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The Stock Movers report, your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.
So let's take a look at sam stocks on the mod today in Europe. I'm Jacksoners with Stephen Carroll. We are joined by Bloomberg's Breaking news editor Louise Moon. Morning, Louise wh Smith finding out if you say the words Leo Quinn, you will share price grows up.
Indeed, yes, So they've named a new chairman, Leo Quinn. That's from April. As you say, shares have been rallying this morning on the back of that. Last time I checked up over about nine percent. So Leo Quinn was most recently CEO of Balfour Beatti, the construction firm in the UK. And the reason that shares are really rallying on his name on this new appointment is the woes that wh Smith have been through since about August. They announced a accounting eraor in their North American unit that
triggered a stock slump. Also their CEO to resign and they're currently being investivated by the financial watchdog. So in the release, the company noted his history of what they call significant business transformation, so he's obviously the expectation there is to return wh Smith to stability and deliver on
their growth strategy, their longer term growth strategy. So as I say, shares arising on the back of that, they were leading the thirty two fifty, but if you do look back at a more kind of historical level, they're still way off their level prior to that stock stump from August, so there's a long way to go. So they'll be counting on leo Quin to deliver that.
Okay, So that's w H. Smith turning them to Workspace as well.
Another CEO change.
Yes, so Workspace obviously the flexible workspace landlord. They have a new CEO, so their outgoing CEO, Lawrence Hutchings, he had just over a year in the role, so somewhat of a surprise announcement this morning given that time period, but it comes after a very turbulent period for Workspace. Their shares if you look back over the past year or so, they've been very rocky down about ten over the past year, and that's their second straight drop on
an annual basis. So they've got a new CEO Charlie Green. He's called he's for the founder of a company that's now known as Fora, which obviously also the Flexible Workspace Group. It also follows a new CFO just before Christmas. And this is all coming in the context of Workspace warning last year of rising vacancies that would dent profits. Comes on the back of a lot of smaller businesses struggling
with the wider kind of economic situation. They've been facing calls from Access investor Saba Capital to wind down the company. So these changes are being seen as a bit of a signal that the board isn't prepared to do that, and it's a bit more of an operational reset with these new appointments, particularly with Green. This morning and blue Og Intelligence had a note saying that this full cell is kind of unlikely to achieve or if it were to happen, would be unlikely to achieve good prices with
risk desjoy the value of company. So yeah, being seen as a bit of a reset there for Workspace.
And BMW one of many automakers this morning wishing then that they had never heard the word tariff.
Indeed, yeah, the big news obviously today as you have been speaking about of Trump's threat to hike tariffs, isn't it if a deal isn't reached over Greenland really hitting
automakers across Europe. Essentially the plan is to all the plan would be to add additional duties of ten percent on imports, and this is really hitting You see BMW down about seven percent, Mercedes Volkswagen, a lot of these German manufacturers that really rely on the US as a big source of sales of profits and they're already under massive pressure that they've got tariffs already of fifteen percent. On top of that, there's slumping sales in China, you know,
slow the expected transition to electric vehicles. They're facing a lot of headwinds and this, if it came through, would be, you know, the latest headwinds. So there was an interesting statistic from BI predicting that these latest tariffs, if they were to come through, would hit German, UK and Swedish carmakers their underlying earnings by about three billion euros on an annualized basis, So it would be a big hit
to them. And we're seeing this across the board. So Silantis also falling in Milan, as the martin In the UK, TATO mootism, and biosurreal global impact on MACFA.
This 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.