B8 Business The Boston Globe THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
TALKING POINTS
DEVELOPMENT Agenda
PLANS FOR
INNOVATION CAMPUS
IN SOUTH BOSTON
DOWNSIZED
An affiliate of Millennium Partners has scaled back plans for its innovation campus in the
South Boston marine industrial park. Millennium filed a new letter of intent with the Bos-
ton Planning & Development Agency on Tuesday, spelling out a 381,000-square-foot devel-
opment consisting of office, research, and ground-floor retail uses. The project is proposed
for two adjacent parcels at the Northern Avenue entrance to the Raymond L. Flynn Marine
Park. One of those parcels sits over the Ted Williams Tunnel, limiting potential develop-
ment there, and is currently used for parking;the other holds a vacant warehouse. The de-
veloper had filed a letter in July, saying it would build up to 900,000 square feet at the two
sites. Millennium and its Cargo Ventures affiliate previously had even grander plans for the
park, once calling for a massive project in the2-million-square-foot range. Cargo Ventures
chief executive Jacob Citrin said the “South Boston Innovation Campus” was scaled back to
a size that his team believes can be permitted quickly, in time to start construction by the
end of 2020 or early 2021, to “meet current tenant opportunities.” — JON CHESTOBIOTECHNOLOGY
BLUEPRINT AND
PARTNER TARGET
RARE GENE DISORDER
Blueprint Medicines will receive $25 million to collaborate with the French drug maker Ips-
en on a potential medical treatment that the Cambridge biotech has developed for an ultra-
rare genetic disease. The licensing deal marks the fourth collaboration between Blueprint,
founded in 2008, and another major drug maker in less than five years. Under the agree-
ment, Blueprint and Ipsen will work together to develop and market a drug to treat fi-
brodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP. The disease, which has no treatment, is a ge-
netic malfunction that slowly turns muscles,tendons, and ligaments into bone, meaning
patients essentially grow a second skeleton. Manyof those afflicted with it are bedridden by
age 20. Only about 800 people worldwide havebeen diagnosed with the disorder, according
to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, a nonprofit patient advocacy group. Blue-
print, which is working with Ipsen’s recently acquired subsidiary Clementia Pharmaceuti-
cals, of Montreal, is eligible to receive up to $510 million more from Ipsen if the experimen-
tal drug meets goals for development, approval, and sales. David Meek, CEO of Paris-based
Ipsen, said Clementia had another drug in a late-stage clinical trial to treat FOP, which
prompted Ipsen’s $1.3 billion acquisition of the firm in February. Ipsen hopes the US Food
and Drug Administration will approve that drug soon so that it can be launched next year.
The addition of Blueprint’s experimental medicine means that Ipsen has “two strong com-
plementary drug candidates” for the rare disease, Meek said. — JONATHAN SALTZMANECONOMY
RETAIL SALES FELL
IN SEPTEMBER BY
BIGGEST AMOUNT
IN SEVEN MONTHS
Consumers tightened their grips on their purses last month, as retail sales tumbled,
possibly signaling that rising trade tensions and turbulent markets are having an impact on
consumer spending. Retail sales fell 0.3 percent last month following a 0.6 percent gain in
August, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the first decline since a 0.5
percent drop in February. Consumer spending was strong in the spring and economists had
been counting on continued strength to protect the US economy as it is buffeted by the
fallout from President Trump’s trade war with China. — ASSOCIATED PRESSINTERNATIONAL
FORMER BARCLAYS
BANKER NEGOTIATED
A$32MBONUSFOR
HIMSELF AT PEAK
OF FINANCIAL CRISIS
Former Barclays Plc executive Roger Jenkins secured a 25 million pound ($32 million)
bonus for securing billions of dollars from Qatar at the height of the 2008 financial crisis,
averting a UK bailout, a prosecutor said during his fraud trial. Jenkins led discussions with
then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Jassim al Thani, which resulted in an investment from
the gulf state’s sovereign-wealth fund and Sheikh Hamad, lawyers from the UK Serious
Fraud Office said. The agency is prosecuting Jenkins and two other ex-Barclays executives
for having allegedly hidden 322 million pounds in fees the bank paid the Qataris as a
sweetener for the deal. — BLOOMBERG NEWSAUTOMOTIVE
VOLVO TO PAY
FOR FIRST YEAR OF
ELECTRIC CHARGING
FOR OWNERS OF
PLUG-IN HYBRIDS
Volvo Cars isn’t just electrifying its lineup to cut carbon
emissions. Now the Swedish automaker says it will pay
customers to make sure they plug in. Volvo is tying the
launch of its first all-electric vehicle — the XC40 crossover
— to a broader plan for shrinking the carbon footprint of
its models by 40 percent through 2025. And it’s backing
that pledge with a promise to pay the first year’s worth of
charging costs for owners of its plug-in hybrids, starting with the 2021 model year. Volvo
placed itself at the forefront of electric car hype in 2017 when it vowed to rid its lineup of
cars running purely on fossil fuels by 2025. — BLOOMBERG NEWSENERGY
CALIFORNIA
GOVERNOR URGES
