Trending tickers: Apple, Centamin, Ocado, Wickes
In This Article:
Apple (AAPL)
Apple lost its fight against an order by EU competition regulators to pay €13bn ($14.4bn/￡11bn) in back taxes to Ireland as part of a crackdown against sweetheart deals between EU countries and multinationals.
The European Commission (EC) issued the order in 2016, saying that the iPhone maker benefited from two Irish tax rulings for over two decades that artificially reduced its tax burden to as low as 0.005% in 2014.
"The Court of Justice gives final judgment in the matter and confirms the European Commission's 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover," judges said.
The Irish government said it would respect the ruling, while Apple said it was disappointed with the decision. The company said: "The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US."
Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks mixed as UK wages grow at slowest pace in two years
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
It comes after Apple’s big product launch event this week failed to excite the market on Monday, leaving its share price flat. It announced a new version of the iPhone with a camera button on the side.
Centamin (CEY.L)
Gold miner Centamin surged more than 24% after it agreed to be taken over by AngloGold Ashanti (AU) in a $2.5bn (￡1.9bn) deal.
Under the terms of the transaction, Centamin shareholders will receive 0.06983 new AngloGold Ashanti shares and $0.125 in cash. The price represents a premium of around 36.7% to the closing share price on Monday.
Hochschild Mining (HOC.L) also gained on the back of the news, along with Fresnillo (FRES.L).
“A takeover of Centamin represents the end of an era for mid and large-cap gold miners on the UK stock market," said Russ Mould of AJ Bell.
Read more: Stocks that are trending today
“Centamin is one of the last pure-play gold producers remaining on the London Stock Exchange. While there are plenty of tiny exploration companies hoping to strike it rich, few have enjoyed Centamin’s level of success and built a large-scale operating mine.
"It’s surprising we’ve had to wait this long for someone else to make a serious offer for Centamin since Endeavour (EDV.L) tried to buy it in 2019. Centamin owns a gigantic gold mine in Egypt called Sukari, which is the company’s jewel in the crow. Sukari is the type of deposit that most gold producers dream of finding but never do. Often it is easier to buy a proven deposit than spend years looking for one."