CLO Executive Centre

Sandon Capital, the activist investor pushing to sack the board of directors at Southern Cross Austereo, has increased its stake in the Australian broadcaster to more than 10 percent, according to ADNews (17 July). Sandon has since June lifted its holding to 10.2 percent from 6.1 percent in two on market raids, the latest rising from 8.1 percent and costing more than A$2.7 million. SCA last traded its shares at 55 cents each. According to filings to the ASX, Sandown now has 24,512,511 shares in SCA. The funds manager is campaigning for change at SCA, including replacing the board of directors. Sandon has described the board of directors as being in “self-preservation” mode in a tough advertising market. It has attacked the company's decision to resume paying dividends, its announcement of an “unrealistic” executive bonus scheme and says SCA needs to further reduce debt levels. However, the SCA believes it has support from more than 50 percent of its voting capital. SCA, in a trading update, reported “strong” audio revenue, up about nine percent and ahead of its own guidance, for the first four months of calendar 2025.

From "Activist Investor Raids SCA Again"
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American International Group (AIG) has hired John Neal as president of the insurance giant, reports the Wall Street Journal (17 July, Kellaher), snatching the former Lloyd’s of London chief from insurance broker Aon. AIG on Wednesday said Neal joins the US company on December 1 and will lead its general insurance organization. Neal, who left Lloyd’s in January after more than six years as chief executive of the world’s biggest insurance marketplace, will become a member of AIG’s executive-leadership team. Aon in January said Neal would be joining on September 1 as global chairman of climate solutions and global CEO of reinsurance. Aon said it is realigning the management of its reinsurance operations with the promotion of four executives. The company said Steve Hofmann will now serve as CEO of Americas for reinsurance, responsible for North America and Latin America, while Alfonso Valera becomes CEO of international for reinsurance. Hofmann was previously US CEO of reinsurance, while Valera served as co-CEO of EMEA for reinsurance. Aon also named George Attard global head of strategy for reinsurance and Tomas Novotny as chairman of international for reinsurance.

From "AIG Hires Former Lloyd’s CEO John Neal, Who Had Been Heading to Aon, as President"
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Stellantis has decided to discontinue its hydrogen fuel-cell technology development program, reports the Wall Street Journal (17 July, Chopping, Khan), because it doesn't expect the adoption of hydrogen-powered light commercial vehicles before the end of the decade. The automaker cited limited availability of hydrogen-refueling infrastructure, along with high capital requirements and the need for stronger consumer purchasing incentives as reasons for its decision. Consequently Stellantis will no longer launch its new series of hydrogen-powered Pro One vans, which were due to begin serial production in France and Poland later this year. Hydrogen vehicles, once touted as a future way to decarbonize transport, have largely struggled to take off, amid the rise of electric vehicles instead. Even in the trucking and larger vehicle sector, technological advancements in battery chemistries have meant that battery options now are becoming more favorable.

From "Stellantis Scraps Hydrogen Vehicle Program"
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More than half of large US employers plan to scale back healthcare benefits next year, reports Reuters (16 July, Niasse), as rising costs from weight-loss and specialty drugs squeeze budgets. According to a survey conducted by consulting firm Mercer, among employers with 500 or more workers, 51 percent said they planned to increase cost-sharing in 2026, including raising deductibles. That is up from 45 percent of large employers that said they would increase cost-sharing for 2025. About three-fourths (77 percent) of employers named GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy a top issue.

From "Many US Employers Plan to Pare Health Benefits as Weight-loss Spending Soars"
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The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday sued a Hong Kong jewelry company it accuses of selling illegal Mickey Mouse jewelry, reports the Associated Press (17 July, Dalton). The company filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles against the Red Earth Group, which sells jewelry online under the name Satéur. The lawsuit is indicative of Disney’s dogged efforts to protect its intellectual property from unauthorized appropriation. Although the earliest version of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain last year after Disney’s copyright expired, the company still holds trademark rights to the character. Lawyers for Disney argue in the suit that Red Earth’s online marketing efforts “extensively trade on the Mickey Mouse trademarks and the Disney brand” with language that includes describing the jewelry as great for “Disney enthusiasts.”

