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One big pay package to start: Tesla investors have overwhelmingly backed Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal, hoping that the prospect of the largest payday in corporate history will persuade the billionaire to focus his attention on the electric vehicle maker.

A scoop: The Messina Group, the US political consulting firm run by a former aide of Barack Obama, is seeking to sell off its stake in Global Counsel, the lobbying outfit co-founded by Lord Peter Mandelson.

And another thing: Swiss commodity trader Gunvor said on Thursday that it was scrapping its $22bn bid to buy Lukoil’s overseas assets after the US moved to block the deal.

In today’s newsletter: 

• The chaos of First Brands lands in Houston

• Brighthouse Financial sells . . . finally

• Hong Kong’s lucrative capital flight trade

First Brands: Houston, we have a $1.1bn problem

Bankers and lawyers make millions of dollars a year, but for the rainmakers, the wealth and glamour can’t always make up for the job infringing on their personal lives.

DD’s Amelia Pollard made the trek to Houston for the first in-person courtroom gathering of the claimants in the messy freefall bankruptcy of First Brands, the scandalised Ohio auto parts maker.

Lazard’s Tyler Cowan, the all-important banker to First Brands, was in Paris and expected to testify on Thursday in front of the federal bankruptcy court via video. 

But as the FT saw up close and personal, the chaos of the session over court approval of the final $600mn tranche of a $1.1bn bankruptcy loan was contentious. 

So much so that Cowan had to depart in the France evening for an anniversary dinner before he could address the court, First Brands’ lawyers from Weil, Gotshal & Manges told the judge overseeing the case.

Cowan’s virtual appearance was then dragged into Friday while his Lazard junior colleagues were in the Houston court rerunning spreadsheet models.

Just as well. While some groups such as the official unsecured creditors committee were able to cut deals with the debtor to share future potential litigation proceeds, there were a few remaining creditor holdouts over the loan legalities, with negotiations to continue through the night.

In the meantime, the court and the world got updates on the state of the First Brands business. Interim chief executive Charles Moore, an Alvarez & Marsal executive, had spent the week in Las Vegas for the biggest trade show in “after-market auto parts”.

Moore and other executives have spent the past several weeks triaging the company’s fleet of auto parts brands, including collecting more than 7mn documents and looking through bank account records for hundreds of clients. 

They have also set up a “whistleblowing hotline” for employees in hopes of understanding previous misconduct.

The plan is for the company to keep operating and sell itself to maximise recoveries for all parties, which include on- and off-balance sheet creditors owed $12bn. 

But that will probably require the $1.1bn bankruptcy loan to get approved in the next day or two with various advisers having their weekend plans scrambled.

The new insurance-funded private capital giant 

It was a deal that had hedge funds on the edge of their seats and advisers pulling their hair out. 

The sale of Brighthouse Financial, scooped by the FT in January, had many twists and turns as a handful of private capital giants, including Apollo, TPG, Sixth Street and Carlyle, studied whether they could resuscitate the beleaguered insurer.

Most buyers bowed out after their due diligence uncovered potential headaches, or they were only willing to pay a bargain price for the insurer.

But one relatively small and unheralded bidder emerged as Brighthouse’s most fervent suitor, Aquarian Holdings, a Mubadala Capital-backed, insurance-focused private capital group founded in 2017 by Rudy Sahay, a former executive at Guggenheim. 

Aquarian agreed to pay $70 per share, or $4.1bn, for Brighthouse, confirming an FT scoop last week that the two parties were in advanced talks and days away from a deal.

The buyer had been in months of on-and-off negotiations with Brighthouse that included times when talks froze and other potential buyers such as Sixth Street re-emerged. Many interested watchers and advisers questioned whether Aquarian, which manages $25bn in assets, had the financial wherewithal to buy an insurer about nine times its size. 

Ultimately, with the backing of Mubadala Capital, Aquarian convinced Brighthouse’s advisers Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo that it was good for the money in a deal that will propel the nascent outfit into the big leagues of the nexus between insurance and private capital.

If the transaction closes as planned in 2026, Sahay will oversee an insurance empire with similar if not greater size than those managed by billionaires Todd Boehly and Mark Walter, his mentors at Guggenheim, the pioneer of matching the assets of sleepy life insurance companies with higher-octane private debt investments.

Thursday’s deal, while niche in the greater pantheon of dealmaking, could be the seed of the next big insurance-funded private capital giant. 

