Nestle to refocus on core business, CEO says
Swiss food giant
Nestle
is refocusing on the group's
core business
after straying into segments like
health supplements
that "weakened the fabric of the organisation,"
CEO Laurent Freixe
was quoted as saying in the Financial Times on Thursday.
Freixe, who took the helm of the company in September, told the newspaper he did not see the merits of slimming down the company's portfolio, except in segments where Nestle was not in a position to win.
"I think we should never forget that M&A is not the strategy," he was quoted as saying.
In another interview earlier this week, Freixe said Nestle was recovering market share in the U.S. despite concerns stemming from the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on its key trading partners last month.
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The $26 billion headline capital charge to protect Swiss taxpayers from the risk that UBS Group AG ever fails is worse than anyone expected. And yet UBS's shares jumped as much as 8% on the news Friday – what gives? It's not that investors now know the costs of Switzerland's beefed-up 'too big to fail' rules, which follow Credit Suisse's 2023 collapse. There's a lot of uncertainty about the draft law's final form. Most likely UBS shares have jumped because investor judge that the final bill will be lower – and because they know it's not due to be paid in full until 2034 at the earliest. The bank isn't happy. 'UBS strongly disagrees with the extreme increase in capital requirements that has been proposed,' it said in a statement. While it supported most of the changes in principle, the proposed capital increase is 'neither proportionate nor internationally aligned.' The draft law contains a lot that is sensible and with which UBS and most experts agree. 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The Print
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