From "Disney Sues Hong Kong Company over Mickey Mouse Jewelry"
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Paul Singer’s Elliott Investment Management built a reputation for its frequent legal brawls to squeeze more value from its investments in public companies, reports Bloomberg (16 July, Willmer). Now the firm is picking a fight over charges in the opaque world of private equity. In a court case in Delaware, Elliott is seeking documents it says could show that Stronghold Investment Management, a Texas private equity firm, billed tens of millions of dollars in excess expenses. A judge is now weighing whether to force Stronghold to turn over internal records about how it charged Elliott for managing about US$100 million in oil and gas bets. Stronghold has denied overcharging Elliott, which has invested more than US$500 million with the firm since 2017. The dispute centers on what Stronghold describes as administrative spending on everything from litigation and accounting to various services related to managing its funds. Fund investors have long pushed for more transparency around a slew of charges by private equity firms that come on top of high management fees. Disputes over costs rarely spill into the public because litigation can threaten relationships that may span decades over long-term investments.

From "Singer’s Elliott Battles Texas Private Equity Firm over Fees"
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Swatch Group’s profits plunged almost 90 percent in the first half of the year after sales fell steeply in China, reports the Financial Times (17 July, Ruehl), strengthening investor pushback against the board of the struggling Swiss watchmaker. The group, whose brands include Omega, Longines, and Breguet, reported net income of SFr17 million (US$21 million), down from SFr147 million a year earlier, on Thursday. Swatch attributed a 7.1 percent decline in revenues over the same period to weak demand in China, where sales fell more than 30 percent in its wholesale business and by 15 percent in its retail business. Chief executive Nick Hayek, who has been at the helm of the Swiss group for 22 years, has come under mounting pressure from investors after presiding over an approximately 50 percent decline in its shares over the past two years. Activist investor GreenWood Investors, which owns 0.5 percent of Swatch’s shares and has been campaigning for a strategic rethink, confirmed on Thursday that it had initiated legal proceedings against the company. Swatch said it had not yet “been served with a complaint or received a request for a conciliation hearing” and that it was “not aware of what is to be conciliated.” GreenWood may also still request an extraordinary meeting as the legal process plays out. That would require the backing of five percent of all Swatch shareholders, with Wood then able to ask for a separate vote among the company’s bearer shareholders to be elected as their representative.

From "Swatch Activist Ups Pressure as Profits Plunge over China Weakness"
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US regulators authorized Juul Labs to keep its e-cigarettes on the US market, reports the Wall Street Journal (18 July, Cooper, Maloney) breathing new life into the vaping company after a 2022 federal ban pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy. The decision removes Juul from the limbo it has been mired in since then, not knowing whether its products would be allowed to remain on store shelves. With clearance from the Food and Drug Administration, Juul could now raise money from outside investors or sell part or all of the company. Juul was once a vaping juggernaut and one of the most valuable startups in America. But in 2022, the FDA ordered Juul to halt its sales because of unresolved questions related to the toxicology data that Juul had submitted in its application to remain on the US market. Though the ban was quickly put on hold and Juul’s e-cigarette sales resumed, the FDA ban sent Juul into a financial tailspin. Juul has denied allegations that it marketed its e-cigarettes to children and teens. In its new decision, the FDA determined that the products' benefit as a less-harmful alternative for adult cigarette smokers outweighed any potential public-health risks, including to young people. The move gives the green light to Juul's original vaporizer, along with refill cartridges in tobacco and menthol flavors.

