Tausi Insider

Robert Iger arrives at the world premiere of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," in Los Angeles, on Dec. 16, 2019. Jordan Strauss/The Associated Press The Walt Disney Company announced late Sunday that former CEO Bob Iger would return to head the company for two years in a move that surprised the entertainment industry. Disney said Bob Chapek, who succeeded Iger in 2020, had stepped down from the position. “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period,” board Chair Susan Arnold said in a statement from Disney. Arnold thanked Chapek for his service, including his time during “the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.” Iger steered Disney through its absorption of Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel and Fox’s entertainment businesses and the launch of Disney Plus. Earlier this month, Disney posted lower than expected results for its fiscal fou...

A Disney store in New York, on Dec. 5, 2019. NICHOLAS PFOSI/Reuters Bob Iger is returning to Walt Disney Co DIS-N as chief executive less than a year after he retired, a surprise comeback that coincides with the entertainment company’s attempt to boost investor confidence and profits at its streaming media unit. Iger, 71, who was chief executive for 15 years and retired as chairman last year, has agreed to serve as CEO for two more years effective immediately, Disney said in a statement late on Sunday. He will replace Bob Chapek, who took over as Disney CEO in February 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, leading to park closures and restrictions on visitors globally. Disney shares surged more than 9 per cent in premarket U.S. trading, valuing the company at about $182-billion. The Frankfurt-listed stock jumped as much as 10 per cent in European trading on Monday, set for its best day in almost two years. “Maybe the old hand on the tiller is what’s required,” said Markets.com anal...

Bay Street bankers who were bracing for major cuts to year-end bonuses can expect some delay to their disappointment, but the respite will likely be brief. Despite a dramatic drop in deal flow and volatile market conditions, compensation experts say a tight labour market and strong merger and acquisition activity in the mining and energy sectors have offset the need for outsized cuts to annual payments made in early December. While broadly expected to be lower than the massive bonuses paid out in 2021 amid a frenzy of deal-making, the more draconian cuts that bankers have been fearing are much more likely to come next year, especially if Canada’s economy enters a recession. “The guidance that senior managers are giving the investment bankers on their teams is that it has still been a good year and they can still expect a very decent year-end number,” said Adam Dean, founder of financial services recruitment firm Dean Executive Search. “To others on the Street, that might be surprisin...

The federal government posted a surplus of $1.7-billion during the first six months of the 2022-23 fiscal year. In its monthly fiscal monitor, the finance department says the surplus between April and September compares to a deficit of $68.6-billion reported for the same period last year. Compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year, government revenues were up $32.8-billion, or 18.6 per cent, as revenue streams continue to improve. Program expenses were also down $40.3-billion, or 17.9 per cent, largely due to the expiration of COVID-19 measures. Higher interest rates and inflation have driven up the cost of public debt charges by $5.6-billion, or 47.8 per cent, compared to the same period last year. Net actuarial losses were down $2.8-billion, or 36.1 per cent. https://www.tausiinsider.com/federal-government-posts-1-7-billion-surplus-for-april-to-september-period/?feed_id=332692&_unique_id=64626145abb7a

A passenger makes their way through Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The percentage of cancelled and delayed flights at Canadian airports has declined since the summer, but remains elevated. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press Air passenger volume this holiday season is poised to reach prepandemic standards, but whether Canadians are in for the normal level of peak travel stress or a repeat of the mayhem that unfolded across the country’s major airports over the summer remains unclear. Despite a slew of backlog-busting initiatives by airport authorities, some experts still see a significant risk of widespread cancellations and delays. John Gradek, co-ordinator of McGill University’s aviation management program, points to a “very real possibility” of holiday flight cancellations if airlines’ travel schedules turn out to be more ambitious than what airports can handle. While the percentage of cancelled and delayed flights at Canadian airports has declined since the summer, it r...

The early results are in for Cyber Week retail sales, and they show the pre-holiday online blitz was a washout with Canadian shoppers – another sign the consumer side of Canada’s economy may be hitting a wall. Online sales in Canada during Cyber Week, a marketing term that refers to the period surrounding U.S. Thanksgiving, dropped 8 per cent from last year and capped a month of disappointing online shopping, according to Salesforce, which specializes in sales management software for retailers. Globally, Cyber Week sales rose 2 per cent to US$281-billion, the firm said, while U.S. shoppers pushed online sales up 9 per cent during the period. A couple of factors could be at play in the weak Canadian results. Cyber Week, like its marketing cousin Black Friday, has been losing some of its lustre, with retailers offering similar deals at other times – often, confusingly, under the same banners. And, as the pandemic has waned, shoppers have abandoned their keyboards for the experience of ...

More than half of Chinese say they will put off travel abroad, for periods from several months to more than a year, even if borders reopened tomorrow, a study showed on Tuesday, a sign that consumer recovery from COVID-19 measures will take time. Mainland China retains some of the world’s most stringent measures on PCR testing and quarantine for international travellers, despite some domestic easing of curbs after last month’s unprecedented COVID-19 protests. Fear of infection with the disease was the top concern of those saying they would postpone travel in a survey of 4,000 consumers in China by consultancy Oliver Wyman, with worries about changes to domestic re-entry guidelines in second place. “People have become cautious,” said Imke Wouters, a retail and consumer goods partner at the firm. “So even when they can travel, we don’t think they will come back right away.” As many as 51 per cent of those surveyed plan to delay international travel. And when they do, short-haul destina...

