0:03

Good morning from the Financial Times. Today

0:05

is Friday, May tenth. This is your

0:07

Ft News briefing. A

0:10

high profile mining deal might

0:12

actually not be dead on

0:14

arrival, and Nippon Steel says

0:16

it wants to push ahead

0:18

with it's acquisition of Us

0:21

Steel. Plus, the most successful

0:23

winners from the pandemic have

0:25

turned into, well losers. I

0:28

think a lot of it is that twenty

0:30

twenty in general was a really bad year

0:32

for most of the stock market say these

0:34

fifty when it's a kind of flicks in

0:36

many ways. I mark filipino it. Here's the

0:38

news you need to start or day. A.

0:51

Potentially huge take over in the

0:53

mining industry might still have some

0:56

life south African shareholders in Anglo

0:58

American or warming up to the

1:00

idea of a bid from it's

1:02

rival be a H P. Last

1:05

month, Bhp proposed a thirty one

1:07

billion pound take over of the

1:09

London listed Anglo Anglo rejected the

1:12

deal, saying it significantly undervalues the

1:14

company. Investors told the Financial Times

1:16

they would need Bhp to sweeten

1:18

it's offer. They want more money,

1:21

they. Were not, though opposed to

1:23

the deal in principle. Bhp,

1:25

you would need to come back with a

1:27

new offer by May. Twenty second according to

1:30

Uk take over rules. Japan's.

1:38

Biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel

1:41

reported annual earnings yesterday.

1:43

They. Reported a decline in profits

1:45

from the previous year, but it

1:48

was actually a less terrible decline

1:50

than the consensus of analysts expected.

1:52

Leo. Lewis is the F T's Asia

1:55

Business Editor. He covers Nippon. And.

1:58

Something that way. On investors

2:00

is this. Bungled. Proposal

2:03

to buy Us steel.

2:05

So this is a near fifteen

2:07

billion dollar deal to buy Us

2:10

steel. That's something that's been in

2:12

the works for a while, and

2:14

Nippon Steel went in assuming that

2:16

that proposal for this acquisition would

2:18

be comparatively straightforward and they reckoned

2:20

obviously without the very heavy politicization

2:22

of the steel both on grounds

2:24

of job security and on national

2:27

security ground and ended up very

2:29

much the eye of the storm

2:31

of what is building up to

2:33

be a very hotly contested presidential

2:35

election. You see,

2:37

Us Steel is located in Pennsylvania.

2:40

It's a major battleground state in

2:42

November's Us. Presidential election to try

2:44

and get votes from workers in

2:46

Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden recently opposed

2:49

the Nippon Steel proposal for Us

2:51

Steel. He said that it's vital

2:53

that the company state domestically owned

2:55

and that's forced Nippon delay closing

2:58

the deal. It

3:00

it's earnings call. The Vice President

3:02

of Nippon Steel was pretty clearly

3:04

acknowledging that this situation has been

3:06

politicized now and they was stating

3:08

look once elections over with it

3:10

this get to go through and

3:13

I mean maybe that's false confidence

3:15

boss. The. Approval that it's

3:17

got from the Us Steel Souders. his

3:19

dad is you. Approval has gone through

3:21

and sona some. So I'm as it

3:23

Nippon Steel belief that once elections over

3:25

this will just sort of disappear. It's

3:28

not just Biden who's opposing this deal, though

3:31

A lot of us lawmakers don't like it,

3:33

either. Which. Raises some tricky

3:35

questions about Us relations with

3:37

Japan's which has historically been

3:39

a really close ally. It's

3:42

really difficult to tease apart the way

3:44

that the Japanese a political set up

3:46

has responded to this. Everything on one

3:49

side was suggesting that the U S

3:51

was doing everything it could to enhance

3:53

it's relationship with Japan and to stress

3:56

how close they are as allies and

3:58

either the still came up and the

4:00

fact that both Democrats and Republicans were.

4:03

Jumping. On this deal to criticize the

4:05

boy, I simply fear of being Japanese

4:07

as he did take some some the

4:09

positions in Japan by surprise and all

4:11

Nippon Steel to really do is to

4:14

sit and wait it out and I

4:16

think that that probably reflects the idea.

4:18

Generally the watch pen really wants is

4:20

for this not to pretend that yeah

4:22

plus still issue and that it will

4:24

do everything it tends. To.

4:26

Avoid that. Leah. Louis

4:28

is the F T's Asia Business Editor.

4:37

Chinese. President Xi Jinping said yesterday

4:39

that Hungary is one of Beijing's

4:42

most important strategic partners. See was

4:44

in Budapest on Thursday and upgraded

4:46

the country's relationship to it's second

4:48

highest tier, just below Russia. He's

4:51

on a tour of Europe that

4:53

analysts say is intended to widen

4:55

divisions in the European Union and

4:57

Nato. Hungary's Prime minister

5:00

Viktor Orban has shall we

5:02

say a combative relationship with

5:04

the Block and the Military

5:06

Alliance and see praised or

5:08

bonds government for pursuing a

5:10

quote independent foreign policy. The.

