The Wall Street Journal - 11.03.2020

B2| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

INDEX TO BUSINESSES

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople
in today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A-B
Abercrombie & Fitch..A6
Airbnb..........................B6
Alibaba Group.............A8
Amazon.....................A11
American Airlines.A6,B1
Anglo American........B13
Apache........................A6
BHP Group................B13
Biogen.........................B7
C
Carrols Restaurant
Group.......................B14
China Mobile...............A8
China Telecom............A8
China Unicom..............A8
Chipotle Mexican Grill
...................................B14
Comcast......................A8
Continental.................A6
CubeSmart..................B6
D
Delta Air Lines......A6,B1
Dick's Sporting GoodsB3
DXC Technology..........B3
E-F
Electronic Arts............B4
Elliott Management...B1
Extra Space Storage...B6
Facebook......................B6
Foresight Energy........B2
Freeport-McMoRan...B13
G
Gilead Sciences...........B7

Glencore....................B13 H Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development...........B14 Hersha Hospitality Trust .....................................B6 Hilton...........................B6 Hyatt Hotels...............B6 I-J ICF International........A3 Inovio Pharmaceuticals .....................................B7 Jacobs Engineering Group........................A3 K-M Kraton.........................A6 McDonald's................B14 Microsoft..................A11 Moderna......................B7 Muyuan Foodstuff....B14 N National Football League.......................B4 NMC Health................B7 O Occidental Petroleum ............................. A6,B12 Oyo Hotels & Homes..B6 P PG&E...........................B3 Prologis.......................B6 Public Storage.............B6

R Regeneron Pharmaceuticals..B2,B7 Rio Tinto...................B13 S Sanofi..........................B2 Saudi Arabian Oil.......B1 SM Energy................B12 SoftBank Group..........B6 Sonnenblick-Eichner...B6 Southwest Airlines....B1 Square.........................B4 Starbucks..................B14 Sunstone Hotel Investors...................B6 T-U Take-Two Interactive Software...................B4 Tencent Holdings........A8 Tesla............................B1 Total..........................B12 Twitter........................B1 United Airlines......A6,B1 United States Steel..B13 V-W Vacasa.........................B6 VanEck Vectors High- Yield Municipal Index ...................................B13 Veritas Capital............B3 Vir Biotechnology.......B7 Vornado Realty Trust.B6 Wells Fargo.................B3 Wendy's....................B14 WH Group.................B14

INDEX TO PEOPLE

BUSINESS & FINANCE

As part of Murray’s bankruptcy case, the company’s lenders have agreed to take control of Murray’s assets, including its equity interests in Foresight, in exchange for for- giving $1.2 billion in debt. Regulation of emissions has made coal-fired power generation more expensive, causing utilities to shift their power mix more toward natural gas and renewable energy sources. Both gas and renewables have become cheaper in recent years, battering demand for thermal coal. Coal-fired power accounted for 27% of U.S. power generation in early 2019, down from 35% in 2013, while gas and renewables grew to 48% of total power generation by last year, up from 42% in 2013. Foresight’s international markets also took a hit due to the development of U.S. lique- fied natural gas export facili- ties, which has facilitated the export of cheap gas to Europe. Western European countries have also stepped up regulatory pressure on the industry, Mr. Moore said in a declara- tion filed in bankruptcy court. Market conditions “have created a sort of race to the bottom for the coal industry, with heavy competition among coal suppliers for a shrinking customer base, all within a challenging regulatory and leg- islative atmosphere,” he said. Foresight was founded in 2006 by coal magnate Christo- pher Cline, who had become a billionaire through another coal company he built called Cline Group. Mr. Cline died in a helicopter crash in the Baha- masinJuly. Foresight has roughly 790 employees and operates four major mining complexes in Illi- nois. It also owns a barge-load- ing terminal on the Ohio River.

