
Germany's Brainlab puts IPO on hold
It had previously eyed a price of 80 euros ($94) per share, the lower end of a previous offer range, for its planned initial public offering with the first day of trading scheduled for Thursday.
"An IPO at a later time remains under consideration by Brainlab and the selling shareholders," a statement from the company said.
The listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange of the Munich-based maker of imaging and guidance software for surgeons would have been the first major IPO this year for Germany.
Several European companies have pulled listing plans so far this year amid growing investor uncertainty from global trade wars and military conflicts. German car parts seller Autodoc put IPO plans on hold last month.
The planned sale of Brainlab shares worth 416 million euros, both existing and new ones, would have valued all of its equity capital at close to 1.7 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8523 euros)
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Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump threatens crippling attack on the EU that'll leave key industry on its knees
President Donald Trump has reportedly threatened the European Union with a 17 percent tariff on food exports, a move that could cripple that industry. The threat came ahead of a July 9 deadline to strike a trade deal otherwise the EU faces a 50 percent tax on all its goods going into the United States. EU officials told the Financial Times the new food tax is an escalation between the two trading partners. It was unclear if the 17 percent hit on food and farm exports would be in addition to the other tariffs announced by Trump or instead of them. The value of EU food exports to the U.S., including products such as wine, reached almost $58 billion last year. Should the U.S. and EU fail to cut a deal by next week's deadline, then EU goods imported to the U.S. could be hit by duties of up to 50 percent. That could be swiftly followed by retaliatory measures from European bloc that would target a wide range of American goods, including food stuffs and technology. The U.S.-EU trade relationship is one of the biggest in the world, accounting for around 30 percent of global goods. Key exports from the U.S. to the EU include crude oil, civilian aircraft, and pharmaceutical products. The EU, for its part, exports a wide range of goods to the U.S., including machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and food stuffs. In 2024, trade between the two was valued at around 1.68 trillion euros – or $1.98 trillion. The EU has a surplus of 198 billion euros when it comes to goods, but a deficit of around 148 billion euro in services given the Europeans an overall trade surplus of around 50 billion euros. Trump has repeatedly railed against the European Union, accusing it of taking advantage of the United States. The EU was 'formed to screw the United States,' he has charged repeatedly. Negotiations have been challenging. Reports say the two sides are working on a five-page draft 'agreement in principle', but it has very little agreed-upon text in it. 'What we are aiming at is an agreement in principle,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday, adding that a detailed agreement was 'impossible' to reach during the 90-day reprieve. She also warned that, if no agreement is reached, 'all the instruments are on the table.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed hesitant about the odds of agreement being reached before the July 9th deadline. 'We'll see what we can do with the European Union,' he told CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street' on Thursday. Talks are continuing over the weekend. EU officials may accept maintaining the 10 percent baseline tariff for most goods in exchange for sectoral exemptions, per reports. The bloc wants immediate relief for pharmaceuticals, aircraft, semiconductors, and alcohol exports – critical industries where supply chains span the Atlantic. European negotiators, however, are not being helped by internal divisions among its 27 members - some nations want to accept higher tariffs in return for a period of certainty and others want to retaliate to put pressure on Trump to compromise. Friedrich Merz, chancellor of Germany, the EU's biggest and most export-dependent economy, has been pressing the commission, which runs trade policy, to settle for a quick deal. He wants exemptions from Trump's 25 percent tariff on vehicles and 50 percent on steel. Germany is one of the biggest exporters of automobiles.


Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
One year of Starmer: Nine charts that tell us whether Labour's first year has been a success or failure
It might feel like it's been even longer for the prime minister at the moment, but it's been a whole year since Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a historic landslide, emphatically defeating Rishi Sunak's Conservatives and securing a 174-seat majority. Over that time, Sir Keir and his party have regularly reset or restated their list of milestones, missions, targets and pledges - things they say they will achieve while in power (so long as they can get all their policies past their own MPs). We've had a look at the ones they have repeated most consistently, and how they are going so far. Overall, it amounts to what appears to be some success on economic metrics, but limited progress at best towards many of their key policy objectives. From healthcare to housebuilding, from crime to clean power, and from small boats to squeezed budgets, here are nine charts that show the country's performance before and after Labour came to power, and how close the government are to achieving their goals. Cost of living On paper, the target that Labour have set themselves on improving living standards is by quite a distance the easiest to achieve of anything they have spoken about. They have not set a specific number to aim for, and every previous parliament on record has overseen an increase in real terms disposable income. The closest it got to not happening was the last parliament, though. From December 2019 to June 2024, disposable income per quarter rose by just £24, thanks in part to the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. By way of comparison, there was a rise of almost £600 per quarter during the five years following Thatcher's final election victory in 1987, and over £500 between Blair's 1997 victory and his 2001 re-election. After the first six months of the latest government, it had risen by £144, the fastest start of any government going back to at least 1954. As of March, it had fallen to £81, but that still leaves them second at this stage, behind only Thatcher's third term. VERDICT: Going well, but should have been more ambitious with their target Get inflation back to 2% So, we have got more money to play with. But it might not always feel like that, as average prices are still rising at a historically high rate. Inflation fell consistently during the last year and a half of Rishi Sunak's premiership, dropping from a peak of 11.1% in October 2022 to exactly 2% - the Bank of England target - in June 2024. It continued to fall in Labour's first couple of months, but has steadily climbed back up since then and reached 3.4% in May. When we include housing costs as well, prices are up by 4% in the last year. Average wages are currently rising by just over 5%, so that explains the overall improvement in living standards that we mentioned earlier. But there are signs that the labour market is beginning to slow following the introduction of higher national insurance rates for employers in April. If inflation remains high and wages begin to stagnate, we will see a quick reversal to the good start the government have made on disposable income. VERDICT: Something to keep an eye on - there could be a bigger price to pay in years to come 'Smash the gangs' One of Starmer's most memorable promises during the election campaign was that he would 'smash the gangs', and drastically reduce the number of people crossing the Channel to illegally enter the country. More than 40,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats in the 12 months since Labour came to power, a rise of over 12,000 (40%) compared with the previous year. Labour have said that better weather in the first half of this year has contributed to more favourable conditions for smugglers, but our research shows crossings have also risen on days when the weather is not so good. VERDICT: As it stands, it looks like 'the gangs' are smashing the government Reduce NHS waits One of Labour's more ambitious targets, and one in which they will be relying on big improvements in years to come to achieve. Starmer says that no more than 8% of people will wait longer than 18 weeks for NHS treatment by the time of the next election. When they took over, it was more than five times higher than that. And it still is now, falling very slightly from 41.1% to 40.3% over the 10 months that we have data for. So not much movement yet. Independent modelling by the Health Foundation suggests that reaching the target is "still feasible", though they say it will demand "focus, resource, productivity improvements and a bit of luck". VERDICT: Early days, but current treatment isn't curing the ailment fast enough Halve violent crime It's a similar story with policing. Labour aim to achieve their goal of halving serious violent crime within 10 years by recruiting an extra 13,000 officers, PCSOs and special constables. Recruitment is still very much ongoing, but workforce numbers have only been published up until the end of September, so we can't tell what progress has been made on that as yet. We do have numbers, however, on the number of violent crimes recorded by the police in the first six months of Labour's premiership. There were a total of 1.1m, down by 14,665 on the same period last year, a decrease of just over 1%. That's not nearly enough to reach a halving within the decade, but Labour will hope that the reduction will accelerate once their new officers are in place. VERDICT: Not time for flashing lights just yet, but progress is more 'foot patrol' than 'high-speed chase' so far Build 1.5m new homes One of Labour's most ambitious policies was the pledge that they would build a total of 1.5m new homes in England during this parliament. There has not yet been any new official data published on new houses since Labour came to power, but we can use alternative figures to give us a sense of how it's going so far. A new Energy Performance Certificate is granted each time a new home is built - so tends to closely match the official house-building figures - and we have data up to March for those. Those numbers suggest that there have actually been fewer new properties added recently than in any year since 2015-16. Labour still have four years to deliver on this pledge, but each year they are behind means they need to up the rate more in future years. If the 200,000 new EPCs in the year to March 2025 matches the number of new homes they have delivered in their first year, Labour will need to add an average of 325,000 per year for the rest of their time in power to achieve their goal. VERDICT: Struggling to lay solid foundations Clean power by 2030 Another of the more ambitious pledges, Labour's aim is for the UK to produce 95% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. They started strong. The ban on new onshore wind turbines was lifted within their first few days of government, and they delivered support for 131 new renewable energy projects in the most recent funding round in September. But - understandably - it takes time for those new wind farms, solar farms and tidal plants to be built and start contributing to the grid. In the year leading up to Starmer's election as leader, 54% of the energy on the UK grid had been produced by renewable sources in the UK. That has risen very slightly in the year