Business

We’re exiting our position in American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), selling 2,000 shares at roughly $13.21 each. At the same time, we’re buying 50 shares of Constellation Brands (STZ) at roughly $234.45 each. Following Thursday’s trades, the portfolio will no longer hold a position in AEO, and it will own 240 shares of STZ, increasing its weighting in the portfolio to 1.98% from 1.58%. We’re selling the rest of our position in American Eagle Outfitters due to the concerns we have about this specialty retailer. As we talked about Wednesday, when we cut our position in half , we do not think American Eagle Outfitters has the right type of inventory for this change in consumer spending habits. Aerie, one of AEO’s brands, has some of the highest exposure to loungeware for a stay-at-home economy, in a time when people are going out more often to go to the office or travel in these later stages of the Covid pandemic. The company also made a big bet on swimwear this spring, and April turned out to be one of the coldest and wettest in ages. In addition, the freight and transportation headwinds that impacted the industry for a few quarters now do not sound like they have abated. In short, we do not want to stick around next week when the company reports earnings to hear all about how they had the wrong inventory this quarter and how inflationary pressures are eating into margins. That’s why we are willing to take the 50% loss we have on the rest of our position and move on from what has been a major disappointment. With this sale, we’re happy to have this extra cash because we don’t need to remind you how difficult the market is right now. But we don’t want to take too much cash out right now because the market is back in deep oversold territory. After Wednesday’s major selloff, the S & P Oscillator moved to minus 7.13%. That’s not as oversold as it was last Thursday, when the Oscillator minus 8.25%. Of course, the market can always get more oversold from here. But since we want to continue high grading the portfolio, we are taking half of the cash raised from the AEO sale to fund a purchase of Constellation Brands, the premium beer, wine, and spirits company whose sales tend to be resilient even in an economic slowdown. Constellation also does virtually zero business in China — both from a revenue and supply chain perspective — meaning the company is immune to the Covid lockdown fears that continue to weigh on the mind of investors. At a time when many are worried that consumer spending habits changed drastically in April based on the comments from Walmart (WMT) and Target , we do not believe Constellation has seen that at all, with beer, wine, and spirits sales immune to this. At a recent virtual roundtable event, management said that March and April depletions, the number of cases that are sold to retailers by a distributor, were “consistent with annual guidance,” meaning the company’s expected 11% earnings growth for this year is on track. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AEO, STZ and WMT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.

Constellation Brands’ Corona Light is displayed for sale at a grocery store in New York.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg| Getty Images More

Spirit’s board turned down JetBlue’s earlier buyout offer of $33 a share.
Spirit has a deal in place to combine with fellow discount airline Frontier.
JetBlue launched a hostile takeover attempt of Spirit earlier this week.

A Spirit Airlines airplane taxis for takeoff at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
Michael Ciaglo | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Spirit Airlines’ board on Thursday urged its shareholders to reject JetBlue Airways’ hostile takeover attempt, citing regulatory hurdles and accusing the airline of trying to derail its planned merger with fellow discount carrier Frontier Airlines.
“Spirit believes JetBlue’s proposals and offer are a cynical attempt to disrupt Spirit’s merger with Frontier, which JetBlue views as a competitive threat,” Spirit said in a statement.

JetBlue launched its hostile takeover bid on Monday after Spirit earlier this month rebuffed its surprise $33-a-share, all-cash acquisition bid. The tender offer from New York-based JetBlue was for $30 a share. JetBlue also urged Spirit shareholders to turn down the combination with Frontier at a June 10 Spirit stockholder meeting.
JetBlue said Thursday that it is “no surprise that Spirit shareholders are getting more of the same from the Spirit Board,” accusing it of conflicts of interest. JetBlue also said Spirit’s board “continues to ignore the best interests of its shareholders by distorting the facts to distract from their flawed process and protect their inferior deal with Frontier.”
Spirit’s board reviewed that offer and said in a statement Thursday that it determined it “is NOT in the best interests of Spirit and its stockholders.”
In Spirit’s statement, it said in talks with JetBlue that airline said there “was a 100% certainty” that the Justice Department would seek to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit.
“This deal is illusory,” Spirit’s CEO Ted Christie said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday regarding the JetBlue bid to acquire Spirit. “It will not happen in our opinion and for that reason our board has rejected it and to imply otherwise again, we think is insulting.”

