Britain’s Co-Operative Bank said it will consider either an outright sale or ask for new capital as it struggles to improve its balance sheet and return to profitability. Britain’s Co-Operative Bank Plc has said it will consider either an outright sale of its business or ask for capital from new or existing shareholders as it struggles to improve its balance sheet and return to profitability.
Month: February 2017
Heineken Snaps Up Kirin’s Brazilian Assets
Heineken agrees to buy the Brazilian assets of Japanese Brewer Kirin as the Dutch group seeks to compete with AB InBEV. Heineken has agreed to buy the Brazilian assets of Japanese Brewer Kirin as the Dutch group seeks to compete with AB InBEV .
Oil Stable as OPEC’s Cuts Bite, Although Market Still Bloated
Oil prices were stable on Monday on signs that OPEC-led production cuts were reducing global overproduction, although bloated inventories and rising output elsewhere were weighing on markets. Brent crude futures were trading at $56.72 per barrel at 0752 GMT, up 2 cents from their previous close.
Billionaire Co-Founder Calls Off Battle With Infosys’ Board
Billionaire Narayana Murthy is calling off his fight with the board of Infosys Ltd., saying he’s confident the IT giant he co-founded will deal with the concerns raised about corporate governance. The conciliatory comments came after an intense confrontation that pitted the board, Chairman R. Seshasayee and Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka against a clutch of high-profile co-founders led by Murthy.
Berlin According To … Publicist Maxine Leonard: Never Watch TV in Your Hotel Room
Standing face-to-face with my hero Wong Kar-wai at the after after after party for the premiere of The Grandmaster . And sitting in the Residents Bar at the Regent Hotel, which holds about 15 people, when in walk the Rolling Stones, Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Berlin Connects Refugees With Locals for Market Training, Movie Screenings
The festival is living up to its reputation as the most socially conscious annual film event. Says one refugee: “Here is safety and you can live in peace.”
China Shares Rise For 4th Session, Scale 2-Month High
China’s main stock indexes rose for their fourth straight day of gains on Monday to a fresh two-month high, as the materials sector underpinned the market on the back of strong commodities. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.7 percent, to 3,436.28 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent to 3,216.84 points.
Sanofi Agrees to Sell Five Over-the-Counter Drugs to Ipsen
Sanofi agreed to sell some over-the-counter products to Ipsen SA as it edges closer to completing a 22.8 billion-euro asset swap with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. Ipsen will pay 83 million euros for five products including Prontalgine, a painkiller, the Paris-based company said in a statement Monday.
Oil Holds Gains Near $54 as IEA Sees Record OPEC-Cut Compliance
Oil held gains near $54 a barrel after the International Energy Agency said OPEC achieved a record 90 percent initial compliance with its output-cut deal while demand grew faster than expected. Futures were little changed in New York after advancing 3.2 percent over the previous three sessions.
European Stocks Called Higher After Solid Asia Session
European stocks are expected to open higher Monday, kicking off a week that will focus on key corporate earnings and a series of central bank releases. European stocks are expected to open higher Monday, kicking off a week that will focus on key corporate earnings and a series of central bank releases and speeches amid increasing questions over the direction of monetary policy in both the U.S. and Europe.
German stocks – Factors to watch on February 13
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said Friday that bidding in the wireless spectrum auction has ended at $19.6 billion, significantly less than many analysts had initially forecast. Ex-Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech, who resigned after a showdown with former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, has refused to testify to German lawmakers investigating a possible government’s role in the VW emissions scandal, according to his lawyer.
Adele just swore and restarted her Grammys performance after…
Adele gave an incredibly moving performance in honor of the late George Michael at the 2017 Grammys Sunday night, but she had a vocal slip-up that led her to stop and restart the performance mid-song, leaving viewers puzzled. The “Hello” singer performed Michael’s “Fastlove” in stripped-down fashion, with a string section behind her.
U.S. Senate Expected to Confirm Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary
The U.S. Senate is expected to confirm former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary on Monday, returning a Wall Street veteran to the top U.S. economic and financial job for the first time in eight years. Mnuchin’s appointment to Treasury signals the Trump administration’s trust in bankers and other senior business executives after Democrat Barack Obama launched his presidency with career regulator Timothy Geithner running Treasury and a mandate to rein in Wall Street for its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
More Than 160,000 Flee Overflowing Dam In Northern California
More than 160,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Northern California on Sunday night, over fears that the spillway at the Oroville Dam could break, potentially causing catastrophic flooding. Evacuated areas included the town of Oroville, at the base of the dam, and nearby Marysville and Yuba City.
