LONDON -Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for about $41 billion, just days after rejecting a seat on the social media company’s board.

Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing on Thursday, represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the last trading day before the Tesla CEO’s more than 9% stake in the company was made public.

Twitter’s shares jumped 12% in premarket trading.

Here is a summary of analyst comments (in alphabetical order):

JESSE COHEN, SENIOR ANALYST AT INVESTING.COM

“Elon Musk’s offer shows that he has very little confidence in current management and does not believe he can drive the necessary change while Twitter is still public, particularly its free speech policies. Now we know the reason behind Musk’s refusal to join the board.”

“Given the likelihood that Twitter’s board will reject the offer, the question then becomes whether Musk would want to perform a hostile takeover of the company.”

MICHAEL HEWSON, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST AT CMC MARKETS

“The big question for the Twitter board now is whether to accept a very generous offer for a business that has been a serial underperformer and tends to treat its users with indifference.

“Twitter has also come under increasing criticism for its arbitrary censoring of accounts that don’t adopt a particular political narrative, as well as the arbitrary nature of how it verifies users, and deals with fake accounts, over genuine users.

“From customer service to the monetisation of its user base, Twitter has been a serial underperformer for some time. Maybe a shaking up of the status quo wouldn’t be a bad thing!

“Whatever your feelings on Musk, he would certainly shake things up, with the only question as to whether he would make things worse or improve them.”

BEN LAIDLER, GLOBAL MARKETS STRATEGIST AT ETORO

“Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share is a punchy 38% higher than when he disclosed his initial stake but is still 30% below the share price highs of last year. This opens a battle for control between new CEO Parag Agrawal, who is trying to engineer a company turnaround, and Musk’s view that Twitter will ‘neither thrive nor serve (its) societal imperative in its current form’.”

VICTORIA SCHOLAR, HEAD OF INVESTMENT AT INTERACTIVE INVESTOR

“This is a deeply hostile move from Elon Musk who has threatened to ‘reconsider’ his 9.2% stake in the company if his 100% acquisition offer is rejected. Although Musk has said he’s not playing the ‘back-and-forth game’ the question is whether he would up his offer if it is rejected, which is difficult to predict just like Musk himself.

“If he were to take control of the company there could be some significant changes with a shift in focus away from content moderation and healthy content sharing towards absolute free speech which Musk says is a ‘social imperative’.

“The biggest change however would be that the company would go private, allowing more flexibility and requiring less accountability. Plus we would expect to see the changes Musk outlined over the weekend including allowing users to pay with dogecoin and cutting the price of the Twitter Blue premium service.”

(Reporting by Samuel Indyk; Compiled by Saikat Chatterjee)

(Reuters) -Miner Barrick Gold, said on Thursday first-quarter production fell 17.7% from the previous three months, hurt by lower output at its Carlin and Cortez mines in Nevada.

Barrick said gold output was lower at its Carlin and Cortez mines due to depletion of stockpiled higher grade underground ore after the mechanical mill failure at a roaster facility, which processes the gold ore, in the second quarter last year.

The Carlin and Cortez mines are part of Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture between Barrick and Newmont Corp.

The company, which is scheduled to release its first-quarter results on May 4, said the average market price for gold in the quarter was $1,877 per ounce, up from $1,795 per ounce in the prior quarter.

Barrick said it expects the company’s all-in sustaining costs (AISC) for gold, a key industry metric, to be 19% to 21% higher from the fourth quarter, while AISC for copper is expected to be 1% to 3% lower.

Miners have been hit hard by a pandemic-led rise in expenses as they implement prevention measures to ensure the safety of workers and surrounding communities, with supply-chain issues due to global restrictions on movement adding to their woes.

Barrick said its gold production in 2022 is expected to increase through the year, while copper production is expected to be higher in the second half.

The company’s copper production during the quarter was 101 million pounds, down 19.84% from the previous quarter, hurt by lower output at its Lumwana mine, while total preliminary gold production was down 17.7% at 990 million ounces.

Analysts on an average expected gold production of 1.025 million ounces, according to Refinitiv IBES.

U.S.-listed shares of the company, which have gained nearly 34% so far this year, were down 0.9% in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

(Reuters) – Profits at Ma Hong’s spicy hotpot restaurant have been squeezed by about a fifth since he opened in downtown Beijing last year, crushed by beef tripe prices that have shot up by more than 50% and the surging costs of other key ingredients.

“We sell it at the same price as before. Also with the impact of the pandemic, everybody is hanging in there. It is the same all over Beijing, we are not the only restaurant suffering,” Ma said.

Asian restaurants and street food hawkers like Ma’s face the tough choice of taking the hit from higher costs or passing them on and risk losing loyal customers.