JetBlue said in a statement Thursday that both deals “have a similar risk profile.”

Frontier and Spirit in February announced a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal to combine into a discount airline behemoth.
JetBlue says its $3.6 billion all-cash offer would “turbocharge” its growth. All three airlines fly Airbus narrow-body planes, with dozens more on order. Either combination of the airlines would create the fifth-largest U.S. carrier.
Spirit’s board has said it regulators would approve a tie-up with JetBlue, citing its partnership with American Airlines in the Northeast U.S. The Justice Department sued JetBlue and American over that agreement last year with a trial date set for September.
Spirit shares were down roughly 2% in premarket trading Thursday, while JetBlue shares were fractionally lower.

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Kohl’s said final and fully financed bids from potential buyers are expected in the coming weeks.
CEO Michelle Gass said Kohl’s has been “pleased with the number of parties who recognize the value of our business and plan.”
The company also posted a massive earnings miss for its fiscal first quarter and slashed its profit and sales outlook for the year.

Customers leave a Kohl’s store on November 12, 2015 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Kohl’s on Thursday said final and fully financed bids from potential buyers are expected in the coming weeks, as the retailer faces heightened pressure from activists to sell.
Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass said Kohl’s has been “pleased with the number of parties who recognize the value of our business and plan.”

But the retailer’s stock slid 7% in premarket trading after the company posted a massive earnings miss for its fiscal first quarter and slashed its profit and sales outlook for the year. Gass, in a press release, said that 2022 started out below her expectations.
“Sales considerably weakened in April as we encountered macro headwinds related to lapping last year’s stimulus and an inflationary consumer environment,” Gass said.
Kohl’s joins a growing list of major retailers, including Walmart and Target, that have seen logistics and staffing expenses eat into profits amid 40-year-high inflation. These companies have also started to see American consumers adjust spending behavior as they face higher prices on everything from milk to workout clothes.
Kohl’s now expects fiscal 2022 adjusted earnings per share of $6.45 to $6.85, compared with its prior forecast of $7.00 to $7.50.
Net sales are forecast to be flat to up 1% from year-ago levels, compared with prior guidance of up 2% to 3%.

Here’s how Kohl’s did in the three-month period ended April 30, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, according to a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 11 cents vs. 70 cents expected
Revenue: $3.72 billion vs. $3.68 billion expected

Kohl’s for its fiscal first quarter reported net income of $14 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $14 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier. That was short of analysts’ expectations for 70 cents a share.
Sales fell to $3.72 billion from $3.89 billion a year earlier though still beat analysts’ estimates for revenue of $3.68 billion.
Kohl’s said comparable sales fell 5.2%. Analysts had been looking for a 0.5% increase.
The dismal results from Kohl’s come amid the retailer’s highly watched sale process. Kohl’s has been facing pressure to find a new owner ever since activist hedge fund Macellum Advisors in January pushed for the company to do so, arguing that Gass hasn’t done enough to grow sales.
Macellum was also pushing to overhaul Kohl’s board of directors, but it wasn’t successful. Last week, Kohl’s shareholders voted to reelect the company’s current slate of 13 board directors, trumping Macellum’s proposal. Still, the activist group responded that it will be holding Kohl’s accountable for its decisions in the months ahead.
Gass, who assumed the CEO role at Kohl’s in May 2018, has tried a number of strategies to lure customers into stores, including signing a partnership with Amazon and adding Sephora beauty shops to hundreds of Kohl’s locations. The company has also invested massively in its activewear business, as more consumers seek out comfortable clothing over dresses and blazers.
But skepticism is piling up around whether Gass’ plans are yielding results.
“Walking into a Kohl’s store is an unexciting experience, which is why some customers have stopped visiting and why others are buying less when they do visit,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Kohl’s said in a securities filing Wednesday evening that its chief merchandising officer and chief marketing officer are departing the retailer. A spokeswoman said a search for successors is already underway.