since then, to 55%, with a rise in solar and biomass offsetting a slight fall in wind generation. The start of this year has been unusually lacking in wind, and this analysis does not take variations in weather into account. The government target will adjust for that, but they are yet to define exactly how. VERDICT: Not all up in smoke, but consistent effort is required before it's all sunshine and windmills Fastest economic growth in the G7 Labour's plan to pay for the improvements they want to make in all the public services we have talked about above can be summarised in one word: "growth". The aim is for the UK's GDP - the financial value of all the goods and services produced in the country - to grow faster than any other in the G7 group of advanced economies. Since Labour have been in power, the economy has grown faster than European rivals Italy, France and Germany, as well as Japan, but has lagged behind the US and Canada. The UK did grow fastest in the most recent quarter we have data for, however, from the start of the year to the end of March. VERDICT: Good to be ahead of other similar European economies, but still a way to go to overtake the North Americans No tax rises Without economic growth, it will be difficult to keep to one of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' biggest promises - that there will be no more tax rises or borrowing for the duration of her government's term. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said last month that she is a 'gnat's whisker' away from being forced to do that at the autumn budget, looking at the state of the economy at the moment. That whisker will have been shaved even closer by the cost implications of the government's failure to get its full welfare reform bill through parliament earlier this week. And income tax thresholds are currently frozen until April 2028, meaning there is already a "stealth" hike scheduled for all of us every year. 5:03 But the news from the last financial year was slightly better than expected. Total tax receipts for the year ending March 2025 were 35% of GDP. That's lower than the previous four years, and what was projected after Jeremy Hunt's final Conservative budget, but higher than any of the 50 years before that. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) still projects it to rise in future years though, to a higher level than the post-WWII peak of 37.2%. The OBR - a non-departmental public body that provides independent analysis of the public finances - has also said in the past few days that it is re-examining its methodology, because it has been too optimistic with its forecasts in the past. If the OBR's review leads to a more negative view of where the economy is going, Rachel Reeves could be forced to break her promise to keep the budget deficit from spiralling out of control. OVERALL VERDICT: Investment and attention towards things like violent crime, the NHS and clean energy are yet to start bearing fruit, with only minuscule shifts in the right direction for each, but the government is confident that what's happened so far is part of its plans. Labour always said that the house-building target would be achieved with a big surge towards the back end of their term, but they won't be encouraged by the numbers actually dropping in their first few months. Where they are failing most dramatically, however, appears to be in reducing the number of migrants making the dangerous Channel crossing on small boats. The economic news, particularly that rise in disposable income, looks more healthy at the moment. But with inflation still high and growth lagging behind some of our G7 rivals, that could soon start to turn. The Data and Forensics


Auto Blog
3 hours ago
- Auto Blog
BMW's M Division Is Working On A "Dream Car For Collectors"
By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Something Should Succeed The Skytop Cast your mind back a decade to 2015, when the F82 M4 GTS was but a Pebble Beach concept. At that point, cars that cost seven figures were scarce, and Bimmers that cost six and didn't have a 7 on the back were non-existent. But nowadays, after selling every example of the – ahem – $750,000 BMW 3.0 CSL, getting several requests about the Concept Touring Coupe, and then finding resounding success with the Skytop and Speedtop, the Bavarians are poised to build on that momentum with something new, reports BMW Blog. What exactly remains to be seen, but it's described as a 'dream car' that will be 'for collectors.' It seems BMW is making hay while the sun shines. Production Crews Know It's Coming, Just Not When Source: BMW Sylvia Neubauer, Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales at M, reportedly told BMW Blog that BMW's small-series team had approved a limited-run M: 'We are discussing things, but we need to find the right time to do it. Be assured, we share the same dream and passion. We have been talking with Adrian van Hooydonk [Head of BMW Group Design] and the team who does the small series planning, and there is a slot reserved for BMW M.' As is typically the case with these sorts of projects, you need to build suspense. You don't hear the name of Oppenheimer, nor that it'll be shot on IMAX, before you hear that Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy are working on a new project. Getting the media talking about what the producers have in mind builds excitement, and in this case, it gets potential buyers calling to ask for a build slot. What To Expect, And What Not To Hope For BMW has ruled out the idea of reviving the M1 supercar. If it's to be a true supercar like the Audi R8 was (and may again be), it would need a unique chassis, or something close to it, and BMW is still a massive company built on efficiency, where economies of scale need to make sense. If this project is to be a stepping stone to building a department that could make an M1 happen, it needs to be financially viable, and there's still only so much money you can ask for an M. Thus, we can be sure that it will be based on something BMW already makes, which effectively rules out a supercar, but only for the time being, as Neubauer hints: Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. 'We always think of where there might be potential markets for the future. Many times, we are doing this together with our [BMW] AG colleagues because we need some base car to then turn it into a high-performance model. There are some ideas we are discussing with our AG colleagues at the moment.' Our best guess? BMW is still deciding what to do for its 8 Series replacement. Some rumors have suggested that the 4 Series and the 8 Series will meet in the middle to become the reborn 6 Series, which is exactly what Mercedes did with the E-Class and C-Class coupes when it came up with the CLE. Once the bean counters decide where to go, and the M division knows what it has to work with, then – and only then – will we start to hear rumblings of what is really going on. Until then, anything is possible in this market – especially when there are third parties that can do the hard work of producing a bespoke chassis. Then again, working with a third party (Lamborghini) is what burned BMW the first time it tried to enter the supercar space. Whatever the special model may be, it can't be poorly timed, and it can't be overpriced. BMW hasn't missed in a while, so fingers crossed. About the Author Sebastian Cenizo View Profile