Spiralling prices for ingredients and material that started with supply chain snags during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now being propped up by the war in Ukraine are squeezing businesses and consumers.

Households in Asia, where tasty and affordable street food is an integral part of society and the economy, are feeling the pressure the most.

Mohammad Ilyas, a cook at a biryani store in Karachi, Pakistan, said the price of a kilogram of the seasoned rice dish, enough to feed three to four people, has doubled to 400 Pakistani rupees ($2.20). 

“I have been working at this kitchen for the last 15 years,” he said. “These days prices of rice and spices have gone up so much that poor people can’t afford to eat it.”

Some businesses are dealing with the cost pressures by cutting portion sizes.

At one of Jakarta’s street food corners, nasi goreng vendor Syahrul Zainullah has reduced his servings of the signature Indonesian fried rice dish rather than raise prices or use lower grade ingredients.

In South Korea, where consumer inflation is at a decade-high, Choi Sun-hwa, a 67-year-old kimchi shop owner, only gets seven heads of cabbage for the price she used to pay for 10.

The spicy fermented cabbage is traditionally served as a free side dish with other meals at Korean eateries, but even that has become an extravagance.

Seo Jae-eun, a customer at Choi’s store, quips kimchi should now be called “keum-chi”, keum being Korean for gold.

“I can’t ask restaurants to give more kimchi these days and it’s too expensive to make my own at home due to high-priced vegetables…so I came here to buy it,” she said.

Choi says she won’t be able to continue if she can’t raise prices.

The price pressures are changing the eating habits of some Asian consumers.

Steven Chang, a 24-year-old service sector worker, is a regular at Just Noodles, a popular ramen store in Taipei but is reconsidering his spending.

“I live away from my parents, so I rely on restaurant food a bit more,” Chang said. “So, I will try to limit eating out and cook at home more.”

($1 = 182.8200 Pakistani rupees)

(Reporting by Thomas Suen in Beijing; Shahab Shahabuddin in Karachi; Dogyun Kim, Daewoung Kim, Minwoo Park, Hyunyoung Yi in Seoul; Johan Purnomo and Heru Asprihanto in Jakarta; Fabian Hamacher in Taipei; Writing by Sam Holmes; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

By Rocky Swift

TOKYO -The owner of Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo on Thursday flagged a big profit drop in China due to COVID-19 restrictions, while its chief executive sounded alarm about the weakening yen’s potential to drive up costs.

Fast Retailing is a rare bellwether for both global retailers in China, its biggest foreign market, and consumer demand in Japan, where it has carved out a dominant position by offering casual clothing to famously price-conscious shoppers.

It and other multi-national retailers are now being forced to deal with lockdown measures in China. Fast Retailing has 863 stores on the mainland and almost 90 outlets in Shanghai, where strict measures, introduced in late March, remain in place to contain the country’s worst outbreak of the pandemic.

McDonald’s and Starbucks, which each have dozens of outlets in Shanghai, have also been impacted as has production for retailers such as H&M, and Nike.

Fast Retailing said it expects revenue declines and a large drop in profit in its Greater China segment in the second half and for the whole of fiscal 2022 due to COVID restrictions.

Sales in the Greater China region, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, were hit in March, as up to 133 stores were temporarily shut.

It has more Uniqlo stores in China than in Japan. It opened a flagship store in Beijing in November, and plans to open in 100 locations in the country each year.

Separately, luxury brand Hermes said it had a strong start of the year in China until the beginning of March and is confident stores closed in Shanghai will reopen quickly.

‘NO MERIT’

But the weakening yen and higher costs have forced Fast Retailing to consider price rises, a major shift for a company that has long competed on price.

“There’s absolutely no merit to a weak yen,” Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai told reporters.

“Japan is engaged in the business of importing raw materials from all over the world, processing them, adding value to them, and selling them. In this context, there is no advantage if the value of a country’s currency weakens.”

The yen has been hammered this year, falling to the weakest level in almost 20 years against the dollar. For many Japanese companies that manufacture offshore – like Fast Retailing – the weak yen is less of a benefit than for traditional exporters.

The company reported a record half-year profit on Thursday, buoyed by sales growth in North America, Europe, and other parts of Asia, while revenue and profit declined in Japan and China.

Operating profit climbed 18% to 189 billion yen ($1.51 billion) in the six months through February from a year earlier.

The company maintained its full-year profit forecast at 270 billion yen. That compares with a consensus forecast for annual profit to total 278 billion yen, according to a Refinitiv poll of 11 analysts.

The Ukraine crisis has created another headwind, leading the company to close its 50 stores in Russia, after it initially resisted calls to exit the market along with other major brands.

Prior to the earnings release, shares in Fast Retailing closed up 2.1%, versus a 1.2% gain in the broader market. But they have fallen nearly 9% so far this year.

