BYD Overtakes Tesla, Elumelu’s $496M Oil Bet, Global Stocks Outrun Wall Street & Paramount’s $108B Hollywood Standoff

2nd January 2025

China’s BYD has hit its full-year sales target and likely overtaken Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker, cementing its dominance even as competition at home intensifies. In Nigeria, billionaire investor Tony Elumelu is doubling down on energy, snapping up a $496 million stake in Seplat Energy to expand Heirs Holdings’ oil footprint. Global markets, meanwhile, delivered a surprise in 2025 as international stocks decisively outperformed U.S. equities, reshaping investor thinking around diversification heading into 2026. And in Hollywood, Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing to reject Paramount’s $108.4 billion hostile bid, choosing Netflix’s rival offer and setting the stage for one of media’s biggest deal battles in years.  All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• BYD Hits Sales Goal, Set to Topple Tesla as Biggest EV Maker

BYD Co. met its full-year sales target and likely surpassed Tesla Inc. to become the world’s largest electric-vehicle maker in 2025, milestones overshadowed by a challenging outlook for the Chinese auto market in the year ahead. The Chinese EV giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose on the first day of trading in the new year, gaining as much as 2.3%. BYD delivered a total of 4.6 million vehicles last year, up 7.7% from 2024. That’s in line with a lowered full-year goal the company gave in September. The Shenzhen-based carmaker sold almost as many fully electric vehicles  2.26 million  as it did plug-in hybrids.

Tesla on Friday is expected to report that it delivered around 440,900 vehicles in the fourth quarter, down 11% from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That would mean the company sold roughly 1.66 million cars for the year, its second consecutive annual drop. BYD and its rivals face growing pressure in the coming year as China scales back some incentives supporting EV purchases. An influx of new models is also making domestic competition even fiercer, while trade barriers pose challenges for BYD’s ambitions to expand overseas. China’s best-selling carmaker has faced stiffer competition in the past year from Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Xiaomi Corp., whose new models and rapid innovations are winning over consumers. BYD’s shares gained 7% last year, but gave up gains from an early rally that saw its shares jump as much as 74% by late May as tougher competition and increased regulatory scrutiny became more prominent. 

BYD’s Chief Executive Officer Wang Chuanfu said at an investor meeting in early December that the technological head start the company had maintained over the past few years had diminished and affected domestic sales. He hinted at new technology breakthroughs to come, with the company’s 120,000-strong engineering team giving him confidence about its ability to regain advantages, Chinese media reported. A bright spot for BYD has been surging overseas sales. Deliveries outside China hit 1.05 million in 2025, exceeding the high-end estimate of 1 million sales, enabling it to offset the company’s decline in its core market. Its passenger EV and hybrid sales fell for the eighth consecutive month, slumping 37.7% in December.

Yahoo.Finance

• Tycoon Elumelu Buys Stake in Biggest Nigerian Oil Explorer

Nigerian tycoon Tony Elumelu's company agreed to acquire a 20 percent stake in the nation's biggest oil explorer by value to expand his energy business. Elumelu’s Heirs Holdings Ltd. will purchase the stake in Seplat Energy Plc from France's Etablissements Maurel & Prom SA for $496 million, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday. Seplat's shares jumped 11 percent in London, while Maurel & Prom advanced 8 percent in Paris. The latest acquisition will bolster Elumelu's energy ambitions. 

The businessman founded Heirs in 2010 to invest in strategic sectors in the continent's biggest oil exporter. The deal "reflects our strong belief in Africa’s ability to own, develop, and responsibly manage its strategic resources," Elumelu said in a statement. African Export-Import Bank and Africa Finance Corporation "supported" the transaction, according to the statement. Seplat last year acquired Exxon Mobil Corp.'s local onshore and gas assets, while Heirs in 2021 bought bought Shell Plc’s assets. Still, most Nigerian producers were losing the bulk their output because of theft and sabotage, although President Bola Tinubu has taken steps to boost security. 