Coal mining company Fore-
sight Energy LP, already reel-
ing as power plants shift to
cheaper and cleaner sources of
energy, filed for bankruptcy
protection Tuesday, saying the
global economic slowdown
caused by the coronavirus epi-
demic helped push it over the
edge.
The St. Louis-based com-
pany filed for chapter 11 pro-
tection in the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in St. Louis with a re-
structuring strategy supported
by lenders holding more than
73% of the company’s $1.4 bil-
lion of debt.
In court papers, Foresight
Chief Executive Robert D.
Moore said the international
coal market has come under
additional pressure due to the
global economic slowdown
stemming from the rapid
spread of the coronavirus.
The bankruptcy comes a
day after collapsing oil prices
wiped billions of dollars in
market value off of U.S. shale
companies and threw into
question their ability to pay
back the massive debts they
have accumulated. Foresight’s
chapter 11 filing suggests the
market turmoil may spread be-
yond oil and gas and into the
U.S. coal sector, which has al-
ready suffered a rash of bank-
ruptcies over the past two
years.
But Foresight’s path to
bankruptcy was set in motion
long before the appearance of
the epidemic. The company de-
faulted on its debt last year
when it missed an interest
payment to bondholders in Oc-
tober. Foresight is an affiliate
of Murray Energy Corp., the
nation’s largest closely held
coal company, which itself
filed for chapter 11 in October
and owns a stake in Foresight.

BYALEXANDERGLADSTONE

Troubled Coal Miner

Files for Bankruptcy,

Cites Epidemic’s Effect

A
Agarwal, Ritesh..........B6
B
Barasch, Jon..............B13
Bokil, Madhavi............A6
Broyer, Sylvain...........A6
Bush, Jonathan...........B4
C
Capuco, Justin............B6
Cohn, Jesse.................B1

D
Dergachev, Sergey......A6
Dorsey, Jack................B1
Duke, Elizabeth...........B3
Durban, Egon..............B1

F-G
Fogarty, Kevin.............A6
Galloway, Scott...........B1

Gerba, Charles............B6 H Hadley, Roy.................B4 Hammerbacher, Jeff.B14 Hillcoat, Hunter........B13 Hollub, Vicki..............B12 Hunt, Andrew...........B13 I Icahn, Carl.................B12 K Kelly, Gary...................B1 Kim, Ki Bin..................B6 Kleinfeld, Klaus..........B4 L Lipesky, Scott.............A6 M-N Mazing, Nick.............B14 Musk, Elon..................B1

Nuzzo, Jennifer.........B14 P Pachter, Michael.........B4 Pang, Bruce.................A6 Price, Tom.................B13 Q Quigley, James...........B3 S Scharf, Charles............B3 Schroeder, Benjamin..A6 Spiegel, Even..............B4 Stanley, Stephen........A6 Stutzman, Jeff............B4 T-V Thompson, Maria........B4 Venditti, Nicholos.....B13 W-Z Wenig, Devin..............B4 Zuckerberg, Mark..B4,B6

Foresight Energy’s Pond Creek longwall coal mine in Johnson
City, Ill. Foresight has four major mining complexes in Illinois.

ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Drugmakers Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA are racing to launch clinical trials exploring whether their arthritis drug could treat symptoms of novel coronavirus infections. The study preparations mark the latest effort in an emerging front in researchers’ hunt for effective treat- ments for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. In the U.S., there aren’t any drugs or vaccines ap- proved for the condition. The research aims to see whether certain drugs already on the market to tackle immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis could help ease damage to the lungs and respiratory system caused by the immune system’s overre- action to the virus causing Covid-19. The drugs wouldn’t

treat the underlying virus. The Sanofi and Regeneron drug, called Kevzara, was ap- proved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017 to treat rheumatoid arthritis. “The goal would be in the next couple of weeks to have the trial up and running, and in weeks to months after that to have the data,” Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos said in an interview on Tuesday. Boosting the rationale for studying Kevzara’s effect on Covid-19 was a recent report by Chinese researchers that a similar-acting drug, Actemra from Roche Holding AG, had helped a small group of patients with severe or critical Covid-19 disease recover. Several patients in the study “got out of death’s bed and walked out of the hospital” after receiving Actemra, Dr. Yancopoulos said. However, he cautioned that

the study required repeating because it was small, not con- trolled and didn’t have de- fined parameters for success. Genentech, a Roche subsid- iary, said it is exploring op- portunities to conduct U.S. studies of Actemra in Covid-19 patients with pneu- monia, said a company spokeswoman.

A study of the drug on Covid-19 was recently begun by the First People’s Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, she said. Both Actemra and Kevzara

block proteins called interleu- kin-6, or IL-6, that trigger the body’s immune and inflam- matory response. Normally the response helps fight infections. If the immune system overreacts, however, it can attack healthy tissue and organs. In some novel coronavirus patients, the immune response may be accelerating and damaging the lungs even after significantly diminish- ing the amount of virus in the body, said Naimish Patel, Sanofi’s head of global development for immunology and inflammation. Blocking IL-6 may put the brakes on the immune system and keep the body from at- tacking itself, he said. Symptoms associated with Covid-19 include fever, low oxygen levels in the blood and difficulty breathing. The FDA didn’t respond to requests for comment.

