America’s first golden share

One thing to start: The family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers is closing in on a deal to sell its majority stake in the National Basketball Association team to Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter at a valuation of about $10bn, which would be the largest-ever sale of a sports team.

A scoop: NatWest has ruled itself out of bidding for UK high-street bank TSB, eliminating one of the leading contenders from a sale process that had been expected to draw interest from some of the country’s largest lenders.

And a final thing: Microsoft is prepared to walk away from high-stakes negotiations with OpenAI over the future of its multibillion-dollar alliance, as the ChatGPT maker seeks to convert into a for-profit company.

In today’s newsletter:

• The share that saved a $15bn deal

• Lars Windhorst faces another bankruptcy

• One CEO’s pivot from cars to handbags

Nippon Steel’s last gasp

We all know Donald Trump’s favourite colour.

The US has received thousands of applications for “golden passports” and under Trump’s direction, he has repeatedly said the country is in a golden economic age. (It’s rather surprising he hasn’t yet changed the colour of the White House.)

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that something gold came to the rescue in the final hours of one of the biggest foreign takeovers in recent memory: the White House took a “golden share” in US Steel as a requisite to approve Nippon Steel’s $15bn takeover of the Pittsburgh-based company.

On Wednesday, the deal finally closed after 17 tortuous months. But before we get into those golden shares, let’s backtrack for those that haven’t followed every twist of this deal, which appeared on the verge of collapse again and again.

Former US president Joe Biden, his vice-president Kamala Harris, and Trump all said they were opposed to the deal last year while on the presidential campaign trail, for fear that it would put thousands of union jobs at risk.

And in his final days in office, Biden even moved to block the transaction.

So how did it finally get done? Nippon agreed to invest billions of dollars more in the business and made a number of promises to the US government, including new jobs and keeping its headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Then there’s the golden share. At the eleventh hour, Trump approved the deal by giving the US government a golden share in US Steel.

(We should note these sorts of shares have been around for decades in other countries, and have always had the name attached.)

While the share isn’t an equity stake — the US won’t make any money from this exchange — it does give the White House control over the company’s future.

Trump and future presidents will have veto power on a whole host of issues, including US Steel plant closures and where the company sources materials.

Other countries have taken out these sorts of shares before. Brazil has a stake in airline giant Embraer and the UK has one in defence group BAE and air traffic controller NATS.

But to our knowledge, this is the first time the US has taken this sort of control in a foreign takeover, especially one that’s by no means financially distressed.

Some dealmakers told us they think the shares could usher in a new normal — cross-border deals might change for good.

Lars Windhorst: the plate-spinner spinning his next plate

In 2019, the FT wrote that Lars Windhorst was a financier with nine lives.

The German chief executive of investment firm Tennor Group had already survived the collapse of two companies, personal bankruptcy, a suspended jail sentence, and a plane crash in Kazakhstan — all before the age of 34.

On Tuesday, Dutch tax authorities ordered an Amsterdam court to liquidate Tennor Holding, which for more than a decade served as Windhorst’s main investment company.

The holding company that was the linchpin of Windhorst’s empire may have declared bankruptcy, but he’s already begun his tenth life.

Windhorst is striking new deals with a Swiss company, Tennor International, which has even bought some of Tennor Holding’s assets out of insolvency.

Tennor Holding was at the heart of many of Windhorst’s notable scandals, drawing particular scrutiny for borrowing billions of euros from France’s H2O Asset Management.

H2O suffered an investor exodus in 2019, with nervous clients withdrawing €8bn from its funds due to concerns over illiquid securities tied to Windhorst’s trophy assets such as luxury lingerie maker La Perla.

H2O suffered record fines in France for its dealings with Windhorst, censure from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and a class-action lawsuit from 10,000 investors over losses on the investments.

Remarkably, Windhorst doesn’t deny the damage he’s done to those creditors.

“I make mistakes but I do work hard to rectify the mistakes I’ve made and people who have suffered because of my mistakes and suffered too,” he said in an FT interview in 2024.

A European luxury giant’s new chief

After Carlos Ghosn’s escape to Lebanon in a musical instrument box following misconduct charges in Japan, and Thierry Bolloré’s departure, Renault was in need of a CEO who could deliver a turnaround.

Luca de Meo did just that. He bolstered the French carmaker’s suite of products, transforming it into one of the best-performing companies in the sector despite its limited size.

Now in another uncommon exit from a Renault CEO, de Meo has quit the car world to lead the luxury handbag maker Kering.

Markets think the Italian is poised to bring about a much-needed recovery for the parent company of Gucci and Saint Laurent.

Since 2020 when de Meo took over, Renault’s share price has nearly doubled. For some context: Volkswagen’s has fallen by a third and Stellantis’s is virtually flat.

Plus, Renault’s European focus has shielded the company from tariffs somewhat, compared to those other carmakers.

In the luxury sector, it’s been a different story. Demand for luxury hand bags has dipped and is expected to drop more, as Americans and Chinese consumers face higher tariffs.

“Luxury is a bit different from carmakers,” said one luxury executive, though he added de Meo was “a big captain of industry and a real star” who could still succeed in his new role.

De Meo’s knack for cost-cutting helped turn around the carmaker, but he faces a challenge in trying to reverse a consumer demand slump for luxury handbags, the current bane of the industry.

De Meo will leave next month and is set to begin the top job in mid-September. Renault said it has begun the process of appointing a new chief.

Job moves

• Nestlé chair Paul Bulcke, formerly chief executive of the group, has decided to step down from the helm of the board. The directors have proposed Pablo Isla, the company’s current vice-chair, to succeed him.

• Citigroup has named Jonathan Moulds to the bank’s board of directors. He was previously chief operating officer of Barclays.

• HSBC has appointed Christopher Chua as head of M&A. He will continue to be based in Hong Kong.

Smart reads

Walmart heir With an estimated net worth of $39bn, Lukas Walton wants to use market mechanisms to save the oceans, the FT writes.

Losing its buzz Starbucks revenue has slumped in China, and foreign challengers Luckin and Cotti are catching up. They’re exploring bringing in a partner for a revival, but Lex says it’s a buzz kill.

Ambani-Trump union India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani and other foreign developers paid The Trump Organization $44.6mn in “development fees” last year, writes The Wall Street Journal. Expect Trump-branded projects popping up in Vietnam, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

News round-up

Unilever explores sale of healthy snack brand Graze (FT) 

Bill Gates and Sam Altman’s nuclear groups raise $1bn in investors bet on AI (FT)

OpenAI says Meta is trying to poach staff with $100mn sign-on offers (FT)

Macquarie buys stakes in UK airports from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (FT)

Wall Street leans on stock traders to cushion dealmaking slowdown (FT)

Allianz to cut 650 UK insurance jobs (FT)

Microsoft plans to cut thousands more employees (WSJ)