Category: 3. Business

Oct 31 (Reuters) – Central Bancompany said on Friday that it was targeting a valuation of up to $5.72 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, in a rare move for a U.S. bank looking for a fresh flotation.

The Jefferson City, Missouri-based lender is looking to raise as much as $426.7 million by offering 17.8 million shares priced between $21 and $24 each and reinforcing a strong demand for IPOs in the market.

Sign up here.

However, a government shutdown in October has pulled the brakes on appetites for IPOs, hindering activity with short-term delays.

“The United States government shutdown took the Securities and Exchange Commission offline at exactly the wrong time, like a DJ walking away mid-drop,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. bank IPOs have been rare, as tighter regulations, rising compliance costs and market volatility reduced the appeal of public listings.

“For banking and finance specialists that have seen their pool grow smaller through M&A (and the occasional bellyflop), this will be a welcome addition,” Schulman said.

Central Bancompany has total balance sheet assets of $19.2 billion and wealth assets under advice of $15.4 billion, serving consumers and businesses in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Florida.

Morgan Stanley and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods are the joint lead book-running managers for the offering.

Central Bancompany intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “CBC”.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

He proudly celebrates his upcoming 20th anniversary at Leonardo. Having joined the company as a graduate student in Electronic Engineering at the University of Genoa, writing a thesis on security applied to networking equipment, 43-year-old electronic engineer Enrico Giacobbe has held numerous positions, from developing products for defence and space to providing security services for institutions and critical infrastructure, prior to his current role as Head of Global Cyber Consultancy & Advisory. This is a high responsibility role, leading a team of about 100 people in Italy and abroad, which designs and manages security solutions for over 160 customers worldwide.

“The Global CyberSec Center manages end-to-end security for the Division’s customers, carrying out projects and providing services ranging from predictive analysis, protection and real-time monitoring to cyber incident response. Leonardo‘s work is crucial for protecting strategic assets, including critical data and infrastructure, for the benefit of public administrations, institutions and companies,” explains Enrico. In a context of hybrid threats and geopolitical upheavals, the work carried out by this international team guarantees security for numerous organisations.

This sector is rapidly growing, which is why Leonardo has developed a targeted programme for recruiting young talent with STEM training. “We are looking for talented young people who are capable, passionate and motivated by desire to learn, become professionals and grow within the company: this is why we consider our collaboration with Higher Technical Institutes (ITS) and universities to be very fruitful. I tell new recruits about my career path, because I understand the uncertainties and doubts of those in their twenties who are taking their first steps in a large company. But,” Enrico adds, “as it was for me, there are many opportunities at Leonardo: it is a company that allows you to gain important international experience and that values people who are committed to achieving short- and long-term goals with competence and a strong sense of responsibility.”

Enrico’s suitcase is always packed and ready to meet clients and partners in Italy and Europe: “I obtained a diploma in electronics and a degree in electronic engineering, and then went on to work in cybersecurity with a business perspective.” Half-jokingly, he adds: “One of two things: am I a boring person? I would say, rather, a consistent person.”

Pfizer is suing over some unsolicited competition in its nearly $5 billion bid to buy the drugmaker Metsera.

New York-based Pfizer said Friday after markets closed that it was suing Metsera and a third drugmaker, Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, over a bid for Metsera that Novo announced Thursday.

Novo said it planned to buy Metsera in a deal that could be worth up to $9 billion, and Metsera said the offer appeared to be superior to Pfizer’s bid, which was announced in September.

Metsera Inc. has no products on the market, but it is developing potential oral and injectable treatments. That includes some potential treatments that could target lucrative fields for obesity and diabetes.

Novo already has the treatments Wegovy and Ozempic on the market in those respective categories.

Pfizer said the offer from Novo cannot be considered superior to its bid because it carries significant regulatory risk that makes it unlikely to be completed.

Pfizer, which ended development of a potential pill to treat obesity this spring, also said Novo’s offer represents “an illegal attempt by a company with a dominant market position to suppress competition.”

Representatives of both Novo and Metsera did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Sign up here.

First Guaranty said it has a $52 million credit exposure tied to commercial lease financing to entities related to an unnamed auto parts manufacturer that declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy during the third quarter.

“We are continuing to monitor our loan portfolio and are working to de-risk the bank,” CEO Michael Mineer said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

“We are monitoring all events related to our large recent issue and will continue to assess our reserve and are working in conjunction with our servicer of the lease.”

The lender did not respond to Reuters’ request for the name of the bankrupt auto parts maker.

Provision for credit losses vaulted to $47.9 million in the quarter from $4.9 million a year earlier.

