- Nissan to plough £1bn into UK EV hub
- Elliott takes aim at GSK management
- High street sales pick up
Nissan announces major UK battery factory
Nissan (JP:7201) and its Chinese partner Envision AEC have unveiled plans to build a large-scale battery factory in Sunderland, as part of a £1bn investment in a flagship electric vehicle hub. The car manufacturer estimates that the new facility will create more than 6,000 jobs, raising hopes for the long-term stability of the British motor industry in the EV era.
The initial phase of the ‘gigafactory’ will have a capacity of 9 gigawatt hours (GWh), enough to produce batteries for 100,000 Nissan cars a year. The company hinted at potential further investment of £1.8bn by Envision AEC, expanding the plant to 25GWh by the end of the decade.
The news marks a victory for British supply chains, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the announcement as “a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly-skilled workers in the North East.”
Amazon calls for FTC to recuse chair
Meanwhile, stateside last night Amazon (US:AMZN) called for Lina Khan, the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission ‘FTC’, to step down from investigations involving the company. The e-commerce giant argued that her previous work - namely, a legal paper published in 2017 ‘Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox’ - showed that she had “already made up her mind” that it is a threat to competition.
Early reports suggest that the FTC is poised to investigate Amazon’s recent $8.45bn deal to acquire movie studio MGM. The company said in a statement that it “should be scrutinised along with all large organisations. However, even large companies have the right to an impartial investigation.” But the Democratic representative David Cicilline, who chairs the House antitrust subcommittee, told the Financial Times: “This is the problem when a company has this enormous economic and political power. It is a level of arrogance that is hard to really appreciate.”
Elliott shows its hand re: GSK
It was perhaps only a matter of time before activist investor Elliott unveiled its intentions regarding pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
As reported by the Financial Times in April, the hedge fund has built a multibillion stake in the FTSE 100 company.
This morning, Elliott released a letter sent to the board of directors at GSK – observing that it has a “substantial value creation opportunity” but a “poor record of operational execution and value creation, leading to scepticism about the company's future, and an under appreciation of its true potential”.
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