More spin-offs in big corporate-verse: Johnson & Johnson and Toshiba are the latest to announce a bid to streamline operations, with both companies saying on Friday they plan to split into smaller, more focused firms, according to the Washington Post and Reuters.

For J&J: One branch will be home to its core pharma operations and its medical device business, which includes the lucrative vaccine manufacturing branch. Another will focus on the business of household brands including Tylenol, Listerine and Band-Aid.

For Toshiba: The move will see three new entities formed to house each of the Japanese giant’s energy and infrastructure divisions, hard disk drives and semiconductor, and flash-memory chips divisions. The latest high-profile splits are signalling that investors are increasingly coming to value smaller, more focussed businesses over conglomerates.

The trend is gathering steam: Last week General Electric said it would break up into three separate entities by early 2024. The massive organization will spin off its healthcare division in early 2023, before merging its renewables, power equipment and digital businesses to be spun off in early 2024, while keeping the remaining company, GE Aviation, focussed on the engine-manufacturing arm.

Also worth noting in the financial press:

• Dubai toll system to IPO on the DFM: Dubai is looking to list its automated road toll system that operates without toll booths or barriers — Salik — on the Dubai Financial Market as part of a move to diversify listed government companies, Finance Minister Maktoum Bin Mohammed said on Twitter yesterday.
• Musk sells USD bns of Tesla stock: Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to be doing as he promised, and has sold USD 6.9 bn worth of his shares in the company over the past week, Reuters reports, citing a regulatory filing. The bn’aire last week said he would sell 10% of his shares if his Twitter followers voted for him to do so. Having sold 6.36 mn shares last week, he needs to offload another 10 mn to keep his promise.

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.8% at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 894.7 mn (39.9% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net buyers. The index is up 6.7% YTD.

In the green: Medinet Nasr Housing (+11.6%), Heliopolis Housing (+5.6%) and Aspire Capital (+5.1%).

In the red: Speed Medical (-2.6%), GB Auto (-1.5%) and Abou Kir Fertilizers (-0.7%).