $80.42.

While the jump in oil prices benefited energy shares, the news added to investor worries about higher costs for businesses and consumers.

Market watchers have been trying to gauge how much longer the Federal Reserve may need to keep raising interest rates to cool inflation and whether the U.S. economy may be headed for recession.

Goldman Sachs lifted its forecast for Brent to $95 a barrel by the end of the year and to $100 for 2024 following the oil output change.

Investors also digested Monday’s economic data, which showed U.S. manufacturing activity in March slumped to its lowest level in nearly three years as new orders continued to contract.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 327 points, or 0.98%, to 33,601.15, the S&P 500 gained 15.2 points, or 0.37%, to 4,124.51 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 32.45 points, or 0.27%, to 12,189.45.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped 0.03% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.42%.

“There’s going to be this balance between inflation coming off and then the potential for economic recession,” said George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management.

Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp ended 5.9% higher on Monday, while Chevron Corp gained 4.2%.

At the same time, U.S. consumer discretionary shares fell, with the sector ending the day down 0.9%.

Shares of Tesla Inc dropped 6.1% after disclosing March-quarter deliveries rose just 4% from the previous quarter, even after CEO Elon Musk slashed car prices in January to boost demand.

The dollar declined, giving up early gains following the oil output cuts, as data showed the U.S. economy continued to slow with the declines in manufacturing and construction spending.

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 last month, the lowest since May 2020, from 47.7 in February.

U.S. construction spending also weakened, down 0.1% in February after increasing 0.4% in January.

The U.S. dollar index was last down 0.9% while the euro was up 0.6% at $1.0902.

Treasury yields retreated after the U.S. manufacturing data, which increased expectations for some investors the Fed will cut rates later this year as the economy slows.

The yield on 10-year notes fell 6.6 basis points to 3.425%.

Spot gold added 0.8% to $1,983.98 an ounce.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch, with additional reporting by Herbert Lash in New York and Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru, and Wayne Cole in Sydney and Alun John in London; Editing by Susan Fenton, Angus MacSwan, Andrew Heavens and Bill Berkrot)

By Tiyashi Datta, Dawn Chmielewski and Milana Vinn

(Reuters) – World Wrestling Entertainment Inc will combine with Endeavor Group-owned mixed martial arts franchise UFC to form a new, publicly listed entertainment giant valued at about $21 billion, the companies said on Monday.

The deal unites two of the biggest names in wrestling and entertainment and caps a months-long sale process for WWE, overseen by its co-founder and executive chairman Vince McMahon who returned to the company’s board in January.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring together two leading pure-play sports and entertainment companies,” Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel said in an investor presentation, describing the deal as a “transformational step” for Endeavor.

Emanuel said he would capitalize on Endeavor’s expertise in securing media deals, sponsorships and new forms of distribution to fuel growth at the new company, which he will lead as chief executive officer while continuing in his role at Endeavor.

McMahon will retain his role in the new company, which will be majority-owned by Endeavor with a 51% stake, while WWE investors will own the rest.

WWE, which kicked off a strategic review in January, attracted several potential buyers who put in all-cash bids, but the company favored a tie-up with Endeavor, as an all-stock deal was more attractive due to the potential upside in the share price of the combined entity, according to people familiar with the matter.

Shares of WWE closed down 2.1% at $89.30 on Monday, while Endeavor shares closed 5.9% lower at $22.52. The complex, all-stock structure of the deal surprised investors who were expecting an all-cash transaction, according to analysts and sources familiar with the matter.

“Maybe the ultimate structure of this was not aligned with their short-term thinking of how it might work,” said John Healy, analyst at Northcoast Research.

SIMILAR PLAYBOOK

Hollywood power broker Emanuel has transformed Endeavor, which has its roots in representing film and television talent, into a sports and entertainment powerhouse with more than 20 acquisitions. He has invested in bull riding events, fashion shows and the Miami Open and Madrid Open tennis competitions.

Endeavor said it would run the same playbook it employed with the UFC, the world’s largest martial-arts organization, improving operating efficiency, negotiating lucrative media deals and striking licensing deals. The UFC has seen its revenue grow by more than one-and-a-half times and its adjusted EBTIDA double since 2017, a year after Endeavor took a controlling interest in the company. Endeavor bought out the remaining shareholders in 2021.

The newly created company would seek to capitalize on consumers’ desire to participate in live experiences – a trend that has resumed since the height of the pandemic – and on their appetite to bet on sports, said Endeavor President Mark Shapiro, who will serve in the same capacity in the new company.

Under the deal that a source said was internally referred to as Project Stunner, UFC and WWE will also contribute cash to the new company so it holds nearly $150 million. 

The agreement values each share of WWE at $106, representing a premium of 16% to the company’s Friday closing and gives WWE an enterprise value of $9.3 billion.

The new company will be listed under ticker symbol “TKO” on the New York Stock Exchange, the companies said. 

McMahon had retired in July last year as the company’s CEO and chair following an investigation into alleged misconduct. Co-CEO Stephanie McMahon, who ran the company on her own when her father exited, resigned a week after he returned in January.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Tomasz Janowski and Matthew Lewis)

By Chris Prentice

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bank of America’s investment management unit has agreed to pay over $9.5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it failed to disclose millions of dollars of fees to clients, the regulator said on Monday.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc violated U.S. rules designed to protect investors by failing to disclose all the foreign exchange fees it was charging to clients of its investment advisory services between May 2016 and July 2020, the SEC said in a statement.

