(Bloomberg Opinion) — Malls have been falling out of favor with Americans for years. But the calculus surrounding which have the best chances of surviving and which are destined for decline was flipped on its head by the coronavirus pandemic. That helps explain the news on Wednesday that mall giant Simon Property Group Inc. wants to call off its planned purchase of Taubman Centers Inc.A portfolio of higher-end malls in urban areas that cater to domestic and international tourism was one reason Simon agreed to pay a 70% premium for rival Taubman in February. Those same outposts are now a liability as the pandemic turns consumers off from crowded indoor venues and grinds travel to a halt. And that may give Simon the argument it needs to successfully walk away from the merger. Simon said Wednesday it’s seeking to terminate the $3.6 billion deal, arguing that Taubman had experienced a “material adverse event” amid the pandemic and had breached its obligations under the merger agreement by failing to make “essential” cuts in expenses to deal with the fallout. While the agreement stipulates that a pandemic doesn’t on its own give Simon the grounds to walk away, there’s an exception if the company can prove Taubman has experienced a “disproportionate adverse effect” relative to others in the industry. That’s where those higher-end, urban malls come into play.  While the pandemic is far from over, there appears to be a growing consensus among epidemiologists that outdoor activities are less risky than indoor ones. The owners of the largest open-air strip centers collected 50% to 65% or more of rent due in April, compared to just 10% to 30% for mall and outlet owners, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Lindsay Dutch observed in a recent note. It also helps that many of those strip centers are anchored by grocery stores or other outlets that were allowed to stay open through the pandemic because they sell essential items. CNBC reported that Taubman intends to contest Simon's termination of the deal and legal claims and will move ahead with a shareholder vote on June 25.Is this short-sighted? Maybe. The idea that we are forever destined to favor strip malls in suburban areas over luxury malls in cities strikes me as debatable. Indeed, Simon shares fell nearly 10% at one point on Wednesday and were still down about 3% in the early afternoon, suggesting shareholders believe something is being lost here. As my colleague Tara Lachapelle wrote in February when the deal was first announced, scale of operations and breadth of balance sheet should be an asset in mall owners’ quest for survival.But it’s still the right move for Simon to get out of the Taubman combination if it can. The all-cash deal and assumption of Taubman’s debt would have significantly inflated Simon’s leverage at the worst possible time, given the company’s own struggles to extract rent from shuttered retailers. Simon earlier this month sued Gap Inc., claiming the company failed to pay $65.9 million in rent for March through June. Including the coronavirus hit to the retail environment, the deal may have boosted Simon’s debt to 7.5 times its Ebitda, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Ki Bin Kim estimated in a report on Wednesday.Simon’s argument for getting out of the deal is logical “in the court of common sense,” Bin Kim wrote. But in the court of law, “we don’t know.” The second half of Simon’s argument — that Taubman has breached the covenants of the merger agreement by failing to make significant cost-cuts — is arguably trickier. While Simon has said it’s suspended or eliminated more than $1 billion of capital development projects, cut executive salaries and implemented temporary furloughs, Taubman has been more measured, announcing the deferral of as much as $110 million of expenditures. But aggressive job cuts and cost-control measures by Taubman could have given Simon more ground to argue the business was in a disproportionately dire situation, Bin Kim writes. “It could have been one of those things that `you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t,’” he said. That should be something of a motto for a mall industry that feels perpetually stuck on the wrong side of trends. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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In this article we will check out the progression of hedge fund sentiment towards Sorrentto Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRNE) and determine whether it is a good investment right now. We at Insider Monkey like to examine what billionaires and hedge funds think of a company before spending days of research on it. Given their 2 and […]

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Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story…

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The central bank sees no rate hikes through 2022. Here's what that means for mortgages.

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Nuveen Head of Fixed Income Strategy Tony Rodriguez joins Yahoo Finance’s Heidi Chung to discuss the Fed’s decision to hold interest rates steady at near-zero.