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Empowered Investor

In 2020, women made 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Women of color are at an even greater disadvantage.
The gender wage gap was much larger in 1960, when women’s pay was 61% of men’s. But progress has stalled over the last 15 or more years, according to researchers.
Lower pay contributes to lower lifetime earnings and less overall wealth.

Hinterhaus Productions | Stone | Getty Images

The “gap” between how much money men and women are paid has long been a feature of the U.S. economy.
While that pay differential has narrowed since the 1960s, progress seems to have slowed in the past decade or more — a dynamic that has big implications for women’s financial security and wellbeing, according to experts.

“What you’ll find is that no matter how you measure it, a pay gap exists,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “It has a huge impact on lifetime earnings.”

Here’s the most clear-cut measure of the disparity: In 2020, women made 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (The analysis measures median wages for full-time, year-round workers 15 years and older.)
Put differently: It would take some 40 extra days of work for women to earn a comparable wage.

Women of color are at an even greater disadvantage. For example, Black women were paid 64% and Hispanic women 57% of what white non-Hispanic men were paid in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“There’s a still a significant gap,” said Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. “It hasn’t narrowed a lot in the last 15 years.”

Narrower?

In 1960, the national wage gap was much larger; at that time, women earned 61 cents for every dollar of men’s wages.
Since then, women have made big advancements in both education and work experience, which employers tend to reward with higher pay, Fry said.

Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college than young men, and women over 25 are more likely to have a four-year college degree, according to Pew.
Americans have also seen many changes in U.S. laws and culture — stronger enforcement of pay discrimination laws and shifting expectations and understandings of women in the workforce, according to Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at the National Women’s Law Center.

More from Empowered Investor:

Here are more stories touching on divorce, widowhood, earnings equality and other issues related to women’s investment habits and retirement needs.

The problem isn’t just that women’s pay continues to lag in aggregate, according to experts. The wage gap persists when comparing women to men across similar education level, occupation, income and race.
In fact, a recent analysis by Gould found that progress has plateaued for over two decades: In 2021, women made about 80 cents for every dollar of male wages, little changed from about 77 cents in 1994, after controlling for differences in education, age, geography, race and ethnicity.

Contributors

10’000 Hours | DigitalVision | Getty Images

There are three major contributors to the ongoing pay discrepancy: job type, discrimination and shouldering caregiving duties, Fry said.
For one, women are overrepresented in low-paying service jobs relative to men. That’s especially true of care work, like childcare workers, domestic workers and home health aides, according to Sarah Jane Glynn and Diana Boesch, policy advisors at the Labor Department.

But the wage gap isn’t attributable just to jobs that a woman might choose. Even within female-dominated jobs, women are paid less than men, on average, Glynn and Boesch wrote. Average pay within occupations also tends to fall when women enter in large numbers because their labor is so “devalued,” they added.
Further, about 42% of working women have experienced gender discrimination at work, nearly twice the number of men, according to a 2017 Pew survey.
That included earning less money, being treated as if incompetent, being passed over for promotions and important assignments, and receiving less support from senior leaders, for example.

‘Penalized’

Women also get “penalized” as they age and generally assume more family caregiving responsibilities relative to men, which might cost them valuable time in the workforce, Fry said.
Research suggests women start their careers closer to wage parity with men.
In 2019, women under age 30 were paid 93% of men’s wages nationally, much higher than the 82% share for all women, according to the Pew Research Center. In 22 U.S. cities metropolitan areas (including New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles) young women made the same or even more than men that year.

But history suggests the gap will widen.
In 2000, the typical woman 16 to 29 years old working full time and year-round earned 88% of a similar man’s wages. By 2019, when they were ages 35 to 48, women were earning just 80% of their male peers, on average, according to Pew.
“Their advantages and compensation relative to men is narrowest earlier in their careers,” Fry said. “Whatever parity they currently experience may not last as they age.”