From "US FDA Authorizes Juul’s E-cigarettes After Ban Nearly Bankrupted Firm"
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South Korea’s top court on Thursday upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on financial criminal charges, reports the Associated Press (17 July), ending years of legal disputes over the 2015 merger between Samsung affiliates that solidified his control over the company. In 2024, the Seoul Central District Court acquitted Lee of charges like stock price manipulation and accounting fraud by ruling that prosecutors failed to sufficiently prove the merger was unlawfully conducted with an aim to strengthen Lee’s control over Samsung. The Seoul High Court upheld the district court’s ruling in February, and the Supreme Court dismissed prosecutors’ appeal of the high court’s decision Thursday. Its ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Lee, a third-generation corporate heir who was officially appointed chairman of Samsung Electronics in 2022, has led the Samsung group of companies since 2014, when his late father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack. Lee Jae-yong served 18 months in prison after being convicted in 2017 on separate bribery charges related to the 2015 merger. He was originally sentenced to five years in prison for offering bribes to then-President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante to win government support for the merger, which was key to strengthening his control over the Samsung business empire and solidifying the father-to-son leadership succession. Lee was paroled in 2021 and pardoned by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.

From "South Korea’s Top Court Upholds Acquittal of Samsung’s Lee over 2015 Merger"
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European Union states have approved a fresh sanctions package on Russia over its war against Ukraine including a revised oil price cap, new banking restrictions, and curbs on fuels made from Russian petroleum, reports Bloomberg (18 July, Nardelli, Palasciano). The package will see about 20 more Russian banks cut off the international payments system SWIFT and face a full transaction ban, as well as restrictions imposed on Russian petroleum refined in third countries. The cap on Russian oil, currently set at $60 per barrel, will be set dynamically at 15 percent below market rates moving forward. The new mechanism will see the threshold start off somewhere between $45-$50 and automatically revised at least twice a year based on market prices. The latest sanctions by the European Union are aimed at further crimping the Kremlin’s energy revenue, the bulk of which comes from oil exports to India and China. The EU has so far failed to convince the United States to offer crucial support to the lower cap. Discussions are ongoing with other G-7 members but the US opposition is making it hard to reach agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. The UK, however, is expected to be on board with the move, the people said.

From "EU Imposes New Raft of Sanctions on Russia and Its Oil Trade"
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The University of Michigan is under federal scrutiny after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States, according to a report published by CNN (16 July). The US Department of Education opened an investigation into the university’s foreign funding, citing the pair of cases that were announced days apart in June. It said the “highly disturbing criminal charges” raise concerns about Michigan’s vulnerability to national security threats from China. The investigation demands financial records from Michigan, along with information about research collaborations with institutions outside the US. The Education Department accuses Michigan of being “incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely” in its public disclosures around funding from foreign sources. Federal law requires universities to report all gifts and contracts from foreign sources totaling US$250,000 or more. The law went mostly unenforced until US President Trump’s first term, when the Education Department opened a dozen inquiries into universities accused of underreporting foreign money. The Biden administration closed most of those cases, but the effort has recently been renewed.

From "UMich Faces Federal Investigation After Arrest of 2 Chinese Scientists"
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The Wall Street Journal (16 July, Vieira) reports that Canada has introduced limits on how much foreign steel produced in nations other than the United States and Mexico can be imported. Canada's Liberal government is trying to help a domestic sector reeling from President Trump's 50 percent tariffs on Canadian steel. Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday stated that the series of import limits and the tariffs targeting steel products with Chinese links are necessary because Canada's economy has been too dependent on foreign steel to meet the needs of the construction and manufacturing sectors.

From "Canada Limits Steel Imports from All Countries Except US, Mexico"
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US industrial production rose 0.3 percent in June, boosted by a jump in utility output and a modest gain in manufacturing, according to data from the Federal Reserve and reported on by Bloomberg (16 July, Niquette). Output at utilities climbed 2.8 percent. Manufacturing output, which accounts for three-fourths of total industrial production, increased 0.1 percent after an upwardly revised 0.3 percent May gain. Excluding autos, factory output climbed 0.3 percent, the most in three months and reflecting a broad pickup across categories.