But that’s if all goes as planned in Sahay’s efforts to revamp Brighthouse, an insurer spun off by MetLife in 2017, which has drifted for years on public markets. 

The insurance problem gripping Hong Kong

A crucial gauge for Chinese capital leakage has hit an all-time high in Hong Kong this year, in a sign that the world’s largest middle class is looking to move money out of mainland China.

Sales of investment-style insurance reached a record level in Hong Kong in the first half of 2025, according to the territory’s Insurance Authority.

Annualised new premiums in the six months to the end of June were HK$99bn (US$13bn) — the highest recorded by the agency.

Figures on how the Chinese move money out of the country are scarce and insurance sales are seen as a key metric for analysts to understand how mainland investors feel about the local market.

Sales of insurance in Hong Kong are driven in large part by mainland Chinese who have to physically cross the border to purchase US dollar insurance policies and open local bank accounts to pay premiums.

The big beneficiaries of this trade, seen by analysts as a legal form of capital leakage that is tolerated by authorities on a small scale, are the big insurance sellers including AIA, FWD and Prudential.

The giant in the territory is HSBC: 25 cents in every dollar sold goes to HSBC or Hang Seng’s insurance brokers.

Mainlanders making the journey in many cases are looking to hedge their renminbi exposure by holding dollar assets or holding funds offshore. 

They’re also looking to take advantage of the higher interest rates offered in Hong Kong and the US versus mainland China.

It’s great business. One industry executive told DD’s Arjun Neil Alim such deals amounted to 30 to 40 per cent of their company’s sales. Another estimated the proportion of total sales was more than a third. That could be more than HK$33bn — a pretty hefty flight to safety.

Job moves

• Goldman Sachs has tapped 638 people for promotions to become managing directors starting in the new year. The number of women as a percentage of the class fell from 31 per cent two years ago to 27 per cent this year.

• Bank of America has named Peter Luck as chair of UK and Ireland investment banking. James Robertson will head UK corporate and investment banking, while Duncan Stewart and Stephen Little will be co-heads of UK investment banking.  

Smart reads

Red tape Over the past 20 years, Australian banking giant Macquarie Group has transformed itself into a US energy trading powerhouse, Bloomberg reports. But a recent compliance crackdown has slowed it down, leading to an exodus of top traders.

Money driven The New York Times asks, would Elon Musk work harder for $1tn than he would for $1bn?

Fools game? The bidding war over Metsera, a maker of obesity drugs, has only one winner, writes Lex. The hot-headed bidders could be set to benefit least.

News round-up

Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal (FT)

UBS to liquidate funds with substantial First Brands exposure (FT)

Comcast holds talks about buying ITV’s television business (FT)

Novo Nordisk challenges Pfizer to raise offer for obesity biotech (FT)

Sam Altman says OpenAI is not ‘trying to become too big to fail’ (FT)

Three biggest US airlines to cancel hundreds of flights due to government shutdown (FT)

Solar power producer Pine Gate files for bankruptcy (FT)

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

US retailers and hospitality groups are hiring the smallest number of seasonal workers in more than a decade as tariffs and a slowing labour market weigh on holiday sales forecasts.

Jobs site ZipRecruiter said retailers are advertising 8.4 per cent fewer holiday jobs on its site than last year, while postings for temporary hospitality workers fell 12 per cent. Executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas forecast that US employers may hire fewer than 500,000 temporary workers in the last three months of 2025, the lowest total since 2009.

Each autumn, stores such as Walmart, Target and Macy’s typically announce plans to hire hundreds of thousands of temporary staff to stock shelves, run checkouts and bolster warehouse operations during their busiest period of the year. But the reduction in hiring reflects retail industry caution about the approaching holiday shopping season, with US consumers pinched amid persistent inflation and an uncertain economic outlook.

Challenger, Gray released data on Thursday showing US employers cut more than 153,000 jobs in October and more than 1mn this year, with the pace of lay-offs accelerating as consumer and corporate spending declines and AI adoption advances.

Separately, the National Retail Federation’s holiday forecast released on Thursday said sales were expected to grow 3.7 to 4.2 per cent this year, compared with 4.3 per cent in 2024, with seasonal jobs expected to be as much as 40 per cent lower than a year ago. Still, it forecast holiday spending to eclipse $1tn.

