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Oprah’s Weight Watchers bet leaves Wall Street pros trailing Billionaire entrepreneur’s decision to buy shares in dieting company has proved lucrative CHLOE CORNISH
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prah Winfrey is showing Wall Street’s most celebrated investors how it is done, with a bet on a previously struggling diet company generating hefty returns for the American entrepreneur and philanthropist.
In October 2015, Ms Winfrey made a $43m investment in Weight Watchers International, then an increasingly beleaguered dieting company worth less than $7 a share, joined its board and lent her brand of positive self-help to its marketing. Last week, its stock hit a record $101, a 1,400 per cent rise since Ms Winfrey
bought in. Activist investors have carved out careers — and sometimes fortunes — taking a large stake in public companies while promising that they alone have the secret sauce to improve corporate performance. Some have become famous, such as Bill Ackman, who was lauded after a
stellar decade of returns before losing a series of big bets. Mr Ackman’s listed fund, Pershing Square, has lost money for the past three years. By contrast, 64-year-old Ms Winfrey’s 8 per cent holding in the revived and rebranded “wellness” company is now worth $543m, swelling her fortune to $4bn and making her the
first black female entrepreneur on Bloomberg’s Billionaires List. “It’s difficult in public markets, beyond tech or biotech, to make that kind of return,” acknowledged James de Bunsen, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson. In 2017, Weight Watchers outperformed Hedge Fund Research’s activist index, which gained 5.5 per cent, by 281 per cent. The Russell 2000 small and mid-cap US index rose 13 per cent last year.
Ethiopia’s youthful PM steps up pace of change — but provokes
Zimbabwe president accuses ‘normal enemies’... Continued from page A3 gagwa’s spokesperson also ruled out a state of emergency being imposed after the blast. Free elections are essential if Mr Mnangagwa is to succeed in unlocking international investment to revive Zimbabwe’s penurious economy, which had been ruined under Mr Mugabe’s watch. Mr Mnangagwa told state media on Saturday that “people outside Bulawayo . . . my normal enemies” were behind the blast. “It’s not the first attempt on my life,” he said. “It exploded inches away from me but it is not my time.” He survived attempts on his life from within his own party last year amid a power struggle with Grace Mugabe, the former president’s wife, shortly before November’s coup. The attempts included an alleged poisoned ice-cream cone and a plot to kill Mr Mnangagwa after Mr Mugabe sacked him as his deputy, forcing him to flee abroad. Days after Mr Mnangagwa’s exile, army generals sent tanks on to the streets to protest against Mrs Mugabe’s influence on the state. Mr Mugabe then resigned under pressure from Zanu-PF after a stand-off. Among the injured from Saturday’s blast were Kembo Mohadi, one of Zimbabwe’s two vice-presidents, and other senior officials. On Sunday a spokesperson for the president said that “the electoral programme proceeds as scheduled”, with polling on July 30. Zanu-PF rigged previous votes under Mr Mugabe and used violence to intimidate opposition parties. This year the main opposition MDC Alliance has been able to campaign and hold rallies more freely than in the past, analysts say. But doubts have been raised over the army’s willingness to accept an opposition victory. MDC Alliance leaders have also raised concerns that the army would fund an excuse to deploy soldiers in rural areas to intimidate voters. Nelson Chamisa, the MDC Alliance’s leader and Mr Mnangagwa’s main rival for president, said after the explosion that “political violence of any nature from any quarter is totally unacceptable . . . which we must expunge”. Mr Mnangagwa, who was known as the “crocodile” and was a ruthless enforcer for Mr Mugabe, would “not be driven by vengefulness or a spirit of retribution” over the attack, his spokesperson said. Bulawayo and its surrounding Matabeleland region have been heartlands of opposition to Zanu-PF and particularly Mr Mnangagwa. In the 1980s, massacres were committed across Matabeleland to help consolidate Mr Mugabe’s grip on the post-independence government. Mr Mnangagwa has denied orchestrating the massacres.