($1 = 125.4300 yen)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Miyoung Kim, David Evans, Bradley Perrett and Kim Coghill)

By Simon Jessop

LONDON – BlackRock on Thursday projected that by 2030 at least three quarters of its investments in companies and governments will be tied to issuers with a scientific target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, up from 25% currently.

It was the first time BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager with $9.6 trillion in assets, has said how its portfolio could look in 2030 as far as emissions are concerned, but it remains an expectation rather than a firm target.

The forecast covers emissions tied to 77% of its total assets at the end of September 2021, some $9.5 trillion, but excludes those such as municipal bonds for which there is currently no reliable data.

Setting a 2030 goal is a central requirement for members of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAMI), a sector-wide group of money managers aiming to get to net-zero emissions across their assets. BlackRock joined the NZAMI in March 2021

In Thursday’s statement BlackRock avoided using the word “target”, though, reiterating instead that the pace of change would be determined by the scale of decarbonisation in the real economy and clients’ investment decisions.

“As the transition proceeds and issuers and asset owners continue to position themselves in front of it, we anticipate that by 2030, at least 75% of BlackRock corporate and sovereign assets managed on behalf of clients will be invested in issuers with science-based targets or equivalent,” the statement said.

However, Lara Cuvelier, sustainable investment manager at non-profit Reclaim Finance, said BlackRock needed to use its financial muscle to ensure companies make the cuts in emissions needed to ensure the world hits its climate goal.

“The world’s largest asset manager cannot get away with vaguely defined commitments. It must act with urgency, especially with respect to the fossil fuel expansionists in BlackRock’s portfolio that are leading us to climate catastrophe,” she said in a statement.

The bulk of BlackRock’s assets are in funds that track stock and other indexes, often containing high-emitting companies such as those in the oil and gas sector, although it is launching new climate-aligned products for clients that want to shift.

“BlackRock’s role in the transition is as a fiduciary to our clients. Our role is to help them navigate investment risks and opportunities, not to engineer a specific decarbonization outcome in the real economy,” it said.

Key to that change would be concerted policy action from governments as well as technological advances to help hard-to-abate sectors decarbonise, it added.

“Our clients’ portfolios – which reflect the global economy – cannot reach net zero without sustained and consistent government policy, accelerated technological breakthroughs, and substantial adaptation in corporate business models,” it said.

“These portfolios will reflect the regulatory and legislative choices governments make to balance the need for reliable and affordable energy, and orderly decarbonisation.”

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by David Holmes and David Evans)

By Mimosa Spencer

PARIS -Sales at Birkin bag maker Hermes beat estimates in the first quarter, lifted by strong appetite for its luxury accessories, particularly in the United States and Europe, as the sector powers through turbulence from the war in Ukraine and COVID lockdowns in China.

Hermes, which also sells silk scarves and porcelain tableware, had a strong start of the year in China until the beginning of March, when restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus prompted some store closures, including three in Shanghai, Executive Vice President for Finance Eric du Halgouet told journalists in a call.

“We are confident and hope that these stores in Shanghai will reopen quickly – in any case the fundamentals are excellent in China,” he said.

The French luxury group said revenues at constant exchange rates came rose 27% to 2.8 billion euros ($3.06 billion) in the three months to March, ahead of a consensus forecast of 15%organic growth.

The results confirm “the year is off with a bang,” said Luca Solca, analyst with Bernstein.

Hermes shares rose as much as 4.5% and traded up 1.3% at 0900 GMT.

All divisions clocked double-digit growth, including the leather goods and saddlery activity known for its Birkin and Kelly handbags, which accounts for nearly half of annual sales and reported 15.8% sales growth.

Other divisions grew even more, with ready-to-wear and accessories division up 44% and sales of watches up 62%.

Hermes is in close contact with its 60 employees in Russia, continuing to pay their salaries while providing training and psychological support, du Halgouet said. Some have relocated to countries nearby.

The group last month said it was suspending commercial operations in Russia, closing its three stores in Moscow and putting plans to open one in St. Petersburg on hold. All exports to the country have been halted and Hermes is complying with rules banning sales to sanctioned oligarchs, the executive added.

Production of leather goods, which is based in France, has normalized after COVID-related disruptions at the start of the year, and production of other goods, including porcelain and silk has also increased since January, the finance chief said.

At the end of last year, Hermes missed market forecasts – a rare instance of underperforming rivals – as self-imposed production caps kept the group from meeting demand for its prized handbags.

Hermes limits volume growth in its leather goods production to 6% to 7% annually, preferring to have long waiting lists for its products rather than speed up production.

($1 = 0.9162 euros)

(Reporting by Mimosa SpencerEditing by Tomasz Janowski)