Retailer Target said in a statement that it still planned to hire “holiday helpers” in all 50 states, but declined to provide a number, and said it would “first offer our current team members opportunities to work additional hours, if desired” before bringing in new staff. By contrast, last year the company announced it would hire an additional 100,000 workers.

Amazon said it would hire the same 250,000 seasonal workers this year as it did last year.

“Our clients have already told us that it’s going to be anywhere from 10 per cent to 20 per cent reductions” in their seasonal workforces, said Radhika Papandreou, president of the North American division of management consultancy Korn Ferry. “It’s just the world we live in with tariffs, China and just the uncertainty in general. Our clients are being cautious about how much the average consumer is going to want to spend.”

Tokyo – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI, TSE Code: 7011) announced that order intake increased 8.5% year-on-year to ¥3,314.7 billion in the half year ended September 30, 2025. Revenue rose 7.3% year-on-year to ¥2,113.7 billion, resulting in profit from business activities (business profit) of ¥171.5 billion, a 2.1% increase over the previous fiscal year, which represented a profit margin of 8.1%. Profit attributable to owners of parent (net income) was ¥114.9 billion, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year, with a profit margin of 5.4%. EBITDA was ¥229.6 billion, a 2.5% increase over 1H FY2024, with an EBITDA margin of 10.9%.

(billion yen, except where otherwise stated)

1H FY2025 Financial Results	1H FY2024 (Note)	1H FY2025	YoY	YoY%
Order Intake	3,054.6	3,314.7	+260.0	+8.5%
Revenue	1,969.2	2,113.7	+144.4	+7.3%
Profit from Business Activities Profit Margin	168.0 8.5%	171.5 8.1%	+3.4 -0.4 pts	+2.1% –
Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent Profit Margin	107.1 5.4%	114.9 5.4%	+7.7 ±0.0 pts	+7.3% –
EBITDA EBITDA Margin	224.1 11.4%	229.6 10.9%	+5.5 -0.5 pts	+2.5% –
FCF	-85.7	151.0	+236.8	–

(billion yen, except where otherwise stated)

1H FY2025 Financial Results by Segment	Order Intake		Revenue		Business Profit
	1H FY2025	YoY (Note)	1H FY2025	YoY (Note)	1H FY2025	YoY (Note)
Energy Systems (Energy)	1,981.2	+674.5	871.0	+38.8	80.7	-22.4
Plants & Infrastructure Systems (P&I)	490.6	-108.7	415.9	+36.7	44.6	+16.4
Logistics, Thermal & Drive Systems (LT&D)	292.8	-35.9	282.4	-21.4	7.6	+1.3
Aircraft, Defense & Space (ADS)	545.0	-257.0	538.8	+107.1	60.3	+16.3
Others, Corporate & Eliminations (OC&E)	4.9	-12.6	5.4	-16.7	-21.8	-8.3
Total	3,314.7	+260.0	2,113.7	+144.4	171.5	+3.4

• 1H FY2024 results on which YoY figures are based have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the planned sale of ML shares.

　

In Energy, order intake increased by ¥674.5 billion YoY mainly due to continued strong demand in Gas Turbine Combined Cycle (GTCC). Contracts for 23 large frame gas turbine units—up 14 units YoY—were concluded during 1H, the majority of which were from customers in North America and Asia. Revenue increased by ¥38.8 billion YoY; the largest gains were seen in GTCC, which continued to execute its sizeable backlog. Segment business profit decreased by ¥22.4 billion YoY due to one-time charges in Steam Power, which offset strong performance in GTCC from both higher revenue and margins.

In P&I, order intake decreased by ¥108.7 billion YoY due to the absence of large orders booked in the previous fiscal year in Metals Machinery and Machinery Systems. Revenue grew by ¥36.7 billion YoY. Improved margins in Metals Machinery and Machinery Systems helped to raise segment business profit by ¥16.4 billion YoY.

In LT&D, revenue decreased by ¥21.4 billion YoY due to a decline in units sold in Turbochargers and Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) and foreign exchange impact in HVAC. Steady performance in Engines on the back of strong demand in Asia, combined with the rebound from one-time charges associated with a supply chain disruption in Turbochargers during the previous fiscal year, resulted in a ¥1.3 billion YoY increase in segment business profit.

In ADS, order intake decreased by ¥257.0 billion YoY due to a high base effect from large orders booked in Defense & Space during the previous fiscal year. Revenue increased by ¥107.1 billion YoY, mainly in Defense & Space, where steady progress in backlog execution continued. Increased revenue and higher margins in Defense & Space and Commercial Aviation served to increase segment business profit by ¥16.3 billion YoY.