China, HK Shares Up on Commodities Rally
Chinese stocks opened the week on a firm footing on Monday and were track for the fourth straight day of gains, with sentiment boosted by strong commodities, while the Hong Kong market hit four-month highs thanks to capital inflows from the mainland. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.7 percent, to 3,436.51 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent, to 3,216.83 points.
Trump, The FTC and Unleashing The U.S. Economy
After a stunning win in a change election, President Trump is off to a fast start implementing major change. The President and his administration are moving aggressively to implement pro-growth policies that will boost our economy after years of a sluggish recovery.
Rational on regulation
The first weeks of the Trump administration have not exactly been characterized by an excess of regular order. So there’s special reason to applaud a document it released that helps to make sense of one of the president’s controversial actions – an unprecedented executive order limiting regulation.
Verizon is launching an ‘unlimited’ data plan for the first…
Verizon on Sunday said that it will launch an unlimited LTE data plan, titled Verizon Unlimited, on February 13. The plan will start at $80 per month for an individual line, or $45 per line for a group of four on smartphones or tablets. Both new and existing subscribers will be able to sign up.
Here are all the winners of the 2017 Grammy Awards
The 59th Grammy Awards are taking place Sunday night. Chance the Rapper was the first winner of the night with his win for best new artist.
A singer wore a Trump-supporting dress at the Grammys, and…
Singer-songwriter Joy Villa made a political statement on the 2017 Grammys red carpet Sunday night with a President Donald Trump-supporting dress, and it got a lot of reaction from all sides online. She took off a white wrap on the red carpet to reveal a red, blue, and white dress with Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” running down it.
Infosys Co-Founder Calls Off Battle With IT Giant’s Board
Infosys Ltd.’s co-founder and former chairman Narayana Murthy is calling off his fight with the board, saying the company will deal with the questions about corporate governance that have been raised. Murthy and several other billionaire founders of Infosys had posed questions about governance at Asia’s second-largest IT services company, citing a spike in compensation for Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka and severance pay for two departing top-level executives.
Big Singapore Banks’ Earnings in Focus as Ezra Woes Deepen
The woes of Singaporean energy-services provider Ezra Holdings Ltd. are a stark reminder to the city’s biggest banks of the threat souring oil and gas loans pose to their earnings. A writedown flagged by Ezra recently has refocused attention on the debt-repayment problems marine-services firms are facing, fueling concerns that lenders may have to set aside more money to cover loan losses.
Why Intel Corporation’s Cannon Lake-EP and EX Server Chips May Be Dead
Skylake-EP and EX represent all new architectures built using the company’s 14-nanometer+ technology, while Cannon Lake-EP and EX were supposed to represent mild architectural enhancements of the Skylake-EP and EX chips, but with the benefit of being built on the company’s upcoming 10-nanometer chip manufacturing technology. Although I can’t make this prediction with 100% certainty, I strongly suspect that based on Intel’s most recent disclosures, Cannon Lake-EP and EX are dead.
Asia Extends Global Equity Rally as Yen Slides: Markets Wrap
Asian stocks extended a global rally as investors looked ahead to data that will provide detail on the strength of U.S. consumer prices and speeches from a range of Federal Reserve officials. The yen weakened Monday after the S&P 500 Index climbed to a record high on Friday.
Oil Holds Gains as IEA Sees OPEC-Cuts Compliance, Rising Demand
Oil held gains after the International Energy Agency said OPEC achieved a record 90 percent initial compliance with a production cut accord, while demand grew faster than expected. Futures were little changed in New York after rising 3.2 percent the previous three sessions.
South Korea Prosecutor Resummons Samsung Heir Jay Y. Lee
A special prosecutor is again questioning Samsung Group’s Jay Y. Lee over allegations including bribery and embezzlement, potentially dealing another blow to South Korea’s biggest business empire. Lee, the de facto head of the Samsung Group and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., was called in for questioning Monday morning, along with two other executives including Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin.
Investor Honeymoon With OPEC Falters as Shale Drilling Booms
After unprecedented optimism that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will manage to ease a global supply glut, money managers reduced their bets on rising West Texas Intermediate prices for the first time in a month. While the group and other major exporters are pumping less crude, U.S. inventories and production are on the rise, and shale drillers keep adding rigs.