5:19

Fifty biggest corporate winners from the

5:21

pandemic have collectively turned into losers.

5:23

They've lost roughly a third of

5:25

their total market value since the

5:28

end of Twenty Twenty. That is

5:30

a cool one point Five trillion

5:32

dollars. Here to discuss the F:

5:34

T. Stephanie Stacy. I stuffy.

5:37

Hemlock, Okay, so who were

5:39

the biggest winners from the pandemic that has had

5:41

a rough go of it since then? Some

5:44

of the biggest ones will probably

5:46

talent and zoom and with base

5:48

will vary widely. Talkspace insane tiny

5:51

like Palace On in particular has

5:53

just. It's fallen about ninety seven

5:55

cents since the end of twenty Twenty.

5:57

And that's equipment of about forty three

5:59

billion in market value that's in Los

6:01

M and then just last Thursday. The

6:03

chief executive it is not the he'd

6:05

be stepping down and pills on also

6:07

said it would cut fifteen cent of

6:09

it's workforce and that's not the first

6:12

time that it's cuts Das and tried

6:14

to save costs just in order. To

6:16

keep going. The images

6:18

this a lot to absorb just on

6:20

the poet on front alone. But what

6:22

was the common thread between all of

6:24

the store is why did as a

6:26

whole pandemic winners turn into post pandemic

6:28

losers? I. Think a

6:30

lot of it is that Twenty Twenty

6:32

in general was a really bad years

6:34

and most of the stock market. so

6:37

these fifty one as a kind of

6:39

sleeps in many ways some of them

6:41

would probably have done well anyway and

6:43

seven days of continued to do well

6:45

but a lot of these companies seem

6:47

very tired to the specific conditions of

6:49

the pandemic make the rise of remote

6:51

working and sister site with people would

6:53

stuck in their homes so ecommerce really

6:55

dominates the list of these companies. Lots

6:57

people would shopping online because they weren't

6:59

spending that. Money, going out for dinner for

7:01

example are going on holiday and I think

7:04

one of the things that happened is that.

7:06

Some. People might have thought those trends

7:08

were going to last longer than they

7:10

deaths and once people started being else

7:12

got slide and people vaccinated and felt

7:14

comfortable. With are huge revival of

7:16

travel for example and people wanting.

7:18

To spend their money on. Going. Outside

7:21

and doing things they haven't been able to do for a

7:23

long time. So. You mentioned

7:25

that there were some. Winters.

7:27

People you know, companies that were able to. Maintain.

7:31

To. Success that they had during

7:33

Twenty Twenty. Who are they? So

7:36

of the city biggest corporate winners

7:38

and twenty twenty there are seven.

7:40

That habits he continued to gain

7:42

market value. And. Of those

7:44

size have gained I bred pull

7:47

a significant amount tiny com they

7:49

can be Id which has been

7:51

quite. They can best it to

7:53

Tesla Cybersecurity Group, Crowd Strikes, software

7:55

companies, The Trade Desk and Days

7:57

Dog and was a T Mobile

7:59

and. I think the difference is

8:01

probably that then successes don't necessarily seem

8:03

to have been linked to the fact

8:05

that people were locked down a lesson

8:07

from home and it could have been

8:09

that with or without kids, these companies

8:11

were on track for goods year and

8:13

delivered that year. So

8:16

stuffy or other. Any lessons

8:18

that companies or investors to learn here.

8:21

I think one thing that. Some

8:23

analysts told me his and of is

8:25

it is as easy as head see

8:27

and hindsight. but perhaps the. Betting

8:30

on seismic chains as a

8:32

soldier in the pandemic, Always

8:35

that easy seen that people are

8:38

more fixed in the habit so

8:40

we don't see things cyst as

8:42

rapidly as and the these countries

8:44

might have been set up for

8:47

and see that could mean that.

8:49

If there's another situation like

8:51

Cause is people might be

8:53

more cautious when it comes

8:55

to investing in companies that

8:57

are setting up for that

9:00

specific condition rather than offering.

9:02

A plan for what happens when sings

9:04

says back to normal reset a bit

9:06

faster. Stephanie Stacy

9:09

covers technology for the Ft. Thanks.

9:18

You could read more on all the stories that have

9:21

to.com for free when you click the links and are

9:23

show notes. This has been your daily F T news

9:25

briefing. Make sure you check back next week for the

9:27

latest business news. The

9:30

of the news briefing is produced by Car

9:32

Super Science Your Assignments and the Hudson and

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Me works or Tino or Engineers Monica Lopez

9:37

we had hoped this week from Bring Turner

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Denise get a mister Frankel Duvall seems you

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comments or executive producers to for for has

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