
Brazil's Suzano mulls M&A opportunities totaling $3 billion, CEO says
Suzano is interested in sectors like packaging, tissue, fluff pulp and in the textile market, Abreu told journalists in a conference call after the company reported lower-than-expected first quarter core earnings.
Suzano, one of the world's largest pulpmakers, entered talks last year to buy International Paper (IP.N), opens new tab but did not reach a deal due to the lack of a price agreement between the parties.
The Brazilian company has done billionaire disbursements in the past few years on acquisitions and output expansion, a move that also raised some caution among analysts about its leverage ratio.
Last month, Reuters reported, citing sources, that Suzano was among the final bidders for Kimberly-Clark's (KMB.N), opens new tab international tissue business.
Sao-Paulo traded shares of Suzano were down 1.5% on Friday.
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BBC News
31 minutes ago
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Business Matters How is global trade shifting amid the US tariffs war?
American farmers warn of lasting damage as Chinese importers choose cheaper alternatives from other countries like Russia and Brazil. Also, tariffs risk taking some of the steam out of the US coffee industry. And Roger Hearing hears why the British horseracing sector could face strike action over proposed betting tax changes. All of that with analysis from business consultant Jessica Khine in Malaysia and journalist Alexander Kaufman in the United States. You can contact us on WhatsApp or send us a voicenote: +44 330 678 3033.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump's tariffs replace diplomacy as other US tools of statecraft are discarded
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to use tariffs to revitalise American industry, bringing jobs home and helping to make America great again. But more than six months into his administration, experts say the president's trade war is increasingly being wielded as a political cudgel, in lieu of more traditional forms of diplomacy. The president's current target, India, has been unable to reach a trade agreement and Trump appears ready to follow through with his threat to impose a further 25% tariff on Delhi – bringing the total to 50% – the joint highest levy on any country, along with Brazil. It is a whiplash-inducing turnaround from a few months ago, when the newly minted Trump administration seemed intent on continuing a years-long bipartisan effort to deepen ties with India as a geopolitical counterweight to China. It's part of a trend which highlights how tariffs are used as threats against countries perceived to be recalcitrant. Rather than a tool of economic coercion, Trump instead wields tariffs as a political weapon. Five rounds of trade talks between the two sides have brought India no closer to conceding to US demands that it open up its vast agriculture and dairy sectors. Negotiations planned for early next week have been abruptly called off, as India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, grapples with Trump's demand that India cease to buy oil from Russia; sales that the US says are helping to fuel Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. The demand – that India wean itself off the Russian oil, which accounts for about 35% of its total supply – sits at odds with the original stated purpose of Trump's tariff regime: to bring manufacturing back to the US and rebalance trade deficits. 'Tariffs have a very specific purpose of protecting domestic industry from competition,' says Dr Stuart Rollo from the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney. 'That's not really what this is about … It's kind of pivoted to a tool of geopolitical compulsion.' Trump himself has come to admit this. Along with the threatened additional 25% tariff on India in retaliation for continuing to purchase Russian oil, the president has tied Canada's 35% tariff to its recognition of Palestinian statehood. In the case of Brazil – which has a rare trade surplus with the US, meaning it buys more than it sells – Trump has stated that the huge 50% tariff is due to the trial of his political ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is charged with plotting a military coup after he lost the 2022 presidential election. The president's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, even has a new term for these explicitly political trade threats: 'national security tariffs'. The Democratic senator Chris Murphy put it more bluntly, writing in the Financial Times in April that the tariffs are not designed as economic policy but as a 'means to compel loyalty to the president'. Rollo says: 'It's a way of the United States to compel as much of the world as possible into realignment with its global leadership at a time when its actual weight and gravity is diminishing.' In some ways, this is not new; the Biden administration used trade restrictions to limit China's access to state of the art semiconductors at a time of heated geopolitical tensions. But Devashish Mitra, professor of economics at Syracuse university, says that for many in India, the threat faced over Russian oil purchases seems incoherent, ill thought out, and could push India closer to China. 'India did consider the US an ally,' says Mitra. 'It was a country that the US was relying on as a counter to China in that region. So it had a huge geopolitical importance, but it doesn't seem like Trump values any of that.' This week China's foreign minister has been in Delhi for talks, and Modi is expected in Shanghai at the end of the month; his first visit in seven years. It's a part of a recent pattern of tightening relations between the Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which make up 40% of global GDP – that experts say is a response to Trump's aggressive trade policies. For future US administrations, winning back the trust of some of these countries could be difficult, as Trump's escalating trade war comes at the same time as his administration dismantles its instruments of global statecraft. From mass firings at the state department, to the slashing of foreign assistance programmes at USAID, America's diplomatic toolbox is vastly diminished. Tariffs have 'come to replace diplomacy', says Rollo. And so with his attention divided between crises at home and abroad, the president has left himself armed with only a hammer, with every global flashpoint looking to him like a nail.


Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
US oil and gas M&A activity quadrupled last year, report says
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. oil and gas sector more than quadrupled last year despite softer commodity prices as energy companies boosted spending to improve efficiency and profits, according to an Ernst & Young study published on Tuesday. The jump in dealmaking marks a shift in strategy after years of focusing on shareholder returns over growth as commodity prices retreated from their 2022 high. The sector-wide consolidation has been led by a handful of megadeals by large players, including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab, Diamondback Energy (FANG.O), opens new tab and ConocoPhillips (COP.N), opens new tab. Companies flush with cash were focused on driving efficiency through scale, said Bruce On, partner at EY's strategy and energy transactions group. 'It's a relook at process, tools, workforce and everything around your operations,' On said. Leading energy companies spent $206.6 billion on mergers and acquisitions in 2024, up from $47.9 billion the previous year, according to the Ernst & Young study. Oil and gas companies cut spending on dividends and share repurchase payments by about 25% last year to $29.2 billion. Money spent on tapping oil and gas also fell slightly, with exploration and development expenditure down 7% year on year at $85.5 billion. Profits fell 10% last year to $74.8 billion, less than half the record level recorded in 2022, primarily owing to soft commodity prices, the report said. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab was the biggest buyer in 2024 with total property acquisition costs of $84.5 billion. The company announced the acquisition of U.S. shale oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources in October 2023 and completed the $60 billion purchase last May.