LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - HelloFresh (HFGG.DE) has handed investors another mixed bag. On the one hand, the German meal-kit delivery company grew revenue 60% year-on-year in the second quarter to 1.6 billion euros, a tasty outcome given the easing of lockdowns. On the other, the 13 billion euro firm undercooked its expected EBITDA margin by over 100 basis points, and lowered its guidance from 10%-12% to 8.25%-10.25%. Its shares shed as much as 6% on Friday.

Investment in depots to meet the extra demand explains the erosion of profitability. But retaining customers’ attention will be tough. Takeaway services Uber Eats and Delivery Hero (DHER.DE) are launching in HelloFresh’s home market. Meanwhile, rapid grocery delivery startups like $7.5 billion Getir, backed by deep-pocketed venture capitalists, are fighting for market share. Traditional supermarkets are also ramping up online offerings. HelloFresh trades at twice 2022 sales, against an average 3.6 times...

Landlord Vonovia got the nod from regulators to submit a new $23 bln offer for peer Deutsche Wohnen. Its last bid was scuppered by hedgies hoping for a higher price. A skimpy premium means it may still not get enough shares to take full control, leading to a lengthy standoff.

Financial information now brings in roughly two-thirds of the $60 bln London Stock Exchange owner’s revenue. Yet its shares trade closer to European exchange operators than more highly valued data purveyors. CEO David Schwimmer faces a long haul to win over sceptical investors.

Financial information now brings in roughly two-thirds of the $60 bln London Stock Exchange owner’s revenue. Yet its shares trade closer to European exchange operators than more highly valued data purveyors. CEO David Schwimmer faces a long haul to win over sceptical investors.

MUMBAI, Aug 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A tax loss in India might lead to some gains. New Delhi is proposing to scrap its controversial retrospective application of a law used to slap giant bills on foreign companies over the past decade. The move could end disputes worth some $7 billion read more .

The retreat follows lost fights against Vodafone (VOD.L) and Cairn (CNE.L) in international arbitrations. Tensions ratcheted up in July when Cairn seized Indian property in Paris in an effort to start collecting on an award granted by The Hague now worth $1.7 billion. Under the plan, India would drop its claims if companies no longer seek damages. The government also would repay some $1 billion it collected, mostly to Cairn.

If a compromise is agreed, it will help clean up a messy problem that deters investment from overseas. India’s struggling economy could use the help. As rampant official crackdowns cool China’s appeal, it’s a good time for India to be putting its...

HONG KONG, Aug 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Nintendo (7974.T) could use a booster pack. The $68 billion Japanese console-maker said on Thursday that operating profit for its first quarter to the end of June fell 17%, missing estimates. It’s a stark contrast to the stronger performance of rival Sony read more .

There are signs of customer fatigue read more : Overall unit sales of the Switch fell 22% to about 4.5 million units, and players purchased fewer games. Excitement is starting to fade around hits like “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, which slumped from the more than 10 million copies sold in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo maintained its forecast for a 22% drop in operating profit for this fiscal year. Buying back some 1.5% of its shares is probably too small to meaningfully prop up its flagging valuation of 15 times forward net profit. But the company will need to look beyond games and start extracting more value from its intellectual...

HONG KONG, Aug 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It’s possible to read too much into Chinese state media jeremiads. Recent articles warning of social ills caused by high liquor prices, video-game addiction and e-cigarettes, to name a few, have wiped billions off index heavyweights like Tencent (0700.HK). Yet government columnists are unreliable policy prophets.

Traders are jumpy after Beijing announced in late July it would convert online tutoring companies, many listed in New York, to non-profit status. After law professor Henry Gao pointed out on Twitter that President Xi Jinping had called for something like this in 2018, Wall Street leaped to review Xi’s speeches to see what other industries he has it in for. Unfortunately Xi’s economic utterances can be cryptic. In 2017, for example, he said that “houses are for living in, not speculation.” That could mean he has something very mild, or very severe, ultimately in mind for real estate.

It’s still harder to filter...

Web giant Kakao’s digital bank and payments affiliates are going public while rival Toss raised funds at a $7.4 bln valuation. Up for grabs is the country’s $1 trln lending market. The digital disruptors’ early gains in retail loans spell trouble ahead for incumbents.

HONG KONG, Aug 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It’s possible to read too much into Chinese state media jeremiads. Recent articles warning of social ills caused by high liquor prices, video-game addiction and e-cigarettes, to name a few, have wiped billions off index heavyweights like Tencent (0700.HK). Yet government columnists are unreliable policy prophets.

Traders are jumpy after Beijing announced in late July it would convert online tutoring companies, many listed in New York, to non-profit status. After law professor Henry Gao pointed out on Twitter that President Xi Jinping had called for something like this in 2018, Wall Street leaped to review Xi’s speeches to see what other industries he has it in for. Unfortunately Xi’s economic utterances can be cryptic. In 2017, for example, he said that “houses are for living in, not speculation.” That could mean he has something very mild, or very severe, ultimately in mind for real estate.

It’s still harder to filter...

Web giant Kakao’s digital bank and payments affiliates are going public while rival Toss raised funds at a $7.4 bln valuation. Up for grabs is the country’s $1 trln lending market. The digital disruptors’ early gains in retail loans spell trouble ahead for incumbents.

TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.T) said on Thursday sales of its Switch console fell 22% in the first quarter as demand for the hit device fades in its fifth year on the market.