Wealth

This isn’t to say all women make less than men. There isn’t an earnings gap in a small subset of occupations, like phlebotomists, electricians and social workers, according to the Census Bureau.
But in aggregate, the pay gap contributes to less overall wealth for females.
The wealth gap is harder to measure than pay, since wealth is often measured at the household (not individual) level. But a 2021 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which looked at female-headed households relative to male-headed ones, found the typical woman had just 55 cents for every dollar a man had.

Continuing to close the gender wage gap largely depends on public-policy changes to improve structural issues, according to Martin: investments in childcare infrastructure, paid family and medical leave, higher minimum wages and stronger equal pay laws, for example, she said.
There’s been some traction toward pay equity: Nearly two dozen states and an equal number of cities have banned prospective employers from asking applicants questions about pay history, for example, according to the website HR Dive. (Some states have gone the other way, by forbidding such bans.)
Individual action and attitudes can help influence change, too, Martin said.
That might include trying to break down barriers around pay secrecy: by demanding an employer be more open to sharing details and decision-making related to pay in the workplace, she said. More

McDonald’s is selling its Russian business to its Siberian licensee, Alexander Govor.
Govor will operate the restaurants under a new brand.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Kremlin’s towers and passers-by are seen reflected in the window of a closed McDonald’s restaurant in Moscow on May 16, 2022.
Natalia Kolesnikova | AFP | Getty Images

McDonald’s said Thursday it has struck a deal to sell its Russian business to its current licensee in the market, Alexander Govor.
Govor will acquire all of McDonald’s locations in Russia and will operate them under a new brand. He also agreed to retain employees for at least two years, on equivalent terms, and fund the salaries of corporate employees who work in 45 regions of the country until the deal closes and existing liabilities to suppliers, landlords and utilities.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
McDonald’s said on Monday that it expects to record a noncash charge of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion related to its net investment in Russia and foreign currency losses.
The sale is expected close in the coming weeks if it secures regulatory approval. It spells the end of an era for the fast-food giant, which first entered the country just months before the Soviet Union dissolved.
“McDonald’s in Russia embodied the very notion of glasnost and took on outsized significance,” CEO Chris Kempczinski wrote in a letter to the McDonald’s system on Monday after the company announced its intent to sell.
In the three decades since opening its first location in Moscow, McDonald’s had grown its Russian business to roughly 850 locations. The company owned about 84% of those restaurants, while the rest were operated by franchisees. Owning more of its restaurants generates greater revenue for the company, but opens it up to greater risk in times of turmoil or economic downturn.

In early March, after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, McDonald’s said it would temporarily shutter its Russian locations. The company said in late April that the suspension of its operations in Ukraine and Russia due to the war cost it $127 million during the first quarter. And on Monday, it revealed it was planning to sell the business.
“Some might argue that providing access to food and continuing to employ tens of thousands of ordinary citizens, is surely the right thing to do. But it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine,” Kempczinski said in his letter.
Other Western companies are also opting to sell their Russian businesses, including automaker Renault and oil giant Exxon Mobil.
Govor operates 25 McDonald’s locations in Siberia and has been a licensee of the fast-food chain since 2015.

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The casino industry says a total ban on smoking would hurt business and result in job losses. Workers say their health is at stake.
“My roulette and blackjack and slot machine in smoking sections make 50% more money than my non smoking games,” said Joe Lupo, president of Hard Rock Atlantic City.
“When you’re on a smoking game. It’s torture,” said Pete Naccarelli, a longtime dealer at Borgata, which is owned by MGM Resorts.

Legislation pending in New Jersey’s statehouse would end the exemption Atlantic City casinos have long enjoyed from a statewide ban on indoor smoking in public places. About 2,500 casino workers have united to push for the ban. And the state’s governor supports it, as well.
“If a bill came to my desk, I would sign it,” Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said in December.

