Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
But let's take a look at some stocks on the move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moon. Luise, good morning. Let's start then with the big mover. Novo Nordisk shares down eighteen percent this morning, exactly.
Yeah.
Essentially, investors have been shocked this morning by Novo.
They've forecast a very steep.
Decline in sales, so they're expecting that sales could fall by as much as thirteen percent this year, and List is saying even the most skeptical among them didn't anticipate this big of a drop, essentially adding to evidence of the challenges in the industry. In the a BT drug industry, there's a lot of price competition, partly under pressure from the US government to cut drug prices.
There's also a lot of competition.
You know, Nova have been fighting for market share with Eli Lilly in the.
US, their their key rival.
But then on top of that, there's also kind of smaller companies selling cheaper copycup versions of their BC drugs, so there's a lot of competition as well as the price war. Nova have already been struggling and they've already been trying to turn it around. So under their CEO, he's cut jobs, he's changing management at the top. He's already has in trying to instill a culture that's more kind of performance orientated. But this, this forecast this morning
really did did shock investors. The CEO was on Bloemboat TV earlier and he did try to kind of reassure with some positivity in the long term.
So he was hailing their recent.
Launch of their pill version of their drug and saying that you know, longer term there would be more positivity and the focus now is on transforming and developing new products. But as I say, investors and shares are really plunging on that news that sales forecast.
Yeah, indeed, a different story though from the UK specialty ensure Beasley It shares are up by eight point four percent some m and a news and focus.
Indeed, they finally agreed to an offer from Zurich Insurance, so the Swiss based insurance. This is a sweetened offer of eight billion pounds, and the two sides have reached this agreement in principle.
This has been a long running saga. So this is.
Zurich's sixth bid over the past year. These bees bids were made public in January, but this is their sixth one and the previous ones have all been rejected by Beasley for undervaluing it. So the latest price that they have agreed to now is a sixty percent premium to the closing price to Bezy's closing price the day before the offer became public, as I say that was in January.
This premium is pretty.
Unusual for a foot teen hundred companies, so it's a very high premium. Analyst is saying, you know, it appears generous, so perhaps those price they've now agreed to this deal, and they're saying that combined these two companies will have fifteen billion dollars of grossert and premiums. It's going to be based in the UK, and BZ shares hit a record high that they've already they've already been soaring since the offers and the approaches from Zurich were made public,
but they soared once more again this morning. So hit a record high and also lifted the sector. So Hisscocks for example, also rose and Zurich also rose as well on the back of this this deal, So quite an exciting bit of activity.
Who said insurance was boring?
Well, indeed, insuring against excitement, Some could argue, let's talk a little bit about Carlsburg though as well. Their shares are hired this morning almost three percent. That's despite a cautious outlook.
Indeed, Yeah, so they've widened their operating profit outlook compared to last year. So it's expecting organic growth of two to six percent in twenty twenty six, and if you compare that's last year the range was three to five percent, So they've widened that, essentially reflecting a cautious stance over future demand for drinks. Obviously, consumer habits are changing. People are shifting away from alcohol towards you know, lower or
no alcohol alternatives. And then on top of that, there's also kind of rising prices and consumer habits in that sense, and then dealing with tariff. So the CEOs worn that demand for beer in the Western markets remains subdued and he doesn't see a more positive stance for the global consumer as well. He does see some growth in the more premium ends and as I say, in alcohol free categories, so two different ends.
And Carlsberg I've already been trying to.
Mitigate this, so they've been moving and diversifying away from beer but widen profit outlook.
The Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.