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Sorrento Therapeutics’ (SRNE) competitors might be further down the line with their COVID-19 programs, but H.C. Wainwright analyst Ram Selvaraju highlights two separate routes the biotech could take to bring possible treatments and/or preventative therapies to market.Last week, Sorrento disclosed that in preclinical trials, the company’s monoclonal antibody (MaB), STI-4938, code named COVIDTRAP, inhibited SARS-CoV-2 viral infection in vitro.The data showed that STI-4938, an ACE2-Fc decoy protein, binds solidly to the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein, and is able to stop the virus from infecting the respiratory cells (specifically, in African green monkey kidney epithelial cells).Sorrento has another antibody in development, STI-1499 (COVI-SHIELD), which also recently demonstrated promising in vitro results as it was able to completely block the SARS-CoV-2 virus.While it is still early on for both antibodies, with the next stage involving preclinical animal studies, Selvaraju is encouraged by the additional positive results. “Together with Sorrento's previously announced preclinical neutralizing antibody candidate, STI-1499, COVIDTRAP may provide a potent antidote against COVID-19,” the 5-star analyst said.That being said, Selvaraju believes there might be another COVID-related catalyst on the horizon. Recent preliminary results for AstraZeneca’s blood cancer drug, Calquence, showed that it might be effective as a treatment for COVID-19. In a study of 19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by COVID-19, the majority exhibited significant improvement in oxygen levels after taking the drug.The promising data for Calquence, a BTK (Bruton Tyrosine Kinase) inhibitor, might have implications for Sorrento’s own BTK inhibitor candidate, according to Selvaraju. “In our view, the promising early-stage clinical data for Calquence may provide an early read on the potential for the CALAVI program to yield positive results. There may be read-through from this to the applicability of Sorrento's own BTK inhibitor, abivertinib, to treat lung inflammation in COVID-19-infected patients. We remind investors that Sorrento recently announced its in-licensing of ex China rights to abivertinib, a dual BTK/EGFR inhibitor. The possibility that BTK inhibition may have a therapeutic role in addressing the consequences of COVID-19 infection only enhances the appeal of Sorrento's candidate,” the analyst explained.To this end, Selvaraju has a Buy rating on Sorrento to go with a $24 price target. Expect upside of a massive 431% should Selvaraju’s thesis play out in the coming months. (To watch Selvaraju’s track record, click here)Only one other analyst has published a Sorrento review over the last three months, matching both Selvaraju’s Buy rating and $24 price target. This makes the consensus rating a Moderate Buy. (See Sorrento stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for healthcare stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

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The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million equity holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn't the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F […]

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The government is stepping up its efforts to fund vaccine studies and production for at least three of five frontrunner candidates — something that Dr. Anthony Fauci told Yahoo Finance will be worth its weight in gold in the long run.

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Miller Value Partners recently released its Q1 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download below. The Miller Value Partners Opportunity Equity Fund posted a return of -38.4% for the quarter (net of fees), underperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index which returned -19.6% in the same quarter. You should check out Miller […]

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(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk wasn’t about to let a revenue-less manufacturer of zero-emission semi trucks steal the spotlight from Tesla Inc.The chief executive officer sent an email to employees before the market opened Wednesday declaring that it is “time to go all out” and put Tesla’s Semi into volume production. Musk didn’t give a time frame for when he expects mass output to actually happen. Just six weeks ago, Tesla said it was postponing initial deliveries to 2021, roughly two years later than initially planned.If Musk was looking to regain the attention of any investors whose eyes had wandered toward Nikola Corp., the market got the memo. Tesla’s stock surged past $1,000 for the first time, while shares of newly listed Nikola sold off after days of hype about its plans to bring battery-electric and fuel-cell haulers to market in the coming years.“This is Elon making noise because of Nikola,” said Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird. He said other factors are fueling the stock’s gain, including strong sales in China and the anticipation of a “Battery Day” event as soon as this month.Tesla soared as much as 8.4% to $1,019.86, lifting its market capitalization to an intraday peak of $189 billion. It’s gaining ground on Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s most valuable auto company at $215.9 billion.Nikola shares fell as much as 17% on Wednesday after advancing 122% the prior two days. It’s planning to start delivering a battery-electric semi next year, followed by fuel-cell rigs in 2023.“Given some of the other news flow in the past month to two months on the Class 8 truck market, I think he’s probably trying to keep Tesla in the marketing cycle just for all the mega trends going on in trucking,” Jeff Osborne, a Cowen & Co. analyst, said of Musk. He rates Tesla the equivalent of a sell.Trevor Milton, Nikola’s 38-year-old founder, took Musk’s memo in stride.Reuters reported Musk’s email to Tesla employees earlier Wednesday. The CEO confirmed its authenticity to his more than 35 million Twitter followers.(Updates with analyst’s comment in the fourth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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