GlaxoSmithKline expects to spin off its consumer healthcare venture with Pfizer in July 2022, in what will be Europe’s biggest demerger in 20 years. Haleon, which makes brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol painkillers , expects to deliver annual organic sales growth between 4% and 6% in the medium term, with “sustainable moderate expansion” of adjusted operating margin, Glaxo (ticker: GSK) said Monday. Haleon’s margin in 2022 will reflect synergies from the integration of Pfizer’s (PFE) portfolio of around £600 million ($804 million), which will offset £175 million to £200 million of new costs associated with running a stand-alone public limited company. Subject to approval by Haleon’s board, the initial dividend is likely to be “at the lower end” of a 30% to 50% payout rate, Glaxo said. Shares in Glaxo were down 1.34% in late-morning London trading. The stock has fallen 3.96% in the year to date. Pfizer shares were 0.84% lower in premarket. Details of Haleon’s spinoff come after Glaxo disclosed in January that it had rejected three takeover bids for the business from Unilever (ULVR. London) late last year. The final offer was worth £50 billion, but Glaxo said it undervalued the business and its potential.

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The Swiss stock market showed resilience on Monday in view of the developments in the war in Ukraine. The SMI thus ended the day almost unchanged at 11,987 points. Among the 20 SMI stocks, there were eleven price losers and nine price gainers. 67.15 (Friday: 63.99) million shares were traded. As in the rest of Europe, bank shares were the day's losers. They suffered from the fact that the EU and the USA had imposed sanctions against the largest Russian banks and that the Russian central bank was also prevented from accessing its high currency reserves. As a consequence, this would not remain without negative repercussions for the Western banks as well, it was said. In addition, Switzerland had joined the EU sanctions against Russia in full. UBS ended the day 2.8 per cent weaker and was the weakest SMI stock. Credit Suisse fell by 1.1 per cent and Julius Baer by 2.6 per cent. The SMI was supported by the 1.1 per cent gain in Nestle, which is considered a defensive index heavyweight.

European stock indices fell on Monday as investors worried about the consequences of new sanctions announced by the West against Russia, which seems increasingly isolated on the international scene on the fifth day of its offensive in Ukraine. However, the indices cut their losses at the end of the session in a climate of high volatility. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.1% at 453.1 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 and the SBF 120 were down 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively. In Frankfurt, the DAX 40 was down 0.7%, while the FTSE 100 in London was down 0.4%. Shell PLC said it would exit its joint ventures with Russian energy giant Gazprom PJSC, a day after BP PLC said it would divest its nearly 20% stake in Russia’s state-controlled oil producer Rosneft. Shell cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said it would also end its involvement in financing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, a natural gas pipeline project recently sanctioned by the U.S. Shell owns a 27.5% stake in a major offshore gas project in Russia’s far east that is 50% owned by Gazprom and supplies around 4% of the world’s liquefied-natural gas market. BP PLC’s abrupt unwinding of Russia ties that were 30 years in the making shows the mounting risks Western companies face doing business there—and the mess they can face getting out. The British oil company said Sunday that it would divest its nearly 20% stake in Russian state oil company Rosneft, valued around $14 billion at year-end, days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drew an international outcry. BP earlier in the month had defended its longstanding partnership with Rosneft even as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats against his neighbor intensified.

On Wall Street, Nasdaq eked out a slight gain on Monday, but overall, stocks ended the session lower and booked another month of declines. However, early Tuesday U.S. futures were nudging into positive territory, while most markets in Asia were higher. "The market is struggling to find a path to optimism, but I think ultimately it will fail," said Phillip Toews, chief executive and lead portfolio manager of Toews Asset Management. "We're on the path toward a broader bear market," he said. Meanwhile, BlackRock Investment Institute's Wei Li and others said that "we are tactically upgrading equities as we see greater clarity on Ukraine conflict and reduced risk of central banks slamming the brakes to curb inflation." Chevron Corp. is making one of its largest investments in renewable fuels, paying $3.15 billion to buy a company that makes diesel and other fuels from sources such as corn or cooking oil as the fossil-fuel giant faces investor pressure to invest in green energy. The purchase of Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group Inc., which has 11 refineries that source mainly from waste products such as tallow or used cooking oil, will help Chevron in its quest to offer a bigger variety of fuels with lower carbon footprints than oil and natural gas. Chevron plans to continue making acquisitions in the area, and will spend money to convert existing refineries so they can process low-carbon fuel sources, Chief Executive Mike Wirth said. Citigroup Inc. disclosed Monday it had nearly $10 billion in total exposures to Russia at the end of 2021, some of which sit in a consumer bank it has been trying to sell and may now be stuck with. The New York giant, which bills itself as the world’s truly global bank, is by far the most exposed of the big U.S. banks to Russia in the midst of a global sanctioning regime that is threatening Russia’s economy after its invasion of Ukraine last week. Russia is, nonetheless, a small part of Citigroup’s $2.29 trillion in assets.

Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Asian financial and stock markets showed a certain stabilization on Tuesday. In China, the stock markets are moving only moderately: Shanghai is very slightly up, in Hong Kong the HSI turns negative and is lighter.

U.S. market interest rates fell sharply, with the yield on ten-year US bonds dropping by more than 13 basis points to 1.83 per cent.

JP Morgan lowers the Valeo target to EUR26 (33) – Overweight

Barclays lowers the IAG target to EUR 2.10 (2.20) – Overweight

UBS raises Merck KGaA to Neutral (Sell) – Target EUR 175 (170)

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