First Guaranty’s shares fell another 1.2% on Friday, following a 17.5% plunge in the previous session to a seven-month low. On Thursday, the lender released its quarterly call report, a regulatory filing that provides details about the bank’s financial health.

The bank’s stock is down 42.3% year-to-date.

“We have taken proactive steps to reserve against the credit, given the current known facts. We anticipate further clarification of our position in the fourth quarter,” Mineer said in a statement.

“For the time being, we will retain the high level of reserve against these commercial lease credits.”

The bank swung to a net loss of $45 million, or $3.01 per share, in the three months ended September 30, versus a net profit of $1.9 million, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier.

It booked a $12.9 million goodwill impairment charge in the quarter, as its stock trades below book value and higher provisions.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Italian prosecutors ordered the seizure of around €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in shares from the holding company that controls the drinks maker Davide Campari-Milano NV, as part of an alleged tax-fraud probe, according to a statement late Friday.

The order from Monza’s prosecutor office, carried out by the finance police, targets alleged unpaid taxes on assets moved abroad.

Berlin’s main airport briefly suspended flights late Friday after drone sightings, the latest in a string of such incidents across Europe.

Multiple flights into Berlin Brandenburg Airport were diverted to other airports in Germany, starting at about 9 p.m. local time according to the airport’s website. A British Airways plane on approach into the airport was redirected to Dresden, while an EasyJet flight from Paris was sent to Hanover.

US businesses are literally going penniless.

Since the Trump administration ended minting the one-cent coins earlier this year, those still in circulation are becoming harder to find. Many stores are now rounding their cash sales down to the nearest five cents, saying there are no federal guidelines on how to proceed.

“That adds up really quickly,” said Dylan Jeon, senior director of government relations with the National Retail Federation

In February, President Donald Trump said producing the coin was wasteful and too expensive and called on social media to “rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time”.

The US Mint officially stopped making pennies in May. The Treasury Department estimated shortages would start in early 2026, but they actually came much sooner. Banks can’t get pennies from the federal government, so businesses can’t get them from the banks.

“We first heard about the issue in late August, early September,” Mr Jeon said. “It’s really impacting any business that deals with cash payments.”

Now store clerks don’t know what to do when their tills are bare and someone needs change in pennies from a cash purchase.

The temporary solution for many, Mr Jeon said, is rounding the price of the sale up or down to the nearest five cents so the customer can use a nickel, the next lowest tender in the US.

But some cities, including New York, require retailers to give exact change and others don’t allow cash payments to differ from card payments for the same item, Mr Jeon said.

To avoid lawsuits and customer complaints, many retailers have chosen to just round down.

“You’re talking about losing up to four cents for every cash transaction across multiple stores across the country,” he said. “It’s unsustainable.”

Many stores are now urging customers to pay in exact change. Others are hosting promotions for customers to bring in extra pennies they have at home.

Convenience stores are some of the hardest hit by the shortage, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Convenience giant Kwik Trip has announced it is rounding down to the nickel, which it says will cost it up to $3m (£2.3m) this year.

American coins have been discontinued before, including the half-cent, three-cent and 20-cent pieces that were retired in the 1800s, Mr Lenard said. It’s been many years, though, since a staple like the penny – which entered ciruclation in 1793 – has ceased production.

“People don’t want the penny until they can’t get it back in change,” he said.

It costs nearly four cents to make a penny.

But keeping the zinc and copper coins in circulation will help lower-income Americans who primarily pay in cash, said Mark Weller, executive director of Americans for Common Cents.

“These are people that don’t have the access to checking accounts and charge cards and banking services,” he said. “You hurting lower-income groups when you start rounding transactions.”

He also thinks the government savings from not producing pennies will be offset by the need for more nickels, which are worth five cents but cost nearly 14 cents to make.

People watching the penny world believe there needs to be federal guidance for both businesses and shoppers on rounding, how to carry out transactions during the shortage, and generally what to do with the coins.

“There will always be pennies out there, it’s just such a low-utilisation coin,” said Mr Jeon. “People forget about them in their pockets, they lose them in their couch, they’re sitting in jars. Those are coins that aren’t making it into circulation.”