The casino industry is fighting the effort, saying it’s worried about a ban’s potential impact on jobs and profits.
The move could cost about 2,500 jobs, said a February study by Spectrum Gaming Group, commissioned by the Casino Association of New Jersey. A complete smoking ban could cause gaming revenue to tumble between 20% to 25%, according to an analysis John DeCree, gaming equities analyst for CBRE. Smokers account for 21% of Atlantic City gamblers and traditionally produce higher profits as smokers sit longer and spend more money, according to the Spectrum report.
“My roulette and blackjack and slot machine in smoking sections make 50% more money than my non smoking games,” Joe Lupo, president of Hard Rock Atlantic City and president of the Casino Association of New Jersey, told CNBC. “That’s a fact.”
Lupo said many Hard Rock employees do not support a change to smoking restrictions because they worry about their livelihoods, and he insisted opponents of casino smoking are in the minority but are getting all the attention. Nearly 22,000 full-time and part-time workers are employed by the casinos in Atlantic City, according to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
“The dogs who bark the loudest are heard,” he said.

Tammy Brady is speaking up, and she’s hoping to get the attention of state legislators.

Tammy Brady is fighting to make casinos smoke-free. She was diagnosed with cancer after 37 years of being a casino dealer.
Contessa Brewer | CNBC

Brady, a dealer supervisor at Borgata, has worked in casinos for 37 years, since she was 18. She said she’s desperate to work in a smoke-free environment.
“That’s the worst part of my job. I would enjoy my job if it wasn’t for the smoke,” Brady said. Customers blow smoke directly in her face, she added. “It’s horrible. It’s just you have to sit there and just take it.”
Brady is on medical leave, getting treatment for breast cancer. “I’m worried about going back to my job in a smoking environment,” she told CNBC, tears streaming down her face.
There is no safe level of second hand-smoke, the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General has concluded. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited a study that says 50% of the casinos sampled had air pollution levels known to cause cardiovascular disease after only two hours of exposure. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommends a completely smoke-free environment. “Casino workers are at great risk to the health hazards caused by secondhand smoke, including heart disease, lung cancer, and acute and chronic respiratory illnesses,” the federal agency said.
“When you’re on a smoking game. It’s torture,” said Pete Naccarelli, a longtime dealer at Borgata, which is owned by MGM Resorts.
The company declined to comment for this story.

A long battle

This isn’t the first challenge to New Jersey’s casino exemption for indoor smoking. In 2008, Atlantic City banned it and gaming revenue dropped 20% in just the first week. Citing economic challenges and a worsening economy, the city reversed the smoking ban and Atlantic City casinos were once again permitted to offer smoking on 25% of the casino floor.
Unite Here, the union representing casino employees who aren’t dealers, opposes any effort to reinstitute a ban, worried about declining revenue and job cuts.
But the United Auto Workers Union, which represents dealers at three Atlantic City casinos, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, have since joined the effort to eliminate the casino smoking exemption.
“Our members include dealers who sit inches away from patrons who blow smoke directly into their face for eight hours a day, every single day,” said UAW. “It is simply unacceptable knowing what we know about the dangers of secondhand smoke.”
Last month, hundreds of casino workers held a rally in Atlantic City to push for the legislation to completely ban smoking, which is pending in the Assembly and Senate. The legislation has 43 co-sponsors, including legislators from Atlantic City. The rally also marked the 16th anniversary of a New Jersey law banning smoking indoors. The Smoke Free Air Act took effect on April 15, 2006, and prohibited smoking in almost every workplace and place open to the public – except casinos.
While casinos worry their smoking patrons would stay away, some Atlantic City visitors they’d like to enjoy clean air.
Princess Foster, a tourist from Pennsylvania, said she would welcome a smoking ban in casinos. “The first thing that confronts me is cigarette smoke. We try to scurry through because we don’t want to inhale,” she said.
Smoking is only permitted on 10% of the gaming floor at Hard Rock Atlantic City, according to Lupo, with much more non-gaming space where smoking is prohibited. “Through Covid, we’ve done air filtration studies that validate that our air filtration is much much better than any of the other buildings throughout the states.”
The American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recently sent a letter to the Casino Association of New Jersey, insisting there are no current ventilation systems that are effective against secondhand smoke and that they can only reduce odor and discomfort.
Hard Rock International Chairman Jim Allen met last week with Murphy, the governor, about the pending legislation. Allen told CNBC the industry needs to work with regulators to find middle ground, but he is worried about a complete about-face in New Jersey.