Merrill told clients that it charged a markup or markdown on foreign currency exchanges, but it did not disclose an additional fee, the SEC said. The firm also did not adopt and implement policies aimed at preventing such misleading disclosures, it said.

A spokesperson for Merrill, which did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings, noted that the firm has updated its disclosures.

Merrill charged advisory clients about $4.2 million in undisclosed fees known as “production credits” on over 15,000 foreign currency exchanges, the SEC said in a filing.

To settle the charges, the firm agreed to pay a civil penalty of $4.8 million and to give up ill-gotten gains of $4.1 million plus prejudgment interest, the SEC said.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Mark Porter and Anna Driver)

By Blake Brittain

(Reuters) -Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co convinced an Ohio federal judge on Friday to throw out a $64 million jury verdict over its alleged theft of trade secrets related to self-inflating tires.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi said most of the trade secrets that Czech company Coda Development SRO accused Goodyear of stealing were too vague to be legally protected.

An attorney for Coda said the company was disappointed with the decision and plans to appeal.

A spokesperson for Goodyear said Monday that the company agrees with the decision and “respects the intellectual property rights of others.”

Coda sued Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear in 2015, and said in an amended 2019 complaint that Goodyear copied Coda CEO Frantisek Hrabal’s technology to keep tires inflated with an internal tube, after discussing a potential collaboration in 2009 for General Motors Co’s Chevy Volt.

A jury decided last year that Goodyear misappropriated five of the 12 trade secrets Coda accused it of misusing. It awarded Coda $2.8 million in compensatory damages and $61.2 million in punitive damages for Goodyear’s “willful and malicious” behavior.

But Lioi said Friday that four of the five secrets – related to Coda’s design, development and placement of self-inflating tire pumps – were not specific enough to be considered protectable trade secrets.

Lioi said Coda’s fifth alleged secret, related to developing a functional self-inflating tire, was “no secret at all” because the concept was not new in 2009.

The case is Coda Development SRO v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, No. 5:15-cv-01572.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)

By Clara Denina and Pratima Desai

LONDON (Reuters) -putting down for author to review and revise -dg

Copper and zinc miner Teck Resources on Monday rejected an unsolicited $22.5 billion bid from Glencore Plc, citing reluctance to expose its shareholders to thermal coal, oil, LNG and related sectors.

New York-listed shares of Teck jumped 19.6% on Monday, their largest daily rise in two years. London-listed shares of Glencore closed down 2.6%.

Glencore’s all-share offer represents a 20% premium to Teck’s closing stock price on March 26, when the bid was made privately. The proposal includes a plan to simultaneously spin off the companies’ thermal and steelmaking coal businesses and rebrand the remaining company as GlenTeck.

Glencore Chief Executive Gary Nagle, asked in a conference call with investors if a sweetened deal was possible, said: “We should not be talking about that. This is not a takeover, but a merger.”

Some analysts saw room for a higher offer.

“We do see a compelling strategic rationale for this combination,” said Chris LaFemina, an analyst at Jefferies. “Based on Glencore’s response, we believe a higher offer is likely. However, based on the Teck press release… it is not clear that a modestly higher price is all that is necessary.”

Teck said it worries any combination of the two companies would expose its shareholders to Glencore’s large thermal coal business, an unwanted oil trading business and significant jurisdictional risk, all of which would reduce its value.

“The board is not contemplating a sale of the company at this time,” Teck Chair Sheila Murray said in a letter to Glencore’s board.

Teck said more value could be created through a restructuring proposed earlier this year in which the Vancouver-based miner would spin off its steelmaking coal unit to focus on copper and other industrial metals. A vote on this proposal is scheduled for April 26. 

After the separation, Teck’s metal-focused unit plans to be known as Teck Metals Corp, while the divested unit would be listed in Toronto as Elk Valley Resources Ltd.

Teck believes its base metals business, once fully independent, would have a much better chance of attracting a competitive bid than the company in its current form, according to a source familiar with management’s thinking.

Addenda Capital, which holds about 1% of Teck’s shares, said it supports Teck’s existing plans. “The (Glencore) bid is too low for us to have any interest,” Addenda’s Todd Kapala told Reuters.

Analysts at Scotiabank said they believe the chances of any deal with Glencore to be “extremely low.”

“We view the Glencore offer as an opportunistic bid designed to take advantage of the current dislocation in Teck shares related to the proposed near-term business separation,” they said.

Canada’s Keevil family controls Teck through its dominant ownership of ‘A’ class of shares, which have more voting power than the numerous ‘B’ class shares held by institutions, could make any further merger discussion hard.

Norman Keevil, chairman emeritus of Teck Resources, agreed with Teck’s rejection of Glencore’s offer.

“Now is not the time to explore a transaction of this nature, and I have the utmost confidence in the board’s and our management teams’ strategy to maximize value for … shareholders after the separation,” Keevil said.

This is not the first time Glencore and Teck have talked about a possible spinoff and merger of their coal businesses. Informal discussions in 2020 broke down.

Glencore’s Nagle said that under this proposed deal, the new GlenTeck would be listed in London and could produce around 3 million tonnes of copper annually, making it one of the world’s largest miner of the red metal used in rechargeable batteries and charging stations for electric vehicles.

Copper assets are major targets for mining companies hunting for minerals needed for the energy transition.

The merged coal company would be primarily listed in New York, Nagle said, based on the feedback received from investors and appetite for such a company there.

Nagle added that he did not envisage major antitrust issues.

(Reporting by Clara Denina, Pratima Desai, Divya Rajagopal, Ankit Kumar, David Carnevali and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Tomasz Janowski, Ernest Scheyder, Paul Simao, Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)