Tycoon Eyes StanChart’s Indonesia Bank Stake in March to Top
Indonesian business tycoon Tahir is keen to gain control of PT Bank Permata, a larger rival to his PT Bank Mayapada International, as he seeks to put his lender in the ranks of the nation’s biggest banks. Tahir’s Mayapada Group wants to buy the 90 percent of Permata that is owned by Standard Chartered Plc and PT Astra International and merge it with Bank Mayapada to create Indonesia’s largest non-government bank by assets after PT Bank Central Asia, he said.
Jazz Pianist Turns Hedge Fund Quant With Sale of Options Startup
Larry Richards, a trained jazz pianist and former phone-company executive, is an unlikely entrepreneur in the esoteric world of stock options. Just three years after taking an online course on equity derivatives, Richards set up his own company in 2013 to develop trading software for individual investors and small funds.
3 No-Brainer Reasons to Get a 15-Year Mortgage
Most people who get a mortgage sign up for a 30-year loan. But if you’re able to swing a 15-year mortgage, you stand to reap a number of benefits.
The 2017 Tax Refund Schedule
If every cloud has a silver lining, the silver lining for the onerous task of tax-return preparation is the tax refund that often follows it. Once you send your return to the Internal Revenue Service , you’re probably itching to get your payment.
Toshiba’s Nuclear Reactor Mess Winds Back to a Louisiana Swamp
If you want to understand why Toshiba Corp. is about to report a multi-billion dollar write-down on its nuclear reactor business, the story begins and ends with a one-time pipe manufacturer with roots in the swamp country of Louisiana. The Shaw Group Inc., based in Baton Rouge, looms large in the complex tale of blown deadlines and budgets at four nuclear reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina overseen by Westinghouse Electric Co., a Toshiba subsidiary.
Billionaire Real Estate Mogul Sam Zell Sees Staggering Economic Opportunity Under Trump
Amid extraordinary political developments for the U.S., Chicago-based business mogul Sam Zell tells TheStreet he sees “staggering economic opportunity” for the nation under the presidential authority of Donald Trump. Trump’s vow to cut government regulation that he calls “excessive” could lead to “a $1 trillion of stimulus without spending anything, while Obama added $1 trillion to U.S. debt” to prop up the U.S. economy, Zell said.
Dollar Gains After Trump-Abe Meet, Asian Shares Firm
A picture illustration shows U.S. 100 dollar bank notes and Japanese 10,000 yen notes taken in Tokyo August 2, 2011. Japan primed financial markets on Tuesday for currency intervention after the yen tested record highs, signalling it may try to tame … the unit with a combination of yen-selling and monetary easing.
Renault CEO Says France Sale Would Allow Nissan Stake Shift
A lopsided alliance between Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. could be revised once France sells its stake, paving the way for the Japanese manufacturer to increase its involvement, according to the carmakers’ chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn.
Thanks, mum
The company is based around an app which allows retailers and customers to see where a product comes from, from its origins to its point of sale. “Behind every product is a complex chain of people and places and that’s a really important part of why people buy things,” Ms Baker explains.
The woman using technology to prove where food comes from
The company has developed an app that allows retailers and customers to see where a product comes from – from origin to point of sale. “Behind every product is a complex chain of people and places, and that’s a really important part of why people buy things,” founder Jessie Baker explains.
Work to be done
It was doing a favour for his mother that gave entrepreneur Matt Barrie the idea for setting up a business that is now worth more than A$400m . His company and website Freelancer has a simple concept – it connects people who have work they need doing with others who compete to do the task by submitting the fee they would charge.
The dubious cases against one med-tech tax and for a subsidy
The enduring adage that we detest taxes but obligingly accept public benefits those taxes support is playing out in Minnesota by one of the state’s largest and most prosperous interest groups. That’s hardly surprising, but eyebrows may wrinkle in this case, in which highly questionable “facts” are pushed to knock down a federal tax and, in St. Paul, to prop up a subsidy that some call a freebie handout to folks who often don’t need it.
3 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Tax Professional
With tax season just around the corner, now’s the time to start thinking about not just when you’ll file your taxes but how. In fact, you may be looking at hiring a professional to file your return on your behalf — and if so, you wouldn’t be alone.