(L-R) Dave Bee, Stephen Madel, H. Barzilay and Frank Fitzgerald play a game of poker May 11, 2004 during the grand opening for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

“The majority of our employees do not want to see a complete smoking ban because, unfortunately, they know it’s going to have a direct impact on the gratuities,” he said.
Hard Rock owns and operates casinos in other states that prohibit smoking indoors, though Native American tribes set the rules in casinos on sovereign tribal land. But Allen says in Ohio, the heated outdoor gaming patio has been very popular with patrons who smoke.
Where nearby casinos permit smoking, they might gain a competitive edge, according to DeCree of CBRE. “In markets like Chicagoland, New Orleans, and at Mountaineer in West Virginia, where customers had conveniently-located smoking alternatives, gaming revenue declined 20%+ in the first year after smoking was banned,” he wrote.

A shift on smoking

But DeCree’s analysis and Spectrum Gaming’s report are based on pre-pandemic results. Andrew Klebanow, a senior partner at C3 Gaming, said Covid caused a major shift in attitudes regarding smoking.
“Basically what happened was smoking prohibitions were implemented at no economic cost. Consumers didn’t react negatively, they kept coming in because they enjoy gambling,” he said. “Not what we expected to see, based on all the historical data we had prior to the pandemic.”
He predicts casinos that don’t go smoke-free are putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. His assessment is based on results in Pennsylvania, where Mount Airy Casino Resort stayed smoke free and saw revenues rise slightly – while its competitor Mohegan Sun Pocono which allows smoking saw revenues slightly decline.
The Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, which is two hours from Atlantic City, opted to remain smoke free as well, even when the state lifted restrictions. Spokesman Marc Oppenheimer said there’s been no noticeable impact to revenue and that Parx continues to gain market share. Surveys show their guests prefer a smoke-free environment, he added.
Casinos in surrounding states like New York, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland do not allow indoor smoking.
But, Hard Rock’s Lupo insists, Atlantic City’s economy is in a precarious recovery from Covid closures in 2020. “For us to have layoffs at a time at this time is dangerous and negatively impactful to the casino.”
Nicole Vitola, a table games dealer at Borgata, said she doesn’t buy the threat about jobs.
“They’re adding virtual dealers; they’re not worried about the job losses there,” she said. “When they went to online gaming, they weren’t worried about the job losses there. But when it comes for us saving our lives, they’re worried about the job loss. It doesn’t make sense.”

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Alex Rodriguez is now a partial owner of the Professional Fighters League, or PFL, after he contributed to a $30 million funding round.
This marks the second recent pro sports investment for Rodriguez. He became a co-owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves in April 2021.
PFL is now valued at $500 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. That’s up from a reported $400 million in 2021.

Alex Rodriguez at eMerge Americas conference in Miami on June 13, 2017.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Alex Rodriguez is betting on the growth of mixed martial arts.
The former MLB star is now a partial owner of the Professional Fighters League after he contributed to a $30 million funding round, the company said Thursday. Rodriguez joined media investment firm Waverley Capital in the raise and will have a seat on PFL’s board of directors.

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
This marks the second recent pro sports investment for Rodriguez. He became a co-owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves in April 2021, joining former Walmart e-commerce executive Marc Lore to buy the franchise for a reported $1.5 billion. Through his A-Rod Corp. firm, he invests in UFC-branded gyms.
Rodriguez, 46, made more than $450 million throughout his 22-season MLB career, according to Spotrac, a website that tracks sports contracts. He retired in 2016.
PFL is now valued at $500 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. That’s up from a reported $400 million in 2021. The person declined to be named because PFL’s valuation isn’t public.
The company will use the funds from the Rodriguez-Waverley deal to expand globally and target free agent fighters from Endeavor-owned UFC, PFL founder and Chairman Donn Davis said in an interview with CNBC. PFL wants to build a roster to leverage its pay-per-view “Super Fight” event that’s scheduled to debut in 2023.

“They now have a great option – UFC or PFL,” Davis said. “We’re open for business in the pay-per-view division.”

