Nestle said it expected its operating margin to slip by 40 to 60 basis points in 2017 due to higher restructuring costs from a faster overhaul and said full-year organic sales growth should be in line with the 2.6 percent seen in the first nine months. But the world's biggest food company said its underlying margin, which strips out costs of closing factories and other charges from its revamp, was set to improve. Makers of packaged foods are under pressure to review their business models and brand portfolios to satisfy consumers' appetite for fresh, healthy, local foods, while at the same time improving returns to silence increasingly vocal activist investors. The maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe instant coffee said on Thursday that restructuring was progressing faster than planned, taking overall spending to as much as 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.02 billion) this year. "We maintain our guidance for overall restructuring costs of up to 2.5 billion francs until 2020," Chief Finance Officer Francois-Xavier Roger told reporters on a call. Organic sales growth accelerated to 3.1 percent in the third quarter, from 2.3 percent in the first and 2.4 percent in the second, Nestle said. This matched the forecast in a Reuters poll. In the nine-month period, sales reached 65.272 billion Swiss francs as growth in Asia and Europe picked up, while in the Americas sales growth eased, Nestle said. Organic growth in North America was flat, the company said, citing soft consumer demand, with a decline in sales volumes particularly in confectionery and ice creams. Roger said he still expected the sale of Nestle's U.S. confectionery business by the end of the year. Nestle shares, which have risen almost 15 percent so far this year, were indicated to open 0.4 percent lower, according to pre-market indications.

It's the prize of a lifetime — a USD 5 billion investment creating 50,000 well-paid jobs that everyone wants, but only one US city will get. From East to West, from North to South, metropolises across the United States are locked in a frenzied bidding war desperate to woo Amazon into favouring them as the site of the e-commerce giant's second headquarters. From USD 7 billion in tax breaks in Newark, New Jersey — 50 years ago aflame by deadly race riots — to a giant cactus shipped inter-state, bids range from the colossally ambitious to the silly before tomorrow's deadline for submissions. The e-commerce giant announced last month that it planned to invest more than USD 5 billion in opening Amazon HQ2, a second company headquarters in North America that would create up to 50,000 jobs, and tens of thousands of spin-off jobs. "We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," promised Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, America's second richest billionaire worth USD 85.8 billion. The Seattle-based company's unusual announcement unleashed nationwide competitive juices as some of America's most glittering cities — New York and Chicago vie with lesser-known backwaters looking to exit oblivion. "Let any state go and try to beat that package," announced a typically bombastic New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on behalf of Newark's bid. Christie, a Republican ally of US President Donald Trump, reached across the increasingly bitter US partisan divide to join forces with Democratic Senator Cory Booker and champion Newark's chances. New Jersey dangled the prospect of USD 5 billion in tax incentives over 10 years, USD 1 billion in property tax abatement and wage tax waivers that would allow Amazon employees to keep around USD 1 billion of their hard earned money over 20 years. As part of New York's metropolitan area, Newark fulfils Amazon's preference for places with more than one million people, a business-friendly environment and urban or suburban locations able to attract and retain strong technical talent. But that wishlist hasn't stopped lesser contenders resorting to gimmicks in a bid to win attention and perhaps circumvent the stipulations from Amazon. Atlanta suburb Stonecrest, Georgia has offered to surrender 345 acres to create a new city called -- wait for it -- Amazon. "They have an eternal brand if they create and live in Amazon," Mayor Jason Lary told Fox Business. "Their own zip code." Birmingham, Alabama erected giant replicas of Amazon's distinctive grey shipping boxes downtown, a business group in Tucson, Arizona, uprooted a 21-foot (6.5-meter) cactus and shipped it to Amazon's Seattle head office. "Unfortunately, we can't accept gifts (even really cool ones)," tweeted the retailer in response, saying they had donated it to the Desert Museum.

Piramal Enterprises will raise as much as Rs 7,000 crore over the next few months through QIP and rights issue, Group chairman Ajay Piramal said on Wednesday. The drugs-to-financial services conglomerate, whose board recently announced Rs 4,996.2 crore qualified institutional placement (QIP), would raise Rs 2,000 crore via rights issue. “The QIP has been raised at a coupon rate of 7.9 percent, which is lower than the rate of debt you would raise today,” said Piramal, who is also the chairman of Shriram Group. About 90 percent of the rights issue will be underwritten by the promoters and the entire capital would last the company for 3-5 years. “The Company will issue these CCDs with a face value of Rs 107,600 each, convertible into equity shares of face value Rs 2 each, with a maturity period of 18 months, with an option to the CCD holders to convert all or part of the CCDs held by them into Equity Shares at any time before the maturity date. Each CCD will be convertible into 40 equity shares,” the company added. The issue is expected to close on October 25, 2017. Piramal had said it would raise Rs 4,996.20 crore and infuse majority of its funds in financial services including Piramal Finance, Piramal Capital, Corporate finance group and its newly formed Piramal housing finance entity. Some of the funds will also be deployed to its pharmaceutical business into some greenfield and brownfield projects. The QIP, he said, saw strong investor interest from North America (50 percent), Asia (35 percent) and the rest from European investors. According to him, it is the largest QIP that any corporate has undertaken, other than a banking institution and also the first time that compulsory convertible debentures (CCD) have been issued as a QIP. A CCD provides a certain amount of protection to investors as it is a debt for 18 months. So irrespective of the share price, it allows the investor to get an interest return on it. At the same time, if the share price increases, the investor can convert it into equity. For the company, it is also advantageous because this is a significant amount of money. The Company has approved the conversion price of Rs 2,690 per Equity Share, against the floor price of Rs 2,688.35 which was determined as per the formula prescribed under Regulation 85 of the SEBI Regulations for the CCDs allotted to Eligible QIBs in the issue. The administrative committee of the company's board of directors has "approved the issue of Confirmation of Allocation Note for allocation of 4,64,330 CCDs (compulsorily convertible debentures)... aggregating to Rs 4,996.2 crore to eligible QIBs (qualified institutional buyers), the company said on Tuesday.