Universal Music Up, Erste Rises, Puig Surges

On this episode of Stock Movers:

- Universal Music said subscription revenue grew 8.7% in 3Q, buoyed by artists like Taylor Swift and the soundtrack album for the hit film KPop Demon Hunters.

- Erste Group Bank raised its net interest income growth guidance. The bank sees its deal to buy Santander’s Polish unit on track to close around the year-end. 

- Puig’s share price rose, with trading volume almost 10 times the 20-day average after the Spanish group reported better-than-expected 3Q sales and upgraded its guidance for the last three months of the year. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, The.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in
the stock market. Harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Let's take a look at some stocks on the move
today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll with Lizzie Burdon, and
we're joined by Bloomberg reporter Chloe Meda for more. Chloe,
good morning. Let's start with Universal Music Group subscription revenue
growing more than expected. What's going on?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh yeah, reported revenue ahead of expectations for the third quarter,
and that's thanks to two things in particular. So the
omnipresident Taylor Swift with really strong sales of her latest album,
and then also a really strong performance of the soundtrack
album for the hit next flip Netflix film k POB
Demon Hunters, which I've not seen, but apparently it was
really huge, and so that really boosted the shares this morning.

(00:52):
After quite an uneven performance over the last few months.
Universal is in quite an interesting position of having to
adapt to this to the music industry created by AI,
of course, so instead of fighting against it, it's actually
decided to join forces with an AI music startup to
collaborate on a new music creation and streaming service which

(01:12):
essentially will automate that music making process with a tool
that is trained on license music from artists. So it's
doing that. It's also signed a partnership with Spotify to
develop what it has called a responsible AI products that
respect artists copyright. So something definitely to watch going forward
because all of that is really likely to reshape the
music industry in quite significant ways, and labels have to

(01:35):
find a way to protect themselves against those AI songs
taking that market share.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, that's really interesting. I've also not watched KPARP Demon Hunters,
but I have listened to a very long podcast discussing
Life of a shell Girl, so I feel fully up
to date on the cultural analysis of Taylor Sola this album.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Absolutely no shame there from Star Carl. I want to
take it right to say for Territory Bank Earnings erst
raising its outlook for a year, and of course they's
out of Austria.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
One of the updates from them.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, so they raise their net interest income and their
capital guidance this morning, which moved the shares higher, with
analysts noting that a strong capital position and also improving
profitability for US, so it's essentially building up its capital
cushion to help it fund the acquisition of Santandre's operations
in Poland. So this is a deal that was announced
in May. It's buying those Polish operations for about seven

(02:23):
billion euros, which makes it its largest deal ever. So
it's looking to pay for the transaction with a few
different ways, so with internal fund so by retaining earnings
and also temporarily reducing payouts to investors. But then it's
also freeing up capital by ufloading risks related to a
corporate loan portfolio that's worth more than ten billion euros.

(02:44):
So it seems that the plan to fund that acquisition
is being taken quite well by investors, even though it
does it does involve for having to reduce some payouts.
The net interest income guidance boost is also quite reassuring
and it really confirms that lending volumes are quite strong
in markets like Czechia and Slovakia as well. So it's
overall quite a positive update from ASTA and that really

(03:05):
moved the shats this morning.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Finally, Chloe, we're going to talk about Peak reporting better
than expected third quarter sales.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, so that is a Spanish company and Catalan company
that makes perfumes.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
And that's that wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, I think it's pooche, but checked. I checked this morning.
But I mean, I do not trust me on that.
I have no clear idea, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
You're right, Catalan versus Nish pronunciation anyway.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yea. So it makes perfumes and makeup and reported better
than expected sales and it also upgraded the guidance for
the last three months of the year, so it said
it at actually a really solid start to the fourth quarter,
which obviously is the most important quarter for those kinds
of companies. And the update also suggested a potential rebound
in the fragrance's segment, which is very welcome after quite

(03:50):
a bit of weakness in that particular division. It's a
really important one because it's got quite a much higher
margin than that makeup and skincare segments that are growing
much faster. That recovery there in those perfumes is a relief.
Some ane lists did say that the company did not
address any questions about the growth beyond twenty twenty five,
but for now, investors seem to be happy with the

(04:11):
positive twenty twenty five performance.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
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