Weekly Market Update - 1 July 2024
Factory Expansion
Novo Nordisk plans to invest $4.1 billion in another US factory, plowing more money into its biggest market amid rising discontent there over the cost of its obesity and diabetes drugs. The project in North Carolina will double the Danish company’s production footprint in the US, adding 1.4 million square feet of space for the final stages of manufacturing in which Novo’s medicines are filled into injector pens and prepared for consumers. The facility will add 1,000 jobs. The new US site is the latest in a series of multibillion-dollar investments into ratcheting up supply for diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss medicine Wegovy, which have propelled Novo into the limelight and made it Europe’s biggest company.
Source: Bloomberg
Exxon In Guyana
Exxon Mobil took the first step toward its seventh oil project in Guyana, a clear signal of its intention to expand crude output from the nation into the next decade. The project will pump as much as 180,000 barrels a day as soon as 2029, pending Guyanese government approval. The company filed an environmental authorization application for an investment that’s expected to boost the country’s overall production capacity to nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, about the same as OPEC member Nigeria. Exxon’s aggressive plans have already made Guyana the third-fastest growing oil-producing country outside of OPEC in recent years.
Source: Bloomberg
New Regime
Goldman Sachs is signaling the end of an era in private equity. Marc Nachmann, the head of the firm’s money-management arm, added his voice to the chorus of industry leaders declaring the buyout business has passed a critical juncture. A period of profits driven by financial engineering and “multiples expansion” is over, Nachmann said. “Where your returns come from will be much more focused on creating better earnings growth.” To that end, Goldman is bringing in Darius Adamczyk — the former head of Honeywell International — to parachute into portfolio companies that the bank works with and help fix their operations. Even at a bank known for scooping up high-profile advisers, adding a former CEO of a sprawling industrial conglomerate is hardly ordinary.
Source: Bloomberg