Tuesday 26 June 2018
Abiy Ahmed has admitted to state torture and headed off forex crisis JOHN AGLIONBY AND DAVID PILLING
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Jelena McWilliams at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on her nomination in January © AP
New US bank regulator is mould-breaking conservative Jelena McWilliams promises to make the FDIC more ‘transparent and accountable’ BARNEY JOPSON
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s a one-time aide in the notoriously long-winded Senate, Jelena McWilliams jokes that she has learnt to talk at length without answering a question. As Donald Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Ms McWilliams kept specific policy goals to herself when she made her first public appearance to an audience of bankers this month. But the chair of the US agency responsible for promoting public confidence in the US financial system did not miss a chance to rib former Federal Reserve colleagues in the audience, saying: “At the Fed you’re not allowed to talk. There’s the Fed-speak and that’s it.” Much of the attention was on her background, which breaks the mould in the staid world of bank regulation: 44 years old, she was born Jelena Obrenic in the former Yugoslavia and grew up in a lower middle-class family in Belgrade before moving to the US on her 18th birthday. She did, however, say enough on stage to suggest that her stance on
regulation will be more conventionally conservative — and that she will show banks more empathy than the Obama appointees she is succeeding, whom bankers say treated them with distrust if not contempt. “I’ve never met a banker who said: ‘I actually want to be a bad banker, I really want to harm my consumers and I cannot wait for the day when I’m just going to do something wrong’,” said Ms McWilliams. She joined the ranks of regulators from Fifth Third Bancorp, a $142bnin-assets Cincinnati bank where she had been chief legal officer. “I actually think most entities are very good in trying to comply, trying to do the best they can, and regulators’ job is to make sure the regulations we promulgate give them a clear path.” Ms McWilliams was the last of the Trump-appointed regulatory chiefs to take office, joining as the others were already racing to implement a Treasury department blueprint for undoing parts of the Dodd-Frank act, the US’s response to the 2008-09 mortgage meltdown. Critics on the left say they are recklessly laying the ground for more bank risk-taking
that could imperil the economy. Ms McWilliams regulates thousands of the US’s small lenders and oversees a government insurance fund that is a backstop for savers in the event of a bank failure. She will also shape big-ticket regulations that affect the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, working with the Fed to loosen measures such as the Volcker rule and demands for banks to write “living wills”. One Democratic aide who worked with her on Capitol Hill said: “I don’t think she is a rigid conservative, but she is a conservative.” She comes to the job, however, with a background unlike any of her 29 predecessors, including three women. As a teenager in what is now Serbia, she planned to study astrophysics, but concluded the only people who were rewarded for hard work in her home country were those willing to “work with the corruption”. Having grown up watching the soaps Dallas and Dynasty, she told her father that she thought America might give her a chance. On her 18th birthday she arrived in the US on a high school exchange programme with $500 in her pocket.
Pupils showcase art talents at children’s day event
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ainting took the centre stage recently, as POWEI Foundation organised an arts’ competition, where children painted one of Nigeria’s foremost leaders and the nation’s first head of government, the late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. It was organised to create awareness on issues that affect children’s health and their general well being, as well as to render a helping hand. The foundation was floated as a result of a special child, Praise Glory Jolly, who suffered some illness, but was healed along the way. The mother of Glory, Jolly, said her daughter’s unpleasant health changes were confusing. She didn’t know what to say. However, with dedication and utmost attention,
the baby grew to become the face of Unilever Pears Baby of Year. Jolly continued: “I just want to encourage parents, as well as make them know that the period from conception till birth and early years is when these symptoms begin to show, so, be aware of the changes you notice and report them as soon as possible and take care of the babies when they are born so that we do not have children with physical challenges in the society.” A concerned woman, who addressed herself as Madam Felicia, advised parents to be careful about the programmes their kids watch and the things they read. According to her, “children learn faster by what they see and they do
not understand those emotional things, as a result, they tend to want to practice what they see innocently. Leaving them to watch whatever they want is like leaving them to the whole world.” She also told parents to be careful of people they leave their children with. She said, “Most children call most adult men they see daddy, but be careful with some of these daddies.” She advised children to play with other physically challenged children at school, as it helps them to recover, to some extent, and to always report anybody that touches them inappropriately to their parents. Iwalewa Gallery was the major sponsor of the event. They offered their gallery as venue.
biy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s youthful prime minister, may be the most popular politician in Africa but he has also made enemies. On Saturday, at a huge rally in Addis Ababa, an explosion that may have been intended to kill him left two dead and 156 people injured, five of them critically. No one took responsibility for the blast and Mr Abiy did not try to pin the blame on anyone. “To those who tried to divide us, I want to tell you that you have not succeeded,” he said. Analysts said perpetrators of the explosion, which occurred after Mr Abiy ended an address to tens of thousands of supporters in Meskel Square, could have been disgruntled members of the security forces. Their power is threatened by the sweeping reforms Mr Abiy has launched since becoming premier in April. There was also speculation that his peace overtures to Eritrea, in which he said Ethiopia would give up its claim to disputed land, might have triggered the attack. Mr Abiy came out of the blocks so fast in his first few weeks in office that few believed he could maintain the pace. But, if anything, the 42-year-old former army officer has stepped it up. Since being appointed just more than two months ago, Mr Abiy has overseen the release of thousands of political prisoners, ended a state of emergency that was imposed to quell two-and-a-half years of deadly anti-government protests, and announced an economic liberalisation plan, including partial sale of state telecom and airline assets. More recently, he has has reorganised the once-untouchable intelligence services and admitted publicly that the authoritarian government has committed acts of torture and terrorism on its own people. His charm offensive in the Gulf also appears to have borne fruit. The United Arab Emirates agreed last week to provide $3bn in badly needed loans and investments to ease a chronic foreign exchange shortage. “He is our Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and Nelson Mandela all in one,” enthused Addis Alemayehou, an Ethiopian media consultant, echoing the sense of euphoria that has accompanied the elevation to power of Africa’s youngest leader. That, say analysts, has raised expectations that Mr Abiy can transform the political and economic landscape. But it has also prompted concerns of a political backlash from within the ranks of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. Over the 27 years the EPRDF has been in power, Ethiopia has won plaudits in the west for its rapid development, including official growth rates approaching 10 per cent. But it has been severely criticised for rights abuses. Ethiopian politics remains opaque but, say analysts, there are hints of discontent within the ruling four-party coalition, whose 180 council members are far from unanimously behind Mr Abiy. There are already signs, for example, of an attempt to roll back his plans to sell off state assets.