Liminal Gets Unsolicited Non-Binding Transaction Proposal

 iminal BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: LMNL) ("Liminal BioSciences" or the "Company"), confirms that following close of markets on April 4, 2023, the Board of Directors of the Company (the "Board") received a non-binding  proposal from Structured Alpha LP ("SALP") outlining a potential transaction to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company that SALP does not currently own for US$7.50 in cash per common share (the "Proposal"). SALP currently owns 1,987,622 common shares of Liminal Biosciences representing approximately 64.03% of the Company's currently outstanding common shares.

The Company's board of directors will review the Proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the Company. A special committee of the independent members of the Board (the "Special Committee") has been formed and will evaluate the Proposal and any viable alternatives that may be available to the Company. No decisions or recommendations have been made by the Special Committee regarding the transactions that are the subject of the Proposal at this time. Shareholders do not need to take any action with respect to the Proposal at this time.

If an agreement with respect to the Proposal were to be reached with SALP, the Company expects that any such transaction would be subject to Regulation 61-101 respecting Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions, and that completion of any such transaction would be subject to the requirement to obtain a formal valuation and to obtain approval of a majority of minority shareholders of the Company (being shareholders not affiliated with SALP).

The Company intends to provide updates if and when necessary in accordance with applicable securities laws.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/liminal-biosciences-confirms-receipt-unsolicited-114300798.html

Gilead details promising early COVID antiviral data, setting up larger studies

  Gilead Sciences Inc on Tuesday unveiled data from the first human study of its experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral, saying the results in healthy volunteers cleared the way for two large Phase III trials of the drug that have begun enrolling patients.

The drug, obeldesivir and previously known as GS-5245, is designed to keep the coronavirus that causes COVID from replicating in the body and overwhelming a patient's immune system. Once metabolized, it works in the same way as Gilead's older intravenous COVID treatment Veklury (remdesivir), which targets virus replication through inhibition of the viral RNA polymerase.

For standard risk patients, Gilead believes the new drug could help resolve symptoms earlier and is evaluating any association with symptoms of long COVID, Anu Osinusi, who oversees clinical research for hepatitis, respiratory and emerging viruses at Gilead, told Reuters.

"The WHO still calls this a global health emergency ... We are not seeing a surge, but the numbers are holding steady," she said of the World Health Organization.

The Phase I trial, which involved 70 healthy adults, showed that obeldesivir reached sufficient concentrations in the blood and supports taking it without regard to food, according to Gilead.

Two obeldesivir patients reported headache, as did one placebo patient. No serious side effects were reported.

The most common laboratory abnormality was grade 2 creatinine clearance decrease, which can be an indication of impaired kidney function and occurred in 31% of treated participants and 25% of placebo participants.

Gilead has advanced obeldesivir into two late-stage global studies for treating non-hospitalized COVID patients. One trial is enrolling vaccinated people with at least two risk factors for developing serious COVID and unvaccinated patients with at least one risk factor.

The other is enrolling COVID patients at standard risk of serious illness regardless of vaccination status.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gilead-details-promising-early-covid-222207048.html

Ahead of Xi meet, Macron warns about risks of cutting off China

 French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must resist eroding trade and diplomatic ties with China as he arrived for a state visit on Wednesday, seeking to refute any sense there was an "inescapable spiral" of tension between Beijing and the West.

Shortly after touching down ahead of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is joining him on the three-day trip, Macron said maintaining dialogue with China was key given its close relations with Russia, which is waging a war in Ukraine.

Macron, on his first trip to China since 2019, spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden before the visit about engaging Chinese President Xi Jinping to hasten the end of Ukraine war, although the United States has voiced scepticism about Beijing's peace plan.

"We hear increasingly loud voices expressing a strong concern about the future of relations between the West and China that in some form lead to the conclusion that there is an inescapable spiral of mounting tensions," Macron told reporters at the French embassy in Beijing.

There was also an impression that de-coupling from the Chinese economy was already underway and that the only remaining question was over pace and intensity, he added.

"I do not believe, in any case I do not want to believe, in this scenario."

The trip will mark von der Leyen's first visit to China since becoming European Commission president more than three years ago, and comes after she said the EU must "de-risk" ties with Beijing, including limiting Chinese access to sensitive technology and reducing reliance for key inputs.