　

FY2025 Earnings Forecast

MHI revised its guidance for the period ending March 31, 2026, increasing the forecasts for order intake and revenue over the previous announcement made on September 30, 2025, based on stronger-than-anticipated performance during 1H. The full-year dividend forecast of 24 yen per share was unchanged from the announcement made on August 5, 2025.

(billion yen, except where otherwise stated)

FY2025 Earnings Forecast	FY2024 Actual (Note)	FY2025 Forecast (9/30 Announcement)	FY2025 Forecast (Revised)	Revised vs. Previous
Order Intake	6,405.1	5,250.0	6,100.0	+850.0
Revenue	4,361.1	4,750.0	4,800.0	+50.0
Profit from Business Activities Profit Margin	354.9 8.1%	390.0 8.2%	390.0 8.1%	– -0.1 pts
Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent Profit Margin	245.4 5.6%	230.0 4.8%	230.0 4.8%	– –
ROE	10.7%	–	10%	–
EBITDA EBITDA Margin	469.9 10.8%	– –	510.0 10.6%	– –
FCF	342.7	–	0.0	–
Dividends	23 yen	–	24 yen	–

• FY2024 results have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the planned sale of ML shares.

　

(billion yen, except where otherwise stated)

FY2025 Earnings Forecast by Segment	Order Intake		Revenue		Business Profit
	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised	Previous	Revised
Energy	2,200.0	3,200.0	1,850.0	2,000.0	240.0	240.0
P&I	900.0	900.0	850.0	850.0	60.0	70.0
LT&D	750.0	600.0	750.0	600.0	40.0	20.0
ADS	1,400.0	1,400.0	1,350.0	1,350.0	140.0	140.0
OC&E	0.0	0.0	-50.0	0.0	-90.0	-80.0
Total	5,250.0	6,100.0	4,750.0	4,800.0	390.0	390.0

　

CFO Message

“The strong growth MHI achieved in the first quarter continued through the first half of this fiscal year, with order intake, revenue, and business profit all up year-on-year, and net income marking an all-time high for the company,” MHI Chief Financial Officer Hiroshi Nishio commented. Nishio continued, “GTCC was our star performer in terms of order intake, booking 23 large frame gas turbine units across North America and Asia. We continue to see high demand for gas turbines particularly in the U.S., where new electricity demand from the data center buildout and other factors are driving capital expenditures at our utility customers. Revenue was up especially in GTCC and Defense & Space, which made excellent progress executing on their sizeable backlogs. Business profit growth was small, but the fact that we were able to beat last year’s figure—despite one-time expenses recognized in Steam Power—reflects the high normalized margins we are achieving today in GTCC and some other businesses.”

“Based on our results through the first half,” Nishio went on, “we have increased our order intake and revenue forecasts due to better-than-expected results in Energy Systems, mainly GTCC. We have maintained the business profit guidance announced on September 30, with continued strength from growing revenue and improving margins in other businesses compensating for one-time expenses in Energy Systems in excess of the initial 20-billion-yen risk buffer and weakness in the remainder of the Logistics, Thermal & Drive Systems segment. MHI’s strong performance despite growing uncertainty in global markets is a testament to our resilience as a company, which has been made possible in part by our continued efforts to evolve our portfolio of businesses. We appreciate the continued support of our shareholders and other stakeholders as we work to meet our full-year commitments during the second half of the fiscal year.”

　

Attachment 1: 1H FY2025 Financial Results

Attachment 2: Presentation Materials of Financial Results

Downloadable PDF of this press release

　

Note regarding forward looking statements:

Forecasts regarding future performance outlined in these materials are based on judgments made in accordance with information available at the time they were prepared. As such, these projections include risk and uncertainty. Investors are recommended not to depend solely on these projections when making investment decisions. Actual results may vary significantly from these projections due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, economic trends affecting the Company’s operating environment, fluctuations in the value of the Japanese yen to the U.S. dollar and other foreign currencies, and trends in Japan’s stock markets. The results projected here should not be construed in any way as a guarantee by the Company.
In response to U.S. tariff policy, the Company is pursuing mitigation strategies focused on cost passthroughs. As of the date of this release, the Company expects any impact on performance to be limited in nature.