An H&M store in New York, on Nov. 15, 2019. Mike Segar/Reuters Shares in H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, fell almost 6 per cent on Thursday as net sales for the September-November quarter failed to match a recent pick up in some analysts’ expectations. H&M, which has struggled to keep up with bigger rival Zara, last month became the first big European retailer to lay off staff in response to the cost-of-living crisis as it tries to save 2 billion Swedish crowns ($196-million) a year. Net sales for September-November, H&M’s fiscal fourth quarter, rose 10 per cent to 62.5 billion Swedish crowns ($6.1-billion), up from 56.8 billion crowns a year ago. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had on average forecast 62.17 billion crowns. “This is a slightly disappointing update in the context of expectations which had drifted higher in recent weeks amid somewhat better market data from Germany and Sweden,” said J.P. Morgan analysts in a research note. “Furthermore, w...

Maxar Technologies Inc MAXR-T, a provider of high-resolution satellite images of the Ukraine war, said on Friday private-equity firm Advent International will buy the satellite owner and operator for about $4-billion. Advent has offered $53 per Maxar share held, a premium of nearly 129 per cent to the stock’s last close. Maxar’s shares jumped nearly 121 per cent in early trading. Westminster, Colorado-based Maxar has more than 90 satellites in orbit that provide communications, imagery and data to customers including the U.S government, Intelsat and SiriusXM. The company is also involved with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Artemis program to return to the moon. Advent has invested nearly $28-billion in defense, security and cybersecurity in the last three years, with its portfolio companies supporting many satellite and defense platforms and serving the U.S. government and its allies. The Maxar deal is valued at $6.4-billion, including debt, and is expected to cl...

Hexo Corp. HEXO-T says its most recent quarter delivered a $52.1-million net loss as the cannabis company purged unprofitable products and streamlined its business. The Gatineau, Que.-based firm’s first quarter net loss compared with a net loss of more than $116.9-million a year earlier. The loss for the period ended Oct. 31 amounted to a net loss of nine cents per basic and diluted share compared with a net loss of 46 cents per basic and diluted share a year prior. Net revenue in the quarter totalled $35.8-million, down from $50.2-million in the same period last year. Hexo’s financial results were released at the same time as it announced a share consolidation that will combine 14 common shares into one share. Hexo says the consolidation is expected to take place around Dec. 19 and will affect Hexo’s listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. https://www.tausiinsider.com/cannabis-company-hexo-reports-52-1-million-net-loss-in-second-quarter-announces-share-consolidation...

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 30, 2015 a logo is seen outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. - The International Monetary Fund board on February 4, 2019 approved a $2 billion loan payment to Egypt, the latest in the country's three-year aid program. The latest installment brings the total paid to Cairo to about $10 billion since the loan deal was signed in November 2016. The previous loan tranche was approved in July of last year but this fourth review of Egypt's program had been awaiting board approval since October, when IMF staff and government officials had finalized it. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images The International Monetary Fund has approved a deal that will provide a $3 billion support package to cash-strapped Egypt over a period of almost four years, with the agreement expected to draw in an additional $14 billion in financing for the Middle...

U.S. retail sales rose 7.6% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, which encompasses a majority of the holiday season, as steep discounts lured deal-hungry consumers, a Mastercard report showed on Monday. The increase is higher than the 7.1% growth Mastercard had forecast in September, when it anticipated consumers would pull purchases to October in the hunt for early deals. However, this year’s holiday retail sales growth is less than the 8.5% increase last year as decades-high inflation, rising interest rates and the threat of a recession turned consumers cautious. Retailers including Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc in the United States offered large discounts during the holiday season to get rid of excess stock and bring back inventories to normal levels. That led to strong demand for everything from toys to electronics during the five-day-long period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. However, sales of electronics dropped 5.3% over the broader roughly two-month period, according to the ...

Germany has enough gas to get through the current winter season without the risk of a supply emergency, the head of the country’s network regulator told weekly Bild am Sonntag, adding the focus was now on the 2023-24 period. “I don’t expect something to go wrong this winter,” Klaus Mueller was quoted as saying, adding Germany’s gas storage facilities would likely be more than 50-per-cent full once the winter season ends. Currently, levels stand at 90.97 per cent. “We are now focusing on the next winter.” Mr. Mueller said gas prices, which soared during 2022 but have recently come down again, had reached a “plateau” level that would persist for the next one to two years. But he added that three risk factors might bring prices back up: colder temperatures in the upcoming winter season, higher gas demand in China and the vulnerability of gas infrastructure, referring to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. https://www.tausiinsider.com/germanys-energy-regulator-says-winter-gas-...

U.S. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador meet for the North American Leaders' Summit at the White House in Washington, in November, 2021. JONATHAN ERNST/Reuters For many years, Canada and Mexico remained economic strangers despite being partners in North American free trade – both deeply tied to the U.S., but with few direct connections to each other. But that dynamic has changed ahead of a Three Amigos summit in Mexico this week, which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend with his counterparts. Canadian companies have in recent years become some of Mexico’s most important foreign investors. In the first nine months of 2022, the latest period for which statistics are available, Canada was the second-largest source of foreign direct investment in Mexico, ahead of Spain. Canadian companies invested US$3-billion in that period – 9.5 per cent of the total. Foreign investment flows can fluctuate widely...

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 30, 2015 a logo is seen outside the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. - The International Monetary Fund board on February 4, 2019 approved a $2 billion loan payment to Egypt, the latest in the country's three-year aid program. The latest installment brings the total paid to Cairo to about $10 billion since the loan deal was signed in November 2016. The previous loan tranche was approved in July of last year but this fourth review of Egypt's program had been awaiting board approval since October, when IMF staff and government officials had finalized it. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images The International Monetary Fund has approved a deal that will provide a $3 billion support package to cash-strapped Egypt over a period of almost four years, with the agreement expected to draw in an additional $14 billion in financing for the Middle...