ASSET SALE OF
CRIPPLED UTILITY
THAT CUT POWER TO
MILLIONS
Utility giant PG&E Corp. has said its assets aren’t for sale. Don’t tell California’s governor
that. While attending a conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom
said he had encouraged San Francisco to make its $2.5 billion bid to buy PG&E’s power
operations within the city’s limits. And he wants to see more offers. Newsom has called for a
major reorganization of San Francisco-based PG&E since the company orchestrated a
massive blackout that plunged more than 2 million people into darkness last week — a
measure it took to keep power lines from sparking the kind of catastrophic wildfires that
forced it into bankruptcy protection in January. PG&E has drawn outrage from customers
and politicians alike who’ve blasted it for poorly communicating the shutoffs and making
them more extensive than they needed to be. — BLOOMBERG NEWSFINANCIAL
BANK OF AMERICA’S
REVENUE BOOSTED BY
INVESTMENT-BANKING
FEES
Bank of America Corp. posted the biggest jump in investment-banking fees on Wall Street,
helping profit overcome headwinds from lower interest rates. Shares of the company
climbed as much as 3.3 percent after the bank reported an unexpected surge in third-quar-
ter debt underwriting fees. The firm’s traders also boosted revenue, helping pushing profit
above analysts’ estimates. Gains in advisory fees also surpassed rivals in the best quarter for
the investment-banking unit in more than two years. — BLOOMBERG NEWSLITIGATION
BAYER EXPECTS MORE
SUITS OVER ROUNDUP
Bayer AG said it anticipates a “significant surge” in the number of plaintiffs suing the
company over the weedkiller Roundup when it reports earnings later this month. An
increase in advertising by US attorneys seeking new clients since mediation talks began will
likely add to the litigation, the German drugs and chemicals giant said in an e-mailed
statement. The current number of plaintiffs could exceed 45,000, compared with Bayer’s
last estimate of 18,400 in July, analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. wrote in a note last
week. An upswell would ratchet up the pressure on Bayer, which inherited the mountain of
litigation last year in the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto. The Roundup crisis has already
cost Bayer more than $30 billion in market value as the company lost three US trials over
whether the popular herbicide causes cancer,suffered an unprecedented shareholder vote
of no confidence, and faced speculation about a breakup. — BLOOMBERG NEWSTELECOMMUNICATIONS
MORE THAN 30,000
AT&T WORKERS
COULD LOSE JOBS,
PAY UNDER ACTIVIST
INVESTOR’S PLAN,
UNION SAYS
If activist shareholder Elliott Management Corp. has its way, more than 30,000 AT&T Inc.
workers could lose their jobs or face reductions in wages, according to an estimate from the
Communications Workers of America union. Most of the impact on workers would come
from divestitures of DirecTV and AT&T’s landline business and closures of the company’s
retail locations, if the firm follows Elliott’s suggestions, said the CWA, which represents
more than 100,000 AT&T employees. In September, Paul Singer’s New York hedge fund
disclosed a $3.2 billion position in AT&T, along with a plan to boost the telecom and media
giant’s share price by more than 50 percent through asset sales and cost cutting. The fund
hasn’t specifically called for job cuts. AT&T has said it has no plans to dispose of DirecTV, but
Elliott could engage in a proxy battle to push its agenda through. — BLOOMBERG NEWSREAL ESTATE
Mortgage rates
The latest mortgage rates will be released
Thursday. Last week, Freddie Mac
reported that a 30-year, fixed-rate loan
fell to 3.57 percent from 3.65 percent
the week before.SOCIAL MIXER
Celebrate
the weekend
Mark the end of another work week at
this event from the Greater Boston
Association of Black Social Workers.
Friday, 6 to 9 p.m., Doña Habana
Restaurant, 811 Massachusetts Ave.,
Boston. Free and free parking. Register
online or go to the business agenda at
bostonglobe.com.NETWORKING
Connect over caffeine
Join other Boston-area businesswomen
for coffee at this monthly morning
meetup from Ladies Get Paid and General
Assembly. Friday, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., GA
Boston, 125 Summer St., 13th floor,
Boston. Free. Register online or go to the
business agenda at bostonglobe.com.SYMPOSIUM
Food for thought
Ponder how technology can affect food
production at the Tufts Food Systems
Symposium 2019 from the
Environmental Studies Program at Tufts
University. This year’s conference will
focus on the question, “How do
technological innovation and food justice
activism engage or fail to engage with
one another?” Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
Breed Memorial Hall, 51 Winthrop St.,
Medford. Free. Register online or go to the
business agenda at bostonglobe.com.PANEL
Fail better
Hear from people who learned to
embrace their personal failures to achieve
greater things at this seminar from
organizer FAIL! Inspiring Resilience. Friday,
6 to 8 p.m., Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave.,
Cambridge. Free. Register online or go to
the business agenda at bostonglobe.com.Eventsofnote?E-mailusat
[email protected]