Maurel & Prom is selling its stake for 305 pence ($0.4) a share. Heirs will initially pay $248 million with the balance payable within 30 days, according to the statement.  Heirs raised $750 million in funding from Afreximbank to boost production, the company said in a statement on Dec. 22. Bloomberg

• Global stocks beat US this year as investors diversify 

Non-U.S. stocks were on track to finish 2025 up about 29%, their strongest performance since 2009, with the MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index  which tracks shares outside the United States across more than 40 markets  leading the way. That compared with a more than 17% return for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500, Al Jazeera reported. The year-end split matters as 2026 begins because it challenges a long stretch in which U.S. stocks dominated many global portfolios, and it is reshaping how investors think about geographic diversification.

Analysts have pointed to U.S. trade upheaval, the weakness of the dollar and concerns about lofty valuations in parts of Silicon Valley as factors pushing investors to look abroad, alongside rapid advances in artificial intelligence in China.

Asia posted some of the biggest gains. South Korea’s KOSPI finished up nearly 76% in 2025, while SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose about 280% and 125%, respectively, on demand for chips used in AI, the report said. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the year nearly 31% higher, and the SSE Composite Index in Shanghai rose more than 21%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up about 28%, Al Jazeera reported. Europe also closed the year with strength, with London’s FTSE 100 and Frankfurt’s DAX 40 heading into 2026 up more than 20%, according to the report. Fund performance highlighted how that rotation played out at the portfolio level.

FE Analytics data cited by interactive investor showed Artemis Global Income returned 45.4% in 2025, with Murray International up 36% and Ranmore Global Equity around 30%, compared with a 13.1% gain for the MSCI World index,  a developed-markets benchmark,  on a total-return basis, which includes dividends. The investing site said the MSCI World index dropped about 8% between Jan. 20 and April 2 in sterling terms, measured in British pounds  after China’s DeepSeek launched an AI model and President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff rhetoric jolted markets. It then rebounded about 18% from April 2 through Dec. 31. “International stocks could be poised for another strong year,” Charles Schwab analyst Michelle Gibley wrote in a note cited by Al Jazeera, pointing to expectations for faster earnings and economic growth and relatively attractive valuations versus the S&P 500. TechStock

• Warner Bros Discovery to reject Paramount’s $108.4B bid

  
  

Warner Bros Discovery is expected to reject Paramount Skydance’s amended $108.4 billion hostile bid, CNBC reported on Tuesday. The rejection would set aside Paramount’s efforts to strengthen its financing through a $40.4 billion personal guarantee from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Warner Bros Discovery appears to remain focused on pursuing a rival cash-and-stock deal with Netflix. The decision reportedly reflects concerns about valuation, strategic fit, and deal certainty, despite Paramount’s attempts to make its offer more attractive.

Paramount had announced that Ellison agreed to personally guarantee equity financing for the bid, a move designed to address doubts surrounding its earlier proposal. The company also increased its regulatory reverse termination fee and extended the deadline for its tender offer. The all-cash value remained at $30 per share. A private equity firm owned by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has pulled its backing for Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery. Jared Kushner’s company Affinity Partners had agreed financial backing for Paramount’s 30 US dollars (£22.50) a share bid for Warner Bros, which was lodged just days after Warner Bros agreed to be bought by Netflix in early December in a 72 billion dollar (£54 billion) deal.

It comes as reports suggest Warner Bros is planning to recommend its investors reject Paramount’s bid on the grounds that the value, financing and terms of the deal do not match up to the offer from Netflix. Paramount is offering 30 dollars (£22.50) a share in cash for Warner Bros and has taken the bid straight to investors, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix. Paramount’s offer values Warner Bros at 108.4 billion dollars (£81.3 billion) including debts, trumping Netflix’s 27.75 dollars (£20.81) per share offer, which values Warner Bros at 72 billion dollars (£54 billion), or 82.7 billion dollars (£62 billion) including debts. Financial Times

Minor Headlines

• One-fifth of PE deals this year were firms selling assets to themselves  Financial Times

  
  

• Asia's wealthy turn to Switzerland to park assets  Financial Times

  
  

• Top US law firms handed associates $300k+ bonuses Financial Times 

  
  

• Chelsea FC manager Enzo Maresca leaves after breakdown in relations with owners  Financial Times

  
  

• Iran offers to sell advanced weapons systems for crypto Financial Times

  
  

• UK financial watchdog closes 100 probes to sharpen enforcement focus Financial Times

  
  

• Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration speech raises expectations for a ‘new era’ in New York Financial Times 

  
  

• Christine Lagarde’s pay is 50% higher than disclosed by ECB Financial Times