Flash Briefing: WBHO shares drop 17%; Levi’s to relist; EU to make Brexit concessions

By Alec Hogg

In today’s global business headlines:

• With just six weeks to go before Brexit is enacted, the European Union is reportedly preparing to make further concessions. This is being done in an effort to help British Prime Minister Theresa May win Parliamentary approval for her deal. The Wall Street Journal quotes sources in Brussels who say EU leaders are losing confidence in Mrs May’s capacity to deliver any agreement, increasing the chances of a no-deal exit that neither side wants. What has now become certain, the newspaper adds, is although the British side hasn’t admitted it: If there is a deal, the UK’s scheduled departure on March 29 will have to be delayed.
• Shares in iconic jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co are set to return to the public markets later this year, more than three decades after delisting. The company said it intends raising $100m, but will structure the share offering to ensure descendants of the inventor of blue jeans would retain control of the business. The company, which was founded in 1853, generates around $5.5bn a year in sales through 50,000 retails outlets and 824 of its own company-operated stores.
• Israeli group Teva Pharmaceutials, the world’s largest maker of generic drugs, is moving into high-price biotech medicines in an attempt to revive its fortunes. Teva, which one in every 10 drugs consumed in the US, has been forced to cut thousands of jobs and shut research facilities in the wake of continued pressure on the prices of generics. It is now to focus its R&D on innovative biologics and biosimilars. South Africa’s generics drug leader, Durban-headquartered Aspen, has also felt the pain of the price squeeze with its share price virtually halving in the last four months.
• In other South African related news, the share price of construction group Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon took a 17% knock yesterday after it warned shareholders that 2018’s profits would be virtually wiped out by a provision for losses in its Australian business. The group said earnings would decline by between 80-100% for the year to end December. The loss relates to under-estimation of the cost of construction works required in its $1.8bn OSAR Western Roads infrastructure project in Australia.