From "US Industrial Production Rises on Pickup in Utility Output"
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China has sentenced a Japanese pharmaceutical executive to three and a half years in prison for espionage, reports the Financial Times (16 July, Dempsey, Leahy). A court in Beijing on Wednesday handed down the sentence to a local senior executive with Astellas Pharma, who had been arrested and indicted on charges of espionage two years ago. The Astellas employee, who was a senior executive at the pharma company’s local subsidiary, had spent more than 20 years in China and was involved in the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in China. He was arrested in March 2023 as he was about to board a flight back to Japan. At the time of his arrest, foreign executives were looking to return to China following the relaxation of China’s strict pandemic control measures. The arrest raised concerns about Beijing’s anti-espionage campaigns targeting international businesses. Under China’s counter-espionage law, which was passed in 2014 and updated in 2023, scores of Japanese nationals have been arrested, of whom several remain in custody.

From "Japanese Pharma Executive Sentenced to 3.5 Years in China for Espionage"
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A US$8 billion trial by Meta Platforms shareholders against CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders kicks began Wednesday over claims that they illegally harvested the data of Facebook users in violation of a 2012 agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission, reports Reuters (16 July, Hals). The case began in 2018, following revelations that data from millions of Facebook users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct political consulting firm that worked for US President Trump's successful presidential campaign in 2016. The FTC fined Facebook US$5 billion in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, saying the company had violated a 2012 agreement with the FTC to protect user data. Shareholders want the defendants to reimburse Meta for the FTC fine and other legal costs, which the plaintiffs estimate total more than US$8 billion. Meta is not a defendant in the case.

From "Facebook Privacy Practices the Focus of US$8 Billion Trial Targeting Meta Execs"
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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Barclays Bank £42 million over its “poor handling” of financial crime risks linked to Stunt & Co and wealth management company WealthTek, reports the Guardian (16 July). The FCA fined Barclays £3.1 million for failing to check it had enough information to understand the money laundering risk before opening a client money account for the now-collapsed WealthTek. The biggest portion of the fine is related to its banking relationship with gold bullion business Stunt & Co, a customer of Fowler Oldfield, which was linked to a major money laundering operation. Barclays failed to properly vet Stunt & Co, the FCA said, even though Stunt & Co received £46.8 million from Fowler Oldfield. Barclays continued offering services despite police raids and regulatory warnings.

From "Barclays Fined £42m over Poor Handling of Financial Crime Risk"
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United Natural Foods Inc. reports that its commercial operating capacity has returned to "normalized levels" following a recent cyberattack that temporarily brought down its online systems, reports Grocery Dive (16 July, Silverstein). The grocery distributor expects to lose as much as US$400 million in sales due to the attack, with the overall operational impact of the incident mostly limited to its current quarter.

From "UNFI Expects Cyberattack to Cost It at Least US$350 Million in Sales"
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Alumis, a late-stage biopharma company, has promoted Sanam Pangali to chief legal officer and corporate secretary, reports Governance Intelligence (17 July, Bannerman). Prior to her promotion Pangali served as senior vice president of legal for the company. She succeeds Sara Klein, who has retired. Before joining Alumis Pangali held various leadership roles at the likes of ACELYRIN, Snapdocs, Principia Biopharma, and Morrison & Foerster.

From "Alumis Promotes Sanam Pangali to Chief Legal Officer"
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise entered into a cooperation agreement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management, reports Reuters (16 July, Singh), As part of the agreement, the company's board has named KLA Corp. Chairman Robert Calderoni as director. Elliott had allegedly built a stake of more than US$1.5 billion in Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

From "Hewlett Packard Signs Cooperation Deal with Elliott, Adds Tech Veteran to Board"
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Despite the political backlash, US companies have either maintained or increased sustainability investments since the beginning of 2025, reports ESG Dive (16 July, Johnson) citing a recent survey of 400 global executives at US corporations conducted by EcoVadis. The sustainability ratings and compliance firm found that 48 percent of the poll's respondents said their company's sustainability investments remain unchanged. Another 31 percent said their company has been investing more in sustainability this year, "but promoting less." Finally, eight percent of respondents reported their company is still making sustainability investments, just not touting them publicly at all.

From "US Companies Quietly Maintaining, Boosting Sustainability Investments in 2025"
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