Bottomline

CAIRO:

The initial public offering for MM Group has been covered around 19.27 times, Osama Rashad, head of investor relations at Beltone which is managing the transaction told Reuters on Thursday.

A private placement, completed on Monday was more than nine times over subscribed. The group’s shares are expected to start trading next Tuesday.

MM Group for Industry & International Trade distributes several international brands in Egypt including Vodafone, Samsung Electronics, Jaguar, Land Rover and Ferrari.

The company set a share price of 5.96 pounds ($0.33) in this week’s private and public share offerings, and has raised 708 million pounds from selling 30 percent of its shares. (RTRS)

DETROIT:

Used car prices are falling, US sales are off to a slow start, car inventories are growing and interest rates are on the rise. Still, General Motors is sticking to its profit forecast.

Chuck Stevens, GM’s chief financial officer, told industry analysts Thursday that the company is optimistic for a number of reasons: The sale of its European unit will save GM money, it predicts US sales will rebound later in the year, and expects new SUVs to fetch higher prices.

In January, the Detroit automaker predicted pretax profits for the year from $6 to $6.50 per share, compared with $6.12 that it made in 2016. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

MGM has reached a $1 billion deal to take full ownership of the Epix pay TV venture, buying out the stakes held by Viacom and Lionsgate.

Viacom held 49.76 percent of Epix while Lionsgate owned 31.15 percent of the company, founded by the three studios in 2008. The deal values Epix at $1.275 billion in total.

The deal calls for Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate to continue licensing new theatrical releases and library titles to Epix’s linear channels and streaming service for a term of at least five to six years. The sale of the company had been expected ever since Lionsgate bought rival pay-TV group Starz last summer. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav got a 15 percent salary bump in 2016 to $37.2 million.

Compensation for Zaslav and other top execs was disclosed Wednesday in Discovery’s annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Zaslav’s paycheck included $3 million salary, $15.1 million in stock awards, $11.1 million in option awards and another $7.5 million in bonus coin.

Zaslav took home $32.4 million in 2015. In 2014, the Discovery chief made headlines with a whopping $156.1 million pay package, most of which came in the form of stock options and awards. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Electrocomponents Plc said it expected pretax profit for the year ended March to exceed current market expectations, after reporting an 8 percent rise in fourth-quarter revenue on growth recovery in North America and favourable currency impact.

The company, which distributes more than 500,000 electrical products from 2,500 leading suppliers, said North America revenue for the quarter ended in March rose 16 percent. The company will release full-year results in May. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Gulf Keystone Petroleum, an oil producer in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, managed to lower its annual losses after cost cuts and a debt-for-equity deal that saved the company but uncertainty remains over raising output from its main oilfield.

Gulf Keystone reported an annual pretax loss of $17 million on Thursday, down from a $213 million loss in 2015 after it swapped $500 million of debt for equity last year and made stringent cost cuts.

Having turned a corner financially, doubts remain over whether it will be able to make needed investments in time to prevent a natural production drop at its Shaikan oilfield. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Co-operative Group, Britain’s mutually-owned supermarket to funeral services group, lost £132 million in 2016 after writing off its stake in the struggling Co-operative Bank.

Co-op said on Thursday that the uncertain prospects for the bank, which its management is trying to sell following a near collapse in 2013, made it prudent to value its stake at nil.

It is the third consecutive reporting period in which the group has written down the value of its 20 percent holding in the bank, which it valued at £140 million in September. (RTRS)

FRANKFURT:

German carmaker Daimler AG says it had the best sales month ever for its MercedesBenz luxury brand in March.

Stuttgart-based Daimler said in a statement Thursday that MercedesBenz sold 228,296 vehicles globally in March, an increase of 15 percent.

The company credited stronger sales in China and customer demand for its new E-Class, both for the sedan and the station wagon version. Sales for those models jumped 65 percent.

The Asia-Pacific region saw a sales increase of 23 percent, boosted by a rise of more than 30 percent in China. (AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands:

Consumer products giant Unilever is overhauling its operations and returning billions of dollars to shareholders, in an effort to maximize value after rebuffing a $143 billion takeover bid by rival Kraft Heinz.

The owner of brands including Hellmann’s and Lipton said Thursday that it plans to sell its spreads division and combine its foods and refreshments units.

The Anglo-Dutch company will carry out a 5 billion euro ($5.3 billion) share buyback and raised its dividend by 12 percent, a move the company said reflected “increased confidence in the outlook for profit growth and cash generation.” (AP)