Europe's relations with China have soured in recent years first due to a stalled investment pact in 2021 and then Beijing's refusal to condemn Russia over Ukraine.

For Macron, facing embarrassing pension protests at home, the trip also offers a chance to land some economic wins as he travels with a 50-strong business delegation, including Airbus, which is negotiating a big plane order, Alstom and nuclear giant EDF.

https://news.yahoo.com/between-reset-risk-eu-leaders-221510025.html

Europe's banks ramp up bespoke loan trades to reduce risk

European banks are increasingly turning to bespoke deals with investors such as hedge funds to offload some of the risk on multi-billion euro loan portfolios and improve their financial strength, several sources involved told Reuters.

Banks supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), the biggest ones in the euro zone, completed a record 174 billion euros ($189 billion) of such deals last year, the regulator told Reuters.

These "significant risk transfer" (SRT) transactions are not new, but because they are usually bilateral and private, data on them is not public and their terms are closely guarded.

By offloading some of the risk on their loans, the banks can significantly reduce how much capital they need to set aside to cover potential losses, according to law firm Clifford Chance.

Unlike a traditional securitisation, in which a bank's assets are moved to a separate entity that then sells securities to investors, SRTs are often "synthetic" and mimic a sale.

A bank can normally transfer risks of losses equivalent to around 7% to 12% of a loan portfolio, two market sources said.

The attraction for the investor is a less volatile return than on many publicly-traded fixed income assets, and depending on the quality of the loan pool, higher rewards in the form of a coupon for the protection they provide to the bank.

"Investor interest has widened," said Jason Marlow, managing director in Barclays' corporate loan portfolio management team.

Marlow said banks that had in the past used SRTs once every three years could now deploy them "once or even multiple times" a year to free up credit lines that may be used for further lending in an increasingly capital-constrained environment.

With synthetic structures, a bank transfers the risk via credit derivatives or guarantees but keeps holding the underlying exposures.

To minimize the risk the bank would face were the investor unable to make good on its part of the trade, cash collateral is posted to cover the potential losses whose risk has been transferred, which market sources say is key for the bank to obtain the capital relief from the regulator.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-europes-banks-ramp-bespoke-050242069.html.

South Africa fights to keep phone networks up as lights go out

 

• Mobile operators spending millions on fuel, backup systems
• Added costs forcing diversion of capital from 5G, rural networks
• Rampant theft of batteries, generators driving up expenses
• Industry seeking relief from competition laws to soften blow

On a recent Friday morning north of Johannesburg, the head of South Africa's largest telecoms company surveyed the arsenal of backup systems keeping just one of his 15,000 network towers online amid the worst power cuts on record.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/south-africa-fights-keep-phone-networks-up-lights-go-out-2023-04-05/

AstraZeneca says drug combo meets goal in late-stage ovarian cancer trial

 AstraZeneca on Wednesday said a combination of its cancer drugs Imfinzi and Lynparza met the main goal in a late-stage trial in patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

The drugmaker said treatment with a combination of those drugs, along with chemotherapy and bevacizumab - the existing standard of care - improved progression-free survival in newly diagnosed patients with advanced ovarian cancer without certain mutations.

Lynparza, jointly developed with U.S.-based Merck & Co , was approved last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for early-stage breast cancer with certain mutations.

Imfinzi alone, along with chemotherapy and bevacizumab, did not reach statistical significance in its interim analysis, the drugmaker added.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rpt-1-astrazeneca-says-drug-065915344.html

Swiss Weighed Credit Suisse Bankruptcy Before Choosing UBS

 

• Finma says Credit Suisse had faced ‘unprecedented’ bank run
• Authority demanded higher liquidity buffers as early as 2020

Switzerland’s banking regulator said it considered putting Credit Suisse Group AG into bankruptcy before deciding on the takeover by UBS Group AG, as the risk of contagion was too great.

Finma scoped out various rescue options before the day the bank was sold in the government-backed deal. The lender had faced an “unprecedented” bank run, Finma President Marlene Amstad said at a press conference on Wednesday in the Swiss capital Bern. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-05/swiss-regulator-had-bankruptcy-takeover-plan-for-credit-suisse