Investors are watching gaming firms closely for signals that the COVID-19 pandemic sales boom may be running out of steam. Nintendo is highly dependent on the cyclical console business, with sales of its devices traditionally peaking around the fifth year.

Nintendo saw sales of Switch Lite units more than halve to 1.14 million during the April-June quarter but maintained its full-year forecast for Switch hardware at 25.5 million units. It sold 4.45 million Switch consoles, including the Lite, during the quarter.

The creator of Super Mario and Animal Crossing said first-quarter operating profit fell 17% to 119.8 billion yen ($1.1 billion), falling short of a Refinitiv consensus estimate of 129.3 billion yen.

In contrast, Sony Corp (6758.T) said on Wednesday...

ZURICH, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Something funky happened in Naples the other day, which is saying a lot for the magically chaotic city loomed over by tempestuous Mount Vesuvius. No, it had nothing to do with the city’s famous pizza or its notorious Camorra gangsters. Instead, it was a low-key but potentially significant step in the fight against global warming: Saudi Arabia sided with the club of climate crusaders.

Two weeks ago, in the Royal Palace once occupied by the Bourbon kings, energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 rich nations got together to discuss key climate change commitments. While progress was made, the final communique lacked consensus on two critical points: fixing a deadline for phasing out coal power and pledges to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

For many participants, including the United States, the UK and Italy – which holds the rotating presidency of the wealthy-country club – that risked...

The commodity giant is enjoying soaring prices of everything from copper to coal. New plans to help Asian states shutter coal earlier are a potential cloud. But they could also lead to price-boosting supply deficits, and anyway, Glencore’s metals will fuel the green transition.

The sporty buyout fund wants to invest 2.7 bln euros in La Liga, mirroring a proposal that flopped in Italy’s Serie A. At just over 10 times commercial revenue, the higher-flying Spanish league’s valuation is lower. Yet the latest deal’s chances of finding the net look safer.

MELBOURNE, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Financial wizardry may have conjured a way to accelerate reducing carbon emissions. The Asian Development Bank and the UK’s Prudential (PRU.L) are devising a plan to buy Asian coal plants, shut them down early and foster renewable energy, according to a Reuters exclusive on Tuesday.

It’s still in the planning stages, with the idea being to pitch it at this November’s United Nations COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow. But the basic principles look sound and relatively straightforward.

The partners would set up a special-purpose vehicle to buy coal plants in perhaps 10 low- and middle-income Asian countries, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines. Meanwhile, with each host country’s backing, it would encourage the erstwhile owners and others to invest in green power.

At $1.4 million per megawatt – the current mid-point price to value these predominantly new power stations, per Prudential – this...

ZURICH, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Something funky happened in Naples the other day, which is saying a lot for the magically chaotic city loomed over by tempestuous Mount Vesuvius. No, it had nothing to do with the city’s famous pizza or its notorious Camorra gangsters. Instead, it was a low-key but potentially significant step in the fight against global warming: Saudi Arabia sided with the club of climate crusaders.

Two weeks ago, in the Royal Palace once occupied by the Bourbon kings, energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 rich nations got together to discuss key climate change commitments. While progress was made, the final communique lacked consensus on two critical points: fixing a deadline for phasing out coal power and pledges to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

For many participants, including the United States, the UK and Italy – which holds the rotating presidency of the wealthy-country club – that risked...

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bayer (BAYGn.DE) is still seeing little benefit from its $66 billion purchase of Monsanto. Although Chief Executive Werner Baumann raised the German drugs-to-seeds group’s revenue targets for the year on Thursday, he spooked investors after the EBITDA margin in the crop science unit, which includes the Monsanto business, collapsed to 20% in the quarter ending June 30, compared to 28% in the same period last year. That division is reeling from a wave of lawsuits linked to its Roundup weedkiller. Shares fell as much as 6%.

The poor yield is hard to reconcile. Farmers rely on Bayer’s weedkillers and fertilisers to bolster their crops. With soya prices soaring, the German group should have been able to pass on any extra costs. The good news is that Baumann is reviving the sickly pharmaceutical division, which faces loss of exclusivity on blood-thinner drug Xarelto, with the $2 billion purchase of Vividion Therapeutics (VVID.O). But the...

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Nivea maker Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE) is feeling the sweet tingle of relief. On Thursday the 26 billion euro company said it expected its 2021 group sales to rise by close to 10%, as it said organic sales rose 16% year-on-year in the six months to June.

New Chief Executive Vincent Warnery’s strategy of boosting investment in old brands consumers take for granted, even as Covid-19 suppressed demand, appears vindicated. Marketing and selling expenses were a third of sales in the first half of the year, broadly in line with last year.

It also highlights an odd fit. As well as toiletries, Warnery sells adhesives in the company’s tesa division, which has grown 28% organically so far this year, and has a higher operating margin and completely different client base from the larger consumer unit. The group’s controlling family would have to OK it, but a glue spinoff could raise 2.5 billion euros, according to Breakingviews calculations, to...

The commodity giant is enjoying soaring prices of everything from copper to coal. New plans to help Asian states shutter coal earlier are a potential cloud. But they could also lead to price-boosting supply deficits, and anyway, Glencore’s metals will fuel the green transition.

The ADB and the UK’s Prudential could buy Asian power plants fuelled by the pollutant, close them early and foster green energy. Bragging rights from cutting carbon should bag the needed cash. But investors will have to accept the risks and the iffy optics of profiting from coal.