Summary

A technical assistance mission visited the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI) of Peru during February 3–7, 2025. The objective of the mission was to review, assess, analyze, and validate the results of the Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA) and Air Emissions Accounts (AEA) for 2019 and discuss dissemination strategies, and guidelines for preparing metadata and data releases of these accounts. The Covid-19 Pandemic affected the availability and timeliness of the source data for compiling the accounts. The accounts for 2019 are being developed as a learning exercise and will be published as experimental accounts in May 2025. The time series up to 2023 will be compiled as soon as the new data is available. This mission was conducted with support from the Switzerland State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) under a two-year “Environmental and Climate Change Statistics Capacity Development Program” to assist countries in designing and implementing programs for developing timely and internationally comparable statistics that can help in formulating policies to address the environmental, financial, economic, and social implications of climate change. This mission also provided recommendations for improvement as needed, in particular, on the adjustments for residence principle. The mission provided hands-on assistance to make residence adjustments on land, water and air transport operated, both on PEFA and AEA, using national accounts data on transport as well as the data on air transport from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Most of the adjustments were incorporated to the accounts on site. The mission also discussed guidelines for preparing the publication of the results of the accounts and their respective metadata. The objective is that by May 2025, the country would release the first set of experimental indicators that can be used for broader stakeholder engagement and for setting up a mechanism for regular production of the accounts. To accomplish this, additional human resources need to be allocated to the compilation of the PEFA and the AEA. The present mission reaffirmed the need to enhance communication, collaboration and coordination among data producing agencies and implement data sharing. To support progress in the above work areas, the mission recommended the following priority recommendations to compile PEFA and AEA: Use the data from the supply and use table of the national accounts and the balance of payments to finalize the adjustments of transport services; publish the results and metadata of the PEFA and the AEA for 2019; and update the AEA for 2019 and compile the accounts for 2020 and 2021 when the inventory data are available in March 2025. Compile the PEFA 2020–2022, as energy balances for those years are already available.

Subject:

Climate change,
Environment,
Greenhouse gas emissions,
National accounts,
Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA),
Public financial management (PFM)

Keywords:

Air Emissions,
Climate change,
Climate policy,
Climate.,
Energy,
Environment,
Greenhouse gas emissions,
Human capital,
National accounts,
Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

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

Canada has announced 25 critical minerals investments and partnerships with allies as it races to develop C$6.4bn (US$4.6bn) worth of projects to counter China’s dominance of the global trade.

The government on Friday announced the investments and offtake agreements, which would underpin the projects, following two days of talks in Toronto with other G7 countries.

Canada’s energy minister Tim Hodgson said Ottawa would use the country’s Defence Production Act to stockpile critical minerals. The move echoes the US’s use of national security legislation to strengthen its domestic supplies.

“This enables Canada to launch our own defence stockpiling regime, and to support multilateral stockpiling efforts,” Hodgson said.

G7 nations met this week in Toronto to develop a so-called buyers club as part of a critical minerals production alliance that seeks to restore multilateralism at a time when countries such as Australia and Japan have negotiated rare earth deals with the US.

The announcements come as Canada tries to position itself as a crucial supplier to western economies that have grown concerned about China’s stranglehold on rare earth and critical minerals supplies.

US President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping struck a deal earlier this week to settle a dispute over Beijing’s restrictions on exports of rare earths, minerals critical to global manufacturers, in particular defence. But the agreement is for one year only and leaves China as the dominant supplier.

The White House has stepped up its buying of critical minerals, which are vital for smartphones, electric vehicles and fighter jets.

The EU is also racing to develop stockpiling strategies as anxieties remain about China’s control of supply chains.

Dan Jørgensen, the European commissioner for energy and housing, said fostering international co-operation on critical raw materials among G7 countries was an important development.

“Responsible and secure supply chains are a shared strategic asset, not a competitive zero-sum game,” he said on Friday.

Canada’s critical minerals investments come as part of its increased Nato defence spending commitments, which Trump has criticised as too low.

According to the announcement, Norway’s Vianode would build a multibillion-dollar synthetic graphite plant in Ontario to supply anode materials for EV batteries while Rio Tinto’s scandium plant in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, also secured multilateral support.

As part of the deal Canada will guarantee to buy the producers’ output at a pre-determined price, helping to guarantee a return on upstream investment.

Nouveau Monde Graphite has acquired offtake arrangements with Japan’s Panasonic and Luxembourg-based Traxys, as well as a pledge of investment from the Canadian and Japanese governments.

Ottawa has also sought to spur more critical minerals mining in some of Canada’s deposits across the country.

Earlier this month, Teck Resources said it was in talks with the US and Canada about supplying minerals used in defence.

Hodgson told the G7 conference this week: “We’ve been working closely with Teck to expand capacity at their Trail smelter in British Columbia to produce niche minerals like germanium and gallium and antimony, where mechanisms like stockpiling or floor pricing will be necessary to proceed to a construction decision.”

China dominates the supply chain for rare earths and imposed sweeping export controls this year that escalated tensions.

Additional reporting from Camilla Hodgson in London