Morning News

Advent International to Buy U-blox for $1.3 Billion

By Thomas BIANCATO
Published on Tue, 19.Aug.2025

Topic of the day

Advent International agreed to buy Swiss tech company U-blox for about $1.30 billion via a public tender offer, U-blox said. The provider of wireless and positioning semiconductors said Advent subsidiary ZI Zenith would launch an offer to buy it for roughly 1.050 billion Swiss francs, or 135.00 francs a share, in cash. The offer represents a 53% premium to U-blox’s average share price over the six months through Aug. 14. U-blox shares will be delisted from the SIX Swiss Exchange after the deal is completed, it said. The transaction, subject to approval, is expected to be settled within the next six months. U-blox said the deal is in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders. The board of directors recommended that shareholders accept the offer and has committed, along with the management team, to tender all their shares. The company’s largest individual shareholder, SEO Master Fund LP, which holds around 9% of outstanding shares, also said it would dispose of all of its shares. “We believe this transaction represents a highly attractive opportunity for our shareholders, customers and employees,” U-blox Chairman Andre Muller and Chief Executive Stephan Zizala said.

Swiss stocks

After a flat start, the Swiss market turned weak Monday morning and then spent the rest of the day's trading session in negative territory as investors remained reluctant to pick up stocks as they looked ahead to a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and several European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The benchmark SMI ended with a marginal loss of 2.45 points or 0.02% at 12,071.88. The index, which edged up a bit to 12,073.67 at the start, touched a low of 12,020.49 in the session. Swatch Group drifted down by about 3%. Amrize closed down 1.85%, while VAT Group, Geberit and Kuehne + Nagel ended lower by 1.3 to 1.4%. Adecco, SGS, Lindt & Spruengli, Sika, SIG Group, Zurich Insurance and UBS Group lost 0.4 to 0.7%. Alcon climbed about 1.4%. Straumann Holding, Novartis, Sandoz Group, Swisscom, Sonova and Givaudan advanced 0.5 to 0.85%. On the economic front, Switzerland's industrial output contracted slightly in the second quarter, provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Industrial production dropped 0.1% year-over-year in the June quarter, reversing its 8.9% growth in the first quarter.

International markets

Europe
European stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday as investors largely stayed cautious, looking ahead to the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and several European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Trump-Putin Summit failed to result in any breakthrough to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting between Trump and European leaders at the White House later today will see exchange of views on the state of peace efforts, security guarantees, territorial issues, and further support to Ukraine. The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.08%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.21%. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed down by 0.18% and 0.5%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.02% down. Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Turkiye closed higher. Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Russia, Spain and Sweden ended weak, while Austria and Norway closed flat. In the UK market, Babcock International climbed about 5.3%. Standard Chartered gained 2.65%. BAE Systems, British American Tobacco, Beazley, AstraZeneca, Endeavour Mining, Haleon, Convatec Group, Sainsbury (J), Vodafone Group and GSK closed higher by 1 to 1.8%. In Germany, Rheinmetall, Bayer and Siemens Energy gained 2.1 to 2.5%. Fresenius, Symrise, RWE and Zalando also ended notably higher. Commerzbank closed down by 3.2% following a rating downgrade by Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Post, Daimler Truck Holding, Hannover Rueck, Sartorius, Brenntag, Mercedes-Benz, Vonovia, Merck, Continental, Allianz, BMW, Porsche and MTU Aero Engines lost 0.8 to 2.1%. In the French market, Thales, Unibail Rodamco, Sanofi, Legrand, Safran and Hermes International gained 0.4 to 1.4%.

United States
Following back-to-back positive weeks, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Monday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing little changed. While the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 6.80 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 21,629.77, the S&P 500 edged down 0.65 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 6,449.15 and the Dow slipped 34.30 points or 0.1 percent to 44,911.82. The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders kept an eye on the White House, where President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leader. Traders were also looking ahead to comments from central bank officials at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium later this week along with earnings news from big-name retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD). Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at the symposium on Friday, with his remarks potentially impacting the outlook for interest rates. Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets. Natural gas stocks showed a notable move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index falling by 1.5 percent amid a decrease by the price of the commodity. Commercial real estate stocks also saw some weakness, while oil service stocks moved higher along with the price of crude oil, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 1.2 percent.

Asia
Trading on Tuesday on the stock markets in East Asia and Australia is characterised by a wait-and-see attitude. Overall, the daily trend is mixed. After reaching a record high on Monday, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo fell by 0.2 per cent to 43,629 points, the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.4 per cent, and in Sydney, the stock market barometer fell slightly more sharply by 0.7 per cent – albeit to a record high. Shanghai and Hong Kong are holding up better, with slight gains of up to 0.3 per cent.

Bonds
In the U.S. bond market, treasuries saw modest weakness, extending the downward move seen over the two previous sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by 1.3 basis points to 4.341 percent.

Analysis
UBS lowers Adyen target to EUR 1,950 (1,975) – Buy
JPMorgan raises Hapag-Lloyd target to EUR 72 (70) – Underweight
Morgan Stanley lowers Hellofresh target to EUR 11 (11.50) – Overweight

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