PFL fighter Kayla Harrison won the 2019 PFL Women’s Lightweight World Champion
Courtesy: PFL

Davis called Rodriguez’s interest in PFL a “mutual attraction.”
“Alex is building a business career in sports that he wants to equal his baseball career,” he said. Davis called Rodriguez “innovative in his approach to investing and building companies.”
Rodriguez credited PFL’s global reach as a reason for the interest. The league says it has 600 million fans globally and PFL matches are distributed in 160 countries. “The PFL continues to build and innovate for fans, media, and fighters, and there is massive demand in the marketplace,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
PFL is a single-entity league controlled by investors, including prominent sports and entertainment figures such as Washington Nationals owner Mark Lerner, former NFL star Ray Lewis, and investment firms including Ares Capital and Elysian Park Ventures.
The league has a regular season and a postseason, which concludes with six championship competitions. Fighters usually receive $1 million if they win. Also, PFL has a media rights deal with Disney-owned ESPN and gets sponsorship revenue from companies that include sports betting firm DraftKings.
PFL has now raised $200 million since 2018. That includes a $65 million raise in February 2021 and a $50 million Series C in 2019. Davis said the plan is to grow PFL into a multinational company, including PFL Europe and PFL Mexico.
“Their local fighters, their own prime-time schedule, their own events,” Davis said. “That’s our focus in terms of expansion internationally.”

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Sustainable Energy

Sustainable Energy
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The manufacturing facility will be able to produce 155,000 vehicles a year, and will initially serve the local market, the luxury car maker said in a press release.
Including the 350,000 units a year that can be made in Lucid’s factory in Arizona, the company will be able to produce half a million cars a year by the middle of the decade, earlier than its previous target of 2030, said CEO Peter Rawlinson.
Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment, Khalid al-Falih, said he expects more EV manufacturers to set up shop in the kingdom.

U.S. electric vehicle maker Lucid Group will set up its first overseas factory in Saudi Arabia, the company announced.
Javier Blas | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. electric vehicle maker Lucid Group will set up its first overseas factory in Saudi Arabia, the company has announced.
The manufacturing facility will be able to produce 155,000 vehicles a year, and will initially serve the local market, the luxury car maker said in a press release Wednesday. The vehicles will later be exported to global markets.

Lucid’s factory in Arizona can produce 350,000 units a year.
“That means we can accelerate plans to produce half a million cars a year from what was going to be 2030, to mid decade,” CEO Peter Rawlinson told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble. “And that’s really important because the planet can’t wait.”
The ongoing energy crisis “really just fuels the transition to battery electric vehicles,” said Rawlinson.
“The demand is now multiplying,” he said.

EV industry ambitions

Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment, Khalid al-Falih, said the Lucid factory is just the beginning.

“I believe it unleashes the whole industry of electric vehicles here in the kingdom, our intent is not to stop with Lucid,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
“We have other EV manufacturers that are in advanced discussions with us that will follow in the footsteps of Lucid,” he added.
Saudi Arabia also wants EV battery companies, suppliers and more to set up shop in the country, which could create 30,000 jobs, he said.
“We believe, like I said, that this is a catalytic investment decision … it’s a magnet that will attract a lot of other investors,” al-Falih said.

Lucid’s Rawlinson said the company would want to produce more than electric cars in Saudi Arabia, and pointed to energy storage systems that could be linked to solar photovoltaic farms.
“This technology is ideal for this part of the world,” he said. “Because remember, when the oil runs out, the sun will keep shining.”
As of 2021, Saudi Arabia was the world’s second largest producer of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It also has 297.5 billion barrels in oil reserves, second only to Venezuela, a World Population Review ranking said.
The kingdom’s state oil company, Aramco, saw its net income spike 82% to $39.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Al-Falih said the world still needs to invest in both fossil fuels and renewables to make the energy transition as smooth as possible.
He said Saudi Arabia is committed to its shift from traditional fuels to cleaner energy, citing the kingdom’s green initiatives.
— CNBC’s Dan Murphy contributed to this report. More