BYJOSEPHWALKER

Regeneron, Sanofi Ready Tests of

Arthritis Drug as Virus Treatment

Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, center, founder and chief executive of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, at a recent coronavirus task force meeting.

KEVIN DIETSCH/ZUMA PRESS

utive in May. United is making plans based on revenue drop- ping 70% in April and May and remaining depressed through the rest of the year—a dire sce- nario the company hopes won’t come to pass, he said. Demand fell about 40% for two months after 9/11, he added. United expects to cut capacity across its network by at least 20% in May, and to con- tinue rolling those cuts for- ward until the airline starts to see demand recover. “While we expect the duration to be rela- tively short, we’re planning for it to be deep,” he said. American’s reduction in domestic flights will include can- cellation of routes where cus- tomers can be easily rerouted. Some domestic routes will get a boost, though, with bigger planes that would have been used for international flying. Internationally, the airline will hold off on flying to main- land China until late October, and will extend cancellations to Hong Kong and Singapore for months. It is temporarily suspending or cutting back on service to European destina- tions including Barcelona, Ma- drid, Rome and Paris. Latin America, which had been the one relative haven for U.S. airlines’ international operations, will also see cuts, including American’s flights to Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil. —Benjamin Katz and Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

ity of the decline is breathtak- ing,” Mr. Kelly said in a video message Monday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “There is no question this is a severe recession for our industry and for us, and it’s a financial crisis.” The virus is testing airlines’ ability to weather the kind of economic crisis they have promised investors they could withstand following a decade- long run of industry profits. While a sharp drop in fuel prices is likely to relieve some pressure, carriers are facing a global-demand shock. United said it was being proactive after seeing a sharp drop in bookings once the virus spread to Italy in late February. It said it now expects to incur a first-quarter loss, rather than the profits it had anticipated. The airline said it raised $2 billion from a group of banks, which will bring its total li- quidity to $8 billion. The airline is also slashing capital spending by $2.5 billion. “Hope is not a strategy,” said Mr. Kirby, who is due to take over as United chief exec-

Continued from page B1

Airlines Cut

Back Over

Outbreak

pany shares. Even after a recent selloff in stocks over broader concerns about the spreading novel coronavirus, Tesla shares closed Tuesday 54% higher this year. Tesla is targeting at least a 36% increase in deliveries this year, in part from the additional production capacity com- ing from its new China factory.

Continued from page B1

The arrival of the Model Y, which the company has said should begin delivering by month’s end, has the potential to further stoke the company’s deliveries. Consumers in the U.S., and China have been grav- itating toward smaller SUVs and away from sedans. The arrival of the Model 3 compact car in 2017, the company’s highest production vehicle, and Model Y this year are part of a strategy by Mr. Musk to pivot Tesla from being a niche luxury brand into a car company that sells millions of electric vehicles around the world. Tesla also has begun site work to build a factory outside of Berlin to add to its assembly

capacity in China and Califor- nia. It plans an initial output, starting in 2021, of 150,000 cars in Germany, growing to 500,000 later. The new U.S. factory an- nounced Tuesday would be Tesla’s fourth assembly facility. The company also has a large battery factory in Nevada. Investor sentiment around Tesla improved significantly in the fall. The company reported a surprise third-quarter profit Then, at an event in November, Mr. Musk revealed a pickup dubbed the Cybertruck with a stark design that drew signifi- cant social-media attention. He has said that 250,000 people have put down money to preor- der the vehicle. Tesla has sug-

gested production of the truck would begin around late 2021. The company took advan- tage of the enthusiasm around its prospects to raise more than $2 billion in February by issu- ing new shares. The money helps bolster the company’s ac- cess to cash. It was raised before the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. spurred uncertainty over economic uncertainty growth. The company has warned that efforts to contain the coronavirus in China could hinder its first quarter. Other auto makers have seen declines in sales as the country essentially came to a grinding halt. Tesla will release first quarter deliv- ery results in early April.

Tesla Says

Incentives

KeytoSite

If the immune system overreacts, it can attack healthy tissue and organs.

In Memoriam

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The Wall Street Journal - 11.03.2020

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