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Unilever's decision to separate its ice cream business has raised questions about the future of its remaining food assets. The company's nutrition unit, which includes brands like Knorr soups and Hellmann's mayonnaise, will be retained. It is unclear whether Unilever will list or sell the ice cream business, and the separation is not expected to be completed until the end of 2025. Analysts believe that Unilever's future is focused on home and personal care products, and the company aims to optimize its portfolio towards higher growth spaces. The ice cream business generated €7.9bn in turnover last year, while the nutrition business accounted for €13.2bn. Unilever plans to save €800m through a productivity program, which will result in job cuts. The decision to separate the ice cream business is seen as a positive move, but some analysts caution that cost-cutting alone is not enough for long-term success. [Extracted from the article]

Saputo, a Canadian dairy company, reported a loss in its third quarter due to a C$265 million impairment charge related to its Australian dairy division. The CEO attributed the charge to a decline in milk supply and a mismatch in cheese and ingredient prices. Despite the loss, Saputo remains committed to maximizing results in the division and has been optimizing its manufacturing network in Australia. The CEO also acknowledged the challenges posed by global dairy commodity markets and a challenging consumer environment. While the company expects market trends to remain volatile, it remains confident in its long-term strategy and growth drivers. [Extracted from the article]

The time commitment and financial investment in developing a replacement heifer is a daunting task-especially when one can come up open after having only one or two calves. If the NPV is positive, then the investment has earned a rate of return greater than the discount rate and should be pursued. This $547 NPV plus the -$500 NPV equals $47 which compares favorably to the -$327 NPV of holding an open cow this year. [Extracted from the article]

In the article, the author discusses how to establish a financial technology (fintech) unicorn company in the financial services industry. Other topics include the views of Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley on topics like dispersion of price/revenue multiples, the use of the discounted cash flow (DCF) model, and the competitive advantage period in the technology sector.

It is often the case that banks in the US are willing to borrow in the fed funds market (the interbank market for funds) at higher rates than the ones they could obtain by borrowing at the Fed's discount window. This phenomenon is commonly explained as the consequence of the existence of a stigma effect attached to borrowing from the window. Most policymakers and empirical researchers consider the stigma hypothesis plausible. Yet, no formal treatment of the issue has ever been provided in the literature. In this paper, we fill that gap by studying a model of interbank credit where: (1) banks benefit from engaging in intertemporal trade with other banks and with outside investors; and (2) physical and informational frictions limit those trade opportunities. In our model, banks obtain loans in an over-the-counter market (involving search, bilateral matching, and negotiations over the terms of the loan) and hold assets of heterogeneous qualities that in turn determine their ability to repay those loans. When asset quality is not observable by outside investors, information about the actions taken by a bank in the credit market may influence the price at which it can sell its assets. In particular, under some conditions, discount window borrowing may be regarded as a negative signal about the quality of the borrower's assets. In such cases, some of the banks in our model, just as in the data, are willing to accept loans in the interbank market at higher rates than the ones they could obtain at the discount window. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the political and economic situation of Uzbekistan. The US and Israeli embassies have both been caught in an explosion in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, which caused four fatalities. The blast also hit the prosecutor's office, in what is being viewed as a suicide attack. With the bombings having interrupted the trial of several religious militants accused of a series of attacks in March and April, speculation of an Islamist link to the latest violence has grown. With capital investments having increased over the January-July period, and production in the automotive and metals sectors trending strongly upwards, researchers anticipate that industrial output will increase by 8.2% this year, in line with the official forecast.